… the same could be considered of a heavenly number chosen to fill the vacated places of rule once occupied by the angels that left their first estate. If these rebel powers became the usurping principalities of this present age’s darkness, then it is not unreasonable to consider that after they have been stripped down from the places of their usurping rule, these heavenly places might be once more occupied by the “spirits of just men made perfect” in the age to come? I believe that is the thought behind the theory. …
The Fullness of the Gentiles
…The choice then, as you rightly suggest, is between fullness in the sense of time, or fullness in the sense of maturity. Either would make sense, as both are true. But I agree with you that it seems more likely that Paul is referring to the same event that Jesus has in mind in Lk 21:24 where the language is remarkably similar. Paul believed with Jesus that the age ends with the day of the Lord, which accomplishes at once the end of Gentile dominion and the restoration of captive Israel (the grafting in again of the ‘natural branches’). Moreover, seeing the term ‘fulness of the Gentiles’ as a time that ends with the coming of the Deliverer out of Zion at the day of the Lord makes better sense of Paul’s much disputed phrase, “And so (‘at this time’, or ‘in this way’?) ‘ALL’ shall be saved” (Ro 11:26).
Apocalyptic Evangelism
The idea of the course was to recover the context of the apocalyptic gospel of the first century as a call to flee to Christ from the wrath to come, and thus make personal appropriation of the messianic salvation in expectation of the imminence of Jersualem’s destruction, which represented the imminent tribulation to first century Jewish expectation. Well, we are there again. We have come full circle. We stand and witness once more under the shadow of an imminent world disaster over Jerusalem. Thus the same issues that confronted first century Israel are back in the forefront.
Women and Prophecy
[…] I believe a woman’s glory, which is no less than a man’s, is to be worship-fully and willingly submitted to what God has chosen in precisely the way He has chosen it. And to bear whatever yoke that comes without complaint or chaffing in resigned trust of the perfect wisdom of His sovereign decree. Of course, it is no different for the man, since he is no less ‘under authority’. But until the final perfection, God has ordained an equality and dissolution of all distinction in one place only, namely, “in Christ” / “in the Spirit”. In the meantime, and while this creation continues through to the end of the millennium, He has chosen to leave certain distinctions and differences in the creation for the sake of His demonstration and statement to the principalities and powers. One of those distinctions is between male and female. Another is the one He has established between Jew and Gentile. Those distinctions form no barrier in Christ, but are left in the creation for the sake of a needful contrast that shows the true nature of unity through the Spirit. […]
The Nature of the Prophetic in Israel and the Church
… If there were occasions where one of the prophets would predict what would happen in an individual person’s life, this was certainly the exception and not the norm. For the larger part, the prophets were led to declare the future experience of the nation based on the law of the blessing and the curse revealed in the covenant. You might say they were the enforcers of Moses. Prophecy was a phenomenon that operated within the context and framework of the covenant. The Hebrew prophets of Israel were in continuity with the Spirit in Moses (“a prophet like unto me”) pointing on to the ultimate prophet like unto Moses, namely, Jesus. Their concern was to guard the covenant for the sake of the nation’s witness to the truth and glory of the God who elected them to that end. I think it is much the same with prophets that the Lord has given the church. Their principal concern is not to predict happenings in the personal lives of individuals, but the focus is on the spiritual health, direction, and obedience of the corporate body in their particular locality of witness. …
