COMPANION
BIBLE. APPENDIX 198.
THE ETERNAL PURPOSE (Eph. 3:11).
THE DISPENSATIONAL PLAN OF THE BIBLE.
A. THE PRIMAL CREATION. HEAVENS AND EARTH.
"The world (Gr. kosmos) that then was."
Gen. 1:1, 2-. 2Pet. 3:6.
B. SATAN'S FIRST REBELLION.
The earth became
waste and a ruin (Heb.
tohu va bohu).
Gen. 1:2-. God created it not a ruin (Isa. 45:18,
Heb. tohu)
nor waste ("confusion").
C. THE EARTH RESTORED AND
BLESSED.
"The heavens and the
earth which are now."
Gen. 1:2-2:3. 2Pet. 3:7.
D.SATAN ENTERS AND THE CONSEQUENCE. Gen. 3.
E. MANKIND DEALT WITH AS A WHOLE. Gen. 4-11:26.
F. THE CHOSEN NATION CALLED AND BLESSED.
Gen.
11:27-Mal. 4:6. (Jehovah and His kingdom rejected.
Israel scattered.)
G. THE FIRST ADVENT. (Micah 5:2. Zech. 9:9).
The Four
Gospels (Rom. 15:8).
The King and the kingdom proclaimed
and rejected, and the King crucified.
H. THE KINGDOM RE-PROCLAIMED. Acts 3:19, 20, &c.
The church of God called and taken out, Acts 13 and on,
and earlier Pauline Epistles. The kingdom again rejected
and Israel again scattered.
H. THE KINGDOM POSTPONED AND IN ABEYANCE.
"Not yet" (Heb. 2:8).
The later, or Prison Epistles
(Pauline).
The MYSTERY revealed and proclaimed.
Eph. 3:2-11. Col. 1:25; 2:2, 3. 1Tim. 3:16.
THE NEW HOPE. Phil. 3:11, 14. Titus 2:13.
"The
church which is His body "called, and taken up.
Phil. 3:11, 14.
G. THE SECOND ADVENT.
"The first resurrection."
The
kingdom established. The King enthroned.
"The day of
the Lord." Matt. 24; 25:31. Luke 19:11-27.
Isa. 2:11-19.
Joel 2; &c.
F. THE CHOSEN NATION RECALLED AND BLESSED.
Rom.
11:11-36. Acts 15:16. Isa. 60, 61, 62. Jer 30, 31.
Zech. 12:13,
14; &c.
E. MANKIND DEALT WITH AS A WHOLE.
Joel 3:2. Matt.
25:31-46. Acts 15:17. Rom. 15:8-12. Rev. 4-19.
D.SATAN BOUND AND THE CONSEQUENCES. Rev. 20:1-3.
C. THE EARTH RESTORED AND
BLESSED. Rev. 20:4-6. Isa. 35; &c.
The Millennium.
B. SATAN'S FINAL REBELLION. Rev. 20:7-10.
Followed by the second resurrection and
the
judgment of the "great white throne".
The destruction of "all things that
offend". Rev. 20:11-15.
A. THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH.
The day of God.
Rev. 21, 22. 2Pet. 3:12, 13. Isa.
65:17; 66:22.
- The above Structure shows the respective dispensations in which God
has been and is dealing with the Jew, the Gentile, and the church of God.
(1Cor 10:32) The "church which is His body" occupies the central
position, and its present standing is seen to be separated from its future
destiny and hope. The two rebellions of Satan also are seen to be
in direct correspondence; suggesting the necessity why he must be loosed,
and the loosing, for a little season (Rev. 20:3, 7).
- All things were created by Him "Who is before all things and by Whom
all things consist" (lit. hang together, Col 1:17); Who is now "upholding
all things by the word of His power" (Heb. 1:3). The Structure shows
in almost pictorial form the great lesson that God sets before us from
Genesis to Revelation, viz. that no created being can stand
(upright) apart from Christ the Creator. Hence the necessity for
a "new heaven and a new earth" wherein abideth righteousness, inhabited
by a "new creation" of beings who have by grace been made "partakers of
the Divine nature" (2Pet. 1:4).
- Further, it will be seen that it is not God's purpose to bring in
the new heaven and new earth by means of the "church". The new creation
will be full of physical marvels, brought about by physical means and not
"spiritual agencies". These means and their results are set before
us in Revelation. Well may we exclaim with Paul, --
"O
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?
Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to WHOM
BE GLORY FOR EVER. AMEN."
Appendix List
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