THE FORGOTTEN AGE TO COME
THE FORGOTTEN AGE TO COME
Most of us want to know what lies ahead. To understand what awaits us after death and to grasp the pattern of coming end time events. Believers, in particular, want to know what eternity will be like, since they expect to be living in it after their demise.
And God, for his part, has revealed what that will be in the Bible. Trouble is, not many take the time to seriously study his Book and fewer still take hold of all He has to say. Thus, huge and important “things to come” (Colossians 2:17) are left out of popular “end time” scenarios.
It’s amazing but true, that what’s next on God’s agenda when the current age of grace concludes, is repeatedly referred to in scripture yet has been overlooked even by the best of Bible scholars. Not only does it seem such truth is not their cup of tea but it’s almost as though they have been blinded to it.
Indeed, only a handful of those whose trust is in Jesus Christ have discovered the secret of what’s really going to happen next. And I am very grateful to God that through his grace I am one of them.
Allow me to tell you my story. Decades ago I was an avid “King James only” Bible believer, mistakenly holding that the KJV alone was God’s true word in English. As such I took note of “wrong” translations in other versions. One such verse was 2 Thessalonians 2:2 which, in the KJV, says:
That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letters as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Most other Bibles make it “day of the Lord”. So which is correct? Answer: the Greek word translated here is Christos (meaning Christ), not Kurios (Lord). Thus it should indeed be “the day of Christ”. But why would anyone want to change the meaning to suppress the “day of Christ”? It was while pondering this that the Lord caused me to wonder, what is the “day of Christ” anyway?
Search of the concordance revealed that the “day of Christ” is mentioned six times in Paul’s epistles (seven in the KJV). The Lord also caused me to know that this important day is an “eon”, that is an age or dispensation and that it begins with His “appearing”, spoken of by the Lord Himself when on earth, and mentioned five times in Paul’s epistles. This event is also hailed by the Apostles Peter and John as one to be looked for and hoped for by believers.
Surprisingly, nowhere in Paul’s later epistles, written from prison, does he advise the called in Christ to look for his (second) “coming.” Rather in Titus 2:13 he urges them to be:
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
But back to my story. I learned that it is at his “appearing” that the Lord will “judge the quick and the dead” and inaugurate his kingdom (2 Timothy 4:1). I saw that Paul looked to receive his “crown of righteousness” from the Lord “at that day”, obviously the “day of Christ”, “and not to me only but unto all them that also love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).
If Paul is to be taken at his word, which is also Christ’s word to us through him (1 Corinthians 14:37), then it is the “appearing” and the “day of Christ” saints should be looking for as their “blessed hope” as the next big event on God’s agenda.
But what about the “Rapture” and the “Second Coming” you ask? Quite simply, they come later in God’s programme of events, his “calendar” if you will. Thus, Paul is at pains to point out in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” will not occur “except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”. The “coming” here is in Greek the parousia, the official, personal arrival of Jesus Christ on earth as her king. In sharp contrast, his “appearing” translates epiphanea, which means a blazing forth of his glory.
However, God had yet more to teach me. I had set up an online website, Day of Christ Ministries www://dayofchristmnistries.com , still running today, which promoted understanding of the Day of Christ and the appearing (it still draws a few hundred visitors daily). But seemingly, I was alone in this belief so I did an internet search to see if there were others.
It was a shock to find that while there are hundreds of online teachings about the “Rapture” and the “Second Coming”, there were only two men proclaiming truth about the “day of Christ” and the “appearing”.
One was Tom Ballinger, a life-long Bible researcher who ploughed the way for me to understand that the day of Christ and his appearing are the fulfilment of much Old Testament prophecy. He also drew my attention to a key scripture that explains the order of events that follow the end of the current “dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:1-5). Though Tom has passed on, his website, Plainer Words, continues and offers a wealth of Bible truth.
That key scripture is Acts 3:20-21, in which the Apostle Peter explains to Jews a hitherto unrevealed but very important truth that sets the stage for God’s “end time” dealings with both Israel and the rest of mankind. In it Peter declares:
And He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached (proclaimed) unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Wow! That means Jesus will stay in heaven until every promise made by God through his prophets is fulfilled. It means the Lord will bring into being the Kingdom of God on earth while still seated in heaven. Which, in turn, means that He won’t be personally and officially returning to earth any time soon. His parousia, the so-called “Second Coming”, won’t happen until first there has been the Day of Christ, an epoch of great blessings lasting the best part of a 1,000 years.
It is the Day of Christ, inaugurated at his appearing (Titus 2:13), and also called in scripture the ‘latter times’, the “last time”, the “hereafter” and, by Jesus , the “world to come”, that God will bring in as the next stage of his plan for the ages.
Sadly, it is left out, ignored and dismissed by almost all “end time” teachers and preachers today. This because they adhere to the John Derby-C.I. Schofield scheme of eschatological interpretation which holds that a so-called “rapture” will hoist saints to heaven before the “Great Tribulation” and the “Second Coming” occur. Fact is, none of the above words are found in the Bible. What is found is the Apostle Paul’s command that we should be “looking for the appearing in glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
And so, it seems that for many a whole “age” (the Greek word is aion, in English eon), has been left out of the timetable God has predetermined to bring his kingdom, his government, on earth in a blaze of glory. As Tom Ballinger has said, it is in fact a “new dispensation”. Why? Because most Bible teachers in charting the different times to come go straight from the end of the “dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:2) to the “rapture” and the “Second Coming” without allowing the Day of Christ to come between.
To explain, God is a setter of times and seasons (Acts 1:7) and the Lord Jesus Christ is the maker of the ages that have been and are to come. As Hebrews 1:2 makes clear it is the Son who has been “appointed heir of all things by whom also He made the worlds (that is the aion(s) or eons). And Hebrews 11:3 mandates that:
Through faith we understand that the worlds (ages, eons) were framed by the Word of God (i.e. Christ) so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear”.
Thus, the Lord Jesus, who died for our sins, created, shaped, and determined the characteristics of each age to come in advance. He did so in eternity before the world as we know it began. What’s more each such “age” marks a drastic change in God’s dealings with mankind. And in the Bible each such change is called a “dispensation”.
For example, right now we live in the “dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:2). This new way of God dealing with man was revealed to the Apostle Paul by the Lord Himself. It was revealed as a new way of salvation “by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8) that did not exist in former times. Thus Ephesians 3:4 we are told this “mystery” was “in other ages not made known unto the sons of men” but now “is revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit”.
I firmly believe that what the world needs now more than anything else is loving and benevolent intervention of God to take over its government. And it is just that God will bring about as the present “dispensation of the grace of God” is succeeded by the Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing. As 2 Timothy 4:1 declares (Paul writing to Timothy):
I charge thee therefore before God (who is) the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word …
That will be the start of the glorious day of Christ in which the curse of sin and death will be lifted and the Lord will cause by his blessing and power, “every knee (to) bow and every tongue confess that Jesu Christ is Lord (i.e. God Almighty) to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
John Dudley Aldworth
Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com