Lindsey, H. There’s A New World Coming: A Prophetic Odyssey. Santa Ana, California: Vision House, 1973.
Saucy, R.L. The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism: The Interface between Dispensational and Non-dispensational Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993.
Stam, C.R. Things That Differ: the Fundamentals of Dispensationalism. Germantown, Wisconsin : Berean Bible Society, 1951/82.
Walwoord, John F. Armageddon: Oil and the Middle East Crisis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974.
1 Art 28 of the 1561 Confession of Faith, in part, “We believe, since this holy assembly and congregation is the assembly of the redeemed and there is no salvation outside of it, that no one ought to withdraw from it, content to be by himself, no matter what his state or quality may be.”
2 Heidelberg Catechism, Q/A 21p, “I believe that the Son of God, out of the whole human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, defends, and preserves for Himself by His Spirit and Word, in the unity of the true faith, a church chosen to everlasting life.”
3 Jacob’s twelve sons are also called patriarchs, Acts 7:8. Patriarchs were leaders in the Old Church.
4 Gen 4:26b, “At that time men began to call upon the name of the LORD.” It is next to impossible to determine in this context the meaning of calling upon the LORD.
An explanatory word: LORD = Yahweh, a primary Old Testament covenant name of Jesus Christ.
5 Shem is the father of the Semites, out of whom the LORD later drew Abram/Abraham.
6 There is a missionary element to the rite of circumcision. Gen 17:12, “He that is eight days old among you shall be circumcised; every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house, or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring . . ..” Specifically male slaves, also those purchased, were subject to the covenant of circumcision.
It goes without saying slavery in the covenant community is an issue separate from the matter at hand, the one Church.
7. Kee, Jesus in History, 156, “The Greek word for church, ekklesia, has long been recognized as a translation of the Semitic word used in the Old Testament for the covenant community of Israel, qahal.”
8 According to Judg 14:8, ‘edhah may also apply to a swarm of bees.
9. ekklesia may describe a common civil assembly, Acts 19:32, 39, 41.
10. There are works which attempt responsible dealings with the covenant, but remain locked into Dispensationalism. 1) Campbell & Townsend, A Case for Premillennialism. 2) Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism. The literalism with which all dispensationalists read the Bible, particularly prophecy, hampers understanding of the Bible as well as the doctrine of the Church.
11. Campbell & Townsend, A Case for Premillennialism, 236. It seems that Papias (AD 60–130) already struggled with premillennial problems.
12 Stam, Things That Differ, 29.
13. Jeffrey, Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny, 221.
14. Walwoord, Armageddon: Oil and the Middle East Crisis, 59.
15. Lindsey, There’s A New World Coming, 77.
16. Other significant New Testament names: Body of Christ, 1 Cor 12:27; Eph 1:23; Col 1:18; etc., Pillar and Ground of Truth, and the Household of God, 1 Tim 3:15.
17. Expression of this ecclesiastical unity appears also in the 1561 Confession of Faith, Art 27p, “This Church has existed from the beginning of the world and will be to the end, for Christ is an eternal King who cannot be without subjects.”
PARADOXICAL STUDIES
IN THE WORLD/NOT OF THE WORLD
Revelation on uncomfortable in the world/not of the world teachings gathered impetus with Abraham and his immediate descendants. Since, this paradoxical assertion in a large way always bears directly on the troubling history of Christ’s Church, also now throughout the drawn-out ages of the Millennium, the ascended Lord Jesus’s one thousand-year reign. The provocative measures of this paradox—in the world/not of the world—marks all post-Abrahamic Scriptures with its currents of anguish in the covenant community everywhere, worldwide.
Obviously, this inescapable paradox constitutes more than a platitudinous obfuscation.
1–4
John 15:1–27 (18–19)
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you.”
IN THE WORLD/NOT OF THE WORLD
A LOVE-AND-HATE PARADOX
New generations in Christ, attentive to this paradox, start reflectively, caught by increasing awareness of living in the world, yet not being (a part) of this world. The Lord Jesus in clear language commanded that all his honor this uneasy process to the fullest. The disciples, however, seated at table after the Passover celebration, John 13:1–20, struggled with this quandary, searching out in quiet obedience its hidden distinctions and growing marvels of relevance.
After the solemn commemoration of this Passover, the Christ created the lengthy teaching moment recorded in four unwinding chapters throughout which he, sovereign, claimed undivided attention. By this liberating instruction on love and hate, he communicated the uncomfortable in the world/not of the world environment, contrasting thereby the sweeping commandment to the Twelve18 for loving one another to overcome the world’s animosity. To flex the beating heart of this paradox: Jesus called for love to oppose the malice of the world against him and his own. Thereby, throughout his ministry, he proceeded to instill agapic life within the Twelve as children of God, John 1:12, that is, to his own, the foundational members of the New Church and leading citizens of the Kingdom. In fact, by means of this paradox, he summoned the charter members of the ongoing Church out of a sorry existence to the covenant promise
