God's Governmental Ages by S Jones

GOD'S GOVERNMENTAL AGES

Dec 06, 2018 by Dr. Stephen Jones

https://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/daily-weblogs/2018/12-2018/gods-governmental-ages/

When Darby developed his idea of Dispensationalism in the 1850’s, he seemed to know little or nothing about the feast of Tabernacles. For this reason, his idea of the “rapture” was based on his partial knowledge of Scripture. He understood that Christ was returning, but he missed Christ’s real purpose in returning as well as the manner of His return.

Further, Darby had an understanding of Passover and Pentecost insofar as their personal applications were concerned, but he did not see the feasts as representing specific ages in the history of the kingdom. What he called the Age of Law (from Moses to Christ) is actually a Passover Age, beginning with that first Passover that set Israel free from Egypt, and ending with the Passover where Christ died on the cross.

Darby contrasted the age of “Law” with the age of “Grace,” as if men ought to cease obeying the law after the cross. That was a serious misperception that has justified sin in the church, because “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). The truth is that the cross ended the Passover Age, wherein God had established the Kingdom under the partial anointing of Passover.

After a short interim of seven weeks, that age was replaced by a Pentecostal Age, wherein believers were given greater power and authority to establish the Kingdom with a greater anointing. There is no question that the disciples received something on the day of Pentecost that they had not enjoyed earlier. Neither was it just a matter of performing miracles, for the disciples themselves performed many miracles even prior to the day of Pentecost.

The Passover Kingdom

The Passover Kingdom was established in the days of Moses at Mount Horeb, when God organized the first Kingdom government and set forth a fuller revelation of the laws of the Kingdom. We know from Old Testament history that this first Kingdom was flawed, not because the law was imperfect but because the law was imposed upon them from the outside. The people (that is, their carnal minds) were rebellious, and even though Israel saw many revivals in their history, the people always fell away in the next generation.

In the end, the Passover Kingdom ended in failure when Israel was destroyed and sent into captivity in the Assyrian territory known as Gamir (Ghomri, or Gomer). Judah was likewise taken to Babylon for 70 years. However, Judah had to return in order for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem 600 years later. Judah, then, was the remnant of that Passover Kingdom, not truly independent as a nation, but yet not fully destroyed until 70 A.D.

Judah’s final sin of rejecting the Messiah (John 1:11) ended the Passover Kingdom and set the stage for the next phase, the Pentecostal Kingdom.

The Pentecost Kingdom

King Saul had been crowned king on the day of “wheat harvest” (1 Samuel 12:17) and that this was the day the priest offered the first fruits of wheat as a signal that the people now harvest their wheat. In later years the day was known by the Greek name, Pentecost, “fiftieth day,” because this feast day in Israel occurred on the fiftieth day from the wave sheaf offering (Leviticus 23:16). By understanding that Saul was crowned on Pentecost tells us that the Age of Pentecost was characterized governmentally by the reign of “Saul” on a prophetic level.

This strongly implied that there was yet to be an age that was greater, one that would characterize the reign of David. It would also tell us that even though Pentecost was more powerful than Passover, it was not yet perfect. Likewise, since Saul was of Benjamin, he was not even of the ruling tribe, for Judah had been given the scepter in Genesis 49:10. Hence, Saul was doomed to fail in the end, even though theoretically he might have ruled perpetually, if he had not become rebellious (1 Samuel 15:23).

The Roman Church, of course, has never understood this, and their ignorance of Scripture has caused them to teach that its reign will never end. The fact is that the Church in the Pentecostal Age was most certainly going to fulfill the entire pattern of King Saul, starting out good but falling into rebellion, and ending in witchcraft (witch of Endor). The corruption in the Roman Church and in other denominations as well are easily explained and understood by comparing church history with the reign of Saul.

Applying the feast days beyond the personal applications allows us to see how God is working in the world at large to establish His Kingdom. His Kingdom certainly begins in the hearts of men and progresses as we grow to spiritual maturity; but the Kingdom is also a nation having a form of government in the earth. The object of such Kingdom government is to restore Christ’s rule as the One called as King of Creation.

The Tabernacles Kingdom

The third manifestation of the Kingdom is characterized by the feast of Tabernacles. Tabernacles is often called “the lost feast,” because so few Christians knew of it during the Pentecostal Age. It was not really until the time of the Latter Rain Movement (1948-1952) that it was given as a revelation to the church, and even then, most denominations closed their ears to that truth.

In October 1995 God gave me revelation of the three churches. I was shown that the feast days represented three successive ages, three successive phases of the Kingdom, and that these could also be seen as three churches. Acts 7:38 KJV speaks of “the church in the wilderness” (under Moses), and so Scripture describes the Passover Kingdom as a “church.” From the New Testament we understand the nature of the church under the anointing of Pentecost. But these two churches imply a third church in the Tabernacles Age.

Each church is called out of something for the purpose of gathering as an assembly. The first church was called out of Egypt to assemble at Mount Horeb (or Sinai). The second church was called out of Judah to assemble at Mount Sion (Hebrews 12:22 KJV). We read in Deuteronomy 4:48 tells us that Mount Hermon was called Sion.

Sion is not Zion. Zion was where David set up His government. Sion (Mount Hermon) was where Jesus was transfigured, manifesting His glory as the Son of God. Sion represents the government of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the capital of the Tabernacles Kingdom, which will be ruled by the sons of God when they experience the same sort of transfiguration that changes them, perfects them, and gives them full immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51, 53).

The Fulfillment of the Feast Days

Most Christians are aware that Jesus died on the cross to fulfill the feast of Passover and that He was raised from the dead to fulfill the wave-sheaf offering. Not many know that Pentecost was a feast day established under Moses to commemorate the giving of the law at Mount Horeb. Neither do they understand that in later years Saul was crowned on Pentecost as a prophetic type of the Pentecostal Church.

Jesus fulfilled the first set of feasts (Passover to Pentecost) in His first coming. The second set of feasts, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles, prophesy of Christ’s second coming. Yet hardly anyone seems to understand this. Certainly, Darby and Scofield did not know this, and their ignorance of the feast days caused them to misunderstand many things about the second coming of Christ. Their “rapture” theory was based on a very partial understanding of the Word.

Darby’s idea of Dispensationalism was that Christ was to return at the start of a seven-year period called The Great Tribulation. The dead were to be raised and church was to be “raptured” to heaven so that the true believers could escape this Tribulation, while the Antichrist ruled the earth. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit would be removed from the earth, essentially making it impossible for anyone on earth to become a believer. During those seven years, the Jews would remain on the earth, and 144,000 of them would preach (unsuccessfully) to those in tribulation.

At the end of this Tribulation, Christ is said to return to rule the earth with His saints.

Others disputed with Darby and Scofield, modifying their views to suit their own understanding. Some thought that this “rapture” would occur in the middle of the seven-year tribulation, while others believed in a single return of Christ at the end of the Tribulation. Hence, Bible colleges debated these theories without questioning the foundations of the “rapture” theory itself.

I do not question the fact of Christ’s return, of course, but I believe we ought to conform to the revelation of the feast days in our understanding of eschatology. The feast of Trumpets marks the day of resurrection “at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:52). I believe the resurrection will occur in some (unknown) year at the feast of Trumpets, even as Christ died on Passover and the Holy Spirit was given on Pentecost.

Trumpets was established in Numbers 10:2, 3, 4 shortly before the Davy of Atonement, when the 12 spies gave their report (Numbers 13, 14). If the people had agreed to enter the Kingdom at that time, and if they had believed the report of Caleb and Joshua, they would have fulfilled the feast of Tabernacles. I believe they would have conquered Canaan in a single week. But such a conquest would have required more faith than they had at the time. In fact, because they had already rejected the Pentecostal word at Mount Horeb (Exodus 20:19), it was a foregone conclusion that they would lack sufficient faith to enter the Tabernacles Kingdom.

The point is that Trumpets is the day of resurrection and is the first event on the prophetic calendar to be fulfilled. “The dead in Christ will rise first,” Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. The second event on the calendar is the Day of Atonement, where those who have sufficient faith will blow the trumpet (shofar, not silver trumpet) for the Jubilee, reversing the evil report that caused the Israelites to refuse to enter the Kingdom in Numbers 14:4.

The Israelites had turned that Jubilee into the Day of Atonement, a day of mourning and fasting for refusing to enter the Kingdom. The overcoming sons of God at the second coming of Christ will reverse that decision and turn the Day of Atonement back into the Jubilee.

Trumpets comes on the first day of the seventh month. The Day of Atonement (or Jubilee) is held on the tenth day of the same month. Tabernacles begins five days later on the fifteenth day of the month, and this is the day where “we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Darby used this verse to describe the “rapture,” that is, the catching away (to heaven).

I maintain that this is a Tabernacles experience, where the overcoming sons of God are to be transfigured, or “changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51) into the image of Christ. Once changed, they can then come into full unity with those who were raised from the dead two weeks earlier at the feast of Trumpets, so that together they may become one perfected body.

Then all that is lacking is a Head to perfect the body and make that body of saints eligible to be presented to God in heaven on the eighth day of Tabernacles. John 7:14 suggests that Christ will come in the middle of the feast of Tabernacles.

The law demands that the sons of God be presented only on an eighth day (Exodus 22:29, 30). Those “sons” are born on the first day of Tabernacles and by law must be presented to God on the eighth day.

By not taking into account the feast days, Darby did not understand the timing of each event in regard to the second coming of Christ. Instead, he threw them all together as if all of these events were to take place in a single moment of time. The dead would be raised first, and as they shot skyward, the living saints were to be right behind them, tickling their feet (as I was told) on the way up to heaven.

The feast days, however, set the timing of each event in its proper sequence. The feast days are the appointed times. The resurrection occurs on the first day of the seventh month; the Day of Atonement comes nine days later as the Decision Day; the transfiguration of the living saints comes on the fifteenth day of the month, which is the first day of Tabernacles.

Then Christ must return between the first and the eighth day of Tabernacles, so that the Head is joined to the body, making the body complete, and making the body eligible to be presented to God. The presentation must occur on the eighth day of Tabernacles. Then this collective “Son” will return the same day to be manifested to the people on earth.

I have discussed these events more fully elsewhere with biblical proofs. This is only a short summary, and if this is new material to any reader, I suggest that he or she should pursue this study to learn the details.

My point is to show that Darby’s Dispensationalism, which is now mainstream evangelical eschatology, needs to be revised considerably to take into account the revelation of the feast days revealed in Scripture. Studying those feasts give us a clearer view of prophecy and establish the order of timing, both the Ages and the actual events that fulfill those appointed times.

Dispensational Nonsense

DISPENSATIONAL NONSENSE

11-27-2018 Original date May 14, 2007

Many years ago, when I was young, I read a book by Clarence Larkin called Dispensational Truth without realizing until many years later, just how far from the truth it was.

Dispensationalism is the teaching that attempts to divide time into various ages, each of which has a different plan by which God deals with mankind. For example, from Moses to Christ was the so-called "Age of Law," in which there was no grace. Conversely, after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ we supposedly entered into the "Age of Grace," in which the law was supposedly put aside (some say it was nailed to the Cross.

Salvation: Faith vs Works  https://freedomfromdelusion.blogspot.com/2018/08/salvation-faith-vs-works.html

Further, this view taught--and still teaches--that the coming Age will be that of a Jewish Kingdom, which will be administered by Jewish law, including the re-instatement of animal sacrifices within a rebuilt temple. Thus, the second coming of Christ will see a very Jewish Messiah--not one which the Jews will accept for who He is, but rather a Messiah that will be acceptable to Judaism.

This is rather interesting, because Jesus was nothing like this in His first appearance, nor were His views the least bit acceptable to the chief priests. He came, not as a great miracle-working general to overthrow the Romans, but as a humble servant who loved Romans as much as He loved Jews.

But Dispensationalism teaches that Christ came the FIRST time as a meek Lamb, but watch out for Him when He comes the SECOND time as a raging Lion! In other words, He will be like a different Person in His second coming.

The underlying destructiveness of Dispensational thought is that it destroys the unity of Scripture and establishes two different standards of measure in the world, along with two different plans of salvation. First, it destroys the unity between the Old and New Scriptures rather than viewing it as a single Book with a progressive unfolding of God’s divine plan.  Second, it teaches that Grace is a temporary interlude that allows a few "Gentiles" a window of opportunity to be saved apart from animal sacrifices.  Third, it demands a reversion back to Judaism and to a very Jewish Kingdom in which God has preferential treatment of certain people based upon either their genealogy or their religion.

The "Age of Grace," then, is seen as a temporary respite from an Old Testament God, who is pictured as a vengeful, stern Judge of humanity. It is a temporary respite in which the "better" covenant, "better" sacrifices, "better" priesthood, "better promises" are granted until we are to revert back to those Old Testament practices which are WORSE. This violates the whole spirit of the book of Hebrews--which, I might add, was written to HEBREW PEOPLE.

And so, Dispensationalism has established the mind-set that Jews are saved by the law, while the "Gentiles" are saved by grace. This "Dual Covenant Theology" is being espoused by a number of preachers, though some of them (like John Hagee) actually deny it. They deny it, while at the same time affirming that Jews are in a Covenant relationship with God apart from Christ. What Covenant is that? Obviously, it can only be the Old Covenant, since it can hardly be said that adherents to Judaism are under the New Covenant.

Such people are caught in a rather awkward position, trying to maintain that Jews are already saved apart from Christ, while still trying to preach Christ to them. So they have come to the middle position, saying that while it would be BETTER for Jews to accept Christ, it is not necessary for them to do so. For this reason, many Christians are shutting down their missions to the Jews, saying that it is unnecessary to preach Christ to them. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has done the same, though this is not yet the official Vatican position. (The Vatican needs a little more time to let the view become more popular before it makes this official.)

Dispensationalism repairs the middle wall of partition (division) that Jesus tore down by His teaching. The Jews had built a wall in the temple to allow only the Jewish men to enter. This was to indicate that all others, including Jewish women, had to remain at arm's length from God. It showed that only Jewish men were allowed to have a direct relationship with God, and all others had to have an indirect relationship with Him. But Ephesians 2:14 says,

"For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall."

Dispensationalism rebuilds this wall and teaches that Jews are more loved and holier than non-Jews. It puts non-Jews in subjection to Jews in a very Jewish Kingdom. Furthermore, even ordinary Jews are put under those Jews whose names are Cohen, Kagan, or other forms of that name, for they are said to be descendants of the original Levitical priests. Gone is the priesthood of the believer.

For the life of me, I cannot see why any non-Jew would desire to see Christ's second coming. Do they really want to live life in subjection to Jewish leaders who have proven their character by their Zionist practices against the Palestinians?? Do they not know that this is how they will treat Christians in the age to come--if Dispensationalism were true?

Dispensationalism seeks to reinstate Hagar and Ishmael as the inheritor of the promises. Paul tells us clearly in Gal. 4:25 that "this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children."

Dispensationalism seeks to re-establish the Old Covenant along with rabbinic Judaism, having the old Jerusalem as the Capitol of the Kingdom. They reject the Apostle Paul's writings, or at least relegate him to the present "Age of Grace." They forgive his error on the grounds that he had a ministry to the "Gentiles," which made his message temporary and inferior. Once Christ returns the second time, Jerusalem was somehow to be transformed from Hagar to Sarah. The Old Jerusalem will suddenly be reborn into the New Jerusalem. The Ishmaelites of Judaism will suddenly become Isaac, while still retaining all the Ishmaelite bondages of Judaism. A rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, which God forsook "as Shiloh" (Jer. 7:14) will be reinhabited by the Spirit of God--a violation of His own Word.

The Spirit of God left the temple of Solomon according to Ezekiel.  It was never in the 2^nd temple nor was it in Herod’s upgraded version.

The Word of God is an acceptable casualty to Dispensationalism. But for those of us who actually believe the Bible and who are not blinded by Zionist Judaism, we believe that Jews have to repent and be saved in the same manner as the rest of us.

We believe with Peter that there is only one name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

We have no double standard, but believe with Moses that there was to be one law for all the people, whether Israelites or foreigners (Num. 15:16).

We do not believe that grace was absent in the Old Testament, nor do we believe that the law is irrelevant after the Cross.

We do not believe that the blood of Christ was limited to an interim "Age of Grace" until animal sacrifices could be reinstated in the end.

We do not believe that the presence of God will be removed from the temple of our bodies in order to inhabit a rebuilt physical temple in Jerusalem--or anywhere else for that matter.

We do not believe that the Old Covenant will replace the New Covenant in the Kingdom Age to come.

Dispensationalism is the New Replacement Theology. Such replacement theology is totally unacceptable and is rank heresy. It has no business being taught anywhere in Christian pulpits, because it entirely undermines the cross, the blood of Christ, and the entire purpose for Christ's coming. This is the great lawlessness that Jesus warned us about in Matt. 24:10-13 and the apostasy which Paul warned about in 1 Tim. 4:1.

  Did the early church contain any hint of dispensational reasoning?  NO.  Did the early reformers (with a personal Bible in hand) claim the Revelation is a roadmap of a tribulation period?  NO, they considered it for what it is.  A prophetic history of the Church beginning at the time of John.

The prominent groundbreaker of dispensational theology is the Scofield Reference Bible first appearing in 1909 and revised in 1917.  It is said this Bible with it’s unique (at the time) reference system was financed and encouraged by Jewish bankers living in England, to enhance and further their goal of convincing the Christian church of their self-conceived “chosen people” status in light of their upcoming plan to retake Palestine which became the state of Israel in 1948.

Prior to its popularization by the Scofield Bible, the roots of Dispensational Theology are traceable to John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren group within England.  Darby’s teaching has become enshrined in the Scofield Reference Bible, the most popular of all reference bibles.  Dispensational Theology has been refined to some extent and tenaciously defended by Dallas Theological Seminary founded by Lewis Sperry Chafer.

 

During the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, Ezra was sent to offer sacrifices at the rebuilt Temple (Ezra 7: 7). This was done by authority of the edict of Artaxerxes I.  At that time, Ezra performed the final rite of cleansing in Jerusalem, which allowed Daniel’s 70 weeks to begin the countdown toward the work of Jesus on the Cross.  Daniel’s 70th week extended from 26 to 33 A.D. Jesus’ ministry began precisely in the midst of that week, in the fall of 29 A.D., with His baptism on the Day of Atonement. The crucifixion occurred at the end of the week, in the spring of 33 A.D., which was precisely 490 years after Ezra began his journey to Jerusalem. The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ signaled the end of the 70 weeks.  There may be some intense tribulation within the next few years, but there is no future week of seven years.

Further Ideas & Comments

THE SINNER”S PRAYER – No Author

http://www.bible.ca/g-sinners-prayer.htm

No one in the Bible ever prayed for their initial salvation. They did however believe, repent, confess Jesus and be immersed in water for the forgiveness of their sins. The sinner’s prayer is an innovation that thwarts God's plan of salvation.

Hundreds of millions hold to a belief system and salvation practice that no one had ever held until relatively recently. The notion that one can pray Jesus into his or her heart and that baptism is merely an outward sign are actually late developments. The prayer itself dates to the Billy Sunday era; however, the basis for talking in prayer for salvation goes back a few hundred years.

Consider the following appeal:

"Just accept Christ into your heart through prayer and he'll receive you. It doesn't matter what church you belong to or if you ever do good works. You'll be born again at the moment you receive Christ. He's at the door knocking. You don't even have to change bad habits, just trust Christ as Savior. God loves you and forgives you unconditionally. Anyone out there can be saved if they ... Accept Christ, now! Let us pray for Christ to now come into your heart."

The fact that John Nelson Darby invented the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine around 1830 AD is unquestionably true. All attempts to find evidence of this wild doctrine before 1830 have failed.

All premillennialists, rapturists and dispensationalists alive today believe the Bible reveals the general era of when Christ will return. The date setters of the 1800's (Seventh-day Adventists who are date setting premillennialists who reject the rapture, Jehovah's Witnesses who have set many dates) based their predictions upon speculative arrangements of numbers and chronologies in the Bible. Today's date setters without exception wrongly believe that Israel gaining state hood in 1948 fulfilled Bible prophecy and that Christ would return within one generation.

Most of the TV preachers who promote rapture and/or "date set" all wrongly believe they are a prophet of God with special illumination. Pentecostals believe they are inspired directly from the Holy Spirit as modern day prophets. Baptists believe they are illuminated with guidance from the Holy Spirit through the Calvinist doctrine of Irresistible grace.

Darby noted that the doctrine "popped into his head" in 1830 AD. Before this, no one had ever heard of a secret rapture doctrine.

Modern influences of Darby include Dallas Theological Seminary, Bob Jones University, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Jack Van Impe and Harold Camping, the Scofield Reference Bible.

"When the theory of a secret coming of Christ was first brought forward (about the year 1832), it was adopted with eagerness; it suited certain preconceived opinions.

The Dallas Theological Seminary and Bob Jones University have been the centers of propagation of false doctrine of the Rapture.

John Nelson Darby is regarded by many as the father of premillennial dispensationalism and the most influential figure in the development of its prodigy, i.e. Christian Zionism