Many of the commentaries that I have place Matthew 25:31 and following at the end of time, or the end of the Gospel age. Some don’t even have Christians participating in this judgment, because they had been removed from the earth in the previous age. Yet, nothing like this appears in the plain reading of the scripture. Nothing is said about the end of time. That has to be brought to the table by the person interpreting the scripture. In other words, it is a doctrine of men, because it cannot be found in the scriptures. Neither could the end of the Gospel age be a proper interpretation, because no such thing is ever mentioned in scripture (cf. Daniel 2:44). It, too, is a doctrine of men. What does the scripture actually say?
Jesus told his Apostles that he would come with his angels and sit on the throne of his glory. At that time all nations would be brought before him, and he would separate them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats—the sheep to the right and the goats to the left. To those on the right Jesus says, “come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:31-34; emphasis mine).
That’s quite a statement that God had the Kingdom prepared “from the foundation of the world.”[1] Those at Jesus’ right were to inherit that Kingdom, and according to most commentary scholars, immediately upon the realization of God’s plan, all things come to an end—sort’a, kind’a like “…and they lived happily ever after!” End of story. Well, I don’t think the scriptures do that kind of thing.
Notice what Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 1:4-10 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (6) To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (7) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (8) Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; (9) Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: (10) That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him. (emphasis mine)
God’s plan of salvation incorporated Paul’s readers even before the foundation of the world (verse-4), and he made known unto them the mystery of his will (verse-9). Why did he make this known to them? So that, “in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ.” In other words, he made known the mystery of his will in order that the Gospel might be preached to the world in an effort to “gather together in one all things in Christ.”
Instead of time coming to an end at Matthew 25:31 and following, things were just getting started. Instead of the Gospel age coming to an end, we have Matthew 25:31 establishing the Gospel age, which, by the way never ends. We have inherited a Kingdom that cannot be moved (Hebrews 12:28). It doesn’t end here; it begins here. The Apostles asked about the end of the age (Matthew 24:3), well that is where we begin. The Gospel age was initiated at Pentecost, but it was established in 70 AD at the end of the age—the end of the Old Covenant.
Paul tells us that God’s plan to gather all things in Christ began to occur in “the dispensation of the fullness of times” (Ephesians 1:10, see above). Earlier Paul told the Galatians that “in the fullness of time” God sent his Son, born of a woman, made under the Law (Galatians 4:4). Moreover, it is claimed by the writer of Hebrews that Jesus had come and spoke to us in the last days (Hebrews 1:2). So, the last days, i.e. when Jesus initiated the Gospel, were also called the fullness of time.
Therefore, those who inherit the Kingdom (Matthew 25:34), inherit a Kingdom that cannot be moved (Hebrews 12:28). That is, it cannot be destroyed, nor does it end (cf. Daniel 2:44). Moreover, this same Kingdom had been prepared for the heirs from the foundation of the world, and the heirs had been incorporated into God’s plan from before the foundation of the world, and that in order to bring salvation to the world by preaching the Gospel (Ephesians 1:10). In other words, Matthew 25:31 and following is the beginning of the Gospel age.
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[1] The statement “from the foundation of the world” refers to the time of Adam’s rebellion. The phrase in the Greek is repeated elsewhere in the New Testament eleven times, always translated “foundation of the world” except at Hebrews 11:11. I have a study about this called The Overthrow of the World, if anyone cares to read it.
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9 responses to “In The Fullness of Time”
Greetings Bill, and thank you for your comment. I always enjoy discussing things like this with folks who love the word of God.
You are correct in your analysis. However, the mystery of the union of Jews and gentiles in the church is only one mystery that was revealed. If we count the ‘mystery of God’ and the ‘mystery of the Gospel’ as the same thing, which comprise all the other mysteries, then I believe there are seven mysteries, whose revelation wascomplete just prior to the seventh trump of the angel. The mysteries are:
1) the mystery of the gentiles being united with the Jews in the church of God (Ephesians 3:3-9),
2) the mystery of death being being swallowed up in life (1Corinthians 15:51-54),
3) the mystery of all things in heaven and on earth being gathered into one in Christ, i.e. restoring the presence of God with men, as it was prior to Adam’s rebellion (Ephesians 1:9-10; John 14:3; Revelation 21:3),
4) the mystery of Christ coming in the flesh, i.e. our flesh, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27-27),
5) the mystery of submission or of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:26-31), i.e. the mutual submission of the pastor (husband) and the local body of believers (the wife),
6) the mystery of godliness (1Timothy 3:16),
7 the mystery of iniquity (2Thessalonians 2:7-8)
Lord bless you, Bill, and thanks again for reading.
Thank you! Fantastic!
Hi again Eddie,
You posed the question, “…in what sense does the scripture tell us that his rule **begins** on earth in Daniel 2:44, because there it does say: ‘In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.’ ”
Your suggestion about God using one nation to judge another, which nation itself is then judged by yet another nation, is true as a stand-alone statement about the way God deals with nations and kingdoms. However, I don’t think it’s quite the way we are supposed to understand what happened in Daniel 2:34-35 and 44-45. Remember, ALL those metals came crashing down SIMULTANEOUSLY – “TOGETHER” – and they were all “crushed” and carried away by the wind at THE SAME TIME.
That MUTUAL destruction tells us that something else is going on there in Daniel’s vision that is more than just the Chaldean empire ceasing to exist, followed later on by the passing of the Medes and Persians kingdom, then the Greeks, and much later by the Roman empire finally fading away, long after AD 70 was past.
Here is my suggestion: The rock’s mutual “crushing” of ALL the kingdoms of Daniel’s statue is the simultaneous destruction of the entire demonic realm which had been operating WITHIN all those kingdoms until AD 70 as part of the divine council. That “crushing” was merely a fulfillment of the promise in Romans 16:20 that God would crush Satan under the feet of the saints shortly – a promise to that generation. God imprisoned every unclean spirit within Jerusalem’s walls from AD 66 onward (Rev. 18:2), and eliminated them in the AD 70 Lake of Fire in Jerusalem along with Satan (the devil, the Dragon, and the Old Serpent), just as Isaiah 24:21-23 and 27:1 had predicted they would be gone “in that day”.
It seems that Satan, the “god of this world” and his angels had been part of God’s divine council ever since Deut. 32:8-9, when the nations were divided up after the flood. After they had fallen, those divine council members who had become evil attempted to corrupt and disrupt God’s scheduled redemption plans. Daniel’s angel mentions the angelic “Prince of Persia” in Dan. 10:13 who was opposing him. He told Daniel that he would “return to fight” with this prince of Persia after he was done revealing the intent of the visions to Daniel. So apparently the elect, righteous angels – the “Watchers” – were engaged in ongoing spiritual warfare with the fallen members of the divine council during those OT days as they were working to implement God’s redemption plans within each of the world’s succeeding empires.
When God destroyed the evil members of the divine council in AD 70, he transferred unto Himself all the forfeited kingdom powers of Satan, the “prince of this world” (which power over the kingdoms of the world Satan boasted to Christ that he possessed in Luke 4:5-6). The sounding of the seventh trumpet is the time when the (plural) “kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15). In AD 70, with the elimination of the demonic realm and the disbanding of the divine council itself, all the former delegated divine council powers became Christ’s alone, which is why He was finally wearing “MANY crowns” in Rev. 19:12, instead of just one crown at His ascension in Rev. 14:14.
We, as saints IN CHRIST, are also participating in His reign over all the nations of the world presently. In effect, WE have become God’s divine council on this earth, as ambassadors for His kingdom. The “Age to come” (the New Covenant Age), according to Hebrews 2:5, is presently not in “subjection to angels” and their supervision anymore as the “Watchers” once were given this task. This is the different type of manifestation of Christ’s kingdom that **began** in AD 70 when the rock struck the feet of the statue and changed the way the kingdom of God would operate in this world – minus the demonic realm and the old divine council system which became unnecessary, ever since the Holy Spirit indwelt and remained with the believers.
You also asked regarding I Cor. 10:11, “In what sense should we understand the **ends** (plural) of the **ages** (plural)? How many **ends** are there?” Well, in my opinion there were SEVEN AGES of human history scheduled for fallen mankind, with each of those seven ages composed of 1,000 years. The over-arching theme for each of these seven millennia provides a comparable anti-type of God’s creative activity that took place on each of the SEVEN DAYS of creation week (because Peter didn’t want anyone to be ignorant of that one pertinent symbolic principle; that 1 day = 1 thousand years).
Here’s a breakdown of that “1 day = 1 thousand years” principle, taken from a post of mine in another forum:
The First Millennium
Adam was the “poster-boy” of this 1st millennium. The first day of creation, God separated light from darkness. To match with that, the first millennium of human history could be summed up with Adam personifying all of mankind’s sinful darkness having to be separated from God, the source of light. Significantly, Adam’s lifespan of 930 years took up almost the entirety of the first millennium.
The Second Millennium
Noah was the “poster-boy” of the 2nd millennium, with God making a division in the waters (as He did on the 2nd day of creation) between those waters that belonged to Heaven, and those that belonged below that. We know that before the flood, the waters of the deep provided a mist that watered the whole face of the ground (Gen. 2:5-6). After the flood, God divided the waters so that rain from heaven provided the needed moisture for the land, and the waters of the deep had a bound set upon them, “that they turn not again to cover the earth” (Ps. 104:6-9).
The Third Millennium
Abraham was the “poster-boy” of the 3rd millennium, since God chose him out of the “sea” of Gentile nations to make a people for Himself. This was similar to the 3rd day of creation, when the dry land appeared, was separated from the seas, and started bearing vegetation and fruit after its kind. The “land” has typically represented God’s chosen land of Canaan in scripture, separate from the “seas” of the Gentile nations. Abraham, the father of the children of faith, was a picture of God separating His people of faith from among the “seas” of the unbelieving world, and causing them to bear fruit for Him.
The Fourth Millennium
King Solomon was the “poster-boy” of the 4th millennium. It began with Solomon’s temple foundation being laid down in 968/967 BC. This was the beginning of the Revelation 20 millennium, when Satan’s deception of the nations was bound by the ministry of the prophets, and the light of God’s message began to spread throughout the nations by the words of the Lord that the prophets wrote or spoke. This was similar to the 4th day of creation week, which had “great lights” put in the heavens, for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, to add to men’s knowledge of the world and of the God who had given them that world. This millennium which encompassed Solomon’s “golden age” for Israel as a people, and the increased exposure of the nations at large to the God who led that nation, lasted until Christ’s finished work on the cross and the “First Resurrection” in AD 33, as Revelation 20:5 tells us this period of 1,000 years was finished at that point. This vitally important date of AD 33 is what dates the beginning and ending year of every one of the seven millennia, since the purpose and the hope of all of human history revolves around Christ’s death and resurrection anyway.
The Fifth Millennium
This 5th millennium began with the surge of gospel evangelism being presented to the Gentile world, as Paul vividly demonstrated by his God-commissioned ministry given to him in the Jerusalem temple at the end of Daniel’s 70th week in AD 37. Life sprang up abundantly in the “seas” of the Gentile world, just as there were burgeoning life forms in the oceans from the fifth day of creation onward.
The Sixth Millennium
The 6th millennium enjoyed – and is still enjoying – the most lavish blessings of all. There are other instances in the Old Testament where God gave a greater-than-ordinary blessing on the 6th day, and the 6th year. On the 6th day of creation, man and woman in God’s image were given dominion over the planet, and told to subdue it. One cannot dispute that the period from the close of the Dark Ages until now has experienced an explosion of God’s blessing upon this earth for mankind; a truly iconic representation of mankind’s dominion over the planet, compared to the preceding 5 millennia. Not only did an actual warming trend in weather patterns begin that bumped up the crop yields at the beginning of this millennium, but we had The Renaissance, the printed Word of God, the Reformation, The Great Awakening, great missionary endeavors, The Industrial Revolution, medical advances, technological expertise, automobiles, computers, and inventions galore, (and not to be profane…but toilet paper and indoor plumbing too). We are coming up to the end of this 6th millennium of God’s blessing, since it will expire in 2033, based on Christ’s anchoring date of AD 33 for the end of the 4th millennium.
The Seventh Millennium
This fast-approaching 7th millennium I believe will be characterized by a period of imposed Sabbath-type rest, (just as God Himself demonstrated for us by resting from His works on the 7th day of creation), when the frantic pace of human activity on this planet will be sharply curtailed. This will ultimately provide for the progress of God’s gospel, by reducing the insane amount of distractions we have on our time and activities, even as Christians. As many a Christian will admit, if hardships come, God can use them to drive us closer to the Savior, and cause us to rethink our priorities. This is true even for unbelievers. When God wanted to get close to His people in Old Testament days, He brought them into the wilderness, and made them totally dependent upon Him for their daily bread and water, and their guidance in unknown territory. I suspect this is part of what will be coming for the world at large in this next, last, 7th millennium of human history for fallen mankind – when God will cause the world to “Be still and know that I am God”. His final return for the last, 3rd bodily resurrection for those saints who lived and died under the New Covenant Age will occur at the close of this 7th millennium.
The Eighth Millennium Age + any ages subsequent to that for the resurrected saints
The 8th millennium age beginning with all the groups of resurrected saints united in Christ’s presence will then be enjoying together what many have termed “the eternal state”. The number “8” has usually represented a period of new beginnings in scripture, and I believe the 8th millennium will be representative of this as well. God will have eradicated all human evil from this planet at that transition point by destroying it utterly – body, soul, and spirit. The resurrected saints will share the inheritance of a purified universe, or wherever else God intends to use us all in any ages subsequent to that one.
Paul’s various statements in his epistles regarding plural “AGES, both before and after the New Covenant Age, are to be taken at face value. How do I prove this? Paul knew exactly what he was writing, especially when it comes to singular and plural cases, since he once based an entire doctrinal argument on “SEED” (singular) versus “SEEDS” (plural) in Gal. 3:16. If Paul had intended to refer to a single AGE, he would have done so by using that version of the word. But he didn’t. It’s not a matter of interpreting this in either a “literal” or a “spiritual” sense. Many times it’s BOTH senses at work in a text, as I have done in the 7 days = 7 millennia comparison above.
I don’t think it’s an accident that there are SEVEN THUNDERS that utter their voices in Rev. 10:4. The content of their prophetic utterance is SEALED UP by John – meaning that those UNWRITTEN prophecies were reserved for a time AFTER AD 70’s fulfillment of all WRITTEN prophecy. Those 7 thunders are, I believe, a metaphor representing the 7 total millennia of fallen man’s history on this planet. The content of the unwritten prophecies they uttered has been playing out over time since AD 70, and will continue to unfold until the end of the 7th millennium. For us who now walk by faith and not by sight, we don’t need to have everything revealed to us in order to believe God has a perfect design in mind. The indwelling Spirit within us should be Comfort enough, without our being informed of every future detail.
And your observation about the “better sacrifices” (plural) of Christ meaning a single sacrifice? Those plural sacrifices would be Christ’s body AND His blood in that context of Heb. 9:23, that were BOTH offered for us; the two elements demonstrated by the wine and the bread of the Lord’s Supper.
Sorry for the wearisome length of this comment, Eddie, but after all, as a woman, we rarely run out of words : – ) Thank you for letting me dump this on you, even if you need to edit it.
Greetings Patricia, and thank you for your comment.
Concerning “ALL those metals came crashing down SIMULTANEOUSLY – TOGETHER”
No, that is a wrong analysis. The first three empires had long since ceased to exist. Rome was the only extant empire in existence at the time of the beginning of the Gospel, and it didn’t cease to exist until centuries later. Something else is at play here that doesn’t meet the eye of a cursory read. I believe it has to do with freedom and the idea of an unlimited kingdom. All four empires reached a limit and could go no further. The kingdom simply couldn’t increase beyond a certain limit where it could rule effectively. The Kingdom of God is not such a kingdom. It goes beyond borders and all are brethren yielding to the power of God on an individual level. It is neither limited in time nor in scope. All other kingdoms come to an end; the Kingdom of God does not.
In the other kingdoms freedom was vested in a small group of people. In the kingdom of gold, for example, only the king was free. The kingdoms that followed permitted freedom to expand into an elite group of nobles, or rich businessmen or even powerful armies etc. Nevertheless, the slaves and common citizens had little or no freedom. In Christ, all are free and all are brethren, loved by all. It is this idea that destroys the other kingdoms. If America loves the Russians and visa-versa, why would they go to war? Why would they cheat or scheme against one another etc.? Christianity has made great inroads into all nations, and to a great degree, war has been limited. The arrogance of one man or of a small group of men can no longer sustain an effort to destroy another nation or enslave a people different from themselves.
Concerning Satan, I don’t believe in such a being. See my studies on my “Salvation, Saved from What?” page.
Concerning my argument of the ages, you either missed the point of my argument or you simply disagreed without putting it into words. In my opinion, which is embraced by most (I believe) ancient rabbis in the Talmud, there are only two ages, the Age of Torah and the Age of Messiah. The Age of Torah was supposed to end, but the Age of Messiah was not. Genesis, although before Sinai, is considered the first book of the Law.
Concerning your seven ages and 1 day = 1 thousand years, although your study is interesting of and by itself, your analysis, as far as Daniel 2:44 is concerned, is completely subjective. For one thing, with the exception of Adam, the millenniums don’t begin with the “poster boy” you name. If the “poster boy” doesn’t initiate or characterize the millennium, how is he the ‘poster boy’? What does he really have to do with the ‘millennium’ in question?
We shall have to agree to disagree here, Patricia. Have a good day, and may the Lord continue to bless you.