Is There Anything Like The Church Age? (Part 2)

Contrary to what scripture teaches about this present age being an evil age with satan as the god of it, the natural human mind reasons that since the church is in the world this must be the church age.

The church being presently in the world does not automatically make this present age a church age; neither does the fact that it's a conventional teaching make it so.

The fact that the messiah came into the world & dwelt amongst men did not automatically constitute/make the time he was here a messianic age. On the contrary scripture says "He was in the world and the world was made by Him but the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not"(John 1:10-11).

When asked by Pilate: "Are you the king of the Jews?"; He answered and said: "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." John 18:33-36.

The church which is his body cannot have a different experience from His while in this dark world, so scripture says of us "Behold what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not." 1st John 3:1.

This is similar to what Jesus said in John 15:18-19 & 17:14...

"If the world hate you, know that it has hated me before you. 
 If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on account of this the world hates you.
I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world."

The costly assumption that since the church is on earth now then this present age must be a church age comes directly against what the bible teaches about this present age being an evil age with satan as the god of it, the antichrist spirit already functioning in it & the mystery of iniquity/lawlessness even working in the very midst of the church.

Such assumption doctrinally destroys the distinctive nature & separatedness of the church as the ekklesia, called out of this present evil age/delivered from it.

Christianity did not introduce a new age at Pentecost. It rather delivers men from this present evil age, from the influence/power of the wicked one in whom all the world lies, and ultimately gathers men out of the world.

Sadly, most people don't know the implication of what it means to say this is the age of this or that.

When scripture says this present age is an evil age, it means it's a time of the rule & reign of evil & darkness, thus it is not a surprise to see scripture call satan the god of it & present him as the one in whose power this entire world lies as sunken & buried in wickedness.

When scripture speaks of a messianic/millennial age, it means the time of the rule & reign of righteousness and light, with the messiah as king over all the earth/nations.

When one says this is the age of the church, it implies that it's the time of the reign & rule of the church on earth, and this is a very false ground/position for the church cannot reign/rule on her own. She is destined to rule & reign with Christ at the millenial/messianic age.

We are not in any such age of the rule/reign of the church on earth.
We are not in any age characterised by the rule of light or righteousness as to claim it to be the age of the church.
Even with the physical presence of Christ in this world as the light of the world, it was not an age characterised by light & righteousness; having come in the flesh, his glory was veiled yet the rays of it were bright enough to lighten all who received him. However, the testimony of scripture concerning him is that the true light that lightens men came into the world yet men rejected him "and this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" - John 3:19; 1:9.

According to scripture, the age which will be characterised by light & righteousness, when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, is the messianic/millennial age; when Christ as the sun of righteousness will arise over the earth with healing in his wings, then shall the righteous shine like the sun & then shall Christ rule the nations with the rod of iron, and with his judgments being upon the earth, then shall "the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness"...for in those days of his manifest power, authority and rule upon the earth, the people shall be willing  - Habakkuk 2:14; Malachi 4:2; Matthew 13:43; Revelation 19:15; Isaiah 26:9; Psalm 110:2-3.


Difference Between A Dispensation & An Age.

The word dispensation is often confused with the word age.

In the bible, the word dispensation is "oikonomia" in the original greek and is not same thing as the word "aion"(age).
One might want to argue that they are related synonyms but these words cannot be interchangeably used as they convey different meanings.

Dispensation speaks of a system, an economy & the administration/stewardship of it(the economy/system).

An age on the other hand is an epoch, an era considered noteworthy or remarkably known for something.

There is a difference between the age(time of the law) & the dispensation/economy/administration of the law.

In the age of the law, Israel as a nation were once like a people without a law, a king, an ephod or a priest...their days in Babylonian captivity. They were in the age of the law yet the dispensation/economy/administration of the law had ceased for them. This was their state before they had a form of restoration unto the incarnation birth/coming of the messiah.
The greater fulfillment of the prophecy as captured in Hosea 3:4-5 is playing out now unto the second/millenial coming, as Isreal abides many days without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without an image, without an ephod, and without teraphim.

In the epistles of the new testament, scripture speaks of the dispensation of the grace of God(Ephesians 3:2), the dispensation of God(Colossians 1:25) & the dispensation of the fullness of times(Ephesians 1:10)

The same Greek word "Oikonomia" is used in all of these and speaks of an economy of truth/revelation and the stewardship/administration of it.

The fact that a dispensation or stewardship of grace which deals with the mystery of Christ & the body of Christ, was committed to the apostle, does not in anyway mean we are in any such thing called the church age.

The apostle himself would shrink at the very thought of that, for in his epistles he clearly taught the truth that this present age is an evil age & satan is the god of this age.

There is a dispensation/administration of the mystery playing out in the church but there is no such thing as a church age. You surely won't see any scripture that speaks of that.

Just as in the old testament, Israel as captured in the prophecy of Balaam(Numbers 23:9) were a people to dwell alone and not to be reckoned among the nations, so is the time of the church here not to be reckoned amongst the ages, for it is the ekklessia of Christ, an assembly of called out ones, separated and set apart from the world.

Even from Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy, between the 69th week and the last week(70th week), there is a gap of time not reckoned amongst the ages.
With the messiah being cut off on the 69th and having nothing and the HolyGhost sent down from heaven on Pentecost, the mystery of the body of Christ began and the time in which the administration/dispensation of this mystery is playing out, is not reckoned amongst the ages. Daniel's prophecy is silent about that gap of time, and continues to the 70th week as though there is no gap/space of time; this says a lot about this gap of time not been reckoned amongst the ages & the mysterious nature of it. The greek word for Mystery is "Musterion" which means to shut the mouth. What characterises the days of the church here is the mystery which God is working out in the body of Christ.


Who Shall Declare His Generation?
The Generation Of Christ...a generation of a people whose life is Christ.

Someone might ask: but in Ephesians 3:5 Paul the apostle speaks of "other ages", does that not imply that the church is an age?

The word wrongly translated as "ages" in the common version of Ephesians 3:5 is "genea" in the greek which means "generation" and not "aion"(age).

The right translation of that text reads: "which in other generations has not been made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the power of the Spirit".

Again some might argue that the word generation is same thing as the word age, but they are not.

A generation is several ranks of natural descent, or the successive members of a genealogy, while an age is an epoch, an era considered noteworthy or remarkably known for something.

You can have generations in an age but you can't have ages in a generation.

If a generation is same as an age then we should be able to conclude that where scripture in Matthew 1:17 speaks of 14 generations from Abraham to David, and 14 generations from David to the Babylonian captivity that those are 28 ages, but that's fallacious. The 14 generations from David to the Babylonian captivity for instance, all existed within the age of the law & the prophets, so we can see both from scriptural definitions and exegesis, that there is a difference between a generation and an age.

In Ephesians 3:5, Paul is particularly speaking of the mystery playing out in the days of the church, as that which was not known in other times/generations of the sons of men upon the earth.

To old testament prophecy, this mystery was not disclosed.
As earlier mentioned, in the prophetic timeline God gave Daniel as times determined upon Israel which will run till the coming millennial/messianic age, nothing was said of any so called "church age". The prophecy goes from the 69th week of the messiah being cut off and runs to the 70th week of the covenant/treaty the antichrist will make with Israel, and nothing is said of the interval/space of time between the 69th and 70th.

Christ in his death is cut off from his generation, the prophecy in Isaiah says "who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living" - Isaiah 53:8.

The church his bride is born out of his death and resurrection as his seed/generation...a chosen/picked out generation(kindred or race), a holy nation, a people for his own posession(his peculiar treasure), the "eklektos ekklesia" his chosen & called out ones; called out of the darkness of this world, and not of this world nor of the ages running in it.

Though presently in the world, she's just not of the world as He is not of this world.
She is not reckoned amongst the nations of the earth, she is not reckoned as dwelling in the world, her citizenship is in heaven and even her time here is not counted or reckoned amongst the ages.

Even in the prophetic dream given to a heathen king Nebucchadnezar, in which he saw the image of a man; we see the successive kingdoms/governments of the gentiles(nations) revealed. Starting from the Babylonian empire of Nebucchadnezar(the head of gold) to the feet of iron & clay(the Roman empire). These times of the gentiles were clearly revealed in prophecy as times that will run till the millennial  kingdom/messianic age overthrows & puts an end to them. Nothing was said of the time of the church, scripture is silent about it. The time of the church on earth is a mystery & thus not spoken of/captured in old testament prophecy and even in the new testament where this mystery is revealed, it is nowhere reckoned amongst the ages but as a distinct time which stands apart from the ages, a time only known to God in which he is working out the great mystery concerning Christ and the church, which will also be consummated by a mystery(the mystery of translation which the apostle speaks of in 1st Corinthians 15:51).

Nowhere in the new testament do we find anything said of a church age, scripture rather speaks of the present age as an evil age, an age characterised by evil with satan as the god of  it; this is consistent with the truth which old testament prophecy bequeathed to us...the times of the gentiles(nations) which are to run till the messianic age & it is characterised by successive beastly kingdoms/governments until the final beast kingdom which will be the peak of it as headed by the antichrist.