Is There Anything Like The Church Age?

From the beginning of the new year, i received a strong burden to teach on this subject & disseminate the scriptural truth concerning it. 

Three days ago i got a message from a brother who sent in some questions and made mention of the 'church age' in one of his questions. That really got my attention, knowing that i've borne a burden of ministry along those lines for some days. As i pondered in silence, it was impressed on me that it's time to share on the subject and not keep back. 

There are different strains of doctrinal error & confusion today stemming from the assumption that we are in an age known as the church age. 

Scripture nowhere speaks of any such thing as a 'church age' or 'christian age' as the scholarly yet overly assumptious minds of men, who take up theology as mere intellectual exercise, have assumed & assigned to this present age. 

In Galatians 1:3-4 scripture refers to this present age as an evil age. 

"Grace to you, and peace, from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he should deliver us out of the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." 

The common version reads this present evil world but in the original greek it is "aion"(age) & not "kosmos"(world)..."this present evil age". 

The word translated as "evil" in the text is "ponerous" in the original greek. 

It is the same word translated as "wickedness" or "the wicked one" in 1st John 5:19 where scripture says: We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness/the wicked one. 

We thus see that not only is this present age(aion) an evil age, even the kosmos(the material world) itself is also characterised by evil/wickedness as lying(buried & sunken) in evil/wickedness. 

Scripture is absolute in saying the whole world(holos kosmos), the entire material world lies in wickedness/the wicked one. 

The character of this present age as an evil age is taken up in the scriptural fact that satan is the god of this age. 

In Ephesians 2:2 what the common version translates as "the course of this world" is actually "the age of this world", and there scripture shows us that the evil age of this world which lies in wickedness, is according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit which now works in the sons of disobedience. Here is one in whom (in whose power), the whole world around us lies. 

"We are of God," though in the midst of it; and "we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding that we should know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ." 

2nd Corinthians 4 verse 4 reveals the activity of satan as the god of this age in blinding the minds of unbelieving men, while verse 6 shows how God(the creator) has shone in the hearts of those who believe in Christ. 

"In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth to them." 

"For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 

The gospel of the glory of Christ has come, God has shone in our hearts to give the light(for the shining forth) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; yet scripture refers to satan as the god of this present age. If this present age be a church age or christian age, would satan be said to be the god of it? Or would it be said to be an evil age? 

It is solemn to note that with the full consciousness of christianity come, and it's power for working in the hearts & souls of men, the apostle should call satan not simply, as elsewhere, the prince of this world, but "the god of this age." Christianity has not introduced, in this respect, a new age. 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. 

It will never affect the world itself so as to bring in a new age for men. 

This, of course, lies in no inherent incapacity of the gospel itself, but in the strange mystery of man's free will, by which he chooses darkness rather than light, and bondage to satan rather than the freedom which God proclaims to him. The age we're in is not an age of light, it's an age that rejected and crucified the Christ, and still rejects the light of the gospel of Christ. With the Christ(the light of the world) having departed, it is an hour of darkness/night time as in the words of the apostle "the night is far spent..."(Romans 13:12).

Before his departure, Christ himself had said of this time/age..."this is your hour, and the power(authority) of darkness"(Luke 22:53). 

The world will never be converted/regenerated by the gospel. Christ must come again into it as the Sun of righteousness to effect the regeneration/millienal age of righteousness. The sun which has gone down upon the world in Christ's banishment out of it through man's unbelief, must rise again, as it will rise, and then indeed there will be a kingdom of Christ in which righteousness shall reign, and peace and blessing will be the result/effect of righteousness.

Q: Where then is the place of the christian/believer who is physically in a world sunken in wickedness & characterized by a dark/evil age? 

*The first thing to note is that the christian/believer though he is physically in the world, is not of this world neither is he of the age which characterizes it. 

The believer has been made to sit in the heavenlies in Christ, a position/placement where he is far above this age and the powers, authorities and everything that could be named in it. 

Ephesians 1:18-23; 2:1-2

"Being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all. And *you*, being dead in your offences and sins-- in which ye once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience".

*Secondly, the believer, though in the world, is not even reckoned as "dwelling in the world", which in scripture, is a moral character & description of those who are earthly minded and resolved upon the earth as citizens of this world. 

Colossians 2:12-14, 20

"Buried with him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead. And you, being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven us all the offences; having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it also out of the way, having nailed it to the cross; 

If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as though dwelling in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" 

By the cross of Christ, the world(cosmos) is crucified(dead) to believers in Christ & believers are crucified(dead) to the world, thus scripture speaks of believers as strangers and pilgrims in this world, whose citizenship & commonwealth is in heaven. 

Galatians 6:14

But far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. 

1st Peter 2:11

Beloved, I exhort you, as strangers and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 

Philippians 3:20

For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 

Not only is our citizenship in heaven but from there also we're expected to look for the saviour from heaven, and that's the mark of those who are in the reality of having their citizenship in heaven; they look for the saviour from heaven, being heavenly minded and conscious, setting their sights and affections on things above and not on things upon the earth, knowing that as long as this world is concerned they are dead and long gone from it, as their life is hid with Christ in God - Colossians 3:3. 

Before the apostle went on to note that our life is hid with Christ in God, he had earlier asked this very vital question in Colossians 2:20: "If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" 

He then takes our attention to the heavenlies where Christ sits at the righthand of God, emphasising that we are dead as long as this world is concerned and our life is not in it, but our life is hid with Christ in God. He further states that the very Christ who is at the righthand of God in the heavenlies is our life; thus why as though living in the world should we be subject to ordinances? 

Our life is in the heavenlies, we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ who is our life. We died with Christ to the elements of this world & the evil/dark age of this world, and we have risen with Christ to life in the heavenlies, we are thus to seek the things above where Christ sits at the righthand of God in heaven. Resurrection life means we are outside of the world spiritually and in a superior position, and as such cannot be influenced by it. 

*Lastly, the time of the church here on earth is not even counted or reckoned amongst the ages thus we are they upon whom the ends of the ages are come(1st Corinthians 10:11), and what is playing out is the mystery which was hidden in God from the foundation of the world, and not revealed/made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it is now being made manifest, even the great mystery concerning Christ and the church. Ephesians 3:3-5; 5:32.