The doctrine of the ages

Introduction

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The substance of this book, in all of its essential features, was carefully read by the late Dr. A. J. Gordon, in manuscript. He urged its immediate publication, and consented to write an introduction to its pages. Before the closing chapters were completed he had passed away from his useful life. On this account his name has no connection with the book, further than this grateful acknowledgment of his encouraging words.

The learned Dr. Harnack, in his “ History of Dogma,” when speaking of the Christian’s “ faith in God as the father of Jesus Christ,” makes the following comprehensive statement: “ So far as this God is believed to be the omnipotent Lord of heaven and earth, the Christian religion includes a knowledge of God, of the world, and of the purpose of created things.” These three spheres, then, are the proper objects of our contemplation.

Hitherto the Church has studied the character

INTRODUCTION of God, and no small amount of knowledge of the world has been obtained. But “ the purpose of created things” — the great end for which all things were made, and toward which they move, together with the advancing steps of the past, as recorded in history , and of the future, as revealed in prophecy — have been sadly neglected. An attempt is made by the author to revive an interest in the study of this most profound and inspiring theme. During the early days of the Church patristic literature abounds in allusions to the Ages, to their characteristics, and to their promising outcome. Then the doctrine drops out of sight, like some of the “ dry streams ” flowing under the sand on our western prairies. Recently it has been coming to the surface again to gladden the garden of God. The light which comes out of the truth gathering around this doctrine will be needed in the last days of perilous times, just as much as in the former days of patient endurance and triumphant martyrdom.

The quotations from scripture in this volume are for the most part taken from the Revised or Canterbury version. In a few cases the author has translated literally from the Greek

INTRODUCTION text, and all students will recognize that the renderings are simply for the purpose of making the meaning more apparent. The reader is not troubled by foot notes, directing attention to quotations from various authors.

With the fervent prayer that our gracious Lord may be pleased to use what has been written to awaken the saints to study these intensely practical truths, and to stimulate the Church to hasten the coming of the Lord who will introduce the good things of the Age to come, this book is now sent forth in His Name.

Contents

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Introduction . t

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I. Meaning and History of the Word Aeon

The Ages Revealed

The Arrangement of the Ages .

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The Characteristics of the Ages

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Judgment or Progress — Which?.

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The Doctrine in History .

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The Ages and the Bible .

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Better or Worse .

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To What End?

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I.

THE MEANING AND HISTORY OF THE WORD AEON.

When God made a beginning with the material universe, He had a definite purpose before His mind. In infinite wisdom He fixed the end and determined the steps by which it was to be reached. Just as all of the parts of a vessel are adjusted to its keel, so all events and all Ages are adjusted to that End. Whether written or unwritten, every nation has its constitution, and every statute law is enacted and interpreted subject to its provisions. In like manner the fundamental nature of God and the ultimate end of all things expressing that nature are the unalterable constitution of the universe, and each unfolding Age is made to move in harmony with its essence. The various steps of the unfolding wisdom, love and power of God, in His onward march toward the final consummation, are called Aeons in the New Testament. It is of the first importance that we should learn the history and meaning of this term before proceeding to discuss the doctrine which it is made to reveal.

The word Aeon , like the word Kosmos, has an interesting history. Kosmos originally meant ornament. It is used in this sense once in the New Testament by Peter, when speaking to the women about their dress. He urged that their adornment ( kosmos ), by plaiting their hair, or by wearing jewels of gold, or by the arrangements of gowns, ought not to be the principal beauty of Christian women, but it ought to be “ that of a meek and quiet spirit which is incorruptible.” From the meaning of ornament this word passed readily to that of order, on the principle that beauty is not a thing inherent in substance, but is the result of the relation or arrangement of things associated together. Pythagoras is believed to have been the first to transfer Kosmos to the sum total of the material universe. He thus expressed his sense of the beauty and order everywhere to be traced in the material world.

The Latin word Mundus followed in the same path, giving Augustine an opportunity to play on the word by his frequent utterance,

HISTOR Y OF THE WORD AEON

“0 munde ) immunde /” — O beautiful world, destitute of beauty !

After a while, both Kosmos and Mundus came to mean, not only the material universe but the sum total of the men living in the world. In the New Testament, however, Kosmos is often limited to mean that part of mankind organized in unbelief, and alienated from the life of God. In other words, it means the whole of mankind outside of the Church of God.

A similar development and change may be traced in the meaning of the word Aeon. The primary meaning of this word in its absolute sense as given by Aristotle is, always existing. He derives it from the adverb (aeT) always, and the participle ( oori ) being, or existing. Our word “ rolling ages ” is an approximation to this idea. “ He hath put eternity (that is the Hebrew olam or the Greek aeon ) in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end.” Eccl. 3: 1 1. God has put the idea of eternity into the heart of man — that is, the thought of duration without beginning and without end. The incomprehensible is in the heart of man, and this makes his life solemn. Try as we will, stretch our imagination as far as we please, still we can not think of a beginning or of an end of time. The moment we fix it, we at once overleap it. Here lies the Hebrew olam , and the Greek aeon , in the primitive sense.

But, in struggling with the vast conception of forever, or always* existing, it was manifestly too great for the minds of either Greeks or Hebrews. The Olam of the Hebrew is nearly equivalent to the Aeon of the Greek. In both nations the conception was broken up into relative periods or successions of Aeons , continuously emerging in a beginningless series, from the past to the endless future. This came to be the ordinary meaning of the word Aeon in the New Testament, and in quotations from the Old it is made the equivalent of the Hebrew Olam. Both terms designate timeworlds as distinguished from space-worlds. A time-world stands for a bounded and limited time, in the midst of eternity, while a spaceworld stands for a globe of matter, in the immensity of space.

But in time there grew up another conception that gathered around this word. It was prevalent in the Apostolic days, although it

HISTORY OF 7 HE WORD AEON does not appear in literature until the close of that period.

Amongst the Greeks, there was a tendency to account for the world by natural evolution. They believed that in some way it came forth from God. But it is doubtful if they ever reached the idea of God, as existing wholly distinct from his works. They did not regard God as the Creator of the matter of the worlds, but only as the Supreme Organizer or Producer of the Kosmos from Chaos. To them, matter seems to have had an eternal existence.

All the metaphors which they employed to express this thought, assumed that there were vast grades and distances between God and the sensible world. The expression used by one group of philosophers was that of “ Aeon" meaning thereby an emanation from God. These Aeons seem to have been somewhat similar to the Demiurge. (It is so used by Clement R. i. c. 35.61.) The Demiurge, as they taught, fashioned the material world out of the shapeless mass that came forth from the divine wisdom. According to their theory, “ forms ” came forth from the Supreme God, by which He made the world, and by which

He revealed Himself to the world. These forms vary in different schools, and sometimes in the same school. They were Aeons, and by some they were considered as modes of God’s existence, while others looked upon these Aeons as personal beings, who came forth from God, and who remained outside of God, as separate beings. They were far above men, and yet vastly removed from God. Some schools went so far as to furnish the genealogy of the Aeons, while others regarded them as the production of Deity in a single and momentary act.

These ancient speculators regarded God as too great and lofty to be occupied with such a little thing as this world. They, therefore, introduced these emanations from God — these Aeons — as beings who formed it and ruled it. Perhaps it would be better to say that, according to their conceptions, God formed and ruled the world by means of these Aeons. In some schools of philosophy they taught that there was a Logos. But this Logos, or Word, was made up of distinct utterances, or outerances, of God, and each utterance was an Aeon. In other words, each Aeon was a part of the Logos, and a phase of God’s nature,

HISTORY OF THE WORD AEON expressing or reflecting itself in a part or phase of the world. Thus, the sum total of the Aeons would be equivalent to the Logos. It will thus be seen that a subsidiary meaning of Aeon was a Demiurge, or semi-divine being, forming the world and ruling over it for a certain period of time.

The word Aeon, therefore, had three distinct and separate meanings, although they grew out of the same soil. Its primary significance was, always existing, or forever. The magnitude of this conception led to its breaking up into periods. In Apostolic days this was its prevalent meaning. It covered the thought of time in unbroken duration, whether long or short. It stood for a period or an age, having a beginning and an end — a time-world, marked off from the eternity that has neither beginning nor end. But prior to the Apostolic age, the seeds of the Gnostic system of philosophy had taken root, and it continued to grow for two or three centuries thereafter. They used the word to designate some emanation from the Supreme God, moulding the universe, and autocratically presiding over its destinies dur> ing one of these well-defined ages or periods of time. They first thought of an unbeginning and endless succession; then of periods in this beginningless and endless succession; and then of some inferior divinity ruling over one of these periods. Aeon passed out from meaning eternity to a broken part of it, and from that to the Being who presided over one of these fragments of eternity. The reign of the Aeon over the universe during a period of time grew to be the prominent thought in the mind of the philosopher.

It is not altogether surprising to find that the word Aeon is used in this philosophic sense by Paul in the second chapter of Ephesians: “ And you did He quicken when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of this world ” ( kata ton aiona tou kosmou tout on). They were walking according to the Aeon of this world, which Paul says is “ the spirit now energizing in the sons of disobedience.” In other words, Paul’s thought is, that Satan is now the Aeon or the ruler of this world. Satan is the spirit — the unseen essence — the Zeit-geist of this world as now organized, moulding its. purposes and determining its character. He will continue to do this until cast into the Abyss. The translators seem to

HISTORY OF THE WORD AEON be utterly at sea here, as in other places, in their rendering of the word Aeon.

It is not admitted here that Paul sanctioned this Gnostic conception. Finding it in the Ephesian mind as he found other Gnostic theories, he took advantage of it to unfold a great truth concerning the grim fact of Satan’s supremacy over men’s minds. There was no Aeon corresponding to the notions of the heathen philosophers, but there was a terrible fact, everywhere acknowledged in the New Testament, and most of all by our Lord, that the Devil controls still the kingdoms of this world. Under cover of a heathen conception Paul states a Christian truth. Indeed, every use of a Greek word with a history, is substantially doing the same thing.

Very naturally the word Aeon came to have a modified meaning, designating the character or moral element in the current of the world’s affairs during a given length of time. It passed out into a broader field, meaning not merely the period of time nor yet its Demiurge, but the characteristic features of any definite period. Our own words, age or times, are similarly modified. We speak of the genius of the age and spirit of the times. By this we mean all of that floating mass of thought, feeling and opinion — all of that impulse, aim and maxim, current in the world, from which it proceeds and by which it is moulded. It is the intellectual and moral atmosphere which we inhale and of course exhale. It is that spirit which influences us, and which, when we are influenced, leads us to impart the same directing power to the age in which we live.

But it is to be remembered that the ordinary meaning of Aeon in the New Testament is age or period of time. It has a relation to eternity, similar to that which Kosmos has to space. The one marks off a well defined spot in the universe of space, and the other marks off a well defined period in the eternity of duration. The word Aeon in the Word of God, with the one exception already noted, has the uniform meaning of a period of time, having a well defined beginning, and marked by certain moral and providential characteristics which distinguish it from all other periods of time or dispensations, which may have gone before or which may follow after.

In the Scriptures it will be found that there are a number of these Aeons or Ages — what we often call dispensations — plainly revealed.

HISTORY OF THE WORD AEON

The pages of this book are devoted to a consideration of these Ages, and to the practical bearing of their characteristics and purposes upon the hopes, the conduct and the work of human life.

II. The Ages Revealed

We speak freely of the Jewish dispensation and the Christian dispensation. This is natural, as we are living in the one, and are supposed to have just emerged from the other. Our emerging, however, resembles that of the chicken that carries a portion of the shell in which it was hatched. We are in the Christian age, to be sure, but we have not grown enough to have entirely broken loose from the bondage of the Jewish.. We have not gone far enough with Christ, to have lost all sight of Moses. We do not realize that Moses is dead, but Jesus is alive forevermore. It takes time to learn that we “ are made dead to the law through the body of Christ that we might be for another — the One raised from the dead.”

But how seldom we think or speak of any other Age except the one in which we live and the one which has just passed away. Other

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THE AGES REVEALED

Ages than that to which the Law of Moses gave certain characteristics, have come and gone and accomplished the ends for which they were introduced, and other Ages will continue to come and go, after this Age of the Church — this Christian dispensation — shall have passed away.

This may be seen by examining a few Scriptures. Take the Epistle to the Hebrews first chapter, “ God having of olden time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by many portions and in many ways, hath, at the end of these days, spoken unto us in a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. ” In the original it reads ( epoiesen tons aionas ) ‘ ‘ made the ages,” “who is the effulgence of His glory and the very counterpart of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had made purification of sins sat down.” Now take the word “ world ” in its natural, simple significance, and see what a wonderful Scripture there is here. First we see the end of all history. Christ is the “ heir of all things,” and He will yet possess all things. That is the goal to which human history is tending, and the period at which it will stop — “ the one far-off divine event to which the whole creation moves.” The word cleronomos here means legal heir — the lawful possessor. He has acquired the right by purchase as well as by appointment. And then we have secondly the beginning of all history. God made or planned the Ages in Jesus Christ, and Ages began in Him, as they will terminate by placing everything in the universe in His possession. Then we have thirdly, a deeper thought. The One who existed before all history. He was the outshining of the glory and the imprinted counterpart of the fundamental nature of God, before all time. This is “ the beginning ” when the Word was with God and was God. And lastly, we have the One who exists in the midst of all history — “ upholding all things by the word of His power ” — by the utterance or outerance of his power.

We have thus presented the One who was the outshining and exact counterpart of God, before ever an Age began its course; the One in whom all the Ages were planned and made; the One who is in the midst of all the Ages, sustaining and guiding their course; and the One in whose hands all things will be placed

THE AGES REVEALED when these Ages shall have reached their goal. To interject “ worlds ” and leave out “ ages ” mars and confuses the whole conception of the Holy Spirit in this wonderful Scripture.

In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where the triumphs of faith are celebrated, an examination of the use of this word will lead to the same conclusion. “ By faith we understand that the worlds have been formed by the word of God.” Here, in the Greek, the word translated “worlds” is Aeons. Many commentators say that the writer of the Epistle means to designate the whole of the material universe existing throughout the ages. But the verb used here ( katertisthai ) means to mend by putting together the broken threads of a rent — to repair, and thus to put in order, to adjust. It can not very well mean create, and it would scarcely seem fitting to say that God arranged, adjusted or put in order the material universe, unless we are prepared to believe in the eternity of matter. He created the universe while He organized the Ages. But this verb does most aptly express the thought that the Ages were fitted to each other by the utterance of God, just as all things were originally created by Him. The web of the moral world had been broken by the incursion of sin, and it was knit into a succession of Ages in Christ Jesus our Lord. All things are held together now in Him; and in the end, all things in heaven and on earth will God bring together into one combined state of unity and fellowship in Him. Literally, all things on earth and in heaven, hitherto disunited by sin, “ will be brought into a head ” — “ will be headed up” — and united in Him. This is that mystery of the will of God, made known to us, which He arranged according to His good pleasure in Christ, reaching out towards and culminating in the fullness of times. Eph. i: io.

It will be seen, then, that the whole of the Ages, as well as the whole of the universe, are not merely an emanation from, but indeed a creation by, and a manifestation of, God. Just as no single history of a man or a dynasty can be properly understood without a knowledge of what precedes and what follows, so no Age or dispensation can be fully fathomed without a consideration of the preceding and succeeding Ages. Creation came forth at the Word of God, cosmically framed in architectural symmetry and aesthetic proportions. The Aeons or Ages have been ar-

THE /tGES REVEALED ranged also, according to the divine ideal of plan and proportion. The whole sweep of the Ages and their relation and interdependence, need to be studied, in order to a true conception of the purpose, plan and infinite goodness of God.

Jesus is the first-born of all creation; “ for in Him were all things created and through Him and for Him.” Col. i: 15, 16. He is the divine ideal; and just as the whole landscape may be seen in a globe crystal, so all things were ideally, antitypically, originally and eternally created in Him. The divine and eternal realism is the highest idealism, and it underlies all things visible. He also upholds the universe, for “ in Him all things hold together. ” It is a wonderful truth that in the Son of God all creative, cosmic and dispensational fullness, as well as all spiritual and divine fullness dwells.

In the construction of a building as well as in the development of a man, there are fixed measurements that determine the relation of each part to every other. In the same way God has made the Ages in Christ Jesus, story upon story, columns on bases, and capitals on columns, until all center in Him who is the

Origin as well as Crown and King of the Ages. The parts of a building reach completion in capstone or dome, in pinnacle or spire. The concurrent lines of the Creative ages, the Cosmic ages and the Redemptive ages all terminate and have their convergence and completion in Him who was before all things, through all things and heir of all things, and who is the Father and Fashioner of the ages. And are we not, by infinite grace, “ joint-heirs with Him” in this divine destiny? Incredible though it seems, yet it is even so. If the Cherubim veil their faces and adore before the vision of glory, surely we too can join in their wonder, love and praise, in the presence of this revelation concerning the Ages, leading up to a glory eclipsing everything made known in all of the past and a glory of which we shall form a noble part.

III. The Arrangement Of The Ages

In Eph. iii: n, Paul declares that he was a minister to the Gentiles to bring to light the stewardship or dispensation of the mystery, which had been hid in God from all ages; so “ that now, unto principalities and powers in heavenly regions there might be made known through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.” Here we have mention of a mystery, hidden in God from all the Ages till Paul’s day. The mystery was that of the Church, concerning which there is not one utterance in the whole of the Old testament that unfolds its formation or distinct character or destiny. He, therefore, was appointed to bring to light the stewardship of this mystery, concerning which no information could be obtained from what was then known as the Sacred Scriptures. During this Churchage, bursting out like the unexpected flash of a brilliant star from an evening sky, there is made known in some wonderful way, “ the manifold wisdom of God which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So says our Revised version. But the words translated eternal purpose are {prothesin toon aioonoon) and mean “the arrangement of the ages.'* Alexander Campbell translates this passage after Chrysostom “ according to the predisposition of the ages,” McKnight, “ according to the disposition of the ages,” Anderson, “ according to the arrangement of the ages,” and Hammond “the foredisposing of the ages.” All this was in Christ, for apart from the Son the Father neither willed, nor arranged nor wrought.

We receive important hints respecting the arrangement of the Ages from this word prothesis , which is used twelve times in the New Testament. Although generally translated “purpose,” a more literal rendering would give, in most instances, a clearer conception of the thought in the mind of the writer when it is used. Its etymological meaning is to set before, to place in view, to set forth, to arrange in proper order.

Prothesis then properly means a setting forth or arrangement of anything in hand.

The prothesis of the Ages in Christ, in Eph. iii: ii, is that arrangement of the various Ages or dispensations which God has made in Christ Jesus our Lord, with due regard to the perfections of His own character and the highest good of His creatures. Let us examine some instances of its use.

Take Acts xxvii: 13. Here it is translated purpose, which shows a misconception of the thought of the writer that is very striking. When the captain of the ship which carried Paul on his way to Rome, saw there was a soft wind blowing, “ he supposed that he had obtained his purpose,” and put out to sea. So it is translated in our Bible. But there is not one single hint about the captain’s purpose in the author’s mind. What was he narrating then ? Just this and nothing more: the captain supposed that such conditions had been brought to pass — such an arrangement of the elements had been brought about by the Fates, or perhaps in his mind, by the providence of God, as would make it safe and wise to weigh anchor, hoist sail and put out to sea. There was a wind blowing, and this was a necessity. It was soft and from the south, and these were propitious omens. Now then, these were the conditions, the connected series of things which was obtained by the captain — the prothesis — that determined his action to his subsequent sorrow and to the disaster of the ship. It is not the captain’s purpose, but the conditions of the wind and weather, that the author of the Acts of the Apostles has in mind — a connected series of things that lead to a purpose to sail out on the high sea.

In Rom. viii: 28, we have that comforting Scripture, “ all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” Would it not be better if it read, “ the called according to His arrangement?” Again in Rom. ix: 11, when the apostle, in speaking of Esau and Jacob before they were born, in order “ that the purpose of God according to election might stand,” the same word occurs. Would it not be better — would not the thought be clearer — if it read, “ in order that the arrangement of God according to election might stand ?” Evidently Paul meant to say that what God had previously arranged had actually been brought to pass. God not only had a purpose, but He also fixed a certain order of things, and this arrangement had been fulfilled.

In Eph. i : 1 1 , we have these words, “ according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will.” Here prothesis is again translated by the word, purpose. But the thought of the original would be better expressed and repetition avoided if rendered, “ according to the arrangement of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will.” God is the great Architect of all events in the path of His grace. He has drawn the plans. These plans correspond to His purpose and will. He then proceeds to fill up all things in the unfolding of the Ages, according to this plan. We have here first, the counsel of His will, then the prothesis or arrangement of the Ages according to this counsel, and after that, the working of all things according to this design. The proprietor first wills to build, then the architect draws the working plans, and after that the builder erects the structure according to the plans drawn. God is all three in one. He wills, draws the design, and then “ worketh all things after the counsel of His will.”