redemptive character of this world in which we live, for Isaiah declares `He

... stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent

to dwell in' (Isa. 40:22) where the figure of the tabernacle is too plain to

be missed.  In like manner, pseudoscience has been so busy pouring ridicule

upon the primitive idea of the `foundations' upon which the earth is

`fastened', according to Job 38:6, that they have missed for themselves, and

scared the timid from appreciating, that the word here used is the very word

employed over and over again by Moses, to speak of the `sockets' upon which the

tabernacle rested.  This intention on the part of the Lord will become more

evident when we examine the meaning and usage of pleroma, to which article,

Pleroma3 and its chart, the reader is most earnestly directed.  Our present

quest is limited to the implications contained in the reference to a

`firmament', the temporary heaven which is to pass away.  Solomon evidently

knew that there were `heavens' above the present `heaven'.

`Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee' (1 Kings

Moses too (Deut. 10:14) and the Psalmist also (Psa. 148:4) knew of this

This fact is basic to the teaching of the epistle to the Ephesians, for

Christ is there said to have `ascended up far above all heavens that He might

fill all things' (Eph.  4:10).  The heavenly places where Christ now sits is

far above the temporary `firmament' of Genesis 1:6, and the church of the One

Body is the only redeemed company whose sphere of blessing takes them up beyond

this firmament to the heaven of heavens at the right hand of God.  The

recognition of these two `heavens' makes it scripturally true to speak of

`three spheres of blessing', namely (1) the earth, (2) the heavenly Jerusalem,

(3) the heavenly places where Christ now sits.  In the beginning there were but

two spheres, namely `The heaven and the earth' (Gen. 1:1).  When God is all in

all at `the end' there may be but two spheres once again, but during the ages

and until the consummation, there are three.  For a fuller examination of this

theme the reader is referred to the articles entitled Three Spheres5, Heaven

(p. 89), and allied themes.

Firstfruits.  This word is used doctrinally in connection with the resurrection

(1 Cor. 15:20,23) and of the believer who has the firstfruits of the spirit

(Rom. 8:23), into which most wonderful aspect of truth we are not able at the

moment to enter.  But see Resurrection4,7.  All that we can say of these two

references is that the term `firstfruits' here is used in the sense of

something anticipatory, and in the nature of a pledge.  So James speaks of the

believer as `a kind of firstfruits of His creatures' (Jas. 1:18) and Paul

speaks of the believing remnant of Israel as a firstfruit, pledging the

character of, and the salvation of, all Israel at the end.  For an expansion of

this thought see the article Remnant9, also the structure of Romans 9 to 11

given both under the heading Election1,6 and Romans4.  (See also In Adam, p.

Flesh.  This word, which translates the Greek sarx, occurs in a variety of ways

and contexts, and although this analysis is concerned with the dispensational

point of view, it may be wise to set out the sixfold subdivision, which is a

digest of a longer treatment of the theme found in Cremer's Biblico -

Theological Lexicon.