THE DISPENSATION
MYSTERY
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OF THE
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The church of the mystery has no warrant to observe the Lord's Supper. Its institution (Matt. 26) shows that it
is directly linked with the New Covenant, in which the church of the One Body can have no place. The New
Covenant is not a vague term to be spiritualized into any dimension. It is defined in Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 as
being essentially to do with the restoration of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, a blessed theme, but with
no relation to this church of heavenly places.
All fasts, feasts and observance of days find themselves fulfilled in Christ:
`Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the
sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ' (Col. 2:16,17).
The prison epistles of the apostle Paul - Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and 2 Timothy - constitute the
charter of this church of the mystery.
These epistles are written TO and ABOUT us. The rest of Scripture is absolutely necessary to us - just as the
foundation of a building is necessary to its topmost stone - but these epistles are peculiarly our own. It is a
misrepresentation of our teaching to say that we have reduced our Bible to four epistles. We might as well charge
the whole Protestant Church with cutting the Bible in half, because it professes to be under grace and not under law.
7. There is a sacred trust connected with this new calling.
In Ephesians 4:3-6 we are enjoined to keep the sevenfold unity of the Spirit, of which Christ, the One Lord, is
the centre.
One LORD
One HOPE.
One FAITH.
One SPIRIT.
One BAPTISM.
One BODY.
One GOD AND FATHER.
In both 2 Timothy 1 and 2 Paul's teaching is the pattern: `Which thou hast heard of me'.
In 2 Timothy 1:12 and 14 Paul speaks of `that good deposit', a sacred trust of truth first of all `committed' to
Paul, then to Timothy, and subsequently `to faithful men who should be able to teach others also' (2 Tim. 2:2).
It is to this commitment that we desire to respond. For this we seek grace, strength, understanding, and
endurance. To this end we put pen to paper and publish books, seeking to buy up every opportunity of making
known these unsearchable riches of Christ.
We know not when the last member of this blessed company shall be called and the church completed, but this
we do know, that the signs of the times indicate to us that the end of the age draws near. We see the movement
beginning among the `dry bones' of Israel; we see the fig tree once more beginning to put forth its leaves, and the
signs of the apostasy spoken of by Paul in 1 Timothy 4 and 2 Timothy 3 and 4 appearing. We believe, therefore,
that our hope draws nearer still. May we `live ... looking for that blessed hope' (Tit. 2:12,13).
CHAPTER 11.
STANDING AND STATE
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See The Dispensational Place of the Lord's Supper - same Author and Publisher.