THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF PROPHECY.

APRIL 1857.

ART. I.-OLD TESTAMENT-SAINTS.

In a recent article we directed attention to the danger of a doctrine, for some years extensively promulgated, which excludes Abraham and all the Old Testament saints from the Church in glory.*

This strange and novel doctrine is so disastrous in its consequences, and so necessarily affects that which the Scripture reveals respecting the redemption that is in Christ, that we return to the subject and add a few words to the protest already given.

Surely there can be no more important question than thiswhat is it that gives title of entrance into the Church and all the Church's blessings? Is it not simply and only the redemption that is in the BLOOD of Jesus? "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." Again we read, "All things are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Am I then to believe that Abraham has been loved by Christ, and purchased by His blood, and yet that He will never be presented before God in the same manner as others similarly washed and similarly redeemed are to be presented? The Scripture tells me

* Thus in a Tract now before us, we find the words, "Those risen and glorified saints who do not form part of the Church."-Plain Papers on Prophetic Subjects. [This is precisely the Popish theory, which gives the title of Saint only to those who have lived since Christ came. It is canonical to speak of St Paul or St Jerome, but not so to speak of St Abraham or St Isaiah. -EDITOR.]

that if Abraham be Christ's, then hath he " all things." But this system, admitting that Abraham is Christ's, yet teaches, that so far from having "all things," he is to be deprived of the great result of redemption altogether: for to be excluded from the Church, and the Church's peculiar blessing in heaven, is to be excluded from the great result of redemption, as revealed in Scripture.

And what is the ground of this supposed exclusion? Abraham and the Old Testament saints, say they, are to be excluded, because they did not receive, whilst on earth, the Holy Spirit, in the same manner as we have received it who have lived since Pentecost. Such is the doctrine of the appended passage.* Thus it is taught that our title to belong to the Church of God in glory does not depend on that which we are in Christ, but on that which we are in the Spirit. Our title to say that we are fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God, rests, according to this system, not on Christ the Saviour, but on the Spirit as given at Pentecost. Experiences wrought in us through the Spirit, not faith in Jesus, becomes the link that unites us to the hope of appointed glory. If this be so, we need to alter those blessed words which say, "The Church of God which He hath purchased by His own blood" we should be obliged to say, the Church of God, which He hath made His Church, because of that which it learns and knows through the Spirit. We could no longer say that Christ was "the Rock" on which the Church was built. We must seek some other foundation. We should have to preach another Gospel, which is not another.

It is, no doubt, true that Abraham and the Old Testament saints had not the same fulness of light nor the same dispensational privileges as were possessed by Peter, and Paul, and

* After mentioning Abraham, Moses, David, and others, the passage goes on to state: "But all these are presented to us in God's Word, as individual servants of His-not as members of a body. They were men of faith. Their devotion and obedience shine brightly on the pages of the inspired record. But there is not such a thought suggested by all that is said of them, as that they were members of the body, the Church. They were quickened by the Spirit, beyond all doubt. By virtue of the foreseen sacrifice of Christ, they were forgiven and saved. They will all have part in the first resurrection, and partake of heavenly glory. There can be no question as to any of these things. But no one of these things, no, nor all of them together, constitute the Church. The Church shares these things, life, justification, resurrection, and heavenly glory, with the saints of Old Testament times; but what constitutes the Church is something distinct from, and beyond all these things. It is the actual living unity with Christ and with each other of those who, since Christ's resurrection, are formed into this unity by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. Was there anything like this in Old Testament times?"— Plain Papers, p. 83.

John. Neither the Old Testament saints, nor even John the Baptist, who came between the Old Testament and the New, were dispensationally in the kingdom of heaven as an economy on the earth. The personal ministry of the Lord Jesus (He being the first who declared the great salvation, see Heb. ii.) introduced the kingdom of heaven" as an economy in the earth. Every disciple, therefore, of Jesus, as belonging to that kingdom, and able to bear testimony to its grace, was dispensationally greater and more privileged than John. But they whose service on earth terminated before the kingdom of heaven was dispensationally introduced on earth, are not therefore excluded from it as by and by manifested in the heavens. Heaven is not made a transcript of the dispensational differences of earth: and therefore we read that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, who, like John the Baptist, were not in the kingdom of heaven" as an economy on the earth, will be in it when manifested in glory. I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.""

And now let us consider some of the privileges that are ascribed to Abraham and the Old Testament saints in the New Testament. In the fourth of Romans we are taught that Abraham was justified by faith, and that righteousness was imputed to him without works.

In the fifth of the Romans, the privileges of the justified are recorded, one of which is, "expectation of the glory of God." Another is "the reigning in life through one, Jesus Christ," and that as the result of being "constituted righteous" by His obedience, and of being IN Him as the second man, the last Adam. These things are said to be true of the justified, of whom Abraham is one.

In the eighth of the Romans we find these words:" We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Now, seeing that Abraham was thus called and justified, shall he not stand among the many brethren who shall be conformed to the image of Christ in glory?

In 1 Cor. xv. 20, we read: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the FIRST-FRUITS of them that have fallen asleep (τwv kekotμnμevwv—it is the perfect tense, and

therefore emphatically includes Abraham, and all the Old Testament saints.) If, therefore, Christ in resurrection be their "first-fruits" and our "first-fruits," is not this a pledge that we shall all rise in the likeness of the same glory? Again, in this chapter it is said of all believers, in every dispensation, that as they have all died in Adam, so they shall all be quickened IN Christ. The word "IN," and the reference to the first Adam, shew that all believers are regarded as being united to Christ, the last Adam, as a new federal head. It is a text that proves that there is no redemption apart from union with the person of the Redeemer. Abraham has borne the image of the earthly Adam, and as being "IN" Christ he shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

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In the Galatians, where we who live in this Pentecostal dispensation are taught respecting our own final blessings, how are they described? Are they described as something apart from and higher than those granted to Abraham? No. They that are of faith are blessed WITH faithful Abraham."* With" is not a word that teaches severance. In the same Epistle the Old Testament saints are expressly said to have been 66 sons" of God, even though placed for a season in a condition of pupilage under the Law. And what is the necessary consequence of being "sons?" "If sons, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." In the same Epistle we are taught that all the members of the family of faith, whether Jew or whether Gentile, are the children of Jerusalem that is above. "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."

In the Colossians we are taught the antitypical meaning of

*The statements in the Epistle to the Galatians seem to us even stronger than they appear in the above paragraph. Ch. iii. 7-" They which are of faith, they are the children of Abraham." "IN THEE shall all nations of the earth be blessed" (iii. 8); "blessed with faithful Abraham" (iii. 9); "to ABRAHAM and his seed were the promises made" (iii. 16); "that THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ" (iii. 14); “if ye be Christ's, then are ye ABRAHAM'S SEED, and heirs according to the promise (iv. 29). From these statements it is plain that the question discussed by the Apostle was-"Are believers in Christ really to get up to Abraham's privileges and standing?" He takes for granted that the heirship was his, the kingdom his, the sonship his, the glory his--made over to him by the original promise; and his object is to shew us that we are to enter on Abraham's privileges. "The blessing of Abraham" he assumes to comprehend everything that God has promised to us in Christ, and he shews us that we are actually to get all that! He speaks of Abraham as so lofty and so glorious, that the highest place to be desired by us is simply to be one of his seed. This is the Church's privilege in consequence of her connexion with Christ: "If ye be CHRIST'S, then are ye ABRAHAM'S SEED!"-(EDITOR of Q. J. P.)

circumcision. Circumcision, as the Lord Jesus Himself teaches us, was not of Moses, but "of the fathers." It was the sign of the covenant of promise made with Abraham. It signified that all the heirs of promise must be antitypically circumcised; that is, separated from all that characterised them in the flesh as children of the first Adam, and brought into that condition of glorious and unearthly being which is known in "the last Adam." This was effected for the whole family of faith by union being granted them with Christ in his death and resurrection. Thus they are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the circumcision of Christ; that is, by circumcision effected for them by God through and in Christ. Circumcision, therefore, granted as God's pledge to Abraham, involves in its antitypical accomplishment union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and all the results of such union with Him as the Head of His body the Church, even as those results are detailed in the Epistle to the Colo

sians.

In the Hebrews we are taught that the "many sons "whom God is bringing into glory are regarded as the brethren of Christ, sanctified in Him and made "one with Him (Heb. ii. 2); and these blessings are expressly extended to the Old Testament saints in the 15th verse. In Hebrews vii. it is said of Abraham, not merely that he was the possessor of promise or promises, but that he had THE PROMISES. Can any expression be more unlimited than that? We are further taught in the eleventh chapter that he looked for a city that hath foundations-a heavenly city; and that heavenly city is elsewhere termed "the Bride, the Lamb's Wife.'

Other texts might be added, but those referred to more than suffice. And now will any one affirm that Abraham can have this standing in the grace of Christ-that he can be justified by faith-have the imputed righteousness of Christbe a son of God and a joint-heir with Christ-shall we say that all this, and much more, is true of Abraham, and yet that he is not on that Rock on which the Church is built? Surely no one will affirm that he could be like Peter on the Rock, and yet not of the Church? The being on the Rock, and the belonging to the Church in glory, are convertible terms. Shall we say that although it is true that Abraham is Christ's, and although the Scripture teaches that he who is Christ's hath

ALL THINGS" (1 Cor. iii. 22), yet that Abraham hath not "all things?" Are we to say that the father of the family of faith is excluded from the highest blessings of that family? Are we to say that it is untrue that there is one Father, of