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If you haven't been to the gracebeliever.com home page lately, you may not know that Zola Levitt is coming to speak at Grace Gospel Fellowship on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 at 7:30pm.

If you aren't familiar with Mr. Levitt, he is a Hebrew Christian thoroughly educated in the synagogues and brought to the Messiah in 1971. He holds to a strictly literal and inerrant Bible interpretation, salvation through Christ alone.

Zola will be speaking on current events in Israel and the true meaning of the Feasts. Grace Gospel Fellowship is honored to open this special engagement to the public for free.

For maps to Grace Gospel Fellowship, click here.
For more information, call 630-834-0550.

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Part 1 of this series was sent out in the last issue of the Grace Perspective and can be viewed here.

Part II: Progressive Dispensationalists and the Early Dispensationalists

With this in mind, it is easy to see why PD invest so much energy in disqualifying and blurring the three basic distinctions of ED. Their frustration comes through in their writings. Wherever they look in early dispensationalism they see "dualisms" that disallow the theological system they envisioned. P.D. realized that these distinctions were insurmountable obstacles that blocked their way to modifying dispensational theology. As long as these distinctions remained, they would be faced with the proverbial problem of trying to fit the round peg of their theology into the square hole of early dispensationalism. Something had to give.
To accomplish this, they have written two noteworthy books--'Progressive Dispensationalism' by Blaising and Bock and 'Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church', a collection of essays edited by Saucy. The former deals primarily with the removal of the heavenly/earthly distinction and the effect this has on the two groups of God's people, Israel and the Church. The latter deals primarily with the removal of the mystery/prophecy distinction and the effect this has on the two groups of God's people, the Church and Israel.

A. PD and the Heavenly/Earthly Distinction
Blaising and Bock go about ridding dispensationalism of the heavenly/earthly distinction in an interesting manner. Instead of doing the hard work of biblical exegesis to determine whether this distinction is scriptural, or even of investigating why it was theologically important to early dispensationalism, they simply turn the tables on the argument and claim that RD have already abandoned the heavenly/earthly distinction; therefore, it should be abandoned. No scholarly discussion, no investigation of the biblical basis of such a distinction, just easy words. Since RD have already conceded the point, they say, it is unworthy of further thought and must be accepted. This is curious conduct on their part because they have no problem re-analyzing and discarding many other positions espoused by RD; one wonders, with raised eyebrows, why they rest so assuredly on this one. Their book is peppered with comments like this: "The most important revision introduced by the dispensationalist of the 50's and 60's (ie., recent dispensationalists) was their abandonment of the eternal dualism of the heavenly and earthly peoples…Consequently they (ie., recent dispensationalists} dropped the terms heavenly and earthly peoples" (italics mine). For PD, this evidently settles the case and ends the discussion and ought to for all the rest of us as well.
But one senses they may be overstating their case. They go on to admit that RD have not completely abandoned the heavenly/earthly distinction; they have only abandoned the eternality of that distinction. While the implications of this will be developed later, here it is important to observe that PD (with what must have been a great sigh of relief) have saved themselves the hard work of supporting their own ideas with regard to the heavenly/earthly distinction by simply making implications from the writings of others and by stretching those implications far beyond what the original writers intended. PD say this is the first step that opened the way for the development of their own theological system, and a very uncertain first step it is.

B. PD and the Mystery/Prophecy Distinction
In contrast to the heavenly/earthly distinction, PD work hard to discredit the mystery/prophecy distinction; RD have not already done it for them. In 'Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church', Saucy and others tackle this distinction and the effect its removal has on Israel and the Church. This proves to be a difficult task because the Scriptures seem to teach it so clearly. The Bible refers to a prophesied time when the nations would be blessed through Israel's permanent rise (Lev. 25 and 26, Jer. 31, 32-33, Ez. 28, Is. 49) on the one hand. On the other, it also refers to a previously unprophesied time when all people (without regard of nationality) would be blessed in spite of Israel's temporary fall (Acts 28, Rom. 11, Eph. 3). Several essays collected in this book work to explain this away. One essayist, for instance, re-defines the term 'mystery.' Another suggests different levels of meaning in the word 'Israel.' Another re-identifies the "new man of Ephesians 2." Yet another explains away the "future of ethnic Israel.'
Saucy, for one, gets around the traditional definition of the mystery in this way. First, he acknowledges up front that "it is now generally agreed that this Semitic meaning of the term-namely, a secret of God that He alone makes known through revelation at the appointed time" provides for the basic understanding of the term. But then he departs rapidly from this accepted definition and creates his own, saying, "a mystery may be hidden in the sense that its truth has not yet been realized." Finally, this quick maneuver allows him to conclude that the mystery was, in fact, not really a secret, but had, in fact, been revealed in the Old Testament though not realized until the New. With this sleight of hand, he minimizes the role of the mystery as a new, unique revelation of God, tying it to the continuing development of the prophetically revealed earthly program of the Old Testament.
Having gotten this far, Saucy completes the break and concludes that mystery truth "may have been a part of previous prophecy," thereby reaching his exegetical goal in stating categorically that "the revelation of this previously hidden mystery relates primarily to the actualization or realization through Christ of that which the prophets foretold and longingly anticipated." Whatever else is implied in this conclusion, one thing is certain--if it is true, the mystery was not a mystery in the biblical sense of 'secret.' Rather, it was revealed in the Old Testament, merely a part of the progressive revelation of the earthly prophetic program that involved the nation of Israel, albeit not actually "realized" until New Testament times.
With these arguments, PD believe they (with the help of RD) have done away with the foundation of early dispensationalism, removing the heavenly/earthly and mystery/prophecy distinctions and with them, ultimately, the Church/Israel distinction as well. They rightly understand that the heavenly/earthly and mystery/prophecy distinctions were foundational to the theological constructs of ED. These distinctions formed the foundation on which the strong framework of dispensationalism was built and that was capable of restricting the type of theological modifications theologians could make. For instance, if there is a heavenly program, previously unrevealed, kept secret since before the world, and in which a redeemed humanity (the Church) is to play a role (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3), then of necessity it must be distinguished from God's earthly program that was previously revealed, announced from the beginning of the world, and in which a redeemed humanity (Israel) is to play a role (Lk. 1:70; Acts 3:21). The sturdy theological superstructure built on this foundation accounts for much of the stability and unity exhibited within ED. It is only by abandoning the heavenly/earthly distinction and nullifying the mystery/prophecy distinction that this unity could be broken and alternate theological approaches pursued. In the last decade, PD believe they have done just that.
At this point the question is not whether these distinctions were foundational to ED; it is clear that they were. Rather the question left to be answered is whether ED were correct in making them. Are they biblical? Should they be adhered to, or should they be modified or abandoned in the way PD suggest? Have RD abandoned one or both of them, and if they have are they right in doing so? To answer these questions, we must turn to the Bible itself and learn there if these distinctions are essential to an adequate understanding of God's Word and to the development of a sound theological system.

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Part III: The Biblical Basis for the Heavenly/Earthly and Mystery/Prophecy Distinctions

A. God Created the Heaven and the Earth
It is of great significance that the scriptures open and close with reference to the heaven and earth. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," says the very first verse, and in nearly the last it refers to "a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away . . ." (Rev. 21:1). When God sets forth His creation and reveals truths regarding it, He views it as consisting of two basic spheres or realms-one heavenly and the other earthly, and God placed the Bible within this context.
The heaven and the earth are to be in some sense God's abode, ultimately created to display His infinite and unsurpassing glory throughout the entire universe. "The heavens declare His glory" (Ps. 19:1), declared the psalmist, and the whole earth is to be "full of His glory" (Is. 6:3), proclaimed the prophet Isaiah. Together they work to fulfill the ultimate goal of creation, that of making known the infinite glory of God throughout all of God's abode.
But it is equally true that this goal is not now being fulfilled. While created perfect and declared "good" (Gen.1) in God's sight, the creation is not now displaying His glory perfectly. Something happened to mar creation's ability to manifest the glory of God. Genesis explains this situation to us with regard to the earth by introducing us to Satan, sin and death in the first few chapters of Genesis. Here we find the Fall of mankind because they choose to follow Satan's lies rather than relying on the Creator's truth. As a result the whole earthly sphere fell (Gen.3, Rom. 8:20-23).
But this is not the only sphere that fell. We learn later that the heavenly sphere fell through the deceptive work of Satan, the would be Usurper of God's creation, as well. He summed up his heart's desire in five "I wills." "I will ascend into heaven," he proclaimed, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High" (Is. 14:13-14). Satan has actively pursued his goal of usurping God the Creator's rightful authority over the universe, resulting in the fall of mankind and the earth and the fall of the angels and heaven. God's whole creation, heaven and earth, became marred with the sin and rebellion against His established governance of the universe. Yet they were created to display His glory completely, and one day they will. The rest of the Bible tells us how.

B. God's Plan for the Earth
Fortunately, Satan's activities are not the only ones recorded in the scriptures. God's are there as well, demonstrating that He is committed to His original purpose for the creation of the heavens and the earth and declaring that He intends to regain sole possession and rule of them. God begins with man and his role on the earth. The Bible starts with a broad, panoramic statement: "God created the heaven and the earth," but immediately zooms in on the world. Bullinger identifies the transition between verses 1 and 2 is an anadiplosis, a figure of speech wherein the "same word or words at the end of one sentence" are repeated "at the beginning of another," thereby drawing "our attention to, and emphasize, the fact that, while the first statement refers to two things, "the heaven and the earth"; the following statement proceeds to speak of only one of them, leaving the other entirely out of consideration." In this case, God places before the reader the whole universe, but immediately focuses his attention on the earth and man's role there.
That God intends to make the earth His abode is a difficult concept for us to grasp. Natural human reasoning is more comfortable with God residing in heaven and man residing on the earth. But here in the first chapters of Genesis, our understanding is challenged, and we find that God intends to reside on the earth. Wenham, speaking with regard to the Garden states "that this description of 'the garden in Eden in the East' is symbolic of a place where God dwells. Indeed, there are many other features of the garden that suggest it is seen as an archetypal sanctuary… Knowing this, we better understand the purpose for man's creation here on earth. Man is told to 'subdue and rule' the earth and its animal inhabitants, thereby fulfilling his role as God's image-bearer on earth (cf. v 26)…. Because man is created in God's image, he is king over nature. He rules the world on God's behalf."
Man was to "subdue" the earth and "have dominion" over every living creature (Gen. 1:28). When the Bible uses the word 'subdue,' it is in the context of driving out one's enemies as in Num. 32:21-22: "And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, And the land be subdued before the LORD…" Alter sums up the meaning well when he writes that man is to "conquer" the earth. Evidently then, something on earth needed to be driven out before God would abide there. God intended to accomplish this with human agents. But with the Fall, man rebelled against God, followed Satan's lies and destroyed his ability to fulfill God's plan.
At this point, God could have simply destroyed mankind or left him forever lost and dead in sin with no hope of escape. Instead, He began to fulfill His purpose for human creation by establishing a line of promises, from which all theologies must start. This line of promises includes the redemption of man, and therefore is a redemptive history, but it must not be limited solely to that. God's plan is bigger and involves His actions to completely repossess the earth for the purpose of displaying His glory there. If we begin our theology in Gen. 3 with the promise of redemption ("the seed of the woman") rather than in Gen. 1 with God's purpose for the earth and man's role in that, we lose much of the thrust the scriptures make and will tend to form an inadequate theology at best and a man-centered theology at its worst. More important than man's redemption, as precious as that is, is God's glory and the fulfillment of all He plans for the earth, which culminate in the Kingdom of God on earth, where God and His people rule the world in righteousness and peace.
An overview of this can be seen in the progressive presentation of the unconditional biblical covenants. The word 'covenant' is first used in reference to the Noahic Covenant (Gen. 9:9). After removing the unrighteous "mighty men which were of old, men of renown" from power in the flood, God promised to never again destroy the earth in the same way. He put the fear of man in the animal kingdom and gave man the authority to carry out capital punishment, thereby establishing man in his rightful position of earthly authority. Next, in response to the activities at the Tower of Babel, where the idolatrous people of the earth came together in rebellion against God and aligned themselves with Satan and his plan for the earth, God confused man's language and dispersed the people throughout the world to form their own nations. Out of this, God established the Abrahamic Covenant, in which God chose out from among all these people one man, Abraham, of whom He would make His own peculiar nation, Israel, by whom the entire world would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3).
He granted this people a land (Gen. 13:14-18), exemplified in the Palestinian Covenant (Deut. 30:1-10); a king, a throne and a kingdom, exemplified in the Davidic Covenant (II Sam. 7:12-16); and a spiritual awakening of His people in that land, exemplified in the New Covenant (Jer. 31:34). The resulting kingdom of righteousness will bless the whole earthly creation and display God's glory to its uttermost corners. With these covenants, God returns man to his rightful position of authority over the earth, while at the same time guaranteeing Satan's defeat. God overturned the Adversary's plans for the earth with His Own plan, which centered on the 'seed of the woman,' the 'Son of Man,' the 'Son of Abraham' and the 'Son of David'-the Redeemer and Ruler of the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is important to note that God anchored all of these promises to the earth. He told Abraham to arise and "walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it to thee" (Gen. 13:16). In this way He declared His ownership of it. We see something similar in Job, only there it is Satan who is walking "to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it" (Job 2:2), not Abraham. Satan assumed ownership of the earth, but God declared in the covenants that He owned it and that He would decide who exercised authority over it. The "most high God" is the possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:19), not Satan, and it pleased Him to assign positions of earthly authority to man and more specifically the nation Israel. Any supposed usurpation by the Adversary is temporary and doomed to failure because God intends to rule the earth through Abraham's line, the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or Israel.
To accomplish this, He gave this line the land. "The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine" (Lev. 25:23). "Yea, I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul" (Jer. 32:41). Even under the conditional Mosaic Covenant, the fulfillment of these promises was postponed but not abrogated.

"If ye walk in my statutes and commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase…and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely…And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword…For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you" (Lev. 26:1-9).

Again when speaking in the context of the New Covenant, which guaranteed a spiritual revival of the people, the Holy Spirit wrote this:

"Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them ?to dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I will be their God" (Jer. 32:37-38).

And one day all of this will be fulfilled and the earth will proclaim God's glory. The Bible describes that day like this:

"Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it" (Jer. 33:6-9).

While Israel's program reached its zenith in the Gospel accounts with the appearance of the King and His Kingdom, it came to its crisis point in early Acts where Peter and the 12 preached these sorrowful yet hopeful words:

"Ye men of Israel . . . the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate . . . But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses . . . I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began . . . Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." (Acts 3:12ff)

Several points stand out from this passage. First, Peter (and the 12) addressed himself to the men of Israel, the Jews. The other nations entered the picture only secondarily through Israel. Second, for Peter the death of Jesus Christ was in no sense 'good news.' Crucifying there Messiah was the worst thing the Jews could do, and the only hope for them was to repent of it before it was too late. Third, he went out of his way to stress the fact that what he referred to was something they should have known because God had revealed it through His prophets "since the world began." And fourth, he connected his message to the earth. Jesus was then in heaven only until Israel accepted Him as Messiah. At that time He would return to the earth and usher in the "times of refreshing" for the world. Thus Peter spoke of a divinely originated purpose that involved the earth, a divinely originated program revealed since the beginning of the world (recorded in the Old Testament and Gospels), and a divinely originated people, the nation of Israel.

C. God's Plan for the Heavenlies: His Program & Purpose in Paul's Epistles
Israel, however, refused to repent and accept Jesus as her Messiah. All hope appears to have vanished: Isreal was conquered, Jerusalem was sacked, and the people were scattered, cast out of the land, leaving David's throne desolate. God brought Israel's program to a grinding halt. The next thing on God's prophetic clock should have been Christ's return to earth, first to judge it and then to bless it through the nation Israel. But with Israel's refusal to participate, God stopped His prophetic clock and started something completely unexpected. The Holy Spirit through Paul explained this new program in a startling manner. Paul followed the same format that Peter had used, yet he presented the specifics of his message in very contrasting terms.

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles...If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward...How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery . . . Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit...That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel...Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power...Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;? ?And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Eph. 3:1ff)

Where Peter had addressed the Jew alone, Paul addressed all nations, especially the Gentiles. Where Peter had stressed the bad news of Christ's death, Paul stressed it as good news, as "gospel." In fact, he preached the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the source of all the good things that come from God to undeserving sinners. The message of God's grace centered on the cross formed the very heart and soul of his writings. Where Peter had made it clear that his message was previously known, Paul said his was kept secret "from the beginning of the world," something not revealed before. God had hid it in His Own heart (not in the Old Testament) until He made it known by direct revelation to the Apostle Paul, who in turn proclaimed it to the whole world in accordance with the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Where Peter had tied his message to the earth, Paul tied his message to the heavenly sphere and the ruling government there. Thus Paul spoke of a divinely originated purpose that involved the heavenlies, a divinely originated program that had been kept secret since the beginning of the world and a divinely originated people, the Church, the Body of Christ.
Just as forcefully as Peter proclaimed a message that had to do with God's prophetic program for fulfilling His earthly purpose through His nation Israel, Paul proclaimed a message that had to do with God's mystery (secret) program for fulfilling His heavenly purpose through His Church, the Body of Christ. This sheds much light on why Paul warned later, after the canon of Scripture was nearly complete, that the careful student strives to show himself "approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (II Tim. 2:15). And it is these three basic distinctions that form the starting point for "rightly dividing" the Bible; the dotted line we follow to cut straight the fabric of God's Word. Doing this, the Bible student places each passage within its proper context, making the same distinctions Peter and Paul made between the purposes of God (one for the earth and one for the heavenlies), the programs of God (one revealed since the beginning of the world and the other kept secret), and the peoples of God (one being Israel and the other the Church), all of which work together, side-by-side in perfect harmony, to display God's glory perfectly throughout the entire universe.
Paul explained that this new heavenly/mystery program came about because of the "casting away of them (Israel) be the reconciling of the world," and that "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles come in" (Rom. 11:15,25; italics mine). The fullest revelation of all that is involved with this new program is found in Ephesians. Scofield said within Ephesians we find "the highest church truth" and there God sets forth His purpose for it most clearly. The word "mystery" is defined by Hoehner as a "previously hidden truth unveiled by God's revelation." He goes on to define "in the heavenlies" as being "opposed to the earthly realm of the Ephesian goddess Artemis. Thus these blessings are spiritual not physical, heavenly not earthly, eternal not temporal" and, therefore, clearly distinguishable as a new development in God's plan that is distinct from His plan for the earth found in the Old Testament. God had kept it secret that He intended for the "seed of the woman" to not only re-establish His glory in the earthly sphere through Israel, but to also re-establish His glory in the heavenly sphere through the Church. Paul described this as the "wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory" (I Cor. 2:7-8). In short, God took Satan in his own craftiness.
The New Testament uses the word "mystery" or its derivatives 27 times, mostly by the Apostle Paul and mostly in His Prison Epistles.

"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him . . ." (Eph. 1:9)

Describing it as a Mystery, Paul placed strong emphasis on the hidden nature of this revelation. It was "kept secret since the world began" (Rom. 16:25); it was the "hidden wisdom of God" (I Cor. 2:7); it was "in other ages not made known" (Eph. 3:5); it "from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God" (Eph. 3:9); and it "hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints" (Col. 1:26). Since the mystery is what establishes believers today, Paul's primary goal was to make it known. He prayed to visit the Romans, for instance, so that he might impart to them "some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established," which he identifies later as the "preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery" (Rom. 1:11; cf. 16:25). To accomplish this, he requested the continual prayers of others "… that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel" (Eph. 6:19; cf. Col. 4:3).
Paul described the Mystery as not only hidden, but also as heavenly. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). Believers in this dispensation shall "bear the image of the heavenly" (I Cor. 5:1), said Paul, having been raised "up together (with Christ) and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 2:6, bold mine). Their "conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20); their "hope is laid up" in heaven (Col. 1:5); they are to "seek those thing which are above" and set "their affections on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:1-2); and they are to "wait for His Son from heaven" to be raised up "to meet the Lord in the air" and so shall they ever "be with the Lord" (I Thes. 1:10).
How strange all these things would sound in the ears of the Jew who was familiar with God's plan and purpose for the earth in the Old Testament. No wonder Paul suffered such great and persistent persecution from both believing and unbelieving Jews everywhere he went. The Old Testament had little to say about the heavenlies, and nothing of man's role in displaying God's glory there.
Paul's Epistles, however, say a great deal about this. The Church is evidently right now displaying the wisdom of God "unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places" (Eph. 3:10); battling "against principalities and powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12); and having "raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," will show in the ages to come "the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness" forevermore (Eph. 2:6-7). The Church is involved in a battle against the powers and authorities in the heavenlies. Rev. 12 seems to depict the culmination of this battle. There we see Satan overthrown and deposed from his heavenly office and power, expelled from heaven and banished to the earth where he will engage in one further battle against God, which God end by casting him into the Lake of Fire with his followers. Having deposed Satan from his self-proclaimed position of authority as "prince of the air," God will place the Church in these vacated positions of authority according to His will. "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world," wrote Paul, "know ye not that we shall judge angels" (I Cor. 6:2-3)? The Church then has special responsibilities and privileges in the heavenlies that had previously been kept secret by God and that are distinct from those He revealed before regarding the nation Israel on earth.

D. Conclusion
When these clear biblical statements are taken seriously, it becomes evident that the new interpretations offered up recently by PD cannot be accurate and should not be accepted. With considerable hermeneutical sleight of hand, they conclude that mystery truth may, in fact, "have been a part of previous prophecy," and that "the revelation of this previously hidden mystery relates primarily to the actualization or realization through Christ of that which the prophets foretold and longingly anticipated." But Paul states categorically that the Mystery was "hid in God" (Eph. 3:9), not in the Old Testament. It was "kept secret since the world began" (Rom. 16:25), not spoken of by the prophets "since the world began" (Lk. 1:69). And it concerns the "unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph. 3:8), not those capable of being traced out in prophecy. Baxter summarized it well this way:

"What is the 'mystery'. . . It was no hidden thing that Christ was to come, was to bear the sins of the many. . . nor that the Holy Spirit was to be outpoured. . .that Christ should take the throne of David. . .the 'mystery' is that Christ, instead of immediately taking over the 'kingdom' when he came to earth-the kingdom foretold in the Old Testament. . . should be exalted in heaven to the right hand of God, high over every power and sphere. . .and that during the present age and elect people, the church, should be gathered out, irrespective of nationality. . . brought collectively into such an intimate union of life and love and eternal glory with Him."

Therefore with a plain, literal hermeneutic, the scriptural evidence indicates that God's ultimate goal for the universe involves two purposes and programs, one revealed in prophecy regarding the earthly sphere and another God kept secret regarding the heavenly. While created in perfection, both heaven and earth fell and became corrupted, losing their ability to carry out God's original purpose of manifesting His glory. Accordingly, God did two things. With the fall of man, He immediately made known His intention to fulfill His plan for the earth through a program that would repossess it from the Satanic usurpers and place Israel in positions of authority under the Lord Jesus Christ there. The progressive, unconditional covenants manifest this, culminating in the destruction of the power of Satan and sin at the cross of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the progressive revelation of the Old Testament and Gospels.
But at the pivotal point in history Israel rejected her Messiah, and God placed that program on hold and made known to Paul a secret, a secret He had kept perfectly since before the world began. This Mystery or secret involved His intention to fulfill His plan for the heavenlies through a program that would repossess them from the Satanic usurpers and place the Church in positions of authority under the Lord Jesus Christ there. The teachings of God's grace found primarily in Paul's epistles manifest this. With both programs fulfilled, Jesus Christ is established as the "Lord of Glory" (I Cor. 2:8), who by His cross defeated all the plans of Satan and provided for Himself two groups of redeemed people, one to serve His purpose on earth and the other to serve His purpose in the heavenlies, thereby unifying the entire creation under Him.
Of course, the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of both the earthly and heavenly programs. The former rests on the preaching of Jesus Christ according to Prophecy (Lk. 24:20-27), where Christ is seen as Israel's ruling King. The latter rests on the preaching of Christ according to the Mystery (Rom. 16:25) where Christ is the Head of the Church. The former presents Israel as specially designed and equipped by God to manifest His glory on earth before earthly powers and earthly rulers. The latter presents the Church as specially designed and equipped by God to manifest His glory in heaven before heavenly powers and heavenly rulers. Together the two purposes and programs operate together under Christ to form a complete unity that functions in perfect harmony with God's will, flaslessly expressing His glory throughout the universe. The forced unity of a "holistic redemption," as suggested by PD, is an inadequate replacement for this splendid manifestation of God's glory.

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