Author Archives: Henry Bultema

The Church Which Is His Body

Posted on by Henry Bultema

The word EKKLESIA, here translated CHURCH, is found one hundred and eighteen times in the New Testament and in the Septuagint it is often found to describe the assembly of Israel. In Acts 7:38 Stephen uses it for the hosts of Israel, which had been led out of Egypt. The name EKKLESIA comes from the verb EKKALEO “I call out of”. The noun means, therefore, a group of called out ones. The turbulent mob of Acts 19:32 to 39 is also called an EKKLESIA, because it. was a gathering out of the citizens of Ephesus. This word then, does not define the very essence of the Church for this age. It is too broad, since it includes Israel and the Gentiles. The definition put above this article, and found in Ephesians 1:23, presupposes that there is an EKKLESIA which is not His Body. In the word SOMA, body, we have the essence of the Church for this age.

The crucified, raised, and glorified Lord was given to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body. Before this the (Body) Church could not be in existence. In the term HEAD, we have not a figure or a simile, but a living, bright reality. He is not the King of this Body, but the HEAD. Kingship is always connected with Israel. He was presented, proclaimed, and professed as King of Israel and in His PAROUSIA He shall restore the Kingdom to Israel. The head is organically joined to the body and there is the most intimate union and communion, representation and even identification. The head is above all the members and this is true of our glorious Head in heaven. As the head is the seat of the senses, so Christ is the seat of all our spiritual senses, and as the head of the body is the common property of all the individual members, so all the members of the Church own Him as their Head. The Orient folks carry everything on their heads. The baker had three baskets on his head, Genesis 40:16. Our Head bore our guilt and filth away on the cross, as our sin-bearer, and since then He is our burden bearer. Suffering saints, put your burdens on your Head and leave them there! The Head of the High Priest received the anointing with the oil and in the Baptism of the Spirit and our Head has transmitted that to us. Again, the Head rules in love the body, and this is true of our Lord and Saviour. He loved and loosed us from our sins, and since then He sways us, not with an iron or golden scepter, not with law, but with love. Not merely judicially or potentially, but really the Head and the Body are one, because we have been crucified, buried, baptized, quickened, raised and made to sit together with Him in super-celestial places. As soon as a soul is united to Christ by faith, all His past and present work is imputed to that soul. He shares at once the present blessings of his representative in glory as ACCEPTANCE with God, ACCESS to God, ADVOCACY, and for the future the ADVENT with Him in glory, Colossians 3:4.

According to Colossians 2:19, our Head renders to His Body the threefold service of nourishment, unity and growth.

We have now briefly seen what the Head does for the Body, relative to the past, present and future. We now ask what the Body should do for the Head, in other words, what is the calling and business of the Church? The Epistle to the Ephesians gives us the answer to this question. The calling of the Body, as a whole, and of every member individually, is first of all that we should be living TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY. Three times this phrase is repeated, Ephesians 1:6, 12 and 14. The body should reflect, manifest and serve the Head. The feet carry whither the head directs, the hands toil, the eyes see, the nose smells and the tongue speaks, all as the head directs, and thus it is with Christ and His Body. The Body should do His will and run His errands in the world. In the second place we find, in Ephesians 2:7 that God wants to make of the Church a great display, a great fair and exhibition, in the ages to come. In that celestial show He will show forth the EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARD US IN CHRIST JESUS . . . The word EXCEEDING is HYPERBOLE. This word is used seven times by Paul only. It means literally, something tossed beyond the mark, and in this case it means that His grace transcended all normal limits and boundaries and is unmeasurable, unrestricted, incalculable, inimitable, and incomparable. Chicago prepared years for her show, but God has already been preparing for nearly two millenniums to make this show a wonderment for earth and heaven and hell. This text shows then that our real mission still lives in the future. The third calling of the Body is expressed in Ephesians 3:10 “To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.

The Body is not served by the angels but serves the angels, whether good or evil, with the manifold wisdom of God. Ephesians 4:16 gives us another business of the body. It has to edify itself in love. This task of the body is most forgotten and neglected. All talk of Pauline truth shall be worse than worthless, if it is not accompanied with Pauline love.

Finally, the members of the Body have to be bold warriors, armed with the whole armor of God. We are not called to fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12. Let us not forget, it is a mark of good Generalship to know the character of the enemy.

The perfect identification of our glorious Head and His Body form the mystery which has been hid in God from all ages and generations. Not one of the ancient worthies could know it as God had not revealed it. Even during the generation of the Gospel period, no one knew it, and also during the generation of the Acts, no one could know it, except Paul, for to him it has been revealed. The mystery was not a new development of some known thing, but something altogether new and distinct.

Here is a new PERSON to present this truth, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, “less than the least of all saints.”

Here is a new PEOPLE, a heavenly body, one with the Head.

Here is a new prearrangement: chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Concerning Israel it is FROM; concerning the mystery body the choice is BEFORE the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4.

Here is a new panegyric and praise, for no one had ever praised God for having been blessed with all spiritual blessings.

Here is a new possession, since Israel had had many blessings, but never all the Spiritblessings in Christ as here.

Here is a new place; for no Jew or Gentile had been set in the epourama, or supercelestial places.

Here is a new period; the dispensation of the grace of God, Ephesians 2:9.

Here is a new power; the exceeding greatness of His power. Ephesians 1:19.

Here is a new position; In Him is the precious monogram of Paul, used in one form, or another, thirty times in Ephesians.

Here is a new purpose; to re-head all things in Christ. Ephesians 1:10

Here is a new prayer life; read only the prison prayers of Paul.

Here is a new parity; perfect equality of the Head and the Body.

Here is a new partnership; a sharing of all His coming glories.

Here is a new Pleroma or filling up of the mystical Christ.

Here is a new pattern; not the one shown to Moses, but the one shown to Paul, the exalted Lord of Glory.

Here is a new peculiar people. Titus 2:14.

Here is a new peace; for He Himself is our peace. Ephesians 2:14.

Here is a new poem; for we are His poem. Titus 2:10.

Here is a new principality; mentioned as our foe. Titus 6:10 to 18.

Here is a new perfection, for we are complete in Him. Colossians 2:10.

Here is a new piety; away from all legalism and formalism.

Here is a new plenitude; Filled with all the fulness of God. Colossians 3:19.

Here is a new prisoner; such as the world has never seen before.

Here is a new perseverence; for in Him we are safe and secure.

Here is a new prediction; that we shall appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:4.

Here is a new plea for spirituality: be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18.

Here is a new prize held out: the out resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:14.

Here is a new prevailing in prayer, Ephesians 3:20.

Here is a new perfecting of the saints. Ephesians 4:11-12.

Here is a new perfect man. Ephesians 4:13.

Here is a new practicable seven-fold unity with a petition to keep. Ephesians 4:3 to 6.

Here is a new predestination, Ephesians 1:5.

Here is a new panoply against the invisible plotters, Ephesians 6:11.

Here is a new persecution for all Fundamentalists in Asia. Galatia and Rome left Paul when he presented this mystery.

Several Bible Thoughts

Posted on by Henry Bultema

The manna, which had all the vitamins, even the very latest, in it, was occasioned by Israel’s sin. This was true of all the three objects stored away in the ark, which all pointed to Christ. Sin is the most God-defying thing in the universe, yet God has always overruled it by the greatest display of His virtues. Even the cross itself was the greatest crime of the ages, but God has used it as the manifestation of His virtues, the means of salvation, the motive for service, the mark of separation, and the melody of heaven.

When we scrutinize the human wonders and achievements, we always find flaws and defects, but when we analyze the Biblical wonders, we find hidden beauties and perfections, wheels within the wheels, as it were. Take the frogs of the Egyptian plague: they were revered by the Egyptians as gods, but here the gods became a pest. As a rule frogs do not climb, but here they climbed. Frogs do not come into the houses, but here they did enter the dwellings. The morass dwellers avoid the fiery regions, but here they came into the ovens. So also the miracle of Elijah’s feeding under the juniper tree was really a combination of seven miracles. Study the other miracles.

Pharaoh was a procrastinator, for, although he believed that God could instantly command and remand the frogs, he said: “tomorrow”, in regard to the departure of the frogs. He was like the sinners in our day: content to sleep with the frogs of sin, creeping and crawling in their lives, croaking frogs of lust and loquacity and many others.

Where Evolution leads mankind, can be seen in our day. If man is not made in the image of God, but is only a developed brute, why should he not, as a brute, be killed? Lust and thrill murders are the result of Friedrich Nietsche, who wanted all the weak to be crushed and the superman, the blond beast to be adored, was only a consistent Evolutionist. The struggle for life was with him simply a dutiful struggle for power. According to this theory Christianity must be destroyed; for numerically and financially, that is the weaker party. According to this cruel theory euthanasia is perfectly justifiable, because there is no wrong in softly ending the miseries of a highly developed animal. Again, Nudism is just the right thing, for nakedness goes with the beasts of the jungle. And, according to this theory, Italy is in her right to pounce upon a weaker nation and take its land. Do you not see, my dear reader, how Evolution has leavened the nations in our day?

Paul was afraid that he might be a castaway, i.e. set aside, not from salvation, but as a worker from his work and the worker’s reward. He was a castaway from men. Study his life and you will see that he was a castaway everywhere. When Ananias, Peter, James, John and the others were not persecuted, there he was rejected.

  • He was rejected at Damascus. Acts 9:23 to 25.
  • He was rejected at Jerusalem. Acts 9:26 to 29.
  • He was rejected at Antioch at Pisidia. Acts 13:45 to 50.
  • He was rejected at Iconium. Acts 14:5.
  • He was rejected at Philippi. Acts 16:12 to 39.
  • He was rejected at Thessalonica. Acts 17:5.
  • He was rejected at Berea. Acts 17:13.
  • He was rejected at Athens. Acts 17:18 to 32.
  • He was rejected at Ephesus. Acts 19:9 to 23.
  • He was rejected by all Asia. II Timothy 1:15.
  • He was rejected in Rome. Acts 28:24 to 29; II Timothy 4:10 to 16.
  • He was rejected by Galatia, Galatians, chapters 3 to 5.

We must sharply discriminate between man’s casting away and God’s casting away. Paul never feared the former, he did fear the latter. Saints today reverse this order. Why did Paul want to go to Jerusalem even in the face of the pleadings of his fellow-believers? It was not mere love for Israel since he could love Israel outside of Jerusalem; nor was it mere love for the Jewish poor, for he could have sent the gifts by others. No, he went to Jerusalem in order to become conformed to Christ in every thing. They shouted, “away with him!” as they had done with Christ, The legalists persecuted him as they had done with the Lord. They bound him and delivered him into the hands of the Gentiles. They hated him without a cause and lied about him, just as they had done with his master. He wanted to be conformable to His death.

To say that Paul made a blunder and compromised in going to Jerusalem is a great error. A temporizer could not say so often: “follow me” Let us furnish some proofs that Paul was right

  1. He was bound in the Spirit. This might refer to the human spirit, but in connection with the whole story, it evidently refers to the Holy Spirit or His power.
  2. If Paul had been out of the way, Christ would not have comforted him the way He did in Acts 23:11. He dealt harshly with Jonah when this prophet was out of the way.
  3. In Acts 20, Paul set himself as an example before the Ephesian elders, and his conscience would not have allowed him to do this, nor the Holy Spirit, if he had been a miserable compromise.
  4. He claimed to be “pure from the blood of all men.” which would not have been true if he had compromised, for, when Peter compromised in Antioch, he drew many others with him in hypocrisy.
  5. He would say: “I finish my course with joy.” The man who is out of the will of God cannot say that for he is wretched and miserable.
  6. At the end of life he said: “I have fought a good fight,” which again could not be true if he had so sadly been out of God’s will.
  7. The weakest negative “me”, in Greek, has been used in Acts 21:4, which expresses a relative, subjective and conditional “not”. It is not “our”.
  8. Finally, if Paul had been a manpleaser he would, according to his own statement, in, Galatians 1:10, not have been a servant of Christ and the Holy Spirit could not have put him as the great paragon saint and servant before the church of all ages. There is nothing God: hates more than compromise.

What was the purpose of God’s eternal choice? Not that we should be successful, sociable, prosperous, religious, brilliant, scholarly, cultured, churchy; but that we should be HOLY. Ephesians 1:4. Let us never forget the Divine purpose of His choice. His plan is not miscarried, but fully realized, for in Colossians 1:22, we read that He will present us HOLY in His sight. And to that end He Himself takes all the spots and wrinkles out of His Church, as we can see in Ephesians 5:27. All glory to His name

Traditionalism is a sworn foe to Bible study. If a pathologist puts the stethoscope on the heaving chest of his patient, looks at his bleary eyes, his pallid Cheeks, his coated tongue, then he will announce it to be a complicated and hopeless case of Bibliophobia, fear of the Bible; Paulophobia, fear of Paul; Creedophilia, love of creed; Myopia, shortsightedness; Atrophy, and Dispepsia in regard to the heavenly manna. We need Divine healing against this disease.

Ezekiel stood before deep waters, but we read three times: “He brought me through.” God always leads into and through the deep waters, except the Pharaohs, they stay in. Ezekiel found that there are different degrees of waters: ankle-deep, knee-deep, loin-deep, and swimming-deep, for finally he could not wade and had to let go.

Some one has rightly compared Christian workers to three kinds of ships: the canal barges, which must be dragged to work, representing the non-volunteers pressed into labor. The sailing ships, which come along fine, as long as the wind’s and the tides are with them, but they have an awful hard time with “contrary winds” The big ocean steamers, which plow through any sea and storm, and the Spirit-filled Christian worker is like the big liner, nothing detains him from working while it is for the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is of extreme importance for Fundamentalism to know the fundamental teaching of Scripture about the state of fallen man. Is man only a bit darkened in his mind by his fall from God? Then Christ, as prophet is enough to teach him. That is the modernistic way. God’s view about man is far different, God says, man is dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1. Colossians 2:13. The apostates are twice dead. Jude 12. Christ came that men might have life. John 10:10. The implications of this fundamental are many. It shows that a Prophet is not enough for us, nor a good King nor a Governor. We need One that raises us from the dead. It includes that salvation is of the Lord. It denotes man’s total depravity and total inability. It also includes that man has no free will to accept Christ in his own strength. Man is a free agent, for he lives in sin and is responsible. Man is free from external coercion, but he is not free but a slave of sin. It is not of him that willeth. Romans 9:16. Man likes to carve out his own destiny, but he is like the Niagara: ever going down, free, and yet not free to go upward, backward, or sideward; according to its own nature, it must go down. Man is as free as a leopard, but he cannot change his spots. He is as free as an Ethiopian, but he cannot change his skin. He is as free as a cyclone, but he can only storm and destroy; as free as the billows, but can only foam and roar and roll on; as free as a landslide, but he can only slide down and destroy; as free as an earthquake, but he can only quake and shake and devastate; as free as the swine that ran down the steep hillside: no one pushed them, but they pushed themselves with their own weight. Self help and self rescue is an eternal impossibility with fallen and falling man. He needs, first of all, a resurrection and then he needs a God who worketh in him, both to will and to do. And thank God that we have this wonderful provision of God’s grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we stand complete and more holy than the very heavens, because these are not pure in His sight. In Him we stand more safe and secure than the angels in heaven, for they fell and became devils.

Some Bible Thoughts

Posted on by Henry Bultema

In regard to the death of Christ, it is too often forgotten that He did not merely die the death of a private person, but that of a public person and federal Head of the race. The first Adam brought sin into the world, the last One “taketh away the sin of the world.”

Lord keep us from all unholy wars, for man really loves a scrap, but may we never forget that the Word is, besides milk and meat and honey, also a sword to be wielded, a hammer to pound, a staff to strike, a fire to burn, a lamp to show the yawning abyss and a light to detect the deep and dark things.

Behold how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Pleasant it is in the sight of God and man and angels of Christ and His good Spirit, and yet this pleasant sight is not much seen in this world. If Satan can view anything as pleasant it must be a pleasant sight for him and his imps to see brethren dwell apart in disharmony and dissension.

Sin is the greatest wrecker in the world. It darkens the mind; it warps man’s judgment; it vitiates his taste; it perverts his will; it stuplifies his conscience; it desecrates his affections; it pays in due time always the wages.

The demon cried: “Jesus I know and Paul, I know.” Amazing knowledge! All Christians cannot say the last by any means.

Formerly infidelity made its base and blatant denials outside the church, in later years the attack was made inside the church and that is the power of the apostacy in our day. Modernism is nothing but churchified infidelity.

Short Messages by Henry Bultema

Posted on by Henry Bultema

A new world war may burst upon the world with destructive fury almost any day. According to the Word of God the earth must yet be deluged with blood. Terrible wars and revolutions shall shake all the nations of the earth. Just read of the many Scriptures where this is predicted; the following: Psalms 2; Isaiah 29:1 to 8; Daniel 11 and 12; Ezekiel 38; Joel 3:9 to 11; Haggai 3:22; Zephaniah 3:8; Zechariah 12:1 to 9; Revelation 16:16; Revelation 19:11 to 16.

If England should fight Italy, then Holland will fight with England, and there is great danger that Japan will plunge in and then the world war will have started, for all the colored races will rise as one man against the superiority of the white race and in that case it will be next to impossible for America to remain neutral.

Why do the nations rage? They will soon wind up in their rage against the blessed Lord. The main question soon will be as to victory, but no one will have victory. They will all suffer dismal defeat at the hands, not of the King of Kings of Ethiopia, but at the hands of the King of Kings from heaven.

Thank God we have already the victory, for victory does not center in feelings and strivings but it is found wholly in the Lord Himself. We need not even be occupied with the strength and chicanery of our foe, for Christ has overcome him, and faith is the victory over the world.

There are three great foes: the world, the flesh and the devil. The world is especially the enemy of the Father, the flesh of the Spirit, the devil of Christ, and we can shout in all these things “We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”

“Victory! Victory! Precious blood-bought victory,
As Jehovah liveth, strength Divine He giveth,
Unto those who trust Him, victory all the time!”
Victory! Victory! All along the line.

Hymeneus and Philetus were once upon a time faithful church members, but there came a day in their life that they turned their back upon Paul and upon the rightly divided Word and they became cankerous. They believed in a resurrection, but the trouble was, they misplaced it; they taught it was already past and not future and so they overthrew the faith of some.

This shows that truth must not be misplaced. What is to be may not be put in the past. When the Word is not rightly divided, it ceases to be the Word of God. When the doctrines are put in the wrong tense, they cease to be sound doctrine. These two men could not overthrow the one sure foundation Christ, but they did succeed in overthrowing the faith of some. Hymeneus did not only teach wrongly, but he also blasphemed; and he had put away a good conscience as we see in I Timothy 1:19 and 20. Hence Paul had given him up to Satan that he should learn not to blaspheme. That shows the importance of sound teaching.

Notes From a Message by Henry Bultema

Posted on by Henry Bultema

The Apostle of the Gentiles went in his walk and witness from glory to glory. The dying of Christ for our sins became in Romans a death and resurrection with Him and upon this he based the whole doctrine of sanctification: “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This reckoning is no feeling, experiencing, but an act of believing, of taking God at His Word.

In Ephesians the Holy Ghost went a step farther and pointed out to the saints that they are also united with Christ in his session at the right hand of God, “Far above all heavens.” The Apostle, at that time, between 62 and 65 A.D., had a manacled mandate and ministry message. In the rat hole of the Roman prison God Almighty burst open the heavens and told him a sacred secret which in all other ages had been hid in God. This secret could not have been told before. Why not?

1. Because Christ first had to suffer and die before the Body could come.

2. Because the Body, of which this secret speaks, follows the Head and He became the Head through His resurrection and ascension. Ephesians 1:20 to 23; Ephesians 4:10; Philippians 2:9.

3. Because Israel first had to have all his chance and had to be offered pardon through the crucified and risen Christ.

4. Because it had to be kept secret from Satan and being “hid in God” the devil did not know of this secret.

When Satan thought at the cross, and Israel’s fall, that his triumph was complete and he had scored a complete victory over God, then this secret of a glory surpassing all things was told to the stultification of Satan.

Nevertheless, the devil also seems to have scored a great victory in that he instigated a deadly hatred, against the human teller of this secret. It is very important to see that from the time he told this mystery, Paul was forsaken by many of his old friends. Study carefully Philippians 2:20 and 21; Colossians 4:11; II Timothy 1:15; II Timothy 4:10; II Timothy 4:17; Ephesians 6:19 and 20. The great apostasy which plunged the Church in the long dark ages for more than a thousand years, commenced with the rejection of Paul’s message, mystery and ministry. At least eighty per cent of the confusion and delusion of our troubled days is also directly attributable to the same cause.

Part 2: The Lord’s Supper

Posted on by Henry Bultema

THE LORD’S SUPPER AND THE GOSPEL IN I CORINTHIANS

“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my Body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.” I Corinthians 11:23 to 25.

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” I Corinthians 15:1 to 4.

All true and faithful servants of the Lord repeatedly present to the lost sinners the gospel of I Corinthians 15:1 to 4. Surely we have here a clear statement of the “good news” for sinners which the risen Christ gave to us through our Apostle Paul. This message is quite different from the gospel of Matthew 10:5 to 8, the gospel of the kingdom which Christ and His Apostles proclaimed unto Israel when water baptism, unto repentance for the remission of sins, was in order. When Christ on earth mentioned the facts of our gospel to even His chosen few, it was completely hid from them. Luke 18:31 to 34. At that time they had been preaching the gospel for more than two years; but not Paul’s gospel.

Where did Paul receive this gospel? Read Galatians 1:7 to 18. He was led out into Arabia and received the “Grace of Christ” message, the gospel of the uncircumcision, from the risen Lord. Galatians 2:7. It was a direct revelation. Paul was not present when the Eleven received the great commission. Neither did he receive his gospel from the Twelve who companied with the Lord Jesus on earth. They added nothing to him in conference, but learned from him the new message and the new commission that he received by revelation from heaven. Galatians 2:7 to 9.

The Twelve were told to stay in Jerusalem and preach the circumcision gospel to the circumcision. Acts 8:1; Galatians 2:9. Christ met Paul in the Jerusalem temple and told him to get out of Jerusalem and go far hence to the Gentiles. Acts 22:17 to 22. Paul’s Grace Gospel was by revelation.

Neither was Paul present with Christ and the Twelve when Christ broke bread with them just before His death. But in the same manner that Christ revealed to Paul a gospel for the Gentiles He likewise revealed to Paul the Lord’s Supper for the Gentiles. In I Corinthians 12:2, Paul wrote, “Ye know that when ye were Gentiles.” Israelites had not been Gentiles; therefore He was addressing Gentiles. There are a number of references to Israel and Israel’s religion in I Corinthians, but the message was addressed to saved Gentiles as well as to saved Israelites.

Now, unless we can find some good and sufficient Scriptural reason for separating the two revelations, perhaps given at the same time, it would seem as reasonable that we should no longer preach the gospel of I Corinthians 15:1 to 4 in this age, as to eliminate the Lord’s Supper for this age. We know that that gospel is still our message today and by it we are saved as were the Corinthian saints of the first century.

BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER IN I CORINTHIANS

Let us read and study these words of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 1:17: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”

Now, let us remember that we have found in this Epistle that the risen Lord, by revelation, gave to Paul, for Gentiles, the gospel of grace and the Lord’s Supper. Most assuredly He did not give to Paul, by revelation, water baptism for the Gentiles. In his message water baptism did not have the meaning and merit that it had in the message of the Twelve. Compare Mark 16:15 to 18 and Acts 2:38 with I Corinthians 1:17.

The Twelve were sent to preach their gospel and to baptize. Paul was sent to preach his gospel, but Christ sent him not to baptize. If water baptism had any merit in Paul’s ministry and gospel he would have said: “I thank God I baptized many of you;” for he could have wished himself accursed for Israel’s sake, for whose salvation he had desire and heaviness of heart. He travailed for others that Christ might be formed in them. But he didn’t even remember whether he had baptized any others.

Any careful student of the Bible can develop from John 1:31 to Colossians 2:11 that water baptism gradually lost its importance and finally ceased to have a place in God’s program. Water baptism was not given to Paul by Christ when he received, by revelation, for the Gentiles, the gospel and the Lord’s Supper.

Baptism received once-for-all by the believing sinner, in a few moments, has no connection with the Lord’s Supper received by the believing saint just as often as he desires to remember the Lord’s death till He come. He may partake of it in or out of a church building, with or without the ministry of a clergyman, reverend or pastor, as oft as he pleases.

THE LORD’S SUPPER AND THE NEW COVENANT

In Matthew 26:28 and Mark 14:24 we read the words of the Lord Jesus, “This is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” In Luke 22:20, we find the language, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”

It is true that the new covenant is for the House of Israel. Jeremiah 31:31 to 35. Hebrews 8:7 to 13. It is true that by the guarantee of the New Covenant, Israel, as a nation, is to be saved. Hebrews 8:11; Romans 11:26 to 29. Just what Israel is to eat and drink at Messiah’s table in the kingdom is not clear. It is true that before the Nation Israel was born, Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, as priest of the Most High God. Genesis 14:18. The Melchizedek priesthood did not pertain to the Old or the New Covenant. Melchizedek spoke of the everlasting Christ; and identified with the shed blood of the everlasting Christ there is an everlasting Covenant. Hebrews 13:20 and 21.

To Israelites pertaineth the covenants. Romans 9:4. But to Israel Christ belonged. He is mentioned in connection with Israel and the covenants, as Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Romans 9:5. We do not give up Christ because He was of Israel. Our Saviour was crucified as King of the Jews. He said “salvation is of the Jews.”

It is by the precious blood of One who died as a condemned Israelite, under Israel’s law, that all Gentiles, as well as all Israelites, are saved and become members of the Body of Christ.

It is true that the blood of Christ, mentioned in Ephesians 2:13 and Colossians 1:20, is not called the blood of the New Covenant and it is doubtful if the Body of Christ in Ephesians and Colossians, can be called, with Scriptural authority, “the New Covenant Church.” Because of the absence of Covenants in Paul’s prison Epistles, and because it is reasoned by some Christian brethren that the “dispensation of the mystery” could not be designated as “a mystery”, if it were in fulfillment of the covenants which God made with Israel, the cup which is the New Covenant in Christ’s blood should not be given to members of the Body of Christ. These brethren reason, and perhaps correctly, that the New Covenant was suspended with Paul’s statement in Acts 28:25 to 28 with the close of the “Acts” period. And at that time the risen Lord through Paul revealed a new message, if He did not usher in a new dispensation, with truth concerning the mystery; that is, blessings, a hope and a calling not promised in Israel’s Covenants. He instructed Paul to proclaim a message for Gentiles different in many respects from the message in his preprison Epistles.

However, these Christian brethren continue to proclaim the gospel of Hebrews 9:26; “Christ appeared in the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”; and they continue, and should continue, to claim the once-for-all sanctification through the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ as told in Hebrews 10:10 and 14.

Are we not to draw nigh to God in full assurance of faith, because we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus? Hebrews 10:19 to 21. Is not Christ in heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for us (saved ones)? Hebrews 9:24.

All of this is because of the blood of the New Covenant. The general rule is, that Christian brethren who drop the Lord’s Supper, because of its association with the New Covenant, come by the same reasoning to do away with an interceding Representative for members of the Body of Christ.

In connection with all of the blessings mentioned in Hebrews, to which members of the Body of Christ are entitled, the blood is called the blood of the New Covenant, the blood of the Everlasting Covenant and the blood of Jesus.

But if the so-called Ultra-dispensationalists are to eliminate, with the Lord’s Supper, all that is associated with the New Covenant it will mean the doing away of the priesthood of Christ for members of the Body of Christ. To do away with that work of Christ, in the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel, leads to the teaching of some that the members of the Body of Christ need no advocate in heaven.

Let us be Bereans; but move slowly in discarding all that is associated with the covenants, even though we are sure that the most glorious truths and richest blessings that God has ever guaranteed to any people are revealed for members of the Body of Christ, in the prison Epistles of Paul.

While it may be proved that Covenant dispensations and the dispensation of the mystery differ, yet it is not such a simple matter to prove that not any blessing or benefit from the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant can be claimed by members of Christ’s Body.

A Bunch of Keys

Posted on by Henry Bultema

Keys are the emblem of authority, privilege, power. With keys one can admit to, or exclude from, a house, or city, or treasures. In Isaiah 22:22, we have the story of the proud Sebua who had proved unfaithful. How God took the key of the house of David from him and gave it to Eliakim, signifying that this man was henceforth to be the intimate adviser of the King and admit to the royal chamber whom he wanted and excluded whom he wanted to keep out. In Revelation 3:7, our Lord has the key of David and receives and excludes whom He will to and from the Davidic Kingdom and the “sure mercies of David”.

To Peter, as the most prominent member of the Twelve, Christ gave the Keys of the Kingdom, Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:28; and in his Pentecostal address Peter opened wide the door for the whole Israel to enter into the Kingdom, while he used the key to keep Simon the sorcerer out and also Ananias and Saphira. Acts 5.

The key of knowledge had been stolen from the people by the lawyers. Luke 11:52. The figure used here is that of knowledge being a temple filled with great treasures into which the leaders should have led the people, but whose gate they shut, and kept the key with jealous care, even their commentaries rather hiding than revealing the knowledge of God’s will.

We cannot even enter into the treasures of the snow, Job 38:22, unless God unlocks His treasure to us. One scientist photographed 10,000 separate snow flakes, and he found that every one was different from the other, although each was mathematically symmetrical; and so the scientist had not found the treasures even of this one department of nature.

What shall we say then of God’s great treasure box “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Christ has also the keys of Hades and Death. Revelation 1:18. Hence death and the grave could not hold Him. He had the keys and could open the doors from the inside.” “What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord.” Let us worship Him with great joy and love!

Stephen

Posted on by Henry Bultema

Stephen was a full man. He was full of faith, full of grace, full of the Spirit and full of power, we read. He was the forerunner of Paul. Before the Apostle of the Gentiles, no one had such a clear vision on Israel as this deacon. After his great message he suffered martyrdom of those whom he had told the truth. He was also filled with courage and called the leaders “stiffnecked and uncircumcised whilst he gave a searching indictment of his own Nation. He gave a bird’s eye view of Israel’s history from Abraham to Solomon.

He was a man of vision, for he “looked up steadfastly into heaven” while they piled the rocks on top of him. He did not look at his own gory body, but at the glory of God. He did not see earth, but heaven, and there he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Why did Jesus stand? We always read that he sits and here he stands. Why? Twice we are told emphatically that he was standing and this must be important. Stephen saw here prophetically Jesus as the Son of Man, standing and waiting for Israel’s conversion, and at the same time ready to receive the faithful remnant represented by Stephen. The word “behold” points also to Israel, for this attention-arresting word is never used of the members of the Body. “Behold, He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” The opened heavens also always points to Israel.

Stephen was also a Christ-like man, for like our Lord, he interceded for his enemies and said also: “Receive my Spirit.”