The
Framer Of The Ages
By Milburn
Cockrell
(1941-2002)
The
translators of our English version did a very poor job in translating
the Greek
word aion. It occurs a little over
100 times in the Greek New Testament. In our King James Version it is
translated “world” 32 times, “for ever” 27 times, “for
ever
and ever” 20 times, and by a few other words sometimes. Only two
times out
of a little over 100 is it properly translated “age” (Ephesians
2:7;
Colossians 1:26). In my honest opinion, two out of a hundred is
a very
poor record.
What does the
Greek word aion mean? The Analytical
Greek Lexicon defines it thusly: “A period of time of
significant character. . .an era; an age: hence, a state of things
marking an
age or era.” Young’s Analytical
Concordance says: “Age, indefinite time, dispensation.” Elder J. R.
Graves
maintains the Greek word aion always
has the meaning of age (See The Seven
Dispensations, p. 159). Most all Greek scholars agree its primary
meaning
is always age, unless the context calls for a secondary meaning. It is
used
with reference to time and marks a specific era of time.
No estimation can ever
be made of the
misunderstandings which have followed this error in translation. Roman
Catholics seize upon this mistranslation in Matthew 12:32 to
support the
teaching of purgatory. Our version implies there will be some sins
forgiven in
the world to come. But a proper translation shows no more than the
teaching
that God will forgive some sins in the Millennial Age to come.
TWO PASSAGES EXPLAINED
When Hebrews 1:2 and Hebrews 11:3
are
properly translated they reveal God as the Framer of the Ages or
dispensations
of time. Hebrews 1:2 should read: “Through
whom also he has made the ages.” This verse teaches that Jesus
Christ
arranged the various dispensations of time in which He would accomplish
His
Divine purpose. Hebrews 11:3 should read: “Through
faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of
God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear.” Christ is seen here as the Framer of the Ages.
Faith is
something unseen (Hebrews
11:1) and points to something to be fulfilled at some future
period. Faith
is required to believe Christ has arranged all that happens between the
two
eternities. I believe Hebrews 11:3 declares that Jesus Christ
has fitly
arranged all that exists in time and space, visible and invisible,
present and
eternal. Every event is a single part of His great design and fits
perfectly
into the harmonious organization of the whole. Hebrews 11:3
reveals His
continual providence which carefully planned and carries out all which
transpires in time and eternity---the absolute foreordination of all
things!
AGE AND
AGES
In Matthew 12:32 Jesus
spoke of “this age” and
“the age to come.” In Ephesians 2:7 Paul wrote
of “the ages to come.” All of these ages
are a part of God’s great redemptive plan made in eternity past.
This age is the
present age of the
grace of God, the time of “the
ministration of the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:8). In this
age the
gospel is being sent out into all the world. There is no favored
nation. God’s
grace is being preached to all nations. We are not under law as a
principle, we
are under grace (Romans 6:14).This is a wonderful age
of God’s
dealings with men, yet it is not without its problems. Satan is the god
of this
age (II Corinthians 4:4). The
righteous and the wicked exist together on earth until “the
end of the age” (Matthew 13:39,
40, 49). The “children of
this age” are living in the same cities, countries and even
churches as “the children of light” (Luke 16:8).
Christians are at war against the “rulers
of the darkness of this age” (Ephesians 6:12). But despite
such
conditions, Christ has promised to be with His churches in preaching,
baptizing
and teaching “unto the end of the age”
(Matthew 28:20).
The purpose of
God for His people in
this age is stated in Galatians 1:4: “Who gave
himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this
present evil age, according to the will of God and our Father.”
Christ died
to deliver His people from “this present
evil age.” Christians are not to love this age (II Timothy 4:10)
nor
to become engrossed with “the cares of
this age” (Mark 4:19). We are forbidden to conform to the
standard
and dress of “this age” (Romans
12:2). At all times believers are to “live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present age” (Titus 2:12).Our present age is to
end by the
second coming of Christ, which will usher in the Millennial Age---the
age to
come. We are seeing the signs of His coming and of “the
end of the age” (Matthew 24:3). The dead saints are
soon to be “accounted worthy to obtain
that age, and the resurrection from the dead” (Luke 20:35).
The
living saints will be translated in preparation for the Millennial Age
to come.
Both groups will rise to meet Christ in the air to enjoy “in
the age to come life everlasting” (Luke 18:30). This is
the glorious future prospect of all believers who have already in their
spirits
tasted “the powers of the age to come”
(Hebrews 6:5). What wonders will await the saints after
the
Millennial Reign in the “ages to come”
(Ephesians 2:7) defies description.
A FIXED TIME BY GOD
Christ as the Framer of the Ages can be seen
in the
use of the Greek word kairos, which
means “a fixed time.” It is used in Acts 17:26 which reads: “And hath made of one blood all nations of
men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the
times (kairos) before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation.” Here it is
taught that the periods of localities in which tribes and nations
flourish is
owing to the pre-arrangements of a sovereign God. Nothing happens by
chance.
God has a fixed plan. In this plan He fixed the rise of each nation,
its
prosperity, and its fall. The continents and islands of the globe were
settled
in accordance with God’s arrangement and design.
Job
declared that “times are not hidden from the Almighty”
(Job 24:1). Much is
said in the Bible about the times fixed by the Framer of the Ages. Luke
21:24 speaks of “the time (kairos)
of the Gentiles.” This is
the period of fixed time from Gentile domination of Jerusalem under
Nebuchadnezzar
till the end of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 11:2). Acts
3:19
refers to “the times (kairos) of refreshing.” This points to Israel’s future repentance
at
Christ’s return to earth and the great spiritual refreshing of that
wonderful
day. Hebrews 9:10 mentions “the
times (kairos) of reformation,” which is the time God fixed when the reality
of the New Testament superseded the Old Testament types and shadows. Ephesians
1:10 reveals “the dispensation of
the fulness of times” (kairos).
This is the time fixed by God for the Utopian Age to follow the
Millennial Age.
Hebrews
1:1 informs us: “God, who at sundry times and in
divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers …” To understand the
Scriptures
we must distinguish between the many parts and ways God has spoken and
the
different classes to whom He has spoken. Like the children of Issachar,
we need
“understanding of the times” (I
Chronicles 12:32). Such a careful study of the Word will cause us
to see
how when a fixed time has run its course that God “changeth
the times and the seasons” (Daniel 2:21). It will
make us “discern the signs of the times”
(Matthew 16:3). It will be a means of moving us to look for our
Savior “Which in his times (kairos). . .shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the
Kings of
kings, and Lord of lords” (I Timothy 6:14-15).
“For
there is a time. . .for every purpose and for every work” (Ecclesiastes
3:17). The Framer of the times of the ages has determined every
thing to be
accomplished in each dispensation of the history of the world. Since
God is
Almighty “every purpose of the LORD
shall be performed” (Jeremiah 51:29). His eternal purpose
is being
worked out in the very time periods fixed by His wisdom and power.
World events
are fulfilling what He “determined
before to be done” (Acts 4:28). Our God is the Framer of the
Ages.
DISPENSATIONS APPOINTED
The word “dispensation” occurs four times in
our
English version. (I Corinthians 9:17; Ephesians 1:10; 3:2;
Colossians 1:25). It comes from the Greek word (oikonomia)
which originally meant a steward, a person who managed a
household. It is three times rendered in our English version
“stewardship” (Luke
16:2, 3, 4). The nearest English word to convey the
meaning
is our word “economy.” An economy is an ordered condition of things.
Thus a
dispensation in the Bible is a particular order or condition of things
prevailing in one special age which does not necessarily prevail in
another.
Consider
how “dispensation” is used in
Ephesians 1:10: “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.”
“Dispensation” is used here of the arrangement by which God will sum up
all
things in Christ. Thus a dispensation is God’s managing of His great
universal
household, His various methods of dealings with all intelligences, both
angels
and men. God’s redemptive plan consists of an ordered condition which
is to
climax when everything in Heaven and earth is subject to Christ.
The whole
Bible is about God’s redemptive
story. It reveals the ages, the times and the dispensations during
which He is
working out His eternal purpose. In the Scriptures at times God speaks
to
different classes of people in various ages or dispensations. Sometimes
He
speaks to Israelites, sometimes to Gentiles, and still at other times
to the
church of God (I Corinthians 10:32). It is our great concern in
Bible
study to make these necessary distinctions in order to “rightly divide
the word of truth,” as Paul exhorted
Timothy (II Timothy 2:15).
The
Bible unfolds how there has
already been dispensations of innocence, conscience, human government,
promise
and law. Today we live in “the
dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:2). There is
yet
future the Millennial Dispensation and “the
dispensation of the fulness of times” (Ephesians 1:10).
Some
make too much of dispensational
teaching in the Bible. They teach many plans of salvation. They take
away from
us as Christians, not only the whole Old Testament, but large portions
of the
New. This is ultra-dispensationalism. It must be avoided. Then there
are those
who claim all the Old Testament blessings of Israel for the Gentile
church
while leaving Israel all the curses of the Old Testament. They make no
distinction between Israel and the church. This is
anti-dispensationalism. It
must be avoided at all cost.
I
do see some dispensational teaching
in the Bible, but I am not an ultra-dispensationalist. I would never
say God
has had different ways of saving men, for He has never saved men except
through
Christ’s atonement (Acts 10:43). I do not mean by dispensational
teaching that the Bible can be put into separate water-tight
compartments,
completely isolated from each other. These dispensations overlap, and
some of
them which belong to the past, as to God’s dealings, are still in
effect. This
is certainly true of the Dispensation of Human Government.
The
Bible does seem in some measure to
divide up into well designated historical periods in order to give us a
bird’s
eye sweep of the actual course of the ages of time. God fixed this to
accomplish His eternal purpose. To read the Bible from cover to cover
is to see
the gradual unfolding of a plan, from stage to stage, from nation to
nation, by
which God reaches a glorious climax (Ephesians 1:10; 3:9-12).
“The
unfolding of God’s eternal
purpose of love in a program of spiritual redemption and moral
transformation
moves around certain great moral and spiritual crises in God’s
governmental
dealings with man! These periods we call dispensations.
“… God
visits the earth each time, at
the close of each dispensation in the disruptions of judgment and in
the
deliverance of His own people out from those judgments---these
disruptions;
having delivered His own and wrought judgment, He, then out from the
ruins
emerges with a new order, or a higher plane and fuller plan of dealing
with man
governmentally. Each time, God brings in a new principle by which man
is tested
in that particular dispensation. Each time God tries man, man proves a
failure.
God is not a failure. God’s plan is not a failure. It is man who goes
down in
failure, in sin and guilt! The very holiness of God demands judgment!
God’s
governmental purposes demand judgment. And each time God comes to earth
in
judgment at the close of a given dispensation. The moral conditions in
the new
dispensation, upon the new principles of dealing, continue to move on
until a
crisis is again reached that is so acute that it precipitates judgment.
. .”
(A.D. Muse in When God Comes to Earth,
pp. 14-15).
All
too many times in my generation I
hear godly preachers cry that we need to unshackle ourselves from the
dispensationalism of Darby, Kelly, Haldeman, Gillentine, Larkins and
Muse. Some
are so bold as to publicly state: “I reject all dispensational teaching
in the
Bible.” If such people are sincere in this outlandish statement, then
they
should take an offering to a Jewish priest in Jerusalem and keep the
feasts of
the Old Testament. On the other hand, if they have made an over
statement, let
them restate their views in such words as: “I reject most
dispensational
teaching in the Bible.” Then we will know that they are saying what
they mean,
and meaning what they say.
Can
any man honestly say with a
straight face: “I reject all dispensational teaching in the Bible”? Is
he
saying that he sees no distinction between the Old Testament and the
New
Testament? Is he affirming there is no distinction between Israel and
the
church in their worship? Is he asserting the conditions in this present
age
will be no different from the Millennial Age? Is
he denying that God has appointed ages and
dispensations to work
out His eternal purpose? Does he mean to say God does not have
different
methods of dealing with different people? Unless he does mean to take
such
positions, he should avoid boldly saying: “I reject ALL
dispensational teaching in the Bible.”
Each
verse of Scripture has a primary
meaning. This should always be given with consideration to the time,
place and
person or persons to whom it was spoken. We may be able to make a
practical
application of what God said to others to ourselves. There is no harm
in doing
so, unless it causes us to fail to see the primary meaning of the
verse. To
misapply the Scripture is to handle the Word of God deceitfully; it is
to
wrongly divide the Word of truth.
I
do not believe we can apply
indiscriminately the prophecies, promises and responsibilities of
Israel to the
church, or vice versa. Certain passages apply to one age while another
applies
to another dispensation. Joel 3:10 commands: “Beat
your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears.”
Micah 4:3 says: “They shall beat
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks.”
It would
be the height of folly to apply these two verses to the same people at
the same
time. Such misapplication would make the Bible a bundle of
contradictions!
In
Deuteronomy 7:2 God told
Israel concerning their enemies: “… thou
shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant
with
them, nor shew mercy unto them.” Jesus taught His disciples: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use
you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Anyone who fails to
see
there has been some change in God’s dispensational dealings between
these two
verses is a simpleton.
Jesus
told the twelve apostles under
the limited commission: “Go not into the
way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not”
(Matthew 10:5). Jesus said to
these same men in Acts 1:8: “… ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost
part of
the earth.” Here again there is plainly a change in God’s program
of
preaching the gospel. In John 7:39 the Bible says the Holy
Spirit was
not yet given. Then in Acts 2 we see the Spirit given. Here again is a
clear
change in God’s dispensational dealings. There is no excuse for failing
to see
this, for it is plainly taught in the Bible.
CONCLUSION
The Bible does teach that Christ framed the
ages of
time. He is working out His eternal purpose among the countries and
people He
chose to deal with in time. It is wisdom on our part to correctly
discern these
ages that we might see that our God is doing all things well.
(The Berea Baptist Banner - 07/05/2011)
Return
To Elder Cockrell's Page
Return
To Baptist Authors
Return To
PBC Home