This age and the age to come.

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By Terry Cropper and Joe Daniels.

"The bible is the story of God's relation with his chosen people Israel and it never included us or anyone outside of the biblical narrative. Today people search and desire for a relationship with the God of the bible, because of the Christian religion that gives a false hope that people today can have a relationship with him which in the end mounts up to nothing because it was all built upon a lie."

The Bible is not "frozen" in time and the story cannot be "added to" or "taken away" from. Thus, the fulfillment is the testimony of the outworking of all that had been accomplished through history for mankind!”

The above is a quote from one of the IO teachers. It shows that utter stupidity of their core belief stating that God never desired a relationship with anyone other than Israel. First of all God had an intimate relationship with Adam and Eve. They of course no matter what the IO cult says, were not Jews or the first Israelites! The first promise of Christ, and redemption is made back in the garden in Gen. 3:15, therefore it was spoken to gentiles!

When the wickedness upon the earth became so great, (Gen. 6:5-8) God chose to save Israel, and flood the rest of the world with water, right? No, wrong, he chose Noah and his family, all gentiles. Our point here is that God dealt with mankind before there was an Israel, or Jews! The IO cult doesn't want to admit to this. Abram whose name was changed to Abraham, was who God set aside and called to be the father of Israel. He was to also become the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4). It was Abraham who the Jews boastfully claimed was their father! (Jn. 8:32) Jesus to their chagrin, told them their father was the devil! (John 8:44) Abraham himself was a gentile whose family came from a pagan multi god worshiping background!

“And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods.” Joshua 24:2

So now tell us please how God never intended or included anyone outside of Israel? Please IO cult tell us again and support your nonsense that today people search and desire for a relationship with God, but it's unattainable! Your fleshly racist gospel is sickening! It makes God nothing more than a pagan tribal god. The apostle John made it clear that it was not about “BLOOD”, (Actually the word is “Bloods” it's plural in the Greek = αἱμάτων. ) Salvation is not about nationality! John opens his gospel by letting us know that salvation was not about the will of the flesh. It is only a right to those who would receive Jesus through faith.

11 “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:11-13

John the Baptist said that to rely on being Abraham's children as your claim to salvation, amounted to nothing! God can raise up children for himself from stones! (Matt. 3:9; Lk. 3:8) Likewise, the apostle Paul reminded everyone that Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which HE HAD WHILE STILL UNCIRCUMCISED, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised! (Rom. 4:11) so once again, we have God dealing with Abraham and as a pagan, he is considered righteous by faith!

How about God's mercy towards Nineveh to where He sent the prophet Jonah to this most wicked capital city of Assyria? Yet like Israel who was to be a light unto the world, he did not want to share the light, and he fled from the presence of the Lord! (Jonah 1:1-3) He really wanted the city to be destroyed! Why? For the same reason that the Jews in the New Testament didn't accept the gentiles … they hated them!

How about In Jeremiah 5:15 in the LXX it says that the Babylonians are ἔθνος could these be Jews? Was king Nebuchadnezzar a long lost Israelite who became a believer? Or a pagan, and Barbarian who was of non Jewish decent? Oh, that's right, he was a pagan who led the Babylonian army against, and captured Jerusalem!

Yet the IO cult won't tell you that this pagan actually came to realize that the God of Israel was indeed the God of all flesh! (Jerm. 32:27) The origin of the name Nebuchadnezzar came from the name Nabu-kudurri-usur meaning “Nabu preserve my first born son”. Nabu was the Babylonian god of wisdom, and son of the god Marduk. King Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan who worshiped a pantheon of deities. He was responsible for a decreed that no people, nation, or language that should speak against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and abed-Nego, or they shall be cut in pieces! (Dan. 3:29)

Didn't the prophet Nahum, and Obadiah preach to gentiles, because of their wickedness? Yet the IO cult wants us to believe that God never cared about those outside of Israel! That is a complete and utter lie! God dealt with man right from the beginning, but there came a problem. The problem is that mankind turned their backs on God. The nation of Israel was chosen to be a light to the nations. They were to be a model of what a nation could be like if they obeyed God, but they failed! Jesus the true light (Jn. 1:5&9) is true Israel, and came to bear light to the world. Jesus always pleased the Father and those who witnessed His light saw His Glory! (Jn. 1:14b.; Jn. 8:29b.)

What about Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman? He revealed to her that He was the Christ. (Jn. 4:26) She in turn goes back and tells her city about Him, and what results is astonishing! We read that many of the Samaritans believed in Him, and He stayed with them for two days!

39 “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own word. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” Jn. 4:39-42

So much for Jesus only calling Jews and shutting up the gospel to the gentiles and Samaritans! Jesus not only preached to them, but stayed in their city with them for two days! Jesus told the Samaritan woman that salvation is of the Jews! (Jn. 4:22) But He never said it's only for the Jews! Notice also that the Samaritans understood something about Jesus that the IO cult will never grasp … “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” Literally “the Savior of the world” ὁ σωτὴρ τοῦ κόσμου! What world? Only the Jewish world? No, the whole world!

Jesus is the Savior of the world! Amen to that! For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life! (Jn. 3:16) He even loved the Samaritans who were bitter enemies with the Jews that He revealed himself to them so that they could be saved!

The whole purpose of the redemption story from Geneses to Revelation was to reveal how God works through Christ to accomplished that task. The Bible says God cannot "lie" Hebrews. 6:18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. (See also Titus 1:2). That is the character and nature of the God revealed in the book we call the Bible.

The bible teaches of two ages: “this age” and “age to come” in the mind of the Jews. We think it is important for every Christians to understand the two ages concept, because the understanding will give us the knowledge about Gods redemption story of grace to us as well.

The gospels are full of information about "this age" and the “age to come." The Israel Only cult go to the extreme interpreting that everything ended with reference to the nation of Israel. God's relation was with his chosen people Israel and it never included us or anyone outside of the biblical narrative. Now in this article, we want to examine texts referring to the “this Age” and the “Age to come” and let it guide us to the correct understanding of God’s eternal plan for us today.

The Bible is not just about "human" time so much as the march on of "redemptive" time and the outworking of God's "purpose of the ages" (Ephesians 3:11) The "ends" (goal) to which the ""ends of the ages" pointed to was the “Age to come”.

Paul speaks of the two AGES Ephesians 1:21 (NKJV) – far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. So clearly there are two ages in Paul's mind. One that they were currently in, and one that would have no end. He even pluralized the age to come to show it's eternal state! We will show that in a moment.

Paul repeatedly emphasizes a transitions from the past (Ephesians 2:1) to a future age. In Ephesians 2:7 we read, That in the AGES [plural] TO COME he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward US through Christ Jesus. If this is not a reality for us today then what good is this statement? What exactly does the apostle have in mind here. God is going to show us the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward US through Christ Jesus in the “coming age”.

Each and every one of us would experience the grace and the perfection of God's character. The exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward US through Christ Jesus would be manifested to us in the coming ages. “Ages” is not the same as “age.” Age in the singular would refer to eternity, more on that later but ages in the plural refers to successive generations in all future time.

The Greek reads.

ἵνα ἐνδείξηται ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσιν τοῖς That he might show in the ages, that

ἐπερχομένοις τὸ ὑπερβάλλον πλοῦτος coming the surpassing riches

τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἐν χρηστότητι ἐφ’ of the grace of him, in kindness toward

ἡμᾶς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. us in Christ Jesus.

This is what would stand out and be so meaningful to other people -- the evidence of the kindness of God toward us in Christ. Apostle Paul is a ministry of new covenant. Because the new age is coming, the new covenant.

Does the Israel Only nonsense that the bible is the story of God's relation with his chosen people Israel and it never included us or anyone outside of the biblical narrative line up with the biblical teaching of Paul? No! Our point here is that when Apostle Paul said the “ages, that coming” he meant what he said. It was near in their time.

The emphasis is not on simply God’s grace, or the riches of His grace, but the “exceeding” riches of His grace. The word “exceeding” means surpassing or super grace. There is nothing trivial about God’s grace (Romans 5:20).

God manifests His grace by His goodness or kindness toward us. His kindness toward us revolves around Jesus Christ. “Kindness” means goodness. This is about the active manifestation of God’s goodness by grace; His goodness is an activity as well as an attitude. His activity was sending Jesus to die for our sins. God’s kindness is expressed by His grace. We saw God’s mercy, love, grace and now His “kindness” or goodness toward us. The character of God has our best interests in view. It is wonderful to know a God like this.

Having established the meaning of (ages that coming) Jesus also referred to an eternal age of life to come. "And Jesus answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold (now in this time) - houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions - and in (the age to come, eternal life)'," Mark 10:29-30 (NKJV).

Eternal life did not start until the end of the Old Covenant or Mosaic age ended. Jesus clearly emphasized that eternal life was not fully accomplished until the age to come. If salvation was only for Israel at the “end of the Old Covenant ags” as the Israel only cult tries to promote why did Jesus clearly emphasized that eternal life was not fully accomplished until the age to come?

This harmonizes with the “Eternal Day” study of 2 Peter 3:18. And we are enjoying the age of eternal life, an eternal day! It is a on going eternal age that came after the Mosaic age were Christ made the perfect sacrifice for sin. We will end on this note … if salvation ended in AD 70 why did Jesus warn against blasphemy not being forgiven in their present age, and in the age to come of which we are in now?

31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Matt. 12:31-32

If no one can be saved in the age to come, then why a warning against this blasphemy? It would make no sense! What in the world would you lose if salvation is not a thing to obtain today? We hope that you can clearly see through the teachings of this cult by now! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! (Heb. 13:8) We have shown that He saved gentiles yesterday in the distant past. He saved people the day He walked this planet by Himself, and by the preaching of his body – the church! And He continues to save all people who will believe in Him forever!