THE PURPOSE OF GOD TWO-FOLD

Part Three
Theology Proper: 21 THE ETERNAL PURPOSE OF GOD
A DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY
By Charles F Baker

It would seem that from the very first verse of the Bible there is the indication that God’s purpose concerns two spheres, the heavens and the earth. The whole Old Testament with its promises and prophecies is concerned with the earth. Israel, the promised land, and the nations of the earth are the significant subjects of those Scriptures. At the Annunciation the word of the angel was: “Peace on earth.” And the petition which our Lord taught His disciples to pray was: “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” again reminding us of the two spheres of God’s activity.

In contrast with Israel’s past and her future millennial blessings which are earthly, when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14), the Church which is the Body of Christ has as its destination and seat of blessings the heavenly places. We have been raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:6). We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Our warfare is in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We share with Paul the prospect of being preserved unto His heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18), which is to be distinguished from the kingdom of the heavens, the Messiah’s heavenly rule over the earth.

The Apostle Paul points forward to that final dispensation, that of the fullness of the times, when God will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him” (Ephesians 1:10). At present God has His whole family in heaven and in earth (Ephesians 3:15), and in that final dispensation, when no doubt many of the dispensational differences which we have known will be dissolved, God’s heavenly saints, the Body of Christ, and His earthly saints, Israel and the redeemed nations, will be perfectly united in their one Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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