We are the last generation of the Ecclesial Age. We have witnessed the flourishing of the national fig tree that Jesus declared would identify the generation that would not pass away before he would return in the clouds of heaven with power and glory (Matt. 24:34). We are that one generation between the two stages of Ezekiel’s dry bones prophecy (Ezek. 37). We have witnessed the 4 reconstruction stages of the nation of Israel. We have seen the skeletal reassembly, the addition of the sinew and then the flesh and then the skin. These four stages were fulfilled in the 4 wars won by the divinely restored Jewish nation of Israel from 1947 to 1967: 1) War of Independence; 2) War of Reprisals; 3) Suez Canal Crisis and 4) 6 Day War. However we have not seen the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s second prophecy where spiritual Israel will be restored with the breath provided by the 4 winds from heaven (indicating Christ and the immortalized saints). We know assuredly that the Millennial Kingdom will begin at some point within our last generation of this Ecclesial Age.
We constitute the third of four transition generations that experience both the end of one divinely appointed age and the beginning of the next. A divinely appointed Age is defined by a change in the priesthood, a change in divine law and is validated by an extreme outpouring of miraculous divine power to validate those changes… that are historically resisted by the enlightened community. There is always a spiritual education focus shift with the introduction of a new divinely appointed Age. The divine intent is to prompt a new maturing stage but often this is resisted as the intended new educational focus is inappropriately presumed to be a replacement or contradiction to the legitimacy of the former mandated worship structure.
The first Age-transitioning generation of the enlightened community was saved from Egyptian slavery at the conclusion of the Patriarchal Age. The new priesthood and new laws for that First Kingdom of God were introduced at Sinai but that generation was condemned to die in the wilderness without inheriting the promised land, due to their cowardly faithlessness.
The second Age-transitioning generation witnessed the end of the First Kingdom Age and the beginning of the Ecclesial Age with its new priesthood structure and new laws and rituals. There was a maturing educational shift from works to grace and from an emphasis on personal righteousness to imputed righteousness. These changes were validated by an even greater public display of miraculous divine power. That transition generation saw the elimination of temple worship and experienced the prophesied violent judgments against them for rejecting the Kingdom that Jesus preached. We will be the 3rd of the 4 transition generations in the Creator’s plan. The Ecclesial Age is about to end with the introduction of the Millennial Kingdom when there will be a new priesthood structure, new laws and rituals assigned and a renewed educational focus that will be very different but complementary to the Ecclesial Age. There will be a dramatically greater outpouring of miraculous divine power to validate these changes as that Kingdom expands globally.
Our identification as the 3rd transition generation from one divine age to the next places us unfortunately but distinctly into a very uncomplimentary association. From this perspective our global Christadelphian enlightened community may not be as broadly acceptable from a divine perspective as we clearly presume ourselves to be. Our individual prospective salvations may not be as assured as personally presumed. We should be examining ourselves far more critically and recalibrating our compliance with our Creator’s righteousness in a far more energetic application than is currently being demonstrated. When we compare ourselves to each other and presume our acceptability within the enlightened community certainly must mirror God and Christ’s estimation, then we invite the same mistaken overconfidence demonstrated by the two previous ‘transition generations’ of the enlightened community.
Therefore these progressive commentaries are intended to provide value specifically to the future saints among the enlightened community in this last generation, whomever they may prove to be. We will be highlighting and coordinating divine testimony from the necessary two divine witnesses of scripture (the written word of God) and creation (the spoken word of God) to address a range of features of our Creator’s righteousness that have been and are increasingly being inappropriately challenged within the enlightened community of the Christadelphians.
The format we will be pursuing will embrace many different divine testimony patterns that are often far more visible, extensive and powerful beneath the surface of scripture. The validity of these patterns will also include scientific evidence from observing creation that will be accessible to anyone with just a primary level of education, as I have no college education to reference. These testimony patterns are rarely accessible to those without circumcised hearts, no matter whether one is part of the enlightened or unenlightened community. A heart controlled thought process always searches for self-validation and self-glory, as opposed to our Creator’s validation and glory. This tripping point is very common in our current Christadelphian community, resulting in a number of regularly presented contradictions to our Creator’s righteousness that are rarely addressed critically.
The primary question category we will address will be ‘why’. The ‘why’ questions in relation to subtle but extensive divine testimony patterns always address motivation issues, as opposed to the more structural how, who, what, where and when questions. Those who have responded to and pursued the universally available divine enlightenment are tasked with thinking very differently from everyone else. We must abandon the social standard of the default serpent frame of reference we are all born with and start thinking like our Creator. It is challenging to shift from a finite mental framework to an infinite thought structure. This will put us at odds with both the unenlightened community and many within the enlightened community. This observation may be emotionally unpalatable but is validated by recognizing the pattern in how the most divinely beloved men in the history of the world were often despised by the enlightened community of their particular generation… including Abel, Joseph, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Elijah, the apostle Paul and obviously Jesus Christ.
While Christ’s new love commandment requires us to love our Brothers and Sisters in the truth more than ourselves we also have to love Yahweh our Elohim even greater, with ALL our heart and mind and strength and life. We must never permit ourselves to place the concerns of the Ecclesia above the terms of our Creator’s righteousness (His right-ness).
Our next commentary in this progressive series will address the anti-intuitive structure of all divine testimony with its intentionally complex filtering design. If we are to avoid the multiplying stumbling blocks in the last few years before our eternal judgment, we have to recognize it is more difficult than often presumed to correctly understand and balance the terms of our Creator’s righteousness, which is defined as “the truth” in the Apostle Paul’s inspired writings.
There are two aspects to every single feature of our Creator’s truths and principles that have to be recognized and balanced, as they are not equal. One of the features of the prophesied divine disappointment of our last generation of the Ecclesial Age is how one of these dual aspects in many different categories is being increasingly denied, thereby imbalancing our understanding of the right-ness of our Creator.
While responses to this continuing set of commentaries are certainly welcome, they will not be publicly displayed. If you wish to respond with objections, questions, challenges or to share observations you are invited to email me at brojim@spiritsword.net .
Brother Jim Dillingham