The So-Called Great Commission

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Mark’s Gospel, like Matthew’s and Luke’s, is primarily a Kingdom book, and I am satisfied that none of them contains the church [which is His Body’s] marching orders – not even the so-called “Great Commission” of Matthew 28:18-20. … This we would call “The Kingdom Commission.” Of course, we are well aware that it is often spoken of as the “Great Commission” of the church, but we are convinced that this is an error. It would be a strange thing to find the church’s commission in the Kingdom Gospel. … I have long been convinced and have taught that the “Great Commission” of Matthew 28:19-20 is primarily applicable to the Kingdom rather than to the church.

William Pettingill (1886-1950)
Bible Questions Answered (pp. 100-112)

The Secret Administration of Grace

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When Paul wrote Ephesians, after the heralding of the Kingdom as recorded in the book of Acts had closed, God once more changed His way of dealing, continuing the trend in the era of Readjustment. Then the nations were blessed through Israel, in their defection. Now the character and place of blessing is changed from physical and earthly to spiritual and celestial, hence it cannot come through that nation, but is independent of them. From being guests at Israel’s board the nations become fellow members of God’s family. From being aliens in God’s Kingdom they become fellow citizens. From being split into two bodies by fleshly rites, they become joint members of One Body.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
The Problem of Evil

The Guise of Sinful Humanity

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We have been allowed to appear in the guise of sinful humanity in order that God may be able to use us to display His grace to others (Ephesians 2:7). As He has shown kindness to us, so He will show it to them. For grace is the basis of ultimate salvation (as was pre-determined, even before creation was brought forth); therefore, works have no place in this, and the way is opened for all to become God’s achievement, even as are the saints today (Ephesians 2:10).

John H. Essex (1907-1991)
“The Completing of the All In All”
The Pleroma: Paul’s “Lost” Teaching, Chapter 16, page 85
Bible Student’s Press (2021)

New Divine Revelations Given to Paul

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There are some who question the need to “rightly divide” Paul’s Epistles, yet his change in allotments is a reflection of Father’s change in administrations (dispensations) which had to result also in new divine revelations given to Paul to share with Christ’s Body for their spiritual growth and maturity, eventually culminating in the revelation of Christ as Father’s Pleroma (fullness, or completion), and the revelation of the Body of Christ as Christ’s Pleroma for the eventual reconciliation of the Celestial Beings in the entire Universe (Ephesians 3:10).

Mark Peters

Body, or Bride?

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It is assumed almost universally that the Church of the present dispensation is at once the “Body of Christ” and “the Bride.” … Traditional theology, unscriptural hymnology, amazing disregard for correct interpretation, intolerant zeal for dogmatic human opinions, together with careless, defective instruction, have united for generations in perpetuating a phase of teaching possessing no foundation in or authority from Holy Scripture and perpetrating a system that plunges multitudes of believers in dire confusion concerning the plan, purpose and program of God for “the church which is His Body” as distinct from the Divine purpose concerning another out-calling known as “the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.”

Dr. Robert A. Hadden (1868-1939)
Cited in Charles H. Welch’s An Alphabetical Analysis

Alone Revealed by Paul

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Do not regard the church [which is His Body] as the subject of Old Testament Prophecy. [Its] unique origin, heavenly character, and eternal destiny – all in closer association with Christ – is a New Testament mystery, alone revealed by Paul in two of his prison epistles: Ephesians and Colossians.

A.C. Gaebelein (1861-1945)
The Gospel of Matthew, Vol 2, pages 48-49

A Miserable Misconception

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The miserable method of applying promises made to God’s earthly people Israel to the Church [which is His Body], and forcing the fulfillment of them into the present age, has its starting point from the same misconception. … When at last all is to be brought out and that mystery hidden in former ages is to be made known, the Lord does not commit these truths at all to Peter, but He chooses another instrument to whom He entrusts His secrets, Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles. Through Paul the full revelation of the assembly, the one body, is given.

A.C. Gaebelein (1861-1945)
The Gospel of Matthew, Vol 2, pages 48-49

The Word of Truth “Correctly Partitioned”

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This dispensation or plan by which God is now dealing with man is called the “Dispensation of the Mystery” (Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:25-26), because it was a secret purpose which God kept concealed in His own heart until He revealed it through the apostle Paul. It is also called the “Dispensation of Grace” (Ephesians 3:2), because it is based wholly and solely upon pure, unmixed grace.

Some have supposed that the mystery is merely that Gentiles would be saved; but this is no mystery, because Gentile salvation was clearly revealed and predicted throughout the Old Testament. The mystery is that God has opened up a new channel of blessing for the nations in place of Israel, and that God is now by His grace taking believing Jews and Gentiles and baptizing them by His Spirit into a joint-body, making them joint-heirs and joint-partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel (Ephesians 3:6).

Charles F. Baker (1905-1994)
God’s Clock of the Ages (1937)
(abridged excerpt)
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The Son-Place

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In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:5).

According to His own sovereign will, in love, God has predestinated, or foreordained us to the Son-Position. The word “adoption” does not bring out the clear teaching of this passage. Believers in Christ Jesus are made new creatures in Christ and given the position of SONS. Literally speaking, we are given the Son-Place. Just as Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we who are “in Christ” are given the “Son-Place” and become the sons of God by grace.

Dr. Vincent Bennett
Brief Studies in Ephesians (1934)
(edited excerpt)
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Containers … and More

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There is really only One Person in the Universe – God Himself. The creation is the means of manifesting Him. We humans are basically containers, created as persons in His image, to contain and manifest Him as The Person. God is the “All,” and we are merely the means of His Self-manifestation.

We are vessels, and activity is not the function of a vessel. Do we see what this means? Not that we have a life to live with God as our helper. Not that we must pray more, give more, love more, witness more. Not basically that we are God’s partners, or fellows, or co-workers, but that God Himself is the “All” in us. He is the One Who prays, gives, loves, witnesses. He lives our life, our common everyday life.

But, having absorbed and accepted that we are containers, we are more. We are united to Him Whom we contain in a way a vessel can never be united to what it contains. We are also Christ’s Body. A body is solely the agent of its head. In head and body, activity of the members comes to the forefront. A body is made for action. A head is useless without a body, so the Body in Ephesians is specifically spoken of as the fullness [plērōma] of the Head – “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (1:23). Head and Body are necessary to each other.

Norman P. Grubb (1895-1993)
God Unlimited
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