EPIPHANY STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES "The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light, That Shineth More and More Unto the Perfect Day." SERIES XVI THE CHART OF GOD'S PLAN 14,000 EDITION "In order that now may be made known … the much diversified Wisdom of God, according to a Plan of the Ages, which he formed for the Anointed Jesus our Lord." (Eph. 3:10, 11—Diaglott.) PUBLISHED BY LAYMEN'S HOME MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 1156 St. Matthew's Road P.O. Box 67 Chester Springs, Pennsylvania 19425-0067 1953 and 1996 To the King of kings and Lord of Lords IN THE INTEREST OF ALL HIS CONSECRATED SERVANTS THAT FEAR HIM, BOTH SMALL AND GREAT -AND OF– "ALL THAT IN EVERY PLACE CALL UPON THE LORD;" "THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH, - AND OF- THE GROANING CREATION, TRAVAILING AND WAITING FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED. "To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God," "Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, accord ing to His good pleasure which He hath pur posed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of the times He might gather together in one all things, under Christ." Eph. 3:4, 5, 9; 1: 8-10. COPYRIGHTED 1953 By RAYMOND G. JOLLY As Executive Trustee of the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement REPRINTED 1996 ii EDITOR'S PREFACE IT IS with joy that we present this book to the Lord's dear people, with the fervent prayer that He may use it to bring rich blessings to all who read and study it. However, only those who have made a careful and prayerful study of the book entitled, The Divine Plan of the Ages, will be prepared properly to understand and appreciate the presentations herein contained. It is hoped, therefore, that the reader will first study this famous "Bible Key," The Divine Plan of the Ages (which we will gladly supply on request), before undertaking a study of this book, which is supplementary to the former, and which treats especially of various details and additional features pertaining to the Chart of the Ages. In view of the appropriateness of this work to the message of Rev. 19:6-9, now due to be declared, we believe that it is the Lord's will that it be provided in book form as the next in the EPIPHANY STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES series, despite the present high cost of book publication, the Lord having graciously provided the needed funds. We wish to acknowledge the able assistance of our dear Bros. August Gohlke and Bernard Hedman, two of Bro. Johnson's special helpers, who during his last illness, and since, helped in preparing the material for publication in book form. Most of the book's material having first appeared in the Author's magazines some years ago, the reader is asked to remember, especially in connections that refer to the development of the Little Flock, the time of trouble, the regathering of Israel, etc., that these things are set forth as viewed when written, even though the flight of time has produced further unfoldings along these lines since then. May God bless this book in its Divinely-intended mission! Your servant in the Lord, RAYMOND G. JOLLY. Philadelphia, PA. September 22, 1953. PUBLISHER'S PREFACE IT IS our pleasure to reprint this masterful presentation of God's Plan and present it to our readers. We should keep in mind, however, that the material was written many years ago, and should be viewed in this light. 1966 BERNARD W. HEDMAN for LHMM iii AUTHOR'S FOREWORD AS A frontispiece of his book, The Divine Plan of the Ages, our beloved Pastor had a wonderful chart which by the Lord's grace he drew up as an exhibition and illustration of God's Plan. We are happy to reproduce it in this volume. In a debate with our Pastor in 1903, Dr. E. L. Eaton presented a chart giving his idea of hades, i.e., that it had two compartments-a Paradise of bliss for the righteous, and a Hell or Tartarus of woe for the wicked. He remarked that our Pastor had drawn up a marvelous chart illustrating his view of God's Plan and that it was the work of a genius, but added with reference to his own chart, that it too was a work of genius, stating additionally that genius consisted of 98% perspiration and 2% inspiration. Our Pastor's reply, pointing to Dr. Eaton's chart, was, "I agree with Dr. Eaton, that his chart is 98% perspiration and 2% inspiration"! The audience, catching the quick wit of our Pastor, fell into an applause which lasted for five minutes, then subsided, and then broke out anew for probably another five minutes; for they saw how his ready wit had completely nonplussed Dr. Eaton. Of our Pastor's chart we would say that it is 100% inspiration, for every detail of it squares with the Bible, as evidenced in his writings. In the first chapter of this book we have outlined four Discourses on the Chart. These talks will be a part of the message of Rev. 19: 6, and should be prepared in Schools of Prophets or otherwise by brethren able to speak to an audience or who can be so trained. Our purpose is, not to supplant our Pastor's works, especially Vol. 1, but rather to supplement them and to corroborate many of his teachings on God's great Plan. We pray that this book will be a blessing to our readers, and help them to be a blessing to others. And we pray our Heavenly Father to accept this labor of love, intended to glorify Him, to vindicate His character and truth, and to exalt our beloved Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your brother and servant, PAUL S. L. JOHNSON. Philadelphia, PA. July 29, 1948. iv CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE CHART OF GOD'S PLAN— ITS GENERALITIES THE THREE WORLDS. THE THREE AGES OF THE SECOND WORLD. THE AGES OF THE THIRD WORLD. THE PLANES OF BEING. ............... 7 CHAPTER II THE BIBLE'S WORLDS AND AGES (THEIR PARTICULARS) THE THREE WORLDS. THE THREE ACES OF THE SECOND WORLD. 59 CHAPTER III THE BIBLE'S WORLDS AND AGES (THEIR PARTICULARS) (Concluded) THE THIRD WORLD. THE MILLENNIAL AGE. THE POST-MILLENNIAL AGES. THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE CHRIST ETERNAL. ............... 133 CHAPTER IV THE FIRST HELL OF THE BIBLE ITS RELATION TO THE CHART OP THE AGES. TWO HELLS MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES. DERIVATION OF THE WORD. THREE DEFINITIONS STATED AND APPLIED. TEN POSTULATES ON THE FIRST HELL. THE SCRIPTURES EXAMINED. ............................... 205 CHAPTER V THE RICH MAN IN HELL-WILL HE EVER COME BACK? THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION. TWELVE OBJECTIONS NOTED. THE SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION. THE RETURN OF THE RICH MAN PROMISED. PROOFS THAT THE RICH MAN WILL RETURN. ............ 235 v CHAPTER VI THE SECOND HELL OF THE BIBLE THE LAKE FIRE SYMBOLIC OF THE SECOND DEATH. SIX THINGS TO BE CAST THEREIN. IT IS THE SOUL THAT IS DESTROYED. TEXTS MENTIONING THE LAKE OF FIRE. THE TWELVE OCCURRENCES OF THE WORD "GEHENNA" EXAMINED. THE PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS. SODOM AND GOMORRAH AS AN EXAMPLE OF ETERNAL FIRE. SHEOL SOMETIMES REFERS TO SECOND HELL. .. 259 CHAPTER VII THE HIDDEN MYSTERY THE CHRIST, HEAD AND BODY. MISCONCEPTIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT PEOPLE AND JESUS' DISCIPLES. FIRST REVEALED, LATER MANIFESTED. MEANING OF THE WORD "CHRIST." OTHER SCRIPTURE DESIGNATIONS FOR THE CHRIST. HOW HIDDEN IN MYSTERY. AND FIGURES DURING PAST AGES THE FINISHING OF THE MYSTERY ITS MANIFESTATION TO OTHERS THAN THE SAINTS. ........................................................................................................ 299 CHAPTER VIII SUMMARIES ON VARIOUS FEATURES OF GOD'S PLAN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JESUS' ASCENSION. THE TWO SIN OFFERINGS. JESUS' WORK IN THE SATISFACTION OF JUSTICE. THE CHURCH'S SHARE IN THE SATISFACTION OF JUSTICE. THE SARAH FEATURES OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. THE CHURCH WALKING THE NARROW WAY. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE CHURCH. THE GREAT COMPANY. THE FALL OF MAN. THE PERMISSION OF EVIL. THE TWO SALVATIONS. ISRAEL'S RETURN. GLAD TIDINGS. THE BIBLE HARMONIOUS WITH ITSELF. WHY SHOULD WE EXPECT CHRIST TO REIGN OVER THE EARTH? DOES THE BIBLE HOLD OUT HOPE FOR ANY OF THE UNSAVED DEAD? DOES THE BIBLE TEACH A SECOND CHANCE? OUR LORD'S RETURN. THE MILLENNIUM. THE RESURRECTION. RESTITUTION. THE JUDGMENT DAY FOR THE WORLD. THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS. THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT. THE NEW COVENANT OPERATIVE EXCLUSIVELY AFTER THE GOSPEL AGE. THY KINGDOM COME. CONSECRATION. 313 vi CHAPTER I THE CHART OF GOD'S PLAN— ITS GENERALITIES THE THREE WORLDS. THE THREE AGES OF THE SECOND WORLD. THE AGES OR THE THIRD WORLD. THE PLANES OF BEING. THE Chart of the Ages was made a frontispiece to the first volume of Studies in the Scriptures, and it is described in Chapter 12 of said volume; but when, later on, it was published separately, as a map mounted upon a spring roller (2 feet, 6 in. x 5 feet), requests came in from every quarter for such amplified explanations as would enable friends of the Truth to give comprehensive talks from their wall charts. It was to fill this requirement, and to enable many to tell the good tidings of great joy connectedly and systematically, that our Pastor published outlines for three chart lectures in a booklet entitled, "Three Discourses on The Divine Plan." In this chapter we republish these three, to which we have added a fourth. Many other discourses will profitably follow, and suggestions for some of them will be found in Chapters 10, 11 and 12 of Studies, Vol. 1, Chapter 5 of Vol. 2 and Chapter 8 of this book. After interesting your audience by the discourses on the chart, either sell or lend to them one or more of the Studies or other literature and get them to reading, and follow this up by assistance on points which may seem obscure. Next we advise a weekly gathering of such, as a "Berean Circle for Bible Study." Methods for conducting these very profitable meetings are suggested in Z 1866; 1900; 4886; P '37, p. 143. DISCOURSE I Dear friends, we are met together as a company, all interested, I trust, in God's great plan of salvation-The Plan of the Ages. From the fact of your presence here I assume that you are all believers in God, and that you accept the Bible as His Word. We will consider now 7 8 The Chart of God's Plan. such portions of that Word as outline the PLAN OF THE AGES. Our talk on the plan of God will be illustrated by this Chart. This Chart is merely designed as an aid to the mind through the eye in grasping the subject. We believe in the old theology of the Lord and the apostles and prophets. We have no new thing to present to you—no plan or theory of our own; and I do not want you to receive anything that I say simply because I have said it, but because I have shown it to you in the Word of the Lord. Much that I have to say I trust you will recognize as old and familiar truths, while some things will be recognized as truths forgotten or overlooked or never noticed heretofore; but I trust that you will all be ready to accept without equivocation whatever I shall show from the Scriptures to be the Word of the Lord, whatever has been "written for our learning," as the Apostle suggests (Rom. 15: 4). It is in order that we may be "thoroughly furnished" that we are told to "search the Scriptures" (John 5: 39); and if we want to be wise toward God, we want to come as learners and to receive the instruction which God gives us in His Word, which is "able to make us wise unto salvation," with the "wisdom that cometh down from above" (2 Tim. 3: 15; James 3: 17, 18). We want to put on the "whole armor of God" (Eph. 6: 11). (Point to Chart.) We will now consider some of the features of God's plan as illustrated by this Chart. I want you to dismiss from your minds for the present this lower part of the Chart-all below this upper horizontal line. (Point.) That part of it will be considered at future meetings. Now we want to give our attention to these upper arches and the small ones in them. We do not approach the subject of the Divine plan from a scientific standpoint. The boasted philosophies of this world are often "falsely so-called," and tend more to confuse the mind than to help it. The plan of God is not abstruse, but plain and simple; and yet it is really a science; it is knowledge from the highest source. The word "science" simply means truth. And Its Generalities. 9 therefore when our Lord said, "Thy Word is truth," it was equivalent to saying, "Thy Word is the science." He also prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth"—through this science. We therefore invite you to the study of this, the true science—the Plan of the Ages revealed in the Scriptures. But some may object that they see nothing scientific in the Bible. It is a common saying that "The Bible is an old fiddle upon which any tune can be played"—a Methodist tune, or a Baptist tune, or a Presbyterian tune, or any tune the player may desire. I am sorry to have to say it, dear friends, but it is nevertheless a fact that the Bible, the greatest of all sciences, the testimony of the greatest of all scientists, has suffered more at the hands of its friends than at the hands of any other class of people. They forgot to "search the Scriptures" and to "rightly divide the word of truth," and went to creed-making, each according to his own liking. From the standpoint of infidelity, it is true that the Bible appears contradictory; but it is so only because of the varied human misrepresentations, and not because it is so in fact. By observing order (Heaven's first law) the whole Word now opens up to God's people who are hungering and thirsting for it; because God's time for unsealing it has come. Having been thus blessed of God through observing His order in the study of His Word, I come to you as God's servant and yours, bringing you this grace. Prove all things by God's Word, and hold fast that which is good-that which you find to be in accord with the Bible, and that only. We call attention first to these three upper arches (Pointing to Chart), leaving out these lower ones. These represent dispensations. By dispensation we signify the order or general character of these periods of time—God's course in reference to mankind during a certain time. The manner of His dealing in each of these dispensations is attested by the facts of history. The first dispensation (Point) extends from the creation of Adam to the flood; the second dispensation