Church Age doctrines not found in the Old Testament

a) The existence of a royal family of God. Throughout the Old Testament it was simply: When you are born again the Holy Spirit regenerates you and makes you a member of the family of God. Regeneration has always been a ministry of the Holy Spirit since the beginning of human history. But in the future certain people, when they were born again, would be born again royalty instead of simply born again family of God. This was never known in the Old Testament. The interruption of the Jewish dispensation before the second advent of Christ to call out a royal family was unknown. The strategical victory of resurrection, ascension, session at the right hand of the Father was known to the Old Testament, but the fact of an intercalation, and insertion of another dispensation in order to call out the royal family was entirely unknown. The fact that the royal family of God would be composed of Jews and Gentiles (believers) was blacked out in the Old Testament. So there is no royal family of God information in the Old Testament. The only royal family the Old Testament recognised were historical royal families like the royal family of David.

b) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and positional sanctification. This is illustrated by Noah in the ark but no doctrine. Noah in the ark is an historical fact. When you get to the Church Age and find out that every believer is entered into union with Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, then you need illustration. You can illustrate from human life or you can illustrate from the Old Testament for these are written as illustrations. This is one of the uses of the Old Testament. Every believer in this dispensation lives in the holy of holies but believers avoided the holy of holies in the previous dispensation because they knew they would die the sin unto death.

c) God the Holly Spirit actually indwelt the body of every believer. God the Holy Spirit had never indwelt anyone’s body until the day of Pentecost. God the Holy Spirit controlled the souls of certain people — like Saul, David, the writers of the Old Testament in writing down those portions of revelation that God wanted preserved forever. So there was a ministry of God the Holy Spirit to a very few believers, and more could have had this ministry by asking. But indwelling of the body was unheard of, unknown, totally without precedent. The fact that the Holy Spirit indwells the body is emphasised in 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19,20.

d) The indwelling of Christ. Obviously there was no indwelling of Christ in the Old testament. Primarily Christ revealed Himself in the Old Testament times as an angel, the angel of Jehovah. This was the greatest of all the theophanies. Here we have something that was never revealed before, the fact that the God-Man, Jesus Christ, would indwell every member of the royal family of God. This is special fellowship with the royal family, it is accomplished when God the Son indwells members of the royal family.

e) A new contract. The old contract is called the Mosaic law. It was a very excellent contract, its establishment principles are still pertinent and have been revealed in many ways. But the worship system for believers and the system of communicating doctrine has changed. Doctrine is no longer communicated by those who have the gift of prophecy and by Levitical priests, a specialised priesthood. Now all doctrine is communicated by a pastor-teacher known as the guardian of the local church. So a new contract is necessary. When you have a new royal family and at the same time give them a universal priesthood a new contract is necessary. So the new contract or the new covenant to the Church was something never revealed in the Old Testament. Jeremiah wrote about a new covenant but it was a new covenant to Israel to be fulfilled in the Millennium. But the new contract to the Church was never revealed in Old Testament times.

f) A new priesthood. The fact that every believer is a priest is absolutely revolutionary, it is a very startling change. In the Old Testament they only knew of specialised priesthoods, the Levitical priesthood, the family priesthood. There was no such thing as every believer being his own priest. This is a brand new doctrine. But the interruption of the Age of Israel abrogates the old covenant, abrogates the specialised Levitical priesthood. Now every member of the royal family of God is his own priest under the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. This universal priesthood of the believer was never revealed before.

g) The new ministry of God the Holy Spirit. For the first time in all of history the royal family of God is commanded to be filled with the Spirit, a command which was never given before. The Holy Spirit was given to special people in the Old Testament, given to Moses, given to others writers of the Old Testament, those who made the priestly garments and manufactured the tabernacle, etc. But we now have a new ministry which was never revealed in the Old Testament, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit controlling the soul of every believer, and when not in control the Spirit is said to be grieved or quenched. Be filled with the Spirit is a command in the New Testament. Walk in the Spirit is a command for the New Testament.

h) Eventually there would be a completed canon of scripture which would radically change divine revelation from God to man. Until the canon of scripture was completed there were certain systems of revelation in the Old Testament. For example, there were voices, there was teaching by angels, dreams, visions, trances. All of these things were used by God to communicate doctrine in the Old Testament and there was no reference to the fact that the time would come when God would no longer speak in dreams, visions, or trances; where angels would no longer come down and personally communicate doctrine, where the phrase, “Thus saith the Lord” would no longer be used. All of these things are a reminder of the fact that the canon of scripture is closed and God only reveals Himself through the written page and no other way.

i) A new type of service. Always before in the Old testament certain people were called into service. The general run-of-the-mill people were evangelised but very rarely did the common man have any kind of a service. But a new type of service exists for the first time in human history, a type of service which was totally unknown to the Old Testament types. For the first time in human history every believer from the moment of his salvation to the end of his life is in full time Christian service. He is an ambassador, a royal priest, he is in service. This was never found in the Old Testament. This service depends on the function of GAP and resultant maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

j) The completion of the Church Age before the Age of Israel is completed.