Spir Dynamics 1366 9/10/98; Eph 591ff 7/8/87; 10/16/78; 10/30/79

DOCTRINE OF THE MYSTERY

A. Introduction.

1. The word “mystery” refers to the doctrine for the great power experiment of the Church Age, called the mystery because it was never revealed in Old Testament times.

2. Paul states in Rom 16:25-26, Col 1:25-26 and Eph 3:3-6 that this mystery is now revealed. There is no excuse for ignorance. Ignorance and arrogance become the two worst enemies of the believer, and cause him to make a wrong assessment of life, and to establish wrong priorities. Bible doctrine must be your number one priority.

3. The content of the mystery doctrine was first prophesied by our Lord Jesus Christ during the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union in Jn 14:20, Acts 1:5-8.

4. The primary function of the pastor-teacher is to communicate this mystery doctrine. 1 Cor 4:1, “Let a person regard us [pastors] as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”

5. 1 Cor 2:7, “But we communicate God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden assets which God predestined before the ages for the purpose of our glory.” The doctrine is invisible and hidden, and it manufactures invisible heroes. But no one ever becomes an invisible hero with wrong priorities.

6. 1 Tim 3:9, “With a pure conscience, keep holding the mystery, even the Church Age doctrine.” So it is the pastor’s job to uphold the mystery, to inculcate, to repeat and teach the mystery.

B. Etymology and Isagogics.

1. The Greek word MUSTERION means mystery. Paul took this noun away from its reference to the secrets of the ancient mystery cults, and used it in technical, theological language to indicate that the Church Age doctrine was totally unknown in Old Testament times. This noun is generally found in the plural, referring to the secret doctrines of the Greek fraternities for contacting demons during the seventh through fourth centuries throughout ancient Greece.

2. The essence of the ancient mysteries are the Greek fraternities and their secret doctrines and secret modus operandi. Only those who were initiated into the fraternity knew the mystery doctrine or their secrets.

3. Some of the famous mystery cults included:

a. The mystery cult of Eleusis adopted by Athens.

b. The mystery cult of Isis, the cult of Egypt, spread to Corinth and included as one of its initiates the famous doctor Opulais.

c. The mystery sorority of Dionysis for women only included dancing, drinking, drugs, ecstatics, madness, lesbianism, ritual shouting, and human sacrifice.

d. The mystery cult of Mithias was for men only; the male worshippers of Cybele castrated themselves in the frenzy of the rites.

e. The Orphic mystery cults centered around the singer Orpheus. It was adopted as a mystery system called Orphic theology. It emphasized purification by means of which the soul might escape the body and ascend into the realm of blessing. Mass suicide is based on this cult. A tremendous amount of human sacrifice was related to these cults.

4. The mystery cults of the ancient world were all demonic, based on Greek, Egyptian, and Roman mythology. Most of these mystery fraternities were related to Sethunic gods, i.e., the gods of the underworld, or goddesses like Dimetre, Dionysis, Sybile, Adonis, Isis. They are related to the growth of crops: they die in the winter, come back in the spring. Thus, human sacrifices were offered in the winter so that in the spring everything would come back.

5. Every hellenistic fraternity had secret doctrines and cultic rites in which the destinies of the gods were portrayed, and those initiated were supposed to share the fate of these gods.

6. Therefore, a vocabulary was developed in the Attic Greek.

a. The Greek word MUEO means to be initiated into the mysteries of the fraternity. This initiation was comprised of inculcation and teaching someone the secrets and doctrines of the fraternity which were never to be revealed to outsiders. So to be initiated meant to learn so as to pass the test, so that you know what your fraternity stood for.

b. The Greek word MUSTE referred to those who were initiated, to those who persevered until they actually learned all the fraternity doctrine.

c. The MUSTIKOS was used for the secret rites of the doctrines that had to be learned. So all the doctrines were called MUSTIKOS.

d. The word MUSTERION came down into the Koine, the word used in the New Testament. MUSTERION referred to the content of the doctrine, the actual principles and points that had to be learned. MUSTERION was used to describe the false doctrines of these ancient Greek fraternities. But the apostle Paul took this noun away from the Greek fraternities and gnostic cosmology and gave it, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, a Biblical definition which stands in the Word of God forever. This must now become a part of our vocabulary.

7. While most of the attic Greek words remained in the realm of demonism, false doctrine, cults, promiscuity, human sacrifice, yet our noun MUSTERION is a Biblical word used twenty-three times in the New Testament. Paul uses it twenty-one times.

8. Jesus Christ used the noun for the first time when He first presented Church Age doctrine to the disciples during the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union in Mt 13:11 and Mk 4:10-11.

A parable is a story about some common event designed to teach something. The disciples were trying to understand why our Lord taught in the form of parables. Our Lord answered in Mt 13:11, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [unbelievers] it has not been given.”

a. The believers would be taught and therefore understand the doctrine being taught in the parable; the unbelievers could only understand the events of the story.

b. Church Age doctrine has not been given to unbelievers.

c. So mystery means something that can only be understood by those who are in the fraternity, i.e., every believer in Jesus Christ.

d. Jesus was explaining why He was teaching Jewish eschatology in parables. The Jewish unbeliever could understand the narrative but not the doctrine. Therefore, the doctrine was a mystery in that it was unknown to the Jewish unbeliever.

9. In Pauline doctrine, mystery refers to the great power experiment of the Church Age which was totally unknown to the Old Testament writers, but is now revealed to Church Age believers, Col 1:26-27; Rom 16:25-26.

10. Mystery designates the complete blackout of Church Age doctrine to the Old Testament writers before our Lord came in the flesh.

C. The Divine Blackout of the Mystery Doctrine in Old Testament Times.

1. The Church Age and its unique doctrines are classified as the mystery.

2. The mystery is the sum total of the unique doctrines of the great power experiment of the Church Age. The mechanics of salvation is not a mystery. The mystery begins with the Church Age believer after salvation, i.e., what is the Christian way of life.

3. None of the following unique doctrines were known to the Old Testament writers of Scripture: the baptism of the Holy Spirit with its eight results, the new spiritual species of the royal family of God, the unique protocol plan of God with its precisely correct procedure, the equal privilege and equal opportunity of every Church Age believer to execute the protocol plan of God, our portfolio of invisible assets, the unique royal commissions of the royal priesthood and the royal ambassadorship, the indwelling of each member of the Trinity in the body of every Church Age believer, the 100% availability of divine power (the omnipotence of the Father, Son, and Spirit), and the dispensation of invisible heroes having personal, national, international, and angelic impact.

4. There are actually two stages of glorifying God.

a. The winner stage characterizes the believer who reaches spiritual maturity by passing two categories of suffering for blessing (providential preventative suffering and momentum testing). The winner has the first three categories of invisible impact: personal, national, and international.

b. The invisible hero stage characterizes the mature believer who passes evidence testing. Besides having the three categories of invisible impact as the winner has, the invisible hero also has angelic impact as a witness for the Prosecution in the rebuttal phase of Satan’s appeal trial.

5. Rom 16:25-26, “Now to Him who is able to stabilize you on the basis of my gospel and the preaching about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret from long ages past [Old Testament], but now revealed even by the Scriptures of the [New Testament] prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God. It has now been made known to all nations resulting in obedience to doctrine.”

6. Col 1:25-27, “Concerning which [Church Age] I became a minister according to the standard of the dispensation of God [the unique dispensation of the Church Age] which was given to me for the purpose of filling up your deficiency of the Word of God; that is, the mystery which has been hidden from past dispensations and generations but now has been revealed to His saints to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is, Christ indwelling you, the confidence of glory.”

7. Church Age doctrine was blacked out in the Old Testament. There are many Old Testament passages which could have mentioned the Church Age but passed over it. Between the following passages the Church Age occurred and so could have been revealed, but it was passed over in silence: Dan 2:40()41, 7:23()24, 8:22()23, 11:35()36; Hos 5:15()6:1.

D. Precedence for the Mystery Doctrine of the Dispensation of the Church Age.

1. The Reformation never settled the question as to what constitutes the Christian way of life. Nothing was ever discovered as to what the mystery doctrine said about God’s game plan for the Church Age, or what is the will of God for the Church Age believer after salvation. None of the reformers ever answered the question: “After salvation - what?”

2. While the New Testament epistles are very clear, lucid and perspicuous about the will, purpose, and plan of God for each Church Age believer, the tendency of reform and covenant theology is to extrapolate the Christian way of life from the Mosaic Law.

3. However, the Mosaic Law emphasizes morality. The greater portion of the Mosaic Law (codices one and three) teach the laws of divine establishment. These laws of divine establishment were designed to rule the five Jewish client nations. The Mosaic Law emphasized morality for believer and unbeliever alike under the establishment law. Morality is absolutely necessary for the life and function of any nation. But morality is not the Christian way of life.

4. Anything the unbeliever can do is not the Christian way of life. The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life demanding a supernatural means of execution, i.e., the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

5. The vulnerability of morality is arrogance and legalism. Arrogance combined with morality results in a series of sins, beginning with self- righteous arrogance, continuing to crusader arrogance, then mental attitude arrogance, achievement arrogance, the arrogance of Christian service, legalistic arrogance, conspiracy arrogance, emotional arrogance, and eventually moral degeneracy.

6. Anything that promotes arrogance cannot be included in the Christian way of life. Morality is only effective in believer or unbeliever when accompanied by humility. But most moral people are extremely arrogant people. Moral degeneration is in many ways much worse than immoral degeneration and is much closer to Satan’s original sin.

7. We have something much higher than morality in the Christian way of life. Virtue is our system which is much higher and greater and includes grace principles. Virtue is never destroyed or corrupted by arrogance.

8. Prov 11:2 shows how morality is corrupted by arrogance. “When arrogance comes, then comes dishonor; but with the humble is wisdom.” Prov 16:18, “Arrogance precedes destruction, and before there is a fall [failure], a lifestyle of arrogance occurs.”

9. When the Christian way of life is described, it is not described in terms of arrogance, but in the language of grace and humility, as in Jas 4:6. “He gives greater grace, and this is why the Scripture says, `God makes war against the arrogant [believer], but He gives grace to the humble.’” There is no substitute for humility. Humility is very hard to find; it is much too subtle for the average person. Self-effacement is not humility but a subtle form or arrogance. Some confuse humility with humiliation. Most people will never reach humility because they have an innate desire to reject, resist, or put down any kind of authority in their periphery. The greatest test of humility is how you respond to authority, whether it is fair or unfair, in personality conflict with you or not. So the Christian way of life is described as grace and humility.

10. One of the few reasons why Jewish client nations lasted for 1500 years is found in the book of Numbers. The reason why generation after generation managed to survive and continue was because practiced universal military training. This took up the slack for the failure of parents to teach and inculcate principles of respect for authority, good manners, and discipline. A nation without universal military training has 20-80% of its young men in any given generation who are totally devoid of any sense of responsibility. This results in the breakdown of society.

11. Negative volition arrogance neutralizes postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation. Children develop arrogance at a very early age, so that they resist Bible doctrine and are very rude in church. It matters not that the parents are positive toward doctrine; the children are so preoccupied with themselves, so involved in the cult of egocentricity that they will resist and suffer through many hard knocks in life before they may even begin to appreciate doctrine. Catering to young people with gimmicks is not the solution, because such gimmicks often crystallize arrogance and give it even deeper roots.

12. 1 Tim 6:3-4 develops the concept as to why certain generations of believers are losers, as many as 98%. “If anyone teaches a different [false] doctrine and does not concur with sound doctrine, even the doctrine pertaining to godliness, he has received arrogance, understanding nothing. Furthermore, he has a morbid obsession about controversies and verbal conflicts from which originate jealousy, discord, evil speculations.”

a. False doctrine takes its precedence from the Mosaic Law. The context of 1 Timothy is the misuse and abuse of the Mosaic Law because Christians were using the Mosaic Law as the Christian way of life.

b. 1 Tim 1:6-11 first develops this thought of following false doctrine and not concurring with sound doctrine, defining the two.

c. Godliness is the spiritual life of the Church Age.

d. You can aggressively become arrogant, but most people don’t start that way; they start by receiving arrogance passively.

e. Having a morbid obsession about controversy is the arrogance of competing with others. You put down someone who challenges you.

f. Some people cannot let any statement with which they disagree pass; they must challenge it. There is no tolerance at all. They must put you down and show that you are wrong! Arrogance is the strongest motivator in life outside of the protocol plan of God. The protocol plan of God is the only antidote.

g. Jealousy is the first manifestation of arrogance. Discord is the social manifestation of arrogance.

h. An evil speculation is any speculation about the Christian way of life that is not truth. It is evil because the person holding to that principle is evil because he is arrogant, because he desires to superimpose something that is not true on others. Evil speculations include antithetical systems of legalism and emotionalism. There is no one more arrogant than the believer who thinks he’s discovered the secret to the Christian way of life, which he pushes on everyone.

13. Throughout the Church Age there has been the prevalence of using the Mosaic Law for the Christian way of life. The Mosaic Law became the center of attention for explaining the Christian way of life, and self- determined morality became the order of the day instead of Spirit-filled virtue. The result of morality combined with arrogance related to Sabbath observance, tithing, ritual muttering of the Lord’s Prayer. All these things are not the Christian way of life. For the protocol plan of God for the Church Age derives its precedence from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, not from the Old Testament and not from the Mosaic Law.

14. The dispensation of the Hypostatic Union provided two precedent functions.

a. It separates forever Israel and the Church, both in time and in eternity. The ritual plan of God for Israel is in no way connected with the protocol plan of God for the Church. The theocentric dispensations of the Old Testament provide no part of the structure for the Christian life.

b. It provides the precedence for the great power experiment of the Church Age. We take none of our precedence from Israel.

15. Summary of the Mosaic Law.

a. The Mosaic Law provides the basis for two categories of precedence in human history.

(1) The establishment laws for any client nation to God in human history, Rom 13:1-10.

(2) The amplification of the Mosaic Law for the millennial rule of Jesus Christ is taught in the Sermon on the Mount. So the Mosaic Law has a present influence and a future purpose.

b. The Mosaic Law was not and is not and never will be a way of salvation, Rom 3:20-28. Verse 28, “Therefore, we conclude that man is not saved by the Law but by faith in Jesus Christ.” Gal 2:16, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ; even we have believed in Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. For by the works of the Law no person [flesh] shall ever be justified.”

c. The Mosaic Law is not the basis for spirituality. For the Mosaic Law cannot and did not ever provide the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Holy Spirit was limited to less than 1% of all those who lived in the dispensation of Israel. Spirituality is the filling of the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit controlling your soul.

Spirituality is your residence inside the divine dynasphere. The Mosaic Law did not, cannot, and never did provide the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Gal 3:2ff.

d. The Mosaic Law cannot solve the problems of the old sin nature and real spiritual death. Rom 8:2-4, “For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for a sin offering condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us through the filling of the Spirit.” Therefore, the Mosaic Law is not an instrument of spirituality.

e. The Mosaic Law was given specifically to client nation Israel, Ex 19:3; Lev 26:46; Rom 3:19, 9:4. It was never given to Gentile client nations, though this is where we find the precedence for establishment principles related to freedom.

f. The Mosaic Law was never given to the Church, Acts 15:5,24; Rom 6:14; Gal 2:19. Therefore, our precedence for the Christian way of life comes from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union when and where the humanity of Christ kept the Law perfectly.

g. Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, Mt 5:17. Jesus Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe, Rom 10:4.

16. In application, this knocks out tithing as a system of spiritual giving. No percentage was ever attached to spiritual giving; no pressure has ever been put on any believer according to the mandate of the Word of God. Tithing was a system of Jewish income tax for both believer and unbeliever in Israel. Anything mandated to the unbeliever is not a part of the Christian way of life.

a. There were three types of tithes or taxes for the Jews.

(1) 10% for the maintenance of the Levites, Lev 27:30-33; Num 18:21-24.

(2) Tithe for the feast and sacrifices, Deut 12:18, 14:22-24.

(3) Tithe for the poor of the land, Deut 14:28-29.

b. Note that all these were tithes for business related to government, not related to the spiritual life. Therefore, tithing is totally and completely outlawed for the Church.

c. When it says in Mal 3:10, “Bring the whole tithe into the treasury,” it does not mean bring the tithes to the local church. That is tantamount to heresy! Yet some denominations teach that if you do not give 10% of your income to the local church, you have failed in the Christian life.

17. The Gospels, which cover the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, are difficult to interpret for several reasons.

a. First, because Jesus Christ presented Himself as Messiah, the King of Israel, the One who fulfills the Davidic Covenant. He came as ADONAI ELOHENU, ADONAI ECHAD, as the Alpha and the Omega. This part of His ministry explains the Sermon on the Mount, an amplification of the Mosaic Law. Because Jesus Christ was rejected by Israel during the First Advent, the Sermon on the Mount will be fulfilled in the Millennium during the personal ruler of Jesus Christ over the entire earth. This also explains the eschatology of Israel found in the Olivet Discourse, Mt 24-25. Most confuse the reference to the baptism of fire, removing unbelievers from the earth, with the Rapture, which removes believers from the earth.

b. So the Gospels are difficult to interpret because so many confuse what applies to us in the Church Age and what applies to Israel.

c. In the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, our Lord also anticipated the Church Age. Therefore, He had a prophetic ministry regarding the mystery doctrine for the Church Age. The mystery doctrine was revealed by Him for the first time in a prophetical manner. This explains the Upper Room Discourse of Jn 14-17, and the prophecy regarding the great power experiment of the Church Age presented by our Lord just before His ascension in Acts 1:5-8.

d. Therefore, precedence for the Church Age originates from the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union. The extension of the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union into the Church Age through the baptism of the Holy Spirit results in establishing a new procedure from a recent precedent, the first advent of Christ.

18. So again, the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union has two applications.

a. It serves as a permanent line of demarcation between the dispensation of Israel in the Old Testament and the dispensation of the Church in the New Testament.

b. It serves as a precedence for unique protocol as found in the content of the mystery doctrine. Therefore, the protocol plan of God supersedes the ritual plan of God for Israel and settles the matter of precedence.

19. The legalism of tithing, Sabbath observance, morality for spirituality originates from the erroneous concept that the Mosaic Law is a part of the Christian way of life.

20. In conclusion, the dispensation of Israel provides no precedence for the Church Age. All precedence for the protocol plan of God is taken from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union. This is compatible with the definition of the mystery as found in Rom 15:25-26 and Col 1:25-27.

21. The modus operandi of Israel is based on the fact that they are a new racial species. The modus operandi of the Church is based on the fact that we are a new spiritual species. Therefore, Israel did not have the 100% availability of divine power as we have; therefore, no precedence exists with Israel for us. Nor did Israel have the indwelling of all three persons of the Trinity, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the universal priesthood of the believer, the universal royal family of God composed of all believers, the equal privilege and equal opportunity of both Jews and Gentiles, the modus operandi of the protocol plan of God which is God’s purpose, plan, and will for our lives. Therefore, all doctrine related to the modus operandi of the protocol plan of God for the Church Age is classified as the mystery doctrine, its precedence related to the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union.

22. 1 Tim 3:16, “And by consent of all, great is the mystery of the spiritual life: the unique One [Jesus Christ] who appeared in a human body was vindicated by means of the Holy Spirit; He was observed by angels; He was proclaimed among the nations; He was the object of faith in the world; He was taken up into glory [ascension and session].”

a. Our Lord’s humanity resided inside the prototype divine dynasphere, where He depended entirely upon the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit plus the problem-solving devices of hope 2 and 3, personal love for God, impersonal love for all mankind, and +H or sharing the perfect happiness of God.

b. Today we have exactly what the humanity of Christ had to function in the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union. He functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere; we have the operational-type divine dynasphere, given to us at the moment of salvation.

c. The strategic victory of our Lord during the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union is the basis for His third royal patent. The strategic victory of our Lord during the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union results in a second Christocentric dispensation: the great power experiment of the Church Age. The great power experiment of the Church Age derives its precedence from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union.

d. The precedence for godliness is the residence of Jesus Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere. The extension of the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union into the Church Age has resulted in establishing a precedence for the modus operandi of the body of Christ, the royal family of God.

23. Therefore, the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union is not only the dividing line between Israel and the Church, but a separating line as well, becoming the basis for establishing precedence for the protocol plan of God. This also extends to resurrection, for there were no resurrections in the Old Testament, only resuscitations. The only resurrection that has occurred up to this moment occurred during the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, accomplished by the omnipotence of God the Father and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. That same omnipotence of God the Father and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit will effect the resurrection of the Church. So even the precedence of resurrection is taken from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union.

E. The Communication of Mystery Doctrine in the Great Power Experiment of the Church Age.

1. There are two categories of communicators of this mystery doctrine of the Church Age.

a. The apostles communicated mystery doctrine in the pre-Canon period of the Church Age, and some wrote it down, especially Paul after being confined in the first Roman imprisonment.

b. The pastor-teacher communicates the mystery doctrine in the post-Canon period of the Church Age to his generation as he is prepared to do so.

2. 1 Cor 2:7, “But we communicate God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden assets which God predestined before the ages to our glory.”

a. Next to our portfolio of invisible assets which God the Father provided for us in eternity past, specifically our escrow blessings which we receive upon reaching spiritual maturity, God also provided the grace means of receiving our escrow blessings; i.e., the two computer assets of election and predestination. Predestination is the divine provision for the execution of the protocol plan of God.

b. You have a special mission in this life:

to glorify God. You do so by becoming an invisible hero.

4. 1 Cor 4:1, “Let mankind regard us [Paul, Apollos, Peter] in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” The same principle is found in Eph 3:7-9.

5. 1 Tim 3:9, “With a pure conscience, keep holding the mystery, even doctrine.”

6. Col 2:2, “That their right lobes may be encouraged, having been held together by means of virtue love, and resulting in all the riches from the full assurance of technical knowledge [insight] resulting in epignosis knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ.” Note the linkage between the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union and the great power experiment of the Church Age. The humanity of Christ pioneered maximum utilization of divine omnipotence inside the prototype divine dynasphere. We have the operational type divine dynasphere for the utilization of that same power.

7. One of the functions of the pastor-teacher is described in Eph 3:9. “And to make perspicuous what is the dispensation of the mystery.” The context is Eph 3:2-6, “Inasmuch as you have heard about the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for your benefit, that through revelation the mystery doctrine was made known to me just as I have already written briefly. By reading this, you ought to be able to understand my technical knowledge about the mystery of Christ which was not made known to mankind in other ages, so that it has now been revealed to His holy apostles, even the prophets, by the Spirit; that Gentiles are fellow-heirs and members together of the same body and sharers together of the same promises in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.” Never before in human history has the grace policy of God promised so much for the ordinary believer, no matter how insignificant his life may be.

F. The Mystery Doctrine of Marriage in the Church Age, Eph 5:32.

1. Eph 5:32, “And this mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and with reference to the Church.” (The Greek prepositional phrase is EIS plus the adverbial accusative of reference and repeated with both nouns.) We are in union with Christ and share everything He has. Union with Christ is the only true equality in all of human history. Both of these prepositional phrases are a part of positional sanctification.

2. Christian marriage is entirely different from the concept of marriage throughout all of human history.

3. The divine institution of marriage during the Church Age is far more important and has greater repercussions than any other period of human history because it is related to the mystery doctrine of the Royal Law. (See the Doctrine of the Royal Law.)

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