In the Fulness of Time/Part 93

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The Age of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven

The Actual Time as given by Jesus. It begins with His own personal ministry as Son of Man Who sows the good seed. This Sowing began before His death. The End of the age occurs when He sends angels from heaven as reapers, casting the tares into the fire and gathering the wheat into His barn, or kingdom.

1. Jesus calls this period tou aionos (the age), including the sowing, before His death, plus the Church Age and seven years of Tribulation after which His Kingdom begins.
2. Events in this period are called “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (v. 11).
3. There are a number of wrong titles given to this period. It cannot be called the Church Age; it includes time before and after the Church. It cannot be called Christendom for essentially the same reason. It cannot be referred to as the period of the King’s absence; He is the Sower. It is never referred to as the mystery form of the Kingdom. It is never referred to as the “postponement of the Kingdom.”
4. Combining Jesus’ terms, it is The Age of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Sowing

1. Sowing by Jesus: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man” (Matt. 13:37).
2. Sowing by Paul and future ministers of the Gospel. “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1). See also, Romans 16:25-26; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 2:2; 4:3.

The Growing

1. The Mystery of Iniquity was already working in Paul’s day, and will continue until the Lord Jesus returns to earth to destroy the wicked one (2 Thess. 2:7-8).
2. The Mysteries Concerning the Church.
   • The Mystery of the Formation of the Church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 3:4-9).
   • The Mystery of Christ, indwelling the Church as the Head (Col. 1:24-27).
   • The Mystery Christ as the Husband and the Church as His Wife (Eph. 5:29-32).
   • The Mystery of the Rapture of the Church (1 Cor. 15:51-52; 1 Thess. 4:16-18).
   • The Mystery of the seven stars, or Churches (Rev. 1:20; 2-3).
3. The Mysteries of the kingdom of heaven taught in the parables of The Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the Treasure in the Field, and the Pearl of great price (Matt. 13:31-46), all will be interpreted as having to do with the Growing Period of the Age of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Reaping

1. The Time: At the end of this Mystery Age, which occurs at the end of the Great Tribulation, yet to be prophesied by Christ in Matthew 24-25, in connection with His return to earth.
2. The Mystery of Israel’s Blindness. Like the parable of the wheat and tares, this mystery extends the full length of the Age of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. It begins with Christ’s pronouncement in Matthew13:13-15, quoting Isaiah 6:9-10: “For this people’s heart is become gross…and their eyes have they closed, lest…they should see with their eyes…and should be converted and I should heal them.” In Romans 11:25-27 Paul says: “For I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery… that blindness in part is happened to Israel.”
3. The Mystery of Babylon. Revelation 17:5-7: “And upon her head was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLORS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Throughout the seven years of the Tribulation there will develop a false religious and political system which will combine and war against the Messiah, the Lamb, Who will overcome them (Rev. 17:14).
4. The Mysteries in the Parables of the Wheat and the Tares and the Dragnet in Matthew 13 will be fulfilled when the reapers separate the wheat from the tares, and the good fish from the bad at the end of the Tribulation. Matthew 25:31-46: “When the Son of Man shall come in his glory….And before him shall be gath­ered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” The goats will be destroyed; they are the tares and bad fish. The sheep will enter the earthly Kingdom; they are the wheat and the good fish. In like manner Ezekiel 20:38 prophesies concerning the judgment of the Jews: “And I will purge out from among you the rebels…and they shall not enter the land of Israel.” The rebels are the tares and the bad fish among the Jews.
5. The Mystery of God Finished. Revelation 10:7 “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin the sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants, the prophets.” The seventh angel actually sounds in Revelation 11:15 and this is the signal for the beginning of the Messianic, earthly Kingdom of Christ. Since this Kingdom itself is no mystery, the mystery of God is finished right before the Kingdom begins.
6. The Mystery of His Will. Ephesians 1:9-10: “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath pur

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