It does therefore appear most evident that the above text refers to a definite, definable period in the duration of time, or eternity if you please, when the purpose of God was formed to give his Son for the salvation of the world. We next inquire, To what particular period of time do these texts refer? And to this question one of three answers must be given. They either refer, first, to a time before God created the heavens and the earth; or, secondly, to the very time when the heavens and the earth were created; or, thirdly, to a time subsequent to the creation. To say they refer to time before the creation is to contradict the very first fact declared in the Bible. This says, IN THE BEGINNING God created the heavens and the earth,' Gen. i, 1; 'And thou, Lord, IN THE BEGINNING hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands,' Heb. i, 10. And so throughout the whole Bible there is an unbroken silence as it respects any thing which the Deity ever did, before the time referred to in these texts, concerning the world of mankind. We read of His possessing wisdom from everlasting, but not a word of any purpose or work of God, in relation to a world of sinners, is there declared to be from everlasting; and we read, also, of the glory which Christ had with the Father before the world was-before the world was, not merely before, nor from, nor since the foundation of the world, as in the text above quoted. And for the very same reasons, assigned above, these passages cannot refer to the six days when God was actually engaged in the works of creation; they must therefore refer to a time subsequent to the creation, so that it is said, in most of the texts under notice, from that time, since that time, from or since, that is, very soon after the creation of the world. Let us now examine the meaning in which the words 'before,' 'from,' and 'since,' are used in many places, and especially in the above passages of Scripture. It is well known to those who are conversant with the language in which the New Testament was written, that every preposition in Greek has but one radical, proper meaning, which has generally been taken from sensible objects, and from this meaning all their secondary applications may be either immediately or circuitously traced. Hence the word po, rendered before, refers either to place or time; and in ten or eleven out of about forty instances where it occurs in the New Testament, it refers to place, and not to time at all, and has the meaning of at, in the view, or in the presence of a person or thing. So it is used in the following passages:-Matt. xi, 10, προ προςώπου σου, before thy face; Acts v, 23, προ τον θυρων, before the doors; Acts xii, 14, Пerpov po Tou Tuλwvos, Peter stood before the gate; Acts xiv, 13, Пpo τns Hoλews, here our version has unto the gods; Jam. v, 9, xgins Tho Twv Jugwv εornxev, the judge standeth before, or is at the door; and see also Mark i, 2; Luke i, 76; vii, 27; ix, 52; Acts xii, 6; and Rev. iii, 9. Hence the text in Eph. i, 4, καθως εξελέξατο ημας εν αυτώ προ καταβο ans xooμou, that is, according as God hath called us to a state of salvation, agreeably to that promise which He made of a Savior as long ago as this world was first created, at or about the time the foundations of the world were first laid. This promise was made as soon as man sinned, and at the time when God said, THE SEED OF THE WOMAN SHALL BRUISE THE SERPENT'S HEAD, as we read, Gen. iii, 15. Again, 1 Pet. i, 19, 20: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things-but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; who verily was foreordained for this purpose, προ καταβολης κοσμου, αἱ or about the very time the world was created. That this is the meaning of the above text is most conclusively evident from other passages which speak of the same thing. So in Rev. xiii, 8, Christ is called the Lamb slain, not po, before, but aro, FROM the foundation of the world. That is, the design of God to give Christ as a sacrifice for sin may be traced back to the very time when sin was first committed, even to the foundation of the world. Año, from, like πpo, before, is applied both to time and place; but, unlike the latter, it always implies a separation, either in time, place, or some other way. Hence avenaro Tou udaros, he went up from the water; ορματο απο Σαρδέων, he marched from Sardis; απο θομον, away from affection, hatred; aro pilns wpas, from the third hour. And thus of God's decree to give Christ for the salvation of men; it is from the foundation of the world, and may be traced back to the time when He first finished the works of creation. But in Heb. ix, 26, this same word is rendered since,—For then must he oft have suffered since the foundation of the world, since the time God promised, Gen. iii, 15, that Christ should suffer, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. How But to the above, possibly, the reader may object, from the sense which he puts upon Titus i, 2, In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began, and the like texts. ever, this objection is obviated at once when we know that the word in this text rendered world is not xodμos, as in the text I have examined, but χρόνων, times or ages; and so it is rendered in Col. i, 26, and thus it might be rendered in each of the following texts :-Luke i, 70; 1 Cor. ii, 7. See Matt. ii, 7; Mark ii, 9; Luke i, 57; John v, 6; Acts i, 6; 1 Thess. v, 1. Hence, says Dr. Macknight, who was a Calvinist, the true literal meaning of πро Xpovwv aιwvwv, is, before the secular times, referring us to the Jewish jubilees, by which times were computed among the Hebrews. We may now, it is believed, easily perceive the design of the sacred writers in the use of the language we have been considering. The Jews were ever ready to cavil at the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. See Eph. i, 9; iii, 11; Acts xi, 2-18; Rom. ix, 19-33, and xvi, 25. They objected, especially, to the salvation of the Gentiles, as, being from the beginning excluded from the covenant and design of God, they could not be saved. And against this objection some of the most cogent reasonings in the epistles of the New Testament are directed, and nearly the whole of the Epistles to the Romans and the Ephesians. But the apostle goes on to show, which he does most forcibly, that the death of Jesus Christ, Acts ii, 22, 23, the calling and salvation of the Gentiles, Rom. viii, 29; Eph. i, 4, are no fortuitous events in the economy of God, Gen. iii, 15; xxii, 16, 17; Heb. vi, 16, 17; but were designed and planned, by the infinite Being, from the foundation of the world. LA ROY SUNDERLAND. |