En Tois Epouranios

In the Heaven Far Above All Heavens

Resuming our look into the wonderfully formidable term En Tois Epouranios, "In the Heaven Far Above All Heavens" (Eph. 1:3; Eph. 1:20; Eph. 2:6; Eph. 3:10; Eph. 6:12).

In review of previous articles, it would be good to make a few comments to all of you as faithful "sons of God;" As we move forward with this study, many "subjects" in Scripture will be touched upon; for example, so far, we have referred to the Heaven(s), Sonship Adoption, Predestination, Right Division, Wisdom, The "Evil Day," Satan (his destructive power), Creation (the foundation of the universe), "Out-Calling" (being chosen out), The Father's Complete Plan, etc... and we've hardly gotten started! The more we understand these unfolding subjects interwoven into our calling, the more we realize how truly awesome our "inheritance in the light" is. Also, don't be afraid of Greek words; they just take some getting used to. The more you see them, the more familiar they will become.

"To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved..." (Eph. 1:6)

Our being chosen out as adopted sons, being blessed with every spiritual blessing possible in the Heaven far above all heavens, will be "to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Gr. charis = an affectionate willingness of the giver to grant favor on the receiver). With our puny egos in the way at times, we forget that as fallen pitiful wretches, the progeny of the sinful nature of Adam, we deserve nothing as far as a favor is concerned; yet the striking beauty of our Heavenly Father's Love is that, in fact, He will pour out His grace on us for eternity in and thru His Son - and even more, the Father will have delight in doing so!

There is "glorious praise" involved in the actions of God the Father here; to emphasize this, "made us accepted" in Eph. 1:6 is the Greek (charitao) which means much graced or better "highly favored"... used only one other time in the N. T. (Luke 1:28) speaking of Mary, the Virgin Mother of our Savior the Lord Christ Jesus... can we imagine what it was like to bear the Savior of the world (John 4:42) and the Creator of the universe (John 1:3)! Favored beyond compare yet the Holy Spirit has used this term applied to only one other entity - persons called out and blessed as members of The Church which is Christ's Body in the Heaven far above all heavens! Our dear Heavenly Father was and is delighted in His Son, our Head Christ Jesus. He is and will be, delighted in us as His Church, as His adopted sons through and in the "Beloved One" (Eph. 1:1-9). Study these verses carefully. By these Scriptures, we know (Gr. = epignosis) that our Heavenly Father loves us with a remarkable, superabundant love!

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

The Greek word for "inspiration" is theopneustos, which is made up of theos (God) and pneo (to breathe); thus, God-Breathed.

No doubt Paul had in mind all Scripture written up to this time. That then would include the Bible as we have it today except for 2 Timothy, which he was writing. We have no doubt about it also being inspired. We do not include the Apocrypha, for it was introduced along with the LXX, and is not in the Hebrew Scriptures.

We note in the verse before that Paul says,

"And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 3:15)

No doubt Timothy, up to this point, had access to all The Scriptures except this one last epistle, and now he had that.

All the Scriptures were God-Breathed. And because they are the inspired Word of God, we have the words added,

"And is profitable..." (2 Tim 3:16)

We are always interested in that which is profitable, and we should be. And what can be more profitable than the Scriptures, which speak of the unsearchable riches of Christ?

The Scriptures are profitable:

1. For Doctrine. This refers to teaching. Our teaching concerning the dispensation of the mystery is found in Ephesians Chapters 1-3 especially. Also, much doctrine is set forth in Colossians.

2. For Reproof. If we have proof, then we should have conviction. And this is the meaning of the word. But the Word can only reprove when believed. Reproof then comes from being convinced of the truth.

3. For Correction. This is the only place this word is used. It means to right up again, set to rights, to restore. With a rudder and compass, one can set right the course of the ship. So is the inspired Word.

4. For Instruction in Righteousness. The word here is sometimes translated as discipline. Also, it can mean to teach. But the goal of the instruction or teaching is to go on unto righteousness. To Israel, the righteousness of God was revealed by the law. Now He deals with mankind righteously in grace because of the work of the Son. We have imputed righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. But there is a righteousness to be put in practice in the daily walk of the Christian.

"That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim 3:17)

This is the goal. It has to do with both the walk and the ministry of the saints.

The walk of the member of The Body of Christ is outlined in Ephesians Chapters 4-6. It is to walk worthy of the calling. The word perfect means to be filled. And furnished means equipped. So, one is to be fitted and equipped for every good work.

To make the message a bit plainer, let us join the first and the last thusly,

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, . . .

. . . that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim 3:16-17)

Genesis 22:2

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

"Abraham, Abraham...lay not thine hand upon the lad. Neither do thou any thing unto him for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me" (Gen. 22:11-12).

It was not that God did not know what Abraham would do, but here is the proof. This was a test, such as a test of gold by fire (1 Pet. 1:7). Job also had a test, and he came through without faltering. In his case, it was a controversy between God and Satan. We do not know whether the adversary had accused Abraham, but it is very likely that he was. Satan is the accuser of all who are faithful.

Abraham had been in the land for 40 or 50 years, and long before this had been justified by faith. Now, he has a chance to prove his profession of faith, and so he is justified here by works. It may be that this is what James had in mind when speaking of faith being dead without works. If it is genuine faith, the works will come in due order. They are the natural result.

No doubt many will not like to have this lesson applied, but what good is the Scripture going to do us if there is no application? Have we not seen many who seem to have faith and make a loud profession but fail when a time of testing comes along? In past years, many have made a profession of faith in truth as it is found in The Word, only to compromise or drawback when they found that it would cost something to stand up for The Truth. Their test was never to sacrifice a son or daughter as in the case of Abraham, but more often, it was bread and butter, social position, a troublesome family, or a hundred and one small things we could mention. Alas, they failed the trial.

And how many times have you and I failed? How many opportunities to speak did we pass up and let slip by?

Now, can you tell me why faithful Abraham said to the servants to wait and that he and Isaac would come back to them (Gen 22:5)? We find the answer in Hebrews 11:9-10. He believed the promise concerning Isaac and the seed after him, so he was sure that if he killed Isaac, God would raise him from the dead so as to fulfill the promise. Now, that is faith! And faith is a matter of believing so strongly that we can act on it. Using Abraham's faith here as a measure, just where do we stand?

1 Corinthians 4:2

Moreover, it is required in steward, that a man be found faithful.

Paul and his message were forsaken back in his lifetime and have been ever since! Again, for newcomers, we'll give a quick resume of what happened to Paul's teaching. It is true that most people in Asia had forsaken Paul's message (2 Tim. 1:15). When Paul speaks of all Asia, he is not speaking of the few believers who kept faithful to the revelation of The Mystery. After Paul was dead and gone, these people were known as Paulicians (Lightfoot's early volumes give information on these.) They persisted through many years until, finally, the Eastern Catholic Church hunted them down. They were determined to kill them off. They then fled to the mountains of Europe, and there, the Roman Catholic Church was doing its best to exterminate them along with any others that believed: the followers of Erasmes, the followers of Huss, Henry Bullinger, and, of course, Martin Luther. We will only name a few of the men of that time. The Paulicians were of the same doctrine, heart, and mind as the groups who, at that time, stayed aloof from the Roman Church and kept the faith! Among those were the Waldensees, the Albigenses, the Montanists, and your Paulicians made four. And Martin Luther came along just about the right time with his reformation that stopped the movement that was getting rid of these folks and killing them off. God timed it just right.

That will give you a little history so you'll know what has been going on in the past with the faithful and the faithless. It's comforting to know that there were faithful men and women throughout the dark ages.

The truth was recovered concerning The Mystery by a man named C. H. Macintosh, the man who founded the Plymouth Brethren Church. Yet that church has never accepted the teaching, sorry to say. Well, we can tell you this: that the Lutheran Church named after Martin Luther has never caught up with his teaching, never! Just one doctrine is enough to show that, and that is the doctrine concerning the immortality of the soul. They've never caught up with Luther on that, as he didn't believe in the immortality of the soul, and that's to be found in his Ninety-Five Theses now in the British Museum.

We would like to remind you of these things to encourage you to stand for the truth. We've had heroes in the past, men who have given their lives, both their service in their life and ending quite often in death because of their faith. Many martyrs! We have a book here in the library, Fox's Book of Martyrs. It's just a good idea to remind ourselves sometimes of the faithful men of the past. And they kept the faith to the death, and there's going to be a lot of crowns. Now, they may not have been perfect in their doctrine, as we're blessed to know today, but they stood for The Truth that they knew it. And that's what is required to be a faithful steward. Faithful with whatever happens to be put in our hands. We today do not know all The Truth. In the immensity of God's Perfect Truth, we know but a grain of sand on a beach, but what we do know in the rightly divided Word of God.