Readjusting the Saints

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The majority of the saints today doctrinally stand on Circumcision ground. Their teaching and experience has been drawn from the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Acts of the Apostles. Assuming that “the church began on the day of Pentecost,” they attempt to creedalize and practice the varying presentations and examples which follow. Now and then some of the teachings of the earlier epistles of Paul are included, notwithstanding the incongruous differences which are continually calling for modifying explanations that never explain!

It is the duty of … the teacher to readjust the saints from this standing into the transcendent truth and grace of the Pauline revelation ordained for the present Secret Administration. This calls for mature wisdom and spiritual understanding.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 25 (1934)
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Things Which Were “Out of an Instalment” Have Been “Discarded”

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… For out of an instalment are we knowing, and out of an instalment are we prophesying. Now whenever maturity may be coming, that which is out of an instalment shall be discarded … (I Corinthians 13:8-11, CV).

Because of Paul’s message of God’s conciliation to mankind, both those who were once near (but separated by a cloud) and those who were far off, now have access, through our Lord Jesus Christ, into the very presence of God. God no longer dwells in a man-made temple, but His spirit homes in human hearts, in close communion with each believer. Those things which were “out of an instalment” have now been “discarded.” With Paul’s perfection epistles “maturity” has been reached. Where, at the time first Corinthians was written, they observed by means of a mirror, in an enigma, yet now it is possible to view face to face and recognize according as we are recognized also (I Corinthians 13:8-12). In spirit we are face to face with God, our Father, right now! There are no clouds in between.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 50 (1959)
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The Great Surprise

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The “mystery” which was “hid from ages and generations” (Colossians 1:26), and “hid in God” (Ephesians 3:9), was revealed to Paul the apostle and teacher of the Gentiles. He alone is the one to whom and through whom the risen, ascended, and seated Lord in glory revealed the surprise of the ages (Ephesians 3:8-11; Colossians 1:24-27).

Paul, during the book of Acts, went to the Jews first before he turned to the Gentiles. It was during this period that the believing Gentiles partook of Israel’s spiritual things (Romans 15:27). When the Gentile believed, he was made to partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree (Romans 11:27). The hope of the Gentiles was linked up with the hope of Israel. This hope must not be confused with the one hope of our calling (Ephesians 1:18; 4:4).

The Great Surprise is not based on covenant blessings, old or new, and does not relate to the seed of Abraham. It was a secret “hid in God,” not known by the prophets, and is not found in the Scriptures except in Paul’s epistles written after the close of entire Acts period.

Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, now says that he is a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles (Ephesians 3:1) and no longer is a prisoner for the hope of Israel (Acts 28:20). The revelation of this mystery was a great surprise. It is the untraceable riches of Christ hid in God (Ephesians 3:8-9; Colossians 1:24-27).

Rex B. Grant (1941-2013)
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The Dispensation Before and that of the Present

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For at present we are observing by means of a mirror, in an enigma, yet then, face to face. At present I know out of an instalment, yet then I shall recognize according as I am recognized also (I Corinthians 13:12, CV).

It is commonly supposed that the thirteenth of first Corinthians contrasts our present experience with our future glory in resurrection. [The idea being that] now we are supposed to see in a glass darkly, but then face to face (I Corinthians 13:12), [and that] then we shall know as we are known. This popular and erroneous interpretation has practically robbed us of the true teaching of the chapter. The apostle is not comparing our experience in this life with that in the next. He is comparing the dispensation before it with that of the present. That was minority; his is maturity. Then matters were dimly seen which now are clear and plain. Now knowledge is not being doled out in “installments” (:8-11). We have a full revelation since the Mystery has been revealed.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 23 (1932)
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Knowing Even as We Are Known

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For out of an instalment are we knowing, and out of an instalment are we prophesying. Now whenever maturity may be coming, that which is out of an instalment shall be discarded (I Corinthians 13:9-10, CV).

Here we have the revelation concerning two eras of time and the respective degree of knowledge and recognition possessed and enjoyed in each. The time of minority or immaturity, when believers knew only out of “parts” or “instalments” of God’s spiritual endowments, apportionments of graces and the preparatory epistles of the Scriptures which they had received “in that era,” in contrast with the time when that which is “perfect,” fully developed, finished, “maturity” CAME, as a result of the revelation of “the SECRET,” which “filled up” or “completed” the Word of God, thus making it possible for them to “know even as also we are known,” with full assurance of understanding and realization in our pre-eonian designation and sonship, our holy calling and justification, our conciliation and peace with God, our transcendent grace and spiritual blessings, in Christ, our Celestial allotment and destiny, our heavenly citizenship and future glory!

Adlai Loudy (1893-1984)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 38 (1947)
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