The Bane
of Not Discerning the Time
By Fred
O. Blakely
One
of our Lord's severest rebukes of the unbelieving Jews was for their failure,
or refusal, to properly judge and identify the "time" of His advent
among them, and the age of grace which He came to announce and inaugurate.
"Ye hypocrites," He cried, "ye can discern the face of the sky
and of the earth, but how is it that ye do not discern [or interpret] this
time?” (Lk. 12:54-57; cf. Mt. 16:1-4). Later. He wept over the City of
Jerusalem because of the blindness and stupidity which prevented its people
from seeing and evaluating things as they were with reference to Himself and
His kingdom (cf. Jn. 1:10-11). "If thou hadst known, even thou, the things
which belong unto thy peace!" He lamented, as He envisioned and foretold
the coming devastation and carnage by the Romans. This destruction, He went on
to declare, would be "because thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation" (Lk. 19:41-44; cf. Mt. 11:20-24).
The
King of glory was among them, and continually proclaiming His reign of grace
which was soon to commence. But the Jews, caught up in their misconceptions of
Messiah's Nature and government, did not recognize Him, though He completely
fulfilled all the prophecies pertaining to the first coming of their Prince.
Or, if they did realize something of the true situation, they were unwilling to
recognize and comply with its demands upon them; thus, the Lord's charge of hypocrisy.
In either case, they, to all practical intents, discerned not "the
time" with which they were confronted, or failed to rightly judge
concerning it, and interpret its meaning and requirement with reference to
themselves.
It
is interesting to note, by way of contrast, the way of the spiritually wise in
this connection. "He that is spiritual," says Paul, "judgeth all
things" ["appraises everything," Weymouth; "reads the
meaning of everything," Moffatt] (I Cor. 2:15). "A wise man's heart
discerneth both time and judgment, declares Solomon” (Eccl. 8:5). Such was the
wisdom of the men of Issachar, who "had understanding of the times, to
know what Israel ought to do" (I Chron. 12:32). On the other hand, as was
the case with the Jews of Jesus' earthly day, it is the folly and misery of man
that he "knoweth not his time" (Eccl. 9:12).
Alas,
the first-century Jews were not the last to misjudge "the time" of
our Lord's kingdom, failing to understand its character. In consequence, the
mass of dissimilar and competing religious groups which today poses as the
church of the one God and the one Christ exudes confusion, bringing reproach,
rather than glory, to the divine Name. Because they do not rightly judge of the
present kingdom, the heterogeneous denominations cannot properly operate in it,
and frequently contribute more to the bedarkenment of people than to their
illumination in the Lord. It has often been remarked that discernment of the
distinction between the nature of the two covenants which God has made with man
is essential to the steering of a straight course under the new covenant, which
is now operative. It needs to be equally stressed that the same is true of
"the time" in which we live
under Christ. It is only to the extent that its necessary nature is perceived
that people can live or teach acceptably concerning it.
As
we have previously observed, one of the chief, and most confusing, failures of
discernment at this point involves the failure to distinguish the provisional
and temporal aspects of the kingdom from the abiding ones. Like it was with the
appearance of Moses and the giving of the first covenant, the coming of Christ
and the propagative work of the Apostles in regard to the second one were
attended by "signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Ghost," according to God's will for that era (Heb. 2:1-4).
When,
however, the Sonship of Christ was fully established by the miracles which He
wrought—climaxed by His resurrection and exaltation to God's right hand—and the
new covenant was duly confirmed by the attesting miracles performed by the
Apostles and "apostolic men", the need for such credentials was fully
served, and these special gifts ceased. That is the way it veritably is; that
is the nature of "the time" in which we now live. It is a time of
"no open vision" (I Sam. 3:1)—a time in which the justified live and
walk by faith, not by sight, and the written Word of God—"the record that
God gave [not, is giving] of His Son" (I Jn. 5:10)—is, indeed
"precious."
But
those imbued with the Davidic and Solomonic flare for kingdom display and
carnal glory choose not to see it that way. They revel in the thought of the
physical displays of first century wonders, and, like Simon, must have them for
themselves, even if required to pretend such possession. Hence, we have the
wresting of such Scriptures as Mark 16:14-20 in the attempt to prove Christ has
promised all baptized believers the miraculous powers, whereas a true reading
of the passage reveals that the promise was only to "the Eleven"
Apostles.
Pursuant
to this misjudging, and misrepresentation of the present "time," we
have the spectacle of every Tom, Dick, and Harry of an assembly laying hands on
the sick and praying for them in the expectation that they shall recover.
Against this absurdity, it ought to be considered that almost thirty years
after our Lord's ascension, when James gave about the only specific instruction
of the new-covenant writings applicable to praying for the sick in our time, it
was the Elders of the local assembly who were to do the praying (and they only
by special invitation into the sickroom), and that nothing at all is said about
the laying on of hands (Jas. 5:13-16).
Many
similar outcroppings of undiscernment of "the time" are, of course,
evident in today's religion. Included among these is the insistence that one
who has a "beginning" of “confidence" Godward (Heb. 3:14), or
faith which puts him into Christ, is fully assured by God of eternal salvation,
regardless of subsequent unbelief, with its fruit of overt sin. Such corrupted
doctrine, which clashes head-on with the teaching of Christ and the Apostles on
the subject (Lk. 8:4-15; Jn. 15:1-7; I Cor. 9:24-27; 10:1-12; Heb. 3:6—4:2;
6:1-8; 10:38-39; Rev. 2:10; 3:5; cf. Mt. 10:22), is based on perversion of such
Scriptures as that which chronicles God's promise to David (Psa. 89:19-37), and
some of the declarations of Christ and the Apostles.
The
reader will be able to identify and consider tor himself other instances of the
failure to comprehend "the time” in which we live. The point is, they all
underscore and stress the vital importance of "rightly dividing the Word
of truth" (II Tim. 2:15), or "understanding what the will of the Lord
is" (Eph. 5:17). It must be remembered that we are commanded by an Apostle
to know "the time,” or rightly interpret it, and comport ourselves and
regulate our teaching accordingly (Rom. 13:11-14). Sincerity and zeal,
important as they are, are not of themselves enough (Rom. 9:1-4). If we are to
serve God acceptably "in the gospel of His Son" (ch. 1:9), we must do
so "with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding"
(Col. 1:9-10).
