You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
5 Which[hos] in[en] other[heteros] ages[genea] was[gnorizo] not[ou] made known[gnorizo] unto
the sons[huios] of men,[anthropos] as[hos] it is[apokalupto] now[nun] revealed[apokalupto] unto his[autos] holy[hagios] apostles[apostolos] and[kai] prophets[prophetes] by[en] the Spirit;[pneuma] KJV-Interlinear
5 which in
other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been
revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; NASB
Other ages, is a reference to past history.
Sons of men, is a general reference to mankind.
It is now made known, is a reference to Pauls current day.
Holy apostles and prophets is a reference to the twelve apostles, including Paul, and a reference to those other people to whom doctrine was made known, who were not apostles. In any case, this new information is revealed in the New Testament, and never in the Old Testament, and not in any text that was written after the New Testament that pretends to be of divine revelation but was not included in the New Testament.
All of Gods revelation has been made known within the context of the Bible. New revelation is not an ongoing event where more and more things are revealed to later generations.
This single principle eliminates all religions that have been invented or started after the completion of the Bible. New religions such as Islam or Mormonism or Christian Science and so forth, who take their views from new writings or ideas, and not from the original scriptures.
Gods revelation of the end of the Age of the Israel and the beginning of the Age of the Gentiles was never revealed. This does not mean that the gentiles were not included in Gods original plan, for there are many gentiles revealed in the Old Testament, who were saved.
What was not revealed was that for the failure of the Jews in not presenting the scriptures to the world, and for not receiving the Savior, then their age, their era, was going to be interrupted and a new era was going to be inserted into history and completed before the Age of Israel was to be resumed and completed.
That former age has seven years of remaining time. Those seven years are known as the tribulation and they will include the massive judgments of God against all evil, and they will occur prior to and make way for, the Kingdom of God is established on this earth.
The Old Testament believers rightfully thought that when the Messiah came, He would come to set up His Kingdom after ridding the world of evil. They thought that Rome was that evil. If that was the plan, then after the Cross, Christ would have been resurrected and then the last seven years of human history would have occurred and then followed immediately by His 1000 year rule, and then eternity would have followed. That would all have been completed by the year 1030 A.D.
But not so. Here we are in 2012 and the end is not yet.
Those last seven years have not yet occured, and they will not occur until our dispensation is completed.
Daniel defined the last 490 years of the Age of Israel, and only 483 of them have occurred.
The duration of our dispensation is undefined except in concepts known as historical trends. And the end of our dispensation is also ambiguously defined as accelerations in various things such as knowledge, population, earthquakes, and especially in a 'great' apostasy. Then the end of our dispensation will come. That end being the Rapture.
All of these warning signs are not specific events, but warning trends, designed to get people to believe in Christ so that they will not get caught up in those last seven years of history. Those last seven years will be the worst period of suffering for anyone ever in history.
