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.
10 To the
intent that[hina] now[nun] unto the
principalities[arche] and[kai] powers[exousia] in[en] heavenly[epouranios]
places might be known[gnorizo] by[dia] the church[ekklesia] the
manifold[polupoikilos] wisdom[sophia] of God,[theos] KJV-Interlinear
10 in order
that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to
the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. NASB
What is the principle reason for the formation of the Church and the Church Age.
Why did God interrupt the Age of Israel, which had only seven years remaining, and stop the last and final days of history, and then place into history our age, which now in 2012, has gone on for about 1,982 years and still going.
The primary reason for our era of history, is to teach and demonstrate to all of the angelic realm, the manifold wisdom of God.
So what is it in our dispensation that is different from all other dispensations, that the angelic realm needs to learn?
Well, if you think about it for a while, just imagine what has occurred during our time, that has not occurred during other times.
And basically there are many things that have occurred that demonstrate Gods wisdom.
But first, understand the meaning of manifold, 'polupoikilos,' and that means diverse, varied, variegated, multifarious, assorted, mixture, many. So during our age, God has made known many types of wisdom to not only people, but to angels. However, the angelic population is the principle target of Gods instruction.
Not only has God created a new spiritual species, in the formation of believers and spiritually mature believers, not only has God demonstrated that with the completed canon of scripture, He, through man, can perpetuate history effectively, even in the face of horrendous natural and manmade disasters, not only has God spread man and the gospel throughout the planet, not only has God, through man, revealed many of the phenomenal secrets of this planet and the universe from genetics to black holes, not only has God revealed the comprehensive nature of His divine plan for man, from birth, to salvation, to spiritual growth, to eternal evaluation and reward, to the promised eternal state, but God has used our era of history to teach not only man, but angels.
The angels were the first of creation. They existed in eternity past with God. They were created simultaneously and did not see a progressive increase in their own population at any time. They witnessed the instant creation of the entire universe and must certainly have been in awe. At least for a time. But then they rebelled, all of them, and turned against God.
We already know that two-thirds of them returned to God, based on whatever the terms were for that return, and one-third of the angelic population rejected God permanently.
God could easily have ended history at that time and then only the saved angels would exist with God forever. But there was more that they needed to learn. And not only has there been many revelations in science and technology and so forth, but the bigger revelation comes in the form of the grace of God, the formation of the Royal Family, the Bride of Christ, and the eternal purpose of this all.
This demonstrates to all angels, that God is indeed perfect and sovereign and that they had an opportunity a very long time ago to have something better, but they blew it, so to speak. And now a lower creature will be elevated to a higher position than they, because of faith, which is something that cannot be measured or contained.
As creatures, we as man, are by far of a lesser capacity and ability, and have seen far less history, than the angels. We can only look back at history through the evidence of bones, through geology and so forth, and have our best guess as to how it all fits together. They lived it.
Angels have witnessed every generation of human history while man can only witness his own generation and read about the past. Most of that past is limited to a hand full of recorded names, out of perhaps a trillion possible names, and the major movements of peoples in macro views of history, never knowing the details of the individual lives of the greater numbers of people from the past.
But with our single dispensation, the promise of salvation has been completed, the royal family is being formed, the spiritual promises through grace are made manifest to all who wish to see, and the plan of God is revealed in its completeness and purpose.
And who is learning all of this? Those who have lived every hour and day, and every year since before man, since before dinosaurs, since before the universe. And it is in our dispensation that all of Gods varied wisdom has been brought together and made known to those who should have known better, but did not.
