A positive message by Dr. E.W. Bullinger
From the book, The Church Epistles
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The Church Epistles
Importance of Their Order
It is a serious blow to Inspiration when the importance of one part of Scripture is exalted above another. To do this is to reduce the Bible to the position of any other book, and practically to deny that the whole is made up of "the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth."
This is done in the present day when, according to the new Ritschlian School, The Teaching of Jesus is exalted above the Teachings of the Holy Spirit by Paul, as though there were a rivalry between the two.
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The words of Christ, and the words of Paul are equal in weight and importance, inasmuch as both are recorded and given to us by the same Holy Spirit; and are therefore equal in authority. That authority is Divine: and no difference can be made between them without jeopardising the very essence of Inspiration.
That there is a difference is clear. But this difference arises from failing to rightly divide the word of Truth as to the various Dispensations of which it treats.
What He said on earth is necessarily of the highest importance to us dispensationally as showing how, through His rejection by His people Israel, "the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles" (Acts 28:28). But that teaching was given to special persons under special circumstances, and it must be interpreted and applied accordingly. It was not designed as a compendium of instruction for the Church of God, for the Church was not then being formed, and, as a matter of fact, the churches to whom the epistles were addressed did not at that time possess the four Gospels as we have them. On the contrary Christ expressly said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth (R.V., 'all the truth'): for He shall not speak of (or from) Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:12-15).
May we not ask How, When, and Where this promise and prophecy was fulfilled? Does this promise refer to us only as individuals, and to a subjective personal communication of the Holy Spirit to each individually? or, Are we to look for some formal and special realisation of the Lord's words? (1)
What is meant by "all truth," or as the Revised Version has it, "all the truth," into which the Holy Spirit was to guide the Church? Where are "the things of Christ" which He was to show unto us? Does it mean that the Holy Spirit shows one truth to one person and another to another person, and these are so different that those who receive them proceed to quarrel as to which is the truth? It cannot be!
Where are we to look then for this specially promised teaching and guidance?
Surely, when we take these words of Christ, in connection with His last seven-times repeated injunction from the glory, we are to look for some specific fulfilment of such a definite promise as this.
All those parts of the promise, "He shall guide... He shall speak... He shall show you..." etc., are very precise, and must surely have a specific performance in some definite teaching of the Spirit specially addressed to "the churches" as such, and not merely to the experiences of individuals.
Where are we then to look for this, if not in the epistles addressed to churches, as such, by the Holy Spirit?
How many churches were so addressed? How many Bible students are there who can say at once how many there are? We have not yet found one who could do so! What a solemn comment this fact is as to the universal disregard for the Lord's last injunction!
Seven churches were addressed as such by the Holy Spirit, seven being the number of spiritual perfection. (There were nine epistles altogether so addressed, two being addressed to the Church at Corinth, and two to "the Church of the Thessalonians'. And nine is the square [or completeness] of Divine perfection: three times three (3 x 3.)
Is it not remarkable that the Holy Spirit addressed seven churches and no more: exactly the same in number as the Lord Himself addressed later from the glory?
The seven epistles of the Holy Spirit by Paul had already been written and read, and neglected and practically forsaken, when Christ sent His own seven to those seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three. This is evident when we compare Acts 19:10 with II Timothy 1:15. Some would tell us to go back to the first three centuries to find primitive Christianity in its purity. But these Scriptures show that we cannot even go back to the first century. The only successors the Apostle knew of were likened to "grievous wolves" (Acts 20:29).
The seven churches to which the Holy Spirit addressed His epistles by Paul are Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. (The other epistles are "General" (John), or are addressed to "Hebrews," or "to the Twelve Tribes" (James), or to "the Dispersion" (Peter), or to individuals (Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and II John.)
In these epistles we have the perfect embodiment of the Spirit's teaching for the churches. These contain the "all truth," into which the Spirit of Truth was to "guide" us. Where are we to look for this "all truth," if not here? These contain the things which Christ could not speak on earth, for the time for such teaching was not then. These contain the "things of Christ" which the Spirit was to receive and show unto us. Where else are we to look for the fulfilment of the Spirit's mission as the great Teacher, if not here?
Not only is the number of these epistles perfect, but their order is perfect also.
The order in which they come to us is no more to be questioned than their contents.
But what is that order? Is it chronological? No! Man is fond of arranging them according to the times when he thinks they were written, but God has not so arranged them. Indeed, He seems to have specially disposed of that for all time, and to have forbidden all attempts to arrange them thus, by placing the Epistles to the Thessalonians last of all, though they were written first.
The question, therefore, is settled for us at the outset, and so decisively as to bid us look for some other reason for the order in which the Holy Spirit has presented them for our learning.
In all the hundreds of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, the order of these seven epistles addressed to churches is exactly the same.
We have examined the five most ancient in existence, viz., the Codex Vaticanus (Cent. IV.), the Codex Sinaiticus (Cent. IV.), the Codex Alexandrinus (Cent. V.), the Codex Ephraemi (Cent. V.), and the Codex Bezae (Cent. V. or VI.).
The general order of the books of the New Testament takes the form of groups, viz., (1) the Four Gospels, (2) the Acts, (3) the General Epistles, (4) the Pauline Epistles, and (5) the Apocalypse.
But while the order of these five groups varies in some of the MSS.: and the Pauline Epistles vary in their position with respect to the other four groups: and while the Pauline Epistles themselves vary in their order (e.g., Hebrews in some cases following Thessalonians), yet the order of these seven addressed to churches never varies.
And, further, though the four Gospels vary in their order (even in the five most ancient MSS.), these seven epistles are never given in any other order than that in which they have come down to us, and are given in our English Bibles.
That order therefore must present to us the line of study marked out for the churches by the Holy Spirit: a complete course which shall begin and finish the education of the Christian: a curriculum which contains everything necessary for the Christian's standing and his walk: the "all truth" into which the Spirit guides him. If he is ignorant of this, he must necessarily err, and be an easy prey for every new teacher who may rise up. He has no foundation on which he may securely rest: no anchorage on which he may depend. He is at the mercy of every "wind of doctrine" against which he has no protection. He will be carried away by any new "views" or teaching that may be put forth from time to time, for he has no standard by which to try them!
How can it be otherwise, if a Christian does not give earnest heed to what has been specially written for his instruction? Every word of Scripture is for him and for his learning, but every word is not about him. But these epistles are all about him and about the special position in which he finds himself placed with reference to the Jew and the Gentile; the old creation and the new; the flesh and the spirit, and all the various phenomena which he finds in his experience.
But now let us seek, in connection with the order in which these seven epistles come to us, for their division into three and four: for such division there must be.
We find it in the fact that three of these epistles stand out distinct from all the others as being treatises rather than epistles; and as containing so much more doctrinal matter as compared with that which is epistolary. This will be clearly seen when we come later on to notice the structure, which exhibits the contents of each.
These three epistles are Romans, Ephesians, and Thessalonians. And the four are placed between these three in two pairs, each pair containing respectively "Reproof" and "Correction" in contrast to the other which contain "Doctrine and "Instruction" (according to II Timothy 3 :16):
A. | Romans (Doctrine and Instruction).
B. | Corinthians (Reproof).
C. | Galatians (Correction).
A. | Ephesians (Doctrine and Instruction).
B. | Phillipians (Reproof).
C. | Colossians (Correction).
A. Thessalonians (Doctrine and Instruction).
(2)
We must leave the inter-relation of these epistles for our next chapter, and then having looked at them as a whole, and in relation and contrast to each other, we propose to consider each of them in the light of the whole, and in detail, as that detail is suggested and brought out by the special relation of each to the whole.
One fact, however, we may notice here, and that is the reason why Thessalonians, which was written before all the others, is put last of all. We may be certain that the order is perfect, and that the reason is divine. Is it not this?
The Epistles to "the Church of the Thessalonians" are the epistles in which the special revelation is given concerning the coming again of the Lord Jesus. If we have "ears to hear," this fact speaks to us, and it says: --(Listen!)
It is useless to teach Christians the truths connected with the Lord's coming, until they have learned the truths in the other epistles!
Until they know and understand what God has made them to be in Christ, and what He has made Christ to be unto them, they have no place for the truths concerning His return from heaven!
Until they have learnt what is taught concerning their standing and their walk, they will be occupied with themselves, and have no use for the truths connected with the Lord's coming again!
How important, then, that we should set ourselves to give heed to "what the Spirit saith unto the churches," and thank God for the opened ear, while we pray that, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, we may see what has been thus written and given and sent to us for our learning. Footnotes:
(1) If this guidance is not individual, neither can it be collective, or find its fulfilment in the Church of God as a whole. A mistaken view of these words has led mere ecclesiastics to see in these words the figment called "the inspiration of the Church" (see an article in The Expository Times, for Oct., 1898, in which this is affirmed). The difficulty with regard to the Church of Rome is at once raised, and is evaded by maintaining that "moral inspiration" must precede and be the foundation of the "doctrinal inspiration," and this "moral inspiration" is seen "in all that greater care for the poor, in all that wider sympathy for suffering, all that deeper horror of bloodshed, in all that greater purity of life, in all that profounder sense of sin, in all that true love of simple, unaffected goodness, etc., etc.
And this is the popular theology of the present day substituted for Christianity by which "the Christian faith" (instead of being the revelation of the Holy Spirit in these seven epistles) has for its striking feature the "power of assimilating itself to the advancing knowledge of the human race"!
(2) There is a further and different division of the seven into four and three. One within the other. We believe that the one we have given above is the true on and the one for our instruction. But there is another more technical, which interlaces it and enhances its perfection.
Four of the seven churches were in what became the Western half of the Roman Empire (now called Europe); and three were in what became the Eastern half (now called Asia).
And each one answers to the other, West to West and East to East, as follows:
West Romans
Corinthians West
Galatians East
East Ephesians
Philippians West
Colossians East
West Thessalonians.
  
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