Divine providence may be defined as God's foreseeing protection and care of His creatures, and in the case of those created in His own image, their anticipated eternal wellbeing. To begin to understand how and why the munificent nature of God’s providence has long been obscured in traditional renderings of the gospel we need to examine more carefully what the apostle Paul wrote on the subject – daring to believe that he meant exactly what he wrote, including some seemingly extraordinary statements in Romans chapter eleven{1}. The apostle makes a more cryptic reference to this mystery in the third chapter of Ephesians, translated in some versions as “the fellowship of the secret (or mystery)”. That happens to be the title of my previous book, for although Paul’s revelation concerning God’s salvific plan for the Gentile nations is by no means the only biblical doctrine that needs to be revisited, a coherent synopsis cannot be provided without it.
On a number of occasions Paul described his evangelistic message as “my gospel”{2}. That was appropriate for it contained aspects that had not been revealed to anyone until his conversion:
The mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations but has now been revealed to His saints, to whom God willed to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory{3}
The apostle was referring to a dispensation of heavenly grace that was to be made available to Jew and Gentile rather than exclusively to Israel, God’s first-choice nation. It would be provided to those “predestined to become conformed to the image of God’s Son”{4}. As Paul himself affirmed (but few appear to have grasped), such privileges were not envisaged for members of the Gentile nations in the current epoch and resulted from the disobedience of the Jewish nation:
"What I am saying is this: Was this stumbling to lead to the Jews’ final downfall? Out of the question! On the contrary, their failure has brought salvation for the Gentiles, in order to stir them to envy. And if their downfall brings great riches{5} to the world, and their loss has brought great riches to the Gentiles – how much more will their restoration bring!"{6}
And later in the same chapter:
"For you (Gentiles) were once disobedient towards God but you have now obtained mercy through (the Jew’s) disobedience"{7}
Paul is referring to the same mystery below, confirming that it was new revelation:
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 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; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promises in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light the fellowship{8} pertaining to the secret (plan) which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with His purpose for the ages which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him”{9}
Saul of Tarsus - The thirteenth faithful apostle
Jesus had called twelve men to the apostolate, partly for symbolic reasons:
And Jesus said to (His disciples), “Truly I say to you who have followed Me, in the Regeneration when the Son of Man will sit down on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel{10}
The symbolism pertained to the reconstitution of God’s chosen people: the twelve tribes, only two of which had survived at this point. Judas was replaced by Matthias who was added to the eleven faithful apostles{11} to witness to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Saul of Tarsus on the other hand was appointed out of due time{12} having been commissioned by the risen and ascended Christ as the thirteenth faithful apostle now that gospel salvation was to be made available to the Gentile nations. It becomes evident as one reads through Acts that in spite of the Great Commission to baptize and make disciples of all nations, it is not until events recorded in the eleventh chapter that any of the original twelve fully grasped that anyone who was not a Jew, Samaritan or proselyte could be granted the same gift of salvation as that intended for the Jews:
I (Peter) realized then that God was giving (the Gentiles) the identical gift He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; and who was I to stand in God’s way? This account satisfied them, and they gave glory to God, saying “God has clearly granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life{13}.
It needs to be understood that references to “eternal life” or “life” in the New Testament relate to being re-united to God in Christ:
And this is eternal life, that they might know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent{14}
And: "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has (present tense) eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day"{15}
And: "No murderer has eternal life abiding in him"{16}
Eternal life (literally age-life) is something to be experienced now; a higher form and quality of life than that which one can naturally know as fallen human beings. It should be noted that even the sinless Saviour asserted that He “lived by the Father”{17} in the same way “those who eat Me shall live by Me{18}. It affirms that “life” as Jesus, Paul and others speak of it does not refer to avoiding perdition or “going to heaven when you die” for that was hardly an issue for Jesus, yet even He “lived by the Father”. It relates rather to a present empowering relationship with the divine; “death” being the deprivation of such.
The mystery revealed to Paul was not apprehended even by Peter until he received a vision of the sheet of unclean animals that he was told to kill and eat{19}. Paul had to rebuke Peter for his reluctance to fellowship with Gentile Christians{20}, again affirming that the mystery Paul was disclosing was not something that Jesus had made clear to the twelve.
Why Old Testament prophecy has been subverted
The subversion of Old Testament prophecy that is to be outlined in this chapter resulted from a two-stage rejection by the Jews of their Messiah, the first during His life, the second pertaining to their response to the apostles’ teaching after Jesus had been resurrected and had ascended to heaven. The first rejection may be perceived in Jesus’ lamenting of Jerusalem:
"If you had known, even you, especially in this your day the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you and your children with you, to the ground, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation"{21}
Whilst many ordinary Jews would welcome Jesus to their city with palm leaves their leaders were indignant and already plotting His downfall. This was the first rejection culminating in the crucifixion and as Jesus stated it put paid to the hope that the coming of the Messiah would bring an end to Israel’s political and military problems. The promise of peace and security for Jerusalem, evident in much prophecy including the recent angelic annunciations concerning the birth of John and Jesus, would not be secured by Jesus in His earthly lifetime, indeed worse was to come for Israel in about a generation’s time as Jesus had warned in His Olivet sermon{22}. However, this is not what resulted in the rejection of the Jewish nation as sole inheritors of the Kingdom that Paul refers to in Romans 11 and Ephesians 3. Such is affirmed in Acts where the apostle indicates that even after Pentecost it was still the Jewish people’s “day of visitation” and they were still not appreciating it. Paul had warned certain Jews at Antioch:
Be careful! – or what the prophets say will happen to you: “Cast your eyes around you mockers; be amazed and perish! For I am doing something in your own days that you would never believe if you were told of it”{23}
The warning was about what will or might happen to the Jewish nation, not what already had happened. Their day of visitation did not end when they crucified Christ: that event that Jesus referred to as His other baptism had been both divinely planned and prophesied{24}; what was shortly to occur was undoubtedly planned or foreknown by God and also hinted at in some of Jesus’ parables but it had not been foretold within the Old Testament. It concerned the establishment of an international messianic community, a plan hidden in God the Father{25} even from earlier prophets. For the Jewish leaders had refused to acknowledge that the resurrection and the miraculous signs were the vindication of Jesus’ earlier claims. They still rejected His Messiahship even now that He had been raised to the highest heavens and empowered His disciples to work miracles in His name. The Jews had already forfeited the prospect of political peace and security through their rejection of Jesus in His lifetime, now something even more radical was at stake: Kingdom inheritance. The next Sabbath, these same leaders “filled with jealousy” towards the apostles, just as they had been toward Jesus used blasphemies to contradict everything Paul was telling them which prompted the apostle to add:
We had to proclaim the word of God to you (Jews) first, but since you have rejected it since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, here and now we turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when He said “I have made (Israel) a light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of the world”{26}.
The prophecy from which Paul quotes (Is49) declares Israel to be God’s servant, through whom He would manifest His glory and by whom He would bring saving enlightenment to the whole world. They as His chosen people, being the first fruits of His increase{27} and heirs of the world{28} would have come to know eternal life (as previously defined) through sanctification in Christ blood{29}; but as the same prophet foretold this had been prophetically linked with the restoration and liberation of their nation and holy city through the direct intervention of a returning Messiah, who as well as residing with his people would act as judge and arbitrator with opposing nations{30}. As a result of their rejection, the universal enlightenment would go ahead without them by means of a newly formed universal assembly founded by their Messiah and His apostles, none of whom would be drawn from the ranks of the Jewish sacral hierarchy. Although it is only briefly alluded to in Scripture, the longed-for national liberation and the re-instatement of Israel to “the Kingdom” would now have to wait{31}. Shortly afterwards at Corinth, preaching in the synagogue, more Jews turned against Paul and started to insult him. Paul took his cloak and shook it out in front of them, saying:
“Your blood be on your own heads; I am clean; from now on I will go to the Gentiles”{32}.
But why should Paul not be clean (or innocent) if he brought such a message of salvation to the Gentiles and the Jews had not rejected it? Was not such salvation envisaged for all? Clearly not: “For as a result of the Jews’ rejection, salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy”{33}. It was not a matter of protocol or order it was a transfer of privilege. This will make more sense once it is has been demonstrated that there is salvation and there is SALVATION. The latter was earmarked for the Jews alone in Old Testament prophecy but was to be made available to the nations through Paul’s revelation concerning the Gentile inheritance. “Salvation” as foretold for the Gentile nations meant one would be enlightened, pardoned in the name of Jesus if one acknowledged Him as Lord, leading to acceptance as a subject in God’s Kingdom, for all who call on the name of the Lord would be spared from perdition. SALVATION on the other hand was to be born again by water and Spirit, delivered from corruption by means of sanctification in the blood of sprinkling{34} resulting in eternal life, being an interior communion with Christ and the Spirit, participation in God’s royal priesthood and a joint inheritance with the Lord of Glory.
In the early chapters of Acts, everything appeared to be following prophetic expectations: Messiah had come, been rejected, executed, raised and ascended. The Spirit had been poured out upon Jews and proselytes on Pentecost, the dead were being raised; demons expelled, numerous miracles being performed, not just by apostles but deacons as well{35}. Even items of the apostles’ clothing or handkerchiefs were taken to people and they were healed. Multitudes came to the apostles for healing, and again, all were healed. The Good News about Jesus was being preached as a result of which Jews, Samaritans and proselytes were receiving the gift of the Spirit, such that at that point Peter could say:
All the prophets that have ever spoken from Samuel onwards have predicted these days{36}
But they had not predicted what was about to follow: Gentiles were to be granted “eternal life” and have equal status with elect Jews as joint heirs with Christ in His Kingdom.
The change of plan
There are plenty of examples in the Bible of God appearing to change His mind or plan in response to events or regretting decisions He had made. At least, that is the way it is presented in Scripture{37} even if from the theological standpoint God foreknew everything in detail. But since He never goes back on His unconditional promises of blessing, His assurances regarding places and people, even if re-ordered will be fulfilled. What for practical purposes might be referred to as Plan A (i.e. what the prophets foretold in the Old Testament) regarding the restoration of the world based on the Jews inheriting the Kingdom is set out most clearly in Isaiah:
It will happen in the final days that the mountain of JHWE’s house will rise higher than the mountains and tower above the heights. Then all the nations will stream to it, many peoples will come to it and say, “Come let us go up to the mountain of JHWE, to the house of the God of Jacob that He may teach us his ways so that we might walk in his paths”. For the Law will issue from Zion and the word of JHWE from Jerusalem. THEN He will judge between the nations and arbitrate between many peoples. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, no longer will they learn how to make war.{38}
God’s Plan according to the Old Testament was to establish a holy nation of kings and priests amongst whom He would personally reside, initially through His spiritual presence in the Ark, later through the physical presence of His Son Emmanuel (God with us). The nations who had oppressed His people were to be judged, but as outlined in Joel, the Spirit would be poured out and the Good News of the Kingdom proclaimed as a witness to all nations before the final judgement came. Many Gentiles would come to Israel’s light and their kings to the brightness of her rising{39}. At such a time “ten men from different nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”{40} In God’s plan as revealed in the Old Testament, the Jews were to be the world’s enlighteners whilst the holistic package we know of as gospel salvation was not intended for Gentile nations at all in the current age. As confirmed in the eleventh chapter of Paul’s letter to the Roman Church it is only through the disobedience of the Jews that Gentiles have any immediate part in it{41}.
This is not so extraordinary as it may appear for internal sanctifying communion with Christ was not possible even to God’s chosen people before the Saviour was incarnated, shed His blood, was resurrected and made way for the Holy Spirit. Whilst sin could be forgiven it could not yet be taken away{42} for a fountain had yet to be opened for sin and uncleanness{43}. Salvation in the gospel sense is healing of the soul{44} resulting in life of an eternal quality{45} even whilst the soul still resides within the “body of this death”{46} as the apostle aptly describes the earthen vessel inherited from our father’s loins corrupted through “original sin”. The purpose of this salvation is for a people to become “holiness to the Lord and the first fruits of His increase”{47}: the people the Jewish nation were prophesied to become for the enlightenment and healing of the world. Then, in the age to come, having shared in His suffering, such would share in His glory{48}, having been conformed to His image and likeness through spiritual gifts, cruciform service and personal discipleship.
The Jew’s intended role as God’s original choice to establish His Kingdom on earth should be equally clear concerning how Jesus regarded His own ministry:
And suddenly out came a Canaanite woman from the district and started shouting, “Lord, Son of David take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil”. But He said not a word in answer to her. And His disciples went and pleaded with Him, saying “Give her what she wants, because she keeps shouting after us. He said in reply. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” But the woman had come up and was bowing low before Him. “Lord”, she said, “Help me.” He replied, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to little dogs”{49} .
Jesus makes it clear that He had been sent to the Jews (the lost sheep of Israel) so that they might be fitted for the Kingdom role promised for them in Scripture; that is why He initially refused to heal this Gentile woman’s daughter. What He had spoken He had spoken and confirmed it with His disciples: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”. Because of His great compassion He was prepared to help such Gentile folk who came to Him. But it is obvious if one reads carefully through the gospel narratives that John the Baptist, Jesus and initially His disciples ministered and preached almost exclusively to the Jews{50}. Through their avoidable failure, the privileges they were to inherit are to be shared with elect individuals drawn from every nation through elective grace.
The Jewish religious elite had expected to be leading the work of God’s coming Kingdom under their Messiah, but the Kingdom role was taken from them and given to a people “who would produce its fruit”{51}. The leadership would be handed over to His personally trained squad of twelve intimate followers. But these were still exclusively Jewish; it was the Jews who were the natural branches whereas elect Gentiles were later grafted in against nature{52}. Jesus had come “as a minister of the circumcision for the truth to confirm the promises of the fathers and also that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy”{53} The Gentiles being the “and-also’s” were to be shown mercy under Christ’s rule with His people and glorify God for it, but now they could be the equals with that same people and share the inheritance reserved for those who were to be sanctified{54}. Once one grasps (i.e. takes literally) what Paul was saying in the eleventh chapter of Romans, particularly vv11, 15 and 30, it explains the opaque nature of our Lord’s eschatological narrative (especially the Olivet discourse) in which He appeared to link the destruction of the temple within a generation to His second coming. For the expectation had been that having carried out retribution to Israel’s enemies and destroyed the wicked, the Good News of Jesus Christ’s kingship referred to as “this gospel of the Kingdom”{55} would be announced as a witness to the Gentile nations so that if they acknowledged Him, at His coming they could be shown mercy through His name and become citizens in His Kingdom. But that is not what we have come to understand as “gospel salvation”. It is not a restoration of the soul for immediate intimate divine communion{56}. It is not the same gift of eternal life{57}. Although absent from Old Testament Scripture, such fulness of salvation had been anticipated for the Gentile nations in the parables of Jesus – God’s vineyard taken from the Jews and given to another “nation”{58} and the wedding feast to which the intended guests failed to turn up{59}. So whilst the Gentile nations’ Kingdom inheritance had been foreordained by God before the foundation of the world{60}, both Jesus and Paul inferred that the only historical reason the Gentiles were to be offered eternal life and a role as priests and kings in God’s Kingdom was because of the intended nation’s unworthiness and unbelief. Such was God’s secret plan, the profound providential implications of which may be beginning to filter into the reader’s mind, in which case congratulations are in order for it had eluded the most influential formulator of Western biblical theology.
The Mystery of Augustine
For much of the Church’s history the understanding has been that God’s benign providence is restricted to faithful Jews and those subsequently elected to Christian salvation; the prospects for the rest of humanity being worse than oblivion. That is in stark contrast to what is being presented here, namely that God’s elect people are, under Christ, the agents of restoring and reconciling the world back to God, not the sole beneficiaries. Humanly speaking it was the Roman African Aurelius Augustinus (AD354-430) and his especially forthright and uncompromising manner in defending the catholic faith against potential heresies together with the extraordinary regard with which he has been held in the Western Church that has resulted in doctrinal errors being incorporated in their understanding of God’s intentions for wider creation and the nature of the human condition. Pelagius, a contemporary of Augustine, was understood to have taught{61} that human nature had not been profoundly wounded by Adam’s sin, so humans were able to fulfil the law without divine aid. Augustine, still more perversely came to affirm that fallen man could not so much as do, think or desire any good at all apart from the grace of the gospel. The heretic Manes had propounded a dualistic view of the cosmos impacting upon human anthropology, leading Augustine to insist that Paul could not possibly have been saying that human nature comprised opposing moral influences from flesh and spirit. The millenarians (chiliasts) of his day were carnally minded so the whole system should be repudiated and man’s future destiny be understood as fulfilled within the spiritual sphere. Though sainted by the Roman Church, Augustine’s insistence that God intended to damn the bulk of humanity was undermined fifty years ago by the Vatican Council’s pronouncements on God’s broader providence regarding His dealings with those outside the Church. Yet the foundational biblical theology underpinning the earlier narrower conceptions has largely remained intact. One has only to contrast Augustine’s grim eschatological montage as depicted in his “City of God” with the relative inclusivity of Vatican II’s “Lumen Gentium” to see how the Spirit has enlightened the Catholic Church through the centuries. But to attain coherence one cannot avoid revisiting many of the theological assumptions that led to Augustine’s treatise, culminating as it does in a cosmic horror story of breath-takin