B. The mystery of God
The present age, which is called the “Church Age,” or the “Age of Grace,” or the “Age of Faith,” was initiated only after Israel had rejected her Messiah, Jesus Christ. It was never revealed fully to the prophets, or even to the angels, that the church age was part of God’s great redemptive plan. In fact, if the Jews had accepted Jesus as their Messiah, it would never have occurred as we know it (see Romans 16:25–26, and Ephesians 3:1–5).

The Church Age was kept a secret for two reasons. The first reason was to guarantee the Jews a full opportunity to accept Messiah and usher in an earthly kingdom in which Israel would become a nation of priests and Christ would rule the world from an earthly throne. If the Jews had known the alternative, they would have had reasons to accept Messiah other than through obedience and love for God (see Romans 11:25). They would have known the alternative was ascendancy for the Gentiles. On the other hand, if they still rejected their Messiah, they would have the excuse that it was already prophesied and thus unavoidable. In such case they would be exonerated from all guilt.

The second reason the Church Age was never revealed was that Satan would never have arranged to have Jesus die on the cross if he had realized that it was the key part of the redemptive process. Therefore the Church Age was never revealed until after Christ had risen from the dead and ascended to the Father. The apostles were given the task of introducing the Church to the world. They were given special powers to heal, speak in foreign languages, and so on in order to accomplish their task (see Ephesians 3:6–11 and 1 Corinthians 2:6–9).

Colossinas 1:24–27; 2:1–2; 4:2; 1 Corinthians 4:1; 15:51–54; Ephesians 1:3–14; 6:18–20; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 10:7

II. The Local Church
A. What is a local church? A local church is a body of saved people which serves the Lord in a specific area.

2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1–2; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1–2