God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

Monday, July 12, 2010

T. Austin-Sparks on Eternal Purpose

T. Austin-Sparks with Watchman Nee

When talking about the effects and reason for World War II, T.Austin-Sparks was cited as writing in A Witness and a Testimony, about that issue in September 1943.

It was stated in the biography if Sparks called "Shaped by Vision," by Rex Beck.

Here was Sparks' conclusion:

(1) God's object in this dispensation has never changed, and it is the same as ever.

(2) From time to time His emphasis has rested more particularly on different phases of that object, and has thus sought to recover its fulness.

(3) At the end of the dispensation there will be a divine concentration upon the whole object, and less upon mere aspects of it.

(4) The inclusive object is His Son and "the One New Man;" Christ as Head and the "called out company" as "Body" = one corporate man; organic, living, related, interrelated, interdependent, and spiritually authoritative under one anointing - Head and members.

(5) To this all "things" must give place, whether they be teachings, traditions, institutions, missions, organizations, etc. The Lord will not be interested in anything only in so far as it ministers to His sole and utter purpose.

God is after a Man, a Race-Man, a Corporate Man; "conformed to the image of His Son;" to "have dominion;" and this demands that - as not since the beginning - Christ should come into His place as Lord and Head. The great "movement" at the end should be a "Christ movement!" Everything in the world points to this necessity.

Austin-Sparks called this - rightly - the Eternal Purpose, throughout his writings and spoken ministry.



Shaped By Vision --2005 publication. Click Left for Book