Mark 10:30 reads, “…but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.” Once again, this age grants such blessings as physical houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and farms. There is no denying that God’s hand can grant such blessings. But, “persecution” is also experienced in this present age.
The “age to come” is not heaven but a new world order that grants “eternal life.” In Hebrews 9:11-12, the writer explains that Christ entered the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, which is the Most Holy Place. Many will say that this is heaven. Yet, Hebrews 10:19 has the Hebrew writer exhorting brethren to have boldness “to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Under the old world system, only the priest could enter the Holiest and only once a year (Heb. 9:7). The author is clear about when the saints could enter the Holiest of all. He writes, “The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time” (Heb. 9:8-9). He explains that the way into the holiest was not disclosed as long as the first or outer tabernacle (the temple) was standing. In addition, he explains that the temple was a symbol or “sign” for the “present time.” “This time” or the “present time” in scripture equates with “this age” or the “present age.”
The temple (outer tabernacle) was a sign for that present time (Jewish age), signifying that the way into the Holiest of All was not made manifest as long as the Temple stood in the way. Jesus connects the fall of Jerusalem to His coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3, 27). The end of the age is commensurate with the present generation of that particular context, upon whom the wrath of Christ came (Matthew 24:34). Is it not transparently clear that Hebrews is discussing the same subject as Matthew 24; the presence, the age and the fall of the temple? Were they not gathering together, eagerly awaiting his appearing and so much the more as they saw the day approaching (Hebrews 9:28; 10:25)? Was not this a warning of judgment on the enemies? “For we know Him who said, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge His People” (v.30).
Was not the Lord coming soon, or without delay? Verse 37 reads, “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.”. Regarding the “promise” that God’s people would receive at the coming of Christ, the text tells us they will receive entrance into the Most Holy. Was entrance into the Most Holy a blessing for the “present age” or the “age to come”? Clearly, the blessing was in the “age to come” and entrance was opened up at the fall of the temple. Therefore, the blessings of the “age to come” were opened up or received at the fall of the temple, specifically ETERNAL LIFE! When exegetes quit dividing Matthew and “rightly divide” the word on biblical eschatology, eternal life will be seen in Matthew where it is seen in Hebrews, in A.D.70, at the fall of the temple and the Jewish commonwealth. In fact, this is where it will be seen throughout all the holy scriptures.
1 Corinthians 2:6-10 reads, “Yet, we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before thages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written,
“THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
FOR to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
Several points of interest are brought forth in these passages. First, the “present age” was evil and perverse and coming to nothing (1 Corinthians 2:6). Second, Paul speaks of the “wisdom and rulers of this age” that killed the Lord of glory in ignorance (cf. Acts 3:17). When Paul wrote this letter, they were the “rulers of this age.” Yet, how could they be considered “rulers of this age” if the Jewish age ended at the cross? Further, Paul indicates that, while they are rulers of this age at that moment in time, they are coming to nought. The point is that the envious Jewish leaders with the people rejected Jesus as their Messiah and are about to lose their rule.
If this age is the age after Pentecost and continuing today (“the Christian age”), are we not forced to take the view that Christ died to deliver us from it. Instead of establishing it, we are forced into taking the view that Jesus died to deliver saints from an age that did not yet exist (the Christian age) and that it was coming soon (cf. James 5:7-9). We can understand why he would deliver Jewish Christians from a law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-3) and the subsequent punishment of a nation who rejected His salvation, but the view that this age is the Christian age makes no sense. It also forces us to the ridiculous conclusion that Demas’ defection was because he loved the “Christian age” (2 Tim. 4:6-8). This letter of Paul to Timothy was the last letter Paul wrote in the 60s. At that time, a world system existed that Paul calls, “this present world” and Demas loved it and forsook Paul and his spiritual cause. Demas did not leave Paul in favor of worldliness or for the pleasures of sin. He went back to the Law of Moses and the Jewish world-view.
Paul wrote of Jesus, “Who gave himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4,cf. 3:10-11). When salvation is viewed in the context of the coming wrath of God upon the Jewish nation, it is seen as deliverance from this present evil age. Speaking of Peter, Luke records in Acts 2:40, “And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” When we understand the present (first century) age as the time of God’s wrath upon the nation of Israel, these passages come to light in the context in which they were written. The first century produced a final generation that became the object of God’s wrath.
Unfortunately, some people think that “this age” refers to mortal life on earth and “the age to come” refers to eternity in heaven or hell. But, this does not match the description given in the scriptures.