by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Paul spoke of God showing the exceeding riches of His grace “in the ages to come<\/em>” (Epheisans 2:6-7). Thus, the gospel of God’s grace would keep spreading for ages <\/b>to come.<\/p>\n Some erroneously think that Paul wrongly thought that Jesus would come back in his lifetime, but Paul knew the end of mortal life would end when Jesus returned (I Corinthians 15:22f) and he knew it would not be very soon since the gospel of grace would be showing the exceeding riches of His grace “in the ages <\/b>to come.<\/em>” There would be many long ages <\/b>of time for the gospel to spread.<\/p>\n John in the vision of Revelation saw a lot of things happening, including putting down of the beast (the Roman Empire) and a thousand year period, symbolic of a long <\/b>time. Thus, there was no concept of the immediate return of Jesus in their lifetime. The modern AD 70 hyper-preterist gets this all wrong. There would be a lot more history, ages <\/b>to come, before the final day of resurrection to immortality.<\/p>\n In the meantime, we need to keep exploring and enjoying the exceeding riches of His grace. We are still in the ages of grace. There will come a time when grace will no longer be offered. On the last day, we will be judged as to what we did with the exceeding riches of His grace. Dig in and enjoy while you have the chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Paul spoke of God showing the exceeding riches of His grace “in the ages to come” (Epheisans 2:6-7). Thus, the gospel of God’s grace would keep spreading for ages to come. Some erroneously think that Paul wrongly thought that Jesus would come back in his lifetime, but Paul knew the end…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[745,744,339],"class_list":["post-4793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-a-d-70-theory","tag-preterism","tag-second-coming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93199,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/scoffers-in-the-last-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":0},"title":"Scoffers in the Last Days","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts\" (II Peter\u00a03:3). Scoffers are those who would laugh off the pure word of God. For example, they would scoff at the idea of a worldwide flood, Noah, and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42197,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gods-timing\/","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":1},"title":"God’s Timing","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day\" (II\u00a0Peter 3:8). \"Where is the promise of His coming?\" (II Peter 3:4) is the question Peter has been addressing. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32726,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-you-explain-romans-1125-27\/","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":2},"title":"Could you explain Romans 11:25-27?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I found your website online trying to do some research. Can you please tell me your perspective on Romans 11:25-27 and to whom Paul is referring? Answer: \"For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87330,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-last-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":3},"title":"The Last Days (Benton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Did you know that the \"last days\" can mean the last phase of earth-life that can itself involve \"ages\" of time? Peter said that what happened on Pentecost was part of the \"last days\" predicted by Joel (Acts 2:16,17), and then Paul said Jesus had spoken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-different-gospels\/","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":4},"title":"Are there different gospels?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have been seeing more and more about the Kingdom Gospel vs the Gospel of Grace. Dispensationalism is becoming very popular on YouTube, and people are actually turning toward this teaching. I have seen comments that the churches of Christ intertwine the kingdom gospel and the grace gospel.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-principalities-and-powers-in-heavenly-places\/","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":5},"title":"Who are the principalities and powers in heavenly places?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who are the principalities and powers in heavenly places that the church can make known certain things? Answer: \"To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}