The Church Epistles
by E.W. Bullinger
This classic and scholarly work deserves a wide circulation among the people of God, especially those who love
God's Word and are hungry for deeper truth.
The Church Epistles was first published in book form in 1902 from
a series of articles written in 1898. Our text is taken from the second edition, published in 1905 (some shorter
footnotes have been incorporated in the text and biblical references have been modernised).
The present work
appears to have taken second place to The Foundations of Dispensational Truth, first published posthumously in
1911. While Dr. Bullinger modified his teaching on the chronological order, he quotes at length from the present volume
and states that "for us today... the canonical order is the more important" (page 82, third edition). Earlier on the
same page he writes: "It is not that one order is right and the other wrong. Both are right; neither is wrong. Both are
important, but not equally so..." He takes the same stand in How To Enjoy The Bible (1907), and this is repeated
in the Companion Bible, just prior to the book of Romans and also in Appendix 192. I have not yet found any
statement in his writings where he discounts the experiential teaching of the canonical order of the epistles to the
seven churches.
I have found great enlightenment in the divine order emphasised in this work, and having now
prepared it for electronic publication I am convinced of its timeliness for new generations of Bible students.
I
trust that this republication will encourage believers to study the epistles to the churches afresh, the "complete
course which shall begin and finish the education of the Christian; a curriculum which contains everything necessary
for the Christian's standing and his walk; the 'all truth' into which the Spirit guides him."
Peter Wade
Continue with
Introduction |