Search for the Bride

By Arlen L. Chitwood

www.lampbroadcast.org

Contents & Foreword

CONTENTS

            Foreword

1.       Time of the Search

2.        Manner of the Search

3.        When He Is Come (1)

4.        When He Is Come (2)

5.        Seeing the Kingdom

6.        Entering the Kingdom

7.        One New Man

8.        An Awaiting Inheritance

9.        The Invitation

10.      The Response

11.      The Search Concluded

12.      The Departure

13.      The Bride Revealed

14.      Redemption, Marriage

15.      The Son with His Wife

FOREWORD

The Spirit of God is in the world today performing a work related to a new dispensation.  Israel has been set aside, and an entirely new entity, a new nation — the one new man “in Christ” — has been brought into existence (cf. Ephesians 2:12-15; 1 Peter 2:9, 10).

Why has God sent His Spirit to deal with new household servants (this new nation, this new man)?  One thing is crystal clear about the matter.  God has not sent His Spirit into the world to deal with unsaved man relative to eternal salvation, for two very evident reasons:  First, the Spirit was sent to the saved, to do a particular, revealed work (cf. John 16:7-15; Acts 1:5; 2:1); and second, the Spirit was already present in the world doing a work among the unsaved, a work that He has been performing since Adam’s fall.

Fallen man, because of Adam’s sin, is spiritually dead;  and the Spirit has been in the world throughout Man’s Day breathing life into the one having no life.  And He has done/does this on the basis of death and shed blood, allowing man to pass “from death to life” (John 5:24; Ephesians 2:1).

The foundational basic teachings for the Spirit’s work in this respect are set forth in the first four chapters of Genesis.  And these foundational basics, set forth at the very beginning, can never change at any point throughout Scripture.  Man’s eternal salvation, necessitated by Adam’s fall, remains exactly the same throughout Man’s Day.  And this necessitates the Spirit performing a work relative to man’s restoration, beginning with man’s fall, and continuing today.

Yet, God sent His Spirit into the world on the day of Pentecost in 30 A.D., though the Spirit was already in the world performing a work having to do with unsaved man.  Thus, since the Spirit was already in the world dealing with man relative to his spiritually dead state, it is quite evident that God sending His Spirit into the world on the day of Pentecost could have nothing to do with man’s eternal salvation.  The Spirit was already here doing a work in this respect, effecting the birth from above; and nothing could be added to or taken from this continuing work of the Spirit through a work of the Spirit that began on the day of Pentecost.

Rather, God sending His Spirit on this day had to do with a special and particular work among those in whom He had already breathed life (on the basis of Christ’s death and shed blood).  It had to do with a work subsequent to man passing “from death to life.”  And, consequently, everything relating to this special and particular work (e.g., the immersion in the Spirit, the new creation “in Christ,” the one new man, the sealing of the Spirit, the earnest of the inheritance, etc.) can have nothing to do with salvation by grace.

And that should be simple enough to understand, for salvation by grace could only remain unchanged at the time when these things having to do with a work of the Spirit peculiar to the dispensation were brought into existence.  That is to say, the Spirit, at the time of and following events on the day of Pentecost in 30 A.D., simply continued His work relative to salvation by grace (unchanged); but the Spirit began a new work on this day, peculiar to the dispensation (for those in whom He had already breathed life).

Why is the Spirit performing a work of this nature, a work peculiar to the present dispensation?  Where is the line to be drawn between His work relative to salvation by grace (which continues unchanged throughout Man’s Day) and His work peculiar to the present dispensation (which began on the day of Pentecost in 30 A.D. and will end when the work has been completed)?

That’s what this book, SEARCH FOR THE BRIDE, is about.  God has brought into existence an entirely new dispensation; and, in connection with this new dispensation, God has brought into existence the one new man “in Christ.”  And God has sent the Holy Spirit into the world to do a particular, revealed work among those comprising this new man.

This book covers all aspects of the matter, drawing from both the Old and New Testaments.  And this book deals with that which Scripture alone, not man, has to say about the matter.