J.H. Heidegger's Corpus of Christian Theology: Theology in General: Revealed Theology, Part 2

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20.  Three diverse economies of Theology and Revelation are distinguished.

But, just like the Revelation itself, Revealed Theology also had diverse times, and diverse modes of revelation.  For, God πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως, at many parts (of time) and in many modes (of revelation), in time past spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets, ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων, in these last days, hath spoken by His Son, Hebrews 1:1, 2.  That is, God promised the hope of eternal life before the ages of the world; but He hath revealed it καιροῖς ἰδίοις, in due times, Titus 1:2, 3.  For a certain Economy in the Church has He, its very head-of-household, instituted; as He made known the mystery of His will, εἰς οἰκονομίαν τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν, at the dispensation of the fulness of times, Ephesians 1:9, 10.  But, just as in a human Economy the physical parents prudently vary the manner of education and instruction with the increasing age of the children:  so in His spiritual economy the Heavenly Father, instructing His people ‎כַּאֲשֶׁ֙ר יְיַסֵּ֥ר אִישׁ֙ אֶת־בְּנ֔וֹ, as a man instructeth his son, Deuteronomy 8:5, has done the same.  For He accommodated His revelation in one way to the merely νηπίῳ/Infantile age of the Church, from Adam to Moses, Jeremiah 2:23, Ezekiel 16:7, 8; but in a different way to נְעוּרָיו, its Adolescence, flourishing from Moses to Christ (same passages); in yet another way to its Adult and mature age, running from Christ to the end of the world, John 4:35-38; Ephesians 4:13; Galatians 4:4.  Where one may say this method always observed by God, that Revelation has proceeded from easier to more difficult things, from clearer to more obscure things, from the word of the beginning of Christ to perfection, Hebrews 6:1.[1]

21.  The first economy being infantile, from Adam to Moses.

In the first merely Infantile age, from Adam to Moses, God, lisping to the Church, as it were, and governing the same with greater liberty, which sort infants generally enjoy, just as He made use of the least measure of revelation, so He made use of one altogether simple mode of revelation, namely, the living voice.  For, immediately after the fall He revealed Himself to our First Parents in Paradise, and laid the foundation of all Theology and revelation, consisting in the promise of the seed that would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15).  Which Revelation of the Promise, indeed, embracing all the most sublime matters, was preserved by tradition Divinely inspired ἀγραφῶς, without writing:  both immediately from the beginning through the authority of the parents harmoniously passing it down, especially of Abraham, to whom God solemnly renewed the promise under the binding obligation of covenant; and through the institution of sacrifices, Divinely approved even through visible ἐμπυρισμὸν/burning;[2] and through the patience of God subjecting creatures to vanity;[3] and, finally, through the very Wisdom of the Divine oracle in souls illuminated by the Spirit of God, it was efficacious unto faith, in such a way that many men of that age were made the heirs of righteousness by faith.  In those same men, faith, resting upon Divine revelation, caused νόησιν, an understanding, of those arguments, whereby it is apprehended, that the worlds were framed by the Word (Hebrews 11:3), and that it was necessary to walk with God, Genesis 5:24.  The Promise of God begat faith in man:  Faith begat charity and a zeal for the glory of God:  and Conscience illuminated by faith begat in the soul the discernment of good and evil.  The Promise was the beginning of faith; faith was the nurse of charity; conscience was the instructress of the right and the good.

22.  The second economy being adolescent, from Moses to Christ.

Thereafter, the Law, as ἐπίτροπος καὶ οἰκονόμος, a tutor and governor, Galatians 4:2, supportive of and added to the promise, brought in the Adolescent state of the Church from Moses to Christ:  under which God granted a greater measure of revelation, and in the place of the single mode of revelation He delivered a double mode, that is, the living voice and writing:  the former indeed because of the remaining imbecility of infancy; the latter because of the greater capacity of a more advanced age.  For God willed that through Moses those things were written that would serve for the perpetual instruction of the Church, and would in their own time be an instrument even for the Gentiles to become acquainted with Christ and His Kingdom, and would in the last time be a testimony for convincing and converting the Jews.  In which manner the Tradition that was in the world was not so much abolished as confirmed and augmented; and so Scripture is opposed to false Tradition, as a present antidote; and, finally, that antidote was produced, so that, if the overseers of the people should depart from the truth, the people itself might have an instrument, handed down and commended by those very overseers, for knowing the truth and discrediting falsehood.

23.  The third economy being mature, from Christ to the end of the world.

Finally, the third Mature age, beginning from the time of Christ and the Apostles, and proceeding to the end of the world, graciously granted the most radiant brightness, as it were, of revelation to wayfarers:  thus it observed, and continually observes, the most perfect mode, according to that age, of revelation through Scripture alone, written by the Apostles and Evangelists.  For, although the Gospel was preached by the living word of Christ and the Apostles; yet, because heresies, offences/scandals, and the apostasy were going to come, those that προκεχειροτονημένοι, had been chosen, for this by Divine Providence, Acts 10:41, wrote those things that, conjoined with the Scripture of Moses and the Prophets, are able to be profitable for every use of edification forever.[4]  In which manner each is able privately to give attention to the Revelation now published and completed:  and that living word of Christ and the Apostles is able, in a certain manner, to remain more constantly among us than fixed air:  and true Tradition and κατήχησις/teaching is able to be discerned and defended:  and chaff and falsehoods are able to be stricken down.  So we now have the Scripture, the highest rule of faith and practice, against which no Reason prevails, and outside of which no Tradition is extant.

[1] Hebrews 6:1:  “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ (τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ λόγον, the word of the beginning of Christ), let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God…”

[2] See Leviticus 9:24; Judges 6:21; 1 Kings 18:38, 39; 1 Chronicles 21:26; 2 Chronicles 7:1.

[3] Romans 8:20, 21.

[4] See 2 Timothy 3:15-17.