Stephen Jones — Soteriology
b3 — Secrets of Time
Salvation-Historical Ages as Redemptive Structure
In the Preface, Jones outlines three successive salvation-historical ages that determine the structure of God’s redemptive plan:
“We stand today at the threshold of the Tabernacles Age. The Passover Age began with Israel’s Exodus from Egypt on the day of Passover and ended at the Cross. The Pentecost Age began in the 2nd chapter of Acts and ended 40 Jubilees later on the day of Pentecost, May 30, 1993. We are now in the transition into the great Tabernacles Age, which will last a thousand years.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Preface
Jones describes the Tabernacles Age as “the great Rest Year, the Sabbath Millennium, during which time there will be an overcoming Remnant who exercise great authority in the earth, whose Word will fully reflect the Mind of their heavenly Father.”
— Jones, Secrets of Time, Preface
As the third purpose of the book Jones states:
“A third purpose—and certainly not the least important—is to instill within your heart a burning desire to know God more, to be more fully conformed to His Image and Likeness, and to catch the vision of the Feast of Tabernacles. […] I hope that you will be challenged and inspired to seek to press into that place of full Sonship and Daughterhood, leaving behind that which we have seen and known in the past, looking only to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Preface
Interpretation: Jones structures salvation history as three progressive phases corresponding to Israel’s three main feasts. Salvation is not a single event but teleological: each age adds a dimension to God’s complete plan, with the Tabernacles Age bringing completion in collective Sonship.
Law as Legal Foundation of Grace
In Chapter 1 Jones argues that grace does not stand apart from the law but is founded upon it:
“The law of Jubilee is the legal foundation of grace. While some disparage the law of God, thinking it is somehow in opposition to love or grace, the law actually establishes grace. There is a law of faith (Rom. 3:27), and by it ‘we establish the law’ (Rom. 3:31). There is also a ‘law of the spirit of life in Christ’ that overcomes the ‘law of sin and death’ (Rom. 8:2). While many today think of law as evil, unjust, fleshly, and unspiritual, Paul says that the law of God is ‘holy, and just, and good’ (Rom. 7:12) and even ‘spiritual’ (Rom. 7:14).” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Jones emphasizes that Paul’s attitude toward the law was one of delight:
“Paul does not grumble about having to obey the law of God. He says ‘I delight in the law of God after the inward man’ (Rom. 7:22), which is his spirit.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Interpretation: Jones inverts the common law/grace antithesis: the law is not the sinner’s problem; the sinner is the problem with the law. Grace functions as acquittal in accordance with the law, not as its abolition.
Justification: Forensic Acquittal from Debt
Jones describes justification as a judicial process before the court of God:
“Sinners who come before God’s throne either receive grace (justification) or suffer the judgment of the law. This simply means that the sinner must know how to legally appeal his case before the throne (the bar of justice in the divine court). Grace means acquittal or forgiveness in spite of the crimes (sins) we have committed.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
The proper way to obtain grace is described as follows:
“‘Your Honor, I admit that I am a sinner, that I am guilty as charged of violating your law. I repent of my lawless attitude, thinking I could sin with immunity. I confess that you are just in all your ways and may justly sentence me to death (Rom. 6:23). However, Jesus already paid the full penalty for my sins, and I have accepted His provision. The law is thus fully satisfied, for my debt has been paid.’ The Judge will answer: ‘Let the record show that this man’s sins have already been paid for in full. Therefore, this court extends grace to him and releases him. He is no longer under the law, but under grace.‘” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Jones emphasizes that God does not cancel debt by repealing the law:
“God does not acquit the guilty by repealing His law; He acquits by upholding the law and paying its full penalty Himself. Never was the law upheld and respected more than when Jesus died on the Cross to pay the full penalty that it had prescribed for our sins.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Interpretation: Jones’ doctrine of justification is strictly forensic: guilt, payment, acquittal. This aligns with Reformed forensic justification, but is embedded in Jones’ broader framework of the law as holy and permanently valid.
”Under the Law” vs. “Under Grace”
Jones provides a distinctive exegesis of Rom. 6:14:
“The phrase ‘under the law’ refers to the Law’s attitude toward you, not your attitude toward the law. A sinner who is convicted of sin (crime) is ‘under the law,’ and the law will stand over him to force him to pay restitution to his victims. A sinner who has been released from his sentence—either by paying the debt in full, or working it off, or having a near kinsman redeem him from debt—is ‘under grace.’ In such a case, the court closes his case, because it has no further work to do and has no further interest in him.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
He concludes:
“Christians need to know that grace is not a license to sin. Grace is only the condition of someone whose sin-debt has been paid, so that the law no longer has occasion against him. The definition of sin has not changed, nor has God ever given man the right to redefine sin.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Interpretation: Jones’ distinction is ecclesiologically consistent: “under grace” is not a state of lawlessness but of judicial freedom because the penalty has been satisfied. Grace motivates obedience to the law, not indifference toward it.
Christ as Near Kinsman Redeemer — Scope of Atonement: Israel and All Mankind
Jones discusses the legal requirement of kinship for the right of redemption (go’el, Lev. 25:47-53) and connects it to Christ’s incarnation:
“This is why it was so important for Jesus to come as a near kinsman. He did so on two levels: (1) ‘He took on Him the seed of Abraham’ (Heb. 2:16) in order to redeem the House of Israel; and (2) He took upon Himself flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14) in order to be a near kinsman to mankind in general. Thus, He can deliver all ‘who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage’ (Heb. 2:15).” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Jones further develops the image of the right of redemption via Rom. 6:16-22:
“Sin was a harsh taskmaster while we were apart from Christ. But our near Kinsman, Jesus Christ, came to redeem us from the debt that we could not pay. […] we have ‘become servants to God’ and are expected to follow His law. In our obedience to His law, we are ‘servants to righteousness,’ and we have ‘fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.‘” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1 (re Rom. 6:22)
[TENSION with traditional Reformed soteriology: Jones combines the go’el typology with a universal scope of atonement — Christ as kinsman-redeemer of all humanity, not only of the elect]
Jubilee as Foundation of Universal Final Redemption
This is the book’s central soteriological thesis. Jones reads Lev. 25:54 as the constitutional law of grace:
“This is grace at its highest level. No man can go so far into debt that he cannot be redeemed by grace in the end. The Jubilee not only allows it; it demands it.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
On those who have not been redeemed during the years of servitude:
“What is to become of them? Are they doomed to remain in bondage to Master Sin forever? No. The law has a ‘statute of limitations’ on sin and debt bondage. This is the law of grace. It is manifested and demanded by the law of the Jubilee, so that even if they are not redeemed during those years of servitude, they must be set free at the Jubilee purely by an act of grace.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Jones appeals to Paul for the cosmic dimension of this jubilee:
“Paul knew about this principle, however, and thus he wrote that all of Creation is groaning in travail, awaiting the manifestation of the Sons of God. All Creation lives in hope for the Great Jubilee of Creation.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1 (re Rom. 8:19)
Jones pointedly notes that those who believe in eternal punishment are less merciful than those who know the Jubilee law:
“It is ironic that those who believe in grace at the expense of the law of God are less merciful in their outlook toward sinners than those who know the law of Jubilee and how it establishes true grace.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
[TENSION with traditional soteriology: Reformed and Roman Catholic traditions read eternal punishment as ontologically endless; Jones reads the Jubilee law as a divine guarantee of universal final liberation]
Distinction Justification / Sanctification / Glorification
Jones makes a sharp distinction between three phases of salvation in connection with the parable of Matt. 18:
“Justification is by faith alone. After one is Justified, then God begins to work in the heart of the Christian to root out the works of the flesh, the bitterness, the unforgiveness. This is part of the Sanctification process, not Justification. Jesus’ parable is therefore not teaching us about how to ‘stay saved.’ It is not about ‘falling from grace.’ It is showing us the difference between the Overcomer and the Christian in general.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Interpretation: Jones holds to sola fide for justification, but places glorification (glorified body, First Resurrection) as a separate category connected to sanctification and the application of the Jubilee law.
Election of Overcomers — First Resurrection
Jones distinguishes multiple “harvests” of resurrection with soteriological consequences:
“If you are one who aspires to be a part of the remnant who will not be sold into bondage at the end of this age, you must know and practice the law of Jubilee in your own personal life. If not, you will be sold into a kind of captivity, and like Israel under Moses, you will ‘die in the wilderness’ (Num. 26:65) without receiving the promised inheritance in the First Resurrection. You will not necessarily die physically, but you will not inherit life in the ‘Barley Harvest.’ You may inherit a land inheritance in the Kingdom, but you will not receive the ‘land’ inheritance lost in Adam—the glorified body. Those who are not glorified at this first appointed time must await a later Resurrection at the close of the Tabernacles Age.” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Jones adds:
“Qualifying for remnant status is not a matter of works, no matter how good those works are. […] You were not saved by disciplining the flesh; neither will you be perfected by disciplining the flesh. Galatians 3:3 says, ‘Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?‘” — Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch.1
Interpretation: Jones’ doctrine of election concerns the order of resurrection and glorification, not ultimate salvation. All humanity will be released at the Jubilee; the “Overcomers” are simply earlier and with greater inheritance.
[TENSION with Calvinist election doctrine: Jones’ election concerns eschatological position, not ontological salvation of some versus eternal damnation of others]