Every now and then I hear
someone comment that Adam and Eve really made a mess
for the rest of us to live
with. One well-known pastor likes to say, “I’m going to kick Adam right in the
shins when I get to Heaven.” But to be honest, would we have done any
differently?
God has dealt with people in
these many years we have been upon this earth via seven different
dispensations. The seven dispensations are shown as follows:
1.
Innocence: from
the Creation to the Fall
2.
Conscience: from
the Fall to the Flood
3.
Human Government:
from Noah to Abraham
4.
Promise: from
Abraham to Mt. Sinai
5.
Law: from Mt.
Sinai to Pentecost, concluding with Daniel’s 70th week
6.
Grace: Church Age
7.
Kingdom: the
1,000 year Millennium
Honestly, I cannot understand
why some do not see this and get so upset over the reality of this doctrine.
God’s dispensations are easily seen and definitely have a purpose. In my
opinion, there are at least two purposes.
· To prove a point to Satan, and
· To prove a point to mankind
1.
God started out
dealing with man in total innocence, but even in a perfect environment, man
eventually fell by sinning against God. We really don’t know how long this era
lasted.
Adam
and Eve had one command to obey and that was “And the LORD God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
We
all know what happened. Curiosity killed the innocence.
2.
Next God allowed
man to govern himself by his own conscience, but the conscience of man is
corrupt.
“And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and
daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the
Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is
flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in
the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto
the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty
men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man
whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the
creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made
them.” (Genesis 6:1-7)
Man
cannot live by his own conscience without defiling himself.
3.
After the Flood,
God allowed man to govern himself via forming a government of men. That failed
as seen in the following Scriptures.
“And
the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as
they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and
they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and
burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for
morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may
reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon
the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the
tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people
is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now
nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to,
let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand
one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the
face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the
name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of
all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face
of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:1-9)
4.
Next God worked
through a man He named Abraham. He called him out and made of him a nation. He
provided promises to Abraham and his progeny, but Abraham couldn’t wait on God
to fulfill the promise of a son. He and his wife, Sarah, thought they would
help God out.
“Now
Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar.” (Genesis 16:1)
From
Isaac and Ishmael and Jacob and Esau we today are still paying a heavy price
made by the Father of the Israelite nation, Abraham.
5.
Then God gave His
people Israel His own Law for them to follow. The intent was for Israel to obey
God’s Law and witness to the other nations about the one and only true God. It
didn’t happen.
Man
became so full of pride in thinking he was keeping the Law he soon lived as
though he were above the Law.
Jesus
explained to those in His day (1st Advent) that the Law of God could
not be kept by man. Only He could keep the Law (Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the
Mount). Paul explained that the Law was a guide to lead us to Christ.
6.
For the last two
thousand years God has dealt with man through a group of people He calls His
Church, the bride of Christ. He has dealt with man strictly through His own
grace.
I
am so glad to be living in the Church Age. God’s grace is poured out in
abundance upon all man. Those who are willing are saved by legitimate
child-like faith in Jesus Christ and kept for eternity by His power. That’s it!
When
this age comes to an end, the Son of God will personally come for all who have
come to Him in faith and remove us to Heaven before His judgment falls upon the
earth during Daniel’s 70th week (the 7-Year Tribulation).
[PARENTHETICAL:
DANIEL’S 70TH WEEK, OR THE 7-YEAR TRIBULATION]
When
the Church Age ends the seven remaining years of Daniel’s prophecy (Daniel
9:20-27) will begin. These years are seven years of 490 that are still due
Israel from the Dispensation of the Law.
God
says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to
finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Daniel 9:24)
The
remaining seven years are just as important as the first 483, so they are
coming. After the completion of the full 490 years (483 + 7), there will be the
Millennial Age.
7.
Finally, after
the Church is removed, and the seven years of Tribulation ends, man will enter
one last dispensation, and here is where we come full circle, with one
exception. Everything will be just like it was in the Garden of Eden, but
instead of just two people, there will be millions living on the earth during
the Millennium. But again, man rebels.
At
the end of the Millennium, Satan and all his followers (angels, demons, and
mankind) are all consigned to the Lake of Fire for all eternity. Those who are
left belong to God and enter eternity with Him.
So what’s the point you say?
The point is that without God living within us, we cannot live for Him.
1.
We can live in
total innocence, then temptation comes along and we sin.
2.
We can follow our
conscience, but our conscience is flawed.
3.
We can form a
government, but governments become corrupt.
4.
We can accept
God’s promises (and He will keep all of them), but still stray in sin.
5.
We can have God’s
Law spelled out for us, but we can’t keep it.
6.
We can even be
privileged with grace, and reject it.
7.
We can live
without Satan’s influence and still sin.
The point is spelled out to
Satan and to all mankind, that without the righteousness of God, we cannot be
qualified to live in His presence. Furthermore, the only way to obtain the
righteousness of God is through His Son. We are not qualified regardless of our
environment.
Sin was here long before man
came upon the scene, and we can live in any generation under any type of
dispensation and still not be qualified to be in God’s presence.
Throughout every
dispensation, there was always one thing that needed to be exercised and that
is “true faith.” Additionally, the object of our faith can only be Jesus
Christ. From the Age of Innocence to the Church Age all looked forward to the
cross. In the Church Age and even the Millennium it’s all about the cross.
Pick your dispensation. You
cannot save yourself regardless of which one you choose. We must be saved by
Jesus Christ, and if our faith is not rested in Him, we will leave this world
lost for all eternity.
Grant Phillips
Email: grantphillips@windstream.net
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
