Endtime Ministries...
Australian Bible College Course

The Calvary Bible Fellowship of N.Z. has given permission for an Australian Diploma Course to be constructed along the needs of our Despatch subscribers.

Unit 2.  Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

2 Timothy 2:15

 

INTRODUCTION.

Unit 2 in this course is the gaining of Dispensational Truth so as to form a skeleton on which to hang their biblical Studies. The questions involved are being put in separately, those wishing to do this series contact us via email.

*For Charts mentioned in the body of any of the Unit notes click here for info

What does the word dispensation actually mean, and why is it perhaps the most important aspect of bible study the student can ever grasp? Dispensation is a biblical word which is the Greek word oikonomia, which has a wide range of meanings. It basically means to manage to dispense. It connotes law or the arrangement of a house. Three times the word is translated stewardship.

What is the general understanding we should grasp from this word? Well, applied to the ages of history, it refers to God's management under an ordering of history so that He could make provision for mankind, rather like a household manager orders the home. Dr Ironside suggests that the word economy is the best expression of this word dispensation. Just that there are many economies in our world, religious, national, domestic, many organizations, so there are also many ways that God arranges the history of mankind.

Is the word scriptural?

Yes, it is used in 11 Tim. 2:15; Eph. 3:2; 1 Cor. 3:2.

The dispensations have an obvious beginning and an obvious ending. Even a casual reader of the Bible can easily see these. Excepting for the last dispensation, they all end in apostasy and failure. By this God shows man that he is truly a dependent upon the Almighty, and that mankind cannot operate alone, separate from the Creator. Man is a mere creation, who was made to utterly depend upon God's provision, enablement, strength, mercy and love.

Well, let's get a beginning glimpse at these different periods of biblical history. By understanding these the student will be able to steer clear of the major heresies of the church scene in the 1990s. Amazing statement? Yes, but I believe this to be true, for the major problem areas of heresy today have to do with Replacement Theology, that is replacing the promises, plans and worldly program for Israel to THE CHURCH! This has bred Dominionism, Kingdom Now heresy, Latter Rain revival heresy, and even the Toronto Blessing has ridden on the back of Replacement Theology. Even the political movements of Christendom which seek to superimpose the Mosaic Law over the countries of the world, and falsely believe they have a mandate to take the world for Christ, have their roots in Replacement Theology. How important then that we understand what dispensational Bible study is all about. We cannot overstress this, although dispensational teaching has been pushed to an extreme by some over zealous believers. We should not let ourselves be swayed into disregarding this important study, nevertheless, because of a few abusers of the biblical truth. We can go too far in everything, balance should become one of our favourite words. In a general sense then here are the recognised dispensations:

Let's look at the chart, The Master Plan, which gives a general outline of dispensations. We will refer to this and also to the Larkin Chart, which is more complicated and needs to be studied in your own personal Bible study times.

The Edenic Dispensation, called sometimes The Age of Innocence. This ended in catastrophy at the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The next dispensation was the Pre-flood dispensation, the Dispensation of Conscience. It ended in failure and the universal flood. Next came the Human Government dispensation which ended in the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel, and the Gentiles were scattered across the earth. After this came the Dispensation of Promise, the Abrahamic period, which ended in failure again and bondage in Egypt for Israel. After that came the Dispensation of Law, the Mosaic period, which finished with Israel being set aside after captivity and Roman Rule, then Israel being scattered. Then came the period we live in now, the Dispensation of Grace, the Church Age, which will end in apostasy and the Great Falling away which the Bible predicts, leading into the Tribulation. The next dispensation is only seven years long, so it is sometimes not referred to as a dispensation. For our purposes I will include it as a dispensation, the Dispensation of Judgement, or the Tribulation. The Future Dispensation or the Kingdom Dispensation comes next, there too there will be failure. Lastly we enter into the Eternal Period, which will alone be perfect.

If we carefully distinguish between these dispensations, we will then see that we must interpret various aspects of divine revelation in passages according to the instruction in 11 Timothy 2:15 - rightly dividing the Word of Truth. We will not then take promises to Israel and make them appear to be to the New Testament Church. Nor will we take the plan of God for some other dispensation and try to make it fit into our own lives, as individuals or for groups and nations.

Augustine said, Distinguish the dispensations and the Scriptures will agree. To finish our introduction, dividing the Scriptures according to the plan of God, correctly, is in full harmony with Biblical truth, which always speaks of AGES in the plural, not just an age, singular, of mankind. We can easily see this in Heb. 9:26; Col. 1:26; Eph. 2:7. Heb. 1:2 is another passage, the word worlds being important here. This is a word which means periods of time, world periods really. The dispensations are GOD MADE, we must understand them. Aion according to Vines New Testament words, meaning an age or a period of time.
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EXAMINE CAREFULLY THE MASTER PLAN CHART - first dispensation.
 

1. THE FIRST DISPENSATION -
....INNOCENCE. GENESIS 1-3.

This dispensation cannot be fully dated. We do not know its duration, but it went from the creation of Adam until the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Mankind began in wonderful conditions, there should have been no problems for Adam and Eve. They had beautiful surroundings. birds sang in the trees, glorious fruit were on the trees, they had vegetables and lush green plants, crystal clear water to drink, and the purest of air to breathe. There were flocks of cattle probably, waters filled with multi-coloured fish, it was indeed paradise beyond what we could possibly imagine. That mankind lost such an existence has always seemed to be tugging at the back of our minds. Surely this is why the world in the 1990s, just before the new millennium, desperately wants to return the globe to a paradise, a Utopia. The New Age New World Order is wanting an Edenic existence, but without returning to the Lord God in repentance, and humbly accepting God's Almighty Sovereignty, which is His Holy Right.

When God created Adam he formed him from the dust of the earth, as we read in Gen. 1:7. When God created woman, He took a rib from Adam's side in order to make the woman. God caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam, and a surgical operation took place! Whether God closed up the wound at once or Adam kept sleeping until it healed we are not told, specifically. Adam certainly knew where Eve had come from, as we see in Gen. 2:23. WOMAN is the word Isham, and man is Ish. She had no name however until Gen. 3:20, and Adam named her. Up to then she was only called the woman.

The Bible has an interesting discussion on the fact that woman came from man. It discusses the fact that ever since Adam, every man that has been born on the earth has come from woman! This was why the woman was called Eve, she was the mother of ALL living, every man on earth has come from Eve, but also from a woman, his mother's womb. Let's look at that New Testament passage. 1 Cor. 11:8-11. Read in your own Bible. (KJV).

Was Christ Jesus in the first dispensation, or should we just confine His Life or Work to the one where He came in the flesh? Christ Jesus is actually the focal point of all history, not just the Church dispensation in which we live. He was the whole focus in the first dispensation, as He is the ETERNAL CHRIST. he didn't just come to do His work of Atonement on the Cross, He was there in the Garden of Eden because HE was the One through which the universe was created. Compare Gen.1;1 with John 1:4. Let's look at our chart, The Greater Life and Work of Christ, see the circle THE WORD, CREATION.

Jesus Christ declared Himself to be Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Rev. 1:8,11. He is the author and finisher of faith in Heb. 12:2. There is nothing on earth that does not have Christ Jesus as centre, as the Second Person in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As you read John 17:5, remember that this One was Lord God or Jehovah of the Old Testament. He is the Eternal Christ. John 17:5.

While all things were made by Christ Jesus, He was moved with the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit. This is revealed in Gen. 1:26. Christ's glorious work in creation is shown in Isaiah 40:12.

Well, what went wrong in the Garden after God created Adam and Eve? They were given a test by God, see your Chart the Master Plan. The test was that they should not eat of a certain tree in the Garden. Just one tree out of perhaps thousands. It was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Gen. 2:16-17 What happened was that the first people on the earth failed the test and they ate from that tree. Gen. 3:1-6. Now there are some misconceptions about what actually happened when Adam and Eve fell. There is no record that God ever gave Eve the command to not eat of the tree, although Adam probably informed her. It only says that ADAM was commanded by God to not eat. We should note that Eve was deceived by the tempter as shown in 1 Tim. 2:14. Note also that Adam was NOT deceived. This means that Adam knew what he was doing, but Eve did not know, deceived means that you think something is correct when it is not! The Bible tells us that through ONE MAN sin entered the world, not through one woman. If this were not so then Christ Jesus would have become the second woman and the Last Eve, not the second man and the Last Adam. 1 Cor. 15:45; 15:22. Adam was head of a creation just as Christ is the head of a new creation. Adam was held entirely responsible before God as he was the federal head of the race. None the less, of course Eve also fell into sin.

What was the judgement in this first dispensation, see your chart, Master Plan. The judgement was Curse and Death, Gen. 3:16- 19; 23-24. This judgement ended the Dispensation of Innocence

Why was it called the Dispensation of Innocence? Because they did not know that there was good and evil, they only knew righteousness and goodness. When our first parents ate of the forbidden tree, they developed a conscience of evil deeds, they knew about good AND evil. The actual judgement of God is not understood terribly well either, by many people. Let us look at the verses and we will see that an angel holding a flaming sword did NOT guard the way to the Tree of Life. Read Gen. 3:21-24. Note that there are Cherubim, and a sword that turned this way and that. Cherubims are of the angelic race, but they are not mere angels as we shall see. The sword seemed to be a kind of revolving sword, most likely lifted high in the air, rather like the pillar of fire which guided the Israelites in the wilderness, only this time it turned. Exodus. 13:21.

The Cherubim are seen in Ezek. 1:13, and the whole chapter. The Cherubim have a position of guarding or vindicating the holiness and justice of God against the sinful rebellion of man. They are the living creatures, or zoon the same word that we get our English Zoo from. See them again in Rev. 4:4-11. Here we see them worshipping the Lord as Creator of all things. How different to worshipping the creation itself, as the foolish New Age does!

Why were Adam and Eve driven away from the Tree of Life? Because they had changed at the Fall, they were now in sin. Their natures were now sinful, they had died spiritually, thou shalt surely die, and they would suffer because of separation from their Creator. If they had been allowed by God to eat of the Tree of Life then, after they had fallen, they would have lived forever and stayed in a fallen, agonized state eternally, with no way back. But God promised them THE SEED OF THE WOMAN, a stupendously gracious provision from the Triune God. Gen. 3:14-19 shows us the Adamic Covenant. Read. What does this covenant show us? It shows us the conditions which fallen man must endure after Innocence. We still have these conditions, and will keep them until Christ Jesus comes to earth and establishes His Kingdom in the Millennial Reign.

This is why it is foolish to imagine that there can be a Utopia on earth brought in by the New Age New World Order. There is a CURSE on this world , people. We are in bondage to corruption. Read Rom. 8:21. We will have weeds, animals that kill, pests and plagues, earthquakes, storms, chaos, death and suffering UNTIL Christ Jesus repels the curse! No one can do that but Him!

1. The Serpent was cursed, he was Satan's tool.

Weird isn't it that the symbol of so much in today's world of New Age dominance is the Serpent, even to our own aboriginal dreamtime Rainbow Serpent. One of the deepest mysteries of the Atonement of Christ has to do with the Serpent symbol. Christ being made sin for us in bearing our judgement. Num. 21:5-9; John 3:14,15; 11 Cor. 5:21.

2. The FIRST PROMISE of a Redeemer
is found in this dispensation, Gen. 3:15.

This is the highway ,
right through Abel, Seth, Noah (Gen. 6:8-10),
Shem (Gen. 9:26,27),
Abraham (Gen. 12:1-4),
Isaac (Gen. 17:19-21),
Jacob (Gen. 28:10-14),
Judah (Gen. 49:10,
David (11 Sam. 7:5-17),
Immanuel-Christ (Isa. 7:9-14, Matt. 1:1, 20-23; 1 John 3:8 John 12:31).
The Highway of the Seed, promised to the woman.

3. The changed state of woman is shown here.
Motherhood is linked with suffering, the headship of the man Gen 1:27. Woman who had been created in the image of God, was now under a dominance of the physically stronger.

4. The earth is cursed for man's sake.
It is better for a fallen mankind to battle with a reluctant earth than to live in misery without work to fill his life.

5. There is now sorrow and physical death,
as well as spiritual death.

Did God lie when He said that if they ate of the forbidden tree they would surely die? Surely not, but when they ate, they were still standing there weren't they?
If I said you would die if you drank from a bottle of poison I had , and you went ahead and swallowed it down, then, today you were still not dead, and tomorrow you were still standing there, and even after hundreds of years you still had not dropped dead, wouldn't I have lied? Yes, but God meant that as soon as they ate of the forbidden tree they would die spiritually, and they DID! And eventually Adam and Eve died physically as well. As soon as they ate, the spiritual part of Adam and Eve died immediately, and so it has been ever since for mankind. Only Christ Jesus can give us spiritual life anew, when we are born-again. John 3:1-5.

So, the first dispensation of Innocence ended in failure, and our first parents were driven from the Garden. BUT a glorious promise is given about the Seed, and a sacrifice is shown in Gen. 3:21. God made the fallen pair coats of skin and clothed them. Up to that time they had been clothed with the glory of the Lord. The skins were a type which pointed to the fact that a covering could only be secured by the shedding of blood, possibly lambs. This shows us even here that only the Lamb of God can put away man's sin, by the shedding of Blood. Heb. 9:22. The skins also speak of the garments of glory which the resurrection body will have. Salvation is in this dispensation by faith in Christ alone, as the Promised Seed.
 

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