The envy that would have existed on the part of the O.T. saints as they would envy what you have, would have been a distraction to their spiritual life in most cases.
No pastor can exercise his spiritual gift apart from dispensational orientation.
There is a principle called biblical numerology where the numbers in the scripture mean something.
#1 = Unity --- Deu 6:4 The Lord Your God is One Lord
#2 = Two affirms that there is a difference between one in the Bible like good and evil. It refers to division or difference.
#3 = stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire.
God's attributes are three: omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence.
- There are three great divisions completing time--past, present, and future.
- Thought, word, and deed, complete the sum of human capability.
Three denotes divine perfection;
Seven denotes spiritual perfection;
Ten denotes ordinal perfection;
Twelve denotes governmental perfection.
#4 = God's creative works. (N+S+E+W) The number four usually has reference to all that is created.
Four is the number of the great elements—earth, air, fire, and water.
Four are the regions of the earth—north, south, east, and west.
Four are the divisions of the day in the Bible—morning, noon, evening, and midnight.
Four are the seasons of the year—spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
#5= GRACE
#6= MAN (666)
- The serpent also was created on the sixth day.
- The Sixth Commandment relates to the worst sin,—murder.
#7 = The great number of spiritual perfection AND THE FINISHED WORK.
#8 = something new, newness, or that which is brand new or the ultimate newness.
Eighth is really not a number of a dispensation because it is eternal and therefore it is not called a dispensation because it has no end.
7 Dispensations
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- Dispensation of Innocence
- Dispensation Of Conscience
- Dispensation Of Human Government
- 4. Dispensation Of Promise
- Dispensation Of The Mosaic Law
- Dispensation Of Grace
5b. Tribulation Period - (Mosaic Law)
- Dispensation Of The Millennium
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The dispensation of Innocence.
The first dispensation began with the creation of man and ended with the fall of man from God (Gen 1:26-3:24.
The ruling factor which God used to govern man during the first dispensation was an unconfirmed favorable disposition.
This favorable disposition was unconfirmed. This means that man was not locked into it forever. He could lose it by his own choice.
Man's favorable disposition toward God was unconfirmed because man had not chosen it for himself.
He did not show Adam all the types of dispositions which were possible and then give him the option of deciding which type he wanted.
The only way that man's favorable disposition could become confirmed was for man to be confronted with an alternative to being favorably disposed toward God and then for him to choose to remain favorably disposed.
This dispensation involved only two individuals over an indeterminate length of time. Adam and the woman, whose name was Ishah, were created perfect in body, soul, and spirit.
The historical record of this period is found in Genesis 1:26 -3:6, written retrospectively by Moses under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, who insured the perfect accuracy of the record (1Pe 1:21).
This period of positive volition, or perfection, or “innocence” as it sometimes is called because of the absence of sin, was characterized by two divine institutions: volition and marriage.
God made the volitional issue clear: obedience or disobedience to God.
Just as God created Adam the ruler of the world (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:19-20), God also gave him authority over Ishah (Gen 2:18-23).
Both the man and the woman ate the forbidden fruit, violating the volitional issue.
By succumbing to Satan, the woman also disregarded the authority of her husband. And the man, in accepting the fruit from the hand of his wife, defaulted in the exercise of his authority over her.
Even with the changes that resulted from the Fall, the perpetuation of the divine institutions is an early example of continuity or stability from one period of biblical history to the next.
Neither human perfection, perfect environment, divine warnings, nor the divine institutions then in effect kept man from the original sin.
Neither perfect environment nor the ideal marriage can solve man’s most basic problems, which are solved by the grace of God (cf. Phi 4:11-13; Eph 5:22-33).
In the first dispensation, they did not run and hide from Him when He approached them.
This favorable disposition was unconfirmed. This means that man was not locked into it forever.
When God created Adam, He gave him this type of nature or disposition in accordance with His own sovereign choice.
The only way that man's favorable disposition could become confirmed was for man to be confronted with an alternative to being favorably disposed toward God and then for him to choose to remain favorably disposed.
- Be fruitful and fill the earth. Multiply, Gen 1:28
- Rule over all creatures and the earth. Gen 1:28
- All plants are for man's food. Gen 1:29
- Man is to take care of the Garden of Eden. Gen 2:15
- Man may eat of all trees in the Garden. Gen. 2:16.
- Man MUST NOT eat of the Tree of Moral Knowledge. Gen 2:17
- Man will have marital unity. Gen. 2:24-25
Man's responsibility during the first dispensation was to obey God and develop a confirmed favorable relationship with Him.
The alternative was for man to reject God's rule over him and assert his own self-rule - just as God is His own Self-Ruler.
He displayed his choice outwardly by eating the forbidden fruit in violation of God's command.
Man died spiritually as soon as he made his choice.
A great separation took place between man and God.
Man lost his favorable disposition toward God and replaced it with a disposition of enmity against God.
Rom 5:10 "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life."
Adam and the woman hid from God when He entered the garden to talk with them after their original sin; Gen 3:8.
- Man was so thoroughly locked into it that he could not rescue himself from it.
- In addition to spiritual death, man became subject to disease, deformity, accidents, and physical death.
- The woman was cursed with pain in childbirth and with the desire to rule the man. The ground was cursed, thereby making man's work of growing food much more difficult.
- Man lost his perfect environment.
- Because man followed Satan's lead to rebel against God's rule, Satan was able to usurp the rule of the world system away from God temporarily.
Instead of living in a world system ruled by the benevolent God Who loved him, man was doomed to live in a world system dominated by a tyrant who would use man for his own selfish ends.
PSA 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
In Gen 3:15 God pronounced the first promise of the Redeemer Who would be born of woman into the world during the course of history.
In the first dispensation, man disobeyed, then came the judgment, then came the ray of hope, the promise of the coming Messiah.
Blessing - Man's failure - God's Judgment- (Grace - blessing - hope)
As God progressively worked out His purpose for history, two of the great things which He would accomplish through the Redeemer would be the provision of redemption for fallen man and the defeat of Satan.