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Evening School of the Bible
Dispensations and Ages
Household rule of the Dispensation:
Knowing good and evil, man is to do good and rule over sin, Genesis 4:7
No law is given
Steward of the Dispensation is Cain
Instructed by God to rule his sin nature, Genesis 4:7
Evening School of the Bible
Dispensations and Ages
A Dispensation is a period in time in which God gives His expectations for the conduct of life through a steward for those in the household.
Requirement for setting the rules to determine a dispensational period in Scripture
Must be taken from Scripture.
Based on the normal use of dispensation in the everyday language.
Makeup of a dispensation
Master – God
Steward, Genesis 41:41-43 ; 43:19
Household
At times it is all humanity.
Other times it is only specific groups of mankind (Jews, the Church).
A household can have only one steward at a time, Luke 16:2 .
The steward is responsible for dispensing the rules to the household, Luke 12:42 .
Only the person given the instructions for God’s expectation of conduct for the household is the steward.
Evening School of the Bible
The First Dispensation
In the Garden of Eden
Household rule of the Dispensation
Do not eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 2:17
Only one law
Penalty for breaking the law was dying
Spiritual Death (Separation from God), Romans 5:15
Physical Death (Soul and Spirit separated from the body), Romans 5:12-14
Other instructions involving daily activity but not conduct
Tend to the garden, Genesis 2:15
Multiply and fill the earth, Genesis 1:28
Rule over all animals and sea life, Genesis 1:28
Diet consist of herbs and fruit, Genesis 1:29
DISPENSATIONS
A system of order for a household by which the steward dispenses rules and provides for the household according to the owner’s requirements.
God uses dispensation to show something to human about humans
“Dispensation” comes from a Greek word that is a combination of the words “house” and “law”. It is the standard by which a household is managed.
Dispensation is not unique to Scripture. The concept of a steward running a household by the standards that the master sets are well recorded in human history, dating back thousands of centuries. Today we do not tend to use the word “dispensation”, rather, we express the same concept by “administration”. Scripture uses this well-known concept of a dispensations (administration) to reveal to us what God is doing and how to properly discern the standards God has set for the household we are in, which is the household of Grace.
Biblical Requirements for a Dispensation
Scripture defines what a dispensation is and gives us the standard by which we can discern all of the dispensations that are revealed by God. Scripture specifically states two of the dispensations, the dispensation of grace, and the dispensation of the fullness of times. Along with these two dispensations, when we examine how the concept of a stewardship works in Scripture and history we are provided with a solid foundation for the requirements for any dispensation. Applying these standards will result in a proper understanding of the dispensations revealed in Scripture.
All dispensations must have:
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The sixty-six books of the Bible span thousands of years of human history and beyond. They begin before God created man and end with the creation of new heavens and a new earth where righteousness settles down and feels at ease[1]. Within the pages of the Bible, we see changes in God’s relationship and standard for mankind and the failure of mankind to live up to God’s expectation, which ultimately brings judgment. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was not allowed to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil[2]. Upon eating the fruit from this tree, his spirit was separated from God[3], he became subject to physical death, and he was expelled from the garden[4]. Having been expelled from the garden, God’s expectation for humans was for them to properly govern the manner of their lives by the knowledge of good and evil, now that they possessed it. However, again, men failed, and God judged the earth by bringing a flood[5]. After the flood, God instructed Noah that men are to govern themselves and that capital punishment is to be implemented[6]. Again, men fail to follow God’s instruction, reject God, and seek their own way. Therefore, God brought judgment and forced man to separate and spread across the earth[7]. This judgment brought about multiple languages and the division of the continents, which caused man to spread out across the earth[8]. Having scattered man across the face of the earth, God then approaches Abram and ultimately offers him four covenants[9]. These covenants included a promise of land that Abraham and his descendants […]