Breaking the Cycle

Praise the Lord.

I want to invite you out to our Sunday afternoon services from 3-4:30pm.

Help me Holy Ghost.

It took everything in me to stay on task and complete this subject matter this week.  But next week, I will address this next topic that has me burning up so much that I almost …  Pray for me, but I will try to be as gentle as I can but its just so incredibly amazing to me that when you see the ship is sinking that instead of attempting to plug the leak, save the women and children first, make sure everyone has a life vest, you would rather continue to try to find fault, point fingers, attempt to lead without wisdom, etc, etc.

Next week will be one you don’t want to miss.

Dispensational Distinctions – the Principal of Rightly Dividing the Word – Part 2

Another word is ‘TIME.” also in Eph. 1:10 — “the fulness of times…” The word times can have various meanings, one of its meanings is of a period of time during which God is working out His purposes, sometimes it separated by new command or covenants. The Bible speaks of the “times of the Gentiles” (Lk. 21:24), the “times of the restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21), and “this present time” (Rom. 11:5).

In Acts 1:7 we find the phrase “the times,” referring to God’s plan. These are also called “the seasons.” God’s great calendar which was expressed in the Feast days. These periods of time are where God is working out His eternal purposes toward fulfillment. These periods in the Bible are called “dispensations,” “ages,” “times.” Some are general some are more specific.

Whether one sees this many dispensations, they have to concede there are at least three where God dealt with man differently.

1) The Garden of Eden. Pre Mosaic – without the Mosaic law, (Jn.1:17): This dispensation, is a time of innocence when man did not know of sin. We have no time measurement for this, it could have been months or years, we know that Adam lived to 930 after he sinned. We do not know the age of when he failed the test by the temptation that came to Eve by the Serpent.

After sin, Mankind was outside the garden and reproduced under sin. The people of God did not have circumcision, the Sabbath or Mosaic laws i.e. or the priesthood. They did have the moral law which continued –instilled in them as the image of God  man was created in.

From the fall of Adam’s fall to the Flood (Genesis 4-8; 1,600 years). There was no law, but there were prophets sent by God, such as Abel, Enoch, and Noah. God left man to grow his sinfulness. Man corrupted the earth and had to be destroyed in the flood, with only Noah and his family being saved to continue the human race. This period lasted roughly.

At this period God changed the food from (Gen.1:29, 2:9). After the judgment by the flood we read that God said: “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”

Man went from being a strict vegetarian to adding meat to his diet of eating vegetables. But there were restrictions with eating the meat (Gen. 9:3-4).

After the Flood to the building of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 9-11, 400 years.) God gave Noah and his children new commandments. First, replenish the earth (Gen. 9:1). And He commanded them to put murderers to death (Gen. 9:5-6). He established a covenant in that He promised never to destroy the world with a flood (Gen. 9:8-17).

It is later when the Mosaic law is given that animals are put into two categories to eat “that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Lev. 10:10). Prior to the flood mankind did not eat meat, after the flood mankind was given permission to eat meat. Early on animals were in two categories, clean and unclean for sacrifices. Later in the Mosaic covenant to make Israel a distinct people they were clean and unclean for food.

The time period from Abraham to the giving of the Law to Moses for the first time to mankind (Gen. 12-50, 430 years). During this period, God began building a nation through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham was given a covenant (Gen.12) the rite of circumcision and was used to build a nation that would be separate unto God, called Israel. Israel was made from the 12 sons of Jacob and brought into Egypt. Thus preparation for the giving of the law.

Till next week,

God Bless.

Rev. Dr. Robert L. Harrison, PhD