WHY THE CHURCH-AGE, THE DISPENSATION OF THE MYSTERY, IS SO IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO MASTER

Why the Church-Age, the dispensation of the mystery, is so important for you to master.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

f. The divine division and provision of the different dispensations.

These divine divisions of different dispensations are periods of times in human history expressed in terms of divine revelation for that period.

The inerrancy of the Word of God is the only true source for looking at history from the divine viewpoint.

Dispensations are the means that God uses by which believers living at a specific time in history can adjust to God’s will, and God’s plan and God’s purpose for their lives.

The whole key to understanding every dispensation is based upon the courtroom trial of the angelic conflict and how the biblical interpretation of history relates to the different dispensations and to that conflict.

The oldest book in the Bible from the standpoint of writing is not the book of Genesis but the book of Job which is written in Archaic Hebrew.
The very first book that God gave man starts out with a scene in the courtroom of heaven and the angelic conflict and a man being entered into evidence testing.

The very first passage of human history began in a courtroom, actually the Garden of Eden, with two individuals, Ish and Ishshah, or Adam and the woman, being interrogated by Satan, whose name means attorney, accuser, and who is called serpent, Gen 3.

Then human history ends with the last book of the Bible, Revelation, with mankind standing in another courtroom, the Supreme Court of Heaven, before the Great White Throne Judgment to plead their case before God as to why they did not think they needed Him.

Since God is light, and since He won’t be there, there will be no light where they live.

Since God is love, and since He won’t be there, there will be no love where they live.
Since God is holy, and since He won’t be there, there will be no holiness, where they live.

a. The sovereignty of God.
b. The integrity or holiness of God.
c. The love of God.
d. The life and personality of God.
e. The omnipresence of God.
f. The omniscience of God.
g. The omnipotence of God.
h. The faithfulness of God.
i. The happiness of God.
j. The grace of God.

The Church-age, the dispensation of the mystery = the intensified stage of the appeal trial of Satan and the angelic conflict.

Oikonomia - “the management of a household or of household affairs” (oikos, “a house,” nomos, “a law”).
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament = it is used for the “divine plan” of salvation and spiritual instruction or training in faith.

Theocentric Dispensations refer to the Old Testament periods of time emphasizing and glorifying God the Father’s purpose in the divine provision of dispensations as they relate to the angelic conflict.

Two Theocentric Dispensations -
1. The age of the Gentiles in the Old Testament, Adam to the Exodus generation, 1441 B.C.
2. The age of the Jew, 1441 B.C. to the first Advent of Christ, 4-5 B.C.

Two Christocentric Dispensations where TLJC is the center of the dispensation -
3. The Hypostatic Union, 4-5, B.C. to His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, 30 A.D.
4. The Church-age, 30 A.D., to the Rapture, ? A.D.

Two Eschatological Dispensations:
5. The Tribulation, from Rapture to the Second Advent of Christ.
6. The Millennium, from the Second Advent to the last Judgment.

There are basically six dispensations, which is interesting because in the Bible, 6 represents the number of man and therefore it can refer to history of man.

7 represents God’s perfection, His sovereignty and holiness, and therefore the after human history is completed we will enter into the eternal state.

God the Holy Spirit restored the earth in seven days.
The seven-day week is a reminder of our creator.
God blessed the seventh day, making it holy, EXO 20:8-11.

Noah took every clean beast and every bird by sevens, and in seven days it rained; where’s that in the Bible? Gen 7.
The New Testament has the seven loaves; seven devils exorcised from Mary Magdalene; forgiveness seventy times seven.

Revelation has seven churches.
Luke’s Gospel demonstrates that Jesus was predestined for greatness because great men occurred in multiples of seven generations starting from Adam, Enoch at 7, Abraham at 21, David at 35 and Jesus at 77.
Also in Acts, there were seven deacons of the church.

LUK 6:40 “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”

Six dispensations divided into three categories:
1. Theocentric
2. Christocentric
3. Eschatological

Our Lord accomplished the strategic victory of the angelic conflict through His salvation ministry on the cross plus His physical death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

The believer accomplishes the tactical victory of the angelic conflict through his advance to spiritual maturity in the PPOG; at this point he becomes an invisible hero.

In the Church-age, if enough believers grow to spiritual maturity to form a pivot, there will be prosperity in certain portions of the earth.

(1) Angelic power, manifest by a lot of demon possession among unbelievers and a lot of demon influence of believers.
(2) Human power, organized for influence and control.

Our Lord will have representation on earth until the Second Advent when the devil’s kingdom comes to an end.

Jesus Christ does not come down to the earth today to bail you out as He did with believers in the past.

You have a portfolio of invisible assets and the PPOG.

If God performs a miracle, it is an insult, for it can never be compared to your portfolio of invisible assets.

During the Old Testament, Jesus Christ was present many times on earth, including His incarnation, which occurred in the dispensation of Israel.

In the Millennium He will be on the earth ruling for 1000 years.

The provision for the Royal Family of God is infinitely greater than any grace provision of any other dispensation in history.

God’s grace provision of the portfolio of invisible assets plus the PPOG in time duplicates the grace provision of eternity past and the prehistoric angelic conflict.

All the demon activity, wars, invasions, and violence of the coming Tribulation period is absolutely nothing compared to your challenge in the Church-age. As a winner, you demonstrate the validity of the sentence to fallen angels in eternity past.

The Church-age exists to challenge Satan during the absence of Christ from the earth.
This is why you have many problems and difficulties in your life, EPH 6:12, 2CO 10:3-4.

While Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, the Church exists to challenge and to utilize divine power to defeat Satan’s purposes. Because of the great power experiment of the Church-age, this dispensation is the crossroads of history, the intensified stage of the angelic conflict, the final blow to Satan’s power on earth in the spiritual realm.

In the angelic conflict, Satan tries to convince people that God is unfair, unjust, and a God who is not merciful or gracious.

In this dispensation of grace, the Church-age, the dispensation of the mystery, God demonstrates the fallacy of the satanic lie through people who are graced-out totally.

There has never been a time in human history where so much power has ever been released toward merit-less objects for the fulfillment of the plan of God.

There is an infinite gap between divine perfection and human imperfection and grace is the infinite filler that fills the gap.

EPH 3:2 - calls this the dispensation of the total grace-out.
2CO 6:9 we are unknown yet well-known,