THE DISPENSATIONS OF GOD (Genesis through Revelation)

One key to understanding the Scriptures is to “rightly divide the Word of Truth.” There are a number of different ways the Bible can be divided in order to understand the parts as well as the whole. One of the ways is by means of the dispensations, which are contained in the Scriptures.

To understand exactly what a dispensation is, there are two major words in the Greek language from which the concept of dispensations comes. The first Greek word is oikonomia, from which our English word “ecumenical” is derived, means, “to manage,” “to regulate,” “to administer,” “to plan.” The second Greek word, aion, means “age,” and emphasizes the dispensation in its element of time. So, on the one hand, the term dispensation refers to a specific way by which God administers His program and His will in the world, and on the other hand, it covers a period of time.

As to its content and meaning, a dispensation is a stewardship, a responsibility, or an administration. As to time, it is an age, because every dispensation covers a period of time. Within each dispensation, God administers His economy, His rule, His authority, and His program in some different way than the previous dispensation.

Dispensations are separate periods of time in which God dispenses His will in a specific and unique way, based on a covenant upon which a particular dispensation is founded.

There are seven specific elements or facets involved in each dispensation. First, each dispensation has one or more names, which somehow show what the basic rule of life was for that particular dispensation. Secondly, each dispensation has a chief person to whom special revelation is given. Thirdly, each dispensation provides a responsibility to man because each dispensation begins with new revelation which requires a human response.

Fourthly, there is a specific test. Fifth, following the test comes a specific failure. Sixth, there is a judgment that brings the dispensation to an end. And seventh, each dispensation has something that characterizes divine grace.

The first dispensation is given two names: The Dispensation of Innocence or the Dispensation of Freedom. The names are used to emphasize different aspects of this dispensation. The first name emphasizes the fact that Adam and Eve were innocent of any sin or sin nature at this time. Theologically, their state is called “unconfirmed creaturely holiness” in that they were created holy. But the holiness of Adam and Eve had not yet been confirmed because they had not yet been tested as to whether they would stay true to the Word of the Lord. The second name emphasizes their freedom from sin; they were not slaves to sin.

The key person for the first dispensation was Adam. God revealed His will, divine economy, and divine administration through Adam.

During the Dispensation of Innocence or Freedom, man's responsibility was to the Edenic Covenant, the covenant that God had made with Adam and Eve in Eden. The basic content of the Edenic Covenant contained two aspects: responsibility to the earth and responsibility to the Garden of Eden. Concerning the earth, they were responsible to subdue it, to replenish it, to multiply on the earth, and to take control of it in general. Concerning the garden, they were responsible to till the garden.

The specific test of the Dispensation of Innocence or Freedom was the test concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was a test to see if Adam and Eve would obey the most minimal demand of the divine will. They had absolute authority over the entire planet. As far as the Garden of Eden itself was concerned, they had absolute authority over it and had the right to eat of every single tree in the garden, including the tree of life. So the test was very minimal.

If Adam and Eve had passed the test, their state would have changed from unconfirmed creaturely holiness to confirmed creaturely holiness. This means that they would have passed from the ability to sin to the ability not to sin, or better, they would no longer have the ability to sin after their holiness was confirmed.

This was the same kind of test that all of the angels underwent when they were first created. All angels were created in unconfirmed creaturely holiness. Then came the test. Satan was the first to fail, and he was followed by one third of the entire angelic host. The one-third who failed the test are now totally corrupt. Two thirds of the angels did pass the test, changing their state from unconfirmed creaturely holiness to confirmed creaturely holiness. Now they are no longer able to sin whatsoever.

The same thing would have been true for Adam and Eve. Had they passed this test, they would have been confirmed in creaturely holiness just as the good angels and would not have been able to sin anymore.

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve did fail the test. They ate of the very tree from which they were forbidden to eat. As a result, their creaturely holiness was not confirmed. Just as the fallen angels, they, too, were corrupted and became totally depraved in their nature. Total depravity means that sin had touched every part of their being and every area of their human lives.

The judgment in this dispensation was expulsion from the garden and the curse upon the earth. The expulsion from the garden meant they were now expelled to a place outside the garden and the tremendous environment which they had within the garden was no longer available to them. They would no longer be able to eat freely from every tree found in the garden, nor would they be able to eat from the tree of life.

Instead of having an easy working relationship with the ground so that labor was easy and light, the toilsome aspect of labor was added. Adam would now have to work the earth by the sweat of his brow in order to be able to eat. Furthermore, the curse meant the earth would no longer be his friend, but his enemy. As Adam would try to produce things from the earth, he would have a continual war with thorns and thistles.

The display of God's grace is seen in that, at the same time as the expulsion from the garden and the cursing of the earth took place, God also promised a Redeemer. In Genesis 3:15, God promised that a Messiah would some day come who would do two things. First, He would defeat the enemy of man, Satan, who brought about the curse, the expulsion, and the Fall of Man through his temptation.

And secondly, He would be the One who would conquer the curse and have the curse removed. Physical death, which was a result of this Fall of Man, would be overcome by the Resurrection of that Last Adam and by the ultimate resurrection of all people.

The second dispensation also has two names. It is called the Dispensation of Conscience or the Dispensation of Self-Determination. The first name emphasizes the principle by which God dispensed His economy: conscience was the way God governed mankind in this dispensation. The name comes from Romans 2:15, which states that God dealt with men for a period of time on the basis of their conscience until, finally, their conscience became so defiled and seared that it was no longer possible to continue governing God's economy in the world in this way.

The second name emphasizes the other side of the coin of conscience: man was given the freedom to follow the dictates of his conscience. His obligation was to follow through with what his conscience demanded. If he followed his conscience, his self-determination would have led to holiness; but if he did not follow his conscience, or if his conscience was defiled, blackened, darkened, or seared, then his self-determination would go in the opposite direction.

The chief person in the second dispensation, as in the previous one, was Adam. Adam received some new revelation which spelled out the principles and requirements of this new dispensation.

The responsibility for this dispensation was obedience to the Adamic Covenant, found in Genesis 3. Among the requirements of the Adamic Covenant were: the responsibility of the wife to be in subjection to her husband; the working of the land in toil and sweat of the brow; the concept of physical death; and a number of other things.

Man was responsible to the Adamic Covenant, and the key element in this responsibility was faith in the promised Redeemer. Contained within the scope of this covenant was the promise of Genesis 3:15, in which God told Satan: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. This verse promised that a time was coming when a human descendant of the same woman that Satan had tempted, bringing about the Fall of Man would some day conquer Satan and crush his head.

The promise was that the Messiah would be after the seed of the woman. This goes contrary to the normal biblical pattern. Normally, a man's line was traced through the genealogy of the father, not the mother. It was always through the seed of the male, not the seed of the female. That is why all the genealogies in Scripture always contain the male line, and females are seldom mentioned in them. In the case of the Messiah, however, it was going to be different. The Messiah would be reckoned after the seed of the woman.

Genesis 3:15 does not explain why that would have to be so. In fact, this is not explained until Isaiah 7:14, where God stated that, when the Messiah would be born, He would be born of a virgin. The clear reason why the Messiah would have to be reckoned after the seed of the woman was that He would not have a human father.

Man's responsibility was to believe that promise, the Promise of the Seed: some day the Seed of the woman, the Messiah, would come and redeem them from the prince of this world, Satan. Although in the previous dispensation and covenant, God gave the authority over this earth to man, when Adam fell, he lost the authority; that is, Satan usurped the authority from man. Therefore, even in the New Testament, Satan is called the prince of this world (John 12:31) and the god of this age (II Corinthians 4:4).

The specific test with the Dispensation of Conscience was twofold. First, obedience to the dictates of conscience in the knowledge of good and evil. And secondly, when there was failure, they were to offer a proper and acceptable blood sacrifice. This can be gleaned from Genesis 3:21 and 4:4. The test, then, involved two things: man's obedience to the dictates of conscience in the knowledge of good and evil, and man's response to failure by a proper and acceptable sacrifice.

Failure in the second dispensation was seen as early as the case of Cain in Genesis 4:3. Cain failed to bring a proper blood sacrifice and thought he could come to God on his own terms rather than on the terms that God had ordained. In verse 8, failure was seen in the first act of murder when Cain murdered his brother Abel.

But failure is also seen in Genesis 6:5, which speaks of open violence, corruption and widespread evil, and continuous evil desire in the heart and the purpose of man. The heart of man was for the purpose of evil continually.

The judgment in this dispensation was the worldwide Flood: to bring humanity to an end with the exception of one family. With the worldwide Flood, this dispensation came to an end. Humanity had become evil to the point that they could no longer follow their conscience; their conscience was so darkened and degenerate that it was no longer a reliable guide whatsoever.

The element of grace in this dispensation is seen in the salvation of Enoch. It was also seen in the salvation of Noah and his family. All these people found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

The third dispensation is called the Dispensation of Civil Government. It has that name because it is with this particular dispensation that man is given the right of life and death. He is given the authority to rule others. The concept of ruling and having power to execute or not to execute contains within it the concepts of human government. This principle is in Genesis 9:6: Whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. So man is given the authority to execute the murderer, and this carries with it the concept of rule, authority, and government.

The chief person in this dispensation was Noah. He received new and specific divine revelation that told him exactly how the divine economy in this dispensation of God would be run.

Concerning the human responsibility in this dispensation, it was obedience to the Noahic Covenant of Genesis 9. Contained within the scope of the Noahic Covenant was that man must replenish and fill the earth in light of the destruction of humanity by the Flood.

Furthermore, it concerns what man was allowed to eat. Until this event, man was allowed to eat only vegetables; man was to be vegetarian in the two preceding dispensations. From this point on, however, man was allowed to go beyond the limit of vegetables, and was allowed to eat any kind of meat he chose. No dietary limitations whatsoever were placed upon man under the Noahic Covenant.

Furthermore, the Noahic Covenant was to establish human government, and God was going to dispense or govern His economy through human government. Man was responsible to obey human government, which would have the authority to enforce its rules and regulations to the point of execution.

The rainbow was given as a sign or token of the Noahic Covenant, thereby promising that God would never again destroy the earth with a flood.

In the specific test of the third dispensation, man was to rule properly and to spread out. But they were not to be under only one government in one place; God demanded that they disperse all over the earth.

The failure was seen in what man tried to do in the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11: they tried to stay together using the Tower of Babel as a point of contact, as a center of staying together. The Tower of Babel would function both literally and symbolically.

As a literal thing, the Tower of Babel was an attempt to build a high tower for the purpose of studying the stars. It was to reach unto heaven. They were not trying to build a tower that would reach to God's Heaven itself, rather, a tower that was high enough to give good visibility for the study of the stars. This was not for the sake of astronomy, but for the sake of astrology. The study of astrology meant a repudiation of God's control as the ultimate and only Creator.

Astrology was a repudiation of the worship of the One God, so man began to move into polytheism and all kinds of other sins as well. That was the physical purpose of the Tower of Babel.

Behind all these things lay demonism, and that is where the failure was clearly seen. The symbolic purpose was to deliberately disobey God's command to spread all over the world. The purpose of the Tower of Babel was to serve as a center of attraction, to keep humanity together so that they would not spread out and begin to lose contact among themselves. Basically, their intent was not to move outside of the Babylonian area, which lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers.

Instead of using government properly, they tried to build empires as the story of Nimrod points out. Nimrod was a mighty hunter, but he was also the first empire builder. Instead of seeing each kingdom as being independent, he tried to unify all kingdoms under his authority. Rather than separate kingdoms as God had originally intended, the nature of empires is to try to consolidate them.

As a result of their attempt to rebel against God's commands and authority, God sent a judgment upon them: the confusion of tongues. One of the key elements in being able to stay together and live together is having a common language. The common language tends to keep a certain segment of society cohesively together. Once there is a differentiation of language, you usually have wars.

For instance, the reason Germans tend to stay together in Germany is because the German language keeps them together. The same thing is true in country after country. When there is a difference in language within one country, it often leads to civil war, as in the various states of Europe where one part of a nation spoke one language, and another part spoke a different language. With the lack of a common language there is turmoil, confusion, conflict, and war. By causing the confusion of tongues, God accomplished a forced dispersion.

This does not mean that every human being at that point spoke a different language altogether. What might have happened is something like this: five people found that they were able to communicate by speaking the same language so they migrated somewhere to separate themselves from the others that they could not understand. As a result, they would move to a certain part of the world and speak such and such language. On the other hand, ten or fifteen other people found themselves speaking the same language, and they, too, moved to another part of the world to separate themselves from those they could not understand, establishing their own language group and, therefore, their own unique nationality. That is the way God accomplished His original intent: man was to spread throughout the entire world and replenish it.

Grace was displayed in the third dispensation in the way God preserved His Remnant. The particular Remnant God preserved after the Flood are the people whose names are listed after the Tower of Babel incident. These names in Genesis 11 trace the genealogy of Noah and Shem, all the way down to Abraham, with whom God will bring about the next dispensation. God did preserve a Remnant, and they were followers of the One True God during this period. God maintained the Seed line. The promise He made concerning the seed of the woman continued to be preserved in spite of the Flood and in spite of the Tower of Babel. God preserved the unique Seed line through which the promise was indeed going to be fulfilled.

IV. THE DISPENSATION OF PROMISE OR PATRIARCHAL RULE - GENESIS 12:1 - EXODUS 18:27

The fourth dispensation is also given two names: the Dispensation of Promise or the Dispensation of Patriarchal Rule. The first name emphasizes the revelatory aspect in that God was revealing Himself by making a specific series of many promises. The Dispensation of Promise is a name derived from four passages in the New Testament: Romans 4:1-25; Galatians 3:15-19; Hebrews 6:13-15; and 11:9. In all four of these passages, the key thing to notice is the emphasis on the concept of promise in relationship to Abraham.

The second name emphasizes the governmental aspect. God was applying His governance and His will in this dispensation by means of His Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and others.

The key person for this dispensation is Abraham. Abraham stands as the head of this new age, and new divine revelation is given to him, which then becomes the basis of a new dispensation.

The responsibility in this dispensation was based on the Abrahamic Covenant: the responsibility to believe the promises of God. Even though the promises may not have been realized, yet the people were to believe the promises of God. Abraham, of course, carried out this responsibility for we are told in Genesis 15:6: And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

The specific test in the fourth dispensation was to stay in the Land where God had brought them.

The failure in this dispensation is seen in the tendency to leave the Land. For example, Abraham left the Land in Genesis 12 and got himself into a lot of trouble. Isaac was contemplating leaving the Land in Genesis 26, but God warned him against doing so. Later, Jacob also left the Land and got his descendants into a lot of trouble. The brothers of Joseph sold him to someone that would make him a slave, not in the Land, but in Egypt instead.

Failure was seen on the part of the Israelites because of their consistent tendency to leave the Land.

The facet of grace was seen in the preservation of Israel. Israel was preserved whether they were in the Land or outside the Land. God continued to preserve the seed of the woman, now also to be the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The fifth dispensation is a lengthy one, and it is called the Dispensation of the Law. It gets this name from the fact that God's economy was being dispensed through the Law of Moses which contained a total of 613 specific commandments.

This dispensation covers a period of time from the giving of the Law in Exodus 19:1 through Acts 1:26. The Dispensation of Law covered the entire span of time from Exodus 19:1 throughout the rest of the Old Testament, the intertestamental period, and through gospel history until Acts 1:26, when the dispensation finally changed.

The key person in the fifth dispensation was Moses. It was Moses to whom God gave a lot of revelation on which this dispensation was based.

In this dispensation, man was responsible to the Mosaic Covenant. The covenant involved two major areas. First, they were responsible to obey the 613 commandments of the Law of Moses.

Secondly, they were to obey the prophets whom God would send to further elaborate on the Law, define the Law, give meaning to the Law, and explain it.

The specific test of this dispensation involved two major things. First, they were responsible to keep the entire Law, with all of its 613 commandments. The breaking of only one of these commandments meant to incur guilt for breaking them all (Jas. 2:10).

The second part of the test was to accept and believe the Prophet who would arise, the One who would be like unto Moses (Deut. 18:15-18). In other words, they were to accept the Messiah once He came, because He was going to be the Prophet like unto Moses.

Man failed in both aspects of the test. First, they failed to keep the Law in its entirety (Rom. 10:1-3). In fact, not only did they fail to keep the Law, they tried to get around the Law by establishing their own righteousness. By putting in their own laws and saying that because they obeyed their laws, therefore, they did not have to obey the laws of the Lord.

Secondly, they also failed to accept the Messiah (Mat. 23:1-39). Yeshua (Jesus) denounced the Scribes and Pharisees, the leadership of Israel of that day, not only because they rejected His messianic claims, but also because they were leading the nation to the reject those same messianic claims.

The judgment of this dispensation came in A.D. 70 and involved two things: first, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple; and secondly, the world wide dispersion of the Jewish people as they were exiled from the Land.

The facet of grace was seen throughout the Dispensation of Law in two ways. First, the sacrificial system was provided because the Jew was not able to keep all 613 commandments. Whenever the individual Jew failed, this could be covered by the sacrificial system as a means for restoring the sinner. The sacrificial system would not take away their sin, and no Jew was ever saved because he merely brought a sacrifice to the Tabernacle or the Temple. As in every age, the Jew was saved by grace through faith. His faith was the element that saved him, but his faith had to have content. In this case, the content of his faith was the sacrificial system. When he brought that sacrifice to the Tabernacle or Temple, he had the faith that by the means of the shedding of blood, his sins would be covered, and fellowship would be restored.

The second way grace was displayed during this dispensation was by God's provisions of judges, kings, and prophets. Judges were given to deliver the Jews from subjugation to various peoples. Righteous kings were provided to give them a kingdom of righteousness and justice. Prophets were sent in order to expound the Law, to call the people back to obedience, to remind them of where they had failed, and to call them to repentance.

The sixth dispensation is called the Dispensation of Grace. While grace was evident in all other dispensations, it is in this dispensation that a very unique display of grace was manifested that was different from all former displays of grace. Concerning this dispensation, John 1:17 states: For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Certainly, God was gracious before the Coming of Yeshua, for there are many evidences of God's grace throughout the pages of the Old Testament. However, with the coming of Jesus, there was a totally unique display of grace. This is why it is called the Dispensation of Grace. This is the dispensation in effect at the present time.

This dispensation extends from Acts 2:1, with the beginning of the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, through Revelation 19:21. It covers the entire period of the Church Age, and also includes the seven years of the Great Tribulation.

The key person in the sixth dispensation was the Apostle Paul. It was Paul who uniquely received the revelation concerning the Dispensation of Grace. It was no accident that he received more revelation than any other apostle. Most of the letters or Epistles of the New Testament were written by the Apostle Paul. As he makes clear in Ephesians 3, it was he that received that special revelation concerning the dispensation of that grace of God (v. 2). He, more than any other apostle, is the key person for this dispensation.

Man's responsibility in the Dispensation of Grace is obedience to the New Covenant. Obedience to the New Covenant means to accept the gifts of righteousness which God offers to all men through Yeshua the Messiah. The point of Romans 5:15-18 is that man is responsible to accept the gift of righteousness God offers to all men through the Messiah of Israel.

The specific test of this dispensation is simply this: Will man accept the gift? Will humanity, as a whole, accept God's offer of the free gift of salvation by the simple act of faith in the person of Yeshua the Messiah? On the basis of faith, this free gift is given.

As with all previous dispensations, the present one will also end in failure, and this can be seen in two ways. First, most men will reject the gift. The majority of humanity will not come to a saving knowledge of Yeshua the Messiah in our own day, any more than it was true before our time, and certainly will not be true even in the future.

The second way failure is going to be seen is that the very organism that has a knowledge of the truth, the Church, will become apostate, and will even turn away from that truth. It is already a shame that men in general reject the truth, but when the Church itself rejects the truth by which it was called, that is sadder still.

This age, the Age of Grace, will also end with the facet of judgment: the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation will fall upon the whole world in general, because humanity in general has failed to accept the free gift of salvation offered through Jesus the Messiah. Also, the unbelieving visible church will go into the Tribulation and suffer the wrath of God. But the believing, invisible Church, the true believers in the Church, will be taken out of this earth before the Tribulation ever starts.

Concerning the question as to whether the Church will go through the Tribulation, the answer is “yes” and “no.” The invisible Church, the Church that truly believes, will be taken out before the Tribulation. But in the visible, apostate church there are unbelievers, who will indeed go through the Great Tribulation.

It is in this area that we also see the facet of grace. Grace will be seen through the Rapture of the Church in that the invisible Church, the true Body of the Messiah, composed of all true believers, will be raptured out of this earth. Even for those who have died, their bodies will be resurrected, so that even their bodies will not be on this earth during the seven years of the Great Tribulation. The Rapture will be a unique display of grace in the Dispensation of Grace.

The seventh and last dispensation also has two names. It is called the Dispensation of the Kingdom or the Dispensation of the Millennium. The first name emphasizes the Messiah's rule over this particular planet. The second name emphasizes how long this rule will last: 1,000 years.

This dispensation covers the period of Revelation 20:1-10. Although it is only ten verses long, it covers a span of time of 1,000 years.

The key person in this case will be the Messiah, because the Messiah Himself will be dispensing direct, new revelation (Is. 2:2-4). Upon this new revelation, the new dispensation will be based.

The responsibility for the seventh dispensation will have two facets. The first facet will be the same as that of the sixth dispensation: responsibility to the New Covenant. Obedience to the New Covenant means to accept the gift of righteousness that God offers to all men through faith in Yeshua the Messiah.

There will be a second facet: obedience to the King and the new laws He will issue during this period. In the Dispensation of the Kingdom, there will be something “old” and something “new.” The old is the responsibility to respond to the demands of the New Covenant, which means to exercise faith in Jesus the Messiah and His substitutionary Death, Burial, and Resurrection. The new responsibility is obedience to the King who will then be visible here on earth, and obedience to the laws He will issue.

The test during that dispensation will be for each one born in the Kingdom to personally accept the King as his personal Lord, not in place of the gospel, but with the gospel. To accept the gospel means that one believes that Yeshua died for his sins, was buried, and rose again. Added to this will be the aspect of owning the King as one's Lord.

There will also be the facet of failure in that future dispensation. Men will fail to accept the Messiah, and at the end of the Millennium, Satan will be able to deceive humanity once again. Mankind will come together for one last revolt against God's authority by attempting to invade Israel and invade the Holy City itself.

The judgment in this dispensation will be the destruction of all these invading armies by fire out of Heaven.

Grace will also be displayed during this particular dispensation in three major ways. First, during the Kingdom there will be the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecies. Every prophecy that has remained unfulfilled until this time will find its fulfillment during the Messianic Kingdom.

The second way grace will be displayed is that it will be a period of prosperity for all mankind, so every man will be able to sit under his own vine, under his own fig tree.

A third way grace will be displayed is that there will be immortality for the saved; believers in the Kingdom will not die; only unbelievers in the Kingdom will die (Is. 65:20).

This is the seventh dispensation, and when this dispensation ends, history will move from the aspect of time to the aspect of eternity as it enters into the Eternal State (Rev. 21:1-22:5).

In my opinion this falls short in the very first “The Names” statement. It assumes God left matters to chance and choice which removes God’s sovereignty. God knew from eternity past Adam and Eve would sin and He provided Christ as redemption to any and all that He chose. Salvation is of the Lord. He chose us. We are not able to “choose” Him unless He monergistically regenerates our hearts. Then, we receive the gift of faith, not by works, lest anyone boast. Ephesians 1:3-2:10 explains this. Freewill, as most define it, is myth.

Quote
Dispensations are separate periods of time in which God dispenses His will in a specific and unique way, based on a covenant upon which a particular dispensation is founded.
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The time the Church should be most interested in:

Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits - in Egypt and about 2,000 years ago..

30 days later, Manna From Heaven

60 days later (from Passover)- The Covenant Law, 10 Commandments given to Israel at the Mount

100 days later (from Passover)- The Covenant Law on 2 tablets of stone given to Israel at the Mount- about 3,000 slain vs about 3,000 saved in Acts

144 days later (From Passover)- Moses comes down the Mount with instructions for building the temple and the same Covenant Law,the 10 Commandments on new tablets. His face shines.

The Apostle Paul began his gospel with Passover.
So did Israel. So did the Church about 2,000 years ago.

Today?
Not so much.

I don’t think that Adam and Eve were being tested at all.

Eve saw that it was “a tree to be desired to make one wise.” Is it sin when we desire to have something when God says no? Sin begins in the heart. That desire to be wise would not diminish but fester until in the event which we call “the fall,” man was elevated. Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil. When scripture says “in Adam all die” did that include Eve?

There doesn't seem to be anyone not receiving the mark.

Rev 13:
16 And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Rev 14:
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

11 And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.

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