Remember,
“Dispensationalism views the world as a household run by God. In His household-world God is dispensing or administering its affairs according to His own will and in various stages of revelation in the passage of time. These various stages mark off the distinguishably different economies in the outworking of His total purpose, and these different economies constitute the dispensations. The understanding of God’s differing economies is essential to a proper interpretation of His revelation within those various economies.”
Definition:
A dispensation is a distinguishable economy in the out-working of God's purpose. A dispensation will normally contain a (1) distinctive revelation from God to man, (2) testing, (3) failure, and (4) judgment.
The third Dispensation is Civil (or Human) Government
As mentioned previously, the next dispensation begins with the Noahic Covenant:
Genesis 8:20-9:17 (NIV) Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
The Noahic Covenant has the following highlights:
· Man's responsibility to populate the earth is reaffirmed.
· The subjection of the animal kingdom to man is reaffirmed, but now it will be administered under a new relationship. Whereas previously man and animal coexisted in peace and animals most likely fully cooperated with man’s care and maintenance, now the animal kingdom would fear man and be dominated by him.
· Man is permitted to eat the flesh of every "moving creature" outside the realm of man. It is suggested that initially man was a vegetarian but after the curse of the Flood, man's allowable diet was expanded to include the animal kingdom (meat) -- which involved killing an animal. The only exception, which is in fact carried over into the New Covenant, is that man is to refrain from eating blood, the "life of the flesh".
· The sacredness of human life is established. Since man is made in the image of God, one who commits murder shows not only contempt for man but also contempt for God.
· Whatever sheds man's blood, whether man or beast, must be put to death. This is seen as the institution of human self-government..
· The covenant is confirmed with Noah, his sons, their descendants, all the animals on the ark and their descendants.
· The earth will never again be destroyed by a universal flood. The next time God destroys the earth, the means will be fire (2 Peter 3:10).
· The rainbow is established as a sign of the Noahic Covenant to both God and man signifying that God will never again destroy the earth by a universal flood.
Note from Dr. Renald Showers:
“The second dispensation of God’s rule demonstrated that man- kind would not obey God on the basis of the human conscience and the restraint of lawlessness by the Holy Spirit. Thus, once the Noahic Flood ended God started a new dispensation by instituting a new ruling factor.
Since the fountainhead of all human corruption prior to the flood was the continued existence of the first murderer, Cain, God determined that never again would He allow murderers to infect the rest of mankind with their rebellious attitudes. Shortly after Noah and his family left the ark, God ordained capital punishment for murderers (Genesis 9:5-6).
Capital punishment requires a human government agency to investigate the murder, and then apprehend and try the murderer, and administer the sentence of execution. God commanded that the murderer’s blood be shed by mankind. Thus, when God ordained capital punishment, He thereby instituted human government as a further restraint against the lawless rebellion of mankind. In Romans 13:1-7 the Apostle Paul indicated that human governmental authority derives its existence from God, that it was ordained for the purpose of restraining evil, and that it functions as the minister of God when it administers capital punishment.
Human government, then, with its authority to administer capital punishment, was the new ruling factor that God instituted for the third dispensation. The human conscience and the restraint of lawlessness by the Holy Spirit continued on as ruling factors in this new dispensation. In fact, Romans 2:14-15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:7, together with other pas- sages, indicate that they continue as ruling factors even into today’s dispensation. Thus, the third dispensation had three ruling factors which God used to administer His rule over mankind: human conscience, restraint of lawlessness by the Holy Spirit, plus human government. Dispensational theologians have named the third dispensation after the new ruling factor, since that is the factor which made the third dispensation distinct from the second.”
Man was given the authority for ultimate punishment, life for life. Man given instructions to "fill" the whole earth. Instead of dispersing and inhabiting the whole earth, man banded together in one spot to build a tower so that they could reach the heavens. There is thought that Nimrod (Gen 10:8-12; 11:1-9) was the first world dictator and founded the world's first false religion based on astrology, which is why they would build a tower or observatory. Their unity of language and system of government had done away with their need of fellowship with God.
Genesis 11:5-9 (NIV) But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
For all of the ramifications and a little bit of history, please go to one of my favorite websites:
Summation: 1. Distinctive Revelation – Noahic Covenant
2. Testing – Man to multiply and scatter
3. Failure – Disobedience and Conceit
4. Judgment – Babel and Scattering
Note: I know that by now you are wondering what any of this has to do with the last days. I beg your indulgence a little longer. We are almost there. If we don’t fill in the earlier the later will make no sense, whereas if we do fill it in, you will understand and see the flow. I promise you, it will all make sense. Really………….would I lie to you?
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