To the Dispensationalist, the entirety of
humanity's short span on this earth can be broken down
into clearly definable seasons…or ages in which God
(who never changes) dealt differently with mankind in
regard to his relational standing before Him.
"To everything there is a season, A time for
every purpose under heaven:" Ecclesiastes 3:1
In the Garden of Eden, man was commanded not to
eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Aside from being told to be fruitful and
multiply, and to take dominion of the earth…this was
the only ‘thou shalt not’ commandment given from
God. They lived in innocence and tended to the
Garden until the day they broke the one commandment
they were instructed not to do. Adam and Eve ate from
the tree allowing sin to enter into the human race and
they were cast out of that perfect Garden. Thus,
mankind entered a new season in which they would live
their lives, ruled by their newfound conscience of
knowing good and evil.
From then until the Flood, there was roughly
1560 years that man did what was right in his own
eyes. There was no Law, no Bible, no governing
authority by which man could live in peace with his
fellow man and His maker. It quickly became a
time of lawlessness, in which even the fallen angels
had crossed over into forbidden territory by mating
with human women.
By the time that Noah was to build the Ark,
mankind had sunk to unimaginable depths of
depravity. In fact, it was so bad, that God had
to destroy mankind (save 8 persons) with the Flood in
order for mankind to survive. This global
cataclysm brought the age in which man would rule by
his conscious to an abrupt and violent end. At
the end of it, God covenanted with Noah (Noahic
Covenant) that innocent blood would no longer be shed
without consequence. And with the creation of
capital punishment instituted, therein lays the
framework for man to rule over other men in the age of
human government.
The age of promise was in the calling of
Abraham from the land Ur of the Chaldees, to the
Promised Land in which his descendants would inherit
forever. Abraham was the first person to be
called a Hebrew in Scriptures, thus we can conclude
that prior to that, there were only Gentiles.
Now, there were two races of peoples; Jews and
Gentiles. God foretold Abraham as he slept, that
the Hebrews would be enslaved for 400 years before
they could inherit the land. This time was
necessary as to give the current inhabitants
(Amorites) time to repent (which they
didn’t). God would then use the Israelites to
become their judgment, cleansing the land of their
impurity. Abraham’s calling to sacrifice his only
begotten son would foreshadow the way in which God
would provide a path to redemption some 2,000 years
later.
Moses led the Israelites out of bondage and
into the wilderness, in which he received the Law from
God…thus beginning the age of the Law. This age
went on for roughly 1500 years before finding the
fulfillment in the first coming of their Messiah,
Jesus Christ. As was prophesied, He was betrayed
for 30 pieces of silver and crucified on a Cross on
behalf of the sins of the world.
Before He died, He stated that He would create
a body of people known as the Church (Matthew
16:17-19), who would continue on until He personally
came and took them back to be where He was (John
14:1-3). As sin entered the world through the
first Adam, redemption would enter the world through
the last Adam, who is Christ our Lord.
Eve was taken and created from
Adams side, so too would the Bride of Christ be
born from the side of Christ. As when a woman
is about to give birth, her water will break in
which blood and water pour forth. On the
cross, when His side was pierced, blood and water
poured out symbolizing the birthing process of the
Church through His death. Our
empowerment (or what people come to see as the
birthday of the Church) was at Pentecost as mentioned
in Acts 2. From there, almost 2,000 years has
transpired and we have seen the Church go through the
7 stages (Revelation 2-3) of its life from then until
now. To recap:
Rough numbers according
to genealogies and history
From Creation until Abraham, was 2,000 years
[Innocence, Conscience, and Human Government]
From Abraham until Jesus Christ, was 2,000
years [Promise, Law]
From Jesus Christ, until today, was 2,000 years
[Church, Tribulation (final last 7 years of the Law)]
The Purpose
And like the wise King Solomon
noted…EVERYTHING…has a season. Seasons have two
things in common….they have a beginning, and they have
an ending. As shown, each of the previous ages
had beginning and endings, so why would it be any
different for the age that we currently live
in? Looking back, what was unique about the age
of the Law was that it was cut short by approximately
7 years.
“Seventy weeks are determined For your people
and for your holy city," Daniel 9:24
The Prophet Daniel was given the 70 weeks of
years prophecy by the angel Gabriel, in which from its
starting until its end, there would be a total of 490
years (70 x 7) that would be set aside for the nation
of Israel.
It began in Nehemiah 2 (445BC) with the
commandment to go forth and rebuild not the Temple,
but the city of Jerusalem, and would end approximately
173,880 days (483--360 day years) later as Christ made
His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday. We know historically, that the remaining
7 years were not fulfilled after the resurrection, nor
do they fit any 7-year period between then and
now. But according to the angel Gabriel…those 7
final years set aside for Israel will absolutely
occur:
"Now I have come to make you understand what
will happen to your people in the latter days, for the
vision refers to many days yet to come.” Daniel
10:14
Holding Back
Those who subscribe to the reference in 2
Thessalonians 2:7 of the Restrainer being the Holy
Spirit often believe that the Holy Spirit restrains
evil from the world at large. Rather, seeing that
there has been an ever-increasing amount of evil since
Pentecost, I believe that the Restrainer has
restrained evil not from the world, but from
destroying the Church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus
said that “He would build His church, and the gates of
hell would not prevail against it”. This implies
that the Church (body of Christ) would ever be on an
offensive attack against the strongholds of the devil,
since gates are meant for defensive purposes until the
age of the Church would end.
Christians have seen bloody periods of
persecution in the past, where the world
unsuccessfully attempted to stop the spread of
Christianity. We have seen and are seeing various
forms corruptions that enter the Church in an attempt
to pollute it with false and apostate doctrine…yet,
there still remains a remnant that are faithful to the
word. We’ve seen an oppression of the believers
in these last days grow like a cancer in an attempt to
shame and silence believers…yet there still goes the
Gospel out of the mouths and minds of those who are
not afraid to speak the truth.
The door which God opens cannot be shut by
anyone, except God. It will not be until the
Rapture of the Church, when the Body of Christ is
removed allowing the Antichrist and his beastly system
to overcome the Tribulation saints. This purging
effectively leaves the Antichrist’s worldly kingdom
pitted against one nation in
particular…Israel. This is the purpose and the
season in which the fulfillment of the 7 final years
finds its culmination.
Arguing the Negatives
So what remains? We don’t have to wait for
Israel to become a nation again. (Ezekiel 37) We don’t
have to wait for the Jews to recapture Jerusalem.
(Luke 21:24) We don’t have to wait for there to
be a movement within Judaism who has the material,
money, and ability to rebuild a third temple.
(TMF) We don’t have to wait for Israel’s enemies
to align themselves as Scripture say they will in the
last days. (Ezekiel 38) We don’t have to wait for
there to be a worldwide call for a unified political
system. We don’t have to wait for there to be the
technology to implement a global economic
system. We don’t have to wait for the skeptics
and the scoffers to come along and mock those who
believe that Christ will return for His
Church? We don’t have to wait for wide spread
apostasy to cause the church to become lukewarm and
ineffective.
The world has conditioned the masses to think
that life will just continue on as it always
has. They base this theory off of their corrupted
theories that life slowly came about by evolution over
millions of years even though their theories are
illogical and scientifically impossible. They
reject the Bible’s account of man's true history on
this planet. We don’t know how much
longer He will hold back His restraint, but if the
past is any key to understanding the future, when
our time (the Church Age) has reached its
fullness, the end of this age will come suddenly
and without warning.
"But concerning the times and the seasons,
brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the
Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they
say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes
upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And
they shall not escape." 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3