By RANDY WHITE, D.Min.

Founder and CEO

(Read Part 4)

Randy-White

For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:25-26)

When God has rescued and redeemed the earth—including the animal kingdom (cf. Isa. 11:6-9)—there will be peace and harmony among men, among the created order, and finally “the last enemy,” which is death, will be eradicated. Then Jesus, the Second Adam, will have full dominion over the earth like Adam was supposed to have in the beginning, He is then going to offer it back to the Father and say, “Here it is, just like You made it.”

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:22-28)

That really is the dispensational view of the Bible. It is a redemption of God’s entire purpose. This is the lens through which we look at it. God is redeeming His purpose. What is His purpose? To look at it another way, God is doing more than just saving me. There is actually a bigger picture out there of all of God’s working. Throughout Scripture there has been a progressive unveiling of God’s method of redeeming His creation, and He has unfolded this revelations slowly through the 66 books of the Bible. Yet at certain times God would do something that would totally change everything from that point on.

For instance, in Genesis 1 we read about the beginning of creation, and in Genesis 2 we come to the account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Notice how that chapter ends:

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Gen. 2:25)

But in Genesis 3, we are introduced to sin and punishment, and Adam and Eve are even cast out of the garden. And once sin is introduced, nakedness becomes something of which to be ashamed—something that fallen man attempts to cover (cf. Gen. 3:7, 10-11).

MAIN BANNER - LOGOThere is no way that you can read the Bible without realizing that something changed at that point. God did something there in Genesis 3 that changed everything from then on. From that point onward we have to look at men differently, and we have to look at God differently. We even have to look at the earth around us differently, because this is no Garden of Eden anymore. This is a world in which we have to work and sweat—with clothes on (cf. Gen. 3:19). So many changes have come about since the fall.

Dispensationalism is the study of finding these types of major changes in the Bible, and also of understanding how this change affects things that already existed before the change took place. Some things may indeed carry over—but we have to be very careful not to carry things over that are not intended to be brought into a new dispensation. Of course, since the fall, our greatest need is for the message of redemption in the gospel.

In our coming messages, you will hopefully begin to see how things have changed throughout history, and also how things fit together perfectly when we look at them with the proper understanding.

Seeming contradictions will even begin to make sense as you understand that we must always interpret Scripture in context, while taking into account the time and place in history when a particular event took place.

I hope you will enjoy the journey!

Editor’s Note: This blog article is taken from the following sermon, which you can watch in its entirety here:

(Read Part 6)

Copyright © 2016 Dispensational Publishing House, Inc.

Scripture taken from the King James Version.