Austin Bible Church
The dispensation of the Age of the Gentiles began with the creation of Adam and continued until the Exodus of Israel from Egypt and is composed of three eras – the Era of Positive Volition, the Era of Negative Volition, and the Age of the Patriarchs.
The Era of Positive Volition
The Era of Positive Volition began with the creation of Adam and ended with the fall of Adam and the woman in the Garden of Eden. Moses wrote about this time period in Genesis 1-3. Adam and the woman were both created perfect humans with a body, soul, and human spirit. They were able to converse with God every day. Jesus Christ personally taught them Bible doctrine every day in the Garden. They were also in a perfect environment.
Divine Institution #1 - Volition and Marriage (Divine Institution #2) were operational during this time of perfection environment. Neither prevented the Fall. Adam and the woman had only a single prohibition in the Garden of Eden to test their volition – do not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The only way they could sin was to reject this single mandate from God. They sinned anyway. Gen. 2:16-17.
“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."” (Genesis 2:16-17, NASB)
Divine Institution #2 - Marriage was tested with two perfect sinless people who had the very best of everything a couple can have in marriage - perfect spouse, perfect bodies, perfect unconditional love (agape), sexual love (eros), and friendship love (philos) for each other, perfect sex, etc. They still sinned. Gen. 2:23-24.
“The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:23-24, NASB)
The marriage failed through the woman’s rejection of the man’s authority. She should not have been talking to the serpent. This allowed Satan to deceive her. The woman undermined the man’s authority by bringing him the fruit. When she sinned, she lost her human spirit and gained a sin nature.
When Adam took the fruit from the woman’s hand and ate, he also lost his human spirit and gained a sin nature. He also lost all of his divinely-delegated authority as the ruler over the earth and all of the creatures in it. He had also became a responder to the woman in the marriage instead of being the leader and refusing to eat of the fruit.
Neither perfect environment nor the divine institutions prevented Adam and the woman from sinning. From the Fall onward, God in His perfect unfailing and unconditional love for sinful mankind would demonstrate that perfect love by sending His Son to take on the form of humanity to become the perfect God-man forever and atone for all of the sins of mankind on the Cross. Salvation was His perfect gift to mankind.
The Era of Negative Volition
The Era of Negative Volition extended from the fall of Adam and the woman to Abraham in about 2050 BC. There was no written Canon of Scripture during this time which is covered by Genesis 4 through Genesis 11. After the woman had sinned, God pronounced His judgment on her and her descendants. The woman became the child-bearer as a result of her punishment for sin. Gen 3:16.
“To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."” (Genesis 3:16, NASB)
After Adam had sinned, God pronounced His judgment on him and his descendants. Adam with his sin nature, even though saved, would now have to work for a living. Gen. 3:17-19.
“Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."” (Genesis 3:17-19, NASB)
Although Adam and the woman had sinned and had died spiritually, they both believed that the Messiah would come and pay the penalty of the sins of mankind. They became believers. They accepted God's promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. The woman received a new name “Eve” and became the mother of all mankind. Gen. 3:20.
“Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.” (Genesis 3:20, NASB)
Divine Institution #3 - Family was added where the parents would have divinely-delegated authority over their children. Some children chose to rebel against this parental authority. Cain was the first to do so and as a result, he committed the first murder in the human race. Cain murdered his brother Abel. Murder resulted from arrogance and the rejection of parental authority. This means that crime in the human race originated with Cain and his rejection of his parent’s authority. This is authority disorientation and is a breakdown in the divine institution of family.
In this era, was the first reference to the salvation work of Jesus Christ was declared in Genesis 3:15 and is called the “Proto-Evangel.”
"And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."" (Genesis 3:15, NASB)
Satan knew what this meant. Satan then led his fallen angels in an attempt to dilute the human race DNA with angelic DNA, thus preventing Jesus Christ from being perfect mankind and perfect God in one person. One of his attempts to keep Jesus Christ from coming into the human race through a true human mother is recorded in Genesis 6:1-6.
“Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:1-6, NASB)
Apparently angels, even though a superior type of creation, procreated in a manner similar to members of the human race. Satan’s master plan to cut off the Cross was to infiltrate the human race with some angelic males finding human females and procreating, thereby developing a race that was no longer true humanity. Noah knew his was the only family of pure humanity remaining in the world and uncorrupted by angelic DNA. Gen. 6:9.
"These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9, NASB)
Noah was a man with a great spiritual life. He was a great leader, a great husband, and a great father. Noah believed God when He said He would soon judge the earth. He obeyed God and built the ark to God's specifications even though there were no oceans or seas at that time on which to float such a massive ship. Noah did what Adam failed to do by leading his family in authority and spiritual influence.
Internationalism reached its peak of degeneracy under one language and one race at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. Therefore, in about 4700 BC, the Tower of Babel was destroyed by God and the single language was split into many. Mankind now had many languages and many dialects throughout the world. Descendants of Shem used the Semitic languages and dialects. From Ham came the Hamitic languages and from Japheth, the Japhetic languages that became the Indo European languages. Through all of this, faith alone in Jesus Christ alone continued to be the only means of salvation.
“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.” (Genesis 11:1, NASB)
“So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:8-9, NASB)
The Age of the Patriarchs
The Age of the Patriarchs was a transitional period from Abraham (2050 BC) to Moses (1441 BC). There was no written Canon of Scripture during this period of human history and is covered by Genesis 12 through Exodus 12.
Abram was a Gentile from Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram became a believer relatively early in his life, but it took him a long time to reach spiritual maturity. Gen. 15:5-7.
“And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. And He said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it."” (Genesis 15:5-7, NASB)
Abram lived as a Gentile for 99 years of his life when God renamed him Abraham and pronounced that he would be a father of many nations. Gen. 17:4-5.
“"As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17:4-5, NASB)
At 100 years old, God promised Abraham that he would have a son through Sarah who was 90 years old. Both were well past the age of having children. Gen. 17:15-16; Rom. 4:20-22.
“Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. "I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."” (Genesis 17:15-16, NASB)
“yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Romans 4:20-22, NASB)
As a sign of God's covenant with Abraham, he performed the first circumcision in history and thus became the first of God's chosen people - the Jews. Submitting to circumcision signified that Abraham believed that God would restore his sexual ability so he could produce a son by Sarah.
“"This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. "And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.” (Genesis 17:10-11, NASB)
Abraham was the father of the Jewish race called Israel. The line of the Jews came only through believing Jews – the regenerate. The first three Jews, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were all born again. This is why Jesus Christ is called the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” because the Jewish line must pass through the regenerate. The 12 sons of Jacob are the basis for the perpetuation of the 12 tribes of the Jewish race.
Moses was born around 1520 BC and was adopted by Queen Hatshepsut. He lived the first 80 years of his life in the Age of the Patriarchs. Moses’ last 40 years were spent as the greatest leader of all time and the father of the Jewish client nation.
Moses spent 40 years in Egypt as an Egyptian prince. He was very handsome and capable. He excelled in many areas of life and rose to ascendancy in Egypt. Moses could have become pharaoh. When he discovered his Jewish origin, he became a believer and chose to go into the desert. Heb. 11:27.
“By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.” (Hebrews 11:27, NASB)
In the desert, he learned Bible doctrine for the next 40 years of his life. Upon his return to Egypt, he led the Jews out of captivity. Upon doing so, they became the nation of Israel.
“By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.” (Hebrews 11:28-29, NASB)
The age or dispensation of the Gentiles ended when God called the Jews out of Egypt. The Passover was actually the beginning of the new dispensation of the Age of the Jews or the Age of Israel. In the Age of the Gentiles, salvation was through faith in Christ, and so God revealed Himself through angelic teaching, direct conversation with certain believers, and through dreams and visions.