Interpretations: Dispensation of Innocence
The first dispensation, innocence, began after God completed His creative work with Adam and Woman, as shown in the previous graphic. The persons identified in this dispensation was first God, who is the one with authority and who blessed Adam and the Woman. He gave them the responsibility to, Genesis 1:28-29:
- Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it
- Have dominion over the fish, the fowl and every living thing that moves on the earth
- Eat from every seed-bearing plant or fruit tree
The dispensational test was:
- God commanded Adam, the steward, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or they would die, Genesis 2:17
The dispensational failure was:
- The woman was seduced by the serpent, and she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 3:6
- The woman then passed the fruit to Adam, who ate, Genesis 3:6
The dispensational judgment was:
- For the serpent, Genesis 3:14-15
- God cursed the serpent below all cattle, and it will crawl on the ground with its belly, eating dust all the days of its life
- There will be enmity between Satan (the serpent) and the seed of the woman (Jesus Christ); He (Jesus Christ) shall bruise the serpent’s head and it (Satan) shall bruise His (Jesus Christ) heel
- For the woman, Genesis 3:16
- God greatly multiplied her sorrow in child birthing
- Her desire shall be to her husband, and he will rule over her
- Adam, Genesis 3:17-19
- God cursed the ground for his sake
- In sorrow he shall eat from the ground all the days of his life
- Thorns and thistles shall appear, he will eat the herbs of the field
- He shall sweat for his bread, then die and his body will return to earth
The following graphic and those that follow later, provide a highly generalized view of a dispensation. The widths of each dispensation are a notional idea of the relative length of time of a dispensation before the next one was initiated. The following graphic shows the dispensation of innocence, with only Adam and the woman being present. Adam called Woman, Eve, after their fall, because he believed God’s word, that her seed would deliver the Savior needed to redeem them from his sin, Genesis 3:14-15, 20
