[chette777]

BABB,

Italicized words are quotes from your post

Doesn't a dispensation refer to a deployment of God's grace towards mankind?

In Paul’s use of the word dispensation has the meanings of dispensation which is God dispensing to him the Gospel of grace for mankind today. But as you say next they are also categorized as periods of time. In our case 24/7 time was established in Gen1:3-5 and we could establish that before Gen1:3-5 is eternity or a dispensation that predates our current 24/7TQ. so Dispensations are also divisions of time. in this case division of the 24/7 from eternity.

2Tim 2:15 says to ...rightly divide. When we do we divide things into sections. Any one who divides scriptures is a dispensationalist. But remember dispensation is not limited to God dealing only Grace with man but also deals with how God does other things such a create. So dispensation is also divisions of time periods. In the case Dispensation used in dividing Eternity from the current 24/7TQ is neither wrong nor unbiblical

The dispensations get cataloged by periods of time in relation to events that affect and involve men, however they are not specifically periods of time. They are defined by changes in God's dealing with mankind.

Dispensations are not limited to just involve men but all of creation. In Larkin’s charts “The Ages as Viewed from Different Standpoints” you will see he called Eternity “the Ages of Ages” here we can see two distinct periods separated by our 24/7TQ. 1) A period before the six day creation (Gen 1:1, Prov 8 22-24) and 2) a time period at and after the new heaven and new earth (Rev 20:11-chapter 22). Now God and Eternity are currently present around us. But we have no way of measuring it accurately because God limited us to 24/7.

I've never ever heard of anyone refer to eternity (E.past nor E.present: if such a thing can exist) as a dispensation.

For lack of a better term and in a way you can understand it today we call Eternity Past and Eternity future dispensations. Or periods of un understood time I call the eternal TQ. To get an idea of it Peter and the Psalmist both tell us the a day IS AS 1,000 years. They are not saying it is equal but they are just trying to give us an understanding to something we do not understand clearly Eternity. Eternity Past is pre Gen 1:3 and eternity future is post Rev 20:11 I am not the only man to use those terms for eternity. But what it represents is that outside our 24/7Time measurement or Time quantum TQ.

IF there was a gap at all, mankind wasn't there, therefor it can't be called a dispensation.

Dispensations are not limited to man kind. When we use dispensations as an understanding of divisions of scriptures. God has always given grace towards men you will find grace through out scripture in God dealing with men and his people. But it is not limited to that meaning alone. As noted above. Dispensation deal with God creation as well. So when God created the Heaven, the earth, the Depth (deep) and Water when was that before or after Genesis 1:3-5? That was in a different time measurement from the creation of 24/7, the making of the firmament, plants and animals, the sun, moon planets and stars, dividing the water and land, and the creation of man.

It makes perfect sense that Satan's fall occurred INSIDE time, hence all the verb tenses used in the scriptures when describing that event.

I have tried to explain but the reason Lucifer’s fall ( No where in scripture is it said Satan had fallen). We associate the verse of Lucifer as used to described the King of Babylon with Satan because we know that the king of Babylon never fell from heaven. And we associate the anointed Cherub with Satan because we see him described in a perfect state, and we associate the Garden of God in Eden with the Garden God made east in Eden. But where is Eden? Eden was God’s name for the earth. It was not a single location of a certain country or land.

Now God’s word does not detail very much on Lucifers life. Why? Because he was not created during the 24/7TQ. Everything in the Bible that has to do with things outside our current TQ whether Eternity past, present or future, are never fully detailed. Take a tour in the Bible and search all those verses and you will see. Things like Lucifer, the desolation and empty earth (Gen1:2); The Seraphim, cherubim (Gen 3, Eze1,10); angels, the chariot wheeled throne of God( Ezk 1, 10Isa 6); the great white throne of God (Rev 20); the stones of fire, the mountain of God (Ezk 28); the creation of the earth, the depth, water (Gen 1:2, Pro8), the day the sons of God present themselves before God (Job 1) just to name a few. All of these have very little details and that is because they were created and made prior to Gen 1:3.

How could Lucifer/Satan exist in eternity in both his perfect state and his fallen state at the same 'time'?

You will have to seek God and his word, as scriptures do have Lucifer/Satan existing in Eternity. Remember he was created in the Eternal TQ therefore his concept of time measurement is not limited to our 24/7 though he understands it.

This concept of eternity past, present and future utterly contradicts what eternity is, turning it into simply a self-serving extended time line to fit events one doesn't want to believe that occurred inside time.

Please explain to us what is Eternity. You will be limited in doing so. I have not created anything nor turned Eternity into a self serving time line. I merely use our current time TQ and divide the 24/7 from Eternity (2Tim 2:15). I use past for that which was before Gen1:3. and I use future for that beyond Rev20:11. And I can use Eternity present concerning today in our 24/7 i.e. Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father is in eternity present. God’s word says to rightly divide and I have, am and will continue to do so.

Its far more plausible, and scripturally supported, that Satan came into our time frame from eternity, after the perfect 6-day creation, and beheld mankind, being made a little lower than the angels, and becoming proud in himself, willing that man should worship him instead of God. There's the iniquity that was found in him, inside the garden.

It wouldn’t have been Satan but Lucifer but you did say it right. Satan did come into our time frame (Established in Gen 1:3-5) as a fallen being. Which took place in eternity before Gen1:3. Beheld mankind and was jealous for God had made something uniquely like himself. Satan was never made like God, so he sought to kill the man and his wife.

Now I want you to rethink of what you said. For you just added to God word . He never asks Eve to worship him. Satan never desired, asked nor hinted that Eve or Adam should worship him. Nor do the scriptures say he was in the Garden when he fell. You have made two clear private interpretations of Gods word.

I believe he was perfect in the garden, harbored pride while observing man during the Age of innocence (a real dispensation) and then rebelled and tried to claim God's position in relation to man for himself.

Here again God says in his word Lucifer fell not because of jealousy but because he lifted his throne and tried to usurp God's throne in Heaven that is why he was fallen from heaven Isa 14. Again you are some what making a private interpretation of God’s word. when you separate the eternal events from the 24/7 events then you will get a clearer picture of what took place prior to Gen 1:2. the earth has always been called Eden by God. the Eden of the Gen 1:1 was just a planet that had been made then God created a deep and placed the planet there, later created waters and used them to flood the original Eden of which Lucifer defiled.

I propose that there was no dispensation at all until mankind was created.

You limit dispensations of time to the 24/7. Ok but that does not mean that there is no dispensation (division of time) prior to Gen1:3 and after Rev20:11.