There are 7 dispensations [of time] --- each one ending in judgement:
- Innocence --- expulsion from the Garden of Eden
- Conscience --- the Flood
- Human Government --- the Tower of Babel
- Promise --- the Egyptian Captivity
- Law --- the Crucifixion
- Grace --- the Tribulation
- Kingdom --- the Great White Throne Judgement
it bears repeating.
what you write is:
in the system of your particular community.
in your interpretation of the Scriptures.
as far as your meaning of the Bible goes.
the the words of your specific interpretive group.
in your church or denomination.
in your own mind.
your interpretation is not:
the text itself.
the universal or uniform interpretation of the visible church either now or through history.
equivalent to God's interpretation.
binding on anyone else who calls themselves Christian.
it is simply the expression of a group of similiar believing people as to how the Bible ought to be interpreted, one member of which seems constitutionally unable to understand that interpretation is not the text itself, that one's particular community is not coterminous with all Christians. That extracting meaning from a text is a function of being human, is done within the boundaries of a specific interpretive community, and is subject to competing interpretations by other groups.
as for my interpretive community, what is quoted above is simply nonsense. There is a single covenant with Christ which is reflected in a series of covenantal renewals such as with Adam, with Noah, with Abram, with Moses.
but the big point remains.
interpretation=/=the text itself.
