The Angelic Dispensation

BACKGROUND OF STUDY:
Determining how much influence the angels had upon mankind during the first dispensation depends upon how one understands several Scriptures. Many believe that angels materialized before the flood in the form of men only and impregnated women of their choosing. Those born as a result of this illicit union were a hybrid race of “giants in the earth.” According to this understanding, the wickedness of the human race because of the influence of this hybrid race became so bad God decided to destroy all his earthly, sentient creation: man, beast, and creeping thing (see Genesis 6:1-7).

The materialization of angels was not the same as an angel changing from spirit nature to human nature. Only one spirit being ever changed from spirit to human and back to spirit, and that was the Son of God. At each transition he went out of existence; God created a new being, while at the same time preserving his identity. Regardless of why the world became so wicked in such a relatively short time, there is no disagreement that the “world that was” did perish; we all await “new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelled righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).God does not coerce men to obey him. Free moral agency is an underlying principal of the relationship between God and man, and it is probably the single most defining principle of the first dispensation. God allowed Adam and Eve to choose to disobey. He allowed Cain an opportunity to acknowledge his mistake and overcome sin: “Then the LORD said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:6,7, NIV). Men and women who freely choose to obey God in faith are counted as righteous, and God rejoices in fellowship with those who are righteous such as Enoch, Noah, and others. They are described as “walking with God.” “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away” (Genesis 5:24, NIV). “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God” (Genesis 6:9, NIV).

The First Dispensation
Where by the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
—2 Peter 3:6
Almost all we know about the history of the world before the flood is described ..in the first six chapters of the book of Genesis. God apparently chose to preserve no more than a brief account of this time. Scholars term this era the antediluvian age, a word that simply means “pre-flood.” A few isolated Scriptures give the student of the Bible a little more information, but with so few texts to describe such a long period of earth’s history we are still left with more questions than answers.

The first chapter of Genesis describes the “days” of creation with almost no detail about the events. Even so what is revealed harmonizes with what scientists have discovered about the natural world, unless one insists on interpreting the Hebrew text in a way that ignores the laws of physics in favor of the supernatural powers of God. The next five chapters in Genesis are devoted to the history of mankind during the pre-flood period.

To reduce the geologic and biologic history of the earth into literal twenty-four-hour segments of time defies logic. Such an interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis seems to show a lack of interest in what science has revealed that is in harmony with the Bible. Such a literal interpretation requires the creation of both our world and the universe without following the laws of physics and nature as it appears God created them. Even an interpretation that the creative days were each identically seven thousand years long ignores the geologic evidence and fossil records. Students of the Bible who want to harmonize science and the Bible need to interpret the scientific evidence with a distinct emphasis on the impact of the flood, both on the history of man and the environmental impact that happened as a result of far-reaching changes in the earth’s atmosphere at that time. Most scientific explanations of the history of the earth are based on assumptions that do not account for the changes brought about by the alterations in the earth’s atmosphere after the deluge. The biblical account of creation and the flood can be harmonized with the laws of physics and nature only when assumptions used to formulate scientific theories take into account the drastic difference in the environment caused by a global flood.