Conscience of Man Gen. 3:22-8:14 1:3-8:14

[BanjoPicker]

The Dispensation of Conscience is so called because in this age man was tested solely upon the basis of obedience to his own conscience. This age may be called "the age of freedom" for man was free to obey or to disobey the dictates of his own conscience without any fear of being apprehended by law Rom. 2:12-16. There was no revealed code of laws until after the flood. The old theory that Adam had the ten commandments and that they were kept by men before the flood and in all ages before Moses is unscriptural.
The law Adam broke was not the ten-commandment law. It was the law against earing of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:1-24. Any commandment of God is a law as much as the ten commandments were. It is definitely stated in Scripture that the ten commandments were not given to men before Moses Deut. 5:2-21; 29:14, 15.

 

[BanjoPicker]

What is Conscience

"Conscience is the knowledge of our acts, states, or character as to right or wrong: the Faculty, power, or principle which decides on the lawfulness of our actions and affection, and approves or condemns them, the moral faculty or sense." Conscience was awakened or became active at the fall by man deciding to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It has been the guiding faculty in the moral acts od man ever since. The Bible has much to say about the conscience. The following are a few kinds of conscience mentioned in Scripture Seared conscience 1 Tim. 4:2, awakened conscience Jn. 8:9, purged conscience Heb. 9:9, 14: 10:2, pure conscience Acts 24:16, weak conscience 1 Cor. 8:7, 12, 13, defiled conscience Titus 1:15, witnessing conscience Rom. 1:12-15; 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12, good conscience Acts 2:13; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 1 Pet. 2:19; 3:16, 21; Heb. 13:19, and a convicting or a healthy conscience Gen. 3:10; 4:13; Mt. 27:3.

 

[BanjoPicker]

The length of the Dispensation of Conscience

In Gen. 5:1-29; 7:11 we have the length of the Dispensation of Conscience as being 1,656 years long, as computed by adding the number of years from the creation of Adam to the 600th year of Noah's life.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Favorable beginning of man in Conscience

In Gen. 3:15 we have the revelation of God's provision of redemption through the seed of the woman--Christ. Man was given another chance to be tested and to prove true to God in another period of probation. Man had the promise that the curse would be lifted, that he would be restored to his original position as ruler of the Earth and all things therein. Man had the faculty of choosing right from wrong and the ability to have faith in God to be redeemed.

 

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" another period of probation". Is man's experience periods of divinely ordained probation from which we will never be set free? Or like the Catholic purgatory some individuals ascend from bottom to the top but unlike the Catholic purgatory they would never fully purge their shame and so quit the place or state?

The increase on the knowledge of Good and Evil and so wisdom via probation vs the increase of the experience of the Holy Spirit and so love via dispensation seems at odds with one another.

David fed on love and Solomon fed on wisdom. David knew sin for a different conscience than did Solomon. David knew to uncover his shame before the Lord, Solomon was resigned to his.

Is God's nurture forensic and so with Solomon or of an other law and so with David? Did David escape a period of probation he might never have had and Solomon could not? For David's conscience was formed of a different material than Solomon's.

Can love drive a wedge on The Tree Of the knowledge of Good and Evil? I think that perhaps someday by it we will cut it all down.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Man also started out with a knowledge of true worship, for God Had slain animals in the garden and had clothed man with there skins. Blood had been shed as a token of the blood of the coming seed of the woman Gen. 3:21. We have further proof of this from the story of Cain and Abel. When they grew old enough to worship, Abel brought the right kind of sacrifice a blood sacrifice, proving that the true way of worship had been made clear to Adam and Eve. Man also had a tabernacle for worship in those days, for in Gen. 4:7 God said to Cain, "If thou doest not well, sin [Hebrew, chata, a sin offering as in Ex. 30:10; Lev. 4:3; 6:25] lieth at the door," that is, the tabernacle door where sacrifices were offered. In Gen. 4:3-5 it is clear that there was a certain place where offerings were brought to God.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Man also knew that God was just and merciful, that His Word was true, and that God would be with him if he would only be obedient to the will of the Creator. He had the warning and the actual demonstration of the curse egos upon sin. He had personal experience of both sin and the means of reconciliation with God. He had God’s plan further revealed to him, and everything was as favorable for man as could possibly be in the fallen state and under the new curse on the Earth. He could have proved true to God, but as time went on man got worse and worse until he had to be destroyed.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Test for man in Conscience

In Gen. 4:7 we have the particular test for man in this period: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" God demanded of man that he obey the dictates of his conscience as to revealed will of God and as to his own inward knowledge of right and wrong. His test was to do the good and refuse the evil, and to have faith in God and the coming Redeemer who would bruise the serpent's head Gen. 3:15. In the fall of man lost god-consciousness and gained self-consciousness. He lost the power in himself to do the good and gained the power to do the evil.

Man awoke to the fact that he had to have the help of God if he were to live right and obey the whole will of God. He had to have help from God to overcome these evil spirit forces to whom he had yielded and to whom he had given over his dominion. He was powerless in himself to overcome these spirit forces, but he had the power of choice left, and he could voluntarily recognize and acknowledge his lost state and helpless condition and accepted the help of God which would enable him to be redeemed and to overcome these new enemies that had usurped his dominion and had gained the power over him.

This is all God requires of helpless and sinful man. The moment today that any man acknowledges his sin and his need of God and will call upon God for deliverance and help from satanic forces and sinful habits, he is heard of God and acted upon by God and made a new creature in Christ. He is born again and endued with the principles of righteousness and true holiness and is renewed in spiritual and moral power, so that he can overcome the flesh, the world, and the evil Eph. 2:1-19; 4:22-24; Gal. 5:16-26; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 6:1-23; 8:1-16; 1 Jn. 1:7; 2:29; 3:7-10; 5:1-4, 18.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Purpose Of God In This Dispensation

The purpose of God in this age was to teach man in the very beginning of the fall and of the Earth's second sinful career that obedience to Him, faith in the Word, and conformity to His will for the best good of being and of the universe were the only sources of true pleasure, happiness, health, and prosperity, and the only assurance of restoration to the original perfect state. God wanted to test man under freedom of his will without any restraint or compulsion to see if He would choose to follow Him instead of his new master the devil. Man could have argued that he did not know experimentally fight from wrong and that he should be excused for the first sin against God; so God met this argument by giving man freedom of action to choose for himself which master he wanted to serve.

 

[BanjoPicker]

There was not even the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to refrain from eating of in this period. There were no specific laws and commandments for a man to obey. The test was a choice between voluntary service to one of two master's and the free choice of conformity to right choice according to the creative makeup. The board and inherent principles of right and wrong were known. Man had within him certain created faculties and the knowledge of the best use of his whole being and of conformity to those necessary principles that would be for the best good of his own being, of all other in society, and of the universe as a whole. He had to make the free choice to consecrate to the end to which his rational being dictated the same end to which all society must conform if it is to continue eternally, and that is, that each one choose and wholeheartedly co-operate with all others for the preservation of that society.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Man had within him the knowledge of the principle of righteousness and true holiness that God Had to later require of him to conform to by law. Paul spoke of it as doing by "nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves; Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing them witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another" Rom. 2:12-16.
By this test of freedom to choose the best good of being and of all concerned, man could learn some lessons that he could not have learned otherwise. God wanted to see and permit man to see and experience for himself how sinful he could become if he chose to live in self-gratification and selfishness instead of in conformity to the best good of others. God permitted evil spirits to operate in the human realm in order to teach men from the beginning the need of dependence upon God and submission to His will as the best choice of life and conduct.

 

[BanjoPicker]

God's Means Of Accomplishing This Purpose

According to the facts sated above, it is clear that the conscience of man, the full freedom of his will without restraint and compulsion, and the malice of the devil were all used of God to further His purpose for man in this period. The conscience demonstrated how exceedingly sinful man could become if he chose to continue in rebellion, the full freedom of action on his part demonstrated how far man would go in this rebellion before God would have to interfere for the good of His own eternal plan, and the malice of the devil and his evil designs demonstrated the contrast between the two masters man had the privilege of choosing to serve while on probation. Such freedom of the will was what man chose in the fall, so God permitted him in this age to go the full limit of wickedness that he might learn the folly of such a course, and that all future generations in all eternity might profit by such an experience. Now, such freedom of conduct without restraint and the results of it are matters of record and will serve forever to check man in the wrong use of his will.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Failure Of Man In Conscience

THE FAILURE OF ADAM: My Spirit shall not always strive with, man for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years" Gen. 6:3. This verse has been used through the ages and is still being used to prove that someday God's Holy Spirit will quit striving with all men and that they will be cut off without hope. It is used to prove that the door of mercy to Gentiles will be closed in the near future and that God will save only the Jews. Both of these theories are man-made and have no place in Scripture or in the plan of God.

That Adam is personally referred to in Gen. 6:3 is clear from the following.
The word spirit is correctly translated without a capital letter and does not refer to the Holy Spirit. It refers to the created spirit of man manifested in his conscience and other spirit faculties. It is called "My spirit" because Adam's personal spirit was directly created and given to him by God. God is the God of all spirits and all are considered His in the sense of creation or origin and rulership Num. 16:22; 27:16; Isa. 42:5; Heb. 12:9, 23.

The word strive is from the Hebrew word doom, meaning to rule, judge, strive, contend, convict, minister, execute, plead. It is translated judge Gen. 15:14; 49:16; contend Eccl. 6:10; execute Jer. 21:12; plead Prov. 31:9; and minister Ps. 9:8.

 

[BanjoPicker]

The Septuagint, Arabic, Syriac, and Latin versions translate this work remain in, that is, My spirit I have created in man will not always remain in him.
The word for man is in the singular, used with the definite article. It is the Hebrew Adam and with the definite article should read the Adam that is My Spirit will not always remain in or strive in Adam. This is made clear by the personal singular pronouns in this verse, such as he and his, proving that one man is referred to and not the whole race of men in general.

 

[BanjoPicker]

The word also makes it clear that the statements refers to the one man Adam. It has no meaning if the word man is read in the plural. If all men are referred, to, then who else beside all men could be referred to by the word also? It means and only means, that the one man Adam, the only one that was direct product of creation, was also flesh, as well as those that are born of men and not directly created. The whole verse teaches that Adam as well as other men had become sinful and that he would be cut off even though he was the only created man. It reveals that God gave Adam 120 more years to live, thus making it clear that Gen. 6:3 refers to a time 810 years after the creation of Adam, for he lived only 930 years.

 

[BanjoPicker]

The verse could not refer to the cutting off of all men in 120 years, for all men were cut off at the end of that time, and all men have yet been cut off after many times 120years. This verse throws light upon the ungodliness of men 810 years after creation and 846 years before the flood, and shows why Enoch's day God had already intended to destroy man by a flood, Enoch divinely called his son's name Methuselah, which in Hebrew, means "when he is dead it [the deluge] shall be sent." Enoch saw such ungodliness in his day that he even prophesied of the destruction of the ungodly at the second advent of Christ Jude 14.

Enoch was born 627 years after Adam's creation. He was a contemporary with Adam for 303 years. Methuselah, who died the year the flood came, was a contemporary of Adam for 238 years, so there were two men who lived the whole length of the dispensation of Conscience. Thus it is clear that man was so wicked that God planned when Methuselah was born to send a flood 969 years before He did sent it. Adam himself was so wicked that God gave him 120 more years to live and repent. Whether he repented is not clear. He is not mentioned as one of the faithful worthies of the Old Testament as recorded in Heb. 11. He is not once mentioned in ant Scripture as being a godly man, a fact more striking when he we consider the fact that Abel, Enoch, and Noah of the Ante-diluvian Age are mentioned thirteen times as being Godly Gen. 4:4; 5:22; 6:8, 9; 7:1; Lk. 11:51; Heb. 11:1-7; Rev. 3:20; 2 Pet. 2:5; Jude 14; 1 Pet. 3:20. If Adam, after having been a direct creation of God and after seeing God face to face, failed the Creator, what must have been the sinful condition of many others?

 

[BanjoPicker]

THE FAILURE OF CAIN Gen. 4:1-16. This passage records the failure of the first man that was born in the Earth, as this passage above Gen. 6:3 records the failure of the first and only created man. Here we have the story of two of Adam's many sons. One was humble and godly, and the other self-willed and rebellious. Both were full grown and knew the true way of worship. They were taught this way of worship by Adam and by God Hilself, for God was present when the boys did sacrifice. God even gave Cain another chance and told him personally about the sin offering at the door of the tabernacle.
Cain also knew when God accepted Abel's offering what he should do, but he rejected the counsel of both God and man and started his own religion. The fire of God evidently consumed Abel's offering, as was done on other occasions of acceptance by God Gen. 15:17; Lev. 9:24; Judges 6:21; 1 Kings 18:38; 1 Chron. 21:26; 2 Chron. 7:1.
Instead of conforming to God's will and welcoming fellowship with God, Cain began to scheme how he could get even with Abel. This desire for vengeance led to murder, and God appeared a second time to Cain and cursed him from His own presence and from that of other men, condemning him to be a vagabond in the Earth. Cain was afraid of someone taking vengeance on him; so God gave Cain a pledge of protection. The Hebrew word for mark is owth, meaning a pledge, token Gen. 9:1217; 17:11 and a sign Ex. 4:8; 8:23. It never means a literal physical mark upon the body, but a pledge. The pledge is stated in the same verse Gen. 4:15: "Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

 

[BanjoPicker]

THE FAILURE OF CAIN'S DESCENDANTS Gen. 4:17-24 It is revealed in this passage the activities of the godless civilization produced by Cain's descendants, and others associated with him. This part of the human race tried to make the land of their exile a paradise instead of following God's directions and co-operating with Him to get rid of the curse altogether. They were plunderers and profligates. Cain himself set a wicked example before men. He started the first city. He aimed to procure everything that for his own bodily pleasure though it made him injurious to others. He became wealthy by violence and robbery and led men into sinful ways. He changed the simplicity of living and became the author of weights and measures. He set boundaries around lands and fortified cities against wild beasts and his enemies in nearby lands. His children became more wicked as time went on.

Many marks of modern civilization are seen in this early one:

City life and its attendant evils first appeared Gen. 4:17.

Jabal, the first cattleman and nomad dwelling in tents, introduced flesh and milk as food, to escape tilling the soil Gen. 4:20.

Jubal invented "the harp and organ" (wind instruments) to be used in the song, dance, and pleasures of all kinds which go with crowed populations Gen. 4:21.

Tubal-Cain a worker in brass and iron, forged weapons of war and made things for the comfort of civilization. The Earth was filled with violence, bloodshed, and wars Gen. 4:22; 6:14.

Lamech was a murder, the first polygamist, and the first song writer on record Gen. 4:23, 24.

From these few facts it can be seen that there were envyings, strifes, deeds of licentiousness, violence, lowing of herds, strains of music and dancing to soothe the conscience, clatter of hoofs, sounding of anvils, vaunting of proud boasters, and all mingled din that rose from a godless civilization in struggling to overpower the curse.

 

[BanjoPicker]

THE FAILURE OF SETH'S DESCENDANTS Gen. 4:25-5:32. In this passage we have the failure of the descendants of Seth and the line of ten generations from Adam to Noah. It is believed by some there were two distinct lines of the human family in their period--the ungodly line of Cain and the godly line of Seth, but this is not taught in Scripture.
Such and idea is not once mentioned in Scripture, Seth's descendants as a whole may not have been as ungodly as Cain's but it is very clear that there were more than just two lines, or branches of the human family coming from just two men. Adam begat "sons and daughters" Gen. 5:4. Every son of Adam started a branch of the race for himself as has been generally the case all through history. Not all the sons and daughters of Adam are mentioned in Scripture, nor are the multitudes of other families through this whole 1,656-year period. Then too, there were races of giants in the Earth that were not of the sons of Cain or Seth.

There were many people on Earth at the time Cain killed Able, or God would not have protected Cain from others who might desire to kill Cain Gen. 4:14, 15. Cain was evidently married by the time he slew Able, for immediately afterward he went into the land of Nob with his wife, and there he knew her and she had a son Gen. 4:16, 17. The curse upon the woman was to multiply greatly, and this was true of the early women, for when had his first child there were enough people even in Cain's land of exile to build a city Gen. 4:17. It could not be that Cain could build a city for one wife and one child.

 

[BanjoPicker]

The history of the godless civilization shows a considerable number of people. It is estimated by Bible students that there could be at least 150,000,000 people at the time of the flood. This is a very conservative estimate for Israel multiple in Egypt from seventy to about 6,000,000 people in 215 years. When men lived to be nearly a thousand years old they could have multiplied infinitely faster than Israel did in Egypt, when they lived to be a hundred years old. The very fact that there is no attempt to explain explain the population before the flood makes it evident that the population increased at a normal rate and we are left to understand that the Earth was filled with people before the flood. So the common idea that there were just two sons and that there immediate families stayed separated through 1,656 years is absurd. We might as well argue that the few mentioned in other genealogies in Scripture were all the people that lived on Earth in the various periods as to argue this about Cain and Seth and their immediate families in the age of Conscience.