MidnightCall Magazine
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News From Israel MagazineThe Time of Christ: Dispensations from the Throne of God
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Many students of the Bible recognize the progressive flow of God’s grace and the progressive revelation throughout it. Some have classified the differences in the progressive revelation as dispensations. While some note three or four dispensations, premillennialists in particular note seven dispensations which are listed below. (See for example, The New Ungers Bible Dictionary.)
A Typical Classification of Dispensations
1. Innocence
2. Conscience (fallen conscience not dispensed from God)
3. Human Government (not dispensed from God)
4. Promise
5. Law
6. Grace
7. Kingdom, followed by the Eighth Day — the new creation, new heavens and earth.
These developments could also be likened to times and seasons in the course of God’s plan, which is the language used in Scripture to chart progress. In Daniel 2:21, it is God who changes the times and the seasons (KJV). Also in the Book of Daniel “seven times” is used as a measure of completion. For example, seven times (years) were completed for Nebuchadnezzar in his madness (Daniel 4:16), along with the seasons that came with each of those years. This sense of completion in a seven-fold progression began with the seven days of creation and is used ultimately several times in the Revelation for judgment of sin.
Because of the observation of seven to convey completion, it is biblical and historical to develop a dispensational classification like the one listed above. It must be noted however that this particular scheme is man made. Furthermore, the classifications are oriented toward the activity of man, not the activity of God, who is the one changing the times and seasons, as noted by Daniel. Jesus Christ receives no glory from the activities that spring from the will of man.
For example, human government is found in Nimrod in Babel, in the Pharaohs in Egypt, and subsequently with the four kingdoms foreseen in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Each of these governments opposed God, and either they were dealt with or they will be. As for a Dispensation of Conscience, a Bible-believer cannot argue that the fallen state of conscience glorifies Christ — fallen consciences cannot save or lead to Christ. Since God did not author fallen conscience or human government (at least not until the Exodus from Egypt), and since it is God who does the changing, using this list of seasons or dispensations as a basis to understand the Scriptures is questionable at best.
On the other hand, scriptural dispensations, or times and seasons, must issue from the throne of God, and at every stage each must glorify Christ. If they do issue from God’s throne, then there ought to be a clear demarcation of each stage as there was with the days of creation. For example, grace always existed since Adam and Eve first fell because they were not killed instantly (Genesis 2:17). Grace also existed for Cain and Lamech, who admitted they should be subject to capital punishment (Genesis 4:15, 24), but God suspended their death sentences as he did for Adam and Eve. As it happens then, grace existed from the beginning, only not in its fullness until Jesus Christ was revealed (John 1:16); and grace will continue for the sheep nations during the millennium. As a result, there is no clear beginning or end to a dispensation called grace, and for that matter, conscience or human government.
In what follows, seven seasons, or dispensations, are clearly delineated for the time of Christ. The Bible says the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), i.e., God was not surprised by the need for redemption and had prepared the perfect remedy. So the Body of Christ in process of time began to appear at the outset, with his heel first revealed in God’s revelation to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15), his feet and legs with Abraham’s sojourning (Genesis 12:1, 13:17, 17:1), and ultimately his head and crowning with the millennium and his coronation.
The progressive appearance of Christ is diametrically opposed to the appearing of the man of lawlessness exposed through human government in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and throughout the books of Daniel and Revelation. In those successive human governments, corruption and decay increase as indicated by the more noble metals giving way to baser metals. Also, Nebuchadnezzar’s image of human governments began with the head and denigrated to the feet. Concerning the appearing of Christ the opposite is true, “of the increase of his government there shall be no end.” Christ’s government, as noted above, begins with the feet, first revealed as the heel in the Garden and ever improves, the head being revealed in its fullness in the millennium. This article focuses on the increase of Christ’s government, decreed as a time with seasons at the throne of God.
The distinctive traits of his dispensational administration must be related to the progression of scenes at the throne of God in the Revelation, since divine dispensations must indeed issue from the throne. They cannot be man-centered. To understand his dispensations, each characteristic of those throne scenes, as revealed in the whole counsel of Scripture, will be carefully weighed.
One may incidentally note the existence of a time for Israel and a time for Gentiles, each of these also having seven seasons. The time of Israel is given in the Scriptures as a parable using the woman of Shunem (2 Kings 4: 8-37, 8: 1-6). The time of the Gentiles occurs in the interim of the time of Israel, and it is depicted as seven parables in the interim of the story of the woman of Shunem (2 Kings 4:38-7:20). In particular, the seven parables concerning the time of the Gentiles exhibit a detailed, one-to-one correspondence with the seven churches of Revelation and Gentile church history. However, the times of Israel and the Gentiles are the subjects of two other articles and are not described further here.
A SCRIPTURAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE TIME OF CHRIST
The idea that there exist seven dispensations, or administrations, in the appearing of Christ is most evident in the Revelation. In Revelation 1 and 4, the student learns there are seven spirits of God at the throne; and in Revelation 5:6, the seven spirits are expressly identified with seven eyes and seven horns in a one-to-one correspondence. These horns (and eyes) represent beyond question seven administrations (seasons) of the Lord Jesus Christ that issue from his throne, because horns throughout Revelation and the Bible represent governmental administrations or persons.
Besides Christ’s throne at the center of the scene in Revelation 4, there are twenty-four thrones with elders and four creatures, all of which rise out of, or surface on, a glassy sea. In later scenes at the throne, a great swell of souls are admitted (Revelation 7:9) followed by 144,000 persons (Revelation 14:4), who seem to be the elect 144,000 Israelites that were saved as firstfruits at the outset of the Tribulation (Revelation 7:4). Because of the change of scenes at the throne and those named — it begins with elders and leads up to the 144,000 raptured Israelites — the process of time is evident.
On account of the changes in the throne scene, and the presence of the seven eyes with the seven horns, one might consider that those present at the throne are connected to the seven horns of divine administrations, or dispensations. In Daniel 7, four administrations of human government arise out of a stormy sea, stirred up by the four winds. Each of these four human governments is characterized by beasts. This similarity to the four creatures on the glassy sea in Revelation 4 suggests the four creatures on the glassy sea represent four divine administrations of Christ. This being said, the throne scene and the Scripture passages related to it may be understood in terms of the seven dispensations listed here.
Dispensations Administered from the Throne of God
1. Elders: no restrainer, cataclysmic judgments teach man to call on God (flood, confounding the languages, dividing the earth, scattering the peoples, Sodom and
Gomorrah)
2. First of four creatures (restrainers): the Lion (praise of the Lord)
3. Second of four restrainers: the Ox (Israel’s rededication and return to Jerusalem, putting away of idolatry)
4. Third of four restrainers: Man (Jesus Christ and Church issuing from Pentecost)
5. Fourth of four restrainers: Flying Eagle (reformation and judgment)
6. Removal of restrainer: cataclysmic judgments teach man to call on God (144,000 as individual leaders and those evangelized)
7. Natural Israel and sheep nations under Christ’s millennial rule, followed by the Eighth day.
This list of dispensations is scriptural. All progressively appear in heaven and earth except the last. Those saved in the seventh and last dispensation come to the throne only after Christ returns to earth to set up his throne (Matthew 19:28, 25:31); therefore, they would not be revealed in the heavenly throne scenes.
These seven administrations of divine government can be compared with human government. Christ administers seven in total, six from heaven in his work of redemption and one from earth in his rest. Humans administer six in failure from earth — Babel, Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, six being the number of man. The thrones of the twenty-four elders and the four creatures arise on the glassy and transparent sea of peoples, that is, the people at peace with God and without guile. On the other hand, the four human governments that oppose the restrainer arise on the wind-tossed (rebellious) sea (Daniel 7) of peoples. A full discussion of these seven dispensations is now given in the following order: four beasts or creatures at the throne, then the twenty-four elders,
and finally the Scripture passages related to the seven eyes.
FOUR FACES OF THE RESTRAINER
In the first chapter of Ezekiel, a vision of God is described that is one of the most complex and awesome images in Scripture. Out of a whirlwind from the north appeared four creatures, seeming to move as a single entity, and each creature had four faces (sixteen total). In addition there were four wheels. When it moved, it maintained its orientation, i.e., the faces of the creatures did not turn as it went.
The creatures around the throne in Revelation 4 seem to be the same as those in Ezekiel. However, they are four distinct creatures in Revelation; each creature now has a single face corresponding to those in Ezekiel (a lion, an ox, a man, and a flying eagle). Their significance has not been understood because of these differences.
This vision has been referred to as a throne-car and as a chariot because of the wheels associated with it and the throne situated above it. Since it moves together as a unit and it has such unusual components it might here be referred to as an assembly, or even a holy assembly, considering the throne of God is situated above it. But to avoid confusion in the usage of the word assembly, it will here be referred to as a chariot and not as an assembly.
The chariot of God in Ezekiel and the four creatures in Revelation can be understood when one recognizes that the chariot came out of the north and did not turn as it went. As a result, the faces and the entire chariot always kept the same orientation with respect to the cardinal points of the compass (N, S, E, and W), regardless of the direction it traveled. The only other thing in Scripture that exhibited the same behavior is the Israelite assembly in the wilderness (Numbers 2). For example, regardless of the direction that the assembly took in the wilderness, Judah (lion) always presented its ensign to the east, and Judah was the lead tribe only when the whole assembly moved east. As will be seen, this behavior provides the key to a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the related passages in Revelation and Ezekiel.
When Ezekiel first saw the vision of God (chapter 1), it was coming out of the north (v. 4). Coming out of the north, the south face was exposed, and Ezekiel observed it was the face of a man. South is also the direction that the tribe of Reuben faced in the wilderness, whose name interpreted means vision of the Son. This is consistent with the prophecy concerning the Christ: he would be raised up out of the north (Isaiah 41:25). Then facing east would be the lion corresponding to the right side as noted by Ezekiel); facing west, the ox (left side as noted by Ezekiel); and facing north the flying eagle. As noted in the next few paragraphs, this arrangement of the creatures’ faces corresponds to the assembly of the lead tribes in the wilderness (Fig. 1).
When the Israelite congregation first assembled in Egypt, they were heading east to Jerusalem. This presented the face of the lion, and the tribe of Judah. They were poised to conquer, nothing withstanding them. Judah means praise of the Lord or confession of the Lord, and they praised the Lord, raising confession of the Lord even in the mouths of the heathen like Balaam and Rahab. The assembly in the wilderness is also the first time the Body of Christ (Acts 7:38) is used to keep human government in check; they were sent to Canaan exactly when the fullness of iniquities had come (Genesis 15:16). Up to that point in history, God used cataclysmic intervention to keep human government in check. The lion is the first beast in Revelation, it is the foremost face of the congregation when it first did the bidding of the Lord, and it is the first time in history that the congregation acted as the restrainer.
When Ezekiel later saw the same chariot (Ezekiel 10:20), he was still living in the administration of the first beast, the lion. At this point in time, the lion had entered Jerusalem, and apostasy had set in culminating in captivity and deportation to the east. As such, the restrainer of God had not differentiated itself in time with regard to which creature would appear next. However, the second vision in Chapter 10 gives this away. As Israel (the restrainer in abeyance) was in Assyria and Babylon to the east of Jerusalem, the foremost face seen by one in Jerusalem would be the ox, the western exposure of the chariot. As they stood at the east gate of the Lord’s house (in the spirit), the chariot coming toward them indeed revealed its westernmost face, the face of the ox (or cherub).
As the lead tribe of the Israelite congregation facing west is Ephraim, interpreted as fruitful or increasing, the return of the chariot to Jerusalem signifies restoration. The ox is a symbol of fruitfulness (Proverbs 14:4, “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.”); and the sacrifice of an ox marks the end of idolatry and beginning of consecration (Jacob, Elijah on Carmel, Elisha beginning his ministry, Gideon beginning his). The ox is the second beast named in Revelation, and it is the second chariot to enter the holy land. This face of the chariot acted to restrain the human governments from interfering with the restoration of the temple in preparation for the presentation and the crucifixion of the Christ.
In the third appearance of the chariot of God, Jesus himself came down from heaven, from the sides of the north, in agreement with Ezekiel’s first vision of the chariot which was coming from heaven to earth (ch. 1). The face of a man is mentioned, which is the southern exposure. This order also agrees with Revelation 4, the third beast having the face of a man. As noted above, this is the Son of God, as figured in the name of Reuben which was the lead tribe facing south, and this creature is perpetuated in the congregation beginning with the apostles at Pentecost. The action of this restrainer lasted until apostasy set in and spiritual captivity resulted. (It may be noted that Lucifer attempted to ascend the sides of the north in his rebellion, Isaiah 14:13.)
In the fourth administration of the restrainer, a flying eagle is given in Revelation 4, suggesting a swift and far-reaching (global) influence of the Word of God. The tribe presented to the north is Dan, which is interpreted he that judges. In full agreement with its usage here, the eagle is used in other places in Scripture during impending judgment for the rebellious and deliverance for the faithful (Matthew 24:28; Revelation 12:14). Just like the administration of the ox began with the rededication of Israel and their return to the Word of God (Nehemiah 8:3), the global administration of the flying eagle began with the reformation of the Gentile Church and their return to the Word of God (e.g., Luther’s reliance on Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith,” and the prominence of the Bible).
When the chariot leaves the earth, it will ascend the sides of the north and those remaining of the Lord will be raptured. This constitutes the removal of the restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2:7, RSV). No longer will the Holy Spirit act through the congregation to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8). Instead, it is a season when the earth with its inhabitants returns to a state when God personally, and the angels without the congregation, are involved doing the work of conviction time and again with cataclysms. This is the Tribulation. (It is noteworthy that Dan is not included as one of the twelve tribes numbered with the 144,000 during the Tribulation [Revelation 7], which is at least consistent with the face of Dan leading the Rapture assembly.)
HUMAN GOVERNMENT AS AN IMPERSONATOR OF CHRIST
The text in Revelation 4 parallels the text in Daniel 7. Daniel lists the progression of four major human governments as depicted by four individual beasts. They arise out of and are situated on the stormy sea. As the sea is often a metaphor for peoples (e.g., Psalm 65:7, 144:7; Isaiah 8:7), clearly the head of the government rises out of the stormy sea as the winds striving upon it churn up the muck and mire of human government.
In Daniel 7, the first beast is a lion with eagle’s wings (that are plucked off), the second a bear, the third a leopard with four wings and four heads, and the fourth
is so unusually terrible that it is unnamed. The human governments that have been associated with these beasts are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
In Revelation 4, the throne of God, or seat of divine government, is illustrated in direct contrast to Daniel’s prophetic list of human governments. In Revelation 4, there are also four beasts (creatures) supported on a sea, but the sea in Revelation 4 is glassy, or smooth as glass, and transparent. As the waters again represent the peoples, the four beasts rise out of the glassy and transparent sea to indicate that the hearts are perfectly still (peace) and pure (guileless) before the throne of God, the seat of divine government.
The parallel descriptions of beasts in Daniel 7 and Revelation 4 can be understood in terms of how the enemy seeks to impersonate God or Christ. They illustrate the motive of his activity, “I will be like God” (Isaiah 14:13). For the beasts representing human governments, each beast is individually distinct in the Book of Daniel, the last beast being so terrible it is unnamed. However, in Revelation 13:2 it is discovered the terrible beast described in Daniel is actually a composite of the first three beasts: a lion, a bear and a leopard.
In attempting to impersonate and oppose Christ, as revealed in the four faces of the restrainer, the enemy musters four administrations of human government. However, the administration of the enemy becomes darker with the passage of time, the man of lawlessness becomes harder to make out, and the final beast is a composite beast. By contrast, the four divine administrations (signified by the lion, ox, man, and flying eagle) begin as a composite entity (Ezekiel 1) and become clearer and more refined over time, where in heaven after the Rapture each beast is distinct and has a single face (Revelation 4).
Overall, the man of lawlessness increases in reach, while his authority and government decay.
The mob of human wills, composed of different bodies of people with conflicting interests, look for a single voice (false prophet) and a single figurehead (Antichrist). Christ on the other hand increases in authority, government, and reach. The head over all looks for a single body of people following the will of God (Hebrews 10:5-7). Thus through all the parallels in Revelation 4 and Daniel 7, the true Christ ever increases in his appearing while the impersonation of Christ ever decays. As noted in the introduction, the same is true in comparing Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to Christ’s body. The image in the dream begins with the head of gold and finishes with the feet of clay mixed with iron, but the body of Christ begins with the heel in Genesis and finishes with the crowned head in Revelation.
THE ELDERS
Until the time of Moses and the Israelites, human governments were unrestrained by an assembly of believers. During those years, God personally intervened to restrain the decay of civilization and the increase of lawlessness.
He intervened with a judgment in the time of Noah with the Flood (Genesis 6:12-13): “And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
He intervened after the Flood in the time of Nimrod by confounding the languages and scattering the people (Genesis 11:5-8):
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.And the LORD said,Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
He intervened in the time of Abraham in regard to Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20-21): And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
These personal interventions of God characterize the season leading up to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. After the Exodus, Israel became the instrument of the Lord to admonish and judge the nations as well as to bear the seed of the woman.
Now it happens that the nation of Israel birthed through the Red Sea had ancestors whose number was almost exactly twenty-four. Following Luke’s genealogy of Christ (Luke 3), there were twentythree persons from Adam through Jacob. This genealogy is different than the one recorded in Genesis (chs. 5 and 11), because Luke lists Cainan the son of Ham (of Noah) in addition to Cainan the son of Enos. Apparently, Cainan the son of Ham is one of the fathers-in-law in the forbears of Christ, and the only one that the Holy Spirit cares to have mentioned.
According to Genesis, then, there are twenty-two ancestors leading up to the birth of the nation of Israel, which is clearly the first restrainer. And according to Luke, there are twenty-three ancestors. These ancestors, at least twenty-two of them, are taken to be the elders of Revelation. With this construction of the dispensations, the desirable condition for Scripture interpretation results, where the meaning of elders is literal — they are elders to the children of faith. In particular, they are the elders of the woman who gives birth to the man child (Revelation 12:1-2). The woman is the nation Israel, that is, the twelve tribes. The questions remain though: Are there one or two other elders to make a total of twenty-four, and who are they?
The most direct assignment that can be made for the elders is that given in Luke, who lists the genealogy of Christ, rather than the genealogy of Abraham as is done in Genesis. As a result, it must be the Holy Spirit directing the special mention of Cainan the son of Ham as one of Christ’s ancestors. For this reason, the elders are taken to be the twenty-three persons named by Luke. As for the twenty-fourth elder, there are really only three possibilities.
It must be remembered that during the period of the elders, there was no restrainer, and God personally intervened in the affairs of men to hold back the increase of knowledge and the tide of iniquity (Genesis 6:12-13, 11:5-8, 15:16; Daniel 12:4). The only other individuals who acted as overseers over the seed of the woman then are Joseph the son of Jacob, Moses, and Joseph the husband of Mary.
Joseph the son of Jacob oversaw the provision for Israel’s stay in Egypt, which may be reckoned a gestation period for the nation of Israel that was birthed through the Red Sea. Moses acted as a physician’s assistant in that birthing process, as Moses oversaw but did not enter the Promised Land. Joseph the husband of Mary also acted as overseer of the seed somewhat without the special provision of the restrainer, because the family was ostracized for becoming pregnant out of wedlock and because the child was raised partly in Egypt outside of Israel, at a time when Israel was acting as a restrainer.
Scripture observes that Jacob’s son Joseph was separate from his brethren (Genesis 49:26), indicating he did not participate in tribal government (congregational) because he was taken from them as a youth, about seventeen years old (Genesis 37:2). This suggests he is the twenty-fourth elder. Even though he was not a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ, his role as an overseer of the seed of the woman is clear in that his own father Jacob, a direct ancestor, came to bow before him in Egypt according to the dream (Genesis 37:10). If the Spirit intended to convey this in saying he was separate, then there should be examples of Joseph’s brothers acting as a restrainer. In fact, they do act as a restrainer after Dinah their sister is raped (Genesis 34).
After Shechem raped Dinah, he was consumed with her and desired to marry her. Jacob’s sons conspired against all of the men in that city, having them agree to circumcision in order to intermingle for marriage. However, when the circumcised men were taken with fever and soreness, Simeon and Levi slew them all with the sword, and Jacob’s sons spoiled them of all their possessions, wives and children.
Jacob was very anxious about this act of vengeance, but the sons reasoned that they should not just stand by and accept the offense. This contrast in behavior marks the transition between the role of the elders and the role of the congregation. Their behavior prefigures Israel’s return to Canaan to exact God’s vengeance for their iniquities (Genesis 15:16). In particular, there were only two of that generation of Jacob’s sons — Simeon and Levi — who showed the courage for the sword, as it was with Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 13:6, 8, 30). Furthermore, the fear of God was upon the inhabitants of the land because of Jacob’s sons (Genesis 35:5), exactly as it was when the Israelites returned from Egypt (Joshua 2:9).
Joseph at this time was a youth, less than seventeen, and Benjamin, Jacob’s other son by Rachel, was even younger. Their ten brothers led the spoiling of Shechem, and the ten brothers were involved in selling Joseph into what seemed certain death in Egypt. The number ten is significant here.
Ten is the number of a full complement, as with ten fingers or ten toes. Ten men can form a line in battle and fill a gap, for ten righteous men could have saved Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:32). Ten men assigned Joseph to death and inadvertently saved the company of Israel from famine (Genesis 50:20) just as the full complement of Jewish leaders assigned Christ to death and inadvertently saved the company of believers from damnation (John 11:50). Since Christ is the eldest, the first-born from the resurrection of the dead (Revelation 1:5), and only Joseph’s life shows the same degree of fellowship of sufferings and exaltation, Joseph — being separate from the ten brothers that prefigured the congregation — appears to be the twenty-fourth elder. Being last among the twenty-four elders and the most persecuted, he is also first, or preeminent among them (Mark 10:29-31), as Jesus Christ the suffering servant is preeminent over all.
THE SEVEN EYES OF THE LORD
(2 Chronicles 6:19; Zechariah 3:9, 4:10; Revelation 1:4, 3:1, 4:5, 5:6)
In certain passages there are references to seven eyes and often they are called the seven spirits of the Lord. While there is only one Holy Spirit, the reference to seven eyes is impossible to understand without the key verse, Revelation 5:6. Here the seven eyes are placed in seven horns coming from one head over one body, the Lamb. Paul tells us expressly there is one body and one Spirit, and the use of horns for human governments in Daniel and Revelation indicates the seven horns of the Lamb are seven administrations of the one Body of Christ. As there is human government that derives from the enemy’s activity, there is also divine government manifest in the Body of Christ that derives from the head, the Lord Jesus.
The seven spirits of God going to and fro throughout the earth therefore tell of the activity of the Spirit in each administration to save souls and bring them into the Body of Christ. In Zechariah, the seven eyes are found on a stone at the end of a plumb line, such as a stone mason might use to verify whether a wall goes straight up. The Spirit searches for those whose heart is perfect toward God, just as the plummet with those seven eyes finds the upright (2 Chronicles 6:19; Zechariah 4:10) who are the building not made with hands. Peter declares this plainly to Cornelius and his company, “…Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34-35). It is a fact that God is not willing that any should perish, because he found Melchizedek the priest of Salem, Jethro the priest of Midian, and Job even though they were beyond the evangelism of the congregation. This does not mean that some hearts are perfect toward God without Christ; it means God establishes perfection of heart on receipt of faith in Christ (John 6:45; 14:6).
In summary of the texts on the seven eyes, there are four points applying to all.
1.The seven spirits are seven eyes.
2.The seven spirits are seven horns, by inference seven administrations, on the one head of divine government, who is the Lamb of God.
3.The seven spirits go to and fro throughout the earth.
4.The reason they go to and fro is to search for hearts perfect (upright) toward God.
The Body of Christ is the Body of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The Body of Christ becomes evident only with the fall of man, when redemption is first needed, as the eyes of the Lord begin the search for the hearts perfect toward him. The seven administrations, or seven seasons in the time of Christ, therefore begin with the fall, with the promise regarding the seed of the woman. In this prophecy regarding the seed, the redemption of creation is promised through a body: “…Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). For this reason, the usual convention of citing seven dispensations beginning with the dispensation of innocence, is not taken in this article. Instead, the seven seasons in the time of Christ are drawn from God’s definition of them in connection with the throne of God and the operation of those seven eyes.
A minor difficulty is the presence of the seven eyes at the throne, despite the absence of the seventh group (natural Israel and the sheep nations) in heaven. However, when Christ returns to earth to begin the millennium, the throne will move to Jerusalem with him. So the sheep nations will in fact be present at the throne and guided by the Spirit of Christ, but they appear at the throne only after it is set on the earth, which is consistent with their absence in heaven as portrayed in Revelation.
CONCLUSION
Once it is recognized that the motions of the chariot seen by Ezekiel and the assembly in the wilderness are fixed with respect to the compass points — N, S, E and W — the confluence of Scripture with the history of God’s people enables an understanding of the throne scenes in Revelation and the divine dispensations issuing from it. The character of the creatures in Revelation and their order in being named conform to the chronology of directions traveled by the four congregations assembled by God. The names of the lead tribes in the wilderness conform to the action of the congregations on or from Jerusalem as a base, the city where Christ will establish his throne. The names of the lead tribes also conform to the characters and faces of the four creatures named in Revelation. Apparently the multitude of eyes in the chariot’s wheels represents the multitude of souls in the congregation who are the eyes of Christ on the earth. Because of the congregation, it is not necessary for God to come down to see for himself (Genesis 11:5, 18:21); there are plenty of witnesses for him.
The creatures around the throne in heaven are taken to be literal spirit-creatures, following the prescription “as in heaven also on earth.” In Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot, the creatures are complex and undifferentiated in comparison to their presentation in Revelation. This characteristic corresponds to growth and development, as with a fertilized egg that will eventually differentiate into separate organs such as heart and lungs and bones, all from a single cell. It is not clear to the writer when or how the chariot differentiates — if differentiation occurs with the action of the restrainer in history, or not at all until after the Rapture. If Ezekiel’s first vision of it corresponds to the future when Jesus Christ is born, then the chariot is still complex even at the birth of Christ. By the time the chariot is removed from the earth and taken to heaven — after the Rapture — the creatures are distinct and the wheels are also missing, as it will no longer make contact with the earth, and the souls from each dispensation are assembled together, now as the transparent sea of glass.
Once it is recognized that the actions of the congregation correspond to the four faces of the restrainer, and that the scenes of the throne in Revelation show the process of time, the significance of the elders being named as such becomes obvious. A literal understanding is warranted: they are the elders of the woman who bears the seed, which is the nation Israel. The seven spirits, who are the seven eyes in the seven horns of the Lamb, are then the seven dispensations of divine government over the earth. The eyes search for those who are upright, that is, for those who are made upright on recognizing and receiving God’s word (Ezekiel 1:28-2:1; Daniel 10:11).
To summarize, there are six dispensations of human government in the Bible, beginning with Babel, followed by Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and finally with Rome (Nebuchadnezzar’s fourth successive government, Daniel 2:40; 7:3). There are seven dispensations of divine government on earth, the first beginning with the elders. Following this, there are four periods with a restrainer, which is the assembly acting to warn man to repent. There are two periods without a restrainer, the elders (first) and the Tribulation which is sixth, during which God personally intervenes with cataclysmic judgments to warn man to repent.
In the seventh and last dispensation, Christ will be present on earth personally to instruct the sheep nations in the right way and issue the warnings for their repentance. Despite these solemn warnings and all of history, some will still rebel at the end of the thousand years, only to be undone by God the Father when he establishes the new heavens and the new earth.
Some will reject these observations as an interesting but trite spiritualization of Scripture. Others will accept them while trying to hold on to loosely defined dispensational schemes derived from the activity of man. Still others will adopt them as the dispensations of the time of Christ — the revelation of his body in the earth — that spring from the throne of God. Those who want to hold onto mancentered dispensations may want to consider how Abraham cast out the bond-woman and her son, because the natural is good only as it leads to the spiritual. The real value of the dispensations however is not in the knowledge itself, but in the understanding it provides to set the boundaries of God’s thought. Thinking God’s thoughts after him establishes his purpose and counsel in a believer’s life, and it sets the boundaries that render fervent prayers effectual.
Psalm 2:1-3 says, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
These verses can only be referring to the future, when the restrainer is removed because they are casting the cords away. That being the case, the role of the restrainer is to tie up and hold back the tide of evil. The role of the restrainer is to take on the role God personally took when there was no restrainer. The people of God are in position to scatter the peoples, confuse the languages, cause the waters to rise and abate and the dry land appear, as in the days of Nimrod and Noah. However it is a spiritual role for the third and fourth faces of the restrainer, not a political role, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). The spiritual role convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8).
As one particular example, it may be said that the people of God do not serve fear (Romans 8:15, 2 Timothy 1:7), rather fear serves the people of God (Matthew 4:10) to turn the heathen from their sin. The first time Israel went up to the Promised Land, all but Joshua and Caleb were taken with fear, there was no conviction and none of the inhabitants were saved or judged. However, when Israel approached Jericho to conquer it, instead of fear holding back the Israelites from attacking, fear instead struck Rahab and her family. They had respect unto the God of Abraham and he saved them while others were destroyed (Joshua 2:11). Fear served the congregation of the Lord in similar fashion when the Gibeonites lied to Joshua for fear of their lives, sold themselves as servants to Israel and lived (Joshua 9). Likewise, courage in God today in the face of the tumult of the world will have its own fruit.
A final and chief example of the practice of the restrainer is found in the prayer Jesus taught the disciples. The literal translation from the Greek is, “…Father of us the one in the heavens: let it be hallowed the name of thee; let it come the kingdom of thee; and let it come about the will of thee, as in heaven also on earth” (Matthew 6:9-10). This parallel construction in Greek, which is not rendered in most English translations, indicates that the phrase “as in heaven also on earth,” applies to all three facets: name, kingdom and will. This is in fact the reverse order of God’s presence on earth, beginning with the Holy Spirit, the Son, and finally the Father in the new heavens and new earth. The Body of Christ, especially its leaders, ought therefore to hallow the name of the Lord over themselves and over God’s children, over God’s earthy temple, as instructed in Numbers 6:23-27. As it was when the restrainer showed its first face while the book of Numbers was being lived and written, this prayer continues to sanctify the people (John 17) for their individual roles in the corporate activity of the restrainer.
Let everyone who loves his appearing say, “Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).