may not believe in it exactly as they do, or as the Adventists
do.
Some are Pre-Millennialists,
and others Post-
Millennialists, the,former believing that the Lord will come
before the Miliennium, and the Iatter that He will come after the Millennium. In our presentation of the Scriptures
you will see that we take a Pre- Millennial view, and as we
proceed we will give you our reasons therefore. But do not
class us as Adventists with all the peculiarities of Adven-
tism. You will have an opportunity to hear and can then
decide for vourselves as to whether or not we present the
Truth on the subject.
(Returning to the Chart.) This First Dispensation is called in the Scriptures
“the world that was”; the Second Dispensation is called “the world that now is, ” or the “present evil world”; and the Third Dispensation is called “the world to come.” All these “worlds” have reference to the particular order of things that existed within the period designated; i. e., each dispensation, or order of things is called a “world.” Such use of the word “world” is not cormmon at the present time; but what we wish is the thought of the original Scriptures, whatever the word. Order, or dispensation, is the thought; “world” is the name used by King James translators.
That First World, the Apostle Peter says, “being overflowed with water, per-
ished.” What world? That order of things, or “world,” which existed from
creation to the Flood, and which was terminated by the Great Deluge, which
destroyed not only the whole social order of that time, hut also the whole
world of mankind, excepting Noah and his family. What was the then existing
order of things? From the Scriptures we find that previous to the Flood God
permitted the angels to have general supervision of mankind-permilfed them,
we say. Doubtless the angels, when they saw the condition of sin into which
man had fallen, desired to reform him, to help him out of sin, but the results
were the reverse of good; for we read that immediately preceding the Flood the
thoughts of men were evil, and “only evil conrinually”; and God took them
away as He saw good. We must not, however, suppose that God’s Plan was a
failure during the First Dispensation. God was not trying an experiment. It was
an experiment for the angels, and one by which they also were to he tried as to
their loyalty and faithfulness to God; but.God knew all the time that it would
be a failure so far as accomplishing the reformation of man was concerned.
God’s Plan was formed “before the foundation of the world”; and so we racl
that in His Plan Christ was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”
(Rev. 13:8); and in the course of these talks it will be our purpose to show how
the Plan of Redemption has been in process of accomplishment through the
slain Lamb of God. The experiment of the angels was a lesson to them, as well
as to mankind. who have observed the results of their efforts and who have