As we were sitting listening to the old mans stories of the false prophets we noticed that there was a number of trees that had been cut down and there was one tree, rather large that looked as if it were dying from what looked like the top down and that there was a smaller tree nearby that was full of life and some taller trees also full of life. When the old fellow paused to take a deep breath we asked him about the trees. He said that the ones that had been cut down were from the Old Testament times and that they were reminders of God's dealings with people in His dispensations and epoches. Naturally we wanted to know more as we had not heard about such things in our college days nor in our classes on theology or philosophy. These were strange words and we did not know their meaning.
The old guy explained that during the old times God set standards for each people group that He dealt with and that each had basic rules or orders of conduct to follow with its own limits or penalties for not following the rules. This was the meaning of dispensation, he said you see it is like buying an ice cream cone, the man behind the counter dispenses to you what flavor and the amount that you request. He said that we set the standard for the dispensing out in that case, if we did not we could have the whole thing. Now he said that the epoch is a word meaning a set time or a set season, its limited in starting and limited in ending, in other wards it is preset and it will not start before nor end before the limit.
Now he said as for the trees, there are seven that had been cut down. The first one was for the beginning of man, the next for Israel, then the four kingdoms (Babylon, Persians-Medians, Grecian, Romans), the fifth was for the (Romans now silent or sleeping) time of the gentiles (the Church Age not revealed to any of the old testament saints, though the prophets searched for its meaning.) this one is the one dying from the top down (as it is nearing its end and has been corrupted by the false prophets and teachers since Satan took upon himself the form of an angel of light and has been deceiving even the elect into believing a lie, you see it is actually dead on the inside.), these last two are still growing and are bright green and they stand for the tribulation period, and the millennium (with a great war at its end, between Satan and his forces against the King Jesus Christ) then the judgment and then on into eternity.
So again who are the false prophets in those tombs? Are they the old or the new? He said they are made up of them both. Now what about that small tree, what is it? He said that it is for the mystical Body of Christ as it belongs to Him because He is its Head and that those who are a part of Him make up its form. He also said that it is so small because there are not a lot of members that form it and make it up, only a few are grafted into Him. He said that he could not reveal why or how or where the ones came from that became a members of the body, it was a mystery to him.
As the day was getting well spent and we needed to get back to our auto and some food we decided to leave off with our conversation with the old guy, but asked if we could return as we had more questions than we had answers from him. All he said was that today was the day of our salvation and that we were not guaranteed tomorrow, what ever that meant.
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