The Ages of Time [‘It’s About Time,’ cont.]

One way of categorizing the ages is:

• The Age of God All-In-All (God existed fully self-contained)
• The Age of Chaos (Process of Creation — even Chaos is from God)
• The Age of Innocence (The creation of Adam, the first son of God, signified the manifest presence of God outside the Trinity)

• The Age of Knowledge (the knowledge of law defined sin)
• The Age of Transition (from death to life)
• The Age of Grace (freedom and wholeness for mankind)
• The Age of Evil Reigning (knowledge of sin and death come to an end)
• The Age of The Judgment Seat of Christ (reign of the Son of Man through the Son IN man)
• The Age of The White Throne Judgment (reign of the Son of God through a Corporate Body)
• Age of New Heaven and Earth (reign of God in His Completeness)
• Age of God All-In-All (all things again being summed up in Him)

Whether this breakdown of time fits into your doctrine at this point is not relevant. Our purpose here is simply to point out that what God does — how He works on the earth and in His people — is dependent on what His purposes are during a particular time period.

What Age Are We Living In?

We are presently living in the Age of Grace, based on world events, time-line indicators and, most importantly, the aspects of relationship with God that are available to us today. Though there are aspects of the ages that clearly begin or conclude where one age ends and another begins, there are also aspects of overlap, where a particular truth will overshadow several ages, then be concluded. We will look at Law from this perspective, and perhaps set the stage for other effects as well.

The other ages that impact us the most right now are the age of law (past) and the age of evil reigning (future). All ages have transition times within them, though they also have clear boundaries of beginning and ending as well.