Throughout the Bible, the number seven pops up regularly. Seven days to create the earth, seventh day is the Sabbath, seven years Jacob served for the hand of Rachel, seven angels in the book of Revelations, seven candles on the menorah, and many more. The number seven symbolizes completeness. It is a holy number.

When God planned mankind’s stay on earth, He split it up into seven time periods, each period a thousand years. Each of these thousand years is referred to as a dispensation. The intent of our God is to dispense the fullness of the gospel in its purity. Looking back, we see that each dispensation starts with a heavenly visit, and ends with the people turning wicked again. He wants us to have a chance at understanding His plan without centuries of changes.

Of course the first dispensation was opened by Adam. After sending him and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, God taught them the gospel. They taught their family, and did the best they could for about the first thousand years. Adam taught his family to become more like our Father in Heaven. He had mixed results. But in the end, his children were mostly wicked.

The seventh generation after Adam was Enoch (Jude 1:14). This was the second thousand years. He was a prophet who taught the people to repent. Many of the children of Adam had spread about the land. They did what they wanted, and did not follow the word of God. Enoch succeeded in bringing back many people to live righteous lives. They created a city, calling it the city of Enoch.

This city was so very righteous that God took it up unto himself, for it is said:

Gen 5: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Because the members of this great city were so good, the city was taken to heaven. Of course in the absence of Enoch, those left behind fell back into unrighteousness.

The third thousand years was headed up by Noah. After being taught by the Lord, he spent 500 years trying to get the people to repent. In the end, God flooded the world to clean it of the filth that covered the lands. When all that was left were Noah and his family, he taught them to be righteous and follow the Lord’s commandments. Once again, God gave these new people the gospel to live by, and initially they tried. But it ended at the tower of Babel where the Lord changed the languages, and the mostly wicked people segregated, and went their own way.

The fourth thousand years was given to Abraham. He promised to follow God. He was born in the Far East, and was taught by his father to worship idols. He lived righteously and was led to the Promised Land. He and his family were given much because they made covenants to follow God’s ways. But because of famine, his descendents migrated south to Egypt, and began worshiping idols again. Eventually, they became slaves to the Egyptians.

Moses was the fifth prophet to have the fullness of the gospel dispensed to him. He was taught the ways of God, and led the chosen people out of bondage from Egypt, and to a land of milk and honey, Israel. The people would not listen to God, so only a portion of the gospel was given to them. It is called the Mosaic Law.

It was intended to be preparatory for the fullness of the gospel to be taught in the next dispensation. When Christ came to earth, the Law of Moses had been used by wicked men as a method of gaining power over the Jews.

The sixth time Christ himself dispensed the gospel to the world. As the Savior, He brought the fullness of the gospel to His people, to replace the Law of Moses with the Laws of God. No more an eye for an eye, but love your neighbor as yourself. It is the higher law. The Apostles taught it to non-Jews after Christ’s death and resurrection.

But like all the other dispensations, in the end, the people forgot the teachings, and evil creped into their lives, destroying all that the Apostles had worked for. Interestingly, we refer to this time period as the Dark Ages.

The seventh time is the last time. It is the time that the gospel will not leave the people again.

Acts 3:

19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Eph 1:

1. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Rev 14:

6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

The seventh time is the “fullness of times”, the “times of refreshing” that “shall come from the presence of the Lord”. This will be when the world is taught, not just the Jews, not just the Europeans. This event will cover the globe. Missionaries will be sent forth with the everlasting gospel to preach to every continent. In their own tongue, the people will hear the word of God. It will come by an angel sent from heaven to earth.

When will this happen? Perhaps it has already.

These are the last days. Many of the Bible predictions have come to pass. More become reality daily. If that is the case, then where is this seventh dispensation? Time is running out. If the Lord is going to get the word to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” He had better do it soon.

In fact, this is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the “Mormons”, are trying to tell the world. It already happened. It happened in 1823, and they have been sending out missionaries to tell the world ever since. They are in every continent, almost every country on the globe.

Their message is that an angel came to earth and gave the fullness of the gospel to a young boy named Joseph Smith. This was the seventh dispensation of the gospel to mankind.

The powers of darkness fight daily to keep the message from coming to good people of the earth. Rumors and lies are used to stop the righteous from receiving the glad tidings. But for those who listen to the teachings, read the scriptures, and pray for an answer, the light does shine, and lives are changed for the better.

If God lives and Jesus loves us, then why wouldn’t He send someone to dispense His true gospel the last time? He said He would send an angel, His apostles said He would. The powers of darkness say He did not, and will not. Who are you going to believe?

Who Am I

With these eyes I scan the globe

With hands I touch, I feel

Familiarize myself with much

Not sure what things are real

This body tells this brain to store

The color, shape and size

Determines whether friend or foe

Be the words truth or lies

I search for food, for shelter, warmth

For all my body needs

When I am told the things required

Respond to all its pleads

Taught by others I must learn

To read to write to speak

They say my name until I know

It’s me for whom they seek

I know the streets, the sights, the sounds

The people where I go

The missing information is

It’s me I do not know

And if I lose a body part

Was that a part of me

Am I only half a man

If I can’t hear or see

What tells my brain what things to think

What words that I should say

What songs to sing, what hearts to love

What thoughts to cast away

What makes me who I am indeed

What part of me is me

What makes me laugh, what makes me cry

To know this is the key

There’s something that’s inside of me

That death can never steal

I can not quite give it a name

And yet I know it’s real

It’s that that makes me me indeed

That makes me me alone

And without that I’m emptiness

I’m lost without a home

For I am me eternally

There is no end, no start

I always was, I always am

For me is in my heart

And what was I before I was

A part of heavenly clan

I was pure intelligence

The inner part of man

For knowledge cannot be destroyed

It’s there for all who seek

Gives power to the powerless

And strength unto the weak

And knowledge cannot be absorbed

Without an entity

That can intake and comprehend

That being could be me

When through deaths dark door ere I roam

This body left behind

What takes me down that unknown path

The knowledge in my mind

And when refreshed by heavenly light

What chooses my new home

The choices made throughout my life

By me and me alone

So who am I, a child of God

But that a chosen way

Before, a lone intelligence

Until He bid me stay

And why He asked to be His son

A wretched thing as I

I never will quite understand

Until the day I die

But rest assured I’ll do my best

To make Him not regret

The words He spoke so long ago

When once perchance we met