The Education of Mankind

The first epoch of man?s history was when he was naive and innocent, in the Garden of Eden. He was without the knowledge of good and evil. After that I think there was another kind of epoch, until the time of Noah. During this time, mankind had a conscience about sin, perhaps he was reminded of what had happened by the flaming sword that guarded the entrance to the garden of Eden. But then mankind?s conscience would have grown even stronger after the flood. Everyone would have known that the system of things on earth had been destroyed because of sin and rebellion. As the judgments of God continued over time, and the history of them was passed down, so people would have thought more about what is good and evil. All this time, God was making covenants with people - first with Adam, then with Noah and with the whole world, then with Abraham and (even) with him, those covenants became more detailed. So as God continued to punish sinners for sin and to teach all mankind about sin, so man?s conscience grew, and the detail of God?s covenant with man grew as well.

Then there came the time of the Law of Moses. Now everything was written down and defined, mankind?s conscience was intended to grow even bigger, and the details of God?s covenant were more developed and more detailed than ever before. An awareness of obedience and disobedience developed by all the different commandments of the law. Again, God repeatedly punished His people for their sins, so that they were living all the time with more and more consequences of their sins. Not only the result of Adam?s sin and the sin of the world at Babel, but the result of the sins of the Jewish people themselves with all the various invasions etc.

But then all this was preparing mankind for the advent of Jesus Christ. We would only see our need for him by having had our consciences prepared. But God was very gentle, He slowly educated mankind, like children, as to the consequences of sin and righteousness, obedience and disobedience. God is still seeking to educate us all about the needs we have for Jesus. This is why He continues to develop our consciences. As God?s people, our consciences are now developed by comparing ourselves not with each other but with Christ. We are convicted of our sins by Him. He is the light that has come into the world to reveal to us our sins. Each of the various epochs of God?s education of man ended with a judgment: Adam being cast out of Eden, the flood, Israel going into captivity, the invasion of Jerusalem in AD70. Those judgments were to develop mankind. God is working in our lives; He teaches us about sin and righteousness, that we may have a better relationship with His Son Jesus and so that we might be made ready to enter His Kingdom .

Bro. Gennady (Poltava, Ukraine)