Scriptural dispensationalist have identified seven basic periods during which God is sovereignly ruling the world as He executes His plan for history through progressive stages of revelation. In his popular reference Bible (1909) C. I. Scofield identified these periods as Innocency, Conscience, Human government, Promise, Law, Grace, and Kingdom. During each dispensation mankind is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Failure to live up to God’s standard brings judgment. The Fall of Adam and Eve’s during the first dispensation brought expulsion from the Garden of Eden and eventual physical death. The second dispensation, the Age of Conscience, which is the subject of this book, eventually resulted in the world-wide judgment of the great flood in the days of Noah.
Unfortunately, the sins of the world that brought on the near extinction of mankind during the Age of Conscience, are being repeated in these last days of Christendom. Mr. Pember noted, “If they clothe themselves with the semblance of devotion in their worship, they altogether lose this outward distinction in the world, and bewilder those who are honestly asking what they shall do to be saved by plunging into all the gaieties, frivolities, pursuits, and business of this life, as if they were to remain among them forever. They act as though God had promised that they at least should not be hurried out of the world as so many of their fellows are, but should have due warning and ample space and inclination for repentance. The powers of the world to come have lost their hold upon them. So many points have been yielded, amusements permitted, and vices condoned, that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from non-professors unless they recite their creed. And although many are ready to confess that the Christian must take up his cross, yet being thoroughly satisfied that in these modern times the unwearied zeal of Christ and His apostles would be quite out of place, they can by no means find a cross to bear. If, however, God in His anger smite them with sickness, bereavement, disappointment, or loss, they talk of their trials, and comfort themselves with the thought that they are imitating the Lord by enduring troubles which they cannot in any way avoid.”