Before humanity existed, the earth had already had one civilization. Angels ruled it. A perfect being called Lucifer sat on its throne. Scripture is not ambiguous about this — it's just inconvenient for the tidy story many people prefer, where Genesis 1:1 is the starting gun and everything before it is empty silence.

Last time we established who Satan is and what the spirit world looks like. Now we step further back: what was the original dispensation — the first age of moral creatures on this earth — before Adam ever drew breath?

I. The Antechaotic Age—The Dispensation of Angels

Let's explore a fascinating period that many people have never heard of: the Antechaotic Age. This era stretched from the original creation of the heavens and earth to the rebellion and overthrow of the first kosmos, or social order, on our planet.

Think of it like this: there was a "before" to our "before." This was a dateless period between Genesis 1:1—when the earth was finished and inhabited in the beginning—and Genesis 1:2, when the earth was first flooded, destroying all life. We're talking about that unknown span of time when the earth existed in its first perfect state, ruled by Lucifer before his rebellion caused the catastrophic flood described in Genesis 1:2.

In Ezekiel 28:11-17, we read of Lucifer: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." This tells us plainly that there was a period of perfection and sinlessness on earth before its curse and chaotic state. That's why we call this period the Antechaotic Age.

During this age, spirit beings ruled the earth and other planets—so we might call it the "Dispensation of Angels." This administration was evidently a moral or probationary period designed to test the angels before trusting them with eternal responsibilities. The word "dispensation" means a moral or probationary period in which God tests free moral agents according to a fixed standard of conduct.

Here's something important to understand: all spirit beings must be tested, just like human free moral agents, to see if they will obey God before being trusted with higher and eternal responsibility. These angels were fresh from God's creative hand, made with free wills, capable of choosing whether to obey or not.

They had to learn through experience whether they would obey God. They had to learn that God was just and holy in all His ways—that He could and should be trusted even in matters that couldn't be fully explained to them all at once. They needed to discover that God was the Supreme Moral Governor of the universe, and that all creatures should dedicate themselves to the same goal God Himself was dedicated to: the highest good of the universe and everyone in it.

They had to prove themselves true to God to receive rewards for obedience. They had to learn that God's Word was absolutely reliable—including His warnings about penalties for disobedience.

God's dealings with spirit beings served the same purpose as His dealings with humans. These purposes are fully explained in Lesson One, Point VII, and I'd encourage you to review that section to see more clearly what God was doing with spirit beings during this period.

If Lucifer and the other spirit beings had remained true to God, there would have been no universal curse on the earth. There would have been no need for the re-creation of the atmospheric heavens, the earth, and life on our planet, as recorded in Genesis 1:3-2:25. In that case, man and the present animals on earth would never have been created!

The Bible's record of the first curse on earth and the cancellation of the angels' administration should make present-day rebels fear God. Peter gives us this sobering warning: "Whose judgment now for a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked... The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished" 2 Peter 2:4-9.

Jude also speaks of God's judgment upon both angels and men in the past for rebellion (Jude 5-7).

Paul gives us the example of how God cut off Israel because of rebellion and unbelief, warning the Gentiles to "take heed lest He spare not thee" Romans 11:1-26. He also describes how the Gentile world didn't appreciate the knowledge of God, becoming vain in their imaginations and stubborn in their rebellion until God gave them over to vile affections to destroy themselves Romans 1:16-32.

We could give many more examples of God's judgment upon men in various ages—and we will as we continue our study. But these are enough to show why God had to deal with the angelic administrators of the earth long before Adam ever walked the planet.