Dispensations

By Robert L. Dean, Jr., Th.M., Ph.D candidate
Senior Pastor, Preston City Bible Church, Connecticut

Dispensationalism is the interpretive key that unlocks the pages of Scripture, opens the door for our understanding of prophecy, and orients our thinking about God’s blueprint for human history.

Three complementary principles form the foundation of Dispensational theology. The first principle states the Bible must be consistently understood in terms of the plain, literal meaning of words, including the use of figures of speech where the context indicates. A second principle lies in the premise God has a plan for ethnic and national Israel distinct from His plan for the New Testament Church. The third principle of Dispensationalism is human history is the outworking of an eternal plan of God culminates in bringing maximum glory to Himself.

The Greek word for dispensation, oikonómos, means administration, stewardship. A dispensation therefore is a distinct and identifiable administration in the development of God’s design for human history; see Ephesians 3.2 and Colossians 1.25-26. God manages the entirety of human history as a household, moving humanity through sequential stages of His administration. Each stage, or dispensation, is determined by the level of revelation the Lord has provided up to that time in history. That revelation specifies man’s responsibilities, tests regarding those responsibilities and God’s gracious provision of a solution when failure occurs.

Though each dispensation has distinct and identifiable characteristics, the truths and principles of God’s revelation and plan for redemption are constant. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. Prior to the cross, faith anticipated fulfillment of the divine promise of salvation through the work of the Messiah. Since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, faith looks back to His finished, substitutionary atonement on the cross. Other characteristics are modified as God’s revelation progresses, such as the practice of animal sacrifice.

Dispensationalists sometimes differ as to the exact number of dispensations revealed in Scripture, but they usually list these seven:

Innocence Adam to the Fall
Conscience Fall to Flood
Human Government Flood to Abraham
Promise Abraham to Moses
Mosaic Law Moses to the Cross
Church Age The Day of Pentecost to the Rapture
Millennial Kingdom The literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ following His Second Advent

Dispensational theology enables us to correctly understand God’s prophetic timetable for humanity. The current era focuses on the church as the people of God, not on Israel. Yet for Daniel’s prophecy in 9.27 to be literally fulfilled in the same way the initial sixty-nine weeks were fulfilled (9.25-26), the church must be removed from the earth. Only then will God begin to fulfill all He promised to Israel in the Old Testament. The removal of the Church is called the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4.16-17) and many Dispensationalists believe the Rapture precedes the last seven years of God’s decree for Israel, known as the Tribulation. These seven years, which are technically a completion of the age of the Mosaic Law, begin after the rapture of the Church and end with the Second Advent. Thus, the doctrine of the pretribulational rapture of the Church is closely identified with Dispensational theology