Let’s begin with the fact that “dispensation” is a perfectly valid Bible word. I understand that “modern day translations” have replaced the word with stewardship, responsibility, commission, and even obligation, but that has only served to confuse this subject and create debate. The word “dispensation” may sound like a four-letter word to much of Christendom, but it is a word specifically chosen by God with a precise meaning that is important for all students of the Bible to understand.
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines dispensation in the following manner:
Dispensation (1) ORDERING, ADMINISTRATION, MANAGEMENT; specif: a divine ordering and administration of worldly affairs (2) : a system of principles, promises, and rules divinely ordained and administered (3) a period of history during which a particular divine revelation has predominated in the affairs of mankind.
As the term is used in the scriptures, a dispensation is a God-revealed body of information given for man’s obedience during a certain period within history. So what then is “dispensationalism”? Webster’s Third New International Dictionary states:
Dispensationalism: adherence to or advocacy of a system of interpreting history in terms of a series of God’s dispensations.
Dispensationalism is simply recognizing the different dispensations that God has placed within the Bible. Dispensationalism provides us a framework for understanding that God deals with man differently at different times within human history. Let’s look at an example:
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Gen 1:29
The Bible begins with Adam being instructed to be a vegetarian…
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Gen 9:3
Noah was an omnivore, he was commanded to eat meat after the global flood.
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
Lev 11:2-4
Moses, and the nation of Israel, was instructed to eat plants and “clean” animals. Specific conditions were provided to the nation Israel through the Law provided by God (Deut 14; Ex 12:20; Lev 3:17).
For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
1 Tim 4:4-5
During the dispensation of the grace of God (Eph 3:2), everything is fair game … just make sure it is received with thankfulness to Him who provided it.
What this “dietary example” demonstrates, scripturally, is that these instructions to different audiences during different “phases” to history are not the same instructions. God, in His divine prerogative, gave new revelation to man as time progressed. Noah knew information that God specifically revealed to him that Adam did not know. Moses knew information that God specifically revealed to him that Adam and Noah did not know. As the centuries progressed, God gave new revelation to different individuals and each revelation was designed to fulfill God’s progressive plan for history. It would be a mistake for the student of the Bible to assume that people in the past knew everything that we now know today. The instructions written specifically for us today are the ones given to the apostle Paul:
If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
Eph 3:2-5
As one studies this subject out, they eventually come to realize that Adam and Eve were instructed by God to be vegetarians, and yet that same instruction is referred to as “doctrines of devils” within Paul’s letter to Timothy:
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
1 Tim 4:1-3
This fact, and this entire example, tells us that doctrines do not accumulate over time and that the act of combining doctrines is wrong and will lead one to error. The student of the Bible must understand what is written TO them and what is written FOR them!
A dispensation is a dealing out, a distribution, or a dispensing of something. The Bible was given by progressive revelation. A Biblical dispensation is a dispensing of divine revelation. It is a particular way that God deals with man. Yes, it is an administration or stewardship, but the primary thing that the student of the Bible needs to recognize is that different dispensations come with a different set of instructions. For example:
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
Rom 11:6
versus…
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Rom 4:5
To state “then is it no more of works” means that works were required at some point in history. Works were required by someone during one or more dispensations within the past. The student of the Bible must study to identify which dispensation or dispensations that fact was true. Romans 4:5, along with Romans 11:6 and Titus 3:5-6, tells us that during our current dispensation, the dispensation of the grace of God (Eph 3:2), works are NOT required for salvation.
Thus we must identify where it is we are to get our instructions from because not doing so only leads to confusion and the applying of instructions meant for others to our Christian walk. Dispensationalism helps the student of the Bible to clearly identify the instructions that are provided to them within scripture. As demonstrated above, while looking at the relatively simple issue of what we should eat, God required different things of man during different periods of time within history. God will not change His program for today in order to suit us, so it is our responsibility to learn what God expects of us in our current dispensation.
The following are facts about dispensationalism that all who read the Bible need to be aware of:
- It is biblical; the word “dispensation” appears in scripture numerous times.
- It honors context and the literal reading of scripture.
- It keeps God’s promises to Israel distinct from the Church and it resolves “so called” contradictions found within the Bible.
- It exalts Christ above all else, recognizing that He is the Head of the Church, the body of Christ.
- It exalts grace, recognizing our salvation apart from Law or covenant.
- It preserves sound doctrine, keeping kingdom truth in its prophetic context.
- It exalts God’s glory, revealing His manifold wisdom (Eph 3:10).
Those who reject dispensational truth often do so not because of a lack of evidence, but because they exalt tradition, denominationalism, or human wisdom over the plain teaching of scripture. They simply do not believe what the Bible says. If one is to reject dispensationalism because of something they heard or read then they are rejecting something that the Holy Spirit actually put within the Bible. As Paul warned, many “corrupt the word of God” (2 Cor 2:17) and “handle the word of God deceitfully” (2 Cor 4:2).
We are to trust the scriptures as they are written. We must reject the philosophies and traditions of men (Col 2:8). We must rest in the finished work of Christ and the revelation given through the apostle Paul for this present dispensation of grace (Rom 16:25). We must ignore the gainsayers. Dispensationalism is the key to understanding God’s progressive revelation and His distinct purposes for Israel and the body of Christ.
In closing, I must state that once one comes to understand the teachings of dispensationalism, they then realize that it is not error to state, “Jesus was/is a dispensationalist”. Jesus, God, the Word, put this in the Bible. In fact, if one is careful enough with their reading of the four Gospels, the accounts of Christ’s earthly ministry, they will notice many “dispensational” statements on Jesus’ part:
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
Mt 12:32
The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
Lk 16:16
But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Mk 10:30
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Mt 11:11
And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
Lk 20:34-35
Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.
Lk 18:30
God is, in fact, a dispensationalist; therefore you should be too. He gave the dispensation of the Law to Moses and the dispensation of the grace of God to Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom 11:13). He gave the future dispensation of the Kingdom to Peter and the 11, all of which will eventually sit on twelve thrones in “thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 19:28-29). Dispensationalism does not lead to error, it leads to clarity for the student of the Bible.
