What is a Dispensation?

Michael Hardt

In the Bible, one can clearly distinguish different dispensations or administrations, in the sense that God deals with people in different ways at different times, for example by:

1. entrusting man with government, with authority to punish evil (Noah);
2. calling one person out of his environment and blessing him (Abraham); or 
3. giving to one nation a law as a rule of life at a particular time — a law which did not apply to them previously and to which other nations have never been subject.  

God may act in this way. He may ‘dispense’ (in the sense of ‘handing out’) certain rules that apply to particular people in a particular period of time. This is referred to as a ‘dispensation’. Who could say He cannot do this? He is sovereign. God does not act in an arbitrary way, however — He uses the various dispensations to show His glory. 

The essential characteristics of a dispensation

A dispensation in the Bible is marked by the following characteristics: 

1. A revelation from God: At the beginning of a dispensation God gives a new revelation. This does not mean that He has changed, but that He either reveals an additional aspect of Himself or establishes one or more new ground rules according to which the people with whom He is particularly concerned at that time are to act and relate to Him. 
2. Responsibility or administration of man arising from this: From the new revelation given by God arises a responsibility which mankind, or the people to whom God has given the revelation, is to fulfil. 
3. Early failure: In general, man fails very early, in fact at the beginning of the newly-introduced dispensation.
4. Conclusion in judgment: Man’s failure leads to God eventually having to exercise judgment. 

What dispensations are there?

First, we present a division of man’s history on earth into seven dispensations. Different divisions may be found elsewhere. It is perhaps less important whether there are seven or six or eight dispensations — what matters is that there are dispensations and that there is a reason why they exist.

The following is probably the most widely-used scheme. It was popularised by C I Scofield. 

But why all these dispensations?

Why did God establish all these different dispensations? Did He introduce something that could not or would not work? We will come to these and similar objections later. The simple answer is that God knew everything in advance — but we do not. If man had not been tested in every possible way, no one would have believed that man could be saved ONLY by grace.

As a little thought experiment, suppose God had sent His Son as Saviour and Redeemer immediately after the fall of man and offered free salvation by grace. Would there not have been doubts as to whether this was necessary? It might have been argued that man could have lived in other ways to God’s satisfaction and joy, if he had only been given the chance.

One might also have objected: if God had given man an inner alarm system that warned him when he was about to do something that was forbidden, then man would have succeeded. That is not the case. In the dispensation of ‘conscience’, this became only too clear. 

Next, it would certainly have been assumed that if God were to set up a government to crack down on evil and punish it, that would have worked. Well, the dispensation of ‘government’ provides ample evidence to the contrary.

But, I hear you say, if God had made a fresh start by calling a person completely out of his environment, blessing him abundantly and also promising blessings to his descendants, surely that person would live to the glory of God. This God tested in the dispensation of ‘promise’.

Finally, someone might argue: had God only prescribed to man to the letter what he must and must not do in all details of life, and told him, ‘You must keep this, then you can live, otherwise you must die’, then people, or at least some of them, would have kept such a law. Sadly, that is not the case either. We see this in the dispensation of the law.

Following these various trials and failures — culminating in Israel’s failure under the law — God ceased to test man as such (God still tests our faith individually, but that is another matter). Over a period of 4,000 years following Adam’s fall, man had proven himself hopelessly lost and incapable of meeting God’s requirements. But God then introduced two more dispensations, with a specific purpose: 

1. The time of grace: God uses this present dispensation to glorify Himself, specifically by using man’s utter failure and his greatest sin — the crucifixion of the Son of God — as an occasion to introduce far higher blessings than were or could have been known in previous dispensations, even if man had pleased God. He takes people as vessels to display the riches of His grace and the glory of His grace — on the basis of the work of His Son.
2. The 1,000-year reign of peace: This is the dispensation that God uses to fulfil His plan for the earth, despite man’s failure. God’s plan had been for one man, Adam, to rule over the whole earth, with Eve at his side. The fall seemed to have destroyed that prospect once and for all. Sin had entered the world, and with it all manner of misery. To this day, the whole creation ‘groans’ under it (Rom. 8:22). But God will ensure that His plan will be fulfilled: Christ, as the ‘Son of man’, with the assembly at His side, will reign not only over the earth but over the whole universe (Ps. 8; Eph. 1:23).

Possible modifications

The essential point regarding dispensational truth is not whether every believer agrees that there are exactly seven dispensations as set out above. As already noted, some adopt a slightly different division. Conversely, it is possible to accept the seven-fold division set out above without fully grasping dispensational truth (e.g. without understanding the Christian position — that we are not under law, that we expect the rapture before the tribulation, etc.). The key point is the fact that there are dispensational changes in God’s dealings with man, that there is perfect and admirable wisdom behind these ways of God, and that He glorifies Himself through them, despite man’s failure in each dispensation. That there might be divergences regarding the exact definition of dispensations or epochs does not undermine this or detract from the importance of dispensational teaching.

By way of illustration:

1. ‘Innocence’ and ‘conscience’, the first two dispensations in Scofield’s scheme, are not regarded as dispensations by all dispensational teachers (e.g. J N Darby[1]) because innocence was not abolished, but lost. Conscience — that is, the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:22) — was also not abolished, but was preserved through the succeeding dispensations. 

2. The time of the church is not always regarded as a dispensation in the proper sense (e.g. J N Darby). The rationale for this view is that, although it is on the earth, the church is not of the earth, nor of God’s plan for the earth. It is the ‘called out one’ (ekklesia). Therefore, some characterise this epoch as part of the ‘times of the nations’ which began with Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over Jerusalem (Luke 21:24) or as the time of the Spirit (i.e. the epoch in which the Spirit of God dwells on earth). But this does not take away from the doctrinal conclusions drawn from Scofield’s division. If anything, it amplifies them: first, man’s trial ended at the cross; second, Christians are not part of Israel, they are not under law, they are waiting for the rapture, and so on. It is a slightly different characterisation of the time of grace, but with the same essential insights. 

3. The time of the law can be subdivided into three sections: law, priesthood, and kingship. The reason for this is that God’s dealings with His people took on a slightly different character in each subdivision.

4. The period from the birth of the Lord Jesus to Pentecost bears a special character. Scofield counts it as part of the time of the law, and it is true that the assembly did not begin until the day of Pentecost after the ascension of Christ. However, some changes occurred before then:

1. When Christ was born, the ‘fulness of the time’ had come (Gal. 4:4).
2. The fragmentary revelation of God through prophets was replaced by the final and complete revelation ‘in the person of the Son’ (Heb. 1:1–2). 
3. Whilst the law had been given through Moses, ‘grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17). Christ brought grace that had not been known before to this extent. 
4. Several times the Lord speaks of a new ‘hour’ having dawned, and He characterises this hour by features which are unique to the Christian dispensation: worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24) and hearing the voice of the Son of God (John 5:25). Hence there was a transition in the Lord’s lifetime on earth, but there was no church as yet, and the Holy Spirit did not yet dwell on earth.

5. The tribulation period is also not easy to classify. On the one hand, it contrasts in many ways with the time of grace. For example, the Spirit of God no longer dwells on the earth, there are no Christians left on the earth, and the believers who will be living on the earth at this time are again under law (Matt. 24) and in many ways are more like Old Testament believers than Christians. However, the tribulation period can hardly be viewed as part of the next dispensation (the millennium) as Christ does not yet reign on earth, there is neither peace nor justice, and it is morally still night. The ‘day’ begins with the rising of the sun (Mal. 4). For these reasons, the tribulation period cannot easily be merged into the time of the law. The alternative would be to regard it as a separate dispensation. 

Conclusion

Let us re-emphasise: the fact that there are slightly different divisions does not in any way alter the fact that there are dispensations. Nor does it affect the key conclusions of dispensational truth, namely that one distinguishes the time of the law from that of grace, one does not confuse Israel with the church, and one holds on to the immediate expectation of the rapture as well as the expectation of a real 1,000-year reign of peace on the earth.

Throughout the dispensations, God has tested man, revealed Himself, and — despite man’s sin and failure — glorified Himself. He will continue to do so until His purpose for the first creation is reached and the new creation is ushered in. Glory be to Him!

_________________________________

From: Truth and Testimony, 2021 - adapted from “Heilsgeschichtlich Denken” (engl.: “Dispensational Thinking" or "The Dispensational Approach”).

[1] ‘The Apostasy of the Successive Dispensations’, Collected Writings of JND vol. 1 p. 192 (p. 124 in the re-published volume).