DISPENSATIONALISM

Author: Ray Shelton

Dispensationalism is that interpretation of biblical history that there is much variety in the divine economy of how God dealt with man in different eras of biblical history. A dispensation is defined by C. I. Scofield. as "a period of time during which man is tested in respect to obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God." The word "dispensation" occurs in the KJV in I Cor. 9:17; Eph. 1:10; 3:2; and Col. 1:25. In each occurence, it translates the Greek noun oikonomia, from which we get our English word "economy." This Greek noun is derived from the Greek verb oikonomeo which is the compound of the Greek noun oikos, house, and the Greek verb, nomo, to manage. Hence the Greek verb oikonomeo means "to manage a household." Thus, the noun oikonomia means either the office of house-steward, or the management and administration of household. Hence in the Greek New Testament where the word occurs twenty times, it means "to manage, regulate, administer, and plan the affairs of a household." This concept of human stewarship is illustrated in Luke 16:1-4, where the ideas of responsibility, accountability, and the changes of stewardship are detailed. Theologically, the term is used to designate the divine plan or system for the management of the world, or a period of time, an age, in which God administers or manages the world.

Although there is some variety among dispensationalists, they ususally follow Scofield's scheme of seven dispensations. These are

  1. Innocence (before the Fall),
  2. Conscience (from the Fall to Noah),
  3. Human Government (from Noah to Abraham),
  4. Promise (from Abraham to Moses),
  5. Law (from Moses to Christ),
  6. Grace (the Church Age), and
  7. the Kingdom (the Millenium).
The close of the Millenium ushers in the Eternal State.

At least three dispensations (as understood in dispensationalism) are mentioned by Paul;
(1) one preceding the present time (Col. 1:25-26): the Law,
(2) the present dispensation (Eph. 3:2): Grace, and
(3) a future administration (Eph. 1:10): the Kingdom.
These three require a fourth -- one before the law -- and this pre-law dispensation would seem to need to be divided into a pre-fall and post-fall dispensations. The usual sevenfold scheme also includes a dispensation after the Noahic Flood and another with the call of Abraham.

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) is usually regarded as the founder of dispensationalism, although some of its elements can be found in the writings of Augustine and of some other church fathers. But as a system dispensationalism did not begin to be developed until the early part of eighteenth century in the writings of Pierre Poiret, John Edwards (1637-1716), and Issac Watts (1674-1748). But it was in the writings of John Nelson Darby in the nineteenth century that it was systematized into an interpretation of the whole Bible. His work became the basis for later dispensationalists such as James H. Brookes, James M. Gray (1851-1935), C. I. Scofield (1843-1921), L. S. Chafer (1871-1952).

COVENANT THEOLOGY

Dispensationalism historically developed as a expansion of the Calvinistic covenant theology. This covenant theology sees the relationship of God to the human race as a compact or agreement. It said that God appointed Adam, who was the natural head of the human race, to be the federal (foedus, Latin "covenant") head or legal representative of the whole human race. God then entered into a covenant with the whole human race through Adam as their legal representative. According to the terms of this Covenant of Works, God promised to bestow eternal life upon Adam and the entire human race if he, Adam, as their federal head, obeyed God. On the other hand, God threatened the punishment of death, that is, condemnation and a sinful corrupt nature, upon the whole human race if he, Adam, as their federal head, disobeyed. Now since Adam sinned, God reckoned his descendants as guilty, under condemnation to eternal death. Adam's sin is imputed to each member of the human race as their own guilt. And because of this imputation of guilt, each member of the human race has received by inheritance a sinful or corrupt nature. This sinful nature, which is itself sin, leads invariably to acts of sin. And each man in addition to the racial guilt is also guilty for his own personal sins. Thus men since Adam carry a double burden of guilt, of both objective and subjective guilt and condemnation. According to covenant theology God has intervened on behalf of mankind with another covenant, a covenant of grace. Unlike the covenant of works, whose mandate was "Do this and you shall live." the covenant of grace is bestowed on mankind in their sinful condition with the promise that, in spite of their inability to keep any commandment of God, out of sheer grace (unmerted favor) God will forgive their sins and accept them as his children through the merits of His Son, Jesus Christ, upon the condition of faith. This covenant of grace is founded upon another covenant, the covenant of redemption. This covenant is an eternal pact between God the Father and God the Son to provide salvation for mankind. According to this covenant which was made in eternity past God the Son agrees to become a man and to die as a sacrifice paying the penality of mankind's sin providing redemption for those who believe. God the Father promises to accept this sacrifice and to imput to those who believe the the righteousness or merits earned for them by Christ's active obedience during His life on earth. That is, God in Christ has earned for them the salvation that they themselves cannot earned because of their sinful nature. Christ is regarded as the Mediator of the covenant of grace and as the representative of those who put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Dispensationalism expands this theological scheme by the introduction of dispensations to distinguish between the plan of God for Israel, the plan of God for the Church, and God's plan for the nations. While it is true that God's plan for the salvation of mankind is the most important aspect of His eternal purpose, according to dispensationalism it is not the whole of God's plan. A more complete view of God's plan of history is that God has revealed His glory not only in saving mankind but by fulfilling His purpose and revealing Himself through His dealing with Israel, with the church, and with the nations. Accordingly, dispensationalism presents the view of history that God reveals His purposes in seven periods of history or dispensations. These seven dispensations are centered on the eight covenants that reveal the distinctive stages in the fulfillment of God's purposes in human history.

THE COVENANTS

Dispensationalism distinguishes between two classes of covenants: conditional and unconditional covenants. A conditional covenant is one in which God's actions are in response to some action on the part of those to whom the covenant is addressed. A conditional covenant guarentees that God will do His part with absolute certainty when human requirements are met, but if man fails to do his part, God is not obligated to do His part. Of the eight covenants, only the Edenic and Mosaic covenants are conditional. The other six covenants are unconditional.
An unconditional covenant is a declaration of the certain purposes of God that He will certainly carried out and that the promises of an unconditional covenant will certainly be fulfilled in God's time and way. But even under unconditional covenants, according to dispensationalism, there are conditional elements as applied to the individual. Unconditional covenants may include certain human contingencies. An unconditional covenant is distinguished from a conditional covenant by the fact that its ultimate fulfillement is promised by God and depends upon His power and sovereignty. Before we present the dispensations and an evaluation of dispensationalism, let us examine these eight covenants as understood in dispensationalism.

  1. Dispensationalism rejects the covenant of works of covenant theology as not having any scriptural support, and replaces it with the Edenic Covenant (Gen. 1:26-31; 2:16-17). This covenant is a conditional covenant that God made with Adam in which life and blessings or death and cursings were made to depend upon on the faithfulness of Adam. The Edenic Covenant included giving Adam responsibility of being the father of the human race, subduing the earth, having dominion over animals, caring for the garden, and not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Because Adam and Eve failed and disobeyed by eating of the forbidden fruit, the penalty of death for their disobedience was imposed. Adam and Eve died spiritually immediately and needed to be born again in order to be saved. Later they died physically. Their sin plunged the whole human race into sin and death.

  2. According to dispensationalism, following Adam's failure under the Edenic covenant, God made the Adamic Covenant with man (Gen. 3:16-19). This is an unconditional covenant in which God declares to man what his lot in life will be because of his sin. Man had been put on trial under the Edenic Covenant and is now judged under the Adamic Covenant as having failed the obligations of the Edenic Covenant; God now pronounces Adam's punishment. Thus in the Adamic covenant, there is no appeal allowed, nor any human responsibility imposed. Included in this covenant is that the serpent who was used by Satan is cursed (Gen. 3:14; Rom. 16:20; II Cor. 11:3, 14; Rev. 12:9); the promise of a Redeemer is given (Gen. 3:15), which promise is ultimately fulfilled in Christ; the place of women is detailed as being subject to multiplied conception, to sorrow and pain in motherhood, and the headship of man (Gen. 1:26-27; I Cor. 11:7-9; Eph. 5:22-25; I Tim. 2:11-14); and man is henceforth to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:17-19); man's life will be one of sorrow and ultimately of death (Gen. 3:19; Eph. 2:5). To large extent, man continues to live under the Adamic covenant.

  3. The Noahic covenant was made by God with Noah after the flood (Gen. 9:1-18). This covenant repeats some features of the Adamic covenant but introduces a new principle of human government as a means to curb sin. Like the Adamic covenant it is unconditional, and it revealed God's purpose for the human race after Noah. According to dispensationalism, the provisions of this covenant establishes the principle of human government in that capital punishement was provided for those who take another man's life. The normal order of nature was reaffirmed (Gen. 8:22; 9:2), and man was given permission to eat the flesh of animals (Gen. 9:3-4) instead of living only on vegetables, as seem to have been done before the flood. The Noahic covenant included a prophecy concerning the three sons of Noah (Gen. 9:25-27) and designated Shem as the one through whom the godly line leading to the Messiah would come. The dominance of the Gentile nations in world history is implied in the prophecy concerning Japheth. Just as the Adamic covenant introduced the dispensation of conscience, so the Noahic covenant introduced the dispensation of human government.

  4. The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-4; 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 17:1-8) gives profound promises along three lines.
    1. First of all, promises are given to Abraham that he would have numerous posterity (Gen. 17:16), that he would have much personal blessings (Gen. 13:14-15, 17; 15:6, 18; 24:34-35; John 8:46), that his name would be great (Gen. 12:2), and that he would personally be a blessing (Gen. 12:2).
    2. Second, the promise was made that through Abraham a great nation would emerge (Gen. 12:2). In the purpose of God, this had reference primarily to Israel and the descendants of Jacob, who formed the twelve tribes of Israel. To this nation was given the promise of the land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:18-21; 17:7-8).
    3. Third, the promise was made that through Abraham blessing would come upon the whole world (Gen. 12:3). This would be fulfilled in that Israel was to be the special channel of God's revelation of Himself, the source of the prophets who would reveal God, and would provide the writers of the Scriptures. Suspremely, the blessing of the nations would be provided through Jesus Christ, who would be a descendant of Abraham.
    Because of Israel's special relationship to God, God promised a solemn curse on those who would curse Israel and a blessing upon those who would bless Israel (Gen. 12:3).

    According to dispensationalism, the Abrahamic covenant, like the Adamic and Noahic covenants, is unconditional. In spite of Israel's many failures recorded in the Old Testament, God did reveal Himself to them and caused the Scriptures to be written, and ultimately Christ was born, lived, died, and rose again among them exactly as the Word of God prophesied.

  5. The Mosaic Covenant was given through Moses to Israel while they were journeying from Egypt to the Promise Land (Ex. 20:1-31:18). God gave to Moses the Law which was to govern God's relationship to the people of Israel. In approximately six hundred specific commands, God gave them the Law which can be classified in three major divisions:
    1. the commandments, containing the express will of God for them (Ex. 20:1-26),
    2. the judgments, relating to social and civic life of Israel (Ex. 21:1-24:11).
    3. the ordinances (Ex. 24:12-31:18).
    According to dispensationalism, the Mosaic covenant is a conditional covenant and embodied the principle that if Israel is obedient to God, He would bless them, but if Israel is disobedient, God would curse them and discipline them. This aspect was especially brought out in Deuteronomy 28. Although it was anticipated that Israel would fail to keep the law, it was promised that God would not forsake His people (Jer. 30:11). According to dispensationalism, the Mosaic covenant was also a temporary one and would be terminated at the cross of Christ. Although containing gracious elements, it was basically a covenant of works.

  6. According to dispensationalism, there was the Palestinian Covenant (Deut. 30:1-10) which was an unconditional covenant regarding Israel's final possession of the land. The covenant given to Abraham in Gen. 12:7 and subsequently reaffirmed throughtout the Old Testament was that Abraham's seed would possess the land. Nevertheless, because of his disobedience and failure, Jacob and his discendants lived in Egypt for hundreds of years until Moses led them in Exodus from Egypt. Later, because of their disobedience and disregard of the law of God, they were led off into the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Again, in the grace of God, Judah were allowed to return after seventy years of Babylonian captivity and repossess the land until Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. According to dispensationalism, Israel is promised, in spite of all her failures, that she will ultimately be returned to the land, live in safety and blessing there, and never be scattered again (Ezek. 39:25-29; Amos 9:14-15).

  7. According to dispensationalism, the Davidic Covenant (II Sam. 7:4-16; I Chron. 17:3-15) was an unconditional covenant in which God promised David an unending royal lineage, a throne, and a kingdom, all of them forever. In His declaration of this covenant, Jehovah says that He would interrupt the actual reign of David's sons if chastisement is required (II Sam. 7:14-15; Psa. 89:20-37); but the perpetuity of the covenant cannot be broken. The Davidic covenant guarantees to Israel an everlasting throne (II Sam. 7:16; Psa. 89:36), an everlasting King (Jer. 33:21), and an everlasting kingdom (Dan. 7:14). From the day that the covenant was made and confirmed by Jehovah's oath (Acts 2:30) to the birth of Christ, David did not lack for a son to sit on his throne (Jer. 33:21), and Christ as the eternal Son of God and human Son of David, being the rightful heir to that throne and the One who will yet sit on the throne (Luke 1:31-33), completes the fulfillment of the promise made to David that a son of his would sit on his throne forever.

    According to dispensationalism, the Davidic Covenant assures that during the millenium kingdom Christ will reign on earth. The resurrected David will reign under Christ as a prince over the house Israel (Jer. 23:5-6; Ezek. 34:23-24; 37:24). According to dispensationalism, the Davidic covenant is not fulfilled by Christ reigning on His throne in heaven, as David has never and will never sit upon God the Father's throne. It is rather an earthly kingdom and has an earthly throne (Matt. 25:31). The Davidic covenant is, accordingly, the key to God's prophetic program yet to be fulfilled.

  8. The New Covenant prophesied in the Old Testament (Jer. 31:31-33) will have its primary fulfillment in the millennial kingdom. It is a unconditional covenant. As described by Jeremiah, it is a covenant made "with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" (Jer. 31:31). It is a new covenant in contrast to the old Mosaic covenant which has been broken by Israel (Jer. 31:32).

THE DISPENSATIONS

Dispensationalism builds upon these eight covenants its interpretation of biblical history as eight dispensations. In each of these dispensations God tests mankind so that in each case the results is an unquestionable demonstration of the utter failure and sinfulness of man. Thus every mouth will be stopped and thoughts of the human heart will be shown to be foolish and wicked. Each dispensation begins with man being divinely placed into a new position of privilege and responsibility, and each closes with the failure of man resulting in God's righteous judgment. While there is certain unchanging facts such as the holy character of God which are the same in every age, there are varying instructions and responsibilities which are in their application limited to a given period. This means that not all portions of Scriptures are given for personal and primary application. While spiritual lessons can be learned from every portion of the Bible, it does not follow that the Christian is appointed by God to conform those governing principles that were the will of God in another dispensation. The child of God under grace is not situated as Adam, or as the Israelites when under law; nor is he required to follow the peculiar manner of life which will be required of men when the King shall have returned and set up His kingdom on earth. It is only by rightly dividing the Word of God that the believer under grace will be able to correctly apply the Word to his personal needs.

In studying the seven dispensations, certain principles are essential to understand this method of interpretation,
First, dispensationalism is based on the normal, literal interpretation of the Bible. And according to dispensationalism it is impossible to interpret the Bible in its normal and literal sense without recognizing that there are different ages and different dispensations.
Second, dispensationalism is based on progressive revelation, that is, that revelation is given by God in stages.
Thirdly, because of the progressive character of revelation, later revelation to some extent supersedes earlier revelation with a resulting change in the rules of life in which earlier requirements may be changed or withdrawn and new requirements added. For example, while God commanded Moses to kill a man for gathering sticks on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-36), no one would apply this command today because we live in a different dispensation.

Although there are seven dispensations that are frequently distinguished in Scriptures, there are three that are more important than the others, namely, the dispensation of law, governing Israel in the Old Testament from the time of Moses, the dispensation of grace, the present age, and the future dispensation of the millennial kingdom. Five of these seven dispensations have already fulfilled; and we are now living in the middle of the sixth, probably near its end; and the last, the millenium, is future. These periods are marked off in the Scriptures by some changes in God's method of dealing with mankind, or a portion of mankind, in respect to the two questions of sin and human responsibility. Each dispensation may be considered as a new test of the natural man, and each ends in judgment, marking man's utter failure. Let us now examine each of these dispensations.

  1. Dispensation of Innocence.
    This dispensation begins with the creation of man and extends to the expulsion from the garden (Gen. 3:6). Adam who was created innocent and ignorant of good and evil, was placed in the garden of Eden with his wife, Eve, and put under the responsibility of being fruitful, subduing the earth, having dominion over the animals, using vegatables for food, and caring for the Garden of Eden. One prohibition was given: to abstain from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). Eve succumbed to the temptation and ate of the forbidden fruit and Adam joined her in her act of disobedience (Gen. 3:1-6). As a result, divine judgment came: spiritual death, knowledge of sin, fear of God, and the lost of fellowship with God. They were driven out the Garden of Eden, but were allowed to live out their natural lives (Gen. 3:23-24).

  2. Dispensation of Conscience.
    This dispensation begins in Gen. 3:7 and extends to Gen. 8:19. By the fall, Adam and Eve acquired the knowledge of good and evil. This was transmitted to their descendants, the human race. This knowledge of good and evil gave their consciences a basis for right moral judgment, and hence the human race came under the responsibility to do good and eschew evil. The result of this dispensation of conscience was that "all flesh had currupted his way upon the earth," that "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually;" and God closed this second dispensation of the natural man with the judgment of the Flood.

  3. Dispensation of Human Government.
    This dispensation covers the period from Gen. 8:20 through 11:9. Out of the fearful judgment of the Flood, God saved eight persons to whom, and after the waters were abated, He gave them the purified earth and ample powers to govern it. To Noah God gave an unconditional covenant (Gen. 8:20-9:17) in which God promised that the seasons in the course of nature would not change (Gen. 8:22) and gave man the renewed command to multiply (Gen. 9:1) and to continue his dominion over the animals (Gen. 9:2); eating of the flesh of animals was now allowed even though blood was forbidden (Gen. 9:4). And most important was the establishment of the essence of human government in which man was given the right to kill murderers (Gen. 9:5-6). This, Noah and his descendants were responsible to do. But in this dispensation, as in the others, there is human failure as indicated in Noah's drunkeness (Gen. 9:21) and Ham's irreverence (Gen. 9:22). It is a period of moral and religious deterioration (Gen. 11:1-4), Human government, like conscience, failed to curb human sin, and the Tower of Babel was the result (Gen. 11:4). On the plain of Shinar they impiously attempted to become independent of God. God's judgment was to confound human speech (Gen. 11:5-7), and man's civilization was scattered (Gen. 11:8-9).

  4. Dispensation of Promise.
    This dispensation begins in Gen. 11:10 and extended through Exodus 19:2. Out of the dispersed descendants of the builders of Babel, God now called one man, Abram, with whom He entered into a covenant. Some of the promises to Abram and his descendants were purely gracious and unconditional. These have been fulfilled, or will yet be, literally fulfilled. In other promises, the human responsibility was given to trust in the promises of God revealed to Abraham. They were conditioned upon the faithfulness and obedience of the Israelites. Every one of these conditions was violated, which was manifested in the delay in going into the Promised Land (Gen. 11:31), in Abraham becoming the father of Ishmael (Gen. 16:1-16), and in going down into Egypt (Gen. 12:10-13:1). After Abraham, Isaac failed, by living as close to Egypt as he could without violating God's command (Gen. 26:6-16). Jacob likewise failed, not believing the promise made to his mother at his birth (Gen. 25:23; 28:13-15, 20); he was guilty of lying, deceit, and bargaining (Gen. 27:1-29) and eventually moved out of the land into Egypt to avoid the famine (Gen. 46:1-4). The failure of Israel under this period, when the Abrahamic covenant was especially Israel's responsibility, resulted in their temporary loss of the land. The Dispensation of Promise ended in the utter failure of Israel, and closed in the judgment of Egyptian Bondage.

  5. Dispensation of Law.
    This dispensation begins in Exodus 19:3 and extends throughout the whole period up to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, although the law ended in a sense at the cross. Certain portions of the Gospel of John and selected passages in other gospels anticipated the present age of grace. In this dispensation, again the grace of God came to the help of helpless man and redeemed the chosen people out the hand of the oppressor. In the Wilderness of Sinai God proposed to them the Covenant of Law. Instead of pleading to continue under grace, they answered: "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." The history of Israel in the Wilderness and in the Land is one long record of flagrant, persistent violation of the Law, and at last, after multiplied warnings, God closed the testing of Israel by law in judgment, and first Israel, then Judah, were driven out of the Land into dispersion which still continues.

    The Mosaic law is directed to Israel alone; the Gentiles were not judged by its standards. The law contained a detail system of works including three major divisions: the commands, the judgments, and ordinancies. The sacrifical and priestly system was gracious and legal. Government in this dispensation was a theocracy, a government by God through His prophets, priests, and later kings. The Mosaic covenant was also a temporary covenant, in force until Christ should come (Gal. 3:24-25). The nature of this covenant is conditional; that is, blessing was conditioned on their obedience.

    Under law there was continual failure. This is especially evident in the period of the judges, but continued after Solomon and the division of the kingdom into two kingdoms and two lands: Judah and Israel. The law was forgotten and ignored, and idolatry reigned supreme. The New Testament continues the record of failures, culminating in the rejection and the crucifixion of Christ, who in His life completely kept the law.

    Many judgments were inflicted during the dispensation of law as described in Deut. 28:1-30:20. The major judgments were the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities from which they returned in due time. The judgments upon Judah also came after the close of the dispensation of law and included the distruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the world-wide dispersion of Israel. Another time of Jacob's trouble, the great tribulation, is still ahead (Jer. 30:1-11; Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:22).

  6. Dispensation of Grace.
    The dispensation of grace properly began with Acts 2 and continued throughout the New Testament culminating with the Rapture of the Church. Some teachings concerning the dispensation of grace was introduced during the previous dispensation as in John chapters 13 through 17. Scriptures concerning the dispensation of grace continues from Acts 2 tthrough Rev. 3. According to dispensationalism, the dispensation of grace is directed to the church alone, as the world continues under conscience and human government. In it salvation is clearly revealed to be by faith alone, which was always true but now more evident (Rom. 1:16; 3:22-28; 4:16; 5:15-19). Salvation, perfect and eternal, is now freely offered to Jew and Gentile upon the one condition of faith alone.

    According to dispensationalism, the high standards of grace elevate this dispensation above all previous rules of life (John 13:34-35; Rom. 12:1-2; Phil. 2:5; Col. 1:10-14; I Thess. 5:23). Under grace there is failure as grace produced neither worldwide acceptance of Christ nor a triumphant church. Scripture in fact predicts that there will be apostasy in the professing church (I Tim. 4:1-3; II Tim. 3:1-13; II Pet. 2-3; Jude). According to dispensationalism, although God is fulfilling His purpose in calling out a people for His name from Jew and Gentile, the professing but unsaved protion of the church left behind at the Rapture and will be judged in the period called the Tribulation between the Rapture and Christ's Coming to set up His kingdom (Matt. 24:1-26; Rev. 6-19). The true church will be judged in heaven at the judgment seat of Christ (II Cor. 5:10-11).

    The dispensation of grace ends with the Rapture of the church, which will be followed by the judgment upon the professing church (Rev. 17:16) during the tribulation. According to dispensationalism, the dispensation of grace is different from previous dispensations, since it is concerned with the Church that is comprised of both Jewish and Gentile believers. By contrast, the dispensation of law was for Israel only; the dispensation of human government was for the entire world, and the dispensation of conscience extends to all people. In the present dispensation of grace the Mosaic Law is completely canceled as to immediate application, but continues to witness to the holiness of God and provides many spiritual lessons by application. Although all the dispensations contain gracious elements, the dispensation of grace is the supreme manifestation of God's grace both in the fulness of salvation and in the rule of life.

  7. Dispensation of the Kingdom.
    The dispensation of the kingdom begins with the Second Coming of Christ (Matt. 24; Rev. 19) and is preceded by a period of time called the tribulation, which is to some extent a transitional period. According to dispensationalism, Scriptures that apply to this dispensation are all the passages about the future kingdom, whether in the Old or New Testament (major scriptures are Psa. 72; Isa. 2:1-5; 9:6-7; 11; Jer. 33:14-17; Dan. 2:44-45; 7:9-14, 18, 27; Hos. 3:4-5; Zech. 14:9; Luke 1:31-33; Rev. 19-20). According to dispensationalism, in the kingdom, human responsibility will be to obey the King who will rule with a rod of iron (Isa. 11:3-5; Rev. 19:15). The kingdom will be theocratic, that is, a rule of God, and there will be a renewed sacrifical system and priesthood (Isa. 66:21-23; Ezek. 40-48). An unususal feature of this period is that Satan will be bound and demons rendered inactive (Rev. 20:1-3, 7). But the period will be a period of failure (Isa. 65:20; Zech. 14:16-19), and there will be a rebellion at the end (Rev. 20:7-9). Divine judgment which will follow includes the destruction of the rebel by fire (Rev. 20:9) and the destruction of the old earth and heavens by fire (II Pet. 3:7, 10-12).

    In the millennial kingdom, divine grace is also revealed in the fulfillment of the new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34), in salvation (Isa. 12), in physical and temporal prosperity (Isa. 35), in the abundance of revelation (Jer. 31:33-34), forgiveness of sins (Jer. 31:34), and in the regathering of Israel (Isa. 11:11-13; Jer. 30:1-11; Ezek. 39:25-29). The millennial kingdom ends with the destruction of the earth and the heavens by fire, and is followed by the eternal state (Rev. 21-22). The dispensation of the Kingdom differs from all previous dispensations in that it is the final form of moral testing. The advantages of this kingdom include a perfect government, the immediate personal glorious presence of Christ, universal knowledge of God and of the terms of salvation, and Satan is rendered inactive. In many respects the dispensation of the kingdom is climatic and brings to consummation God's dealings with man.

According to dispensationalism, in the dispensations God has used every possible means of dealing with man. In every dispensation man fails and only God's grace is sufficient. In the dispensations is fulfilled God's purpose to manifest His glory, both in the natural world and in human history. Throughout eternity no one can raise a question of whether God could have given man another chance to attain salvation or holiness by his own ability. According dispensationalism, a knowledge of the dispensations is the key to the understanding of God's purpose in human history and the unfolding of the Scripture which records God's dealings with man and His divine revelation concerning Himself.

EVALUATION OF DISPENSATIONALISM

The Scriptures nowhere teaches that God made a covenant with Adam. The covenant theologians claim that Hosea 6:7 teaches that God made a covenant with Adam; but among biblical theologians there are different interpretations of Hosea 6:7. Some take the Hebrew word adam to mean "man"; and that the Hebrew word refers not to the first man, but to men in general. That is the interpretation which the translators of the King James Version held and they translated Hosea 6:7 as:

"But they like men have transgressed the covenant,
there have they dealt treacherously against me." (Hosea 6:7 KJV)
The NIV translation recognizes that possible translation in their footnote "Like men", but accepts the other intrepretation that it refers to the first man, Adam. And so does the New American Standard translation;
"But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant;
There they have dealt treacherously against Me." (Hosea 6:7 NSA)
But the verse does not say that God made a covenant with Adam. It says, "like Adam they have transgressed the covenant." What covenant? This is the covenant that God made with Israel; in verse 4 God says,
"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you?
O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?" (Hosea 6:4).
The "they" in verse 7 refers to Ephraim and Judah; and it is the covenant that God made with children of Israel (the Mosaic Covenant) that they had transgressed. Their transgression was like Adam's transgression; it was a transgression of the command or commands that God had given them. Adam's transgression was like Israel's transgression in that they both had disobeyed the command or commands of God. The only similarity between Adam's sin and Israel's sin is that their sin was the disobedience of a command or commands that God had given them, not that they both had a "legal" covenant.

Nowhere in Genesis nor in the rest of the Old Testament does it say that God made a covenant with Adam. In the Old Testament there are revealed only four covenants that God made: the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant; and the New Covenant was prophesied (Jer. 31:31-34). (See my discussion of the covenants in the section " Covenants of God" in chapter 3 of my book From Death to Life) But it is not revealed that God made a covenant with Adam; God had given Adam a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was not a covenant, but a command of God. And it told Adam what would happen if he ate of the tree, but it did not say what would happen if he did not eat of the tree; neither was there any probationary period established by God. This command was not a covenant of works by which God would reward Adam's obedience with eternal life.

But the Scriptures do teach that Adam as the head of the human race brought spiritual and physical death on the whole human race (Rom. 5:12-19; I Cor. 15:21-22); but this was not a punishment for the sins of the human race, neither personally for their own sins nor as a participation in Adam's sin (Rom. 5:13-14). Neither does the Scriptures teach that man inherited a corrupt or sinful nature from Adam. On the contrary, the Scriptures teaches that man inherited death, spiritual and physical, from Adam (Rom. 5:12; I Cor. 15:21-22). And according to Rom. 5:12d ("because of which [death] all sinned"), all men sin because of death ("the sting of death is sin", I Cor. 15:55-56). And this death is not the sinful nature. These are two totally different concepts. The sinful nature is the nature of man that is sinful and the nature of man is what man is - that which makes man what he is and what he does. The nature of anything is that essence of the thing that determines what it is and how it acts. The sinful nature is that nature of man, because it is sinful, makes him sin. Death, on the other hand, is a negative relationship of separation. Physical death is the separation of man's spirit from his body, spiritual death is the separation of man's spirit from God, and eternal death ("the second death," Rev. 20:14) is the eternal separation of man from God. Spiritual death is the opposite of spiritual life, which is to know personally the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). That is, spiritual death is not to know personally the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Knowledge is a relationship between the knower and that which is known; it is not a nature nor the property of a nature. A relationship is not a nature. Now it should be clear that spiritual death is not the sinful nature; it is a negative relationship between man and God and not the nature of man.

Spiritual death is not the necessary cause but the ground or condition of sin, the choice of a false god. The Greek preposition epi translated "because" in the last clause of Rom. 5:12 means "on the condition of" or "on the basis of". It does not imply any necessary or deterministic causal connection between death and sin. Man sins by choice, not of necessity. In this state of spiritual death, he chooses freely his false god and thus sins. Then his false god puts him into bondage; he becomes a slave of sin, his false god being his slave master. The Calvinistic doctrine of Total Depravity or Total Inability misinterpretes this slavery of sin and equates it with the sinful nature or the results of the sinful nature, and turns the slavery of sin into a determinism and the denial of human freedom of choice.

Salvation is basically from death to life, and hence from sin to righteousness, since man sins because he is spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12d). As we have just pointed out. this death is not just another name for the sinful nature. Spiritual death is the opposite of spiritual and eternal life. In His great intercessor prayer, Jesus says,

"And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3 NAS).
This knowledge is not just a knowledge about God, but a personal knowledge of God. Spiritual death is the absence of this personal knowledge of the true God, so that when a man in spiritual death chooses his ultimate criterion of choice, the true God is not a real alternative to the false gods, and he therefore makes his choice of his ultimate criterion from between false gods. Thus all men sin because of spiritual death, since death, both spiritual and physical, spread unto all men, to all of Adam's descendants. This death is not a punishment for their sins (Rom. 5:13-14), but is the result of Adam's sin (Rom. 5:12bc). Neither is this death a punishment for their participation in Adam's sin; nowhere in the Scriptures does it teach that all men sinned in Adam and that all men participate in Adam's sin. This is a legalistic theological explanation (called the the Federal Headship Theory) of why all men in Adam die (I Cor. 15:22).

After the Reformation, many Protestant theologians reinterpreted the doctrine of original sin put forth by Augustine. During the seventeenth century it became known as covenant or federal theology. Among its earliest advocates were the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) and his successor Johann Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), who were driven to the subject by the Anabaptists in and around Zurich. From them it passed to John Calvin (1509-1564) and to other Reformers; it was further developed by their successors, and played a dominant role in Reformed theology of the seventeenth century. Its emphasis on God's covenantal relationships with mankind was seen as less harsh than the earlier Reformed theology that emanated from Geneva, with its emphasis on divine sovereignty and predistination. From Switzerland the covenant theology passed over into Germany. The German linguist and theologian Johann Koch [latinized to Cocceius] (1603-1669) set forth in his Doctrine of the Covenant and Testaments of God (1648) and in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1655) the fully developed covenant theology. It spread from there to the Netherlands and to the British Isles where it was incorporated into the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648); it came to have an important place in the theology of Scotland and of New England.

Later in the nineteenth century this covenant theology was replaced with dispensationalism, which replaced the covenant of works with the Edenic covenant. Dispensationalism rejects the covenant of works of Covenant Theology as not having any scriptural support. But neither does the Edenic covenant of dispensationalism have any scriptural support. As we pointed before, nowhere in Genesis nor in the rest of the Old Testament does it say that God made a covenant with Adam. In the Old Testament there are revealed only four covenants that God made: the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant; and the New Covenant was prophesied (Jer. 31:31-34). Neither in the New Testament is the Edenic Covenant nor the Adamic covenant referred to or taught. Of course, the Scriptures do teach that Adam as the head of the human race brought spiritual and physical death on the whole human race (Rom. 5:12-19; I Cor. 15:21-22); but this was not a punishment for the violation of a covenant nor for the sins of the human race, neither personally for their own sins nor as a participation in Adam's sin (Rom. 5:13-14).

Neither does the Scriptures teach the seven dispensations. Paul in Col. 1:25-26 does not refer to the dispensation before the present one. He writes,

"25 Of this church I was made a minister
according to the stewardship [oikonomia] bestowed upon me for your benefit,
that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,
26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden
from past ages [aionion] and past generations [geneon];
but has now been manifested to His saints,
27 to whom God willed to make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (NAS)
Paul is here not referring to a past dispensation but to his "stewardship" or "commission" (NIV) which he had received from God; and the "mystery" was not "dispensational truth", but is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Dispensationalism totally misunderstands these verse and they do not teach any dispensational truth. The fact that the KJV uses the word "dispensation" to translate oikonomia in verse 25 does not refer to a period of time of testing but rather to Paul's task as a minister to fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, that is, the revelation of the mystery: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." This mystery is not dispensational truth.

And again in Eph. 3:2 Paul is not speaking of a period of time of testing, a dispensation (as the dispensationalist understand it), but of his stewardship. Paul writes,

"2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship [oikonomia] of God's grace
which was given to me for you;
3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery,
as I wrote before in brief." (NAS)
Paul is here referring to the same mystery that he wrote about in Col. 1:25-27: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Again the KJV translation of oikonomia as "dispensation" here seems to make the dispensationalist interpretation of this verse as referring to a period of time of testing to be the meaning of this verse. This verse is not speaking of the Dispensation of Grace, but of the stewardship that God in His grace gave to Paul. In I Cor. 9:17 Paul also speaks of his preaching of the gospel as a stewardship forced upon him, if he does not do it willingly.
"For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward;
if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission [oikonomia]."
(I Cor. 9:17)

In Eph. 1:10, Paul again uses the word oikonomia.

"9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation [oikonomia] of the fulness of times
he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him."
(Eph. 1:9-10 KJV)
Here Paul is speaking of another aspect of the mystery - the universal aspect of the mystery instead of the individual and personal aspect. This universal aspect is God's adminstration, not Paul's, in which God will "gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." This universal aspect of God's administration is for "the fulness of time" which is usually taken to be in the future (see I Cor. 15:28). This does not take place during the millennium but after the millennium. Again the Greek word oikonomia does not refer to a period of time but to a future act of God's administration of the universe (the heavens and earth that He has created) when "he might gather together in one all things in Christ,"

There is no dispensationalism taught in these verses, and it is not taught anywhere in the Scriptures. It is read into the Scriptures (eisegesis), not out of the Scriptures (exegesis). It is an interpretation that is force onto the Scriptures as it seeks to rightly divide the Word of God. It draws upon the various covenants set forth in Scriptures to make its scheme seem to be taught by Scriptures. And it creates covenants (Edenic and Adamic) where there is no mention of these covenants in the Scriptures. And in each of those covenants that are unconditional (Noahic, Abrahamic, Davidic, and New), it adds conditions so that they will support their dispensational scheme that each of the dispensations are periods of testing and judgment. This turns these unconditional covenants of the sovereign grace of God into conditional covenants that depend upon man's obedience and not on God's sovereign will. In the one scripture that comes closest to teaching dispensationalism (Eph. 1:10), there is no mention of the testing and judgment of man, but only of God's sovereign will ("the mystrey of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:").

Dispensationalism also misunderstands progressive revelation. It is true that God has not revealed all of His truth all at one time in the past, but at various times and places (Heb. 1:1-2) before the fulness of that revelation in Jesus Christ who is the Truth (John 14:6; etc.). But this progressive revelation does not mean that the partial revelation was done in dispensations, in which those dispensations are intrepreted as salvation by works (man's obedience to the rules to be blessed). In each of the so-called dispensations, dispensationalism interprets them as a testing of man's obedience to live by the rules of the revelation made at the beginning of the dispensation; each dispensation ends when they have utterly fail because they do not keep the rules. This makes each dispensation like the dispensation of law, where it is explicitly said that God's blessing is condition upon their obedience to the law, and God's curses are conditioned upon their disobedience to the rules (Deut. 28:1-30:20). And dispensationalism does this to the present dispensation of Grace to make it fit into the dispensational scheme. In spite of the dispensationalist's claim that salvation in every dispensation is by grace through faith, this is not what their interpretation says of each dispensation as a testing of man's obedience by a different sets of rules that are revealed at the beginning of each dispensation. Faith is interpreted as the condition of keeping the rules to be blessed. This is not faith because faith is trust in God who in His love (by grace) bestows the blessing so that they will obey, not a keeping of the rules in order to receive the blessing. Thus dispensationalism mixes law and grace, and this mixture of law and grace leads to the misunderstanding of the law, called legalism, salvation by works. Legalism is that distortion of the law that salvation is earned by the works of law.

"Now to one who works,
his wages are not reckoned according to grace [as a gift],
but according to debt [as what is earned]." (Rom. 4:4 ERS).
Thus does dispensationalism mixture of law and grace leads to a mixture of works and grace. And the Apostle Paul says that works and grace cannot be mixed.
"And if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works;
otherwise grace would be no longer grace." (Rom. 11:6)
In the preceding verse (Rom. 11:5) Paul is speaking of God's choice of a remnant of Israel by grace, but Paul cannot speak of the grace of God, without speaking of the misunderstanding of the law of God, salvation by works, which is called legalism. It was as a follower of that legalism that Paul persecuted God's remnant. And according to that legalism, God should never have chosen him, Saul; he should have been condemned and destroyed. But God is not a God of justice, but of love, and in His love God chooses to appear to Saul on the road to Damascus. Paul states in Rom. 11:4 a very fundamental truth about the grace of God; grace and works cannot be mixed. They are mutually exclusive; it is either grace or works, but not both. If the mixture of grace and works is attempted, grace is no longer grace. This is what has happened in Christian theology, particularly orthodox Protestant theology. Understanding righteousness legalistic as the merits earned by Christ in His active obedience and imputed to the account of the one who believes, they defined grace as unmerited favor; that is, grace is God being favorable to us because of the merits of Christ, not because our merit. Thus grace is no longer grace. This view of justification by faith is salvation by the vicarious works of Christ. This theology, rejecting salvation by our works, since, because our sinful natures, we cannot ourselves earn and merit eternal life, teaches that it was still must be earned, not by us, but by another, Jesus Christ. It is a vicarious salvation by works. And Paul would have rejected it, as indicated by this verse. Grace and works cannot be mixed. If it is by grace, it is no longer of works. And if is by works, it is no longer by grace. And if they are mixed, "grace is no longer grace." What is grace? Grace is love in action giving that which is needed. The grace of God is more than the favor of God. It is God in His love doing for man what he needs. Man is spiritually dead, and dying physically; he needs life, both spiritually and physically. God has in his love provided the gift of life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Life is not earned by the merits of Christ, but is the gift of God's grace in the person of God's Son, Jesus Christ.
"He that has the Son has life,
and he that does not have the Son has not life." (I John 5:12).
This gift of eternal life is received by faith. This is the righteousness of faith, faith being reckoned as righteousness ( Rom. 4:5).
"Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was reckoned to him for righteousness"
( Rom. 4:3; quoting Gen. 15:6).
Paul explains,
"22 And that is why his faith was 'reckoned to him as righteousness.'
23 But the words, 'it was reckoned to him',
were written not for his sakes alone,
24 but for ours also.
It will be reckoned to us who believe in him
that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
25 who was put to death for our trespasses
and raised for our justification." ( Rom. 4:22-25).
Justification is not God declaring righteousness nor imputing the merits of Christ to our account when we believe, but it is God acting to set right or to put one who believes into right relationship with Himself. To justify is to save ( Rom. 3:24), and justification as salvation is by grace through faith and not by works. (Eph. 2:5, 8-9). Grace and works are mutually exclusive and should not be mixed. Dispensationalism by mixing law and grace causes a confusion about the relationship of grace to works; that is, by mixing law and grace, it implies that grace and works can be mixed.

This confusion of law and grace in dispensationalism has lead to a confusion in their understanding of the dispensation of grace, and of the relationship of the Church to Israel and to the Gentiles. Some dispensationalist being aware of this confusion attempt to clear it up by speaking of the dispensation of grace as the great parenthesis; that is, since the economy of grace was not the same as the Old Testament dispensations and thus to set the dispensation of grace apart from the other dispensations, it is called and treated as a great parenthesis in God's dealing with Israel and the Gentiles. During this parenthesis, God is dealing with the Church, not with Israel nor with the Gentiles. Not all dispensationalist (for example, Lewis Sperry Chafer) accept this interpretation of the dispensation of grace as a parenthesis. They just ignore the confusion of law and grace which reduces grace to law so that grace is no longer grace. But this confusion is caused by treating law and grace as dispensations.

What is the difference between law and grace? The difference is not: rules and no rules. The difference is in the relationship of the blessing to obedience. In the covenant of the law the bestowal of the blessing is conditioned upon obedience; obey in order to be blessed (Ezek. 18). In the covenant of grace the blessing is bestowed unconditionally to bring about obedience: obey because you are already blessed (John 13:34; Eph. 4:32; Titus 2:11-12; I John 3:3; 4:11, 19). Grace appeals to the unconditioned prior bestowal of the blessing as the grounds of obedience. Law, on the other hand, appeals to obedience to the law as the grounds of the bestowal of the blessing.

Grace is love in action to give what is needed, the blessing. The grace of God is the love of God in action to give what man needs, eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,
that everyone believing in Him, should not perish,
but have eternal life." (John 3:16 ERS).
Man is dead spiritually and needs to be made alive.
"4 But God, who is rich in mercy,
out of the great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved)." (Eph. 2:4-5)
God in His love has given His only Son so that we could be made alive to God with Christ whom He raised Him from the dead. This act of God's love is the grace of God by which we are saved through faith.
"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and this is not your own doing, it [being saved] is the gift of God --
9 not because of works,
lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8-9)
The grace of God is God's love in action.
God's grace is more than His favor;
it is His love acting to do something for us.
And because He loves us, He has acted to save us.
When we receive the gift of His grace by faith, we are made alive.
For the gift of God's grace is His Son who is the life (John 14:6).
"11 And this is the testimony,
that God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
12 He who has the Son has life;
he who has not the Son has not life." (I John 5:11-12)

And the law cannot make alive.

"Is the law then against the promises of God?
Certainly not, for if the law could make alive,
then righteousness would indeed by the law." (Gal. 3:21)
The source of the promises of God is the grace of God and this promise is the promise of Christ who is the gift of life (Gal. 3:16). And the law does not annul this promise to Abraham.
"16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.
It does not say, 'And to offsprings.' referring to many,
but, referring to one, 'And to your offspring,' which is Christ.
17 This is what I mean:
the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward,
does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God,
so as to make the promise void.
18 For if the inheritance is by the law,
it is no longer by promise,
but God gave it to Abraham by a promise." (Gal. 3:16-18).
Dispensationalism would have the dispensation of promise annulled by the dispensation of the law, because it treats the promise to Abraham as a dispensation that ended when the dispensation of law began. The covenant of promise to Abraham was not a dispensation and God unconditionally by His grace fulfilled that covenant of promise when Christ came and provided the gift of salvation and life for all men by His death and resurrection. The law did not annul the promises of God, since the law could not make alive. The fulfillment of the promises of God in Jesus Christ did what the law could not do; only God could make alive. Man by keeping the law cannot make himself alive. There is no salvation by the law.