UNDERSTANDING DISPENSATIONS
A dispensation is defined as…
“The method or scheme according to which God carries out his purposes towards men is called a dispensation.”
The term “dispensation” is used in Ephesians 3:2 (KJV), “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:” The word for dispensation in Greek is or “oikonomia”. This is defined by Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance as “specifically, the management, oversight, administration, of other’s property”. The concept of dispensations is one in which God deals, or administers His creation in specific ways at specific times. In the Ephesians example above, Paul is speaking of the way in which God is working in the dispensation of grace, which is also known as the church age.
The term “age” is another way of looking at this concept. It is used in Ephesians 1:21 (NIV), for example, “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” Here it is plain to see the term age used for a period in time, both in the present, or current period, but a future one as well. Each age (Greek word “aion”) in the plan of God is administered in a certain way, as man is held responsible as a steward under God.
The distinction between dispensations, or ages is in how God interacts with humanity and what God expects of us. The demarcation between dispensations or ages is always marked by a significant event. The table below provides a quick summary of the seven (7) dispensations.
* There is a parenthetical gap between the end of the Law and the time of Jacob's Trouble, also known as the Great Tribulation, in which the Church age takes place. God then completes His work with the Jews during the Tribulation.
God's Interaction with Humanity in the Dispensations
1 - Innocence
In the age of innocence, before sin entered the world, God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was present with them physically. They could hear Him coming and talk with Him face to face.
2 - Conscience
As a result of the fall and sin entering the world, God placed a requirement before man in order to commune with God. They had to make a sacrifice to do so. God taught Cain a difficult lesson when He accepted Abel’s animal sacrifice over the offering of grains at the hand of Cain. God was saying that it requires the life of the innocent to cover the sins of the guilty. Cains own works of growing grains were not sufficient. God no longer freely communes with man without this sacrifice.
As the age of Conscience went on, mankind grew further and further away from God and turned to idol worship. Satan had setup shop as the ruler of this world and corrupted mankind by having fallen angels, also known as “Sons of God” impregnate human women. This created the Nephilim described in Genesis 6:4 (NIV), “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days–and also afterward–when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” The bloodline of humanity had been polluted by Satan and his followers. For more on this interesting topic, see the lesson on Nephilim.
In Genesis 6:5-8 (KJV) it says, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” God was not pleased with the progress of humanity and it made Him sorrowful. Noah was the only saving grace.
3 - Human Government
Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives were the only human survivors of the flood. That is a total of 8 people. Eight (8) is the number of a new beginning. They set about to repopulate the earth. The issue is that they mostly forgot about God during this time. One of Ham’s grandsons, Nimrod became the first world ruler and established the city of Babylon. He set out to build the tower of Babel to lift up humanity to the skies so they could be like God, as described in Genesis 11. This is like the student president wanting to overthrow and replace the teacher! God was not happy with the blatant disrespect and caused their language to diverge and dispersed the people.
Throughout the first three dispensations God is dealing with the people one on one.
4 - Promise
According to the timelines of individuals documented in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we can deduce that God made a covenant with Abraham 1948 years after creation. In this covenant God told Abraham to leave Ur, a city in what was known as Chaldea, or what is today known as Iraq. God told him to take his family and travel eastward where God would take him to the Promised Land. In Genesis 15:5-6 (KJV), God told Abraham, “… Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” However, God had a plan in mind to aid his family in understanding the need for God.
God is now dealing with humanity through one family. These would be His chosen people to be the examples and they way for humanity to find salvation. In Genesis 15:13 (KJV) God lets Abraham know what having this promised land will mean to his family. “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land [that is] not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;”
Why did God say they will receive the promised land but would have to suffer as slaves for four hundred years to get it? If we look at the big picture of God’s Plan, it makes sense. Humanity has twice now proven it is not willing to follow God just because God wants them to. God is now upping the ante. He’s promising that they can have the land of milk and honey (Exodus 3:8), which represents spending eternity in Heaven in the presence of and in a close, loving relationship with God. In order to get that, they have to be subjected to servitude and keep their faith in God. God wants us to serve Him, so He is using this as training in being willing to be a servant. He is also humbling them by putting them into servitude against their will. God knows they will make many mistakes, but the promise holds them together and brings them back to God, mostly. God is going to humble them, make them serve and it is up to them to choose God or not. God has promised to make the number of the family grow to be the number of starts you can count.
Indeed, that is exactly what happened. In Genesis 46, a total of 70 men from Jacob’s family, the grandson of Abraham entered Egypt, just as the Lord had said they would. When they came out over 400 hundred years later the number of men who left was over 600,000 (Exodus 12:37), even though they had been subject to 400 years of slavery. God had blessed them in their servitude.
5 - Law*
That leads us to the Exodus. Moses had been called by God to free the Israelites from their bondage of slavery. From the spiritual perspective you can view Moses as a type of Christ. As Christ freed us from the slavery of sin by simply believing in Him, so Moses freed the Israelites from literally slavery by simply believing in God and in what Moses was doing.
Once Pharaoh released the Israelites they began their trek in the desert (Exodus 12) Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued them and they were miraculously saved by the parting of the Red Sea, that closed in on and crushed the enemy. This was a very dramatic event that marked a change in dispensation. Not long after this, Moses spent 40 days on Mt Sinai with God and came down with the 10 Commandment, the plans for the Tabernacle and the Law (Exodus 19 and 20).
God had Moses build the tabernacle, a portable sanctuary where God can reside with His people. God shows up in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night and speaks to Moses and Aaron and only those high priests who have been consecrated and cleansed. They then relate what God says to the people. God provides detailed instructions to the nation of Israel. God is no longer dealing with a family but now it is a nation. The 600,000 number is just men of fighting age. This makes the population likely between 1.5 million to 2 million people total, when you account for women, children and the elderly men.
God provides detailed instructions in the range of over 600 in total on how to be righteous in the eyes of God. God gave the Law to reveal His standard of absolute righteousness. As James says in James 2:10 (KJV) “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” God’s point is that you cannot be justified by your own works.
In this dispensation God is with them to hold their hand, so to speak and help them learn they cannot do it on their own. God warns them repeatedly they they will be punished if they turn away, and this happens over and over again until God gives them into the hand of their enemy and puts them back into exile. This is like a time out, or detention for a naughty student. However, God promises this is not forever and the Messiah would soon come.
6 - Church / Grace
God next provides humanity with the perfect example of love and righteousness. He comes to us in physical form as Jesus Christ. Jesus shows us what a perfection looks like and lives a life without blemish. Jesus withstands the temptation of the devil and becomes a suffering servant, as prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus starts His ministry with His baptism by John the Baptist and God the Father proclaims Him to be the Son of God.
Jesus knew from the start that His mission in His 1st coming was to be the final, perfect sacrifice for all mankind. Jesus taught His disciples how to live with God and walk in His way. This became known as “the Way”. Jesus then offered Himself up as a sacrifice for sin. After three days, He was resurrected and showed Himself to his disciples and many other people. He spent 40 days after His resurrection with the people prior to His ascension into Heaven. Before He did so, He promised that He would not leave us alone, but would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit to dwell in the believers. He also promised that He would soon return and gather His believers together to be with Him.
It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that first happened at Pentecost shortly after His ascension that enables all of us to be seen by God as being purified and cleansed of our sin. This enables us to be “born again” spiritually. While we are in this world and the Holy Spirit is within us, we are the body of Christ. When Jesus returns, we will also be given new bodies and we will then become the Bride of Christ. See symbology of the Jewish Wedding for more information.
All we have to do is believe in Jesus as our savior. He died for our sins and with that belief, we have everlasting life. This is the Age of Grace, and the grace is a gift from God. It is not of our own works, but by His grace that we are saved.
5b - *The Time of Jacob's Trouble / Tribulation
Once the Church has been raptured, God returns His focus to the Jews. Daniel prophesied about this end time trouble. The prophet Jeremiah referred to it as “The time of Jacob’s trouble”. In Matthew 24 Jesus refers to it as “the time of great tribulation”. The book of Revelation describes this period in great detail. In fact, this period of time is written about more than any other period in the Bible.
God’s focus in this period is on getting the Jews to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God. God is also using this time to punish the sinful world for turning away from Him. In this time, the temple will be rebuilt and then defiled by the antichrist. God pours out His wrath on the world through various plagues and disasters, culminating in the return of our Lord Jesus.
7 - Millennial Kingdom
After the 2nd Coming of Christ, He sits on the throne of David in the Temple in Jerusalem and rules the world from there. He returns with all of His saints and bind’s up Satan for the 1000-year period of the Millennial Kingdom. Those who survived the Tribulation and had not accepted the mark of the beast will have the opportunity to live in this Kingdom with Jesus and the saints.
This period is one of rest, in which we live without the influence of Satan and under the reign of Christ. The world returns to its state prior to the flood and we live in peace and security. This is not Heaven, though. There is still death for those who survived the Tribulation. There is still the period at the end of the 1000-years in which Satan is released and those people who have not yet died or been raptured are tested. After having 1000 years to learn to live righteously, some will still choose Satan and they will be cast into the Lake of Fire when this period ends.
