Great Doctrines of the Bible
Lesson 28
Dispensationalism Understood

Introduction
Any approach to the study of the Bible that simplifies and clarifies its meaning is good as long as the approach is sound and no distortion or misrepresentation is made of the text. An analysis of scripture with a dispensational viewpoint has had its share of critics, particularly among liberals, a-millennialists, and covenant theologians. We shall endeavor to answer some of these criticisms.

Dispensationalists hold firmly to a literal and inerrant view of scripture and it is our judgment that a proper evaluation and use of dispensational Bible study will add substantially to anyone’s understanding of the Bible.

In this lesson it is our purpose to give certain definitions and present dispensationalism as an excellent method of Bible study, particularly for those who accept the Bible as literal and inerrant and hold to the concept of Christians being taken away before the millennium and the pre-tribulational view of the return of Christ.

Importance of this Lesson

• Dispensationalists contend for the view that all the truth of God was not made known to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses or the prophets.
• Dispensationalists believe that the truth revealed in scripture is progressive, having its full unfolding in Christ and in the New Testament.
• While frankly recognizing that certain ultra-dispensationalists have brought upon the system severe criticism by their radical position, we, nevertheless, believe that a proper, sane, intelligent use of dispensational Bible study will result in the simplification and clarification of many scriptures and make the Bible a living book to you.

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The Lesson

I. WHAT IS DISPENSATIONALISM?
It is a system of Bible teaching or hermeneutics which holds:

1. That the revelation of truth from Adam to Christ was progressive and that none of the Old Testament writers or prophets had or knew all of the truth of God.
2. That through the various ages or periods of time, God revealed special portions of truth to man and placed man under a particular test regarding this revelation.

II. WHAT IS A DISPENSATION?

1. The word is the anglicized form of the Latin “dispensatio,” meaning, the action of dealing out or distributing. The idea is that of administering, dispensing or ordering. In other words, a dispensation is a system by which things are administered with some requirement or restraint.
2. Webster’s dictionary says, “a dispensing, a divine order.”
3. The Oxford English Dictionary says, “a dispensation is a stage in a progressive revelation expressly adapted to the needs of a particular nation or period of time. Also, the age or period during which a system has prevailed.”
4. C.I. Scofield says, “A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect to his obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Dispensations are a progressive and connected revelation of God’s dealing with man and are not separate ways of salvation.”
5. Dr. Graham Scroggie says, “God has at different times dealt with man in different ways, according to the necessity of the case, but throughout for one great, grand end.”
6. Dr. Harry Ironside says, “A dispensation or economy is that particular order or condition of things prevailing in one special age which does not necessarily prevail in another.”
7. While critics assail the splitting up of biblical history into time slots we call dispensations, any earnest Bible student can readily trace the progress of revelation and detect time periods during which man was given a stewardship or responsibility regarding that revelation. These time slots or periods we call dispensations.

III. USE OF THE WORD “DISPENSATION” IN THE BIBLE

1. The verb “oikonomeo” is found once in Luke 16:2 where it is related to being a steward.
2. The noun “oikonomos,” found in Titus 1:7 and 1 Corinthians 4:1, is used 10 times and always translated “steward.”
3. The noun “oikonomia,” found in 1 Corinthians 9:17; Colossians 1:25; Ephesians 3:2, is used nine times and is usually translated “dispensation.”
4. The Lord Jesus used the term in two parables (Luke 12:42; Luke 16:1,3,8). In both, the word is used in relation to stewardship, responsibility, administration and management of another’s property.
5. The apostle Peter used the term in 1 Peter 4:10 when he wrote, “...as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
6. What Paul taught about dispensations:
   1. That faithfulness is required by the stewards to whom the mysteries of God are revealed (1 Corinthians 4:1-2).
   2. That a dispensation can terminate and is definitely connected with time (Galatians 4:2-4).
   3. That dispensations are related to specific revelation (Ephesians 3:2-6).
   4. That dispensations and ages are interrelated (Ephesians 3:9).
   5. He definitely mentions two distinct dispensations (Ephesians 1:10; 3:2), and uses them just as dispensationalists use them.
      • While the Bible does not name seven dispensations, Paul’s mention and use of the term does give credibility to the concept.

IV. CHARACTERISTICS OF DISPENSATIONS
There are five major characteristics to a dispensation: (Learn these characteristics for the test.)

1. A portion or deposit of God’s truth is revealed to man, along with God’s requirement of man, as to his conduct in the light of and relation to that particular revelation.
2. A designation of man’s stewardship or responsibility or faithful obedience regarding the revelation. Man is put to a definite test.
3. A time period or age during which this revelation and responsibility are dominant.
4. A record of man’s failure to fulfill his responsibility.
5. A record of God’s judgment resulting from this failure.
6. Dispensations are not merely periods of time. They are not various ways to be saved! But, they are different economies clearly recognizable in Bible history by new revelations of God’s will and truth accompanied by a new responsibility imposed on man to obey this revelation. These readily distinguished stages of revelation, we call dispensations.
   • It is imperative that serious students of scripture understand these different economies. In order to understand the Bible, one must differentiate between law and grace, Israel and the Church, the promises made to Abraham and the promises to New Testament believers, etc.
   • It can be honestly stated that all who claim the sufficiency of Christ’s blood and no longer bring bloody sacrifices to a Jewish altar and all who worship the Lord on Sunday rather than Saturday, are in fact, dispensationalists.
   • Dispensations and ages coincide in their historical outworking (Ephesians 3:9).

V. THE RELATIONSHIP OF DISPENSATIONALISM TO PROGRESSIVE REVELATION

1. A dispensationalist contends that the Bible is not an exposition of a complete revelation but the story of a complete revelation progressively unfolding.
2. Dispensational study helps to promote accuracy in the observance of this progress in revelation.
   Illustration:
   1. Paul, on Mars Hill, declared, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
   2. “For the law was given by Moses, BUT grace and truth CAME by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
      • While not a dispensationalist, scholar Bernard Ramm wrote, “A clearer realization of progressive revelation has been due largely to the beneficial influence of dispensationalism.”
   3. The truth dispensed by God in any particular dispensation did not cease to be truth at the end of that period or economy. Revealed truth was both progressive and cumulative. For example, CONSCIENCE, while no longer a dispensation, remains a truth in our lives today (Romans 2:15; 9:1-2; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 4:2). Also LAW, while not now a dispensation, continues as an essential part of scripture and profitable to us today (2 Timothy 3:15-17; Romans 7:7; 15:4; Galatians 3:19, 24; 5:18).

VI. ANSWERING CRITICS

1. Some critics infer that dispensationalists believe that scripture reveals various ways of salvation other than by grace through faith. This is simply not true. I have known dispensationalists all my life. None of them held to such foolishness. God has always justified sinners on the basis of faith (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:6; Hebrews 11:7, 13:14-28).
2. Some critics contend that dispensationalism is divisive, that it destroys the unity of the Bible with adverse results.
   Dispensationalists contend for the inerrancy and verbal inspiration of scripture and further believe that they should be interpreted literally except when it is clear that a passage is allegorical. For those who reject these views, such an approach is indeed divisive! Furthermore, a dispensationalist generally accepts the pre-tribulational, pre-millennial view of the coming of Christ. Many reject this view and consider it disruptive.
3. A few critics raise the question of intellectualism, assuming that when a person attains a doctor’s degree, he graduates from and shuns dispensationalism. There are many fine fundamental scholars with earned Ph.D’s who are dispensationalists. Education alone does not produce infallibility.
4. Other critics attack dispensationalism from a historical viewpoint. Since this position is historically recent, having been popularized by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren and then by the Scofield Bible, they label it “modernistic” and too recent to be correct. There were errors like infant baptism and baptismal regeneration in the early church. So, because a doctrine or position is old doesn’t make it right any more than a recent position makes it wrong. History is not the final test of truth! The only absolute test is whether a position or doctrine is in total harmony with biblical revelation.

VII. “A DISPENSATIONAL TIMETABLE”
Study this chart carefully. You will be asked to list the dispensations on the exam! Read all the scriptures involved. This chart simply presents the time period during which man is made responsible to obey a particular revelation. While we here suggest seven such periods, it is not necessary to hold to seven in order to be a dispensationalist. Some hold to two, three, or five such periods. Our position is that seven such periods are clearly distinguishable.

VIII. “DISPENSATIONAL BIBLE REFERENCES”
In this chart we seek to set forth the five characteristics of a dispensation and provide the appropriate scriptures. Study this chart thoroughly and read all the verses presented.

IX. THE VALUE OF DISPENSATIONAL STUDY

1. Paul exhorted Timothy to study so that he might “rightly DIVIDE the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). A study of the dispensations enables us to give every scripture it’s primary meaning or application.
2. It is imperative that Bible students differentiate between the promises made to Abraham, David and the nation of Israel and the promises made to the Church. Dispensational study avoids spiritualizing scripture and properly assigns all the promises to those to whom they are made.
3. Certain economies in which God dispenses a special revelation of His truth, and gives man a test or responsibility regarding it, are easily distinguished. Dispensation alone can account for these different economies in the unfolding and completeness of God’s purposes.
4. All scholars recognize the need for making distinctions between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Dispensational study fully and properly supplies that need.
5. Dispensationalists believe that Israel will be established in the land promised to Abraham, that Christ will return as “David’s greater son” and sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem and reign on earth for one thousand years. To them this is the goal of history. A-millenialists and covenant theologians reject this idea, teaching that the struggle between good and evil terminates in our eternal state. Dispensationalism provides a correct goal of history.

Conclusion:
A dispensationalist then is one who:

1. Believes that the revelation of truth was progressive.
2. Believes that the scriptures, as originally given, were verbally inspired and inerrant.
3. Does not unnecessarily spiritualize or allegorize scripture, but rather gives to them a normal, plain and literal interpretation.
4. Believes God’s purpose in history and in eternity is His own glory.
   • In all fairness, we must issue a warning. There are some we call “ultra-dispensationalists” who have brought discredit to the system by their extreme views. For example, some of these utterly discard and disregard the Old Testament, The Sermon on the Mount, and the Gospel of Matthew as having nothing for us today. The view held by most dispensationalists is that “ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God AND IS PROFITABLE...” (2 Timothy 3:16), and that while all scripture is not directed TO us, it all is FOR our learning and benefit. So study “To show thyself approved unto God...” and rightly divide the Word!

Examination

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