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Please tell me "WHAT IS A DISPENSATION?
DISPENSATIONS are periods of
time in human history that are expressed in terms of Divine
revelation in order to communicate information to a believer so
that he can find and hold the right mental attitude toward the
specific time in history in which he is living and to orient his
thinking to God's will, God's plan, and God's purpose for his
life.
According to Unger's Bible Dictionary, Page 269, the Greek word
for Dispensations is OIKONOMIA, and it means "to manage a
household." Thus, a Dispensation is an orderly period of time
during which God will test man in respect to His perfect will. |
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Some Bible scholars have separated these ages into seven periods of
time, but for the sake of simplicity in answering this extremely
important doctrinal issue, let's break them down into four parts:
1.) During the first dispensation there were only Gentiles on the
earth. When Adam and the woman disobeyed God and ate of the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were driven out of the Garden of
Eden so they would not be able to eat of the Tree of Life and live
forever in their sinful state. They and their offspring were then
tested to discern between good and evil and act according to the
direction of their own conscience. That dispensation ended in failure
for mankind, and with the exception of 8 people, Noah and his family,
the Lord destroyed the Adamic civilization with a flood. After the
flood, the earth was populated by the three sons of Noah. (Genesis
chapters 10 and 11)
2.) The next dispensation, the Jewish Age,
began when the Lord called a Chaldean by the name of Abram to leave
his homeland and follow Him, and promised Abram that he would be the
father of a brand new race that would be a blessing to the entire
world. (Genesis 12:1-3) That dispensation continued until the death,
burial and resurrection of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
When the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, the Jewish dispensation
was interrupted, but it will resume and last for another seven years
after the completion of the next dispensation, called the Church Age,
which began on the Day of Pentecost.
3.) The Church is
a body made up of born-again believers beginning with the Day of
Pentecost and ending at the resurrection (Rapture) of that body which
is called 'the Bride of Christ' in Acts 1 :9-11 and in Revelation
19:11-16. It is the dispensation in which we are now living, and it
will continue until an appointed time known only by God the Father,
when Jesus will come in the clouds of the air and take His bride to
heaven. The details of that event may be found recorded for us in 1
Corinthians 15:51-53 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Once the Church is removed from the earth, the Jewish Age will resume
and continue for seven years. That period of time is called the
Tribulation, and it will consist of 31h years of peace followed by 31h
years of the worst period of time in all human history. The suffering
and bloodshed during the second half of the Tribulation will end when
the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth to set up his 1,000 year
Millennial kingdom.
4.) The Millennial reign
of the Lord Jesus Christ will usher in the last dispensation of human
history. It will begin by His return to the Mount of Olives from which
He ascended more than 2,000 years ago. He will return to set up His
thousand year reign of perfect environment on this earth. (Acts 1
:9-11 and Revelation 19:11-16)
At the end of man's history, all human good will be
judged. The sins of the world throughout all the ages were
judged on the Cross, but human good, which is part of man's sinful
nature, has not yet been judged; therefore, unbelievers of all ages
will be resurrected after the Millennium to stand before the Lord
Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment and be judged for
their human good deeds . . . NOT THEIR SINS!
On the basis of their rejection of the work of Jesus
Christ on the Cross, all unbelievers of all the ages will be cast into
the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels and will be tormented
day and night throughout eternity. (Revelation 20:10-15)
Without gaining thorough understanding of
DISPENSATIONS, a believer will be confused and unable to truly
comprehend why he is alive at this specific time in history and find
God's plan and purpose for his life.
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