Dispensation

General Information

(Gr. oikonomia, "management," "economy"). (1.) The method or scheme according to which God carries out his purposes towards men is called a dispensation. There are usually reckoned three dispensations, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic or Jewish, and the Christian. These were so many stages in God's unfolding of his purpose of grace toward men. The word is not found with this meaning in Scripture. (2.) A commission to preach the gospel (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 1:10; 3:2; Col. 1:25). Dispensations of Providence are providential events which affect men either in the way of mercy or of judgement.

(Easton Illustrated Dictionary)

Dispensation, Dispensationalism

Advanced Information

The Greek words, used about twenty times in the NT, mean "to manage, regulate, administer, and plan the affairs of a household." This concept of human stewardship is illustrated in Luke 16:1 - 2, where the ideas of responsibility, accountability, and the possibility of change are detailed. In other occurrences (Eph. 1:10; 3:2, 9; Col. 1:25) the idea of divine stewardship is prominent, i.e., an administration or plan being accomplished by God in this world.

Theological Usage

Building on the idea of God's administration of or plan for the world, dispensationalism describes the unfolding of that program in various dispensations, or stewardship arrangements, throughout the history of the world. The world is seen as a household administered by God in connection with several stages of revelation that mark off the different economies in the outworking of his total program. These economies are the dispensations in dispensationalism. Thus from God's viewpoint a dispensation is an economy; from man's it is a responsibility to the particular revelation given at the time. In relation to progressive revelation, a dispensation is a stage within it. Thus a dispensation may be defined as "a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God's program."

Number of Dispensations

At least three dispensations (as commonly understood in dispensationalism) are mentioned by Paul: one preceding the present time (Col. 1:25 - 26), the present arrangement (Eph. 3:2), and a future administration (Eph. 1:10). These three require a fourth, one before the law, and a prelaw dispensation would seem to need to be divided into pre - and postfall economies. Thus five administrations seem clearly distinguishable (at least within a premillennial understanding of Scripture). The usual sevenfold scheme includes a new economy after the Noahic flood and another with the call of Abraham.

Relation to Progressive Revelation

God did not reveal all truth at one time but through various periods and stages of revelation. This principle of progressive revelation is evident in the Scriptures themselves. Paul told his audience on Mars Hill that in a former time God overlooked their ignorance, but now commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). The majestic opening of the book of Hebrews outlines the various means of progressive revelation (Heb. 1:1 - 2). One of the most striking verses that show different ways of God's dealing with mankind is John 1:17.

The concept of progressive revelation does not negate the unity of the Bible but recognizes the diversity of God's unfolding revelation as essential to the unity of his completed revelation.

Essential Characteristics

Dispensational theology grows out of a consistent use of the hermeneutical principle of normal, plain, or literal interpretation. This principle does not exclude the use of figures of speech, but insists that behind every figure is a literal meaning.

Applying this hermeneutical principle leads dispensationalism to distinguish God's program for Israel from his program for the church. Thus the church did not begin in the OT but on the day of Pentecost, and the church is not presently fulfilling promises made to Israel in the OT that have not yet been fulfilled.

Salvation

Doubtless the most frequently heard objection to dispensationalism is that it allegedly teaches several ways of salvation. This arises from wrongly considering each dispensation as a way of salvation (therefore, there are five, six, or seven ways) instead of inclusive administrative arrangements which included, among many other things, sufficient revelation so that a person could be right with God. It also comes from a misunderstanding of the use of "law" and "grace" as labels for two of the dispensations, as if to imply that these are two ways of salvation. However, dispensationalists have taught and do teach that salvation is always through God's grace.

The basis of salvation in every dispensation is the death of Christ; the requirement for salvation in every age is faith; the object of faith is the true God; but the content of faith changes in the various dispensations. To affirm a sameness in the content of faith would of necessity deny progressiveness in revelation. Nondispensationalists may sometimes be guilty of reading the NT back into the OT in order to be able to achieve a uniformity in the content of faith.

Origins

Often dispensationalism is charged with being recent in origin, and therefore untrue. Of course, recency does not mean falsity any more than antiquity guarantees truth. Unsystematic dispensational-like statements can be found from the writings of the church fathers on, but as a system dispensationalism did not begin to develop until the early part of the eighteenth century in the writings of Pierre Poiret, John Edwards, and Isaac Watts. Though these men set forth dispensational schemes, it was the ministry and writings of John Nelson Darby in the nineteenth century that systematized the concept. His work was the foundation for later dispensationalists such as James H Brookes, James M Gray, C I Scofield, and L S Chafer.

Other Dispensational Schemes

Some covenant theologians (those who view God operating under a single covenant of grace from the fall on) use the concept of different dispensations but as part of the covenant of grace. The OT and NT dispensations are readily recognized, though some add dispensations related to the call of Abraham and the giving of the Mosaic law (e.g., Charles Hodge). However, the unifying feature is the covenant of grace and salvation under it, so that any changes from one dispensation to another are in the nature of anticipation in the OT and accomplishment in the NT, rather than distinctive and actual changes in administration.

Though there are several branches of ultra dispensationalism, they are characterized by teaching the existence of two churches within the book of Acts. One was the Jewish church which began at Pentecost and ended when the second, the body of Christ church, began with the ministry of the apostle Paul at either Acts 9, 13, or 28). Ultradispensationalists often do not practice water baptism but usually observe the Lord's Supper.

C C Ryrie

Bibliography
C B Bass, Backgrounds to Dispensationalism; D P Fuller, Gospel and Law; C N Kraus, Dispensationalism in America; C C Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today; E Sauer, From Eternity to Eternity; C I Scofield, ed., The New Scofield Reference Bible.

Dispensation

Advanced Information

Dispensation primarily signifies "the management of a household or of household affairs" (oikos, "a house," nomos, "a law"); then the management or administration of the property of others, and so "a stewardship," Luke 16:2-4; elsewhere only in the epistles of Paul, who applies it

(a) to the responsibility entrusted to him of preaching the gospel, 1 Cor. 9:17 (RV, "stewardship," KJV, "dispensation");

(b) to the stewardship commited to him "to fulfill the Word of God," the fulfillment being the unfolding of the completion of the divinely arranged and imparted cycle of truths which are consummated in the truth relating to the church as the body of Christ, Col. 1:25 (RV and KJV, "dispensation"); so in Eph. 3:2, of the grace of God given him as a stewardship ("dispensation") in regard to the same "mystery";

(c) in Eph. 1:10 and 3:9, it is used of the arrangement or administration by God, by which in "the fullness of the times" (or seasons) God will sum up all things in the heavens and on earth in Christ. In Eph. 3:9 some mss. have koinonia, "fellowship," for oikonomia, "dispensation." In 1 Tim. 1:4 oikonomia may mean either a stewardship in the sense of (a) above, or a "dispensation" in the sense of (c). The reading oikodomia, "edifying," in some mss., is not to be accepted.

Note: A "dispensation" is not a period or epoch (a common, but erroneous, use of the word), but a mode of dealing, an arrangement, or administration of affairs. Cf. oikonomos, "a steward," and oikonomeo, "to be a steward."

Also, see:
Ultradispensationalism
Covenant
Progressive Dispensationalism
Second Coming of Christ
Eschatology
Views of the Millennium
Last Judgement
Rapture, Tribulation
Tribulation, Great Tribulation

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dispensationalism

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