Of The Making of Dispensations There is no End

Article 5 of the doctrinal statement of Dallas Theological Seminary, historically a defender and advocate of dispensationalism, identifies three dispensations: Law, Grace, Millennial Kingdom.  The former president of Tyndale Theological Seminary, an institution continuing to defend and promote dispensationalism, has identified twelve dispensations.  Classical dispensationalists typically hold to seven dispensations.  Why the differences?  I would offer three reasons.  First, the Bible talks a lot about the Mosaic Law, the Grace of God extended through Jesus, and the millennial kingdom.  Since there is so much Biblical revelation concerning these three dispensations, or ways in which God deals with the world, there is a wide consensus on these three.  The second, is that godly and sincere men will sometimes draw different conclusions from the same evidence, particularly on matters outside the core theological concerns of the authority and sufficiency of scripture, the nature of God, the nature of Jesus, and justification by faith.  Third, dispensationalism is not defined by the number of dispensations.  Instead, it is defined by a distinctive hermeneutic: consistently historical, grammatical, and literal; a distinctive categorization of humanity: a separation between Israel and the church; and a distinctive goal of history: that in everything God will ultimately be glorified.

Yet, if even non-dispensationalists who take the Bible seriously recognize that God does not deal with the world in the same way all the time.  At the very least everyone sees a distinction between the Old and New Testaments.  I, as a dispensationalist, embrace the dispensations of Law, Grace, and Kingdom, but are there others?  Well, it is apparent that before the law God had made promises exclusively to the nation of Israel and acted on those promises so before the law there is a dispensation of promise.  Pursuing that line of thinking a little further, before the nation of Israel was formed in Gn. 12:1-3 God was dealing with the world as a whole.  How he dealt with the world changed at the fall.  Therefore, there is a pre-fall, and a post-fall dispensation.  So far I have pre-fall and  post-fall dispensations, a dispensation of promise, then law, and finally kingdom.  After the fall however, Romans 1:18-19 suggests that man was responsible to respond to the evidence of His existence that God placed in their conscience.  Finally, also after the fall, there is a change in Gen. 9 when God deals with the sinfulness of man through human governments.  So, taking these into account, we end up with seven dispensations: pre-fall (popularly called the dispensation of innocence), a dispensation of conscience, one of government, the dispensation of promise, then law, grace, then the kingdom. So we are up to seven dispensations.  I would suggest the possibility of two more.  The first is in eternity past.  During this time, before creation, God was already making plans for humanity.  For example, the kingdom was prepared (Mt. 25:34), God chose who would believe (Eph. 1:4), the sacrificial death of Jesus was known (1 Pet. 1:20).  There is also a dispensation is eternity future, in the eternal state ushered in by Jesus when He hands His kingdom to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24).

So, what is it? Three, seven, nine, or twelve or …?  My invitation to you is to do your own investigation.  Apply a consistently literal hermeneutic, recognize the distinction the Bible makes between Israel and the church, and look for how God is bringing glory to Himself then consider how many dispensations there are.  The answer will help enrich your understanding of God’s word, help you see what God is doing in the world, and awaken you to how God wants you to respond to Him right now.