Signs of the Times: Dispensationalism

Text: Ephesians 1:3-12; 3:1-6

Introduction: During the Cold War the idea of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was the international belief that said that as long as there is parity in nuclear weapons and missiles the world would be safe from a nuclear war because everybody would be afraid to use them. It set off an arms race that had people in so much fear that we actually had “duck and cover” drills in public schools. It also set off a plethora of cheap sci-fi movies in the 1950s with World War 3 scenarios where the last surviving humans are trying to escape the radiation that has turned other people into monsters.

The most serious and realistic of these was a 1959 film called On the Beach that starred Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. The plot in this story had the entire northern hemisphere destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, and the only survivors on earth were in Australia waiting for the radiation to blow their way. It was a serious consideration of what the world might have been like, and there were no monsters.

I saw the movie on television when I was about eight or nine years old. We saw it at my dad’s place. I asked my dad’s wife if it was true about the nuclear weapons. Oh, yes, she assured me. There are weapons that could destroy the whole world right now. I went to bed in fear for several nights after that thinking the world could be destroyed at any minute, until I asked my mother about it and she gave me a better explanation.

A lot of people think a nuclear war such as this would be Armageddon. In 2003 as the US was preparing to invade Iraq critics were warning that it could bring about Armageddon. This all comes from a misunderstanding that Armageddon might be a World War 3 nuclear holocaust that ends the world. That’s not what it is, and nothing that happens now will bring it about.

The Battle of Armageddon takes place at the end of the Tribulation period described in Revelation 16:16. When it happens, if you’re a Christian, you don’t have to worry about it. If you have been born again by receiving Christ as your Savior, you will have been raptured out seven years earlier and will be coming with Christ in the air on the winning side. At Armageddon the armies of the world will gather to defy the Lord and fight against His return, and in a moment they will be destroyed. We don’t have to worry about Armageddon.

We do believe we are in the end times. In the last three weeks we’ve been looking at the signs. The only clue as to the time frame for the Lord’s return is Israel being restored to their land. That happened in 1948. Everything else that has happened since then only serves to give us more perspective as to the meaning of things we see in the Book of Revelation. Next week we are going to look at the Tribulation period described in Revelation 5-19. Today we are considering Dispensationalism. I referred to this idea in the first message in this series, and today I will try to explain it.

I. Two Theological constructs: Covenantal and Dispensational.

There are two basic theological systems that have come down to us in our day. The first is Covenant Theology. A covenant can be described as a structure by which the biblical text organizes itself. The reformer, John Calvin, formed this system five hundred years ago. It is followed mostly by Presbyterian and Reformed Churches today.

Theologically a covenant is an agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment between God and His people. There were several covenants made during the Old Testament times. The first was the Adamic Covenant between God and the first man. There was also a covenant with Noah after the flood. The Abrahamic Covenant promised to make a nation of Abraham’s descendants. There are several others including the Davidic Covenant, which guaranteed the perpetuity of David’s House. When Christ returns He will rule from the Throne of David.

Covenant Theology, however, is based on a system of only three major covenants, Works, Grace, and Redemption. The Works Covenant represents the past, Grace represents the present, and Redemption the future. It relies on an allegorical (symbolic) interpretation of Scripture and believes the New Testament Church succeeded Israel as God’s chosen people.

A dispensation is an administration or a system of management. The Greek word can also be translated as stewardship. In theology a dispensation is the divine administration of a period of time. It recognizes divinely appointed ages ordained by God to order the affairs of the world. It is an evangelical futurist biblical interpretation that sees God relating to man in different ways under different covenants in historical periods. It gives us a perspective of history and how it relates to the Bible and God.

There are two primary distinctives in dispensationalism: 1) a consistently literal interpretation of the Scripture, especially Bible prophecy, and 2) a distinction between Israel and the church in God’s program.

The Dispensational concept was written out by a Scottish theologian named John Darby in the 1830s, and promoted by C.I. Schofield in his reference Bible in the 20th century. Thus it has received much criticism from Covenant theologians for being a “new” doctrine only recently formulated and therefore discredited. We might say the same thing about Covenant Theology since it was only invented during the Reformation, and there is no scriptural or historical precedence for any similar teaching prior to that time.

However, as we have seen in our text the word “dispensation” is found in the Bible. The Greek word is translated “dispensation” four times, and is also translated “stewardship” three other times in the New Testament. And, for example, John made a contrast between the Age of the Law and the Age of Grace in John 1:17.

The concept of dispensations has been found in the writings of several theologians through the centuries dating back as early as Irenaeus in the second century, and Augustine, considered by many to be the greatest of all Catholic theologians, in the fifth century. Three hundred years ago the hymn writer, Isaac Watts, who was also a pastor and theologian, developed a chart of theological divisions in history. It is true that Dispensationalism as a theological study has only been recently fully developed, but previous attempts have been made, and it is only with Israel back in their homeland that the concept can now be fully understood.

II. Three reasons why the literal view of Dispensationalism is the best way to read the Scripture.

The three reasons why the literal view of Dispensationalism is the best way to look at Scripture are philosophical, biblical, and practical.

It is the best way philosophically because the purpose of language itself requires that we interpret words literally. Words have meaning and should be taken for what they mean, not for some spiritual explanation. For example, suppose I were to tell you “I am going to the mall this week.” Now I’ve been to the mall last week and many times before, but you wouldn’t look at my statement and say, Well, he fulfilled that prophecy last week, so there must be some other spiritual meaning to it that refers to the last time he went. You wouldn’t say that, you would take me literally at my word.

So why then, as Covenant theology does, should we take the Book of Revelation, a book full of prophetic events that have never yet happened, and say that it has some spiritual meaning that was fulfilled with the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70? If you can discount Revelation as a literal book, what other books might you decide are just spiritually speaking? John also wrote the Gospel of John. Should it also be taken as just an allegory? And who has the authority to choose? If you can decide one portion of Scripture is spiritual and not literal, what is to stop me from thinking another passage is just spiritual? Which one of us would be right? Before long we would have the entire Bible relegated to symbolism and we’d have no basis to believe anything.

This is what the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons do. Anything in the Bible that does not fit their theology they determine to be only a spiritual symbol. Why should we follow a theological practice that is based on the same fallacies of cult theologies? Now understand that there is a lot of symbolism in Revelation, but there is a literal meaning to each of the symbols, and it is all future. That is the only consistent way to look at Scripture.

Dispensationalism is the best way biblically because every prophecy concerning Jesus Christ in the Old Testament was fulfilled literally. Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, the thirty pieces of silver, His sayings on the cross, and His resurrection occurred exactly and literally as the Old Testament predicted. There is no non-literal fulfillment of these prophecies in the New Testament. This argues strongly for the literal method. If the literal method is not used in studying and interpreting the Scriptures, there is no objective standard by which to understand the Bible.

The third reason is the practicality of a literal interpretation. If the Bible is taken literally, there is only one way it can be interpreted and there is no confusion. If the literal method is not used in studying the Scriptures, then every person would be able to interpret the Bible as he saw fit. Biblical interpretation would devolve into “what this passage says to me...” instead of “the Bible says....” Sadly, this is the case in much of what is called interpretation today.

Some of you know there has been a lot of controversy about Bob Jones University recently. Many people are not satisfied with the way they have handled it. I was in a conversation with one graduate who said that God spoke to her through a verse in Isaiah that she should get her Congressman and Senators involved in holding BJU accountable. First, she doesn’t understand the American Constitutional principle of separation of church and state, which is designed to keep the government out of Christian business. More importantly, she doesn’t understand the hermeneutics of biblical interpretation. You cannot take one verse at random out of the context in which it is written and claim a personal message from God. 2 Peter 1:20 clearly refutes that idea. There is no Scripture of any private interpretation, it says.

By the way, I am on the same side of the argument as this friend of mine. I don’t think BJU has adequately handled the problem, but her method is not right. The literal interpretation of Scripture is the only consistent way to interpret Scripture.

III. Basic beliefs of Dispensationalism.

Before we look at the dispensations, there are four basic beliefs that dispensationalists hold that will help to understand the system. One is that there are two distinct peoples in God’s economy: Israel and the Church. The second is that the church has not replaced Israel. God’s promises to Israel (Abrahamic Covenant) have not been transferred to the church. Third, while God is now focusing His attention on the Church, He will focus again on Israel in the millennial kingdom.

The fourth is that salvation has always been by faith. People were saved by faith in God in the Old Testament era, not by works as Covenant Theology suggests. People are saved by faith in the Son of God in the New Testament, which is merely a more specific identification of God since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one.

IV. Seven Dispensational periods seen in Scripture.

There are seven dispensational periods that give historical perspective to the Scripture and give us an understanding of how God has worked with people through the ages. So let’s examine each one.

1. The Age of Innocence (Genesis 1-3:7).

This first dispensation lasted from the creation to the fall of man into sin, sometime before 4,000 BC. The world was in perfection. Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God. God’s commands for them were to replenish the earth with children; subdue the earth (farm it, plant crops, use the natural resources of the land), have dominion over the animals, care for the garden, and do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This dispensation was short lived and ended with Adam’s disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit.

2. The Age of Conscience (Genesis 3:8-8).

By counting genealogies we see this period lasted about 1656 years from sometime before 4,000 BC to around 2550 BC. In this age there is no church or government to hold anyone accountable for the way they live. It was up to man’s conscience.

Now there are some things we do need to read into the Scripture a little. For example, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices. Abel’s was accepted, but Cain’s was rejected because it wasn’t a blood sacrifice. How were they to know that? Obviously God told Adam what would be required and he passed it on to his sons. One was obedient and one rebelled according to their consciences. It demonstrates what man will do when left to his own machinations.

We hear all the time people crying out for more laws or policies to reduce crime and bring about peace. If we level the economic playing field; if we eliminate poverty; if we get rid of guns; if the government takes care of us! These will never work. Socialist ideas will never bring about peace. They won’t because they leave God out of the equation. All the evolutionary talk about man improving himself and making a better world is blind narcissism. Man without God always descends into moral wickedness and depravity.

The two most important aspects of this dispensation are the curse of sin and the promise of a Savior (Genesis 3:15). The age ended with the destruction of all mankind by flood. Only Noah and his family survived.

3. Age of Human Government (Genesis 9-11).

There were many changes in the world after the flood in both the natural world and the animal kingdom. The earth apparently tilted on its axis, a result of the floodwaters, and we have the beginning of seasons. Animals suddenly became wild and feared man. There were also two important changes concerning man. One, he was allowed to eat meat, and capital punishment was established (Genesis 9:1-3). This at least implied human government, and it wouldn’t take long before the world saw its first government, which turned out to be a dictatorship, and a rather evil one at that.

God gave Noah the promise never again to destroy the earth by flood and signed it with the rainbow. Then He told Noah to replenish the earth. Apparently God wanted men to scatter and subdue many lands around the world, but man didn’t disperse. Instead he built a tower at Babel to honor the greatness of man, and their solidarity and pride in rebellion against God. In response God confused the languages and forced the people to scatter into different language groups and the beginning of nations. The age lasted about 400 years and ended with the call of Abraham.

4. The Age of Promise (Genesis 12-Exodus 19).

Man’s conscience failed to hold him accountable, and the establishment of government to hold men accountable also failed. So after confusing the languages and scattering the people around the world God determined to work through one man and his family, rather than through human governments.

God made a covenant with Abraham in which He promised Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation. In Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed. This was fulfilled in Christ and salvation being made available to the entire world. He also gave Abraham the promise of a homeland, which included all of present day Palestine, but stretched from the Nile River to the Euphrates. The sign of the covenant was to be circumcision, and it was repeated to Isaac and Jacob, but was confined to the Hebrew people only. In other words, it was not transferrable to the Church. This period began with the call of Abraham, and lasted nearly 700 years until the Exodus from Egypt.

5. The Age of the Law (Exodus 20-the end of the Gospels).

At the end of the last dispensation, Jacob and his sons were down in Egypt to escape a famine. They remained there 430 years (Exodus 12:40) until God called Moses to lead them out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and down to Mt. Sinai. There, God gave Moses the Law.

From this point on God would deal with the Jewish nation through the Law and by His presence in the Ark of the Covenant. Priests in the lineage of Levi directed Temple worship. Further communication would come through the prophets. This Age of the Law lasted from about 1491 BC when Moses received the Law until about AD 31 when Christ rose from the grave.

At one time during David and Solomon’s reigns Israel occupied or controlled most of the territory God had deeded to them. But due to disobedience and continued rebellion, the kingdom first split into two, and then the Jews in both kingdoms were conquered, in 722 BC by the Assyrians, and 586 BC by the Babylonians, and were scattered. They were brought together and briefly were an independent nation from 175-63 BC, but then they were conquered by Rome and were enslaved when Christ was born. It was the Roman governor Pontius Pilate that condemned Jesus to the cross.

The Age of the Law ended with Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the grave. Christ did not destroy the Law, but fulfilled the purpose of the Law. The Law was a schoolmaster convincing the world of sin. It offered temporary atonement through blood sacrifices, but it was all a picture of the perfect sacrifice that came in Jesus Christ. His perfect redemption fulfilled the Law.

6. The Age of Grace (Acts 1-Revelation 19).

The Age of Grace began with the death and resurrection of Christ. Some suggest it began with the Lord’s Supper the night before the crucifixion. God’s grace is extended worldwide to both Jews and Gentiles. Man’s responsibility in this age is to believe in Christ (John 3:18). In this age born again believers have the advantage of the Holy Spirit dwelling in their hearts (John 14:16-26) and sealing them until the day of Redemption (Ephesians 4:30).

This is the age we are living in right now. It is our privilege not to be any longer under the Law, but to have liberty of conscience in our daily walk with Christ. However, liberty is not to be seen as an excuse for licentiousness. We are to live under the conviction and leading of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and make sound decisions based on the will of God, and not our own. We are to be holy as Christ is holy. We are to think thoughts that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and full of good report. We are to walk worthy of the Lord.

God gave the Church one command for this age: we are to be witnesses for Him in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in Samaria, and in the farthest regions of the earth (Acts 1:8). This age has lasted now nearly 2,000 years, and nobody knows when it will end, but we do believe we are in the last days before the Rapture.

When we are called out in the Rapture, an antichrist will ascend to world power for a seven-year period. God’s wrath of judgment will be poured out on the world at that time, but even though the Holy Spirit will not be present, God’s grace will be. Many will be saved as they oppose the antichrist and trust the Lord. This Age of Grace will end with the Second Coming of Christ.

7. The Age of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ (Revelation 19-20).

The return of Christ will fulfill the last of the messianic prophecies concerning Him and His reign on the earth. The Jewish nation will be redeemed and Christ will sit on the Throne of David in Jerusalem. The subjects of this kingdom will be those Jews plus all Gentiles who refused the Mark of the Beast and accepted Christ, and survived the Tribulation period. No unsaved person will be allowed to enter this kingdom. Satan will be bound for a thousand years in a bottomless pit (Revelation 20:2-3)

The reign of Christ will be one of complete peace and prosperity. The world will blossom once again like the Garden of Eden. The animal kingdom will again be subdued and at peace with mankind. The wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat, the lion and the calf will dwell together (Isaiah 11). The lame will leap as a deer, the dumb will sing, the blind will see and the deaf will hear (Isaiah 35). It will be a perfect world.

Then at the end of the millennium, Satan will be let loose for a brief time to gather a final army of malcontents and will be defeated. As the Millennial Kingdom ends, an eternal Kingdom begins (Revelation 21-22).

Conclusion: These are the seven dispensations that we believe most adequately explain the way God has worked among men since the creation. They give us a spiritual perspective on history that is consistent with a literal interpretation of Scripture. And because Scripture has been fulfilled literally in the past, we have sure confidence that all prophetic utterances concerning the future will also be fulfilled literally. This is our great hope. The Lord will one day come for us. He has given us many clues to suggest we are in the last days before the Rapture takes place.

This is not the time to sit down and become complacent or despair at the world’s condition. It is the time to get busy telling people about Christ, about our hope for the future, and how they can have it too.