Dispensations

Dispensations

Lesson 4

December 22, 2024

We’re still laying our foundation for understanding Genesis in its historic context. We talked a lot about understanding it in terms of its relationship to the whole of the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We spent some time thinking about how there’s connections in the way Moses writes Genesis to those other books. We also need to talk a little bit here today about Genesis in terms of a broader understanding of what we call Hermeneutics, which is the study or the science of interpretation, and specifically with what is known as dispensationalism.

For some of you, that’s a clear term in your mind. For others, that term is fuzzy. There’s a few of you who probably have never heard that term before, so we need to talk about it just a little bit. Our church historically, in its understanding of how to interpret and understand scripture, has been a dispensational church. I know that because I’ve talked to former pastors and several of them, plus talked to people who knew some of the former pastors – the ones I’m not able to talk to are with the Lord now. And they would all attest to that.

Dispensationalism is a way to help us interpret and understand scripture rightly. We think it arises out of scripture. The Bible lays out 7 dispensations and in Genesis we see 4 of them on display. That’s why we’re having this discussion here, because we think the scripture does talk about them in Genesis.

Dispensationalism begins with the premise that God, over time and history, has progressively revealed himself. Now, what that means practically is that God from day one did not dump everything there is to know about Himself and everything there is to know about His intentions upon mankind. He didn’t go to Adam and say, “Here’s the Bible.” He didn’t give Adam all 66 books, nor did He do that with Seth, or Noah, or Abraham. Over time, there’s this building of information that continues to grow. God progressively reveals himself. 

That’s pretty noncontroversial among Christians. Now you can ask, why did God do it that way? And my ultimate answer to that question is these words that you need to learn very well in theology: I don’t know. 

What’s unique about the way historically we at our church understand this – and not just our church, this is a very widely held viewpoint – is how we understand the way in which God has progressively revealed himself. That’s where this idea of dispensations comes in. In that progress of revelation over time, God continues to increase the amount of revelation. God has specific administrations of time where he reveals how man is to steward responsibilities that have been given to him by God. A dispensation, properly speaking, is a stewardship arrangement between God and man based upon progressive revelation. As God reveals more information to man, man’s responsibilities change. So as we look back throughout the Bible and throughout human history and the way God has revealed himself, we recognize that as God reveals more of himself to his people, his expectations of mankind change over time.

The word dispensation is a biblical word – it means economy and it refers to the management of something. Paul actually mentions dispensation specifically in Ephesians 1:10 – he speaks of the dispensation of the fullness of times which may refer to the millennial kingdom. In Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 2, he mentions the dispensation of the grace of God, which likely refers to the church age we’re in now.

In Colossians 1:25-26, Paul implies a preceding dispensation when he talks about the mystery of Christ in the believer, which was not previously known but is now known. The word dispensation is used about 20 times in the New Testament. It’s not always used in this scriptural interpretive sense – it’s sometimes just used generally to refer to a stewardship, management, or administration. But that helps us understand the nature of what we mean by a dispensation. Theologically the word refers to God’s administration for a period of time. .

Let me give you some things that are true about dispensationalism and dispensations. First, a dispensation implies a stewardship responsibility – that is to say that God entrusts mankind with certain things and says “you are to manage this.” Another thing we can say that’s true of a dispensation as we look at the way God progressively reveals himself is that it may have an ending point. We understand this in a really human sense – you have children growing up. Are the responsibilities of 3 to 5-year-olds the same as 6 to 18-year-olds? In fact, we could break that down more. There are specific times when they are given more responsibilities and expectations.

Future dispensations may also be unrevealed to those in previous dispensations. In other words, God doesn’t always tell us everything there is to know about the future. For instance, there is a future eternal state. God has revealed some things to us about that, but I make no claim that he has given us everything about that. In fact, Paul tells us explicitly about that in Ephesians 2:7. “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” So after Adam and Eve sinned, God gave them a little bit of revelation about the future. Some of it had great implications for the future, such as “out of the woman is going to come one who will crush the head of Satan.”

Dispensationalism also recognizes that some principles from one dispensation continue to succeeding dispensations. Going back to the analogy of children – it’s not that now that you’re 13, you no longer have to wash the dishes anymore. That’s still going to continue. The same is true in the way God reveals things – some things stop, and some things continue.

Dispensationalism generally is a philosophy of history. It seeks to offer a systematic interpretation of history covering the whole scope of human history as God has designed it from beginning to end. The ultimate goal and purpose of history is the glory of God and the establishment of His eternal kingdom through His Son. The sovereign rule of God is the unifying principle of dispensationalism.

Now, here’s some things that are not true about dispensationalism. A dispensation is not primarily just a period of time – the emphasis is not upon the period of time but upon what God has revealed and what he expects of humanity. Second, and this is important – dispensationalism does not teach two or more ways of salvation. If you start searching the internet for dispensationalism, you’re going to find people say they’re heretics, they believe in multiple ways of salvation. That’s a long story, but there was one very famous writer – many of you even have his study Bible, the Scofield Reference Bible – there is one note where he makes a statement that could be interpreted to imply there’s more than one way of salvation. That was later changed and Scofield rescinded that completely.

What are some primary distinctions of dispensationalism? First, dispensationalists insist that Israel is distinct from the church – Israel is not the same thing as the church. If you hear me preach and teach around here, you’re going to hear that a lot. God has still plans for Israel, just as he has plans for the church.

A second primary distinction is that dispensationalists consistently employ a literal interpretation of the Bible. If the plain sense makes sense, we don’t seek another sense. If it’s clearly said in the scripture and it makes sense, we’re not going to try to seek some other fanciful way to interpret. We interpret things through what we call the literal, historical, and grammatical interpretive methods.

Finally, this is also really important – a primary distinction of dispensationalism is that the underlying purpose of God in the world is his own glory. Although Christians sometimes talk about God’s purposes merely in terms of redemption or salvation, dispensationalists say that’s important, but the ultimate plan of God is to receive glory for himself. He has designed all things to bring glory to himself. Salvation is one aspect of that, but there are other things that include God bringing glory to himself, such as judgment and a display of his righteousness.

Let me just kind of talk about some of these dispensations in Genesis here for a moment. The first dispensation we see is Innocence – from creation to the fall. This refers to the period of time in which God has created mankind and until they sin. Let’s think about what God revealed to mankind before they sinned – they would have dominion, there was clear right and wrong, they were to be fruitful and multiply, they were to subdue the Earth and take it under control. They were to trust the creator – “I’m gonna tell you what to do, and you need to trust me.”

That dispensation has an end, and the end was when they chose to sin. Adam chose to sin, his wife was deceived, and they plunged humanity into sin. Then we see the dispensation of Conscience, from the fall to the flood. During this period they were to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit in the conscience, offer sacrifices to God, and evidence faith in God who reveals truth. Mankind did not steward this responsibility well. The Bible says the world was full of violence and wickedness. 

Then we have the dispensation of Civil Government, from the flood to the call of Abraham. During this dispensation, mankind is to continue to represent God and fill and subdue the Earth. They’re to protect the sacredness of human life – remember that after Noah got off the ark, God gave specific things they were to do, including the idea that if man sheds another man’s blood, his blood will be required, which implies some sort of government structure. We know that mankind did not fulfill his responsibilities at this time either. The Tower of Babel is important here, because God told them to spread out and fill the earth and they intentionally built a tower that they thought would make them like God and that would ascend into the heavens.

Finally, we have the dispensation of Promise, from the call of Abraham to the giving of the law. During this period, humanity was to believe in the promises of God’s covenant with Abraham.  . The descendants of Abraham had specific responsibilities, and if they were not descendants of Abraham, they were to seek blessing through him.

If we were to continue on, we would have another dispensation later in the Pentateuch, and that is Law and that extends all the way to the day of Pentecost. We would also have the dispensation that we are presently in, and that is The Church which extends to the second coming of Christ, and finally we have The Kingdom of God which extends until eternity starts. This is important because as we read Genesis at times we need to think about where we are at in the process of revelation. Here’s where some people make a mistake. They read Genesis or even other parts of the Bible and they read a statement or a command and they try to make a direct application to themselves from that statement or command. It’s important to stop and ask, “Where are we at in the progress of revelation?” and “What dispensation is this in?” and “Does that still apply in our current stewardship responsibility?” “Do I have evidence from God that he requires that from us?” 

As we interpret Genesis, we need to realize that Genesis includes four of those dispensations in the progress of mankind. 

Now, historically there have been several approaches to reading Genesis in the Christian era. Some have interpreted Genesis allegorically – allegory sees the idea that there is a hidden meaning or message in the text that you need to go under the text to draw out. For example, Origen affirmed the actual existence of the ark and flood narratives, but he also saw them allegorically. He compared the ark with the church – Noah is like Christ, and just as Noah built an ark with different rooms and levels, Christ has prepared heavenly chambers for the church.

Others have interpreted Genesis by focusing on the historical level of the text. These interpreters denied hidden and allegorical meanings, though they did not deny that connections could be made from the Old Testament to the church era. They affirmed that those connections must be made first by understanding Genesis historically and grammatically. This way of interpretation is commonly called the Antiochian school, with John Chrysostom as its most well-known early proponent. Martin Luther and John Calvin revived this method in the 16th century.

Our church takes this second view. We don’t try to find some hidden meaning in the text. The problem with allegory is that it seems to be limited only by the extent of one’s imagination, not by what the text actually says. When we interpret Genesis historically, we do believe it speaks to us today as Christians. Genesis looks for the coming of the Messiah – though the term isn’t used, the concept is there in promises like the seed of the woman crushing the head of Satan, the king promised through Judah’s line, and the promise of a new and better Moses.

There are also commands and blessings that speak to us today. For instance, the covenant of the rainbow and God’s promise to not bring judgment to the whole Earth by means of flood still speaks of God’s faithfulness. The text makes that clear – “I make with you an everlasting covenant for you and all your descendants.” That includes us – we are all descendants of Noah. Of course, God did not say he would never again destroy the Earth – he said he wouldn’t destroy it by water. This isn’t to pick on environmentalists, but people who worry about the whole planet being covered in water due to global warming – I can say with confidence that’s not going to happen. What they should worry about is that God does say he’s going to bring a giant fireball that’s going to burn everything up.

The New Testament authors apply realities in Genesis to the Christian church. For instance, there is such a thing as creation order that is universal throughout human existence, which is why Paul appeals to it when thinking about leadership within the Christian church. So we read Genesis in light of the historical context of the people of Israel, we read Genesis in light of the Pentateuch, we read Genesis in light of dispensations and the progress of God’s revelation, and we read Genesis as Christians. We look back with Christian eyes post-cross and understand there are things more that were said in what God taught back there, because of what God has revealed after the fact.