| DISPENSATIONS | PERIOD | MAN’S RESPONSIBILITY | MAN’S FAILURE | CONSEQUENCES | DIVINE MERCY |
| The Dispensation of Judgement / Tribulations | From therapture of the Church to Millennium. Rev 6:19; Dan 12:1; Jer 30:7 | Rev 14:6; To recognize God and worship Him.
|
Men are evil and will not repent Rev 9:20-21; 18:21. | Utter destruction. Rev 14:20; 19: 17-21; Zech 14:4. | Shown by the saved gentiles and sealed Israelites.
|
| The Kingdom Dispensation | From the descent of Christ to the Great White Throne Judgment – 1000 years. Psa 2, 11. | Obedience and submission to the King.Ps 66:3; Rev 20:7-9. | Some men will still live in disobedience. | Destruction caused by fire descending from heaven. Rev 20:9
. |
God provides a new earth and a new heaven
|
|
The Dispensation of Faithful Angel and the Redeemed
|
No failure again, Eternal home and rest for the saved.
|
||||
-Gabriel Ajibade
| DISPENSATIONS | PERIOD | MAN’S RESPONSIBILITY | MAN’S FAILURE | CONSEQUENCES | DIVINE MERCY |
| The Dispensation of Promise | From the call of Abraham to the Exodus. Gen. 12:1 to Ex 12:37
(430 years) |
Gen. 26 :2. To live in the promised land.
|
Gen. 47:1. Jacob’s house went down into Egypt. | Exo 1:8-14. Slavery in Egypt. | Deliverance from Egypt and preservation of Israel.
|
| The Dispensation of the Law | From Sinai to Calvary. | Exo 19:5. Israel was to keep the law with all social and civil requirements. (Rom 2:12; 9:4) | II Kings 17: 7-17. Acts 2:22-23. Man failed to keep the law and crucified the only one who did.
|
II Kings 17:6. 25: 1-11. Israel was sent into Assyrian and Babylonian captivity. | Judgment on Israel was delayed for 40 years after crucifixion. Elimination of animal sacrifice after Christ’s death.
|
| The Dispensation of Grace | From the descent of the Holy Spirit to the descent of Christ. | To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:36; Acts 16:31; Eph 2:8-9. Man is saved through faith alone. | II Tim 3:1-7. Man becomes lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
|
God gives them up to their unbelief. I Tim 4: 1-3: II Tim 4: 3-4. | The death of Christ on the cross.
|
-Gabriel Ajibade
| DISPENSATIONS | PERIOD | MAN’S RESPONSIBILITY | MAN’S FAILURE | CONSEQUENCIES | DIVINE MERCY |
| The Dispensation of Innocence | From the creation to the fall of man. Gen. 1:26 to 2:23. | Gen. 2: 16- 17. Man had only one commandment to obey.
|
Gen. 3:6. Man chose to believe Satan rather than God | Gen. 3:14 — 19. | Gen. 3:15. God promised a Redeemer who would come and restore man’s dominion.
|
| The Dispensation of Innocence | From the fall of man to flood – 1656 years:
Gen 3:27 to 8:14. |
Gen. 4:7 He is to choose between doing good and doing evil | Gen. 6:5, 11- 12. Man is exceedingly wicked: “God saw that the wickedness of man was great.”
|
Gen. 7. Judgment through the flood. | Gen. 7:1. Eight people are saved out the flood to begin the new dispensation.
|
| The Dispensation of Human Government | 427years. From the flood to the confusion of tongues
Gen. 8:1-11:9, |
Gen.9: 1,6 “Whosoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made the man.
|
Gen. 11:14.
Noah’s downfall – Gen. 9:20-23 Building of Tower of Babel. An organized political and religious rebellion against God. Idolatry and apostasy.
|
Gen. 11:5-9; Confusion of tongues and the dispersion of the people. Division of the earth to continents and islands. Gen 10:25; I Cor. 1:19. | God was merciful to them in their idolatry and sought another man who would follow Him.
|
A dispensation is a period of human history defined in terms of divine revelation. It is a period of time during which man is tested with reference to a specific revelation from God. According to the Bible, history is a sequence of divine administrations. These consecutive eras reflect the unfolding of God’s plan for mankind. The doctrine of dispensations is the vehicle by which believers living at specific time can orient to God’s will, plan and purpose for their lives.
Dispensation is from the Greek work Oikonomia, which means an administration, a stewardship or guardianship. It refers to a moral or probationary period in human history, during which time God deals with man according to a particular test or responsibility, under which man is expected to remain true. Knowledge of dispensation enables the believer to understand the progressive revelation of the plan of God to mankind, the particular provisions and requirements of each dispensation and its overall objective.
PRIMARY CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH DISPENSATION
In order for each dispensation to be distinct from all other dispensations, it must have three essential characteristics.
First, it must have a particular way of God’s administration of His rule. Each dispensation is characterized by a unique ruling factor or combination of ruling factors.
Second, it must involve a particular responsibility for man. Each dispensation makes man responsible to obey God in accordance with its unique ruling factor or combination of factors.
Third, it must be characterized by divine revelation which had not been given before.
In order for man to know God’s new way of ruling and his new responsibility, he must have these things revealed to him. Each new dispensation requires new revelation from God. [Eph 3:2-10]:
SECONDARY CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH DISPENSATION
The fact that each new dispensation involves a newly revealed responsibility for man indicates that each dispensation also has some secondary characteristics.
- Each dispensation applies to test man. The nature of the test is whether or not man will perfectly obey God’s rule by fulfilling the responsibility which is characteristic of that dispensation.
- Each dispensation demonstrates the failure of man to obey the particular rule which characterizes that dispensation.
- Each dispensation involves divine judgment because of man’s failure.
- The different dispensations are not different ways of salvation but different ways of God’s administration of His rule over the world. Throughout history God has employed several dispensations but only one way of salvation. Salvation has always been by the grace of God through faith… [alone in Christ alone]
- There have been dispensations during which God exercised His divine rule over all mankind and there have been some when He did so over just a segment of mankind. For example, the Dispensation of Human Government was over all of mankind, but the Dispensation of the Mosaic Law was over only the nation of Israel.
- Each dispensation demands a new revelation showing that the previous way of relating with mankind has been discontinued and that a new responsibility has been instituted for mankind. This is school of thought of dispensational theologians who recognize successive dispensations and therefore emphasizes progressive revelation.
– gabriel ajibade