WHOLE BIBLE TIMELINE (CHARTED)

Part I: Explaining Dispensationalism

 

I.                 Introduction

A.    Interactions with class members have revealed the need to provide a whole Bible timeline together with the dispensations and an explanation of dispensationalism, and why we hold to dispensational beliefs.

B.     We will thus teach two lessons on the whole Bible timeline, with this first lesson being on dispensationalism itself and the second lesson being on transitions in the Bible timeline that occur besides the dispensations:

II.              Explaining Dispensationalism.

A.    The word “dispensation” occurs in the KJV in 1 Corinthians 9:17, Ephesians 1:10, 3:2 and Colossians 1:25.

B.     This word renders the Greek noun oikonomia, meaning “office of stewardship, dispensation,” an arrangement where a steward of a household or an estate oversees and dispenses his master’s goods to the people in the household (G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the N. T., 1968, p. 313; cf. Luke 12:42; 16:1-8).

C.     Ephesians 3:1-8, Colossians 1:25 and 1 Corinthians 9:17 reveal that God made Paul the steward of the “dispensation” of the grace of God, identifying it as the Church and showing how God gave Paul the calling of revealing that dispensation as the union of believing Jews and Gentiles in one body, the Church.

D.    One other “dispensation” is named in Scripture, the “dispensation of the fulness of times” (Eph. 1:10 KJV), namely, the Millennial Kingdom (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1994, ftn. to Eph. 1:10).  Christ as the Steward of the Kingdom defeats all enemies before turning the Kingdom back to God the Father (1 Corinthians 15:28).

E.     Thus, a Biblical, spiritual “dispensation” is “a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God’s purpose” in human history (Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, 1970, p. 50).

F.      Since Jesus exampled the need to interpret Scripture in a consistently literal way (Matt. 5:18; Mk. 12:18-27), the consistently literal view of Scripture leads us to identify a total of seven dispensations (Ibid., p. 57-64):

1.      As noted above, the dispensation of the Church is revealed in 1 Corinthians 9:17, Ephesians 3:2 and Colossians 1:25, and Ephesians 1:10 reveals the future dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom.

2.      Also, Colossians 2:11-17 reveals that the cross of Christ ended the rule of the Mosaic Law, so the dispensation of the Mosaic Law with Moses as its steward existed before the dispensation of the Church.

3.      In addition, the definition of oikonomia requires us to identify four more dispensations that came before the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, and we identify those dispensations as follows (Ibid., p. 57-64):

                             a.  The dispensation of Innocence involved God’s telling man not to eat of the forbidden tree lest he die, Gen. 2:16-25.  Man disobeyed, death entered the human race and God drove man from Eden, Gen. 3:1-24.

                            b.  After sin entered the human race, God had man rely on his conscience in the dispensation of Conscience to do what was right (Gen. 3:1-24; 4:1-7).  Cain failed to heed his conscience so as to repent of his evil sacrifice, so he killed his brother Abel (Gen. 4:8-16).  Men later committed many murders in violation of their consciences until God had to end the dispensation with the Genesis Flood, Genesis 4:23-8:19.

                             c.  After the Flood, God instituted the dispensation of Government where murder was to be handled with capital punishment administered by human government (Gen. 8:20-9:6).  However, human government turned away from God in world apostacy at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-32).

                            d.  To disciple this apostate, paganizing world, God graciously instituted the dispensation of Promise, calling Abraham to leave Ur and sojourn in Canaan that He might eventually bless the world through Abraham’s “seed,” which is Israel in general but is specifically Christ (Genesis 12:1-3; Galatians 3:13-19).

4.      In summary, then, the consistently literal interpretation of all of Scripture as taught by Christ’s example leads us to belief in a total of seven Biblical dispensations of Innocence, Conscience, Government, Promise, Mosaic Law, Church and the Millennial Kingdom.

G.    The end result of consistently interpreting all of Scripture in a literal way is dispensational THEOLOGY with its distinctives as follows: (1) Israel and the Church are always distinct from each other, (2) the main purpose in history is God’s glory (Ibid., p. 43-47), (3) the rapture of the Church is pretribulational, (4) the Tribulation Period is literally seven years long, (5) Christ’s Second Coming is premillennial (6) and the Kingdom of Christ is a literal thousand-year reign (C. C. Ryrie, A Survey Of Bible Doct., 1978, p. 164-171).

 

Lesson: The consistently literal interpretation of all of Scripture as exampled by our Lord Jesus Christ leads us to dispensational theology with its seven dispensations and the pretribulational, premillennial view of Bible prophecy.

 

Application: May we heed Christ’s example to interpret Scripture literally and thus hold to dispensationalism.