Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20011014.htm

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY (ORGANIZED BIBLE KNOWLEDGE)
Part IX: Dispensationalism (Doctrine Of Varying Divine Eras For God's People)
  1. Introduction
    1. The word, "dispensationalism" raises concerns among some, for it is thought to represent a belief that excessively divides up Scripture, making some of it useful for us and other parts off limits to Christians.
    2. We study this doctrine to test its validity, and show why we adopt regular dispensationalism at Nepaug.
  2. Dispensationalism (Doctrine Of Varying Divine Eras For God's People)
    1. Scripture itself teaches the existence of dispensations (as follows)
      1. The King James Version uses "dispensation" 4 times in 1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 1:10 and 3:2 and Col. 1:25 (Strong's Conc., p. 268). These translate the Greek word, oikonomia as "dispensation," Ibid., p. 51.
      2. That word means "management of a household, arrangement," Arndt & Ging., Grk.-Engl. Lex. of the N.T., p. 562. A derivative of this word, oikonomos as used in Luke 16:1-13 and 12:42-48 et al. of a "steward" shows by oikonomia is meant a stewardship where a householder places a select servant over His other servants for which such a head servant gives an account.
      3. The way Paul uses the word oikonomia we know there are at least three dispensations in Scripture:
        1. Ephesians 1:10 mentions a post-Church dispensation of "the fullness of times."
        2. There had to be a dispensation before the Church as God had believers before then. That being so, and if Paul refers to the Church era as a dispensation in 1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 3:2 and Col. 1:25, there must be at least three distinct dispensations, cf. Charles C. Ryrie's Dispensationalism Today, p. 50.
    2. Jesus Himself clearly taught the presence of dispensations in Scripture (as follows):
      1. Jesus considered Himself sent only to Israel in Matthew 15:24.
      2. However, Matthew 28:19-20 shows Jesus sending His disciples to the world's nations.
      3. There has to be a dispensational change between these two passages for Jesus to be without error!
    3. By inductive Bible study, we identify the dispensations of Scripture as follows: (1) The Dispensation of Innocence, Genesis 1:1-3:6 (Pre-Adamic Fall); (2) The Dispensation of Conscience under Sin, Genesis 3:7-8:19 (The Fall to the Noahic Flood); (3) The Dispensation of Human Government, Genesis 8:20-11:32 (The Flood to Babel); (4) The Dispensation of Promise, Genesis 12:1-Exodus 19:2 (Abraham to the Mosaic Law); (5) The Dispensation of Law, Exodus 19:3 through the Gospels to Acts 2:1 (Law to the Cross, but transitioned for 43 days to the Day of Pentecost); (6) The Dispenstion of Grace, the Church Era, Acts 2:1 to Revelation 3:22 (Pentecost to the Rapture) (Keep in mind Acts is a transitional book from Law to Grace) and (7) The Dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom, Rev. 4:1-20:10 (The Tribulation is a preparation for the Kingdom as the Kingdom gospel is then preached, Mtt. 24:13-14 and Rev. 11:15.)
    4. Dispensationalists like us do not hold to differing ways of salvation: Old Testament as well as Tribulation saints are saved as are we through Christ's cross (Rom. 3:25-26; Rev. 7:14). Yet, due to the progress of God's revelation in time, saints in history believe differing contents of information: Abraham believed God's promise about his seed to be saved (Gen. 15:5-6), Christians trust in Christ's death and resurrection for salvation (1 Cor. 15:1-11) and Tribulation saints will believe the Gospel of the Kingdom, Rev. 14:6-7.
    5. Dispensationalists like us do not "pigeonhole" Scripture: we hold all Scripture is useful in principle, but all non-Church Scripture content must be filtered by Church era writings for specific application! For example, when we read God's call to keep the Sabbath Day in Exodus 20:9-11 as a testimony to God as being the Creator, we note we can not apply it directly as Colossians 2:14-17 teaches the Sabbath Day ordinance is not for the Christian. However, we can apply Exodus 20:9-11 by standing firmly in favor of God as being the Creator God of the universe in upholding a literal interpretation of Genesis 1-2!!
    6. Dispensationalists like us do not err as Hyperdispensationalists and some cults do: we hold only to seven dispensations in accord with the meaning of oikonomia and our need to avoid contradictions in Scripture. Dispensationalists holding to more than 7 dispensations historically err from "normal" interpretation.
Lesson: The Bible and Jesus TEACH the existence of differing dispensations in Scripture, and so should we! Yet, we hold ONLY what Scripture reveals on dispensations using "normal" interpretation!

Application: We must be dispensationalists because Scripture teaches as much, but ONLY as far as SCRIPTURE goes (no more than seven dispensations) so that we avoid error on the subject.