The Bible refers to dispensations in Eph. 1:10. “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” This is the Greek word oikonomia (oy-kon-om-ee’-ah), which Strong defines as “administration (of a household or estate); specially, a (religious) ‘economy.’’’ This Greek word is also translated “stewardship” (Lk. 16:2-4). Thus, it is a period of time during which God is doing some particular work.

Another Bible word for this is ‘TIME.” We see the word in Eph. 1:10 -- “the fulness of times...” Though the word times means different things in the Bible, one of its meanings refers to a period of time during which God is working out His purposes. In Acts 1:7 we find the phrase “the times,” referring to God’s plan. These are also called “the seasons.” It refers to the time on God’s great calendar. The Bible speaks of the “times of the Gentiles” (Lk. 21:24), the “times of the restitution of all things” (Ac. 3:21), and “this present time” (Rom. 11:5).

Another Bible word for this is “AGE.” The Bible refers to “ages past” (Eph. 3:5), “ages to come” (Eph. 2:7), and “all ages” (Eph. 3:21).

Another Bible word for this is “DAY.” This term is used in many different ways in the Bible, but again, one of the ways it is used is to refer to a period during which God performs a certain work. Examples are “the day of salvation” (Is. 49:8; 2 Co. 6:2); “the day of the Lord” (Is. 2:12); “the last day” (Jn. 6:54); and “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Co. 1:8; Ph. 1:10; 2:16; 2 Th. 2:2).

Thus, the Bible teaches that there are great periods of time during which God works out His eternal plan. These periods are called “dispensations,” “ages,” “times,” and “days.” Some make a clear distinction between these terms, but it appears to me that they all describe the same general thing and are used in much the same way in the Scriptures.

WHAT ARE THE DISPENSATIONS?

The Bible does not specifically tell us how many ages there have been since God made man or how many there will be in the future. C.I. Scofield, author of the famous Scofield Bible, and many other well-known dispensational teachers, have taught that there are seven dispensations. Scofield said, “Each of the dispensations may be regarded as a new test of the natural man, and each ends in judgment, marking his utter failure in every dispensation.”

That is one way that the ages of God can be explained and divided; but there are other ways to look at them, and the number seven is not necessary. The exact number of dispensations or ages is not what is important. You could say there are five dispensations, or eight, or ten, depending on how you define an age. The important point is that there HAVE been various periods during which God has worked out His purposes, and during these periods God has related to men in different ways and has required different things of them. To understand and interpret the Bible properly, one must understand this.

THE DISPENSATIONS OF GOD’S WORD

Personally, I believe it is profitable to divide the ages into nine categories as follows:

1. Man Innocent: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-3). This age extended from the creation of Adam to the expulsion from Eden. Adam and Eve were created sinless and innocent and they were given only one commandment, not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they sinned, that age of innocence ended. We do not know how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden before they sinned, but we do know that they had no children until after the Fall.

2. Man Under Conscience: From Adam’s fall to the Flood (Genesis 4-8). During this period, God left man to his own devices. There was no law, but there were prophets sent by God, such as Abel, Enoch, and Noah. The result was that man corrupted the earth and had to be destroyed in the flood, with only Noah and his family being saved to continue the human race. This period lasted roughly 1,600 years.

3. Man Under Human Government: From after the Flood to the Tower of Babel (Genesis 9-11). After the flood, God gave Noah and his children new commandments. He told them to replenish the earth (Gen. 9:1). He gave them the flesh of animals for food (Gen. 9:3-4). He commanded them to put murderers to death (Gen. 9:5-6). He established his covenant that He would never again destroy the world with water (Gen. 9:8-17). Instead of going to the ends of the earth, though, and replenishing it, the grandsons of Noah united together and attempted to exalt themselves against God at the Tower of Babel. This period lasted roughly 400 years.

4. Man Under Promise: From Abraham to the Giving of the Law (Genesis 12-50). During this period, God was building the nation of Israel in preparation for the giving of the law. He raised up Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then the 12 sons of Jacob, and he carried them down into Egypt. This period lasted roughly 430 years.

5. Man Under Law: From Moses to the Coming of Christ (Exodus to the end of the Old Testament). During this period, God put Israel under the Mosaic law to prepare for the coming of Christ. The law does this in two ways: (1) It shows man his sinful condition and his need of salvation. (2) It foreshadows Christ by many types. It is important to understand that men were never saved by keeping the law. Salvation has always been by grace through faith in God’s Word (Romans 4:1-8). The law was given to reveal sin not to save men from sin. This period lasted roughly 1,500 years.

6. Man Under Grace: From Christ to the end of the Church Age (Acts to Jude). The church age actually began during the earthly ministry of Christ; at least the foundation was being laid during those years; but for the purposes of this study, we can simplify things and begin it with the book of Acts. During this period, God is calling out a special body of people from among all nations of the earth. So far this period has lasted almost 2,000 years.

7. Man Under God’s Judgment: The Great Tribulation (Revelation 3-18). During this period, God will prepare Israel and the world for the return of Christ. (1) Through judgments upon sinful men. (2) Through judgments upon Israel which will cause her finally to awaken from her spiritual blindness and to turn to Christ. This period will last seven years.

8. Man Under the Personal Reign of Christ: The Millennium (Revelation 19-20). The second coming and millennial reign of Christ (Rev. 19-20). During this period, God will establish a kingdom on earth and the nations will be ruled with a rod of iron. This period will last 1,000 years.

9. Man in the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21-22). From this point on, God will continue to work out His plans from age to age throughout eternity, but the Bible does not reveal any further details.

THE BENEFIT OF DISPENSATIONALISM

1. Dispensational theology helps us to study the Bible within its proper context.

For example, Ezekiel 18:21-24 says men are judged by whether or not they keep the law. Many have erred by thinking that this is teaching how to be saved. Those who believe you can lose your salvation use verses like these to prove their doctrine. But the Bible student must interpret every passage in its context, and the context here is the Mosaic law. Thus, we know from the New Testament that it was not written to show men how to be saved. It was written to show men their unsaved condition so that they might flee to Christ for salvation.

Another example is God’s judgment on Cain in Genesis 4:9-12. God did not put him to death for murdering his brother. Does this contradict what God later said to Noah in Genesis 9:6? No, it doesn’t because man was living during a different age then. God’s dealings with men were different and what he required of men was different.

Another example is Matthew 10:5-15. Here Christ sends out His disciples to preach, but note the following restrictions: (1) They were to preach only to Jews (v. 6). (2) They were to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand (v. 7). (3) They were to do miracles (v. 8). (4) They were not to carry any money or extra clothes (v. 9-10). (5) They were to carry no weapons (a staff). This is directly contradictory to the commands given later in the New Testament. Later Christ Himself commanded His disciples to preach to all men (Matt. 28:18-20), to preach the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection rather than the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mark 16:15), to carry both money and a sword (Lk. 22:35-36), and there is no further command in the New Testament to do miracles. What is the difference between these accounts? The difference is that they are spoken under different dispensations. In Matthew 10, Christ is sending His disciples out to proclaim to Israel that their Messiah and King was present. That is the meaning of “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It was at hand because the King was standing right there! Thus the messengers were to go only to Israel, were to do miracles to demonstrate that the Messiah had come as foretold in the prophets, were not to provide anything for themselves because it was just a short period of time under the direct authority of the Messiah. Later, after Israel had rejected Christ, He began to prepare for the church age and the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The program of God changed and so did the methods and requirements.

Another example is Revelation 13:10. This is written in the context of the reign of the Antichrist (see verses 1-8). When verse 10 says, “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword,” it is referring to the commands of the Antichrist to force all people to worship him (v. 8). It is not referring to using the sword at any time and in any age. Jesus Himself at one point instructed His disciples to get a sword (Lk. 22:36). What Revelation 13:10 is warning about is joining hands with the Antichrist in his war against all of those who refuse to bow to him.

2. Dispensationalism makes a clear distinction between Israel and the Church.

1 Corinthians 10:32 plainly states that there are three categories of men in the world today: “Give none offence, neither to the JEWS, nor to the GENTILES, nor to the CHURCH of God.” Obviously, then, Israel is not the same as the church.

This is a very, very important matter for the Bible student to understand. Some of the most common errors in theology have come about through confusing the church with Israel.

EXAMPLES

This is one of the errors of ROMAN CATHOLICISM. Rome claims to be the new Israel and has adopted many things from the Old Testament dispensation, such as priests, temples, candles, incense, sprinkling of water, and many other things. This is one reason why Rome attempted to take over the holy land during the crusades of the Middle Ages. It is also why Rome has opposed Israel’s desire to control Jerusalem.

This is also one of the errors of PROTESTANTISM. By this, I am referring especially to Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed, and Lutheran denominations. When the Protestant denominations left Rome in the 1500s and 1600s, they did not leave behind all of Rome’s errors. One of the errors they brought with them pertains to ecclesiology and the interpretation of prophecy. They teach that Israel was permanently rejected by God and replaced with the church, that the church is the continuation of Israel. They do not believe that the Old Testament promises and prophecies pertaining to Israel will be literally fulfilled. They, too, in one degree or another have adopted certain rituals from the Old Testament dispensation, such as priests, elaborate ceremonies or “liturgy,” infant baptism (which they claim is the spiritualizing of infant circumcision), candles, incense, etc.

Most of the CULTS also claim to be a continuation of Israel in one form or the other. For example, the Worldwide Church of God, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, claimed that 10 of the tribes of Israel had been lost and had re-surfaced today in England and America and had been restored in his cult. This is called British-Israelism, and other false groups teach a form of it.

It is very important to understand the error of this. God’s promises to Israel have not failed. Israel sinned and has been judged just as God forewarned back in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, but God has promised to restore Israel. Her covenants with God (other than the Mosaic covenant) are unconditional, eternal, and unchangeable.

For example, consider the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7. This is an extension of the covenant God made with Abraham. In His covenant with David, God (1) reaffirmed the unconditional Abrahamic covenant through David’s family (2 Sa. 7:10); (2) promised that the throne of David would be established forever through David’s seed (2 Sa. 7:13); (3) promised chastisement for sin, but never annulment of the promise (2 Sa. 7:14-15); (4) established David’s house and kingdom forever (2 Sa. 7:16). All of this is fulfilled through Jesus Christ, David’s Son, who has inherited the throne of David (Mt. 1:1) and who will establish the Davidic kingdom at His return from Heaven (Is. 9:6-7).

The New Testament tells us the same thing. In Romans 11:25-29, for example, we are plainly told that God has set aside Israel temporarily at this time, but that He will yet restore them and fulfill His promises to them.

This means that all of God’s promises to Israel in the Old Testament will be literally fulfilled.

1. Israel will be restored to the land (Zech. 10:6-12)

2. Israel will be brought through severe judgment and one third will call upon God’s name (Zech. 13:8-9)

3. Israel will be redeemed (Zech. 12:10 - 13:1)

4. Messiah will return and defeat Israel’s enemies and rule from Jerusalem (Zech. 14:1-21)

It is crucial, then, to interpret all of Bible prophecy literally and to understand that there is a difference between Israel and the church.

CONTRAST COVENANT OR REFORMED THEOLOGY

The opposite of Dispensational Theology is Covenant Theology. This is the standard Presbyterian theology. It is also called Reformed and Federal Theology. It can be traced back to the time of the Heidelberg Catechism of 1584 and was encapsulated within the Westminster Confession one hundred years later. As would be expected, there is considerable variety within Covenant Theology traditions, but the following are some of the standard characteristics:

1. Covenant Theology says that there were only two covenants. Traditional Covenant Theology says there was a covenant of works before the Fall and a covenant of grace since the Fall, a covenant of works with Adam and a covenant of grace with Christ. The Westminster Confession stated, “The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam; and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ.” Another variety of covenant theology, called New Covenant Theology, says that the two covenants are the old covenant of law with Israel and the new covenant of grace with the church.

2. Covenant Theology claims that the Old Testament prophecies pertaining to Israel have already been fulfilled spiritually or allegorically or symbolically in the church. Covenant theologians believe that Israel has been permanently rejected.

3. Covenant Theology says there has been only one group of redeemed people: Israel in the Old Testament times and now the church, which supposedly has replaced Israel.

4. Covenant Theology has traditionally been accompanied by the practice of infant baptism, which is seen as the entrance into God’s new covenant. They argue that since the old covenant had the rite of circumcision for babies, the new covenant must have the rite of baby baptism.

THE DANGERS OF DISPENSATIONALISM

1. Thinking that the Bible student must accept one certain form of dispensational teaching.

While it is obvious that there are different dispensations in the Bible, the Bible student is not forced to accept the traditional view of dispensationalism as taught by any certain man or group of men. In fact, no two dispensational teachers have agreed in every point. Every systematic theology and every teaching of man must be carefully tested by the Bible itself (Acts 17:11; 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Thess. 5:21).

Following are some of the varieties of dispensational theology that currently exist. (Some material in the following three points is copied, but I have lost the source and regretfully cannot give credit.)

Traditional Dispensationalism (C.I. Scofield, Clarence Larkin, Chafer). Some of the points of this theology beyond the things we have already noted are as follows: (1) Israel is on the earth, the church is in heaven and the two never meet even in eternity. (2) Some of the classical dispensationalists taught that there are two ways of salvation: works in the O.T. and faith in the N.T. Chafer taught that there are two new covenants, one with Israel and one with the church.

Modified Dispensationalism (Charles Ryrie, John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, Dallas Seminary). Israel and the church will be together after the millennium; there is only one way to salvation in both testaments (faith); there is only one new covenant that is shared by both Israel and the church.

Further Modified Dispensationalism (Robert Saucy, Craig Blaising, Darrell Bock). In recent years, some men have made even more modifications of the dispensational view. They state the following: (1) The church is not a parenthesis but the first step towards establishing the kingdom of God. (2) God does not have two purposes (i.e. Israel and the church); there is only one purpose, but both of them share in it. (3) There is no distinction between Israel and the church in the future state. (4) The church will reign (with Jews) in glorified bodies on earth during the millennium. But, they still insist that OT prophecies regarding Israel will be fulfilled in the millennium by ethnic Jews. They do not see the church as the new Israel or believe that Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in the church.

Though I have not personally studied the writings of all of these men, I have come to some of the same conclusions in my own study of the Bible. For example, I am convinced that the way of salvation was the same in principle in the Old Testament as it is today, and that was by faith through God’s grace based on the shed blood of Christ (Romans 4). Further, it appears to me that Ephesians 2:18-22 tells us that the household of God, that great temple that God is building, ultimately includes both Israel and church age saints. While it appears to me that there will be a closer association between these two groups in eternity than that which is taught in traditional dispensational theology, we are also not told exactly how they will be associated.

It appears to me that no one system of dispensational theology can satisfy everything the Bible teaches about Israel, the church, and future events. One reason is that God does not tell us everything. Not every question will be answered in this present time. Further, I do not agree with the doctrine of the church as taught by most of the aforementioned men. (I say most and not all only because I am not familiar with every one of them.) They hold to a Protestant view of a universal church that began at Pentecost, and I do not agree with that. I do not believe it is scripturally correct to refer to the church in a universal sense. There is no “church in America” or “church in Europe.” There are churches, plural, in these localities, but it is unscriptural to refer to the church, singular, in this sense.

2. Thinking that these dispensational periods are sealed off one from another.

In fact, the dealings of God with man are very similar in all ages and dispensations and many general principles overlap all dispensations.

EXAMPLES

Though one age is called the dispensation of human government, this does not mean that human government ceased after that.

Though one of the ages is called the age of law, this does not mean that there is no law now since the coming of Christ.

Though the church age is commonly called the “age of grace,” that does not mean that there was no grace before the church. The grace of God has been available to men of all ages since the Fall. Noah found grace (Gen. 6:8). Israel found grace in the wilderness (Jer. 31:2).

3. Making unnecessary and improper dispensations and making too sharp a division between them.

This is called “ultra-dispensationalism” or “hyper-dispensationalism” and is characterized by making a sharp division between the ministry of Christ and that of the Apostles, and of further dividing Paul’s teaching from that of Peter and the other apostles. Some of the well-known teachers of ultra- or hyper-dispensationalism are E.W. Bullinger, Cornelius Stam, J.C. O’Hair, Charles Welch, Otis Sellers, A.E. Knoch, and Charles Baker. There are many varieties of ultra-dispensationalism, but the following are some of the characteristics:

(1) The four Gospels are entirely Jewish and contain no direct teaching for the churches. Yet, the writer of Hebrews said that the same gospel of salvation that was preached by the apostles was preached by Christ (Heb. 2:3-4). Though we know that Christ presented Himself to the Jewish nation and we do understand that there are differences between the gospels and the epistles, yet in Hebrews 2 we do not see a sharp delineation between the gospel preached by Christ and that preached by the apostles who followed. In fact, the Gospel of John presents exactly the same gospel as that preached by Paul. Further, 1 Tim. 6:3 shows that Christ spoke directly to the church age.

(2) The book of Acts is also largely Jewish. Hyper-dispensationalists commonly believe that after Christ was rejected by Israel in the Gospels, that they were given a second chance to receive the kingdom in the first part of the book of Acts. Thus, they teach that there are two different churches viewed in the book of Acts, and the true Pauline church only started after Acts 9, 13, or 28. Thus, the church mentioned in the first part of Acts allegedly refers to a different church than that of Paul’s prison epistles. The earlier “church” in Acts is simply an aspect of the kingdom preached in the Gospels. Most of the book of Acts is therefore discounted as a guideline for the churches today. Yet, at the very end of the book of Acts we still find Paul preaching about the kingdom (Acts 28:23). In fact, he was still preaching about it in his epistles! (2 Thess. 1:5; 2 Tim. 4:1). While we can see an obvious transition in the book of Acts, this does not mean that there are different gospels and different churches in various parts of Acts.

(3) The mysteries given to Paul contained a different revelation from that given to Peter and the other Apostles, and only Paul’s writings are for the church today. The other epistles, such as Hebrew, James, 1 and 2 Peter, and the epistles of John are not for us today. Yet, Paul himself said that the church is built upon the “apostles” plural and not merely upon himself (Eph. 2:20). And Peter also referred to the writings of Paul and made no distinction between Paul’s teaching and the teaching of the other apostles (2 Pet. 3:1-2, 15-16). Peter said Paul wrote to the same people and preached the same message.

(4) The gospel preached by Peter in the early part of the book of Acts is different from the gospel preached by Paul. Yet, there is actually no difference between the gospel preached by Peter and that which Paul preached. Peter preached salvation through the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:2), salvation by God’s free mercy (1 Peter 1:3), the new birth (1 Peter 1:3), eternal security because of the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3-4). Further, Acts 15 plainly states that all of the apostles, including Peter and Paul, agreed on the gospel. And Paul states in Galatians 1, that anyone who preached a different gospel was cursed. If Peter were truly preaching a different gospel in those days, he would have fallen under this curse.

(5) Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were given to Paul before he received the church age mysteries; thus they are not for the churches today. Dispensationalists differ about this point. Some accept both baptism and the Lord’s Supper; some reject water baptism and the Lord’s Supper altogether; while others reject only baptism and keep the Lord’s Supper.

Harry A. Ironside wrote a helpful little booklet about this problem called “Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth: Ultra-Dispensationalism Examined in the Light of Holy Scripture.” He deals largely with the error of Bullingerism. This is available on the Internet at http://www.brethrenonline.org/books/ultrad.htm.

A more recent form of hyper-dispensationalism is presented in One Book Rightly Divided: The Key to Understanding the Bible by Dr. Douglas Stauffer (2000, McCowen Mills Publishers). Stauffer’s teaching is largely the same as that which has been promoted by Dr. Peter Ruckman for many years, though Stauffer gives Ruckman no credit. He does mention that he received “the principles of right division” from Dave Reese. I sat under Reese’s hyper-dispensational teaching in a course on prophecy at Tennessee Temple Bible School in the mid-1970s. It was a blessing when Reese left part way through the course, and we had the joy of finishing the rest of the course under the sound and profitable teaching of Dr. Bruce Lackey. Stauffer’s book comes with recommendations from some well-known independent Baptist preachers, including Evangelist Dennis Corle of Revival Fires, J. Wendell Runion of International Baptist Outreach Missions, and Jerry Rockwell of Sword of the Lord. In his glowing Foreword to Stauffer’s book (which he calls a “spiritual masterpiece”), William Grady says that “this book will undoubtedly create shock waves within certain ‘camps’ of fundamentalism...” I doubt that the book will create shock waves within any camps, but it probably will create shock waves in some individual lives and churches.

While there are many good things in Stauffer’s book (i.e., he has a very excellent section on repentance, defining it properly as “a change of mind and heart attitude which leads to a change of actions” and warning that “too many sinners bow their heads and say the ‘sinner’s prayer’ without any inward conviction or belief on the Lord Jesus Christ”), and while he accepts both baptism and the Lord’s Supper as church ordinances, there can be no doubt that he is teaching a form of hyper-dispensationalism. Stauffer’s hyper-dispensationalism is milder than some of the other approaches, but Dr. Stauffer’s teaching will nonetheless produce confusion and division within churches. According to Stauffer, Paul is THE spokesman for the church age (p. 17); the general epistles of Hebrews to Revelation, while containing some church age applications, are actually written for Great Tribulation saints (pp. 20, 27); salvation is obtained by works during the Tribulation (p. 23); Hebrews and James do not teach eternal security (pp. 23, 29); Peter did not preach the gospel of the grace of God (p. 26); the seven churches of Revelation 1-3 are not the body of Christ (p. 29); the epistle of first John teaches that salvation is through works (p. 56); the book of Acts was not given “to show how to establish the local church or its functions” (p. 72), Abraham had to keep his salvation through works (p. 175).

Stauffer even has a chapter warning about “hyper-dispensationalism”! In this, he conveniently redefines hyper-dispensationalism to mean something other than what he himself teaches. In fact, he sets up a strawman form of hyper-dispensationalism that doesn’t actually exist, or if it does exist, is very rare. He claims, for example, that a real hyper-dispensationalist teaches that the law is inapplicable today, but in reality, hyper-dispensationalists commonly teach that the law has applications for the church. He claims that hyper-dispensationalists exclude some portions of the Bible from study and application, but hyper-dispensationalists typically claim that all portions of the Bible have application to church age saints and are valuable for study. Stauffer defines hyper-dispensationalism as “any intentional false division of the Bible” (his emphasis) (p. 149). Such a definition would be impossible to employ for the simple fact that we cannot look into the heart of a man and see what his motives are. In fact, hyper-dispensationalism is “any false division of the Bible” period, regardless of the motive of the one doing the teaching. A hyper-dispensationalist can be sincere or insincere. That is beside the point. The whole issue is whether he creates divisions in the Scriptures that should not be created. Stauffer’s book does precisely this.

For more about the way of salvation in other dispensations, see “Salvation Is the Same in the Old Testament and the New Testament” by Bruce Lackey and “Salvation in the O.T. and the N.T. Follow-up.” These are available at the Bible version section of the End Times Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site. These articles are also available in the Fundamental Baptist CD-ROM Library.

4. Not recognizing that there are transitional periods between dispensations.

One problem that can arise when looking at the Bible dispensationally is to fail to recognize transitional periods. For example, John the Baptist is a transitional figure. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets to Israel, but he is also the forerunner of Christ, Who is the founder of the church. Actually, the four Gospels themselves are transitional books. They are for Israel and for the church, as well. In Matthew, for example, Christ is presented as the king of Israel and is rejected by the nation Israel and then He begins to focus His attention on building the church (Matt. 16:18). Yet, there is not a sharp and immediate transition; it is gradual. The book of Acts is also a transitional book, and not everything in the book of Acts is the norm for churches today. Pentecost, for example, was unique. The gift of tongues was a witness to Israel (1 Cor. 14:21-22) and is no longer relevant. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was also unique for that initiation period of the church. None of the epistles instruct believers to see a baptism of the Holy Spirit; they refer, rather, to the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the past tense (i.e., 1 Cor. 12:13).

5. Neglecting some parts of the Bible, thinking that they are not important for us today.

Some neglect the four Gospels or the book of Acts or the book of Revelation, but this is wrong. While not every part of the Bible is written TO us, every part of the Bible is written FOR us and has important lessons for Christians today. See 1 Cor. 10:6,11; Rom. 15:4.

CONCLUSION: THE LIE ABOUT DISPENSATIONALISM

Some who despise dispensationalism have claimed that it was not taught until the 1800s. Some claim it was started by John Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren movement. While it might be true that a certain form of dispensationalism, such as Darby dispensationalism or Scofield dispensationalism, might not have been taught until more recent times, it is plain that a belief in dispensations goes all of the way back to the Apostles.

1. We have seen that the New Testament teaches that there are dispensations during which God has worked out His great purposes. These are also called ages, times, and days. In this sense, dispensationalism is 2,000 years old!

2. Even the early Christians after the apostles taught a form of dispensationalism. Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-165) believed in four phases of history in God’s plan: From Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Christ, and from Christ to the eternal state. Irenaeus (A.D. 120-202) taught something similar, dividing the dispensations into (1) the creation to the flood, (2) the flood to the law, (3) the law to the gospel, (4) the gospel to the eternal state. Larry Crutchfield, in “Ages and Dispensations of the Ante-Nicene Fathers,” observes that some of the early church leaders “came very close to making nearly the same divisions modern dispensationalists do.”