What is dispensationalism and is it biblical?

A dispensation is God's distinctive method of governing mankind or a group of men during a period of human history, marked by a crucial event, test, failure, and judgment. From the divine standpoint, it is a stewardship, a rule of life, or a responsibility for managing God's affairs in His house. From the historical standpoint, it is a stage in the progress of revelation.[19]

To summarize: Dispensationalism views the world as a household run by God. In His householdworld God is dispensing or administering its affairs according to His own will and in various stages of revelation in the passage of time. These various stages mark off the distinguishably different economies in the outworking of His total purpose, and these different economies constitute the dispensations. The understanding of God's differing economies is essential to a proper interpretation of His revelation within those various economies.

The Scriptures divide time (by which is meant the entire period from the creation of Adam to the "new heaven and a new earth" of Rev. 21: 1) into seven unequal periods, usually called dispensations (Eph. 3:2), although these periods are also called ages (Eph. 2:7) and days, as in "day of the Lord." These periods are marked off in Scripture by some change in God's method of dealing with mankind, or a portion of mankind, in respect of the two questions: of sin, and of man's responsibility. 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. Five of these dispensations, or periods of time, have been fulfilled; we are living in the sixth, probably toward its close, and have before us the seventh, and last: the millennium.

A dispensation is a period of time of no set length in which God acts with mankind in a unique way. For instance, we are now in the Church-dispensation. The Church didn't exist (except in God's mind) until the day of Pentecost after the cross: it won't exist on earth after the Rapture. Today in the politics of the United States, we speak of the "administration" of the current president. That "administration" operates somewhat differently than the one of the past president, and the next president's administration will be different in other ways, yet all is within the guidelines of the constitution. We could rightly substitute the word dispensation for administration. Get the idea?

The dispensationalist finds his answer to the need for distinctions in his dispensational scheme. The dispensations supply the need for distinctions in the orderly progress of revelation throughout Scripture. His dispensations are not stages in the revelation of the covenant of grace but are God's distinctive and different administrations in directing the affairs of the world. It makes little difference at this point in the discussion whether there are seven dispensations or not; the point is that dispensations answer the need for distinctions.

The essential point regarding dispensational truth is not whether every believer agrees that there are exactly seven dispensations as set out above. As already noted, some adopt a slightly different division. Conversely, it is possible to accept the seven-fold division set out above without fully grasping dispensational truth (e.g. without understanding the Christian position — that we are not under law, that we expect the rapture before the tribulation, etc.). The key point is the fact that there are dispensational changes in God’s dealings with man, that there is perfect and admirable wisdom behind these ways of God, and that He glorifies Himself through them, despite man’s failure in each dispensation. That there might be divergences regarding the exact definition of dispensations or epochs does not undermine this or detract from the importance of dispensational teaching.

A revelation from God: At the beginning of a dispensation God gives a new revelation. This does not mean that He has changed, but that He either reveals an additional aspect of Himself or establishes one or more new ground rules according to which the people with whom He is particularly concerned at that time are to act and relate to Him. Responsibility or administration of man arising from this: From the new revelation given by God arises a responsibility which mankind, or the people to whom God has given the revelation, is to fulfil. Early failure: In general, man fails very early, in fact at the beginning of the newly-introduced dispensation. Conclusion in judgment: Man’s failure leads to God eventually having to exercise judgment.

Even though dispensationalists may not have clearly communicated the teachings of their system along these lines, it must be remembered that the system is not at fault. Dispensationalism alone has a broad enough unifying principle to do justice to the unity of the progress of revelation on the one hand and the distinctiveness of the various stages in that progress on the other. Covenant theology can only emphasize the unity and, in so doing, overemphasizes it until it becomes the sole governing category of interpretation. Any seeming disunity in the dispensational scheme is superficial, and in reality one feels that the much publicized supposed conflicts of dispensationalism exist in the minds of the covenant theologians and are aggravated by their own unwarranted and forced unified approach to the Scriptures. Variety can be an essential part of unity . That is true of God's creation; it is also true of God's revelation; and only dispensationalism can adequately account for the variety of distinguishable economies or dispensations in (not apart from) the outworking of God's purpose.

To summarize: Progressive revelation views the Bible not as a textbook on theology but as the continually unfolding revelation of God given by various means throughout the successive ages. In this unfolding there are distinguishable stages of revelation when God introduces new things for which man becomes responsible. These stages are the economies, stewardships, or dispensations in the unfolding of His purpose. Dispensationalism, therefore, recognizes both the unity of His purpose and the diversity in the unfolding of it. Covenant theology emphasizes the unity to the point of forcing unwarranted, inconsistent, and contradictory interpretations of the Scriptures. Only dispensationalism can maintain unity and diversity at the same time and offer a consistent system of interpretation

It is of the utmost importance that we should distinguish between the different ways in which God has dealt with men at different times. Certain things were true under the reign of Law which are not true under the reign of Grace, and vice versa. Principles that obtained under the Mosaic economy have in this Christian era been superseded by others.

PAUL'S exhortation to the younger preacher, Timothy, has come home to many with great power in recent years. As a result, there has been a return to more ancient methods of Bible study, which had been largely neglected during the centuries of the Church's drift from apostolic testimony. Augustine's words have had a re-affirmation: "Distinguish the ages, and the Scriptures are plain." And so there has been great emphasis put in many quarters, and rightly so, upon the study of what is commonly known as "dispensational" truth. This line of teaching, if kept within Scriptural bounds, cannot but prove a great blessing to the humble student of the Word of God who desires to know His will or plan in His dealings with men from creation to the coming glory. A careful examination of the volume of Revelation shows that God's ways with men have differed in various ages. This must be taken into account if one would properly apprehend His truth.