DISPENSATIONALISM

I have only recently discovered that many, if not all Calvinists, do not believe in a dispensational approach to "rightly dividing" God's Word.  I do not understand this, unless, it is necessary to reject Dispensationalism in order to believe in Calvin's T.U.L.I.P.  Perhaps that is the reason I do not agree with Calvin; I am a strong proponent of Dispensationalism.  I see a clearly defined pattern in God's dealings with man throughtout the centuries.  I observe that by time's end, there will have been seven separate, distinct periods containing God's instructions, man's responses, and God's judgments.  I also see that God changes often included changes in man's diet.  Here are the seven as I see them.

1)  INNOCENCE - God said "Don't eat!"  Man ate (THE FALL).  God removed access to the Tree of Life, and Adam had to start farming to eat (Gen. 3:17-18).

2)  CONSCIENCE - God said "Do the right thing."  Man refused and became so wicked, God destroyed every living thing but those on the Ark (THE FLOOD).  Noah's generation was the first to eat meat (Gen. 9:1-4).

3)  HUMAN GOVERNMENTS - God repeated His command to spread out and repopulate the earth.  Man congregated aroung the tower, so God "rewired their brains" and they could not understand each other (THE SCATTERING).  There was no change in man's diet.

4)  THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT - God told Abraham to live in the Promised Land.  Abraham's descendants moved to Egypt, where eventually, the became slaves (THE BONDAGE).  Again, there was no change in man's diet.

5)  THE MOSAIC COVENANT - God gave Moses the Law which contained restrictions on the diet of the Jews.  They broke God's Law, and He punished them (THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES).  The Times of the Gentiles will end with the seven year Tribulation, also known as the "Time of Jacob's Trouble" and "Daniel's Seventieth Week" (Jer. 30:7; Dan. 9:24-27).  Jews are still under the "kosher rules."

6)  THE CHURCH AGE - God instructed Christians to spread the Gospel to the whole world.  Two thousand years later, we have not only failed in that task, many professing believers have drifted from the faith.  Because this age is the "Age of Grace," God's judgment (for rewards and not punishment - 1 Cor. 3:10-15) will occur at the Judgment Seat of Christ (THE RAPTURE - 1 Thes. 4:13-18).  Born again believers can eat anything they desire (Acts 10:9-28).

7)  THE MILLENNIUM - Christ will rule for one thousand years (Rev. 20:1-7), and He will rule with a "rod of iron" (Rev. 19:15).  This dispensation ends with world-wide rebellion against Christ, and God destroys the armies of the earth, which is followed by the (GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT -  Rev. 20:11-15).

Calvinist or not, dispensationalism is undeniably the best way to understand God's Word!