WHAT ARE DISPENSATIONS?
I believe that when the Apostle Paul told Timothy to "rightly divide the Word of Truth" (2 Tim. 2:15), he was basically telling him that the Word of God consisted of divisions, and therefore, it needed to be interpreted by the context of a passage. For instance, God commanded different things from different individuals: what He demanded of Adam was different than what He demanded of Abraham, the father of the Jews; of Moses, the Law-giver; and of us as members of the Church.
As Christians, we understand that we are not under the Mosaic Law; we understand there is clearly a difference between Israel and the Church. We also know that God's instructions to Noah; to Jonah; to Abraham; to Moses; to Samson; to David; were unique to each. Perhaps the most difficult division to understand is that of Dispensations, God's requirements for good stewards in specific divisions of time. I will try to illustrate Dispensations by the following examples:
THE DIETARY LAWS FOR VARIOUS DISPENSATIONS
I. THE DISPENSATION OF INNOCENCE: BEFORE THE FALL
Genesis 2:16-17 - "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die."
II. THE DISPENSATION OF CONSCIENCE: AFTER THE FALL
Genesis 3:23-24 - "Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from where he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
Genesis 6:21-22 - "And take unto thee of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it; and it shall be for food for you, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he."
III. THE DISPENSATION OF THE PATRIARCHS: AFTER THE FLOOD
Genesis 9:2-3 - "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moves upon the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things."
V. THE DISPENSATION OF THE LAW: AFTER THE EXODUS
Leviticus 11:1-3, 45-47 - "And the LORD spoke unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which you shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth....For I am the LORD that brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps upon the earth: to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten."
VI. THE DISPENSATION OF THE CHURCH: AFTER CHRIST'S ASCENSION
Acts 10:9-15, 28 - "...Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: and he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spoke unto him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that do not call common.... And he said unto them, You know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean."
[Note: There is no mention of a change in dietary laws during the fourth dispensation (The Dispensation of Promise). Also, the Tribulation (the last seven years of Daniel's Seventy Weeks prophecy - Dan. 9:24-27), will again follow the dietary laws of fifth dispensation. The seventh dispensation, The Dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom will see a return to the pre-flood dietary conditions. See Isa. 65:25.]
TO ALL THOSE WHO DESIRE TO UNDERSTAND GOD'S WORD,
REMEMBER TWO THINGS:
1) GOD'S WORD CANNOT CONTRADICT ITSELF AND
2) NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU!
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