Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Dispensations. Part 1. Ed Collins.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Arguably, the greatest responsibility of all pastors in the church age is to communicate the dispensation of the mystery.
The mystery doctrine emphasizes what God wants you to do after salvation!
It’s impossible to fully grasp the whole of something by only understanding a single part of it.
Each stage of the obstacle course poses a new challenge, which normally requires a PLAN of attack.
If we’re blind to the truth about something as fundamental as God’s plan for the ages, then how in the world can we plan on navigating the obstacle course better know as the PPOG for our lives?
1) A dispensation is a period of human history where divine revelation and God’s grace policy is expressed
2) Dispensations are periods of time where God operates in a certain manner
3) Dispensations make up the divine outline of human history and to understand God’s plan, will and purpose for your life you must be dispensationally oriented!
1) A dispensation is a period of time in human history expressed by divine revelation in which a certain system is revealed
2) Dispensations are divine categories of human history
A dispensation is described as a period of time during which a particular revelation of God’s mind and will is operative
4) A dispensation is a stage in a progressive revelation expressly adapted to the needs of the particular period of time
There is only one way of salvation through out all of human history – personal faith in TLJC.
First of all there is the Greek word, oikonomia. While it means the management of a household, the administration of a business, it also means order, plan, or arrangement.
A second word referring to dispensations is the word aion. It is often translated ages. It refers to dispensational categories of human history such as the age of Israel, the church age, the Millennial age.
Another word which describes our subject, dispensations is the word kairos, which means an era or a chronological order of system.
LUK 21:24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
And then there is a fourth word, chronos, used for time as a secession of events. It’s where we get our English word chronology.
Theocentric (Theo = God) + (centric)
The age of the Gentile – it goes all the way from the creation of mankind on planet earth down to BC 1441 or the Exodus.
The The age of the Jew – which began in the Exodus BC 1441, to the birth of J.C. in BC 4.
A Theocracy is a government in which God rules the state through Ecclesiastical (church) authority.
Theocratic dispensations:
The Age of the Gentiles
The Age of the Jews
Christocentric
(Christo = Christ) + Centric
The Cross is the basis for ALL of our salvations, REGARDLESS of the dispensation of our time on earth!
The pre-canon period from 30 AD to 96 AD, which is the time of the temporary spiritual gifts or the era of the book of Acts.
The post-canon period, which began in 96 AD and runs all the way to the Rapture, this is the era of mystery doctrine or N.T. epistles.
Christocentric Dispensations
The Hypostatic Union
The Church Age
Eschatological Dispensations:
Tribulational Period – Rapture of the Church to the Second Coming of Christ
Millenial Reign – from 2nd advent to REV 20:7
Eschatological
(eschatos = last) +
(logy = field of study)
Eschatological Dispensations:
The Tribulation
The Millennium
Theocentric Dispensations
Age of the Gentiles
Age of the Jews
Christocentric Dispensations
Hypostatic Union
Church Age
Eschatological Dispensations
Tribulation
Millennial Reign