DISPENSATIONS – GETTING STARTED

You will need  readiness of mind to “line up your theology with the words of God”.  Where your theology departs from the words of God you will be responsible to depart from your present theology.   This study will depart from men and their traditions, anywhere men depart from the words of God.  Be of good courage, remember, a man or woman cannot be fully accepted of God till he or she is totally rejected of men.

Part One

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works, and  that being said we can be confident we have information needed to pursue what God said, when he said it,  and to whom he said it.

Applying God’s words to the wrong people at the wrong time has resulted in much division within the Body of Christ and has spawned many modern cults such as Mormons, JW’s, Seventh Day Adventists, Oneness Pentecostals, TBN, INSP, GodTV, Churches of Christ, and the Charismatics just to mention a few.  Most noticeably, many have taken God’s words  in the Gospel of Matthew, The Acts of the Apostles, and the Book of Hebrews out of context and made them a pretext to support their false teachings and doctrines of devils.  Some seeking to change times and seasons have gone so far as to apply Old Testament dietary laws and Sabbath keeping to Christianity ( a.k.a. Seventh Day Adventists) while others pervert the New Testament and claim apostolic authority.

So far we have only touched on how the lack of Biblical information concerning DISPENSATIONS that has caused many to follow false teachers and their many isms and schisms.  This post will be continued with parts two, three, four, and five as well as a recap on DISPENSATIONS.

Part Two

Two dispensations or divisions most obvious to even the casual Bible reader are the Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament in addition to being the Book of the Law, is a prophetic book, it  is also a  record of how God dealt with man before the coming of Jesus Christ and a record of how he will deal with man in the future.  The New Testament is the record of how God deals with men  now and in the times to come, as well as how he dealt with man in the transition from the Old to the New Testament times.  Both the Old and New Testaments contain dispensations within themselves.  When these dispensations are misunderstood, misplaced, or misused the result is division, heresy, and false doctrine within and without the Body of Christ.  In Part Three we will list and discuss dispensations found in the Old Testament and the plan of salvation found there.  In Part Four we examine the Church Age dispensation found in the New Testament and the plan of salvation found there, with a brief discussion of what will follow the Church Age.  Fifth we will look through a glass darkly at the time (dispensation) between the Old and New Testament plans of salvation which seems to be a favorite  stopping place for those preaching and teaching various Pentecostal and Charismatic and Roman Catholic heresies.  Then we will do a recap of all that we have learned.

 Part Three

As we said before the Old Testament is a large notable dispensation that can be divided into smaller segments each being dispensations of their own.  We must note here that time as a whole is just a small spot in the scheme of eternal things.  Before the dispensations of the Old Testament, there was only eternity before God made the first man, Adam.  Read and consider the following Old Testament Dispensations.

INNOCENCE – Gen. 1 – Gen. 3

CONSCIENCE – Gen. 4 – Gen. 7

HUMAN GOVERNMENT – Gen.8 – Gen. 12 and Gen. 13 – Exo. 19

OLD TESTAMENT LAW –  Exo. 20 – Matt. 26

The reader is encouraged to read the previous groupings  of scripture and see for themselves how each is a time period in which God deals with mankind under specific conditions and in  specific ways.  NOTICE that the Old Testament Law and man’s relationship to God under the Law remains the same all the way through Matthew chapter 26!  We will examine chapters 24, 25, and 26 of Matthew more when we study the period of time know as the Transition at the end of our study.  Keep this in mind, many cults, Charismatics, Pentecostals, and Kingdom Builders glean much error form the last few chapters of Matthew as well as the other Gospels and the Book of Acts.  Stick with me as I lay out the basic dispensations of the New Testament in Part Four which will be the foundation for our exciting and informative study of the transition between the Old and New Testaments.

Part Four

The New Testament like the Old Testament is a dispensation itself and CANNOT  be understood and rightly divided unless we understand the way God deals differently at different times (dispensation) with men in this Testament.  If we confuse what God wrote to the man in the Tribulation with what He wrote to the man in the Church Age, the result is  heresies.  Likewise if we confuse what God says to men in the Millennial Kingdom with what He says to us in the Church Age, the result is false doctrines.

CHURCH AGE – Matt. 27 -Rev.4

TRIBULATION – Rev. 5 – Rev. 19

MILLENNIAL KINGDOM – Rev.20

ETERNITY – Rev. 21 – 22

THE TRANSITION – Matthew – Mark – Luke – John – Acts

You probably noticed that the Transition which happened before and during the first part of the Church Age was last in the above list.  This was done purposely while the foundation was laid for this important dispensation study.  As we continue to look at the Scriptures in Part Five and the overview we will learn how certain Scriptures in the last chapters of Matthew, and passages in Hebrews and Revelation do not seem to line up with salvation by grace through faith.  They do not line up, because they are for another dispensation, not the Church Age.  Thanks for sticking with me, now the foundation for our study is laid.  Your time has been well spent as you are now prepared to learn about the TRANSITION!

Check out what Dwane Karr had to say about the previous Bible study on Dispensations before he wraps up our study with the period between the Old and New Testaments presented as the Intermediate Dispensation.

Good stuff on a critically important subject. Many believe the whole Bible was written doctrinally to them and for them and nothing could be further from the truth.  Nearly every false teaching results from applying verses to a time (dispensation) that they do not fit into. Many ignorantly accuse the AV 1611 of contradicting because of a lack of understanding dispensational truth. If verses are not placed into the right time period, (Tribulation, Millennium etc) the Bible will most certainly appear to contradict. When one studies and sees how God deals with men differently during different dispensations the King James Bible is revealed to be a masterpiece of Majestic Harmony that could only have been Authored by The Creator of All Things!  Amen.  – Bro. Dwane Karr

 Part Five

Transition Dispensation by Dwane Karr

This must be prefaced with the statement that salvation under The Law is by FAITH and WORKS.  We must start here because most of what’s contained in the Four Gospels; Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John: are continuations of  the Old Testament.  The New Testament is not in effect until Jesus Christ says, “It is finished” and gives up the ghost in John 19:30.  This fact is made clear by the following, “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testor.  For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” Heb. 9:16-17   So the New Testament does not begin until Jesus Christ has made the Blood Atonement for sin.  No one was Born Again in the Old Testament because the blood of God had not  yet been shed!  Furthermore there was no spiritual “Body of Christ to be baptized into for it could not  have existed prior to the death of Jesus Christ.

So until Mathew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19 men were “technically” under the Old Testament Law.  I say “technically” because the Scripture tell us, “The law and the prophets were until John.” in Luke 16:16  The Law was still fully in effect until the death of John the Baptist recorded in Mathew 14, Mark 6, and Luke 9.  Thus the “Intermediate Dispensation” was from the death of John the Baptist up until Acts chapter two when the Holy Ghost fell on the believers and permanently indwelt them from that time on.  Certainly no one was born again between the death of John the Baptist and Acts chapter two.  It would appear that men still had to fulfill the Law and believe on Jesus Christ as the Son of God to  be in good standing with God during that time.

Now to give you and idea of why I say this Intermediate Dispensation is the most difficult to define “doctrinally”, let me give you a few examples.  You have a local church, but it is not part of the Body of Christ as it is in the Church Age.  Eph. 1: 22-23  You have an organism, the vine in John 15  that is NOT Christ’s body.   Also you have Eternal Security promised in (John 10: 27-30), but it does not match the Pauline epistles.  For example in (John 10:29) Jesus says, “no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand.”  In the Church Age (1Cor. 12: 12-27, Gal. 2: 26-29, Eph. 5:30) we are part of the hand.  Or take for instance Simon Peter in (Luke 22:32) where Jesus says, “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren”.  When was he converted?!  Wouldn’t you  have thought he was already converted in (Matt. 16:16) when he said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” in answer to Jesus’ question?

The majority of  time recorded in the Gospels the Jews were still under the Law.  See Luke 6:27-35, as an example.  Look at the list of “works” they were told to do and “if” they did them, (vs.35) “and ye shall be children  of the Highest”.  No “salvation by “grace” through “faith” here!!  On the flip side if you did all Jesus told them to do in verses 27-35 without  being “born again” to-day you would bust Hell wide open!  For detail on this see Eph. 2: 8-9 and Titus 3:11.  NO WORKS INVOLVED.  Note also how John tells us (John 7:39) that no one was permanently indwelt with the Holy Spirit as we are in the Church Age, “But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him SHOULD RECEIVE: for the Holy Ghost was NOT YET GIVEN; because that Jesus was NOT YET GLORIFIED.”  Now look at the woman whom Jesus forgave in John 8: 1-11.  His last words to her after He forgave heer sins, “Go and sin no more”.  WHY?  Though her past sins were forgiven, she was still under “faith and works = the Law”, so she had to straighten up and toe the line, living right and keeping the law to stay in a state of Grace before God.  She had no new birth, no permanent indwelling Spirit, no imputed righteousness like we have in the Church Age.

Now in closing, let us look at “The rich young ruler” in Luke 18: 18-23.  Now read carefully those verses and realize Jesus is telling him what he must do to be obedient (OK with God) “right then”.  Notice we are dealing with “progressive revelation” in the Intermediate Dispensation, (Just like in the book of Acts).  Bottom line for the young ruler (or anyone anytime), obey the light given in the Dispensation  you are in and you are OK!   If the rich young ruler does what Jesus says and follows him, he is good to go, “right then”.  Then he will 1) Keep obeying God and go through the Crucifixion, Ascension, Acts 2, Acts 10, etc. and become a saved New Testament Church Age “born again” believer.  If the ruler dies  before the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ he will be an obedient Old Testament saint who dies in a state of forgiveness and goes to Abraham’s Bosom (Until  the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ which will allow him to be  caught up to the 3rd Heaven.)

SUMMARY

Look up all the scripture references to what Dwane and  I have just said an it will become clear how putting God’s words in context keeps us from making them a pretext.  The Bible study principle of putting Scripture into the right context and making your doctrine match what the AV1611 Bible says will clear up scores of Roman  Catholic, Pentecostal, Protestant, Baptist, and Charismatic false teaching and doctrines of devils, plus minor and major heresies in these last days.