By
Marc Pesaresi
Translation
By
Marc Pesaresi
Translation
By
Carolina Alfaro
(In Spanish click HERE)
The
dispensation is a Christian theological system that affirms that God has used
different ways of administration of his will and his grace in different periods
of the human being history.
The
distinctive of the dispensation is the doctrine that Israel as nation and the
church as body of Christ do not form a unique God’s people, but two nations
with prophecies, promises and different destiny until the arrival of the
millennial kingdom when everything will be one in Christ. According with this
way to think, there are seven dispensations.
Dispensation
of the innocence:
At
the Eden, Adam and Eve should obey the divine command do not eat from the
prohibited tree, with this they will be ensure to be innocent of sin. Both of
them failed.
Dispensation
of the conscience:
Since
the fall until Noah, the human being had the possibility to control their decisions
in free way according what their conscience pointed out. They failed in this,
since the design of their hearts was constantly straight to the bad, instead of
reaching for God.
Dispensation
of the human being government:
From
Noah to Abraham, since the personal conscience it was not an adequate guide to
the human being, it was entrust to the government to manage justice and moral.
Dispensation of
the promise:
To
fail the governments in his mission, God did choose to Abraham to be the Father
of the Faith and He did promise to him that all the nations of the earth will
be blessed because of him.
Dispensation of
the law:
From
Moses to Jesus, the human being can be close to God just through complying with
the Mosaic Law. This it was given to its perfect condition, it was impossible
to comply; it was revealed on that the sin and curse of itself.
Dispensation of the Grace:
Only
recognizing our inability to obtain something good (Conscience of sin) we can
recognize that Jesus is the only mediator between God and the human being.
“Because there’s no another name under heaven in whom we can be save”.
Dispensation
of the Millennial Kingdom:
At
the end of the time it will arise one period of 1000 years in which Jesus will
reign in the earth. It will be a period of glory without precedent. To finish
that time, Satan will be free with the goal to test by last time. According the
dispensation people, the God’s enemy will try to destroy the human being with
the help of the wicked that will resurrect by the Final Trial; however their
intention will be vain. After this period the time will be end and it will
emerge a new land and new heaven, since all that we know will be destroy by
fire.
The dispensation people
understand the Bible about the base of the literal Bible. It will be noted that
the word “Dispensation”, come from the latin “dispensare” (distribute), it
translate to Greek languages: “diakonia”
or service (2 Corinthians 3:7-9) and “oikonomia”, manage, commission, order (1
Corinthinas 9:17, Ephesians 1:10; 3:9; Col. 1:25). In the protestant
theological it refers to the way that God interact with the human being during
certain time established.
___________________
Brief
history about Dispensation
Antique
Dispensation do not systematized
Justino
Martir (110 – 165) maintains one concept about the different programs of God.
In the Dialogue with Trypho talks certainly, about 4 dispensations. According
Larry V. Crutchfield Justino believed in four phases of the human being in God’s
program. The first one was from Adam to Abraham, and the second one was from
Abraham to Moses, and the third one was from Moses to Christ, and the fourth
was from Christ to the eternity.
Ireneo
(130- 200) giving reasons about why there was no more than four Gospels, said: “One
of them is as follow: “and the Gospel is in four, as well is the course follow
by the Lord. For this reason four main pacts were given to the human being:
one, before the Flood, under Adam; the second, after the Flood, under Noah; the
third, from the law, under Moses; the fourth, that is the one that restore the
human being, and it covers all the things by itself by the Gospel, raising and
taking the human being in his wings to the heavenly Kingdom”.
Teruliano
(160- 220); Metodio (-311); Victorino de Petau (-304) y Clemente de Alejandría
(150-220) they also talked about dispensation and they made three different
patriarchal dispensations Agustín
(354-430 He also shows those same early concepts of the dispensation on his
writing. Even though his frequently declaration said. “Discern the time, and
the Scripture will be in harmony with itself “, it is not applicable in its
context to de dispensation ideas, in another part he makes declarations that
they are applicable.
“The divine institution of the sacrifice was
suitable to the antique dispensation, but not today because the convenient
change of the present age has been introduced by God, Who knows infinitely much
better that the human being what is appropriate for each age, and what is,
either that add or remove, cancel or prohibit, increase or decrease, the unchangeable
creator of the changeable things,
ordering all the events in His ruling until the end of the course of the
time, whose component parts are the dispensation adapted to the consecutive
age, it will be accomplished, as the big melody of any wise ineffable master
of singing, and it will pass to the
immediate eternal gaze of God, to whom we are here, although it is faith time
and not by seeing, we worship acceptability.
Agustín
maintain a model of seven ages (dispensation). The first five stages were
matched to the history of the Old Testament and they were demarcated by Adam,
Noah, Abraham, David and the exiled. The two dispensation of the New Testament,
according Agustín and almost all the people of the Dispensation, it was the age
of the church and the Millennial Kingdom, the “Saturday rest” of the saint on
earth (See Agustín, Sermon 259,2 and also “Revelation and Redemption at the
early Christianity” (Vigiliae Christianae 45 (1991)).
____________
Dispensionalism pre Darby
Pierre
Poiret (1646-1719); French Philosopher ;in his work L’OEconomie Divine that it was published by first time at Amsterdam
in 1687 and it was translated later to the English and it was knew in London in
six volumes; in 1713 ; dedicated each volume to each economy or dispensation in
particular. Let see:
Economy (dispensation) of the Childhood that last, since the
creation until the Flood.
Economy
of the Childhood, from the Flood until Moses.
Economy
of the Adolescence from Moses to Solomon
Economy
of the Youth, that last from Solomon until Advent
Economy
of the Maturity that it will last “something else from this time”.
Economy
of the Old Age that it is the time of the fall of the human being.
Economy of the Renewal of all the things: the Millennium.
Ehlert
stated the following about the work of Poiret: “There’s no doubt that here we have a real design of dispensation”. The
author use the phrase “Period of
dispensation”, and his seventh dispensation is a literal millennium of the
thousand years with Christ that he will come back and he will be ruling bodily
over the earth, with his Saint, and Israel gathered up and converted. This schatological work is earlier than
Darby.
John
Edwards (1639-1716) published in 1699 two volumes, a total of 790 pages, with
the title of A complete history or
outlook of all the dispensations. He did believe in one millennium. Its dispensation
structural was the following:
Dispensation of the Innocence and Happiness begins with Adam created in Justice.
Dispensation of the Sin and the Misery. Adam falls down in sin.
Dispensation of the Reconciliation: Adam
restored from the Redemption in Christ.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748),
meanwhile, in one essay of forty pages with the tile of “The harmony of all the religions that God prescribed to the human being
and all his dispensations with them”. He described his concept of all the
dispensations y he presented his system. The definition is the following:
“The public dispensations of God for the human being, they are those wise and saint constitutions of his will and his government, revealed and exhibited somehow in different consecutive periods or ages of the world, in which contain the responsibilities of what He expect from human being, and the blessing that he promises, or He encourage to wait in Him, here and beyond; together with the sins that He forbid and the punishment that he promised inflict to the sinners, or the dispensations of God can be described shortly, as the moral rules ordered by God and his treatment with the human being, considering the human being as responsible before Him for his behavior”.
His
sketch of dispensation is the following:
The
dispensation of the Innocence, or the religion of Adam at the beginning.
The
dispensation of Adam from the grace pact, or the religion of Adam after the
fall.
The
dispensation from Noah, or the religion of Noah.
The
dispensation of Abraham, or the religion of Abraham.
The
mosaic dispensation, or the religion of Judah
The Chistianity dispensation.
______________
Systematized Dispensation
Systematized Dispensation
John Nelson Darby
Darby
served in formal way in the Irish Church until he found the work of Irving
whose reading produced in him an important theological impact. Darby is
recognized in the theological world as the father of the Dispensation, this
teaching was popular in United Stated of America by Cyrus Scofield in his “The
Scofield Reference Bible”. Toward 1830 he found an interdenominational
Christian group that they congregated to share the bread – the equivalent to
take the host in the Catholism – as they way it is ordered by Christ. He
sympathized with the ideas and attitudes of this person and he adhered to this
meetings.
In
1833, this group has grown up so much and its member started to identify as
Christian assembly. As they traveled and they found new communities in Ireland
and England, they found the movement known as Brothers of Plymouth. Taking the
decision of being separate completely of all catholic influence and Anglican,
They formed a church with evangelical trends. ( In Argentine, the Brothers Free).
Likewise,
he was responsible for proclaiming the theory of “the mystery of the secret rapture”, according this Christ will
suddenly grab from this world his bride, the church, before it will occur
without warning the trial of the Tribulation. From here, he was considered
wrongly as the “the father of the
futurism”. (The author from this writing believes in the rapture but not in
secret way).
The
belief of the people from dispensionalism about the restoration of the Jewish
and the establishment of the Israel reign, it puts them in a prominent place of
the Christian Zionism; these groups of believers hold that “God can work in Israel once more”, they hold this belief in their
interpretation of the prophecies of the New Testament.
When
he was in the Trinity University at Dublin (1819), Darby believed in base of
interpreting the Scriptures, in one future restoration and salvation of Israel
as nation. Based on his study of Isaiah 32, Darby concluded that Israel, in a
future dispensation, it will enjoy the blessing of this world and they were
different to the divine blessing lived by the church. In this way he saw evident
distinction between Israel and the church.
Darby
also believe in one “imminent” rapture
of the church that it is followed by the seventieth week of Daniel in which
Israel will be once more the center of the stage in God’s plan. After this
period, Darby believed that there was one millennial kingdom in which God would
fulfill His unconditional promises to Israel.
According
to Paul Enns: “Darby proposed the outline
of dispensionalism noticing that each dispensation classified to the human
being under the title of any condition; the human being has certain
responsibility before God. Darby also noticed that each dispensation will end
in a failure”. According Darby,
there is seven dispensations:
Paradisiacal Condition until the flood
Noah
Abraham
Israel
Israel
Gentile
The
Spirit
The
Millennium
By
his own testimony, Darby says that his theological dispensation was formed
completely in 1833. Darby started to preach his ideas with major strong
according some writings since 1867. Later he began to travel to North America;
his trips gave as result the “Biblical
conference of Niagara falls”.
Cyrus Ingerson Scofield
(1843-1921) one of the participating at the Niagara Falls conventions, he
created a forum of the teacher of the convention of the Bible in 1909 and produced
what it is known as the Scofield Bible
Reference . This work was famous in United States of America with his
theological notes beside de scriptures. This Reference Bible became the
greatest influence on the extension of dispensationalism.
The dispensionalism criticized and defended
Mainly
on behalf of Preterism, doctrine that teach that the prophecies already were
accomplished and it will be necessary to wait the Advent, without tribulation
and without millennium. In relation to that Ryrie says: “In reply to this
accusation that the dispensionalism is recent and, so, suspicious, we had treated
to show two things:
We can wait that the
dispensionalism, a system closely related to the eschatology, it wouldn’t be
refined and systematized until current time because the eschatology was not a
subject under discussion until then”. Ryrie
with Apologetic tone presented his work titled “Dispensionalism today”, where he gives proof based on the history
that the dispensionalism is not recent as theological subject. At the same time
he replied to attacks ad hominem (to his person), intellectual, historic, and
attacks that make fun of the doctrine.
Ryrie follows his conclusion
with regard to the historic point of the dispensionalism. The conclusion taken
from the accusation of novelty by the adversaries of the dispensionalism, they
are, so, unjustified. In all this discussion it is necessary to remember that
the verdict of the history is not the final authority. Every doctrine, either
antique or recent, at the end of the analysis has to be proved to the light of
the Scripture. It is interesting to stand
out, between the big adversaries of the dispensionalism; it appears a prominent
figure among the Evangelical Christian as Charles Spurgeon.
The Variations into the Dispensionalism
The
previous people mentioned characterized the belief of those into the
dispensionalism tradition. However, as Blaising writes, “the Dispensionalism has not being a static tradition”. He offered
three ways of dispensionalism taught
The Classic Dispensionalism (ca. 1850 -1940s)
It
refers to the point of view of the British and Americans dispensionalism
between the writings of Darby and the Systematic Theological of eight volumes
of Chafer. The interpretative notes of “The Scofield bible of Reference is
frequently seen as the key of the representative classic tradition of dispensation.
One important
Characteristic of the classic dispensionalism is his dual idea of redemption.
In this tradition God is seen as looking for two different purposes. One is
related with heaven and another with the earth. “The heavenly mankind should
be made by all the redeems of all the dispensations that will be resurrected
from the death. While the earthly mankind is related with the people who had
not died but who were preserved by God from the death, the heavenly mankind was
made from all the save that had died, whose will be resurrected from death by
God”. In this tradition it was a little emphasis from the social activity
to political for the church.
Dispensionalism inspected or Modified (ca.1950 – 1985)
This
variety of dispensation abandons the eternal dual from heavenly and earthly
people. They are structured in a different way with different role and
responsibilities of dispensation, but the salvation that is received by
everyone is the same. The distinction between Israel and the church, as
anthropological different groups, will continue during the eternity. The
dispensation people inspected usually reject the idea that there are two new
pacts – one for Israel and another one for the church. They also see the church
and to Israel living together during the period millennarium and eternal.
The Progressive Dispensionalism (1986 – to present)
The
title “progressive dispensionalism” it
refers to the relation “progressive” from
the consecutive dispensation one to another. Charles Ryrie noted that: ‘the adjective ‘progressive’ it refers to
the central thesis that the pacts of Abraham, David and New they will be
accomplished today (so as compliance in the Millennial kingdom”.
One of the differences between the progressive dispensionalism
and the previous one, the progressive people do not see the church as
anthropological category in the same class of terms as Israel, Gentile Nations,
Jewish, and Gentile people. The church is not a separate race from mankind (in
contrast with Jewish and Gentiles) and it is not a nation in opposition with
Israel and the Gentile Nations.
