There are approximately seven Dispensations, or revelations of God’s unfolding plan for man, that are described in the Bible. Each dispensation builds on the previous one to bring those whom God has chosen from the foundation of the earth to faith and repentance.
Scripture reveals that when one dispensation wore out, like an old wineskin, a new and superior one took its place.
Generally, these are the seven dispensations:
- God was with us (Immanuel): This dispensation ended at the fall of man when the faith of Adam and Eve failed.
- Conscience: Men of faith began to call upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26) and follow the law of God that was written on their hearts (Romans 2:15). This dispensation ended with the flood when the faith of men failed.
In faith, Abraham prepared the way for Israel and the Jews to unfold into the next dispensation. He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder was God (Christ’s Millennial Kingdom) (Hebrews 11:10).
- The Law and the Prophets: The Mosaic law was given to the nation of Israel that they might be a kingdom of Priests (Deuteronomy 19:6) who would lead the world to Christ (Galatians 3:24). This dispensation ended with the crucifixion of Christ, when the faith of the nation of Israel failed.
John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus to reveal to the world His Millennial Kingdom. However, there was an intervening age that would precede his kingdom.
- The Church Age: The Gospel of Grace is announced by the church, which is the true congregation of God. The Holy Spirit was given only to the church in this present dispensation (John 7:39). Its purpose is to bring salvation to the world through the proclamation of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. This dispensation will end when the faith of the Gentiles fails (Romans 11:25).
The Holy Spirit departs with His church at the rapture, and the world returns to the previous dispensation.
- The Law and the Prophets: The Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 4:17) is proclaimed, which is “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” The ‘good news’ is now about the coming of Jesus and his sovereign rule (Revelation 14:7). This dispensation ends with the harvest of the faithful, Christ’s second advent and Satan’s defeat.
Jesus will gather all nations before him and separate the faithful from the wicked as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep on his right will take their inheritance, the kingdom prepared for them since the creation of the world.
Those on His left will enter the eternal fire prepared for Satan and his angels.
- The Millennium: Christ reigns for one thousand years with his church, as the nation of Israel serves as a shining city on a hill to the nations, for one thousand years. The nation of Israel fulfills its mandate to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation before the Lord. This dispensation climaxes when Satan is released to deceive the nations and multitudes engage in a futile battle against Christ.
This dispensation concludes at the Great White Throne judgment when the faithless are judged and thrown into the Lake of Fire.
- Eternity: God dwells with men once again (Immanuel) in direct communion.
In the past God spoke to the Hebrews’ forefathers through the prophets and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son… (Hebrews 1:1). Sounds like two different dispensations to me.
There is no question that God is a dispensationalist.
The First Law and the Prophets
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John (the Baptist) (Luke 16:16).
The message of this period is very different from the one proclaimed during the church age. The message of the church age is the culmination of God’s plan for humanity. The message of the Law and the Prophets was building towards it.
The message of the Law that Moses proclaimed was (Deuteronomy 6):
- Be careful to (faithfully) obey the decrees and commandments of the Lord so that it may go well with you (2).
- Love (worship) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (5).
- Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name (13).
The message that the prophets proclaimed was summarized by Isaiah.
“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand firm at all” (Isaiah 7:9).
When Jesus was asked about the new dispensation he was inaugurating, he stated, “I have not come to abolish the law or the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
Jesus would fulfill the Law and the Prophets by pouring out his blood for the forgiveness of sins. Our salvation would come by grace through faith rather than adherence to the Mosaic law and the faith in the words of the prophets. When we believed and confessed that Christ died for our sins, God would grant us repentance, and, in his grace and mercy, forgive us of our sins.
That was Good News (and a new dispensation).
John the Baptist began the transition of the Mosaic Gospel, the Law and the Prophets, to the Gospel of Grace. The Gospel that John preached during the dispensation of the law and the prophets was:
“Repent, for the [Millennial] Kingdom of heaven is near.”
We can call this Gospel “the Gospel of the Kingdom.”
The Gospel of John was to prepare the way of the Lord and to make straight paths for him (Matthew 3:3). The people came to John, confessed their sins, and were baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
John was still operating under the ‘Law and the Prophets’ dispensation and preparing the world for entrance into Christ’s millennial kingdom.
He proclaimed that his was only a baptism of repentance, which was an inferior baptism. He informed the people that another would come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
What he did not understand (Matthew 11:3) is that the Gospel of Grace was hidden within the Gospel of the Kingdom. Christ would be crucified (cut off), and the Holy Spirit would be sent to abide in mankind until Jesus returned to set up his kingdom.
This new dispensation, the Gospel of Grace, occurred on the Day of Pentecost when tongues of fire fell upon the disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3).
The church age was a new dispensation because the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, had finally been given. As Jesus informed his disciples:
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the [Holy] Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given [to any previous dispensation] because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:38-39).
Once again, the giving of the Holy Spirit was a new dispensation.
In the church age, those who receive the Spirit of God are called “sons of God (Romans 8:14-16). Those of us who were baptized in Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:26) and are sealed with the Holy Spirit.
It is for this reason that Peter proclaimed that we were to “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).”
This was not a promise offered during the previous, or any other, dispensation.
After his resurrection, Jesus revealed where the dispensation of the Law and the Prophets was going. His disciples were still ignorant of what their new message, which would build upon the old message, was to be.
“Then he [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:45-47).
Thus, the Gospel that the church was to proclaim to the whole world, during this new dispensation, was born. We are now saved in the name of Jesus.
Now that people were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, God’s standards became even more strict than under the Mosaic Law. For instance, we could no longer write our wives a letter of divorce when we wanted to move on to greener pastures.
And we were no longer allowed multiple wives as David was when he ruled Israel because, in the church age, that is adultery.
Once the church is raptured, the Gospel of the church age, the Gospel of Grace, will leave with it. In the Book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit spoke repeatedly to the church. After chapter three of Revelation, the Holy Spirit no longer speaks to the church because it is with the Lord in heaven.
The Rapture
The world is quickly coming to the end of the church age. We will briefly return to the previous dispensation, the Law and the Prophets, after the upcoming rapture of the church.
The rapture of the church was directly taught by Paul in two of his letters:
- I Corinthians 15: 51, 52
- I Thessalonians 4:13-17
The fact that there is going to be a rapture is beyond dispute. If the rapture does not occur, then Scripture is not God-breathed. Those who mock it do so in rebellion against God.
Jesus repeatedly taught that the rapture of his saints would occur before he judged the world:
- Matthew 24:36-41 (Noah and Lot were removed prior to judgment, which is an unmistakable pattern of how God administers justice).
- Luke 21:36 (We can escape the Tribulation that will come upon the earth).
- Revelation 3:10 (The true church will be kept from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world).
And the pretribulation rapture was repeatedly taught by Paul:
- I Thessalonians 1:10 (Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath).
- I Thessalonians 5:9 (Paul wrote that the church was not destined for wrath, which he asserted in the context of I Thessalonians 4:13-17).
- II Thessalonians 2:7 (the restrainer, who inhabits the church, is removed with his church).
- I Corinthians 15:51-52: (Paul reveals the mystery of the rapture).
- Romans 11:25 (Paul reveals the mystery that Israel’s heart is unhardened after the last of the Gentiles (church) comes to salvation).
The gates of hell will not prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18), but its gates will prevail against the Tribulation Saints (Revelation 13:7).
The Dispensation of the Law and the Prophets Returns
In Revelation chapter 13:9, the Holy Spirit is now speaking to the world and the nation of Israel rather than the church because the church is gone. John advises, “He who has an ear, let him hear.” In the first three chapters of Revelation, Jesus states, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Holy Spirit says to the churches.”
After the Rapture, the church is no longer present, and neither is the Holy Spirit. This is a new dispensation.
Later, an angel of the Lord proclaims an “eternal Gospel” to the people not long after the Antichrist reveals himself to the world. This Gospel is:
“Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Revelation 14:7).
This Gospel is remarkably like the one that Moses proclaimed, as stated above in Deuteronomy chapter six. We can call this Gospel “the Gospel of the Kingdom.” Its purpose is to prepare those who believe for entrance into the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
The Gospel of Grace, hidden within the Gospel of the Kingdom, is no longer offered when the world returns to the dispensation of the Law and the Prophets.
There are no more proclamations of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. The Gospel that the angel preaches is the same one Moses proclaimed in the desert and the Prophets proclaimed in Israel. Only this time, the Messiah is identified as Jesus, the future prophet God will raise up (Deuteronomy 18:17), who is coming to reign for one thousand years.
Jesus said that “unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Although the Holy Spirit will no longer be present during this dispensation, those who testify about Jesus in faith will receive forgiveness. Those who testify in accordance with the Holy Spirit receive forgiveness (John 15:26-27).
When the church leaves, we will leave behind our testimony about Jesus.
People will be saved by faith, like the thief on the cross who believed in Jesus, but they will not be called sons of God. That designation is exclusive to those who have been born again, baptized, and received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
That dispensation ends when the church leaves.
Those who are murdered during the Tribulation are those who are placed under the altar after the fifth seal is opened. The sons of God do not spend time under the altar of God when they die.
The second Dispensation of the Law and the Prophets ends when the Rider on the White Horse, Jesus, arrives to judge and make war. He intervenes at the Battle of Armageddon, like the cavalry, to rescue the remnant of faithful Israel (Joel chapter 3).
After this battle, the sheep and goats’ judgment occurs, and the world moves into the next dispensation.
The Millennial Kingdom of Christ
During this dispensation, the people of Israel will follow the Mosaic law perfectly for one thousand years (Isaiah 66:20-21; Ezekiel 36:27, (22-28); Micah 4:1-5; Zechariah 14).
Only this time, the Mosaic law will be used to commemorate the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sins. At the end of the Millennium, those who have faith in Jesus will be saved; the multitudes who hate him will move on to everlasting contempt.
God will once again live among mankind. At the end of the one thousand years, Satan will be released to test humanity.
Even though Christ walks among humanity during the Millennium, as he did before the fall, multitudes will show their hatred toward the Lord and follow Satan when he is released.
These people, along with their father the devil, death and Hades are rounded up, judged, and thrown into the Lake of Fire.
And yes, just like eternal life, their torment lasts for all eternity.
After this dispensation, the faith of humanity will never fail again.
Eternity
After the Great White Throne Judgment, the heavens and the earth will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare (II Peter 3:10).
Then we will enter the final dispensation, Eternity. This lasts forever, too. John explains:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4).
The dispensation of the law and the prophets is going to make a seven-year comeback after the rapture. It will unfold into the Millennial reign of Christ.
The Gospel of Grace is only for the church age. The church is the true congregation of God and will rule with Christ during the Millennium. When the Holy Spirit is removed, his church will leave with him.
Only the church has the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the invitation to accept this gift will soon be withdrawn.