The Seven Dispensations

How should we understand the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption throughout human history? One of the ways some theologians answer this question with the system known as dispensationalism. A key and influential proponent of this system was C.I. Scofield. Let’s learn a little more about how Scofield articulates the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation through the seven dispensations. We adapted these notes from the New Scofield Study Bible, the 100-year anniversary edition of the original Scofield Study Bible published in 1909.

THE FIRST DISPENSATION: INNOCENCE

Man was created in innocence, placed in a perfect environment, subjected to a simple test, and warned of the consequences of disobedience. He was not compelled to sin but, tempted by Satan, he chose to disobey God. The woman was deceived; the man transgressed deliberately (1 Tim. 2:14). The stewardship of Innocence ended in the judgment of the expulsion from Eden (Gen. 3:24).

THE SECOND DISPENSATION: CONSCIENCE

Man had now sinned (3:6–7), the first promise of redemption was to be given (3:15), and our first parents were to be expelled from Eden (3:22–24). Man’s sin was a rebellion against a specific command of God (2:16–17) and marked a transition from theoretical to experiential knowledge of good and evil (3:5–7, 22). Man sinned by entering the realm of moral experience by the wrong door when he could have entered by doing right. So man became as God through a personal experience of the difference between good and evil, but also unlike God in gaining this experience by choosing the wrong instead of the right. Thus he was placed by God under the stewardship of moral responsibility whereby he was accountable to do all known good, to abstain from all known evil, and to approach God through blood sacrifice here instituted in prospect of the finished work of Christ.

The result is set forth in the Adamic Covenant (Gen. 3:14–21). Man failed the test presented to him in this dispensation (witness Gen. 6:5), as in others. Although, as the specific test, this time-era ended with the flood, man continued in his moral responsibility as God added further revelation concerning Himself and His will in succeeding ages (e.g. Acts 24:14–16; Rom. 2:15; 2 Cor. 4:2).

THE THIRD DISPENSATION: HUMAN GOVERNMENT

This dispensation began when Noah and his family left the ark. As Noah went into a new situation, God (in the Noahic Covenant) subjected humanity to a new test. Before this no man had the right to take another man’s life (compare Gen. 4:10–11, 14–15, 23–24). In this new dispensation, although man’s direct moral responsibility to God continued, God delegated to him certain areas of His authority, in which he was to obey God through submission to his fellow man (see Mt. 22:21). So God instituted a corporate relationship of man to man in human government.

The highest function of government is the protection of human life, out of which arises the responsibility of capital punishment. Man is not individually to avenge murder but, as a corporate group, he is to safeguard the sanctity of human life as a gift of God which cannot rightly be disposed of except as God permits (cf. Rom. 13:1–2). Whereas in the preceding dispensation restraint upon men was internal (Gen. 6:3) as God’s Spirit worked through moral responsibility, now a new and external restraint was added, that is, the power of civil government.

Man failed to rule righteously. That both Jew and Gentile have governed for self, not for God, is sadly apparent. This failure was seen racially in the confusion of Babel (Gen. 11:9); in the failure of Israel in the period of the theocracy, which closed with captivity in Babylon (2 Chr. 36:15–21); and in the failure of the nations in the “times of the Gentiles” (Lk. 21:24). Man’s rule will finally be superseded by the glorious reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose right to reign is incontestable (Isa. 9:6–7; Lk. 1:30-33; Rev. 20:4–6).

THE FOURTH DISPENSATION: PROMISE

This dispensation extended from the call of Abram to the giving of the law at Sinai (Ex. 19:3ff.). Its stewardship was based upon God’s covenant with Abram, first cited here, Gen. 12:1–3, and confirmed and enlarged in throughout Genesis.

Observe (1) the specific provisions affecting Abram himself (Gen. 15:15) and his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob (Gen. 26:1–5), under which individual blessing depended on individual obedience (Gen. 12:1; compare 22:18; 26:5).

(2) God made an unconditional promise of blessings through Abram’s seed (a) to the nation Israel to inherit a specific territory forever (Gen. 12:2; 15:18–21; 17:7–8); (b) to the Church as in Christ (Gal. 3:16, 28–29); and (c) to the Gentile nations (Gen. 12:3).

(3) There was a promise of blessing on those individuals and nations who bless Abram’s descendants, and a curse laid on those who persecute the Jews (Gen. 12:3; Mt. 25:31–46).

Consequently this dispensation had varied emphases. To the Gentiles of that period, there was little direct application other than the test implied by Gen. 12:3 and illustrated by God’s blessing or judgment upon individuals (Pharaoh, Gen. 12:17; Abimelech, Gen. 20:3, 17, etc.), or nations (e.g. Egypt, Gen. 47-50) who treated Abram or his descendants well or ill.

In the continuance through the centuries of this stewardship of truth, believers of the Church age are called upon to trust God as Abram did (Rom. 4:11, 16, 23–25; Gal. 3:6–9), and thus enter into the blessings of the covenant which inaugurated the dispensation of Promise.

Continuation of the Promise

God’s promises to Abram and his seed certainly did not terminate at Sinai with the giving of the law (Gal. 3:17). Both O.T. and N.T. are full of post-Sinaitic promises concerning Israel and the land which is to be Israel’s everlasting possession (e.g. Ex. 32:13; Lev. 23:10; Dt. 6:1-23; Josh. 1:2, 11; 24:13; Acts 7:17; Rom. 9:4). But as a specific test of Israel’s stewardship of divine truth, the dispensation of Promise was superseded, though not annulled, by the law that was given at Sinai (Ex. 19:3ff.).

THE FIFTH DISPENSATION: THE LAW

This dispensation began with the giving of the law at Sinai and was brought to its close as a time-era in the sacrificial death of Christ, who fulfilled all its provisions and types. In the previous dispensation, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as multitudes of other individuals, failed in the tests of faith and obedience which were made man’s responsibility (e.g. Gen. 16:1–4; 26:6–10; 27:1–25). Egypt also failed to heed God’s warning (Gen. 12:3) and was judged. God nevertheless provided a deliverer (Moses), a sacrifice (Passover lamb), and miraculous power to bring the Israelites out of Egypt (judgments on Egypt; Red Sea deliverance).

As a result of their transgressions (Gal. 3:19) the Israelites were now placed under the precise discipline of the law. The law teaches:

(1) the awesome holiness of God (Ex. 19:10-25);

(2) the exceeding sinfulness of sin (Rom. 7:13; 1 Tim. 1:8-10);

(3) the necessity of obedience (Jer. 7:23-24);

(4) the universality of man’s failure (Rom. 3:19-20); and

(5) the marvel of God’s grace in providing a way of approach to Himself through typical blood sacrifice, looking forward to a Savior who would become the Lamb of God to bear away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29), “being witnessed by the law and the prophets” (Rom. 3:21).

The Law and the Promise

The law did not change the provisions or abrogate the promise of God as given in the Abrahamic Covenant. It was not given as a way to life (that is, a means of justification, Acts 15:10-11; Gal. 2:16–3:25), but as a rule of living for a people already in the covenant of Abraham and covered by blood sacrifice, e.g. Passover lamb, etc. One of its purposes was to make clear the purity and holiness which should characterize the life of a people with whom the law of the nation was at the same time the law of God (Ex. 19:5–6).

Hence, the law’s function in relation to Israel was one of disciplinary restriction and correction (Gal. 3:24), like that exercised over Greek and Roman children by the trusted household slave or tutor, to hold Israel in check for their own good (Dt. 6:24):

(1) until Christ should come (Christ is actually our Tutor, for the grace which saves us also teaches us, Gal. 3:24; Ti. 2:11–12); and

(2) until the Father’s appointed time that the heirs (children of promise) should be removed from a condition of legal minority into the privileges of heirs who have come of age (Gal. 4:1–3). This God did in sending His Son, and believers are now in the position of sons in the Father’s house (Gal. 3:26; 4:4–7).

But Israel misinterpreted the purpose of the law (1 Tim. 1:8–10), sought righteousness by good deeds and ceremonial ordinances (Acts 15:1; Rom. 9:31–10:3), and rejected their own Messiah (Jn. 1:10–11). The history of Israel in the wilderness, in the land, and scattered among the nations has been one long record of the violation of the law.

THE SIXTH DISPENSATION: THE CHURCH

Our Lord Jesus Christ announced a new age in Mt. 12:47–13:52. The Church was clearly prophesied by Him in Mt. 16:18, purchased by the shedding of His blood on Calvary (Rom. 3:24–25; 1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Pet. 1:18–19), and constituted as the Church after His resurrection and ascension at Pentecost when, in accordance with His promise (Acts 1:5), individual believers were for the first time baptized with the Holy Spirit into a unified spiritual organism, likened to a body of which Christ is the Head (1 Cor. 12:12–13; Col. 2:19). Because of the emphasis upon the Holy Spirit, this age has also been called “the dispensation of the Spirit.”

The point of testing in this dispensation is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the message of good news about His death and resurrection (Acts 4:12; 1 Cor. 15:3-5; etc.). The continuing, cumulative revelation of the previous dispensations combines with this fuller revelation to emphasize the utter sinfulness and lost condition of man and the adequacy of the historically completed work of Christ to save by grace through faith all who come to God by Him (Acts 13:38–39; Rom. 3:21–26; Eph. 2:8–9). As those saved individuals who compose Christ’s true Church fulfill the Lord’s command to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Lk. 24:46-48; Acts 1:8), God, during this age, is taking out from Jews and Gentiles, called “the Church” and henceforth carefully distinguished from both Jews and Gentiles as such (1 Cor. 10:32; Eph. 2:11–18).

Until the End of the Age

The Lord Jesus warned that during the whole period, while the Church is being formed by the Holy Spirit, many will reject His Gospel, and many others will pretend to believe in Him and will become a source of spiritual corruption and hindrance to His purpose in this age, in the professing church. These will bring apostasy, particularly in the last days (Mt. 13:24–30, 36–40, 47–49; 2 Th. 2:5–8; 1 Tim. 4:1–2; 2 Tim. 3:1; 4:3–4; 2 Pet. 2:1–2; 1 Jn. 2:18–20).

The Church Age will be brought to a close by a series of prophesied events, the chief of which are:

(1) The translation of the true Church from the earth to meet her Lord in the air at a point of time known to God but unrevealed to men, and ever held before believers as an imminent and happy hope, encouraging them in loving service and holiness of life. Theologians call this event “the rapture” (see 1 Th. 4:17).

(2) The judgments of the seventieth week of Daniel, called “the tribulation” (see Rev. 7:14), which will fall upon mankind in general but will include the unsaved portion of the professing church, which will have gone into apostasy and thus be left behind on earth when the true Church is translated to heaven. This final form of the apostate church is described in Rev. 17 as “the harlot” which will first “ride” the political power (“beast”), only to be overthrown and absorbed by that power (compare Rev. 18:2). And

(3) the return from heaven to earth of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory, bringing with Him His Church, to set up His millennial kingdom of righteousness and peace (see Rev. 19:11, 17).

THE SEVENTH DISPENSATION: THE KINGDOM

This is the last of the ordered ages which condition human life on the earth: the kingdom covenanted to David (2 Sam. 7:8–17; Zech. 12:8; Lk. 1:31–33; 1 Cor. 15:24). David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will rule over the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords for 1,000 years, associating with Himself in that reign His saints of all ages (Rev. 3:21; 5:9–10; 11:15–18; 15:3–4; 19:16; 20:4, 6).

The Kingdom Age gathers into itself under Christ the various “times” spoken of in the Scriptures:

(1) The time of oppression and misrule ends when Christ establishes His kingdom (Isa. 11:3–4).

(2) The time of testimony and divine forbearance ends in judgment (Mt. 25:31–46; Acts 17:30–31; Rev. 20:7–15).

(3) The time of toil ends in rest and reward (2 Th. 1:6–7).

(4) The time of suffering ends in glory (Rom. 8:17–18).

(5) The time of Israel’s blindness and chastisement ends in restoration and conversion (Ezek. 39:25–29; Rom. 11:25–27).

(6) The times of the Gentiles end in the striking down of the image and the setting up of the kingdom of the heavens (Dan. 2:34–35; Rev. 19:15–21). And

(7) the time of creation’s bondage ends in deliverance at the manifestation of the sons of God (Gen. 3:17; Isa. 11:6–8; Rom. 8:19–21).

At the conclusion of the thousand years, Satan is released for a little while and instigates a final rebellion which is summarily put down by the Lord. Christ casts Satan into the lake of fire for eternal torment, defeats the last enemy-death-and then delivers up the kingdom to the Father (see 1 Cor. 15:24).

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