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HW: Explanation of the Seven Dispensations

Church History

Rev. Clayton Alward

November 11, 2003

 

The Seven Dispensations ExplainedBy Stephen G. Reynolds, Jr.

 

Dispensation: the scheme or plan of God's dealings with men

 

  1. Dispensation of Innocence Gen. 1:1-3:24

God created man perfect and in His own image. God deals with man as a perfect baby—untested, but perfect still the same. Sin has not yet entered the world and so man is for the first and last time initially innocent.

 

  1. Dispensation of Conscience Gen. 4:1-10:32

con•science n : consciousness of the moral right and wrong of one's own acts or motives

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God deals with man in the Dispensation of Conscience by his conscience. Everyone is born with a conscience which is not a curse but the providence of God at work. God has placed within man the awareness of what is right or wrong, and God holds man responsible to his conscience.

 

  1. Dispensation of Human Government Gen. 10:33-12:1

Man left to himself will self destruct. Because of his carnal nature he is very heavily driven by his flesh and emotions, and so for a guiding force, God instituted human government. This was not to replace man’s responsibility to God, but was to serve as a lower court of sorts. Man is ultimately responsible to God.

 

  1. Dispensation of Promise Gen. 12:2-Ex. 12:10

In God’s dealing with man we see a new method, not replacing any before this point, but a step higher and closer to an intimate relationship being restored between God and man. God, Who owes no one anything, but in Him all things have their existence and by Him ALL things are made, is the One making covenants with and promises to man.

 

  1. Dispensation of Law Ex. 19:1-Matt. 1:1-25

The Dispensation of Law is clearly as vital to the perfect plan of God as the others, and yet the law is most often despised.  The Law is rigid and unbending, and this is the narrow picture most have of God. The law though was not the full plan of God, but was a “School Master” (Galatians 3:24) to teach man what God is expecting of man. Here in this dispensation we have the “What” but in the next God gives man the “How”. (Romans 8:3)

 

  1. Dispensation of Grace Matt. 28:1-10 Rev. 4:1-4

Man is incapable of equally the balances with the character and nature of Christ. God has given man Grace—God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense—to do the work in man. God is working the change in man by his grace, and if man should fall, by God’s grace he can have peace with God. (Romans 5:1)

 

  1. Dispensation of Righteousness Rev. 22:1-21

Here is where the full purpose in the plan of God is fulfilled. Where righteousness reigns in man and not sin. God is going to work a complete work in us. The New Heaven and New Earth are only the backdrop to the goal and heart of God—fellowship completely restored. God is a holy God and cannot and will not fellowship with sin, but God in his infinite love and knowledge has made a way for us to enter into a place of unrestricted communion with Him.

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