God's Household Through the Ages
A well-run household works by its master's arrangements. Some rules hold in every season. Others change as the children grow and the work changes. Scripture shows God ordering His household in a similar way across history, and each of His arrangements is called a dispensation.
A stewardship: a distinct way God orders His household in one stage of His unfolding plan, with the revelation He gives, the responsibilities He requires, and the accounting He brings. The word translates the Greek oikonomia, household management.
The third mark of a dispensationalist is that he sees history unfolding in distinct dispensations: periods, or ages, in which God gives people specific responsibilities, which may change from one stage to the next. The fourth mark keeps the third in its place: the number of dispensations matters less than the distinctions themselves. See What Is Dispensationalism?.
God never changes, the way of salvation never changes, and the ground of every sinner's forgiveness is always the blood of Christ. What changes is the stewardship: how much God has revealed, and the rule of life He gives His household.
Loading the rest of this article
For Deeper Study
- DispensationalismAmazon Charles C. RyrieThe standard explanation of the system, with a full chapter answering the charge of two ways of salvation; revised and expanded in 2007.
- There Really Is a Difference! A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational TheologyAmazon Renald E. ShowersA readable side-by-side comparison of covenant and dispensational theology from a dispensational teacher.
- Dispensational TruthAmazon Clarence LarkinA Baptist pastor's classic, famous for its large drawn charts of the ages. Read it for the big picture; some of its details are more speculative than later dispensational teachers accept.
- Progressive DispensationalismAmazon Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. BockThe leading statement (1993) of progressive dispensationalism, a different view that stresses the continuity between the dispensations. Read it to understand that view, not as a statement of ours.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
As an Amazon Associate, Theologica earns from qualifying purchases.
What Is Dispensationalism?
Dispensationalism is a way of reading the whole Bible that takes God's words in their plain sense, sees Him ordering His household through distinct stewardships, keeps His program for Israel distinct from His program for the church, and trusts Him to keep every promise as He gave it.
Open Doctrine