Austin Bible Church
Dispensations Related to the Divine Institutions
Volition: The responsibility of man.
Age of the Gentiles: Before the Fall, do not eat the fruit of the tree. After the Fall, believe on the One who would die on a tree - faith in Christ for salvation.
Age of the Jews: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ pictured in the sacrifices. Adherence to the Law. Following God’s communicators.
Age of the Church: Relationship with God through belief in Christ. Fellowship with God gained through confession of sin biblically. Growth to spiritual maturity from positive volition toward Bible doctrine.
Age of the Kingdom: Will begin with all believers. It will end with many who were born in the Millennium remaining negative to the Gospel.
Marriage: The completion of man, structure for man, illustration of man, goal of man.
Age of the Gentiles: For the believer and unbeliever alike, basis for family, basis for sex between husband and wife.
Age of the Jews: Principles of marriage set forth in the Law. Principle of marriage exploited by Balaam and Balak.
Age of the Church: Picture of the husband and wife being believers in Christ and attending the local church to grow spiritually prior to marriage. The husband - wife relationship used as a visual aid explaining right pastor teacher for every believer and the pastor-teacher’s responsive congregation.
Age of the Kingdom: Picture of the relationship of bride and groom in marriage. Wedding guests, feast, before the new life together.
Family:
Age of the Gentiles: One family, one language; many families, fruitfulness of the earth.
Age of the Jews: One family nation, one family king. Unit for teaching and discipline.
Age of the Church: Sphere of great adversity and the greatest testing. Breakdown of basic principles.
Age of the Kingdom: Children will be born. Unbelievers will grow up in perfect home environment and will still remain negative to the Gospel.
Nationalism
Age of the Gentiles: Separation of national entities. Gen. 10 and Gen. 11. Principles of nationalism established.
Age of the Jews: Israel, the nation for dispersing the Gospel. Internationalism condemned.
Age of the Church: Decline of nationalism, replaced by internationalism.
Age of the Kingdom: Nations present on earth, one kingdom rules.
Dispensations Related to the Four Unconditional Covenants to Israel
Abrahamic Covenant
Age of the Gentiles: Land: occupied by the Hittite kingdom, provided maximum security for Abrahamic venture. Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. Blessing: eternal life.
Age of the Jews: Partial occupation, nation formed, blessing missed. Tribulation prepares for participation.
Age of the Church: No heir of the land, no part in the nation, receive the promise of the Holy Spirit which is a segment of the blessing of Abraham. Israel out of the Land.
Age of the Kingdom: the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant realized.
Palestinian Covenant
Age of the Gentiles: Land occupied by the Hittite kingdom and others.
Age of the Jews: Land occupied by Jews, Assyrians, Babylonians, countless others. Will be the center for warfare in the Tribulation.
Age of the Church: Land changed hands many times, Crusaders, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Egyptians. Israel will return to the Land in unbelief.
Age of the Kingdom: Land will be possessed by and occupied by Israel. Israel will be fruitful and be the center of the world.
Davidic Covenant
Age of the Gentiles: Covenant not effective or made. Kingly line, only seed of the woman.
Age of the Jews: Family line chosen through which the king should come (David’s). Israel rejected the king at the first advent, but will accept Him at the Second Advent.
Age of the Church: Jesus Christ, the qualified Savior, seated in heaven, perfect salvation provided for all. On earth no king for Israel.
Age of the Kingdom: Christ will be King on the earth, Jerusalem, rule the world and the government will be that of His kingdom.
New Covenant
Age of the Gentiles: Not given in the Gentile dispensation.
Age of the Jews: Given and explained by and throughout the prophets. The Tribulation will bring Israel to its knees and to acceptance of its provisions.
Age of the Church: Blessing of Abraham, specifically the promise of the Holy Spirit to all in the Church Age who believe, whether Jew or Gentile.
Age of the Kingdom: The knowledge of the Lord will cover the world as the waters cover the sea. People born will have opportunity to believe in Christ.
Dispensations Related to the Five Cycles of Discipline
Age of the Gentiles: Parallel found in the divine discipline administered at Babel, nations banding together as one nation under one language brought God's judgment.
Age of the Jews: Lev. 26 stated the five cycles. Jews experience all five cycles of discipline in the Northern Kingdom in 606 BC and the first four cycles of divine discipline in the Southern Kingdom. In 586 BC, the fifth cycle of discipline was experienced in the Southern Kingdom. They were returned to the Land and the cycles of discipline were repeated in the time of Christ under Rome. In 70 AD, they went into the fifth cycle of discipline.
Age of the Church: Applied to all nations in principle during the Church Age. During the Church Age, Israel is under the fifth cycle of discipline and has been scattered throughout the earth – the Diaspora. This will continue throughout the Tribulation.
Age of the Kingdom: Jesus Christ’s judgment of nations at the end of the Kingdom when Satan is loosed for a little season to deceive the earth.
Dispensations Related to Interpretation of Scripture
The proper interpretation of the Scripture depends on a proper understanding of which of the four categorical dispensations does a passage or verse fall, to which of the four categorical dispensations does the passage refer, which biblical principles have the same parallels in other dispensations, and which biblical principles are restricted to certain dispensations. Proper application of a passage depends on these same four factors.
Conclusion: The dispensation in which a passage occurs provides the basic frame of reference for the interpretation of the passage. The dispensation to which a passage refers provides the scope and limitation regarding the application of the passage, to other dispensations. To apply a principle occurring in one dispensation to another dispensation, one must be sure that there is a parallel analogy.
Example: Salvation by faith in Christ in all dispensations. Indwelling of the Spirit was not universal in the Age of the Gentiles nor was it in the Age of the Jews. It is universal in the Age of the Church, will not be universal in the Tribulation, but will again be universal in the Kingdom.
If there is not extreme care in the process of interpretation on a categorical basis within the framework of dispensations, there will result many conflicting principles of application to the chagrin of the communicator.
Dispensations Related to Salvation
Age of the Gentiles: Salvation provided through slain animal skins, faith in Christ pictured by the slaying of the animals. God provided Adam the information to believe.
Age of the Jews: Salvation by faith in Christ stated in Genesis 15:6, relating to Abraham before the giving of the Law. Salvation after the giving of the Law was still by faith in Christ. Gal. 3. The Law did not annul God's promises. Example of the death of Christ in the Levitical offerings.
Age of the Church: Faith in Christ, in His historical death, made known through the preaching of the Gospel and the illumination of the Holy Spirit acting as our human spirit prior to salvation. Regeneration results in the imputation of a human spirit to enable the believer’s understanding of spiritual information via the power of the Holy Spirit.
Age of the Kingdom: Salvation by faith in the Savior, currently reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Dispensations Related to Spirituality
In the Age of the Gentiles, a person was said to “walk with God.” Fellowship with man by God was not related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. God the Son was often the One who was at work.
In the Age of the Jews, when God the Son began the role as the King of Israel, the Holy Spirit was sovereignly “endowed” upon mankind for special feats of activity. Spirituality in the Old Testament, therefore, was not a primary factor, in that spirituality was a state of being spiritual or rightly related to the Holy Spirit. Fellowship in the Jewish dispensation had more to do with being rightly related to God the Father through obedience to the Word of God. Confession was a principle expressing realignment to the stated will of God through the agency of the Aaronic priesthood.
Spirituality in the Age of the Church is possible for all believers because all believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and given the privilege as believer-priests to confess their own sins directly to God the Father.
In the Age of the Kingdom or the Millennium, all believers starting the Age of the Kingdom will have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The believers of the Church Age who return with Christ will not have their old sin natures, but the believers of the Tribulation on earth will still have theirs which will be kept in check by the very Person of Jesus Christ. Open sin and rebellion will be judged by the Word of His mouth. This is what makes it possible for unbelieving nations to emerge at the end of the Tribulation and follow Satan when he is “loosed for a season.” Joel 2 “pour out my Spirit.”
Dispensations Related to the Angelic Conflict
Age of the Gentiles: Gen. 6. Intermarriage of fallen angels with the human race. The Tower of Babel.
Age of the Jews: In the last part there was anti-Christ activity. Demon activity in the Tribulation which will be the intensified stage of the Angelic Conflict in that dispensation.
Age of the Church: Maximum Angelic Conflict in the overall plan of God throughout the ages. Annihilation of the Jews attempted. Spiritual conflict in believers.
Age of the Kingdom: Maximum angelic expression at the end to lead to a rebellion of unbelievers led by Satan against Jesus Christ after 1,000 years of perfect environment on earth.