Part 2 – A List of Dispensations

Now let’s consider the several Dispensational ages listed below. I list them in brief to demonstrate the progressive revelation of God toward the outworking of His eternal plan and purpose of the ages.

1. The first Dispensational age to be noted is commonly referred to as ‘The Dispensation of Innocence.’ Some unspecified time after the ‘Katabole’ of Gen. 1:2 and 2 Peter 3:5-7, that is after the overthrow of Lucifer’s destructive rebellion on earth, Adam and Eve were created in ‘pure innocence.’

The Katabole event is an important pivotal time in the Biblical narrative where the God judged and destroyed the evil handiwork of Lucifer’s oversight of earth with God’s 1^st worldwide flood, frozen since the lights the heavens were extinguished. This ‘katabole’ event is the key reference point in dating the ages. The Bible refers to the time of many key events as occurring either … “SINCE the foundation [katabole] of the world” or, from “BEFORE the foundation [katabole] of the world.” See two examples below;

• In Matt. 25:34 Jesus references the ‘katabole’ in sighting Israel’s hoped for the ‘kingdom to come on earth,’ saying; “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from [i.e., SINCE] the foundation [Gen. 1:2, katabole] of the world:”
• In Ephesians 1:4a, Paul references the “katabole” saying; “According as he hath chosen us in him BEFORE the foundation [Gen. 1:2, katabole] of the world, …

When Adam and Eve were created, some unspecified time after the katabole, they were under a Dispensational relationship with God that administratively called for their obedience to God’s One restriction … which was to not eat of “The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil” … “lest ye die” (Gen. 2:17, Gen 3:3). We know Adam and Eve did eat of that tree and thereby ‘sinned.’ But they did not die immediately. Yet, the sentence of “sin and death” had come upon all mankind as Adam’s lineage (cf. Rom. 5:12). Unto this day the death rate due to Adam’s sin remains at one per person.

“The Dispensation of Innocence” ended with Adam and Eve being banished from the earthly paradise, the Garden of Eden, They left behind the “Tree of LIFE.” We note how God slain an innocent animal, whose shed blood was “cover” their sin. This innocent blood was a prophetic of the redemptive shed “blood of Christ” who was yet to come and thereby “take away the sins of the world,” not just cover man’s sin. Thus, faith in Christ’s shed blood is what redeems all who will believe and receive “everlasting life” (Jn 3:16).

2. Immediately after Adam and Eve’s banishment, Adam and his lineage then lived under what is commonly referred to as the “Dispensation of Conscience.” Having eaten of “The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil” they had illicitly acquired the “The Knowledge of Good And Evil.” Adam and Eve’s conscience was now activated and they were aware of good and evil and they were without excuse. They now could innately recognize God’s will for them day by day, though they now also possessed the Serpent’s [Satan’s] “sin [nature] in their flesh” (cf. Rom. 8:3).

Many more truths are linked to these first two Genesis dispensations. We could simply say in every dispensational age the way of ‘right living’ and ‘eternal life’ is linked to obedience to the ‘words of God’ as instructions spoken to those under the Dispensational age in which they lived. Having an active conscience, the words of ‘God’s will’ appear automatically in the minds of all mankind. That’s why Paul could write that all men know God and “are without excuse” (cf. Rom. 1:20). Later under the “Dispensation of Conscience,” God saw that all that man did was evil (Gen 6:5). God then judged the world with Noah’s flood, saving 8 souls; Noah, his wife, and their 3 sons and their wives. There also is much more detail involved and the to be understood in this and every Dispensation.

3. After Noah’s ark landed on dry ground, we have the third Dispensation, commonly referred to as ‘The Dispensation of Human-Government.’ This ended with God multiplying the languages of arrogant mankind who refused God’s one instruction to ‘disperse.’ Rather, they congregated in cities. We note how at the Tower of Babel God confounded them with different ‘languages’ to disperse mankind and form the 70 nations listed in Genesis 10.
4. Thereafter came the “Dispensation of Promise” when God called out one man, Abraham, promising to bless Abraham’s seed, and through his seed “bless all the families of the earth.” (Gen. 12:1-3) Abraham’s calling ultimately led to his own family lineage via his son that God had promised, Isaac and a rich “land.” The promise was passed to Isaac’s sone, Jacob, whose name was changed to “Israel.” Jacob’s twelve sons are named for “The Twelve Tribes of Israel.”
5. Then, after 400 years of the “twelve tribes’ in bondage as slaves under Egypt’s Pharoah, we note God’s miraculous liberation of them, leading them into the wilderness for 40 years. Therein we come to Exodus 19:5-6 noting how the “twelve tribes’ became God’s chosen “Nation Israel.” There they were given “The Dispensation of the Law” and became a visibly “peculiar” and special people unto God. It was through Moses at Mount Sinai that Israel’s gained a ‘National’ status and calling, being to be “above all people” and to ultimately be “priests of God.” The ‘Nation Israel’ continued under “the Law” from Exodus 19:5-6 for ~1,508 years, from 1,446BC to ~62AD, the year of Paul’s Acts 28:28 judicial declaration by which Israel became “fallen” and “cast away” for a time, as they are today. So. Israel’s “The Dispensation of the Law” continued on and through the period of the Gospels with Jesus’ incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and on into the Acts period until “the fall of them” (Rom. 11:12) as occurred in Acts 28:28.

God’s ‘offer’ of the King and His Kingdom had been extended to the Nation Israel during Acts period only due to Jesus’ prayer; “Father, forgive them they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). But that offer was finally rejected in unbelief and “the fall” of Israel came by Paul’s judicial declaration of Acts 28:26-28 [below], wherein Paul quotes Isaiah’s 6:9 in Acts 28:26-27.

“[The Lord] Saying, Go unto this people [Israel], and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall NOT understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: ²⁷For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes [spiritually blinded], and hear with their ears [spiritually deaf], and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. ²⁸Be it known therefore unto you [Israel], that the salvation of God is sent unto the GENTILES, and that they will hear [heed] it.”

And with that most notable Acts 28 event, Israel was declared “fallen.” God’s prophetic program concerning the promised King and His “Kingdom to come on earth” was then “PAUSED’ as it Remains Today. Israel’s prophetic program concerning the Kingdom to come on earth was ‘INTERRUPTED … while God’s focus turned to the heaven-bound spiritual, Gentile, “church, which is His body” (Eph. 1:22b-23a), totally apart anything to do with Israel or her program.

Thus, *the Offer of the 1Thes 4:17 RAPTURE that had been expected to occur during the Acts period had EXPIRED with Paul’s declaration of Acts 28:28. So, the fulfillment of the long-promised coming of the King and His Kingdom is now DELAYED Until The 2^nd Coming of Christ in accord with the long-prophesied “Day of the Lord” With The End Of The Tribulation Period

*Note that Paul then gave up his ‘rapture hope’ to be “absent from the body and present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8) as a consequence of Israel’s stubborn unbelief. During his Acts period, Paul wrote (see 2 Cor 5:2-4 below) that he preferred to be clothed [v3] with his resurrection body and NOT be found “naked [bodiless, v8]” in the grave, while awaiting to the Lord’s 2^nd Coming … to be resurrected therewith.

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [body] were dissolved [in the grave], we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is FROM Heaven: ³ If so be that Being Clothed We Shall Not Be Found Naked. ⁴ For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. ⁵ Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. ⁶ Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: ⁷ (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) ⁸ We are confident, I [Paul] say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.“

Simultaneous with this ‘fall of Israel,’ Paul was given his 2^nd ministry, a celestial ministry as noted in his Post-Acts prison epistles of Ephesians and Colossians. After Acts 28:28 Israel was set aside, God called Paul to establish a ‘GENTILE body of believers’ (e.g., Eph. 3:1-11, Col. 3:11), which is the Spiritual Gentile “Church, Which Is His Body” (Eph. 1:22b-23a).

Ephesians 3:1-3 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, ² If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: ³ How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

Uniquely, this heaven-bound body of believers consist of ALL men, of ALL Races (being seen as Gentiles, as non-Jews), is totally unrelated to Israel. This “body” is destined to dwell and reign NOT On Earth, but rather “in the HEAVENLY Places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 1:3).

6. This newly formed Post-Acts Spiritual Gentile “church, which is His body” (Eph. 3:1-2) is of the God-planned “Mystery [Grk. musterion, sacred secret plan].” The hope and HEAVENLY calling of today’s Gentile “body” is distinctly different from, and totally apart from Israel’s Prophetic EARTHLY Kingdom hope, being also without its laws, rituals, and rites.

Yet God will ultimately be faithful to Israel’s faithful ‘elect.’ They will ultimately reign (Rev. 5:20, 20:6) with Christ in the “Kingdom Come ON EARTH,” to bless the Gentiles during the Millennial Kingdom on earth. God will fulfill all His “promises.” With Israel’s “fall,” being set aside for a time, God simultaneously founded today’s Gentile Church of the “Great Mystery [secret]” of a new “DISPENSATION of the Grace of God (cf. Eph. 3:2).

7. When the Gentile “body of Christ” is filled full, they will depart planet earth to “appear with Him [Christ] in [heaven’s] glory” (Col. 3:4). Some of this Gentile “body of Christ,’ as “the faithful” they will Reign “in the Heavenly Places In Christ” (cf. 2Tim. 2:12). Jesus’ Gentile “body” will serve the Him “in the heavenly places.” Lucifer will have been “cast down” at mid-tribulation (cf. Rev. 12:5) with his fallen angelic ‘princes’ who had served to crucify the Lord Jesus (cf. 1Cor 2:7-8). Thus, Christ’s Gentile “body” members will take up their ‘seats of rank authority’ in God’s Heavenly government, serving the Him eternally “in the Heavenly Places.”
8. After the Spiritual Gentile “body of Christ” of “the Mystery” silently ascends to “appear with Christ in [heaven’s] glory” (Col. 3:4), the Lord will the return to earth in His 2^nd Coming called the “day of the Lord” and its variants (3,174 occurrences). He will pour out His long-delayed ‘WRATH” upon the evil unbelievers, and save ISRAEL’S believing remnant, ending the 7-year ‘Tribulation Period.’ Two-thirds of the Jewish people of Israel, as unbelievers “will be cut off and perish” (Zech. 13:8). The “elect” faithful of Israel’s Kingdom gospel believers, will reign with Christ as His agents On Earth (Rev. 5:10, 20:6) and as “a royal priesthood” (1Peter 2:9) in His prophesied Millennial Kingdom.
9. After the one-thousand-year Millennial Kingdom on earth, during which Lucifer, who long ago corrupted the heavens (Job 15:15) and the earth, will be ‘Loosed From The Bottomless Pit.’ Why? His release is intended to see whether the humans born during the millennium submitted to Christ's rule from the heart or simply because they had to submit. Are they regenerated believers or not? Some number will follow Satan and come against Jerusalem as follows.

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city [Jerusalem]: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured [consumed] them.” (Rev. 20:9).

10) Soon after that, all the dead unbelieving souls of history will resurrect to appear at the Great White Throne Judgement. Unless their names appear in “the Lamb’s book of life,” their spiritless dead bodies (cf. Eccl. 12:7) will “be cast into the lake of fire” unto “everlasting destruction” (2 Thes 1:9), not to be tormented.

Then also, the corrupted physical heaven and the earth will become purified, being renewed by fire (cf. 2 Peter 3:10-13), thus becoming “the New Heaven and the New Earth.” The pollution and nuclear waste of the Tribulation Period will be forever purified.

Here above we have a brief summation of what I see as the Eight Dispensational ages to be seen in the Bible. Paul offers this verse below to describe “the fullness of times” consummation of the ages wherein Christ will reign over all things pertaining “which are in heaven and which are on earth.” Eph.1:10: That in the Dispensation of the fulness [completion] of times he [The Father] might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are On Earth; even [i.e., ‘that is’] In Him [Christ]