17. 2. The Seven Times or Dispensations
We shall find that there are at least seven distinct Administrations each having its own beginning and ending clearly revealed and marked off.
These seven are, in turn, characterized by the principles of God's Administration, which mark all that He said and did during each special and distinct period.
We have for instance, the Theocratic Administration suited to the time of Innocence before the Fall (Gen. i. ii.).
We have the Patriarchal Administration suited to mankind after the Fall, but before the Law was given (Gen. iv.—Exod. xx.).
We have the Legal Administration suited only to Israel under the Law.
We have the present Administration of Grace which is for Jew and Gentile alike, i.e., for individuals out of both, without the distinction previously made.
After this will come the Judicial Administration preparatory to the restoration of all things which were spoken before by the prophets.
Then will follow the Millennial Dispensation: ending with the Administration of Glory in the Eternal State.
These may be thus exhibited to the eye:
A | The Edenic State (Innocence)
B | Mankind as a whole (Patriarchal)
C | Israel (under Law)
D The Church of God. The Secret.
The Dispensation of Grace.
C | Israel (Judicial)
B | Mankind as a whole (Millennial)
A | The Eternal State (Glory)
We thus see that these times and periods of different Administrations have their correspondence: in which
The first corresponds with the seventh;
The second with the sixth;
The third with the fifth;
The fourth, occupying the central position, stands out alone by itself, and has no correspondence with any of the others.
The first and seventh correspond, each being characterized as Divine, in its origin and principles, God being in direct communion and intercourse with man; the one before the entrance of sin, and the other after the ending of sin.
The second and sixth are each occupied with mankind as a whole, the former being Patriarchal and the latter Millennial.
The third and fifth are occupied with Israel; in the former being governed under Law, in the latter judged "by the law."
The fourth, the Church of God, stands alone and by itself, as occupying the great central position, showing the "purpose of God"—round which all His counsels circle, and with reference to which they all exist according to His eternal purpose.
Let us look at them in order:—
(a) The Edenic Dispensation.—It is clear that the period beginning with Gen. i. 26 and going down to the end of Gen. ii. is perfectly unique. There is nothing like it until we come to the last, or seventh, Dispensation, which is the Eternal state. In these two there is only the innocence of man; and both are characterized by the absence of sin and the presence of God. God came down and communed with Adam, revealing Himself to him: and the mark of the Eternal state is given in the words, "The Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them" (Rev. xxi. 3).
Adam was directly under the Divine administration and tuition of God Himself. God was his Teacher, revealing Himself and His wonderful works to Adam. He visited Adam at certain definite times, with audible sounds by which His coming was known (Gen. iii. 8¹). He came for the definite purpose of teaching man. He brought the animals to Adam to instruct him (Gen. ii. 19, 20); He gave him a companion (Gen. ii. 21, 22); and we know not what else He did, and would have done, had not all this Divine communion been suddenly snapped and suspended by the Fall. Such direct communion of man with God has, since that moment, been in abeyance, and will continue to be so until the curse shall have been removed, and the Edenic state of Bliss find more than its counterpart in the Eternal state of Glory.
In this first Administration Adam was dealt with as innocent; and man can never be dealt with in a corresponding manner during all the succeeding Dispensations, until the curse and all its effects shall have been done away.
Man was then what is called "under probation." This marks off that Administration sharply and absolutely; for man is not now under probation. To suppose that he is so, is a popular fallacy which strikes at the root of the doctrines of Grace. Man has been tried and tested, and has been proved to be a ruin. Ever since that moment man has been dealt with as lost, guilty, ruined, helpless, unclean, and undone; and all this because of what he is, and not merely from what he has done. That is to say, he is not only a ruined sinner, but a ruined creature.
Man failed, just as Satan and Angels before him had failed under their trial. Man showed the same result,
¹ The Heb. לְכֹל (chōl), rendered voice, means any sound or noise in an extensive sense; e.g. crackling, Eccles. vii. 6; trumpet, Exod. xix. 16; thunder, Exod. xx. 18; noise, 1 Kings i. 45; sound, 2 Kings vi. 32; proclamation, 2 Chron. xxiv. 9.
and proved that, apart from the Creator, no created being could stand. By Christ, the Creator, all things not only exist; but in Him only can they consist (Col. i. 16, 17).
The one test was THE WORD OF GOD. God had spoken; and the question was; Will man believe God or Satan?
This was the one simple test. It was not what man whittles down by his tradition to the "eating of an apple;" but in Gen. iii. the first crucial words are, "Hath God said?" (v. 1).
Satan is introduced to us as using these words, and as substituting two lies for what God had said:—
(1) "Ye shall be as God";
(2) "Ye shall not surely die."
These two lies are the foundation of Satan's old religion and man's "New Theology," and are the hall-marks of the coming Apostasy, under the Beast of Rev. xiii.
Our first parents believed Satan's lies, and their descendants have followed in their steps. Part of them believe neither God nor the Old Serpent; the bulk of them believe only Satan.
The teaching of demons is to-day embraced by the strictest of Evangelicals and Protestants, as well as by the Heathen, by Romanists, and by Spiritists: and they all unite in endorsing these two great lies of the Old Serpent. They all believe and hold (1) That man has within him the Divine ("Ye shall be as God"); (2) that "There is no death" ("Ye shall not surely die").
Man was under probation, and he failed in the proving.
Never again in any succeeding Dispensation has he been, or can he be thus tried.
Popular theology still teaches that "man is under probation." It is false! Man has been tried, and declared to be, in consequence, utterly ruined, and "at enmity with God;" he is not "subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," and has "no good thing" in him.
Man needs no further probation to verify this solemn fact.
But we must return to our special point, which is this: All that was said and done by God in that first Administration, the Edenic State, was peculiar to, and appropriate only to that state, and to no other. It can never be characteristic of any other Dispensation.
God was man's teacher—God was His own Revealer. He gave man his trial and his test, and after these had done their work God pronounced His sentence on man, and his doom on the Old Serpent.
(b) The Patriarchal Dispensation.—In the second Administration, the one great principle on which mankind was treated was as a whole, and as having completely failed under the probation in which man had been placed. Having lost the Divine teaching, the Dispensation is characterized as the "Times of Ignorance" (Acts xvii. 30).
Mankind fails collectively, as man had failed individually; and furnishes another example of the fact that, no created being or beings can stand, apart from the upholding power of the Creator (Col. i. 16, 17).
All the words and actions of Jehovah were appropriate to this second Administration.
The "times of ignorance" are contrasted in Acts xvii. 30 with later times, which are distinguished by the words, "But now."
In those times God "overlooked" that which He could not overlook after He had given the Law; those things which, before the Law, were "sins," became afterward "transgressions."
The principles which governed God's Administration in those "times of ignorance," could not be appropriate for the times when He revealed His Law by Moses, and made known His will to the sons of men.
It is clear, therefore, that these Dispensations must be rightly divided; for even the future judgment of mankind is based on the distinction which we must make between these two periods, viz., "without law" and "under law." See Rom. ii. 12.
"As many as have sinned WITHOUT LAW shall PERISH also without law;
And as many as have sinned IN THE LAW shall be JUDGED by the law."
It is evident that these two principles belong to the two different Dispensations (before and after the Law)
respectively. They teach us that the same principles must prevail when the final judgment of those who have lived in both Dispensations shall come.
We may well believe also that the same principle will be acted on in the future judgment of those who are living in this present Dispensation: for there are, today, those who sin without having heard the Gospel, and there are those who have heard it and have not obeyed it (2 Thess. i. 8).
If we rightly divide these, and their judgments also, as announced in Rom. ii. 10, 12, we shall have the key to a problem which has perplexed many a child of God.
These then are the great principles which govern God's dealings with mankind; those that were "without law," and those who were "under law": those that are without the Gospel, and those who are under the Gospel.
It was not merely, or only, that one dispensation was "without law" and another "under law," but that there were those in each who knew the law and those who did not; those who obeyed and those who obeyed not.
And God dealt with mankind on this principle of judgment in all subsequent dispensations: for all were under His administration as to government.
The second Dispensation, that which succeeded the Fall, was governed by Patriarchal Law, as the following one was governed by Mosaic Law.
Both laws were given by God.
It is often supposed that before the Mosaic Law mankind were left to themselves.
But such was not the case. Mankind as a whole was in a sense "under law," but it was "unwritten law"; while Israel was under written law, "written by the finger of God" (Exod. xxxi. 18).
No sooner had our first parents been driven out from their first abode and passed from God's administration which corresponded with and marked their state of innocence, than the different character of His new administration was seen.
His first act was to point out THE WAY BACK to Himself and to peace with God.
Immediately after the Fall, and the loss of God's presence and teaching, the way back to His favour was opened by Himself.
(1) It is evident that the way back was declared to be by sacrifice, by substitution, and by blood.
Those who believed God obeyed the commands which He must have given and made known.
It was "by faith" that Abel brought his substitute—the Sacrificial Lamb—to suffer in his stead. But "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. x. 17). Abel, therefore, with the rest of mankind, must have heard and known God's command. Abel obeyed it. It was "by faith": otherwise it would have been by fancy. Hence, Abel "obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of His gifts" (Heb. xi. 4).
God testified of Abel's offering by consuming it with "fire from heaven."
For only by such fire God "accepted" sacrifice (Ps. xx. 3, margin, and compare Lev. ix. 24. Judg. vi. 21. 1 Kings xviii. 38. 1 Chron. xxi. 26. 2 Chron. vii. 1): not by any fire emanating from or kindled on this earth. Only by such formal acceptance with "fire from heaven," did God "testify" of and have respect to Abel's gifts. Only by such acceptance did Abel "obtain witness that he was righteous." Only by such witness did God show, and Cain know, that He "had not respect" to the offering that Cain brought unto the Lord.
The fire fell upon Abel's lamb, instead of upon Abel; upon the substitute, instead of upon the sinner.
But it fell not on Cain's offering—for God did not accept it. It was the "fruit of the ground" (Gen. iv. 2, 3), the fruit of that which God had only just declared, "Cursed be the ground" (Gen. iii. 17).
Thus was the way back to God opened and made clear; and thus was man's disobedience manifested.
There was God's way, which Abel took; and there was man's way, which Cain invented. There have been but those two ways back to God from that day to this.
One was God's, and the other was man's.
One was by faith, the other by works.
One was Christ, the other was Religion.
One was by God's grace, the other was by human merit.
There never have been but these two ways.
This is God's way now, by faith through Grace—faith in Christ—the Saviour whom God has provided, which is summed up in the words,
"NOTHING in my hand I bring."
All other ways are one; for however they may differ, they are all alike in saying,
"SOMETHING" in my hand I bring.
They differ only in what that "something" is to be; and those who differ from them, as Abel did, are ever in great danger of getting killed, as Abel was. For nothing is so cruel as "Religion."
Thus the first act in God's changed administration after the Fall was to open the way back to Himself; and it is placed unmistakably on the forefront of revelation.
But there are many other marks as to the character of God's administration.
If we will search for its principles we shall find various words, expressions, and hints, casually dropped, which give us some insight into the principles which characterized that administration; for there is no attempt to give a detailed description of them. We are left to note and mark them for ourselves.
(2) It is evident that there was a Place of worship, a place set apart where access to the LORD was to be had.
At the moment of the Fall, when man was driven out, the LORD God "placed [as in a tabernacle], at the east of the Garden of Eden, Cherubim" (Gen. iii. 24). The word "placed" is שָׁבָן (shākan), to place, station or dwell in a tabernacle. Hence it is used of God's dwelling-place among His people.¹
Hither Abel and Cain brought their offerings (Gen. iv. 3, 4; compare Lev. i. 3). Thither Cain "went out from the presence of the LORD" (v. 16). At its "door" lay the sin-offering which Cain might have brought as well as Abel (Gen. iv. 7).
¹ Exod. xxv. 8; xxix. 45, 46. Josh. xviii. 1; xxii. 19. 1 Kings vi. 13; viii. 12. 2 Chron. vi. 1. Ps. lxviii. 18. It is from this word that we have the word shekinah, that glorious light which was the symbol of God's presence in that tabernacle.
Thither Rebekah went to "inquire of the LORD" (Gen. xxv. 22).
Hence, the statement that certain things were done "before the LORD" expressed a great reality (Gen. xiii. 18; xviii. 22; xix. 27; xxvii. 7. Compare Exod. xvi. 9, 33; xxiii. 17; xxxiii. 7, etc.).
(3) Certain persons evidently had official positions. Shem was one who probably had charge of this tent or tents (Gen. ix. 26, 27).
Melchisedek was "a priest of the Most High God" (Gen. xiv. 18). Heads of families so acted (Gen. viii. 20; xii. 8; xxxv. 7).
Tithes were already paid (Heb. vii. 9).
The first-born evidently had certain privileges, among them the duty of offering sacrifices. Who else can "the young men" be whom we find so acting in Exod. xxiv. 5, before the consecration of Aaron and his sons under the Law, as priests of the nation as such?
If there were priests, so were there preachers also (2 Pet. ii. 5), and prophets (Gen. xx. 7. Jude 14, 15).
(4) Certain official garments appear to have been worn by those who thus officiated. What was the "goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau," which Rebekah stored so carefully, but clothes or garments afterward used by the priests under the Law? (compare Lev. xxi. 10. Exod. xxxv. 19. Lev. x. 6¹). The word "goodly" is also used (though not exclusively) of sacred things in connection with the Temple (2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. Isa. lxiv. 11. Lam. i. 10²).
If this be so, we can understand why Esau was "profane" when he despised his birthright (Heb. xii. 16).
Joseph's "coat of many colours," instead of being (according to some) a peculiar coat of "gaudy patchwork," or, according to others, an ordinary "long tunic" in general wear, seems to have been a special garment by which Jacob designated him for one, at least, of the three parts of the birthright which Reuben had
¹ In all these passages the Hebrew word בְּנָרִים (begādim) is the same; but not so in Deut. xxix. 5, where Moses says of the ordinary clothes of the people, "your clothes waxed not old." Here it is, יְהַלְּקָה (salmāh).
² Rendered "pleasant" in the latter passages.
forfeited.¹ At any rate, the word rendered colours (פָּסִים, passim) is always used of colours² and never of pieces; and though Aaron's coat is not actually so called, it was so in fact, as we see from Exod. xxxix. 1 and Exod. xxviii. 4. 39, where it is said to be embroidered. The word rendered "coat" (כְּתֹנֶת, k'thoneth) is also associated with the coats of the priests,³ or with those of royalty (2 Sam. xiii. 18, 19).
(5) Again, certain forms and ceremonies are also incidentally mentioned, which give us a still further insight into the nature of the administration of that dispensation. Thus we have anointing or consecration with oil (Gen. xxviii. 18; xxxi. 13); building of altars (Gen. viii. 20; xii. 7; xxxv. 1, 3, etc.); pouring out drink offerings (Gen. xxxv. 14); the making of a covenant by sacrifice (Gen. xv. 9-18); the keeping of the Sabbath, before the actual proclamation of the Law (Exod. xvi. 23; compare Exod. xv. 25, and Deut. v. 12); the offering of "seven ewe lambs" (Gen. xxi. 31); the distinction between "clean" and "unclean" (Gen. vii. 2; viii. 20); the prohibition of blood as food (Gen. ix. 4); the execution of the murderer (Gen. ix. 6; xlii. 22); the prohibition of adultery (Gen. xii. 18; xxvi. 10; xxxix. 9; xlix. 4); the binding nature of oaths (Gen. xxvi. 28); the obligation of vows (Gen. xxviii. 20-22; xxxi. 13); the sin of fornication (Gen. xxxiv. 7); marriage with the uncircumcised (Gen. xxxiv. 14; compare Exod. xxxiv. 16); honouring of parents (Gen. ix. 25, 26); purification, or ceremonial cleansing for worship (Gen. xxxv. 2); the birthright of the firstborn (Gen. xxv. 31; compare Exod. xxii. 29 and Deut. xxi. 17); and the marrying of the brother's widow (Gen. xxxviii. 8).
What are all these but so many hints and glimpses which reveal the existence of an orderly administration, which must have been Divinely promulgated, and exactly suited for that dispensation? All was not
¹ According to 1 Chron. v. 1, 2, Reuben forfeited his birthright (Gen. xxxv. 22, Compare xlix. 3, 4). This birth-right consisted of three parts. Levi obtained the priestly office; as Judah had the part connected with rule, indicated by the possession of the tribal "staff" or "sceptre," and as Joseph had the first-born's double portion, in Ephraim and Manasseh, according to Deut. xxxiii. 17.
² Gen. xxxvii. 3, 23, 32. 2 Sam. xiii. 18, 19.
³ See Ezra ii. 69. Neh. vii. 70, 72.
confusion as the unobservant reader might suppose. Men were not left to themselves during that Patriarchal Dispensation.
But to bring the laws of that administration into another dispensation, either for the purpose of limitation or supplement, is to mix up together things which are perfectly distinct, and to introduce confusion where all is otherwise in perfect order.
(c) The Israelite Dispensation "under Law."—In the third Administration we have a totally different principle involved. All is changed by the giving of the Law. This third Dispensation stands out in contrast with the previous one, which was "without Law"; as it does from this present Dispensation, which is characterized by Grace.
The communications of God, and His dealings with Israel, were appropriate to, and in harmony with, the principles of His administration "under law."
If we read all that into this present Dispensation, and interpret it of ourselves, we at once place ourselves under a covenant of works, and practically deny our standing in grace.
Unless we rightly divide the Word of truth in this matter we shall be filled with confusion.
It was true, in that Dispensation of Works, to say: "When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save himself [Heb., his soul] alive" (Ezek. xviii. 27). But to interpret that of ourselves, now, is contrary to fact: and to do so is to flatly deny our true church-standing which declares, that we are not saved by works,¹ but by grace (Tit. iii. 5. Rom. xi. 6).
The Ceremonial Law was given to Israel; not to Assyria or Egypt, or any other nation. Any precepts, of course, that may be of universal application will be wisely applied. The commands as to the food to be used or avoided were neither meaningless nor arbitrary, but were given according to the infinite knowledge of God. It will be our wisdom, therefore, if we are guided by them
¹ If any think of Jas. ii. as contradicting this, let them turn to Jas. i. 1, and they will see that the Epistle is addressed "To the Twelve Tribes," and is therefore quite in harmony with that Epistle (see above, p. 73).
for our health's sake; but in no sense as being "under law."
The Ceremonial Law continued down to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the burning of the Temple, when it ceased absolutely, as it had already ceased relatively, by the death and sacrifice of Christ, which fulfilled the law (Col. ii. 14, etc.).
The four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles do not belong to this present Gospel Dispensation of Grace, but they rather close up the Dispensation of the Law (the Acts being transitional).
Christ did not come "to found a church" as those assert who do not heed the difference between the various Dispensations. That is man's, and Rome's, constant assertion. But God's revelation tells us that "Jesus Christ was a MINISTER OF THE CIRCUMCISION, for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the Fathers, and that the Gentiles (after Israel's salvation) might glorify God for His mercy" (Rom. xv. 8, 9).
Christ's coming had reference to the Jew and Gentile, not to the founding of a church.
The Jews rejected the Kingdom and crucified their king. And the Gentiles (as such) have not yet glorified God for His mercy.
A subsequent offer was afterward made by Peter, to whom "the keys of the kingdom" were given (not of the Church, but of the Kingdom). The Kingdom was again proclaimed in the Acts, and the promise of Christ's return on their national repentance was repeated (Acts iii. 19-21, R.V.).
But the command to repent was unheeded by the nation and its rulers; and so, in the Acts of the Apostles, we see the gradual transition taking place, until the final pronouncement of God's rejection of the nation is formally made by Paul in Acts xxviii. 24-28.
(a) The Ecclesia: the Dispensation of Grace.—In this the fourth Dispensation neither Jews nor Gentiles are dealt with as such: but, individuals, both "transgressors" of the Jews and "sinners of the Gentiles," are called out, and made into a new body, a third People, called "the Church of God," in which now "there is neither Jew nor Gentile
... but all are one in Christ Jesus"; being baptized into the Body of Christ, not with the old *material* element of water, but with the new spiritual medium or element of *pneuma hagion* (Gal. iii. 27, 28).
All this had been kept secret until it was revealed to Paul and made known by the prophets and apostles in "prophetic writings" (Rom. xvi. 25, 26).
Had it been made the subject of prophecy the Jew, to-day, could reply against God and say that he was obliged to fulfil prophecy. It was therefore "hid in God" (Eph. iii. 9). God kept the secret to Himself. What He would have done had the nation of Israel obeyed the command to repent, in Acts iii. 19, 20, none can tell. God is sovereign, and we may be perfectly sure that the Scripture would have been fulfilled. Nothing was unforeseen, or unforeseen; for the members of the Church of God were "chosen in Christ BEFORE the foundation of the world" (Eph. i. 4). All we can say is that "the secret things belong unto God." Those that are revealed alone concern us.
One of these secrets, the "Great" one (1 Tim. iii. 16. Eph. v. 32), has been revealed; and we now rejoice in its revelation.
This Dispensation of "the Church of God," of "the grace of God," and of the "Spirit of God" commenced outwardly by the ministry of Paul, in the Dispensation or administration committed formally to him; and inwardly by the revelation of the mystery as further set forth in its fulness in those epistles which he wrote from his prison in Rome: Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.
This Dispensation will end by the members of Christ's body, the Church of the living God, being "received up in glory" (1 Tim. iii. 16); "caught up to meet the Lord in the air, so to be ever with the Lord" (1 Thess. iv. 17. Phil. iii. 20, 21). This is called in 2 Thess. ii. 1, "our gathering together unto Him"; and this glorious rapture will close this fourth Dispensation.¹ The one object, therefore, of this Dispensation is not, as is popularly
¹ See *The Pauline Epistles* and *The Good Deposit*, by the same author and publisher.
supposed, the conversion of the world; still less its social improvement; but the formation of the one spiritual Body of Christ by calling out those who were chosen in Him "before the foundation of the world."
To that end, and that alone, is this good news made known to-day in all the world. In no former Dispensation was such a Gospel ever preached; and in no subsequent one will the good news of such free grace be proclaimed.
Before this Dispensation, and after it, all is connected with man, and what he is, and what he is to do. But in this Dispensation it is a question of what Christ is, and of what He has done.
This Dispensation of grace will be followed by:
(e) The Dispensation of Judgment.—In the fifth Dispensation, which is characterized by judgment, Israel becomes once again the central object.
When the Church, the mystical body of Christ, has been "received up in glory" the day of grace will be over. And Israel will once more be dealt with, not again under law, but under judgment.
The present Dispensation is (apart from God's purpose in the election of grace) called "Man's Day" (1 Cor. iv. 3, marg.), because it is during this present period that man is judging. But, the next Dispensation is called "the Lord's Day" (Rev. i. 10), because that will be the time when He will judge. Man's day of judging will be closed and the Lord's day of judging will begin.
Hence "the day of the Lord" is the day of the Lord's judging and ruling; and the first occurrence of the expression gives us its essential meaning; and the object and aim of that judgment. It will be the day when
"The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down:
And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day."
(Isa. ii. 11, 12, 17).
Whatever may be the dealings of God with men,
¹ See two separate pamphlets on The Lord's Day and Four Prophetic Periods, by the same author and publisher.
² See below, under Canon I. 5 and Canon V. 11.
and whatever may be His judgments, this is the end and aim and object of them all:
The abasement of Man and
The exaltation of Jehovah.
The whole of that dispensation is called "the Day of the Lord." It is the day which has to do with "times and seasons"; with Israel and the Gentiles. But which has nothing to do with "the Church of God."
This is clear from 1 Thess. v. 1-5. That day cannot overtake the Church of God "as a thief," because the Church has nothing to do with "times and seasons." That day has to do with those whom it will thus "overtake."
All that is said and done in that coming dispensation is appropriate to, and in harmony with, the great principle which will characterize God's administration in that day.
It will then be right for Israel to rejoice over the judgments inflicted on all their enemies.
Then, the "Imprecatory Psalms" will be in their appropriate place.
That dispensation of judgment will have its own peculiar characteristics; and language is therefore used of it which could never have been used in any former dispensation.
Israel will not again be under law; but it will be under a "new covenant," when the stony or hard heart of flesh will be taken away, and a new heart implanted within them, and a new spirit imparted to them (Jer. xxxi. 31-34. Ezek. xxxvi. 24-38), making Israel, then, the only indefectible nation that the world has ever seen.
This belongs, with the Dispensation which follows it, to "the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts iii. 21).
So that, here again, we have certain definite times spoken of.
These "times of restitution" include the succeeding, or
(f) The Millennial or Theocratic Dispensation. - The Sixth Dispensation, in which mankind will again be dealt with as a whole. It will begin with the binding of Satan
G
(Rev. xx. 1, 2) and will end with the great white throne and the lake of fire (Rev. xx. 15). A thousand years will be the period of its duration.
The principle of God's dealings with men during these Millennial days will be neither Law, nor Grace, nor Judgment; but Righteousness, Power, and Glory. It will be the administration of Righteousness in all its purity. The prayer for the coming kingdom will then, at length, find its abundant answer; the kingdom of God will have come at last; and His will will then be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
That dispensation is characterized by the binding of Satan. It is clear, therefore, that language peculiar to that time would not be appropriate to any other preceding dispensation, in which Satan is not bound.
It stands alone, unique; and it issues in the last or seventh Dispensation, which corresponds with the first Edenic state, and may be called
(g) The Eternal State. Very little is said about this last. In this respect it is like the first. It begins at Rev. xxi. 1, with "the new Heavens and the new Earth," and nothing is said about its end.
Beyond this, therefore, we cannot go. In these last two chapters of Revelation we have all that can be known.
These, then, are the seven Times or Dispensations; each of which has its own defined beginning and ending; and its own special characteristics. It is necessary for us to rightly divide them, and rightly to divide the Word of truth which tells us of them.
3. The Special Characteristics of the Dispensations.
It may help us if we summarize these, by connecting each with a definite characteristic word or thought.
(a) As to man's condition in each, it is, in the
1st. Innocence.
2nd. Without Law.
3rd. Under Law.
4th. Under Grace.
5th. Under Judgment.
6th. Millennial.
7th. Glory.
(b) As to the Crisis, or Judgment, in which each ends:
1st. The Edenic state ended in the expulsion from Eden.
2nd. The Period without Law ended with the Flood and the Judgment on Babel.
3rd. The Period under Law ended in the Rejection of Israel.
4th. The Dispensation of Grace will end in the Rapture of the Church, and "the Day of the Lord."
5th. The Dispensation of Judgment will end in the Destruction of Anti-Christ.
6th. The Millennium will end in the Destruction of Satan, and the Judgment of the Great White Throne.
7th. Will have "no end."
It must be evident that, in all these seven Dispensations, we have a variety of different characteristics which demand the utmost care and attention which we are able to give them.
There are, however, two further matters on which to speak; for beside these distinct landmarks by which these dispensations are known, there are larger "times" which embrace or overlap more than one of these divisions.
4. "The Times of the Gentiles."
We have "the times of the Gentiles," which not only embrace this present Church Dispensation, but stand specially in contrast with the Jews. They commence with Jerusalem falling under the power of Babylon; they continue during the whole period while Jerusalem is "trodden down of the Gentiles" (Luke xxi. 24); and they will end only when the Gentiles shall cease thus to tread down Jerusalem, and its streets shall be again trodden by its rightful owners, the People of Israel. Then those "times of the Gentiles" will be changed for the times of the Jews.
Those times therefore are not co-terminous with any of the seven dispensations mentioned above, but overlap.
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They begin before the present Church period, and do not close until after it has ended.
These same times are referred to in Rom. xi. 25: "Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." This is usually spoken of as pertaining to the completion of the Church. But the Church is not in question here at all. It is the relation between the Jews and the Gentiles; and the Church is not composed of Gentiles as distinct from Jews, or of Jews as distinct from Gentiles. For it is made up both of Jews and Gentiles, who, on becoming members of "the Church of God," lose this distinction altogether, being made members of a Body in which now there is neither Jew nor Gentile. This is expressly stated in Gal. iii. 28, Col. iii. 11. (Compare Rom. x. 12. 1 Cor. xii. 13. Gal. v. 6. Eph. ii. 15.) This must therefore refer to the fulness or filling up of the times of the Gentiles; and the word "Gentiles" must be understood as being put for the "times" which they fill up.
Moreover, Israel will not be saved by the Rapture of the Church, but by the coming of "the Deliverer out of Zion, turning away ungodliness from Jacob." It is Isaiah lix. 20 that is being quoted in Rom. xi. 26, and not 1 Thess. iv. 16; and there is nothing about the "fulness" or completion of the Church in Isaiah.
Before the Deliverer comes there must be that from which Israel is to be delivered; and that will be the great Tribulation, "when the enemy shall come in like a flood." (See Isa. lix. 19-21).
It is clear, therefore, that Rom. xi. 25 refers to the same "times of the Gentiles" of which the Lord speaks in Luke xxi. 24.
5. The Parenthesis of the Present Dispensation.
There is another matter connected with these Times and Dispensations. This is revealed by our Lord's own action in the synagogue at Nazareth. (Luke iv. 16-20.) He stood up and read Isaiah lxi. 1, 2. He read the first verse; but, after He had read the first sentence in the second verse, "HE CLOSED THE BOOK, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down." (Luke iv. 20.)