Sometimes Dispensationalists ask us if we cannot see that it is obvious that there are dispensations, different periods demarked in Scripture that show God’s working in different periods of time with different requirements and tests for the human race. The answer is yes and no. Reformed theologians and Calvin himself used the term dispensation to refer to a unique period with unique requirements. We could all probably use the term dispensation more frequently if it was not associated with a total system of theology, Classical Dispensationalism. In this essay, I will accept the use of the term but will explain how the problem is Classical Dispensational definitions and descriptions of these dispensations.
There clearly was a change after Adam and Eve fell. There was a pre-fall period however brief and then the period from that fall to Noah. The period until Noah was not one without law for it is clear that Noah knew that standards from God (law) were being severely violated by the society of his day. After the flood, a new era had begun. The salvation of Noah and his family was by grace but required his faith obedience. After the flood, the promise was given of never again destroying the earth with a flood. Laws were also given, to not eat blood from animals killed for food and to exact the death penalty for murder. Certainly, many other standards of right and wrong were known. These standards were no doubt known to Abraham. Before the Covenant of Abraham, we can thus count three dispensations, Innocence, Pre-Flood, and Post flood to Abraham. There is no contrast of grace versus law in these periods.
A new dispensation began with Abraham and his family but most of the world continued under the covenant God made with Noah. The Noahic Covenant does not end. However, for Israel, there was a new order of promise. Dispensationalists sometimes call the period from Abraham to Moses a dispensation of promise, and that it was. The Abrahamic Covenant continues to be in effect until today. It was not without law. Indeed, Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God (Gen. 15:6) but in Genesis 26:5 because he obeyed God’s statutes, ordinances, and judgments. Abraham knew at least part of the Law of God that was later incorporated into the Mosaic Covenant!
God hundreds of years later made his constitution for Israel through Moses, the Mosaic Covenant material from Exodus 20 through Deuteronomy (Davarim). The Abrahamic Covenant is not replaced but is permanent. Thomas McComiskey asserts in his fine book, Covenants of Promise, the Mosaic Covenant was a temporary administration of the Abrahamic Covenant. It is a covenant of grace, not a law covenant that challenged Israel to find salvation through law-keeping. We have already written about this. This brings us to a fifth dispensation.
The Mosaic Covenant is not abolished but is superseded in the New Covenant. All that is applicable from Moses for the New Covenant order is assumed to be applied in the New Covenant (Matthew 5:17,18, Romans 8:4). The New Covenant in Yeshua is made with Israel but then is applied to those from the nations who embrace the apostolic witness and are grafted into the Jewish olive tree. The New Covenant is the permanent administration of the Mosaic Covenant and comes to fullness in the Millennial Age.
After the return of Yeshua, we will enter the Age to Come or the seventh dispensation, the Millennial Age. It is also a dispensation of grace with a response of obedience to the law.
The New Heavens and the New Earth are eternity and not one of the seven just as eternity past before the creation is not a dispensation. We can therefore see that there are dispensations, but we describe the contrasts and continuum in very different ways.