Dispensationalism

Reading this post, a passing reference to dispensationalism caught my eye. This was further reinforced as I was reading Ephesians 3 tonight which, in the KJV, starts out like this:

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward...

- Ephesians 3:1-2

Since I didn't know what dispensationalism is, I went and looked it up on Wikipedia. It is described there as "an interpretive or narrative framework for understanding the overall flow of the Bible," with the basic premise being that "biblical history [is] a number of successive economies or administrations, called dispensations, each of which emphasizes the discontinuity of the Old Testament covenants God made with His various people."

Whilst the delineation between dispensations varies from tradition to tradition, here is one of the most common:

• the dispensation of innocence (Gen 1:1–3:7), prior to Adam's fall;


• of conscience (Gen 3:8–8:22), Adam to Noah;


• of government (Gen 9:1–11:32), Noah to Abraham;


• of patriarchal rule (Gen 12:1–Exod 19:25), Abraham to Moses;


• of the Mosaic Law (Exod 20:1–Acts 2:4), Moses to Christ;


• of grace (Acts 2:4–Rev 20:3, the current church age; and


• of a literal, earthly 1,000-year Millennial Kingdom that has yet to come but soon will (Rev 20:4–20:6).

This view is generally contrasted with Covenant Theology, which views history in terms of covenants, rather than dispensations.