Dispensationalism

History read by dispensations

The word comes from the King James rendering of the Greek oikonomia (οἰκονομία), a household management or stewardship; Paul speaks of "the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you" (Ephesians 3:2). Dispensationalism holds that God's way of dealing with humanity differs from age to age, and reads Scripture by the revelation, responsibility, failure and judgment of each dispensation. The Scofield Reference Bible named seven: innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace and the kingdom Scofield Reference Bible.

Its central conviction is the distinction between Israel and the church. The church is a new people that began at Pentecost, and the inclusion of the Gentiles as fellow members of the body is a mystery "not made known to men in other generations" (Ephesians 3:5). So the promises of land and throne made to Abraham and David are not fulfilled only spiritually in the church; they will be fulfilled literally for the nation of Israel. Paul writes:

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved

Romans 11:25-26

Dispensationalists read "God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29) as God's faithfulness to Israel, and seek to read prophecy in its plain sense. Many therefore teach a rapture in which the church is first "caught up together with them in the clouds" (1 Thessalonians 4:17), and a premillennial reign of Christ on earth after the tribulation.

How the church came to say it

Dispensationalism was systematized by John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), a clergyman of the Church of Ireland who became a leader of the Plymouth Brethren. It spread through Bible conferences in America, and the notes of C. I. Scofield's reference Bible (1909) carried it to a vast readership. Many American Bible schools and seminaries of the twentieth century took it up, and it became widely known in the Korean church. Some early notes could be read as implying different ways of salvation in different ages, and drew criticism; dispensationalists today generally state plainly that in every dispensation salvation is by grace through faith. In the later twentieth century progressive dispensationalism arose, recognizing more continuity between Israel and the church.

Where the traditions differ

Covenant theology reads the biblical covenants as one covenant of grace, and holds that Christ "has made the two one" (Ephesians 2:14), so that Israel and the church are one people and the promises to Israel are fulfilled in Christ for all who belong to him. Dispensationalists reply that such a reading turns God's promises to Israel too readily into something merely spiritual. Historic premillennialists share the hope of a thousand-year reign after Christ's return, but most do not accept a strict distinction between Israel and the church or a pretribulation rapture. This is a serious discussion among evangelicals; both sides believe Scripture to be God's word and long for Christ's return.

Many in the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed churches follow an amillennial reading and do not use the dispensational framework (see the millennium). See What are the rapture and the millennium? and the lesson Christ’s return and the millennium.