DISPENSATIONS

Biblically speaking, a 'dispensation' is a divinely appointed age through which human history unfolds.

Scripture reveals seven:

1. The Age of Innocence 

It began when Adam was created ... And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

It ended when he disobeyed God ... Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

2. The Age of Conscience 

It began when Adam and Eve were evicted from their idyllic home ... He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)

It ended when judgment fell in the form of a flood ... And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. (Genesis 7:21-23)

3. The Age of Human Government 

It began with the commands and promises to Noah and his family ... God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth'.  I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9:1,13)

It ended with the Tower of Babel ... there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:9)

4. The Age of Law

It began with the Mosaic Covenant ... The Lord said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction'. (Exodus 24:12)

It ended at Jesus' death ...  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)

5. The Age of Grace 

It began at Pentecost ... And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

It ends with the Rapture of the church ... For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

6. The Tribulation 

It begins after believers are taken out of the way ... For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. (Mark 13:19)

It ends after seven years ... If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:22)

7. The Millennial Kingdom

It begins at Christ's second coming ... Those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

It ends at the final judgment ... The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:13)

We happen to live at the end of the 'Age of Grace,' and the rest of human history is about to play out in staggering fashion. 

'Dispensations' will give way to an eternity not bound by time ... a forever home in the presence of our Savior. 

Be there.