The Two Dispensations
by Glenn Conjurske
Though dispensationalists commonly speak of seven dispensations, there are in essence but two. There is a dispensation of justice and a dispensation of mercy. But before endeavoring to explain that matter, it will be first necessary to clarify what a dispensation is.
If we were to ask most dispensationalists what a dispensation is, the first words we would hear would be, “A dispensation is a period of time…” This comes directly from C. I. Scofield, who says, “A dispensation is a period of time during which God deals in a particular way with man in respect to sin, and to man’s responsibility.” Though there is some justification for such a manner of speaking, it is not strictly true, and it serves to somewhat obscure the real essence of dispensationalism.
What, then, is a dispensation? A dispensation is an economy or administration. The Greek word from whence it is derived is j v —-that is, oikonomia, whence comes our “economy,” which was formerly spelled “oeconomie.” This Greek word is a compound of two words, meaning “house” and “law.” A dispensation, then, is a household law, or, when applied to a state or nation, an administration. It is not a period of time, but an aggregate of principles by which the state is governed. Thus Americans speak of “the Reagan administration,” or “the Nixon administration.” From this it will appear, however, how naturally the element of time is associated with dispensations, for it is perfectly proper to speak of events which took place “during the Reagan administration.” Yet the administration is not the time, but the principles which govern it. And as said, to make a dispensation a period of time tends to obscure the essence of dispensationalism, for people commonly suppose that there are seven different dispensations, whereas in reality, though the details of administration may vary, so far as concerns the root principle of them, there are but two. But many dispensationalists are so pre-occupied with the differences in detail—-or the supposed and imagined differences in detail—-between the various administrations, that they fail to perceive the real nature of those dispensations.
The two dispensations are in force alternately throughout history, somewhat after the manner of Democratic and Republican administrations alternating in the government of America. The two divine dispensations are the dispensation of justice, and the dispensation of forbearance—-the dispensation of righteousness, and the dispensation of mercy—-the dispensation of holiness, and the dispensation of love—-the dispensation of law, and the dispensation of grace. These two, it will be plainly seen, correspond to the two sides of God’s moral nature. “God is light”—-a figurative term, which stands for holiness—-“and in him is no darkness at all”—-no taint of moral evil; and “God is love”—-which is not figurative, and needs no explanation.
The two dispensations, then, are a display of what God is. Those two dispensations display the two sides of his nature. They say as it were, “Behold the goodness and severity of God”—-the goodness of God in the dispensation of mercy, and the severity of God in the dispensation of justice.
It should also be understood that those two dispensations manifest what God is in relationship to sin. The foremost theme of the Bible, from cover to cover, is sin. The book is the record of the origin, course, consequences, and end of sin, and of God’s dealings with it. Now it so happens that God has two ways of dealing with sin, according to the two sides of his moral nature. He deals in either justice or mercy. He either forbears and forgives, or executes judgement. And this it is that determines the character of the two dispensations.
It must be understood, however, that the display of one side of God’s nature never excludes the other side. God is always God, and he is always both love and light. He is always both just and merciful. He is always both loving toward sinners, and indignant toward sin. There is mercy in the dispensation of justice, and judgement in the dispensation of grace. Rahab is saved even in the very day of judgement, in the dispensation of justice. And the hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira meets with the same severity in the dispensation of grace as did the hypocrisy of Achan in the dispensation of law. There was but one difference, that being that in the day of grace God executed that judgement with his own hands, while in the day of justice God required his people to stone the offender. And this difference is very instructive, for the current dispensation consists of what God has committed into the hands of man. Though neither dispensation excludes the opposite side of God’s nature, the administration which is in force determines the character of the time, and the character of the saints who live under the dispensation.
The full and final display of the two sides of God’s nature awaits the eternal state, when “God is love” shall be fully manifested in an eternal heaven, while “God is light” is fully manifested in an eternal hell. Meanwhile, there is grace in every dispensation, as well as justice, but grace characterizes the dispensation of grace, while justice characterizes the dispensation of justice.
The dispensation of justice is always associated with the rule of God upon the earth. This dispensation is in force four times during the history of the world, over Adam in the garden, over the sons of Noah in the earth, over the children of Israel in the land, and over the sons of men in the redeemed earth in the millennial reign of Christ. The administration, dispensation, or economy which is in force during those times is an administration of justice, which establishes the authority of God over the earth—-or over a part of it, which is representative of the whole, as in the garden of Eden and the land of Canaan. Excepting the first, when there was no sin, those dispensations are always introduced with the execution of judgement—-with a thorough purge of the Lord’s threshing-floor (Matt. 3:12), which is the earth. By those judgements the whole sphere of the display of the justice of God is swept clean of its wicked inhabitants. Such was the flood and the extermination of the Canaanites, and such will be the execution of judgement upon all the ungodly at the coming of Christ.
Sandwiched between those four manifestations of the dispensation of justice, we find always the dispensation of grace, or forbearance. The Lord does not then maintain his rights in the earth, but allows iniquity to run its course, while he calls his faithful few to a path of separation from it. While the earth is thus given over to corruption, the elect are called with a heavenly calling—-to a life of “pilgrims and strangers on the earth.” Noah lived in such a dispensation before the flood, and his business then was to assert the claims of the Lord as a preacher of righteousness. The flood, however, was the beginning of the dispensation of righteousness, or justice, and after the flood Noah was called not only to preach righteousness, but to administer it. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” (Gen. 9:6).
The responsibility which this injunction lays upon man has never been rescinded, so that the Gentile to this day is the minister of God, who bears the sword to execute justice in the earth. (Rom. 13). But God himself stands aloof from that administration of righteousness, for he long ago “gave them up” (Rom. 1) to go their own way, he meanwhile forbearing until the vine of the earth is ripe, when another sweeping judgement will introduce again the dispensation of justice.
It was at the tower of Babel that he “gave them up.” Dispensationalists, following C. I. Scofield and others, commonly refer to this as the judgement which ended the Noahic dispensation, but this is a mistake, stemming from a failure to apprehend the real nature of the two dispensations. In the thinking of Scofield and his followers, every dispensation must end with a judgement, and they therefore list the flood as the end of one dispensation, and “the judgement of Babel” as the end of the next, but this is confusion. The flood and the “judgement” at Babel have scarcely anything in common. Moreover, those judgements which dispensationalists commonly make the end of the various dispensations are in reality the commencement of the dispensation which follows. Those judgements themselves are the full proof that the dispensation of forbearance has ended, and the dispensation of justice begun. And this, by the way, is an oblique though very solid proof that the dispensation will change BEFORE the judgements of the book of Revelation are poured out. But it must be observed that in those cases when the dispensation of justice gives way to the dispensation of forbearance, there is no judgement, and in the nature of the case cannot be. The dispensation of forbearance is not introduced with judgement, as the dispensation of justice is. No judgement was poured out at the inauguration of the dispensation of grace. There was no judgement at the tower of Babel—-nothing at all resembling the flood, or the execution of the Canaanites, or the judgement of the ungodly at the coming of Christ. At the tower of Babel, God scattered them and abandoned them, but executed no judgement. He restrained them, as he has done throughout the present dispensation of forbearance, but he poured out no judgement upon them. He “gave them up,” and thus entered upon the long course of forbearance which will end at the execution of those judgements which break the Gentiles in pieces as a potter’s vessel, and establish the kingdom of God on earth.
God’s forbearance with the Canaanites, however, ended much sooner, for while the whole race was given up by God, he maintained his dealings with a small portion of it, and while the whole earth was given up, he undertook to maintain his claims in a small portion of it, which was representative of the whole.
As for the race, no sooner did God give it up in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, at the tower of Babel, than he laid hold of Abraham. And his first words to Abraham were “Get thee out,” thus calling him to a life of separation from the corrupt mass which was now given up, and left to run its course in iniquity, under the forbearance of God. Abraham was called thus to be a pilgrim and a stranger on the earth, seeking a heavenly country.
As to the earth, the land of Canaan was chosen of God as the field for the display of his justice. That land was promised to Abraham and to his seed, but centuries must pass ere they could possess it, for the sole reason that “the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full” (Gen 15:16), and the dispensation of forbearance must run its course.
We, of course, belong to the same dispensation that Abraham did. We belong to the dispensation of grace, or forbearance. We are not called to execute judgement upon the earth, nor to establish the kingdom of God here, nor to maintain the claims of righteousness among the Gentiles whom God has given up. We are called to be pilgrims and strangers upon the earth, to seek the city whose builder and maker is God, to lay up our treasures in heaven, to “come out from among them and be separate,” and of course to preach the message that the day of forbearance will end, and the day of judgement overtake all who will not forsake the world and join with us in the holy pilgrimage.
We are well aware that there is progressive revelation in the Bible, and also altered circumstances from one age to another. Those things may very much affect the details of the varying dispensations, but do not affect the fact that the dispensations are in essence but two.
Glenn Conjurske