7.3 Seven Dispensations
The unfolding of the Great Story of God is God’s response to the wicked actions of humans and angels. That story unfolds as a series of purposes or dispensations of God in human affairs. Those seven dispensations can be called in this way. (1) The Time of Opportunity, (2) The Age of Great Wickedness (3) The Season of Limitation, (4) The Dispensation of Law, (5) The Time of the In-Part Church, (6) The Completion of the Age, and (7) The Age of Tabernacles.
Each of the transitions from one dispensation to the next contains an individual who spans the transition, fully part of the preceding time first, and then fully part of the next season. The first is Adam, the second is Noah, the third is Moses, the fourth is Jesus, and the fifth, going across three, is the Manchild.
Knowing What It Means. I am convinced that we are entirely inside of the sixth dispensation, the Completion of the Age, now in the year of our Lord, 2023. And it is very much in our interests to know what this time-period is and means. Thus we must know how it fits inside of God’s overall layout of dealing with rebellious humans.
Understand that God is not focused on “dealing with rebellious humans,” but on proving Christ Jesus faithful and true as every Word that God speaks. Yet we must assume, since God is Good and True, that these various ways in which God has dealt with human rebellion are necessary for the proving of Christ. This lesson will be an overview of these seven dispensations.
The Intentions of God. Of truth, I am giving you my version of Brother Buddy Cobb’s “Plan of God,” a course I took in college at Blueberry. That course is called “The Dispensations of God in the History of the Church” on my transcript. I learned much from Brother Buddy over many years, and the Bible he taught me remains inside of me, coming up in surprising ways. Nonetheless, those truths fit into my present knowledge of God in ways quite different from what Buddy Cobb taught.
This is not the “plan” of God, for the word “plan” goes into the same dustbin where we have tossed “the will” of God. God intends good out from His desire to be known, and He moves the outcome of all things towards that intention.
Placing the Years. Before we start, it would be helpful to place these seven dispensations according to their years. My dates come out from the Reece Chronological Bible.
The Time of Opportunity likely occurred inside one year’s time, the year 3975 BC. The Age of Great Wickedness then took place from 3975 to 2319 BC, the year of the flood, a period of 1,656 years. The Season of Limitation lasted from 2319 BC until 1462 BC, the year of the Exodus and Mt. Sinai, 857 years. Then the Dispensation of Law passed from 1462 BC until AD 29, the year of the death and resurrection of Jesus, or 1,487 years. The Time of the In-part Church ran from AD 29 to AD 2022, 1,993 years, with the present dispensation of 7 years completing the age of folly running from AD 2022 to 2029. (The years are a guess; the transition from BC to AD is tricky.) Finally the Age of Tabernacles runs from AD 2029 to AD 3029, or 1000 years, beginning at 6000 years from Adam.
Placing the Millenia. Then, even though the beginning and ending dates of these dispensations don’t always fall on the 1000-year mark, we see that God did also underline each of the millennial transitions. Enoch was around the first thousand-year mark and Abraham the second. God filled Solomon’s temple exactly on the 3000th year from Adam. Jesus’ ministry is at the 4000th year, and the time around the 5000th year (the end of the tenth century AD) was marked by many strange and glorious things in Christianity.
(The electrical theory of the universe and catastrophism do give scientific support for 6000 years of human history. The theory of long ages of earth history has been thoroughly falsified.)
What Are We Looking For? Before we begin an explanation of each of these time-periods, let’s set out exactly what we are looking for in each. Specifically, everything is moving towards that moment of the Unveiling of Jesus Christ, now seen and known as His Church, that demonstration that when God speaks, His words are always faithful and True. That can’t happen apart from humans on this earth asserting that God speaks the truth as the story of their entire lives.
We could say that the Unveiling of Jesus Christ causes certain humans on this earth to assert that God speaks the truth inside of all that they are. It is the Unveiling that causes such a miracle to happen in us.
I Have Reserved. Yet there is no greater picture of the RESISTANCE of all humans towards such an idea that God speaks the Truth than the murder of the Lord Jesus. The fact that Christians today are looking for the same “super-Christ” to appear in the sky, just like the Pharisees, tells us that nothing has changed.
Yet it is the word of the Lord to Elijah that rules. “I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18). God has always kept a remnant to Himself in every generation from Abel until today.
The Remnant. It is actually this remnant alone that means something in every generation of human history. And God’s impartation to this remnant of the miracle of believing in Him is the primary purpose of God in every dispensation of His dealings with humans.
But the secondary purpose of the proving of Jesus faithful and True also marks each of these dispensations, and that is God’s great need and determination to prove the liars to be false. Now, it is a remarkable thing that every individual in this remnant in every generation received the grace of God, God with me, through faith, through receiving God as True and good. We know Abel and Enoch, and they know us.
Every Man a Liar. Now, even though the remnant means everything to God, proving the liars to be false seems to us to be the larger outward reason inside these dispensations. God is determined to bring the clash initiated by the serpent’s first words, “Did God indeed say,” embraced by Adam, into a full display of – “Let God be True and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4), the driving tension of the Great Story of God. “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
Then here is an expression of the purpose of God towards the remnant. – But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law – to redeem (Galatians 4:4-5),
The Time of Opportunity. Let’s begin with the first dispensation, the Time of Opportunity, likely occurring inside of one year’s time. In fact, let’s use our discussion of this dispensation as a way of hammering out exactly what we want to define for each of the seven dispensations.
God always places the end clearly inside the beginning, and so the opportunity God set before Adam, the choice of being life or death to all, cannot remain in Adam’s dark choice. The human choice to be the River of Life inside of Jesus must negate every aspect of Adam’s falseness – an event known as the Unveiling of Jesus Christ through us His Church. Eat of Life for yourself and be the River of Life for all.
The Age of Human Folly. We then call five of these seven dispensations, 2-6, as “The Age of Human Folly.” Thus the one we are in right now, #6, The Completion of the Age, is defined entirely by humans on this earth eating of life for themselves and being life for all others.
Nicene thinking calls this first dispensation the time of innocence. This correlates with their end for mankind, which is to live in the enjoyment of God forever. As “nice” as those two descriptions sound, they actually and savagely cut out the heart and purpose of God, to be known by all through humans loving one another.
Adam had the opportunity to be God-Revealed, but he preferred his mind darkened by the imagination of control and his heart filled with hatred and self-worship.
The Age of Great Wickedness. It is so very important to pronounce Adam as supremely wicked because we don’t want to be like him. I can assure you as well, that Adam doesn’t want to be like him either.
Then the Age of Great Wickedness began with God clothing Adam and Eve with the skin of a beast and driving them out of the garden. It is evident from Scripture that God is shocked, stunned, and absolutely overwhelmed by the horror of wickedness humans now engaged in against one another – without restraint. It seems almost that it takes God fifteen hundred years just to get His bearings and begin to move things forward towards redemption. We don’t ascribe limitation to God by saying it this way; rather, we make God to be personal and real.
Grieved in His Heart. Here is the boast of humans throughout this entire age. – “Listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me.” This is a profound level of speaking. “You hurt me a little bit, and I will destroy you without end.”
Then here is God’s shock at what humans had made themselves to be. – Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart (Genesis 6:5-6). In essence, God wiped the whole earth clean and began again with Noah.
Limiting the Age of Folly. Yet every element of the redemption of God and the victory of Christ in the earth is found inside the remnant God kept for Himself through every generation of this horrific time. The one thing to point out here is how God treated personally with both Cain and Abel. This was a statement from the beginning that God treats personally with every single human.
Then consider these words in Genesis 6 – And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” I interpret “120 years” to be years of Jubilee. In other words, God will not let humans continue in this evil state forever, but the Age of Human Folly will be limited to 120 years of Jubilee (the promise of release), that is, 6000 years.
The Season of Limitation. The next dispensation we have called “The Season of Limitation.” We understand that the great flood was caused by a massive spike of electricity hitting the binary stars of what we now call the sun and its smaller star called Saturn around which the earth had orbited, causing Saturn to blow into four big pieces and sending Venus into electro-magnetic collision with the earth. (See my article titled “Human Pre-History.”
The end result for humans was a massive reduction in ability. It is likely that a reduction in oxygen levels as well as no longer living in the frequencies emitted by Saturn, caused human IQ to drop significantly. Then, through these centuries, the earth was split into continents as part of all the planetary collisions and humans were split into mutually incomprehensible language groups.
A Story and a Family. God’s remnant during these centuries included Seth, Job, and Abraham, with Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. It is remarkable to me that the only thing Abraham had from God was a still small voice speaking to him inside himself a few times over many years. Yet that was enough for Abraham to be the father of faith.
The point for us is this, that it is two thousand years from Adam’s rebellion that God first establishes His name inside of humans on this earth, in pointing towards the victory of Christ. And that STORY, that family, that KINGDOM is begun inside a simple man who believes with all his heart that God is telling him the truth. It really isn’t anything more than that.
Abraham was God’s REBUKE of Adam.
An Ark of Salvation. The most important person for our present understanding was Noah, the one who bridges both dispensations. Noah lived for 600 years inside the Age of Great Wickedness and for 350 years inside the Time of Limitation. That is quite astonishing.
We get God’s meaning best from Hebrews 11. – Through [full assurance of] faith, Noah, having been warned [by God] concerning the things not yet perceived, moved with caution to construct an ark for the salvation of his household; through which he condemned the world and became heir of the just innocence that is according to faith. Jesus said that our day is the same; this is what we are doing.
The Dispensation of Law. God’s purpose for the fourth dispensation, the Dispensation of Law, is clearly stated by Paul in Galatians 3.
Is the law then against the promises of God? It cannot be! If any law ever given was able or had the power to bring forth life, then indeed, just rightness and innocence would have emerged out of law. The Scriptures then enclosed and imprisoned all under falling absolutely short of God SO THAT the promise out from the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those believing and persuaded. More than that, before faith came to us, we were held captive as prisoners, having been imprisoned under law, until the about-to-be unveiled faith. So, the law has become our trainer into Christ so that we might be declared just and innocent out from faith. But now that faith has come, we are NO LONGER under a trainer.
You Can’t Do It! A primary purpose of this 1500-year time-period was to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ right at the 4,000 year mark. Paul also said that the law itself, incapable of bringing forth life, is for the knowledge of sin, specifically that we might know just how sinful sin really is.
Thus we see that, in essence, God is saying to mankind, “Listen, you think you can approach Me by your own doing. You imagine that if I just give you My word under your control, you can accomplish whatever you imagine I want. Okay, have a go at it. Knock yourself out. And when you prove you cannot, then I have something real for you instead, the same thing I offered to Adam, life inside of Jesus.”
Four Men and a Ship. God has a positive purpose for the law, however, and I want to establish that purpose here. To do that I will use the metaphor of a ship. In fact, this is the best metaphor for us to understand what God is after through these entire 7000 years.
Let’s consider four men, Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. The qualities of their lives concerning God are remarkably similar and all others who are part of God’s remnant from Abel on are also similar. Let’s relate a ship to the lives of each of these men, specifically five parts of a ship. Think carefully. Where do we place the law? Those five parts are the set of their prow, the rudder that steers them, the wind that fills their sails, the cargo they carry in their hearts, and the ballast and keel that keeps them upright in the stormy seas.
The Ballast of the Ship. The law is not the set of their face, or the rudder that steers them or the wind that fills their sails or the cargo they carry. The law is the ballast/keel that keeps them upright, almost without thinking. Why did David run into the holiest with his sin? Because he knew that he had violated God’s law. Yet at no point did he place that law between himself and God.
Each of these related with God as a Person of respect. Each heard His voice, but not as “hear and obey.” Rather, their relationship was as fellowship and their desire was to KNOW the Lord. That was the set of each of their prows. It is clear that the wind that filled the sails of each was the Spirit of God. Those who know the Spirit recognize that same Spirit.
Speaking the Rudder. The cargo that filled the heart of each was God’s people, Jerusalem, the Church of Jesus Christ, that they might bring her safely home.
The rudder that steered them was, as James said, the words that they spoke. Let me give you the heart of those words. Moses – He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. David - I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Isaiah – Surely He has born our griefs and carried our sorrows. – Those who wait upon the Lord shall arise as eagles. Jeremiah – Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”
Constrained by Love. Once during one of the many times I read through the Bible, I remarked to myself while reading Leviticus. “This is the book of love. These people have no idea how to love their neighbors and God is instructing them how to do such a thing.”
Consider a law of God. – Thou shalt not commit adultery. Then let’s place the positive from Solomon. – Keep your wife as the desire of your eyes. These two instructions, before and behind, have been as the keel and ballast beneath my thinking for 32 years now, not because “I must keep the law” but because I love my wife.
I teach you to love one another, to call upon God to save you from contempt. You are freer in Jesus than ever, yet your life has become constrained by the law of love.
David and Moses. Even though all in the remnant are similar in these things, David was marked by God as one “after My own heart.” What made David unique? – Reckless exuberance. No person in the universe is more reckless than Jesus in saving us, and no one is more exuberant than our Father.
Yet it is Moses who bridges across the Time of Limitation into the Dispensation of Law. Moses lived 80 years inside of Limitation and another 40 years after Mt. Sinai. And the point of Mt. Sinai was not the law, but God and a man meeting together for the sake of God’s people. No one in the Old Testament paid a higher price to see God’s people safe than Moses. Moses and Paul are equals in this quality.
The Time of the In-Part Church. Jesus then lived 33 ½ years inside the Dispensation of Law and 40 days inside the Time of the In-Part Church. It was on the Sunday of His resurrection that ten of the disciples, and probably some of the women, were born again. We could say that Jesus continues through the entire Church Age, for we are His body. Yet that would not be the full picture, for Jesus has been vitally involved with God’s remnant from Abel until now.
The remnant continues the same throughout the Church Age, but that is not our concern here. Our question, the question with which we confront God for an answer, is regarding the whole of Christianity and the lack of knowing God’s Salvation, even among the true remnant all the way through.
Why the Veil? The full and absolute VICTORY of the manifest sons of God in the completion of the age, setting creation free, is nothing other than the gospel available to all from the start, the normal Christian life. Yet as Paul and Isaiah both say, a veil has been upon the hearts of God’s people, and they have not known even what is written on the pages of their Bibles. Yet even Moses and David did not have the faith or the grace now given to us in the completion of the age. As Peter says, it is a grace that comes only in the Unveiling of Jesus Christ.
We place only our question concerning the In-Part Church Age without any attempt at an answer. Why does the veil remain, even against the clear and wondrous Word of an already completed Salvation coming through us into our world?
Spanning Three Dispensations. Let me place myself across the span of three dispensations, but only as one of many. I lived for 65 years inside the Time of the In-Part Church. And inside the breadth of my experience, God caused me to know it deeply well and with much extent of knowledge. We are now inside the 7 years of the Completion of the Age, and by the grace of God, I will continue until our bodies are swallowed up by life. Then I will live with you into the Age of Tabernacles.
We could understand these 7000 years out from the Great Story of God, but that is not how I want us to see here. Rather, I want to go back to God’s utter shock as the extreme wickedness of man unfolded. Because God does not know sin, He could not know such awfulness, though He bears it all.
Stunned without Understanding. God was basically stunned silent for 1,556 years until He told Noah, “I’ve had enough. Build yourself a boat.” “Build yourself a boat.” This is the metaphor that enables us to see and to understand.
Yet I do not understand. For 65 years I believed God that I would be a part of a real Community of Christ and that we together would walk through these final seven years as an example to all of the Victory of the Church. Now ruin is upon the whole world, and Maureen and I are alone, and all my feeble attempts have gone awry. Yet God orders our steps, and I must know what He means.
God cannot just insert Himself into human affairs. He must come through humans who give Him an open door.
Faithful and True. God has to bring an end to the pointless and stupid screaming of human accusation against Him and the horrors of humans hurting one another through every day of their lives. And He must do so by the Triumph of the Word He speaks proven Faithful and True.
He says to me, “Son, will you carry My people in your heart together with Me? Will you call every next step we take together as for the sake of all who belong to Jesus?” And my response is, “Oh Father, that would be the most wonderful thing I could ever do with You.” I make these things personal to myself, but only as one with you, that you might make God-with-you personal as well.
A Close Run Day. But what exactly does God mean? Noah… constructed an ark for the salvation of his household; through which he condemned the world and became heir of the just innocence that is according to faith. Noah’s storm lasted for 40 days. Ours is a bit longer, yet it also has an end.
In the same way that Abraham was God’s rebuke of Adam, so God has set us as His rebuke of all the human race. We must understand that the Salvation of God revealed now upon the earth is “a close run day,” as Lord Wellington said of the battle of Waterloo. People imagine that God can just “flick His wand” and make it all happen, but that is absolutely not true.
Into the Age. God can prove the world false only through a people who prove Him True, a people who call themselves by Jesus, a people who are willing to share Hheart with God. It is this Hheart alone – “God, for Your people’s sake” – that is the ship of Salvation, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We are very small. We are weak and tired and afraid. Yet when we join our hearts with the Father’s Heart, His great muchness becomes our all. Jesus finds faith in the earth; let that faith be ours.
Yet it is a VERY DEFINITE place into which we carry God’s people through the pointless rage of beast and dragon; it is into the Age, the Age of Tabernacles – LIFE into the Age.
The Age of Tabernacles. The Age of Tabernacles is that season of time through which God establishes inside this present world all that He meant for Adam to eat of life and to be that flow of life into all the world.
Brokenness remains inside the human experience, and even death. What is gone is the whispers of fallen angels and the false identities they inspire. Restoration will not happen overnight. Healing takes time; the Kingdom must be built step by step.
What a gift we have been given, to know fully the time of unbelief, to pass through the raging storm carrying God’s people in our hearts, and to enter into the JOY of bringing forth upon this earth a Kingdom of life and love. We are indeed the most privileged people ever to have lived.