DISPENSATIONALISTS teach that God’s administration of mankind changed at various periods of time since the world began: that there are seven dispensations and that before Jesus died and rose again the world was administered by God through the nation of Israel in the Age of Law which began when Israel came out of Egypt about 1500BC. Jesus ministered at the end of the Age of Law.
After Christ came God appointed secular governments to rule kingdoms and the Church, consisting of believing Jews and Gentiles, was entrusted with the Gospel; the message of salvation.
Each Dispensation concluded with the failure of mankind to respond positively to God’s administration.
A change in God’s administration took place two thousand years ago when the Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah and King; God introduced a new dispensation which we call the Church Age in which Israel ceased to be the channel through which God dealt with the world. He began a new work through a company of people drawn from all nations who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches that this Church Age will conclude in failure and we can see evidence of this everywhere. Many churches don’t even believe the Bible and many strange cults propagate gross error.
The Bible teaches that the final Dispensation will occur after the Lord returns and that He will reign for 1,000 years from Jerusalem but before that occurs there will be seven years of Great Tribulation during which Israel will repent and acknowlege Jesus Christ as her Saviour and King.
The Apostle Paul described this in Romans chapter 11. He likened Israel to the natural branch of the olive tree and the Gentiles as a “wild olive branch”.
The natural branch was plucked off and the wild olive branch grafted into the olive tree. In the last days however the wild olive branch will be plucked off and the natural olive branch grafted back into the olive tree when “the fulness of the Gentiles” has come in i.e. the Church is complete.
The “fulness of the Gentiles” triggers the removal of the true believers who make up the Church of Jesus Christ before the Tribulation and we call that the Rapture. Twice Jesus told the Jews that the removal of the Christians would be a sign to them that the end of the age had come. In Luke 17 and Matthew 24 Jesus said that there would be a global disappearance of people from all walks of life: He said, “one shall be taken and the other left.”
The purpose of the seven years of Tribulation is to judge the Gentile nations and to bring Israel to repentance. Early in the Tribulation, at the time of the Russian/Islamic invasion of Israel the remnant repents of the sin of rejecting Christ as Messiah, Saviour and King.
The Church age was not revealed in the Old Testament and Paul states that the Church was a mystery which “in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body” (Eph.3:5-6).
In the Age of Law the God of Israel was worshipped as the only true and living God. Other nations worshipped their gods that were idols. When a Gentile turned from idolatry to the Lord they left their nation and became a “stranger in Israel” and enjoyed the same covenant blessings as the Jewish people (Exod.12:49).
God always intended to establish the Kingdom of God on earth and that Christ would reign over all nations. Israel would have an administrative role in the Kingdom of God and lead the kingdom of God from Jerusalem which is a place specially chosen by God (Deut.12:5,11,14,18,26).
The nation of Israel was therefore identified as God’s people though not every individual Jew had a personal relationship with God. God had a covenant relationship with the nation which made it possible for individuals to have a personal relationship with Himself. Within the nation there were believing Jews and unbelieving Jews.
Personal salvation is a personal relationship with God. No Jew will go to heaven simply because he or she belongs to the privileged nation of Israel.
In Jesus’ day many Jews had adopted formalism and practised the traditions of men as a religion without personal faith in the Living God. The Church Age was a change in God’s administration until the nation repented; God established the Church from all nations to do what Israel as a nation should
have done. The nation of Israel would be chastened and scattered among the Gentiles until they repented but the prophets foretold a future time when God would bring the Jews back to the land and then He would send Russia and Islamic nations into Israel to cause them to seek the Lord in true repentance.
At the end of the Age of Law, God sent John the Baptist to call Israel to genuine faith and obedience. He preached that the Kingdom of God was at hand because the King was about to appear. When Jesus appeared John declared that He was the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus also called Israel to repentance and told them that the Kingdom of God was “at hand” (Matt.4:17) because the King was in their midst.
For about 2 or 3 years Jesus preached and on Palm Sunday he officially presented Himself as “Messiah the Prince” to the nation at Jerusalem in fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 and Daniel 9:25:
“Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matt.21:5).
Having rejected their King, Israel temporarily lost the kingdom and when Jesus rose from the grave he told the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would come and establish the dispensation of the Church.
The Church Age Established
Jesus knew that the Jews would reject Him and the kingdom was deferred. He described true believers in His day as “His sheep” in John chapter 10 and went on to say:
“Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16).
The “other sheep” were other than believing Jews i.e. they would be believing Gentiles and when Jesus brought those there would only be “one fold” (literally “one flock”), the Church.
The “fold” of Israel into which Gentiles came when they turned from their idols would cease to be the “fold” and there would be a “flock” secure with the Good Shepherd. That flock would would be comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles in one body; the Church, as Paul stated in Galatians 3:26-28:
“For ye are all (Jew and Gentile) the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. …. There is neither Jew nor Greek (Gentile) … for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”.
Jesus clearly indicated that there was going to be a new dispensation beyond the “fold” of the nation of Israel no longer protected by national covenants but a new “flock” led by One Person: the Good Shepherd.
Old Testament Saints Became New Testament Saints
The change from the dispensation of Law to the Dispensation of the Church was a period of transition. Old Testament saints who were alive at the time bevcame New testament saints. In John 17 Jesus prayed for those who under the old order had believed. Old Testament saints belonged to the Father. They could not believe on Christ before He came therefore the Father gave those Old Testament saints to Christ because under the new dispensation of the Church age all true believers “belong to Christ” (Mark 9:41).
Referring to those who believed on Him while He was on earth He said: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word” (John 17:6).
After Jesus returned to heaven these saints who were given to Christ would preach the Gospel and Jesus prayed for those who would believe through their preaching:
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20-21).
This verse has been wrongly used by the ecumenical movement to support the union of all the apostate denominations but it has nothing to do with the ecumenism. Jesus was speaking of the new Church Age in which Jew and Gentile, Old Testament saint and new Testament saint, would be joined in one Body in the Church.
Under the Old Testament there was a distinction between Jews and Gentiles in the nation of Israel. Gentiles were defined as “strangers” in Israel but in the new Church Age dispensation there is “neither Jew nor Greek” but “all one in Christ Jesus”.
A New Covenant
In Jeremiah’s prophecy Israel is promised a New Covenant (Jer.31:31- 34) when they repent and turn to the Lord in the last days. Before Jesus went to the cross; at the Last Supper, He took wine and said:
“This is my blood of the new testament (covenant), which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:24-25).
Old Testament saints were saved under the Old Covenant made with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. Animal sacrifices were prescribed that looked forward to the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross. But we, in the new dispensation of the Church, are saved under the New Covenant. Christ is the Lamb of God who shed His blood to take away the sins of the world. His shed blood is the basis of the New Covenant.
All through Christ’s ministry on earth He preached about the future Kingdom of God over which he will reign and at the end of His ministry He indicated certain signs that would occur before the Kingdom was established; there must be a period of Great Tribulation in fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy (Dan.9:24-27) and
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: … and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt.24:29-30).
When Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation He will find a repentant nation of Israel waiting for His return. Christ will make a new covenant with them and will reign as King of kings for 1,000 years before the earth is renovated by fire and there is a new heavens and new earth for eternity. There is no doubt Christ taught Dispensational truth:
- He came in Israel’s Age of Law;
- He foretold the Church Age when one flock would replace the fold of Israel.
- The Church Age would end with the Global disappearance of individuals (the Rapture) that will be a sign to Israel that the Day of the Lord; the Great Tribulation, had come.
- Immediately after the Tribulation Jesus will return and establish the Kingdom of God on earth for 1,000 years after which there will be a new heavens and earth for all eternity! (1Cor.15:24).
BY John Ecob
