What does it mean?

Webster’s Dictionary says: An adherence to or advocacy of a system of interpreting history in terms of a series of God’s dispensations. 

There are exactly seven dispensations.  By my interpretation of the following listed dispensations, God has created seven as the perfect number and therefore seven dispensations fits with his overall plan of mankind on earth.  

Here are the seven listed dispensations:

Notice that each dispensation is a certain length of time. Each one is marked by an exact change, and they are back-to-back (e.g. one leads immediately into the next). This is because God has been and always will be in control of time.

Dispensation of Innocence

The Dispensation of Innocence starts with Adam living in the Garden of Eden.  There was perfect harmony between God and man, plus everything else which God created.  Since God is the author of love and peace, he wanted everything that he designed and made to be perfect.  In Genesis 1:31, “and God saw everything that he made, and, behold it was very good.”  

After Adam and Eve lived in the garden awhile, Satan, whom God cast down to earth, appears inside a serpent tempting Eve.  They were allowed to eat anything in the garden except the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden.  That tree was called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:15-17).  It wasn’t long until Satan tempted Eve to look at the fruit from that tree.  Then he tempted her to take and eat and she yielded to that.  She gave to Adam and they did both eat.  Then their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked so they tried to hide from God.  Their innocence ended abruptly with this sin of disobedience.

This dispensation ends in the year 4,285 BC

Dispensation of Punishment

This dispensation instantly followed by Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden.  They then had to begin working by the sweat of their brow and Eve had to bear children in pain and sorrow.  Even as the first children, named Cain and Abel, were born, the world was a terrible place to live.  Cain was jealous of Abel and his blessing from God upon his sacrifice that he murdered his own brother.  Cain must wander in search of food, all the while being very fearful of others who would try to kill him.  God is merciful to Cain and places a mark on him for his protection (Genesis 4:15).

Adam and Eve had another son whom they named Seth.  He was the blessed child to carry the holy lineage onto Jesus Christ the promised Savior.  All the people who lived during this time suffered affliction, distress, wanderings, and old age.  There was no civilized order or national governments established to stabilize the evil in the world.  During this time, the sons of God (otherwise known as angels especially created by God) were allowed to marry the daughters of men, since they were fair to look upon (Genesis 6:1-4).  Because God allowed this to be, people lived hundreds of years of age, because of the pureness of the genes created by God. 

Soon the world became over populated and mankind fought among themselves.  Their imaginations (thoughts and actions) were evil continually.  Only one family kept the pure heritage of God and that was Noah’s family.  God instructs Noah to build an ark and then He would destroy everyone else including the animals by a flood.  Noah labored for 120 years building the ark, and all the while, he preached that man should repent of their sinful deeds.  After Noah gathers the animals into the ark, he and his family go in and God closes the door.

This dispensation lasted about 1,981 years.

Dispensation of Regeneration

This new dispensation begins when God chooses Noah and his family to repopulate the earth after he destroyed it with a flood.  This dispensation lasts about 406 years.  During this time, the population of the earth grew rapidly again.  Noah lived 950 years total, but with each new generation of people, the length of years decline a lot. 

The people soon established a religion and built a tower to reach unto heaven and keep men together.  This wasn’t how God wanted men to live together so he simply changed their speech and the people could not understand one another.  God knew that a dense population of people living together was not good.  So he divided the people into the different races.

When Peleg, who was the great, great, great grandson of Noah and the great, great, great grandfather of Abraham, was born God divided the earth (1 Chronicles 1:19).  He was 5 generations after Noah and 5 generation before Abram.  At this time the languages and races of people were berthed and all the people separated into their very own race across all the continents of the earth.  This dispensation finally closes after God has achieved his plan of dispersing the people.

Dispensation of Law/Covenant

The Dispensation of Law/Covenant begins with Abram, who God calls to move to a land promised to him (Genesis 12:6-8) and his offspring (innumerable as stars in the sky [Genesis 15:5-7]).  God asks him to be circumcised, Ishmael, and all the other males in his house.  That day God made a covenant with him.  The year was about 1,898 BC. This was God’s first commandment to his chosen family that the male children should be circumcised on the eighth day after birth.

Under this dispensation, God asks for strict obedience to his laws. Because God knows the nature of man that he will eventually become wicked, just as in the days of Noah, God sets up this dispensation only for his chosen people. The rest of the world, known as Gentiles, was indeed very sinful. However, God ignored their sin and overlooked [winked at] their ignorance (Acts 17:30).  Another aspect of this dispensation is God requiring sacrifice. Abraham and Sara had the promised son, Isaac.  God put Abraham to the test of sacrificing Isaac upon the altar.  Faithful Abraham was obedient to God and took Isaac up to Mount Moriah to kill him unto God.  But the angel grabbed his arm and called onto Abraham just as he was ready to slay Isaac.  The angel called out and said not to slay his son. Abraham looked up to find a ram caught in the thicket.  Then he completed the sacrifice of the ram onto God. Obedience and sacrifice is the whole foundation that this dispensation was built on. (I Samuel 15:22). 

This dispensation continued onto Moses, who became the chosen leader of the Israelites.  The descendants of Abraham were Isaac, Jacob (named changed to Israel), and then the twelve sons of Jacob. This became a large family very rapidly. Moses was a descendant of Levi, who was the third son of Jacob. Moses was the leader.  He had a brother, Aaron, who became the chief priest, chosen by God because he was from Levi. Out of Levi, God ordained that the priesthood would be established. This is known as the Levitical law. God gave to Moses, on Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments which God wrote on two tablets of stone. These Ten Commandments still have significance of law and order which God clearly wanted throughout this dispensation and for the rest of time.

During this time, David was born. He was a descendant of Judah (who was the blessed son of Jacob [Genesis 49:10]).  David became king over Israel after Saul and he was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).  By David’s lineage came Jesus the promised Messiah through Mary who was a descendant of David after 28 generations. So unto Mary was born Jesus who was the fulfillment of the law (Matthew 5:17). Jesus, the son of God, comes to earth to redeem mankind from their sins. He was born in Bethlehem, the city of David in the year 3 BC; and then grew up in Nazareth under Joseph, the carpenter, the espoused husband of Mary

At the age of twelve, Jesus was found in the temple at Jerusalem being about his father’s (God) business. The doctors of the law, scribes and Pharisees, were astonished at how much he understood and questioned them. When Jesus grew to about 30 years old he began his ministry of teaching, preaching, and performing miracles onto men and women so that the people would believe him to be the Messiah sent by God to save his people from the Romans.  Many believed, including the 12 disciples, but many did not, especially the rulers and leaders of the Jews. 

After 3-1/2 years, Jesus’ mission on earth is over.  He enters Jerusalem riding on a colt, the foal of an ass whereon never man sat. Since Jesus was the Messiah, he came onto his own to establish his kingdom on earth.  The people thronged him and worshiped him as their promised savior. They laid palm branches in the way and sang Hosanna to the highest.  This was prophesied by Zechariah (9:9). At the end of the Passion Week, Jesus was crucified. He was nailed to a cross, shed his blood, and died for all mankind.  The Jewish leaders rejected him as the Messiah. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and conquered over death (Satan).  The tomb is empty.  This gives us a Blessed Hope (Titus 2:13) that someday after we die, we shall rise again.

Dispensation of Grace

This brings to a close the Dispensation of the Law/Covenant and opens up the Dispensation of Grace in 30 AD. Jesus was the complete fulfillment of the law by his sacrifice on the cross.  The veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom opening up the Holy of Holies. God had to look away from earth when Jesus, his only begotten son, died and took everyone’s sin upon himself.  He gave up the ghost saying, “It is finished” (John 19:28-30).  With his supreme sacrifice on the cross, grace flowed out of his wounds by his shed blood, so that whosoever believes on Him might be saved (John 3:16). 

This period began with Jesus dying on the cross and will abruptly end when Jesus returns in the rapture to call up the saved. The dispensation was spoken of by the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:2). The Apostles Peter and Paul revealed unto the Jews that the Gentiles could partake of salvation through grace given by Jesus Christ (Acts 11:18 and Ephesians 2:8-9).  So, from henceforth, by God’s marvelous love and grace we are granted salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This period of grace is the longest time that God has dealt with mankind, and the explanation for this is: the virtue of grace (which flowed from Christ wounds) is inarguably the best method for our merciful God to show kindness to people.  In spite of his divine mercy, men and women will eventually turn away, disastrously, from his will and walk in exceedingly sinful ways.  Whereupon, the day of grace will abruptly end with Jesus in the rapture.  When eternal salvation, true Christians will find safe haven in the shadow of his wings, meeting him in the skies, rescued from earth’s turmoil.  We will fly away like eagles (Isaiah 40:9-31), run and not be weary, walk and not faint.

Dispensation of Wrath

At the rapturous return of Jesus, grace is removed from the earth because the dead in Christ shall rise first (the first resurrection in Revelations 20:5-6) and then the alive saints will meet Jesus in the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).  Grace is a powerful and restraining mystical force over the whole world which ordered by the Holy Spirit to watch over all the affairs (2 Thessalonians 2).  When this grace is removed, then all hell breaks loose on the earth.  This ushers in the Dispensation of Wrath, which last for exactly 7 years.  This length of time is parallel to Prophet Daniel's 70th week (Daniel 9:24-27).

It begins immediately after the miraculous scene of the rapture ends.  The left behind inhabitants find themselves much bewildered and amazed at what happens in a twinkling of the eye.  They will see catastrophe of airplanes falling from the skies and automobile crashes; however, these will be very limited because there will be very few true Christians who are still alive when the rapture happens.  A few years prior to the rapture there will be much turmoil in civil governments all over the world that marginalize the Christians which ultimately very few fervent ones remain an active participant of Christianity.  This will be a time of false doctrines and turning from the truth to believe lies.  There will be a great falling away (2 Thessalonians 2:3) by the evil deceptions of Satan.  Satan immediately takes over via the anti-Christ for the first 3-1/2 years of great tribulations.    

The anti-Christ (or ante-Christ) is revealed as the savior of the world.  He will be the son of destruction (a lawless one).  He employs tremendous power over all governments and quickly takes matters into his own hands, plus his top two officers, the false prophet and the beast (Revelations 20:10) share in the ungodly trinity which resembles the Holy Trinity but is patently false.  The Jews who remain on the earth will succumb to the anti-Christ by signing a non-aggression pact to embody a false peace in the world (1 Thessalonians 5:3).  They are strangely deceived to partake of this one world government for 3-1/2 years.  They believe he is their Messiah, falsely. 

The supreme dictator (anti-Christ, being guided by the great dragon [Satan]) establishes his rules to execute any renegade person for safety and security of the one world government.  The economic power rests in a free society which ultimately involves super computers and immense databases for monetary exchanges.  There will be a mark, the number of man (666) placed first on the right hand of all participants, or to the forehead of anyone who doesn't have a right hand (Revelations 13:16).  This will be an encoding and microchip for each person's bank account to rapidly do transactions without a threat of larceny.  Very effective at reducing crime. 

There will remain a minority of true Christians who oppose the anti-Christ as well as a sealed 144,000 redeemed Jews (12,000 from each tribe) who do not take the mark.  Since grace is gone the only way for these people to be saved is to die a martyr’s death by refusing the mark of the beast.  But those who take the mark ultimately forfeit any hope of eternal life in paradise  (Revelations 14:9-11). 

Our great sovereign God permits all Satan's objectives (wrath on men) for 42 months.  The second half of the great tribulation will be the wrath of God poured out upon the earth from heaven.   Since our sovereign God is always in control of time and events, He will send forth seven angels to punish mankind of their sins.  Evil humans cannot repent of their sinful deeds.  The angles first empty the seven vials over all creation.  Then at the last woe, seven bowls of wrath are dumped out as the final retribution of God upon all workers of evil.  This dispensation draws to an end when God destroys Babylon, in one hour, with fire (Revelations 18:8-9).  A great cry of wailing rises up to the sky as evil onlookers fix their eyes upon the burning city.  The woman (Jezebel) has ruined all societies of men with her sexual immoralities.  Finally, Jesus Christ returns to earth to victoriously claim the proper legal deed of the earth that is rightfully his.  Jesus was the meekest of all, and he will reign supreme with all the meek of the earth (Matthew 5:5).

Dispensation of Peace

After all the wrath, first from Satan and last from God, is accomplished, the last Dispensation of Peace prevails upon the earth.  This time period is for exactly 1,000 years (millennium).  Jesus Christ (Yeshua) returns to earth with his glorious bride, the faithful Christian Church and sets his feet down on Mount Olives (from whence he left at the ascension after his resurrection (Acts 1:12 & Zechariah 14).  The mount is divided in two east and west, indicating a valley formed for the very last battle between Jesus and Satan.  This battle (Armageddon) will be at the end of millennial reign of peace, when Satan is loosed from the bottomless pit to make war with Jesus.  

In spite of the reign of peace on earth, even with the animals (Isaiah 11), humankind will still have natural struggles and be inflicted with a sin nature that causes turmoil in the midst of peace; therefore, the ruler, Jesus Christ shall rule the nations with a rod of iron (Psalms 2:9, Revelations 2:27, Revelations 12:5, Revelations 19:15).  This rod of iron exactly means powerful but merciful king.  He will be KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS (Revelations 19:16).  All kingdoms of the earth fail away and Yeshua shall reign supremely in Jerusalem (the royal city of David) over all the earth.  He will be the fulfillment of the last glorious Davidic king, promised to Israel.  

Jesus will have magistrates (elders of Israel) to share in the peaceful kingdom.  For 1,000 years there will be peace.  The marriage supper of the bride and bridegroom has come and Jesus, as the groom, will partake in the meal with his wonderful bride, the beautiful church.  A church is a Divine Group of saved peoples from all nations.  The feast will be shared with the 144,000 sealed Jews who became martyrs in the tribulation.  All goers must wear a white robe of pure righteousness garment.  There will be some who try to eat with a spotted robe and the king will toss him into outer darkness (Matthew 22:10-13).  

At the end of the millennium, Satan is loosed from the bottomless pit and goes out to deceive people and gather them unto the valley before Jerusalem.  Satan attempts to make war with the saints and Jesus.  At last the final Battle of Armageddon has come (the great and notable day of the Lord).  But within the last final hour of the earth, Satan is defeated tragically and with a horrendous victory to Jesus and his kingdom simply by calling fire down from heaven (Zechariah 14:12).  

This dispensation ends with the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelations 20:11-15).  Every soul will be judged by their individual works, whether they are good or bad.  This judgment from God Almighty is a pass/fail judgment; which, meaning the saved (who have the blood of Christ applied to their heart [Passover]) will enter into eternal paradise, but the dead (those whose names are not found in the book) will suffer eternal damnation in hell.  Our good works will not save us [period] but only the blood of Christ which is our imputed righteousness as a covering for sins.  We can be found worthy of good works only for the rejoicing of saints in heaven. 

The new morning dawn of eternity opens up in view.  The great paradise of God. 

Eternity Paradise

God builds a grand New Heaven and a grand New Earth all for his saved saints unto eternal salvation in the glorious paradise prepared by God.  There will be no need for the sun or the moon because God will be its light.  The force of gravity will be eliminated and the new creation will be four square and very large to accommodate all the redeemed saints of God from all ages past.  Without gravity we will be able to float about as angels.

 There is no time dimension in Heaven, and we will live eternally with God and with Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.  We will worship, sing and fellowship forever and ever and ever. 
Amen! 
Hallelujah! 
Praise God!