We have been blessed by some great dispensational teachers. They have brought fresh understanding to the study of the Bible. Names such as E.W. Bullinger, John Derby, Clarence Larkin, Cornelius Stam, C.R. Schofield, Finis Jennings Dake and, latterly, Otis Q. Sellers and Tom Ballinger, come to mind.

But that said, who is the greatest of them all? Who is it that not only “rightly divides the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15) but also marks out both eons past and those to come, delineating each different dispensation through his scripture? Who is He? Read on to find out.

Meanwhile, let’s face it. “Dispensation” is a dirty word to most church goers. To them it smacks of something technical and hard to understand. It may be “deep and meaningful” but they would prefer the “soft lights and sweet music” of vague spiritual understandings that don’t require serious Bible study.

So, the term “dispensation” is derided and often dismissed as “heresy”. In some churches admit you’re a dispensationalist and you’ll be told, “Don’t mention that here. It’s a divisive doctrine”.

And in one sense such objectors are right. It is divisive; the Bible makes no bones about saying so. What’s more, scripture instructs believers to themselves be divisive:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

And it’s not just the Apostle Paul telling Timothy (and us) that. The risen, glorified Lord Jesus Christ is behind his every word. Thus, in 1 Cor. 14:27, Paul writes:

If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

Today then, Jesus is still speaking through Paul. And, if we love the Lord, we should obey his commandments given through the Apostle Paul, for when on earth He plainly said: “If ye love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

What’s more, 2 Tim. 2:15 is only one of several biblical instructions to “rightly divide the word of truth”.  Jesus chided the Pharisees for being able to tell the weather but not “discern the signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3). In Phil. 1:9-10 Paul prays that the love of believers at Philippi will:

Abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgement … that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may sincere and without offence until the Day of Christ.           

What’s that got to do with being dispensational and “rightly dividing the word of truth”, you ask? Answer: Heaps. You see, “the things that are excellent” is also translated as the “the things that differ” according to the King James Bible margin note.

Phew! If approving the things that “excel” [are better than others] and “differ” from one eon, or dispensation, to another, will keep us sincere and without offence till the Day of Christ then we’d better be about doing just that.  How many other things do you know that could guarantee entry into the wonderful new world the Saviour will bring in for those who love Him and keep his commandments?

Of course we can’t obey his instructions in our own strength; we’re too naturally sinful to do that, so we must do it in his power and might. In other words only by his grace. Thus, in Phil. 1:6 Paul urges us to “be confident” (meaning, fully trust in the scriptural fact that He [Christ] “which hath begun a good work in you will, though suspending it temporarily [at our death] complete it in the Day of Christ” (Aldworth interpretation).

As most know, the differences between what God does and says at different times is the basis of dispensational truth. That He Himself orders and creates such differences is clearly taught in Heb. 1:1:

God who at sundry [various] times and in diverse [different] manners [ways of speaking and doing], spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, who He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds [that is, the different ages and dispensations].

Note that what God said in times past was through the {Old Testament] prophets. What He is saying now is through his Son, the Creator-God the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we have learned, right now the Lord Christ is still speaking, particularly through the Apostle Paul. With words particularly addressed to us Gentiles.

But perhaps you are thinking, as many do, that those are the words of Paul and you prefer the words of Jesus. So be it. Allow me to introduce the greatest dispensationalist of all time and eternity, the risen, glorified, Lord Jesus Christ, whose name, power and authority is set above all principality and creation both in this world [dispensation] and the next, as Phil. 2:9-11 and Eph. 1:20-21 state so beautifully:

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him [Jesus], and given Him a name which is above every names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heave and things in earth, and things under the earth …

… which He wrought in Christ when he raised Him from the dead and set Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come.

So, does the Lord Christ in heaven still “rightly divide the word [his word] of truth” as He did when on earth? Does He still divide the dealings of God with mankind and the world into different ages and dispensations or has He stopped doing so in his word, the Bible, as many seem to believe?  

For me that answer is yes. If, for no other reason than the fact He was and is the actual Creator of the different ages and dispensations, o ‘worlds”, both those that have existed, that function at present, and those yet to come. As the KJV has it in Heb. 11:3:

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God [that is Jesus; He is the Word of God] so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Here “worlds” translates the Greek word aion (from which we get the English word eon and thus the phrase means: “The ages (that have been prepared). Thus, it is clearly seen that the risen glorified Lord both did and still does “rightly divide” both the “word of truth” and the reality of his impact on earthly life into different dispensations according to his pre-determined plan of redemption.

Consider some examples: In Luke 16:16 the Lord, in his earthly ministry, plainly stated:

The Law and the Prophets were until John [i.e. the Baptist]: since that the kingdom is preached and every man presseth into it.

What did this to the Jewish people He addressed? Simply, that whatever the Law (the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Tanach, the Old Testament) along with the Prophets (the rest of the book)meant to them was now superseded by the repentance preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus, for the kingdom-bringing Messiah was now here.

The crucial point here is that Jesus drew a thick, black dividing line between what He as God had said and done in the “Law And the Prophets”  and what He was doing now in proclaiming the kingdom of God “at hand” , first through John the Baptist and then through Jesus Himself.

And here’s another example of Jesus drawing a dispensational line of difference. In Matt. 19: 28 Jesus promises his 12 chosen apostles:

…ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration [i.e. the Day of Christ, the launch of the Kingdom Age at Christ’s appearing (Titus 2:13) and the time of resurrection of the faithful], when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

Put more simply, Peter and his fellow apostles would not get their rewards in their present life, the then current proclamation of the “kingdom at hand”. Their glory and rewards would come only in what Paul calls the “day of Christ”, the day of resurrection when Christ Himself would sit on the throne of his glory. That day, says Paul, will be the “day of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8, Phil. 1:6, 1:10, 2:16).

Tragically, the Lord was so rejected by his people Israel they crucified Him. And despite being given 40 years (the time of probation) to do so they also spurned the risen Jesus, now Lord of glory in heaven and thus brought about the destruction of Jerusalem, its temple and the nation in 70Ad. Just as Jesus had prophesied would be in Matt. 24:2.

But it is in Acts 28:28 that the Lord, having been made as a man Lord of all, drew another dispensational line of demarcation and brought his dealings with Israel, once his chosen nation, to an end. He did so by taking from them the message and means of salvation and sending it to the Gentiles “who will hear it”. From then until now and ongoing an Israelite truly wanting to be “saved” can only do so by believing with everyone else the gospel of Eph. 2: 8-9: “For by grace are ye saved and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast”.

In Acts 28 the Apostle Paul warns the Jewish leaders in Rome that:

Hearing ye shall hear and not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive; their [your] heart is waxed gross, their ears dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed… lest they should understand with their heart, be converted and I [Jesus] should heal them.

Then Paul announces: “Be it known unto therefore that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and they will hear it”.

Much more could be said but my prayer is that the above will serve as a short introduction to the greatest dispensationalist of all, the Lord of all time and eternity, whose burning desire is to save all people and bring them to a knowledge of the truth.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

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