Typical divisions

Although the number of dispensations typically vary from three to eight, the typical seven-dispensation scheme is as follows:^{[7]: 51–57}

• Innocence – Adam under probation prior to the Fall of Man. Ends with expulsion from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Some refer to this period as the Adamic period or the dispensation of the Adamic covenant or Adamic law.
• Conscience – From the Fall to the Great Flood. Ends with the worldwide deluge.
• Human or Civil Government – After the Great Flood, humanity is responsible to enact the death penalty, and as such, is the authority to govern. Ends with the dispersion at the Tower of Babel. Some use the term Noahide law in reference to this period of dispensation.
• Promise or Patriarchal Rule – From Abraham to Moses. Ends with the refusal to enter Canaan and the 40 years of unbelief in the wilderness. Some use the terms Abrahamic law or Abrahamic covenant in reference to this period of dispensation.
• Law – From Moses to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Ends with the scattering of Israel in AD 70. Some use the term Mosaic law in reference to this period of dispensation.
• Grace – From the cross to the rapture of the church seen by some groups as being present in 1 Thessalonians and the Book of Revelation. The rapture is followed by wrath of God constituting the Great Tribulation. Some use the term Age of Grace or the Church Age for this dispensation.
• Millennial Kingdom – A literal 1000 year reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 20:1–6), centered in Jerusalem, ending with God's judgment on the final rebellion.

Variants

• Classic dispensationalism
• Ultradispensationalism (Bullingerism)
• Hyperdispensationalism (Mid-Acts dispensationalism)
• Revised dispensationalism
• Progressive dispensationalism

Purpose of God in the world

According to John Walvoord, God's purpose in the world is to manifest his glory.^[11]: 92 Charles Ryrie writes that dispensational soteriology focuses on man's salvation as the means God uses to glorify himself.^[7]: 40

Biblical literalism

A key element of dispensationalism is the use of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic to apply a consistent, literal interpretation of the text.^[12] Scripture is to be interpreted according to the normal rules of human language in its entirety.^[7]: 80 This leads dispensationalists to take eschatological passages of the bible literally. Charles Ryrie suggests that a non-literal hermeneutic is the reason that amillennialists apply the Old Testament promises to Israel "spiritually" to the church and covenant premillennialists see some prophecies as fulfilled and others are not.^[7]: 90

Progressive revelation

Progressive revelation is the doctrine in some forms of Christianity that each successive book of the Bible provides further revelation of God and his program. Theologian Charles Hodge wrote that the progressive character of divine revelation is gradually unfolded until the fullness of truth is revealed.^[13] Charles Ryrie wrote that the Bible is not viewed as a textbook on theology, but rather as a continually unfolding revelation of God through successive ages where there are distinguishable stages in which God introduces new things for which man becomes responsible.^[7]: 33

Disagreement exists between covenant theology and dispensationalism regarding the meaning of revelation. Covenant theology views the New Testament as the key to interpreting the Old Testament.^[7]: 32 For dispensationalists, the Old Testament is interpreted on its own and that the New Testament contains new information which can build on the Old Testament but cannot change its meaning.^[14] Each stands alone, rather than the Old Testament being reread through the lens of the New Testament.^[12]

Distinction between Israel and the Church

Dispensationalists profess that there exists a historic and demographic distinction between Israel and the Christian Church. For them, Israel is an ethnic nation consisting of Hebrews (Israelites), beginning with Abraham.^[7]: 127 The Church, on the other hand, consists of all saved individuals from the "birth of the Church" in Acts until the time of the rapture.^[15] Classic dispensationalists refer to this period as a "parenthesis" or temporary interlude in the progress of Israel's prophesied history when God has paused his dealing with Israel and is dealing with his Church.^{[16][7]: 134,177 [17]: 410}

There are differing views within dispensationalism as to when the church age began. Classic dispensationalism considers Pentecost in Acts 2 as the beginning of the Church as distinct from Israel.^[18] Charles Finney noted in 1839 that Pentecost was "the commencement of a new dispensation", emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit as a distinction.^[19]: 87 C. I. Scofield did not make Pentecost itself the turning point but did emphasize its role in dividing the dispensations of "Law" and "Grace".^[19]: 88 In contrast, hyperdispensationalists suggest that the church started later in Acts ("Mid-Acts") with the ministry of Paul, identifying the start of the church as occurring between the salvation of Saul in Acts 9 and the Holy Spirit's commissioning of Paul in Acts 13.^[20][21] E. W. Bullinger and the ultradispensationalists taught that the church began in Acts 28.^[21]

According to progressive dispensationalism, the distinction between Israel and the Church is not mutually exclusive, as there is a recognized overlap between the two.^[22]: 295 The overlap includes Jewish Christians like James, brother of Jesus, who integrated Jesus' teachings into the Jewish faith, and Christians of Jewish ethnicity who held varying opinions on compliance with Mosaic law, like Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle. Progressive dispensationalism "softens" the Church/Israel distinction by seeing some Old Testament promises as expanded by the New Testament to include the Church. However, progressives never view this expansion as replacing promises to its original audience, Israel.^[23]

The Law

Dispensationalists believe that Christ abolished the Mosaic law, and thus it does not apply to the Christian. Instead, the Christian is under the Law of Christ, which embodies the moral principles of God which are in both codes.^{[24][25]: 71} In this view, although many commandments of the Old Testament are re-established in the New Testament, only the commandments that are explicitly affirmed are to be kept, which excludes the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic law.^[25]: 71

Eschatology

Dispensationalism teaches an eschatology that is specifically premillennial in that it affirms the return of Christ prior to a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.^{[7]: 147–148} They claim that the millennial kingdom will be theocratic in nature and not mainly soteriological, as it is considered by George Eldon Ladd and others with a non-dispensational form of premillennialism.^[6] It will be distinctly Jewish, with the throne of David restored.^[1]: 31

The majority of dispensationalists profess a pretribulation rapture, while mid-tribulation, or post-tribulation rapture are minority views.^[26][27] Pre-tribulational rapture doctrine is what separates dispensationalism from other forms of premillennialism and other millennial views.^[17]: 409

Dispensational eschatology was popularized in Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth. In Lindsey's version, the unfolding of events includes the establishment of Israel in 1948, Jews regaining control of Jerusalem's sacred sites in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the rebuilding of the Temple which has yet to occur, an Antichrist will come to power, Christians will be removed from the earth in a rapture of the Church, and there will be seven years of tribulation (Daniel's seventieth week) culminating in a great battle of Armageddon in which Christ will triumph over evil and establish a literal 1,000 year reign of his kingdom on earth.^[28] The necessity of the rapture is that, with the Church and Israel being distinct, the Church must be removed before remnant Israel can be gathered.^[1]: 42

Proto-Dispensationalism

Advocates of dispensationalism have sought to find similar views of dispensations in Church history, referencing theologians or groups such as Francisco Ribera, the Taborites, Joachim of Fiore, Denis the Carthusian and others.^[29][30] Joachim's theory of three stages of human history has been argued to have anticipated the later dispensationalist view of organizing history into different dispensations.^[7]: 65 Fra Dolcino also taught Fiore's theory of the stages of history, but he was said to have taught that his followers would be taken away or raptured prior to the tribulation, after which God will send Enoch and Elijah to the Earth.^[31]

William C. Watson argued that multiple 17th century theologians anticipated dispensational views, he argued that Ephraim Huit and John Birchensa in his The History of Scripture published in 1660 taught that God has differing plans for Jews and Gentiles. He also argued that Nathaniel Holmes taught a pretribulational rapture.^[29]

Pierre Poiret is seen as a forerunner of Dispensationalism.

Pierre Poiret has been said to have been the first theologian to develop a dispensationalist system, writing a book titledThe Divine Economy. Poiret taught that history should be organized into multiple dispensations in which God works with humans in different ways, including the millennium as a future dispensation.^[32] Poiret's eschatology includes a belief in two resurrections, the rise of the Antichrist and the nation of Israel being regathered, restored and converted.^[6][29] Poiret divided history into seven dispensations, early childhood (ended in the Flood), childhood (ended in Moses's ministry), boyhood (ended in Malachi), youth (ended in Christ), manhood (most of the Church), old age ("human decay", meaning the last hour of the Church), and the restoration of all things (the Millennium, includes literal earthly reign of Christ with Israel restored).^[7]: 65

Isaac Watts presented a dispensational view in a forty-page essay titled The Harmony of All the Religions Which God Ever Prescribed to Men and All His Dispensations Towards Them.^[33] Charles Ryrie points out that Scofield's outline of dispensationalism, with the exception of the millennium, is exactly that of Watts, and not Darby.^[7]: 67

Edward Irving in some ways anticipated dispensationalism. He used a literal approach to prophetic interpretation, he believed in a restoration of national Israel, he believed there would be a great apostasy and that Christ would return to establish a literal earthly kingdom.^[6] However, he also preached that Christ had a fallen nature, which led to him being defrocked by the Scots Presbyterians.^[6][34]

Formalization by Darby

John Nelson Darby systematized and promoted dispensationalism.

Dispensationalism developed as a system from the teachings of John Nelson Darby, considered by some to be the father of dispensationalism (1800–1882),^{[22]: 10, 293} who strongly influenced the Plymouth Brethren of the 1830s in Ireland and England. The original concept came when Darby considered the implications of Isaiah 32 for Israel. He saw that prophecy required a future fulfillment and realization of Israel's kingdom. The New Testament church was seen as a separate program not related to that kingdom. Thus arose a prophetic earthly kingdom program for Israel and a separate "mystery" heavenly program for the church. In order to not conflate the two programs, the prophetic program had to be put on hold to allow for the church to come into existence. Then it is necessary for the church to be raptured away before prophecy can resume its earthly program for Israel.^[35]

In Darby's conception of dispensations, they relate exclusively to the divine government of the earth. The Mosaic dispensation continues as a divine administration over earth up until the return of Christ, and the church, being a heavenly designated assembly, is not associated with any dispensations.^[36]

While his Brethren ecclesiology failed to catch on in America, his eschatological doctrine became widely popular in the United States, especially among Baptists and Old School Presbyterians.^[37]: 317

Expansion and growth

Dispensationalism was introduced to North America by James Inglis (1813–1872) through the monthly magazine Waymarks in the Wilderness, published intermittently between 1854 and 1872.^{[38]: 100–102} During 1866, Inglis organized the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, which introduced dispensationalist ideas to a small but influential circle of American evangelicals.^{[38]: 132–133} They were disturbed by the inroads of religious liberalism and saw premillennialism as an answer. Dispensationalism was introduced as a premillennial position, and it largely took over the fundamentalist movement over a period of several decades. The American church denominations rejected Darby's ecclesiology but accepted his eschatology.^[38]: 101 Many of these churches were Baptists and Old School Presbyterians, and they retained Darby's Calvinistic soteriology.^[37]: 317

After Inglis's death, James H. Brookes (1830–1898), the pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri, organized the Niagara Bible Conference (1876–1897) to continue the dissemination of dispensationalist ideas. Brookes was well known within millenarian circles as a prominent speaker for the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study conferences and having written for Inglis's Waymarks in the Wilderness.^[38]: 134

D. L. Moody

Brethren theologian C. H. Mackintosh had a profound influence on Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899).^{[39][40]: 49} Moody worked with Brookes and other dispensationalists and encouraged the spread of dispensationalism.^{[40]: 46–47} It was during this time that dispensational doctrine became widely accepted by American evangelicals.^[41]: vi It also marked a shift in dispensational theology from Darby's Calvinist and doctrinal rigor to a non-Calvinist view of human freedom in personal salvation under evangelists like Moody.^[19]: 46

Other prominent dispensationalists in this period include Reuben Archer Torrey (1856–1928), James M. Gray (1851–1925), William J. Erdman (1833–1923), A. C. Dixon (1854–1925), A. J. Gordon (1836–1895), and William Eugene Blackstone (1841–1935). These men were active evangelists who promoted a host of Bible conferences and other missionary and evangelistic efforts. They also gave the dispensationalist philosophy institutional permanence by assuming leadership of new independent Bible institutes, such as the Moody Bible Institute during 1886, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) during 1908, and Philadelphia College of Bible (now Cairn University, formerly Philadelphia Biblical University) during 1913. The network of related institutes that soon developed became the nucleus for the spread of American dispensationalism. Torrey served as first superintendent of the Bible Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute) when it formally opened in 1889.^[42]

Although the revivalist evangelicals such as Moody and Torrey did not believe the gift of tongues continued past the Apostolic age, their emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit merged well with holiness ideas. This encouraged the spread of dispensationalism within the Pentecostal movement.^[19]: 94

During this time, E. W. Bullinger began teaching what became known as "ultradispensationalism" or "Bullingerism", Bullinger taught that the Church did not begin until Acts 28, that the Lord's Supper and water baptism were for Jewish believers, and that Paul's epistles were written to the Jews.^[21]

Scofield and his influence

Cyrus Scofield

A disciple of James Brookes, Cyrus Scofield, began attending the Niagara conferences and became an advocate of premillennialism, specifically pre-tribulationism.^[38]: 223 After several years of work, in 1909, Scofield introduced dispensationalism to a wider audience in America by his Scofield Reference Bible. The publication of the Scofield Reference Bible during 1909 by the Oxford University Press for the first time displayed overtly dispensationalist notes on the pages of the biblical text. The Scofield Bible became a popular Bible used by independent Evangelicals in the United States.^{[38]: 222–224} The premillennialism of the Scofield Reference Bible led to a pessimistic social view within evangelicalism, to "not polish the brass rails on the sinking social ship", focusing the evangelism of saving the lost rather than expanding Christendom.^[41]: 5

The Scofield Reference Bible came out at the apex of Bullinger's influence. Scofield's Bible confronted some of the ultradispensationalists' (Bullingerites) positions, specifically, the divisions of dispensational time, and as the Scofield Bible became popular among dispensationalists, it marginalized the hyperdispensationalist position in the United States.^[5]

Having been influenced by Scofield, evangelist and Bible teacher Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952) along with his brother, Rollin Chafer, founded Evangelical Theological College in 1924. The school would eventually become the Dallas Theological Seminary, which has become the main institution of dispensationalism in America.^[43] The Baptist Bible Seminary in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania became another dispensational school.

The Fundamentals

In the 1910s, another publication took hold within American evangelicalism. A twelve-volume publication known as The Fundamentals was published between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company. Managed by an executive committee of dispensationalists including Clarence Dixon and Rueben Torrey, The Fundamentals helped solidify dispensationalism within American Christian fundamentalism and the evangelical movement.^[5]

The Scopes trial in 1925 served to unify the fundamentalists, and with them, dispensationalism. However, very shortly after, fundamentalism as a movement began to decline. Scopes trial prosecutor and public face of the fundamentalist movement William Jennings Bryan died a week after the verdict, and H. L. Mencken portrayed supporters of the verdict as largely uneducated. In Bryan's absence, a decentralizing of the movement began. The fate of dispensationalism was tied to the breakdown in fundamentalism.^[5]

In 1928, Philip Mauro, seeking to re-invigorate the fundamentalist movement, pointed the finger at dispensationalism, and in the process coined the term. He alleged the view was more recent than Darwinism and that it eroded the fundamental truths of scripture, singling it out as the source of division within the larger fundamentalist movement.^[5]

Evangelical Theological College acquired the historical theological journal Bibliotheca Sacra in 1934. In its pages, Lewis Chafer first publicly declared that he was a dispensationalist. In 1936, Chafer published a 60-page response to the criticisms of Mauro and other fundamentalists entitled Dispensationalism. That same year, Chafer renamed his school Dallas Theological Seminary.^[5]

Through the 1930s and 1940s, the conflict within fundamentalism continued between dispensationalists and covententalists, leading to permanent divisions within fundamentalism, ultimately giving shape to the entire fundamentalist movement.^[5]

Influence of Dallas Theological Seminary

By the mid 20th century, dispensationalism was being promoted by evangelical stalwarts such as Charles Feinberg, J. Dwight Pentecost, Herman Hoyt, Charles Ryrie, and John Walvoord.^{[5][44]: 269} All of them either studied or taught at Dallas Theological Seminary.^[5] Pentecost taught at DTS for more than 60 years, and published one of the primary works on dispensational eschatology, Things to Come (1956). During this time period, Ryrie published what has become the primary introduction to dispensational theology, Dispensationalism Today (1965).^[5]

Furthering the rift between covenantalism and dispensationalism, Ryrie wrote in Bibliotheca Sacra in 1957 that dispensationalism is "the only valid system of Biblical interpretation". In 1959, Walvoord stated that all non-dispensationalists, including Catholics and mainline Protestants, offered no defense against modernism and that they were under the influence of hermeneutical and theological errors.^[5]

Throughout this period, the influence of DTS was growing as other schools and seminaries hired DTS graduates as faculty. In 1970, DTS graduate Hal Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth that would launch dispensational eschatology beyond anything previous. His book sold 10 million copies and made "rapture" and the "tribulation" household terms.^[5]

Pop prophecy

With the success of Late Great Planet Earth, the rapture theology of dispensationalism triggered a flood of books. Lindsey released Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth (1972), There's a New World Coming (1973), and The Liberation of Planet Earth (1974). Other books included The Beginning of the End (1972) by Tim LaHaye, and DTS graduate Thomas McCall's Satan in the Sanctuary (1973) and Raptured (1975).^[5] In 1972, Iowa filmmakers Russell Doughten and Donald W. Thompson released A Thief in the Night, a fictional film about the aftermath of the rapture that has been seen by an estimated 300 million people.^[45] Televangelist Jack van Impe covered current events in light of Bible prophecy with a dispensational premillennialist spin.^[46]

Emergence of the Christian Right

The late 20th century marked a change from the separatism of earlier in the century to one of more political engagement through the emergence of the Christian Right, rooted in the dispensational theology that Israel is at the center of God's purpose in the world.^[44]: 270

In 1978, dispensationalist television evangelist Jerry Falwell began making trips to Israel that were sponsored by the Israeli government. He became the first major American political figure to insist that the U.S. must support Israel for the fate of the nation.^[47] Falwell listed Feinberg, Pentecost, Hoyt, and Walvoord as his primary influences.^[44]: 269 In 1979, Falwell, along with Tim LaHaye, founded the Moral Majority with the objective to get people saved, baptized, and registered to vote.^[48]: 354 The Moral Majority also provided a platform of political activism.

Due in large part to the influence of dispensational premillennialism, the Moral Majority advocated for pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy positions, including protection of the Jewish people in Israel and continued aid for the state of Israel.^[49][50] Opposed to Jimmy Carter's affirmation of a Palestinian homeland, the Moral Majority endorsed Ronald Reagan for President in 1980.^[51] In Reagan, they found a candidate that shared their apocalypticism. Reagan had read Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth and it is suggested that his Middle East policies were driven by this eschatological view.^{[47]: 43 [52]: 177} In an interview with televangelist Jim Bakker, Reagan stated that "[w]e may be the generation that sees Armageddon".^[53]: 355 Dispensational theology affected more than just Middle East foreign policy in the Reagan administration. James G. Watt, a member of the Assemblies of God and Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, stated to Congress that preservation of the environment was made irrelevant due to the imminent return of Christ.^[54]: 148

In 1980, Hal Lindsey wrote a follow-up to his Late Great Planet Earth titled The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon. Previously, Lindsey had not drawn a connection from a Christian's personal obligations to their responsibility for social change. But this changed with The 1980s. He began encouraging his readers to elect moral leaders who would reflect that morality within government, an agenda closely aligned with the administration of Ronald Reagan.^[5]

Tim LaHaye, who was a lifelong fundamentalist and dispensationalist, became a primary figure in the Christian Right.^[5] He served as head of the Moral Majority for a time and in the mid-eighties created the American Coalition for Traditional Values. In 1987, he served as co-chairman of Republican Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, until it was reported that he had called Catholicism "a false religion".^[55]

Peak and decline

By the 1990s, a younger generation of academics emerged as "progressive dispensationalists", presenting a rift in the united front that Ryrie had advocated for in Dispensationalism Today (1965). This school of thought was led by Craig A. Blaising, Darrell Bock, Kenneth Barker, and Robert L. Saucy.^[5]

After the influence of dispensationalism within the New Christian Right grew into the 1990s and building on the success of Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth, the 1995 novel Left Behind pushed pop prophecy to further commercial success.^[5][56]: 3 Conceived by Tim LaHaye and written by Jerry B. Jenkins, the book spawned a multimedia franchise of 16 books as well as multiple movies, video games, and other spinoff works. The series brought dispensational premillennialism into the mainstream.^[56]: 3

As with Reagan in the 1980s, the New Christian Right helped elect another 'born again' president, George W. Bush, who, like Reagan, spoke in terms of prophecies being fulfilled in a way that had meaning to dispensationalists.^[5] Bush referenced Gog and Magog in the War on Terror and stated that the confrontation was "willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase His people's enemies".^[57]

Dispensational ideas were experiencing commercial success, but the primary standard-bearers of dispensationalism had become Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye who were not like the academic predecessors John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, and Charles Ryrie.^[5] By the 2010s, in academic circles the movement had peaked and was largely in decline within academic settings.^[5] A 2009 survey of Southern Baptist seminaries showed that the majority view was covenantal, and that flagship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary had no dispensationalists within its faculty.^[5][58]

While dispensationalism collapsed in academic areas, its cultural influence remained. Dispensational ideas continue within the culture. A 2004 Newsweek poll indicated that 55 percent of Americans believe that Christians will be taken up in the Rapture.^[59] By the turn of the 21st century, the term "dispensationalism" had become synonymous with "sectarian fundamentalism" and came to be more of a political perspective than a set of theological doctrines.^[5]