The Great Divide

If you are at all familiar with the geography of the United States, you've no doubt heard of the Continental Divide, also known as the Great Divide. It is formed by the crest of the Rocky Mountains as they run through the country from Montana in the north to New Mexico in the south, with rivers on the western side flowing west and rivers on the eastern side flowing east.

As a result of the Great Divide, there is no river that connects the eastern part of the country with the west coast—a fact that was established by U.S. Army explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who were commissioned by then president Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to attempt to find a commercially viable waterway that flowed all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, their trek, although celebrated in American folklore, failed in its primary objective since no such waterway exists.

Just as the Great Divide separates the eastern and western parts of the United States in a geographical sense, a great doctrinal divide has been separating large portions of the Church in a theological sense for centuries, and it seems this division has been intensifying in recent decades. This division manifests itself in so many diverse ways that it's actually not a simple task to pinpoint the root cause, but it is clear to me that one of the fundamental issues that lies at the heart of the Great Divide in the Church is a simple idea with a fancy name:

Dispensationalism.

Wanna have some fun? Position yourself in the midst of any large gathering of Christians and shout out "I'm a dispensationalist!" Watch as a few of them rush over to shake your hand and slap you on the back, and then attempt to protect you from the others, who are forming an impromptu lynch mob.

Dispensationalism has become an extremely divisive buzzword in the Church today, and people who would struggle to accurately explain it become apoplectic at the mere mention of the word. Virtually every segment of the Church is influenced in its doctrinal beliefs by some of the concepts of dispensationalism (either by the acceptance or rejection thereof, as the case may be), even if the group doesn't fully understand exactly what it means.

OK, so what exactly does it mean?

What's a dispensation?

The Greek word that is translated "dispensation" in the King James and other English versions of the Bible is oikonomia, which is where we get the English word economy. Three different forms of the word oikonomia appear a total of nine times in the New Testament, and various translations render it as dispensation, economy, stewardship, administration, management, etc.

One straightforward way to think of a dispensation is the manner in which something is administered. In biblical terms, it is the manner in which God deals with mankind during a certain period of time. Dispensations typically begin with a covenant, a promise, a condition, or, to borrow a military term, a standing order issued by God to man: some type of "Do this" or "Don't do that" or "Here's the deal—if you do A, I'll do B" arrangement. It can be a combination of things. For the purposes of this article, I will refer to these as "ruling principles." As we'll see, these ruling principles tend to accumulate, with something new being added each time that functions as the primary feature of a given dispensation.

The point is that God establishes the manner in which He will deal with man, who is responsible to obey God in a corresponding way in an effort to live in peace with Him, live in a manner pleasing to Him, and enjoy His blessings (and avoid His judgment).

Things may go smoothly for a period of time, but it isn't long before man disobeys and utterly fails to keep the terms of the arrangement. The dispensation typically comes to an end with God executing some type of judgment, extending an offer of grace, and then it is followed by a new dispensation based on a new or modified set of conditions, i.e., a new ruling principle. Which we fail to obey, again. Which brings God's judgment. Which brings a new offer of grace. Which leads to a new ruling principle. Which leads to a new dispensation, and so on and so forth.

Over the centuries, different people have recognized varying numbers of dispensations in God's plan. They haven't always agreed on all the details, nor have they always referred to them as "dispensations"; however, the basic idea that God has dealt and continues to deal with mankind in different ways during different periods of history is certainly not new.

For example, the early Church fathers as far back as the first and second centuries AD understood that after the First Advent, things were no longer as they had been under the Law of Moses. Things had changed. And things were certainly different under the Law of Moses than they had been before the Flood of Noah, and so forth. That doesn't necessarily mean they were dispensationalists in the modern sense of the word, but the point is that dispensationalism is certainly not some screwball theory that some nineteenth-century nut job pulled out of a box of Cracker Jacks.

It is true, however, that it wasn't until the early nineteenth century that the concepts of dispensationalism were refined and developed into their widely accepted current form by Anglo-Irish minister John Nelson Darby. Others made contributions, of course, but most people today who agree with the concepts of dispensationalism follow Darby's outline pretty closely.

I have two goals in this article. First, I want to briefly go over the basic framework of dispensationalism that is accepted by the majority of people who would consider themselves dispensationalists. In addition, I want to touch on a couple of the common attacks on dispensationalism that are routinely launched by people who denounce dispensationalists as heretics who have believed a lie from the father of lies.

Here are the dispensations as they were laid out by J. N. Darby in the late 1820s, in what is generally considered classical dispensationalism:

1. The Age of Innocence
2. The Age of Conscience
3. The Age of Human Government
4. The Age of Promise
5. The Age of Law
6. The Age of Grace (aka the Church Age)
7. The Kingdom Age (aka the Millennial Kingdom)

1. The Age of Innocence 

When God created Adam in the book of Genesis, He created him perfect. Adam had no sin nature, and enjoyed perfect communion with God. Then He took a rib from Adam and created Eve. Same deal—they both enjoyed perfect communion with God, being created with what you might call a favorable disposition toward God. Of course, God also gave them free will, so their favorable disposition toward God was not permanent. They could choose.

For some unspecified period of time, they walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden as a friend. God gave them dominion over the earth, and told them to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.

There were two trees in the center of the Garden of Eden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God only gave Adam and Eve one simple rule to follow—He told them not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They had permission to eat of every other tree, including the Tree of Life. And why not? They were already eternal beings, created perfect in the image of God.

Since Adam and Eve had free will, however, Satan came to Eve in the form of a serpent and twisted what God had said, tempted her with promises of esoteric knowledge, and induced her to eat the fruit they were forbidden to eat. She ate, and gave to Adam to eat.

They exercised their God-given free will to disobey God's one command to them, and brought the curse of sin and death into the world. Satan usurped dominion over the earth, and Adam and Eve—now spiritually separated from God—were banished from the Garden of Eden.

They had blown it (just as God knew they would), and the Age of Innocence came to an end with a very mortal Adam and Eve on their own, and who would now pass their sin nature on to all their descendants. They had made a free-will choice to act contrary to their favorable disposition toward God, and sadly they were unable to undo the damage.

So much for innocence. Now that Adam and Eve had sinned, in addition to an overpowering proclivity to rebel against God, all of mankind would have a conscience—an innate awareness of good and evil.

Summary:

Period: From Creation to the Fall.

Ruling principle: Adam and Eve were to act according to their favorable disposition toward God (plus obey a standing order to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil).

Man's failure: They consciously exercised their God-given free will and chose to violate that favorable disposition toward God by disobeying His only rule and eating the forbidden fruit.

God's judgment: Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, they were placed under the curse of sin and death, and they lost dominion over the earth (which was also placed under a curse). From then on, people would inherit a natural disposition to rebel against God—a sin nature.

God's grace: God clothed them in animal skins in place of the leaves they had fashioned. This was to make them understand the principle that their own works would not suffice to cover their nakedness (sin). Only the shedding of innocent blood could do that, and it foreshadowed what God would send His Son to do in the future. His Son, the seed of the woman (the promised Messiah), would crush the head of the serpent (Satan), and win back what Adam and Eve had lost (Gen. 3:15).

2. The Age of Conscience 

After the Fall, now cursed with a sin nature and banished from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were fruitful and multiplied, and the human population began to grow. God essentially took a step back and all He required from people was that they do good and refrain from evil according to their conscience. God's Spirit also worked to constrain men from evil, but Genesis 6:3 says that will not always be the case. They were also instructed to offer blood sacrifices to cover their sin, which foreshadowed the atonement the Redeemer would accomplish in the future.

Well, apparently that didn't last very long. First thing you know, Adam and Eve's two sons, Cain and Abel, locked horns over their respective sacrifices. Abel sacrificed animals as God had commanded, whereas Cain disobeyed God and brought produce from his fields—the work of his hands. Abel's sacrifice was accepted, but Cain's was rejected, and a jealous, crestfallen Cain committed the first recorded homicide by murdering his brother.

Things went from bad to worse, with fallen angels entering the physical dimension and mating with human woman (producing hybrids known as the nephalim) until the human gene pool was almost entirely corrupted (Gen. 6:1–4). Finally, it got so bad God expressed regret for having created man:

Almost entirely corrupted, that is. Finally, God decided to save one single family that was still genetically pure, free from the corruption introduced by Satan and his cohorts. Noah obeyed God's instructions to build an ark, and a total of eight people—Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives—were saved from the global flood that destroyed all the people and land animals on earth, except those which were safe within the ark.

So much for man following his own conscience.

Summary:

Period: From the Fall to the Flood.

Ruling principle: Refrain from evil according to one's conscience.

Man's failure: Disobedience in offering the required sacrifices, plus human women mating with fallen angels, thus corrupting the human gene pool and resulting in wanton, widespread evil.

God's judgment: The Flood of Noah.

God's grace: God spared one genetically pure family along with a number of animals in the ark to reboot the human race. Note that if Satan had succeeded in his effort to completely corrupt the human gene pool, he would have thwarted God's plan to have His Son born into the world to redeem mankind—there wouldn't have been any genetically pure human women left. They all would have been human-demonic hybrids.

3. The Age of Human Government 

After the Flood, God instituted capital punishment, which in essence ordains the institution of human government as an instrument to restrain evil. The institution of capital punishment presupposes the existence of a legal structure, along with the requisite law enforcement and penal systems to support it—all functions of government.

God also had a new set of marching orders for Noah and his descendants:

God wanted man to scatter throughout the earth after the Great Flood and replenish it; but it seems many of Noah's descendants had other ideas.

Of course, this is the exact opposite of what God had told them to do. They sought to consolidate their power in a place called Babel, and tried to build a tower meant for astrological observation and God knows what else. As a result God confused their languages so groups could no longer communicate with each other, and their grand plans came to naught. After the confusion of their languages, man finally ended up doing what God intended for them to do—scatter across the earth to replenish it.

It wasn't long afterwards that God called out a man living in what is today Iraq, and told him to go to a land that He would show him. God promised that He would make of him a great nation, and that all the nations of the world would be blessed through him.

That man's name was Abram, and that was quite a promise.

Summary:

Period: From the Flood to the confusion of languages at Babel.

Ruling principle: Refrain from evil in obedience to the authority vested in human government (and according to one's conscience).

Man's failure: A large group of people under the sway of Nimrod attempted to consolidate their power at one location (i.e. at Babel, aka Babylon) and form the first global government (sound familiar?). They built the Tower of Babel to pursue the study of astrology, and possibly as a portal for demonic beings.

God's judgment: The confusion of languages and subsequent dispersion of this disobedient group of people all over the world.

God's grace: God called out Abram and promised to make him the father of the race of people who would give birth to the Messiah—a Savior who would bring blessings to mankind and ultimately a kingdom ruled in righteousness.

4. The Age of Promise 

God made an unconditional covenant with Abram (that means it doesn't depend on man's performance—it's only contingent on God keeping His promises).

God led Abram to the Promised Land, changed his name to Abraham, and the unconditional promises were passed on through his son Isaac, and then through Isaac's son Jacob.

This was the beginning of the Hebrew race, and as this fledgling people group grew, it wasn't long before they faced a test. God had instructed them to dwell in the land He had shown them, also known as Canaan, and He had promised to bless them and provide for them. Later in Genesis 12, however, we read that there was a famine in the land, and the Hebrew people had a choice—and it's the same choice we all face repeatedly throughout our lives:

Take God at His Word, or take matters into our own hands.

Unfortunately, they did the latter. They turned to Egypt to meet their need for food (Egypt is symbolic in Scripture for the sinful world system).

As usual, however, God demonstrated His grace. While his 10 older brothers were out tending their flocks, Joseph came out to check on them in obedience to his father. When they saw their obnoxious little brother coming in the distance, they actually planned to slay him; but the oldest brother Reuben talked them out of shedding his blood and they settled for merely selling him to a passing band of traders heading to Egypt as a slave. When they got home, they told their father that his youngest and dearest son had been killed by a wild animal.

Unbeknownst to them, young Joseph had actually been taken to Egypt where he was greatly blessed and prospered by God to the point where he eventually become the second most powerful man in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. Years later, when another famine came, his brothers once again returned to Egypt for food and were reunited with their long lost brother, who graciously provided for them, effectively saving their lives.

After Joseph died and the years passed, however, although the Hebrews grew into a substantial people group, they never returned to Canaan and instead found themselves in bondage in Egypt. They became slaves in the land where they had gone to find food, rather than trust in their God and His promises.

God again demonstrated His grace by sending Moses to lead the people of Israel out of captivity. God showed Himself mighty on their behalf, and led them out of Pharaoh's clutches with one of the most dramatic series of overt judgments and miracles recorded in Scripture.

Shortly after departing from Egypt, however, Israel received something new from God at a place called Mount Sinai—and it was written by the finger of God on tablets of stone.

Summary:

Period: From the confusion of languages at Babel to the giving of the Law of Moses at Mount Sinai.

Ruling principle: Believe God's promises to Abraham (and refrain from evil and do good in obedience to the authority vested in human government and according to one's conscience).

Man's failure: Jacob's extended family left Canaan and went to Egypt for food out of an utter lack of faith in God's promises of blessing and provision.

God's judgment: The fledgling Hebrew nation became slaves in Egypt.

God's grace: God first arranged for Joseph to ensure their survival, and later sent Moses to lead them out of slavery.

5. The Age of Law 

After miraculously delivering His people out of Egypt, God met them at Mount Sinai and gave them the Mosaic law. This included the 10 Commandments, but it also included a complex and detailed system of sacrificial ordinances known as the Levitical law.

The Levitical law formalized and codified the offering of sacrifices to cover sin that had been implemented after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. One difference was that starting with the Levitical law, sacrifices could only be offered by a priest, and only at the "tent of meeting." Later this applied to the temple, and foreshadowed the atoning work of Christ.

Of course, Israel couldn't keep God's laws. In fact, by the time Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments, the people were already worshiping an idol—a golden calf. No one can keep God's laws, because we are all born sinners. That's the whole point.

The purpose of the Mosaic law was to make the Jews (and ultimately all of us) understand that we cannot please God or live in peace with Him in our sinful condition through our own efforts, even when the legal requirements for pleasing Him are clearly specified and spelled out in black and white. All the Mosaic law did was show Israel and ultimately all of us our hopelessly sinful state and our desperate need for God's grace.

As time went on, the Jews ended up turning the Mosaic law into a rigorous system of self-righteous legalism, completely gutted of any real spiritual meaning. It reached the point where the Jews proudly believed they were attaining a type of righteousness through meticulous, obsessive adherence to what eventually expanded into an endless regimen of petty little rules that had to be slavishly followed.

The Jews became so immersed in the detailed observance of the Mosaic law that when they finally stood face to face with their prophesied Messiah, the religious leaders of Israel failed to recognize Him. Not only that, but they resoundingly rejected Him and conspired to have Him killed because He repeatedly exposed them as the hard-hearted hypocrites they had become.

It's important to note that the Old Covenant God made with Israel, based on the Mosaic law, is the only covenant He made with them that is conditional. If they obeyed God, He would bless them and their land. If they didn't—if they were unfaithful and fell away from Him, abandoning His laws and worshiping other gods—He would bring judgment upon them and scatter them from their land. This has actually occurred a couple of times in history, but God has always brought them back.

After the Jews rejected and crucified their promised Messiah, within 40 years their temple was destroyed, the city of Jerusalem was devastated, and the (final) dispersion of the Jews from their land was well underway. Most believed the Messiah had never come, and continued to await His future arrival. And they are still waiting today.

But the Messiah had come.

Jesus came and offered to Israel the fulfillment of God's promise of a kingdom to Abraham's descendants. He alone was qualified to sit on the Throne of David, and the offer was legitimate. But God knew they would reject His Son—He knew they would crucify Him. It had been prophesied in the Old Testament, centuries before that form of execution had even been invented.

One of the last things Jesus said while He was dying on the cross is recorded by the apostle John:

It is finished. One thing Jesus accomplished for us was to fulfill the law on our behalf, because we couldn't do it. He lived a sinless life, thus dying as the perfect sacrifice to satisfy His Father's justice in our place. That's what was finished: man's slavery to the law.

Jesus didn't come to abolish the law—He came to fulfill it.

As a result, the law has no power over those who are in Christ. We are set free from bondage to the law if we avail ourselves of God's grace by believing in what Jesus did for us.

Summary:

Period: From the Law of Moses to Calvary.

Ruling principle: Demonstrate one's faith in God by obeying the Law of Moses and anticipating the coming of the Prophet, i.e. the Messiah (and believe God's promises to Abraham and refrain from evil in obedience to the authority vested in human government and according to one's conscience).

Man's failure: Man couldn't begin to keep all of God's laws. Israel turned the Mosaic law into a hopeless snare of legalism, and ultimately failed to recognize the Messiah and had Him crucified.

God's judgment: Destruction of the temple, devastation of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world.

God's grace: He sent the Messiah, His Son Jesus Christ into the world to redeem mankind, as promised in His Word.

6. The Age of Grace (aka the Church Age) 

After Christ was crucified and resurrected and successfully fulfilled the law on our behalf, the moment anyone, either Jew or Gentile, changes their mind about their sin and their need for a Savior and calls on the Lord to save them, their sins are forgiven, they are spiritually regenerated or born of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is sealed within them permanently as a mark of God's ownership.

This group was born on the day of Pentecost, 10 days after Christ ascended to heaven, when the Holy Spirit descended in power and indwelt all 120 of the disciples present, who gave physical demonstration of the miracle that had just occurred by speaking to the crowd about the mighty works of God in languages unknown to them (Acts 2). Paul explains in Romans 11 that God had set Israel aside temporarily, partially hardening their hearts so He could take for Himself a people from among the Gentiles.

This group is called the Church, and this event formally inaugurated the Age of Grace, also called the Church Age. During this period, which has been in effect for nearly two thousand years, all people have to do is believe the gospel to be saved. We don't have to offer sacrifices at the temple (which was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70) as an external demonstration of our faith.

One reason the Church is blessed with such a sweetheart of a deal, so to speak, is the simple fact that we live during an age when no longer see God openly manifesting His power and presence the way He did on behalf of the Jews for roughly two millennia (or will during the Tribulation). We don't see God miraculously rescuing anyone from bondage in Egypt. We don't see God parting the Red Sea for anyone. We never saw Jesus walk on water or heal the lame and the blind or raise the dead or feed 5,000 people with a couple of loaves and fish. We didn't see Him alive after He was crucified and resurrected.

We never saw the scars.

Yet we believe. Why does that matter? Ask Thomas:

Listen, when Jesus says you're blessed, you're blessed. Stick that in your hip pocket and sit on it for awhile. During the Age of Grace salvation is through faith alone, without being locked in to any specific overt, physical demonstrations of that faith, such as offering sacrifices at the temple.

The primary difference during the Age of Grace is that the Law of Moses is no longer a ruling principle for anyone—it has been replaced by grace. Grace became the new ruling principle in place of the Mosaic law in the sense that it not only brought salvation (something the Mosaic law never did), but also teaches us how to live:

For born-again believers, it boils down to this:

We are sealed with the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit, who guides us, convicts us
of sin, and conforms us to the image of Christ.

That's what Jesus meant when He said the Church was blessed.

That's blessed: One of the most important things to realize about the Age of Grace is that it's the only dispensation during which believers are sealed with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13–14). As a result, they have the assurance of eternal security. Even though believers should begin to show changes in their attitudes and behavior in keeping with the Spirit's efforts to convict them of sin and conform them to the image of Christ, they are forever saved—or they were never saved. In every other dispensation, believers are required to overtly demonstrate their faith, either through obedience to the Law of Moses (Old Testament) or by maintaining a faithful testimony (post-Rapture).

Summary:

Period: From the day of Pentecost (50 days after the Resurrection) to the Rapture—nearly two thousand years and counting.

Ruling principle: Believe the gospel (although people are still responsible to believe God's promises to Abraham, especially in regard to the coming kingdom, and refrain from evil in obedience to the authority vested in human government and according to one's conscience).

Man's failure: The great majority of the world's people (especially the Jews), have foolishly and stubbornly rejected God's grace and mercy and His offer of salvation through faith in His Son's work of atonement that has been made freely available and proclaimed by the Church throughout the Age of Grace.

God's judgment: Since mankind has largely spurned the grace and mercy that He expressed to the world through His Son, after He translates His Church safely out of harm's way via the Rapture as He has clearly promised in His Word, God will plunge the world into the worst period of evil, chaos, deception, and judgment it has ever experienced.

At the Rapture, which concludes the Age of Grace, the Holy Spirit will stand down from His ministry of indwelling believers and restraining evil, and Satan will have at it—he will be free to launch his program to install his man the Antichrist as head of a global government with a global economic system and a global religion. God will send a strong delusion into the world to cause men (especially Jews who have persisted in rejecting Christ) to accept the Antichrist in place of the real Messiah they have rejected, and they will worship him on pain of death.

Not long after the Rapture kicks things off and plunges the world into chaos, God will begin to unleash the horrifying judgments of the Tribulation on a Christ-rejecting world during the Tribulation, which is followed by the Second Coming, which is followed by the final dispensation, the Millennial Kingdom.

God's grace: Although the Holy Spirit will no longer seal them as He did the Church, huge numbers of people will be saved following the Rapture, thanks largely to God sending out 144,000 Jewish apostle Pauls into the post-Rapture world. The believing Jewish remnant will be divinely protected from the forces of the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation, and will be ushered alive into the kingdom following Christ's return at the Second Coming along with surviving Gentiles saved since the Rapture.

Timeout for the Tribulation... 

Dispensationalism can get a little bit tricky when it comes to the Tribulation, or Daniel's 70th Week. Although all dispensationalists (as well as anyone who knows a Bible from a bag of donuts) agree that Christ's death and resurrection ended bondage to the law for those who believe the gospel, many have the view that the Age of Law itself did not formally end. They contend that the prophecy of Daniel's 70 Weeks (Dan. 9:24–27) requires the Age of Law to be suspended during the gap between the end of the 69th week and the beginning of the 70th (to accommodate the creation of the Church), and then resume and be completed during the 70th week.

While it is undeniably true from Scripture that Daniel's 70th Week remains in our future primarily for the purpose of allowing God to deal with Israel, the assumption is that when the Rapture terminates the Church Age, Daniel's 70th Week will represent the resumption and completion of the Age of Law, which has been suspended for nearly two thousand years. This view, however, is certainly not universal among dispensationalists.

For example, one possible sticking point is the fact that if we consider the Tribulation to be a resumption of the Age of Law, that would seem to suggest that the Mosaic law would have to become the ruling principle once again, just as it was before the Crucifixion. That means people would be saved by believing in faith in the atonement Christ made on their behalf, and would have to demonstrate their faith by offering sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem just as in the Old Testament.

After all, that's what the Age of Law was all about, right? The Jews were required to believe in the coming Messiah, and demonstrate their faith by observing the Levitical law. But what about the Tribulation? Well, even if a rebuilt temple were operational shortly after it started (which is highly unlikely), it will be desecrated by the Antichrist at the midpoint, and will be unfit for worship. So the Levitical law could be obeyed for an absolute maximum of three-and-a-half years, or the first half of the Tribulation (and in reality, much less than that). Soo...

Q. What about the probable gap between the Rapture and the Tribulation? What about the period of time it would take to rebuild the temple, assuming the green light to do so is part of the treaty that kicks off the Tribulation? What about the Great Tribulation, after the temple has been defiled at the midpoint? What happens to the Levitical law then? How can the Mosaic law be a ruling principle then?

A. I don't see how it could.

Or, maybe this is all just nitpicking...who's to say. There are also those who see the Tribulation as a completely separate dispensation, with the ruling principle being belief in faith, demonstrated by maintaining a "faithful testimony" which might vary according to the situation. For example, John sees a large group of Tribulation saints showing up in heaven during what is apparently the first half of the Tribulation:

They were killed for the Word of God and their testimony. In other words, they maintained a faithful demonstration of their faith in Christ. But how, exactly? If they didn't offer animal sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem the way the Mosaic law requires, then what did they do? Was it just maintaining a faithful testimony by dying as martyrs? Did they selflessly give aid to persecuted Jews? If we were talking about the second half of the Tribulation, it might be refusing to take the mark of the beast, but that hasn't been introduced yet.

Then again, rather than seeing the Rapture as the formal end of the Church Age, some see the Tribulation as an extension of the Church Age (at least in terms of the associated judgment for man's failure), since Israel isn't the only group that is going to be purged during that period. The apostate church-in-name-only is also going to be plunged into the Tribulation, the Laodiceans of Revelation 3 fame (which, I'm sad to report, includes the bulk of organized religion today). It's the Interfaith Seeker-Friendly Church of Pagan-Worshiping Posers—the bunch that Jesus called "lukewarm" in Revelation 3:16 and threatened to vomit out of His mouth—a far cry from being changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

There are even those who see the first and second halves of the Tribulation as two separate dispensations: the first devoted to purging the lukewarm "yikes-we-missed-the-Rapture" gang, and the second to purging the believing remnant of Israel in preparation for the kingdom.

At the end of the day, however, I think the simplest interpretation is probably the best, and that is that the Tribulation is simply God's judgment that falls at the end of the Age of Grace, just as every other dispensation ended with some form of judgment being unleashed by God prior to the introduction of the next ruling principle and new dispensation.

But no matter how you decide to doctrinally package the Tribulation, after Israel rejected and crucified their Messiah, it is obvious that God went on to punish the Jews according to the terms of His covenant with them, and that judgment is not complete. It won't be complete until God has purged Israel through the judgment of the Great Tribulation, and the believing remnant is finally prepared to receive the Messiah their ancestors had executed.

I think we err sometimes when we get overly zealous in trying to squeeze every detail of God's entire plan of the ages into a neat little row of neat little boxes, even if those boxes are generally based on biblically sound teaching. So, for the time being I am content to continue studying the Word and considering different views on this particular point without being vein-poppingly dogmatic about it.

7. The Kingdom Age (aka the Millennial Kingdom) 

At the climax of the Tribulation, the believing remnant of Israel will have their backs to the wall, and they will call upon the Lord to save them from the forces of the Antichrist. This will trigger His physical return to earth in the Second Coming, and He will return to establish the literal, earthly kingdom God promised Abraham in the book of Genesis.

The first order of business after the Second Coming will be to cast the Antichrist and the False Prophet alive into the lake of fire, where they will remain for eternity. Satan will be bound in a place referred to as the Abyss for the entire duration of the Millennial Kingdom (because as it turns out God isn't quite finished with him yet).

Then, Christ will carry out judgments to determine who will enter the kingdom and who will not (described in the parables that conclude the Olivet Discourse in Matt. 25). The curse on the earth will be lifted, and the environment will be returned to its original pristine condition. Natural-bodied believers who survived the Tribulation will enter the kingdom (along with resurrected Old Testament and Tribulation saints), with the Jews dwelling in Israel and the Gentiles populating other nations. The raptured Church will have already taken up residence in the New Jerusalem, which will descend from heaven and remain in the vicinity of earth. (Note that some see this occurring at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, but I won't argue the point.)

Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem, and will execute perfect justice. Initially, all the inhabitants of the kingdom will be believers, and will obey Christ's rule. Over time, however, these natural-bodied believers will have children (Isa. 65:20), and not all will believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, even under His direct physical rule. Some will chafe under His authority and rebel, and will remain hardened in their unbelief since they still have a sin nature.

These rebels will be people who have never known anything but a pristine environment of fruitful abundance and perfect justice administered by Christ Himself. Neither will they have ever known the evil, perverse influence of Satan, who will be bound for the entire thousand years. Yet for no other reason than the simple fact that they have a sin nature and a free will, they will choose to disobey.

As a result, they will be prime candidates to join in the final showdown.

At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, Satan will be released for a season and will lead a group of rebellious unbelievers in one final revolt against God, which God will crush once and for all. He will consume the rebels with fire, and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7–10), where the Antichrist and the False Prophet have already been for a thousand years.

For Satan, it's game over—and God wins.

Then at the Great White Throne Judgment, the unsaved dead of all ages will stand before God and be sentenced to eternity in the lake of fire along with Satan (Rev. 20:11–15).

For every single person who has ever refused to believe God in faith, that He would someday send a Redeemer, or that Jesus Christ was that Redeemer and His death and resurrection paid the penalty for their sin so that God could impute His Son's perfect righteousness to them, the verdict will be the same. Guilty as charged: unrighteous.

For the unsaved, it's game over—and they lose.

Summary:

Period: Starting shortly after Christ returns at the Second Coming and lasting for one thousand years.

Ruling principle: The direct theocratic rule of Jesus Christ Himself, in addition to conscience and human government—God's promises to Abraham will have been fulfilled. Christ will rule with a rod of iron: Those who practice evil will be executed (Isa. 11:3–4; 29:20–21), and nations who refuse to worship God as directed will be punished with drought and plagues (Zech. 14:16–19).

The first time Jesus came, He brought redemption. The second time He will bring retribution, and then He will rule in Israel's promised kingdom.

Man's failure: A large number of rebellious unbelievers born during the Millennial Kingdom will join in one final revolt against God.

God's judgment: God will crush this rebellion and destroy the rebels with fire.

God's grace: The heavens and the earth will be recreated into a new and perfected form that we will enjoy for eternity. Christ will rule this new world with perfect justice and righteousness from Jerusalem.

Why is the Great Divide so...divisive?

The whole point to dispensational teaching is that God is demonstrating, in a progressive, step-by-step manner, that there are no conditions whatsoever under which man in his sinful state can live in peace with Him, or live in a manner pleasing to Him. So, God took it upon Himself to provide man with a singularly unique way of salvation by sending His perfect Son into the world to live a sinless life, and die as the perfect sacrifice to satisfy His own perfect justice on our behalf. It is only God's grace and our belief in faith in His Son's atonement for us that can make us pleasing to Him. Nothing else can, ever could, or ever will.

Dispensationalism has several distinctives that shine through clearly as one studies it:

1. It is solidly based on a literal, grammatical, and historical interpretation of Scripture. That is, it tries to interpret God's Word as literally as context and common sense allow. It assumes that God created language to communicate with us, not confuse us.

2. It sees a clear distinction between Israel and the Church in God's plan, with neither replacing or having preeminence over the other. Partly as a result, the majority of dispensationalists hold to a pre-tribulation Rapture, followed by Daniel's 70th Week.

3. Salvation has always been, is now, and always will be by the grace of God through faith, and it is based on the atoning sacrifice for our sin that Jesus would make (in the future) or made (in the past) on our behalf—even though the details of that atonement were progressively revealed throughout the various dispensations.

So why is dispensationalism so divisive? Why are there groups within the Church today who treat it as if it were a pack of lies from the pit of hell?

What's the problem?

I've read many of the accusations that have been made by people against dispensationalism, and in my experience most seem to be the result of a vague but emotionally charged animosity toward Jews, pre-tribbers, or both. Although most are too flimsy to even bother mentioning, I would like to mention three that are the most common in my personal experience.

1. Dispensationalism teaches multiple ways of salvation!

No, it doesn't (re-read point no. 3 above).

2. It was invented in the nineteenth century!

And when was the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone—one of the most fundamental concepts of the entire New Testament—"recovered" by Martin Luther? The fifteenth century! The point is that it doesn't make a molecule of difference if a doctrine is new—all that matters is whether or not it's biblical. Is dispensationalism biblical? Absolutely.

Besides, they're dead wrong anyway. The fundamental concepts of dispensationalism were clearly enunciated by early Church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Iranaeus, Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and others.

3. Dispensationalism teaches lawlessness!

In other words, dispensationalists believe they are not under the law, so they must think lawlessness is OK!

Ahem...once more with feeling:

Even Paul was accused of promoting lawlessness:

If we are saved, we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and gradually conform us to the image of Christ.

But how can we tell?

I'm so glad you asked:

Can we live this way perfectly? Sorry, I'm afraid not. Not in this life, because sin dwells in our flesh (Rom. 7:23). But if we are born of the Spirit—if we are His, submission to the Spirit's leading to live in a manner characterized by holiness and purity should increasingly become the general trend of our lives. And although frequent failure to do so may not cost us our salvation, it'll cost us big time in terms of rewards once we get to heaven.

The point I want to leave you with is that dispensationalism is simply the best way to interpret the Bible. Period. Simply put, dispensationalism assumes God says what He means and means what He says. It never fails to recognize His sovereignty, never fails to glorify Him, and never fails to honor the inspiration, inerrancy, sufficiency, and authority of His Word. Not only that, but the accusations leveled against it crumble like Christmas cookies when carefully examined in the unbiased light of Scripture.

So, don't let the fancy name throw you...call it something else if you like. Call them "eras" or "periods" instead of dispensations. Whatever. But don't listen to those who seek to turn dispensationalism into a source of division, as if it were a dangerous doctrinal aberration. Dispensational teaching is by far the best, clearest, most literal, and most straightforward way to interpret and understand God's truth as revealed in His Word.

Don't let the Great Divide—don't let anything—divide you from that truth.

Greg Lauer — NOV '14

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