A knowledge of “dispensational truth,” as it is often termed, is indispensable for the intelligent reading of the Bible. Yet many Christians seem to have hardly given it a thought. God has been pleased to deal with men at different times in various ways. Fresh revelations of Himself and of His will have ushered in new modes of dealing with men, new dispensations.
“Dispensational truth” teaches us rightly to distinguish these changes and to discern their nature, so that the important features of each may not be obscured. The importance of this for us Christians is that we thereby learn the true character of the calling wherewith we are called from on high and of the age in which we live.
Up to the time of Christ, a dispensation ran its course in which the prominent feature was Israel, the chosen nation of the stock of Abraham. The period in which we live, from Pentecost to the coming of the Lord, is marked by altogether different features. Not Israel, but the church is prominent in God’s thoughts today. Before dwelling on the important distinctions between the two, let us be quite sure that we understand exactly what we are speaking about.
By ISRAEL we do not mean the Jews, the scattered nation as they are today, nor as they were in the time of our Lord, a remnant still clinging to their ancient capital, Jerusalem. We do not allude to them as they actually existed at any time, but rather to what that nation was according to God’s original plan for them.
The Church
When we speak of THE CHURCH, we do not refer to any ecclesiastical building nor to any denomination, nor to any number of professed Christians banded together into what is called nowadays “a church.” We use the term in its scriptural sense. The Greek word rendered “church” simply means “called-out ones.” Those who are called out of the world by God during this period of Christ’s rejection are by this means and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit banded together into God’s assembly, the church.
It may be helpful to notice that in Scripture the term “church” is used in three ways:
1. As denoting the aggregate number of the Christians in any given place (1 Cor. 1:2; Col. 4:15, etc.).
2. As the aggregate number of all Christians upon earth at any given time (1 Cor. 10:32; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 1:22, etc.). In this aspect, the church is like a regiment which abides the same, though the units which compose it are constantly changing.
3. As the aggregate number of all Christians, called out and sealed with the Spirit between Pentecost and the coming of the Lord (Eph. 3:21; Eph. 5:25, etc.).
Of these, the last is the sense in which we use the word in this article, though if we speak of the church as it exists on earth today, we obviously allude to it in its second aspect. It must be remembered, however, that we refer, as in the case of Israel, not to what the church actually is or has at any time been, but to what it is according to the original design and thought of God.
A Few Necessary Distinctions
Having defined our terms, let us observe a few necessary distinctions.
1. With John, the forerunner of the Lord, God’s utterances under the old covenant reached their full stop. With Christ, the new utterances began. His appearance on earth heralded the dawn of a new day. When the Son of God had died and risen again, when He had ascended to heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit, then was inaugurated a dispensation that was utterly different from all that had gone before.
2. The characteristic feature of the old dispensation was law; that of the new is grace. In Christ, a power mightier than the law was present. Now God gives and man receives. The new dispensation is marked by grace reigning through righteousness, to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:21).
3. The old dispensation centered around Israel as a nation; the new is connected with the church. There is nothing national about the church. God is now making an election from all nations, and those thus gathered out for His name compose “the church.”
Moreover, in connection with the church, God begins with the individual. It is composed of those who have personally been set in right relations with God. Only as forgiven and as having received the Spirit to indwell them do they become members of the one body and “living stones” in the spiritual house.
4. Connected with Israel was a ritualistic worship, the value of which lay in its typical significance. The church’s worship does not consist of sacrificial offerings, symbolic ceremonies, and the like, but is “worship in spirit and in truth.”
5. Israel’s blessings and privileges were largely of an earthly and material order; the church’s are heavenly and spiritual. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians as to the heavenly inheritance of Christians, far from speaking of material things, he said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). How complete the contrast!
6. While Israel’s destiny is to be the channel of blessing to all nations, during the golden years of the millennial age, the church’s destiny is association with Christ in heaven.
Was there a definite time when God’s ways with Israel ended and when the church period began?
The death of Christ marked the close of God’s dealings with Israel as a nation, and His resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost inaugurated the present dispensation. Compare Acts 2:41-47 with 1 Corinthians 12:13.
Two qualifying remarks must, however, be made.
First, though God’s ways with Israel reached their great climax in the cross, He, nevertheless, continued certain supplementary dealings with them until the death of Stephen, and perhaps even until the destruction of Jerusalem. Nor were the full designs of God as to the church made known in their entirety at the very outset of the present age. They were gradually revealed through the apostles, particularly through Paul, though the church itself began its corporate existence on the day of Pentecost.
Second, God’s ways with Israel have ended only for a time. Israel has been side-tracked, as it were, while the church occupies the rails. When the church has been transferred to heaven, Israel will again be brought out upon the main line of God’s dealings.
What was God’s object in calling out Israel into the special place they occupied?
They were called to take possession of the promised land for God, as a kind of pledge that the whole earth belonged to Him. When they entered Canaan, they crossed the Jordan as the people of “the Lord of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11-13). Further, they were to preserve in the world the stock “of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came” (Rom. 9:5). Incidentally also, in that nation as a sample and privileged beyond all others was made God’s last trial of the human race. If, as Romans 3:19 puts it, the law utterly condemns the sample nation of the Jews, who were under it, then every mouth is stopped, and all the world is “guilty before God.”
What is God’s object and purpose in connection with the church?
The church is Christ’s body (Eph. 1:23). Therefore in it He is to be expressed, just as our bodies are that in which we live and express ourselves.
It represents Him here during the time of His rejection and personal absence in heaven. Satan has got rid of Christ personally from the earth, but He is here as represented in His people. To touch the church, or any who belong to it, is to touch Him. His own words to Saul imply this: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4).
The church is God’s house, the only house He has upon earth at the present time. God will not be turned out of His own world! He dwells today in a house which none have been able to destroy. God’s ultimate purpose is to have a bride for Christ (Eph. 5:25-27), a people who, sharing now as heavenly strangers His rejection, find their eternal portion as sharers of His heavenly glory.
Shall we not thank God that our lot is cast on this side of the cross of Christ?
F. B. Hole (adapted)