There are 8 dispensations of God in saving man. After man sinned and hid his face from God in the Garden of Eden, God being a faithful loving father, is always working to bring man to the place and position s/he had.
God is in the process of creation, creating man the way He wanted him/her to be and saving and delivering him/her.
In the process of saving and delivering man, God has seasons which are timings. These are times set by God for a certain plan.
The timings are referred to as ages, eras or dispensations and they are the God’s continues plan and timings in delivering man from his/her fall.
The 8 dispensations of God to man
God timings and plan to humanity and the entire world, and His grace and faithfulness to man, is in 8 dispensations as brought up in the bible.
The 8 dispensations are;
- Dispensation of innocence: – Age when God was living with man (Adam and Eve) in the Garden of Eden before man fall to sin. During this time, God was with man and man with God, and God lived with man. Man had no knowledge of evil (man knew only good not evil). Salvation was only attained by avoiding the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden.
- Dispensation of conscience: – This is when Adam and eve were taken out of the Garden of Eden after falling to sin (separation between man and God) up to the time of the flood when Noah and his family were protected by the ark. In this time, the conscience of men was to keep him/her from evil but his/her conscience become corrupt (evil became good and good was condemned). Salvation was by doing good and avoiding evil.
- Dispensation of Government: – Began in the time of the flood to the beginning of the time of Abraham. Salvation this time was by having faith in God and building the ark.
- Dispensation of promise: – Started with Abraham and ended before Moses was given the law. Salvation at this time was attained by having faith in God and His promises to the great nation Israel.
- Dispensation of the law: – This is referred in the bible as the dispensation of death (2 Cor:3:7). It started in the time when Moses was given the law in Mount Sinai to the time of Jesus death and resurrection. This is the time when the law was in effect. Being saved in this time was only by obeying the law.
- Dispensation of Grace: – This is the time we are living in. It started immediately after Jesus Christ’s resurrection, all through the church age and ends with the rupture. In this time, Grace Rules and this is the will (commandment) of Jesus Christ. Being saved is only by accepting, believing and confessing that Jesus is the Lord who died and rose again being the son of God. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Rom:10:9)
- Tribulation period (No grace): – This is the time when God pours His wrath on earth and destroys the devils kingdom. It begins immediately after the rapture of the church. In this time, their will be no grace but people will be saved by not receiving the mark of the beast thus being saved by their own blood.
- The millennium reign: – Age when God lives with man again. This is the time after God has destroyed all the devilish kingdom and comes back to live again with man, as it was in the garden of Eden, the way God created it to be before man sinned.
The dispensation time we live in today is what is referred to as the church age. It is rightly called the age of grace.
This is not because God’s grace has not been manifested in other ages or dispensations but because in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ we have the ultimate manifestation of God’s grace.
Grace is Jesus Christ and without Him there is no grace.
Why is it important to know the 8 dispensations of God in saving man? Answer found here: Click.
