Seven Dispensations

Teaching the Seven Dispensations

Most are familiar with the term dispensation or its plural form as well as the seven church ages. I want to examine the various dispensations throughout history. The church age dispensation is made up of seven distinct periods of time. All of history itself is made up of seven dispensations. Let’s find the term dispensation in the Bible and seek to define it that way. Here is one of the times the term is used in Scripture by the apostle Paul:

Ephesians 3:2 “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:”

Notice, it speaks of the economy or administration. We see that there is a way that God is administering his plan of salvation and it is during a specific period of time. Notice what Brother Branham states:

“You’ve run out of your complete sevens. Where you going to do now? Now, you’re a dispensationalist. Which, I am. I believe that God is, too. Note, notice. You’ve run out of dispensation types.”^[1]

Before going any further, Brother Branham speaks about dispensations in several ways. He speaks of the three dispensations of God manifested. God manifested to Israel in the form of the pillar of fire, the Fatherhood dispensation, God manifested in flesh, the Sonship dispensation and the Holy Ghost dispensation, during the church age. He also speaks of a dispensation of innocence. This is from another angle of how God deals with His people in regards to salvation.

You might ask, what is a dispensationalist? It might be easier to understand if we reference several scholars who were dispensationalists that Brother Branham mentioned. One is of course C.I. Scofield and another is Clarence Larkin. If you read each of their works you can see many similarities between their teachings and what Brother Branham taught. I do believe that part of the restoration of the faith was God using these dispensationalist teachers to restore the proper viewpoint of prophetic scriptures, though they only probed at it, they had many things correct. Dispensationalism can be defined as a system for rightly dividing the word of truth, dividing the Bible into various ages and specifically allotting different ways to administer his plan for that period of time. With that said, we know that God is perfected in sevens. There are seven church ages within the dispensation of grace. There are also seven dispensations covering the history of the world.

1. The first dispensation is innocence.

113 Now notice what’s happened. In the garden of Eden was God’s economy of innocence, and that was one of the—the dispensations. The first dispensation was innocent, the people knowed no sin. They didn’t know anything about sin. Both Adam and Eve were naked, but they were hid from their nakedness, by a spirit veil over their face.^[2]

The first  of the seven dispensations lasted from the creation of Adam and Eve until they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. They were both naked and knew it not. They were commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they failed resulting in the loss of innocence. This statement of Brother Branham along with others gives us a clue as to the remaining dispensations.

2. The second dispensation is conscience.

This dispensation lasted from Eden until the Flood. God’s truth was passed on verbally by Adam and Eve on down through their generations. Man was responsible to listen to his conscience and obey the word of the Lord passed on through the generations. There was no institution of government or the law during this period. There was only the truth passed on from generation to generation; and man was judged on how he responded to this truth. We see the result is that God brought an awesome and fearful condemnation upon it. The thoughts of man’s heart is, only evil continually.

3. The third dispensation is the dispensation of human government.

In Genesis 9:1-6 Noah and his sons come out of the ark and are told to multiply and fill replenish the earth again. They are also given specific commandments regarding foods and murder. Man is now to govern and to take control by instituting laws that prohibit murder and punishments for murder. This dispensation started after the Flood and ended on the plains of Shinar when God confused the languages. In fact, this dispensation continues for the Gentiles, and they remain under human government until the end. Paul speaks of the power of the sword given to the authorities.

4. The fourth dispensation is the promise.

God called and gave the promise of seed: as many as the stars of heaven and sands of the seas. He gave unconditional promises to Abraham that he would bless him and multiple his seed. In Genesis 12:1-3, 26:3, 28:12-14 the promises of blessing are connected to being in the land that God had given him. As soon as they left their land, they forsook their promise, forsaking their blessing. In Genesis 26:2 Isaac is told not to leave the land. Jacob took his family down to Egypt and the result was hard labor and bondage. The promises of this dispensation continue, but the time for it ended when Moses took the children of Israel out of Egypt and arrived at Sinai to receive the Law.

5. The fifth dispensation is the Law.

As this dispensation began, the grace of God appeared unto them in delivering them from bondage and taking them out of the Egypt and into the promised land.

At Sinai the LORD proposed to them the covenant of the law and they responded saying, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” Instead of a humble plea to remain under His grace they chose the law. The history of Israel shows one failure after another in the attempt to keep the law, resulting in their expulsion from the promised land. A remnant returned and ultimately conspired with the Gentiles to kill the seed of the woman thus ending the dispensation of the law.

6. The sixth dispensation is grace.

Little need be said regarding this. It started with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at Calvary for our sins and then the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, beginning the new covenant on the Day of Pentecost. God has blinded the eyes of Israel and turned to the Gentiles. This dispensation ends with the rapture of the Bride.

7. The seventh dispensation is the Reign of Christ.

It begins with the tribulation period, God turning to deal with Israel and call out the 144,000 through the two witnesses, which ushers in the return of Christ and his Bride to the earth to rule and reign over the earth. Christ will reign over restored Israel for 1,000 years and the Bride will rule over the nations with him. This dispensation ends with Satan being loosed and gathering together all the nations to fight against Christ and the saints when fire comes from heaven and destroys them resulting in the white throne judgement.

There are seven dispensations of how God dealt with mankind through the ages. We have various terminology and descriptions in the message. An age, a generation, etc. When we speak of a dispensation it covers a time-period, but it deals specifically with how God is dealing with the people living in that time-period. He will indeed judge them based upon how they respond to the word for that time.

^[1] 64-0802 – “The Future Home Of The Heavenly Bridegroom And The Earthly Bride”

Rev. William Marrion Branham

^[2] 65-0911 – “God’s Power To Transform”, Rev. William Marrion Branham