45. Dispensations, Ages and Covenants

Dispensations, Ages and Covenants

Chapter 44

Every marked period of the history of the race is characterized by some peculiar method of divine dealing. The system of laws or principles of administration in such periods is known as a dispensation, such as the Patriarchal, Mosaic and Christian; or the period itself during which these methods prevail. The Divine Ruler chooses His own way of governing mankind, and His earlier methods were preparatory to the later, and all necessary to the final result, and revealing a progressive order. The conception of Covenant seems inseparable from that of dispensations, and fundamental to it. God, from time to time, has chosen to enter into a covenant or compact with man, a mutual agreement, binding upon each party, implying therefore mutual obligations, and conditions. By the terms of a covenant, unfaithfulness, on the part of either party, or failure to fulfill the conditions, or terms of the compact, forfeits the compact.

These covenants with man all implied more or less intimate fellowship with God, and promise of blessing; and the condition on man’s part was always obedience. But the compacts differed in minor respects, both as to promises and conditions, and as to the seal or sign connected with them, as also in the human parties contracting. To understand these features is essential to the perception both of God’s faithfulness and of man’s faithlessness and failure; likewise to appreciate the nature, necessity and perpetuity of that “new covenant” which ultimately displaced all the rest.

Each of the first five books of the Bible has a distinctive character. Genesis is the book of beginnings: this idea of beginning is its dominant, ruling conception. The Divine purpose is manifest and apparent in its structure, for there is a threefold beginning: first, with Adam; second, with Noah; third, with Abram; with each of these three history makes, in a sense, a new start.

Each of these beginnings is marked by a covenant: with Adam, a covenant of life, of continuance in the favor of God, of preservation in a state of innocence, happiness and exemption from that death which was the penalty of transgression. With Noah, it was a covenant of possession; the earth purged by a flood, was given to him as a dwelling place, with promise of continuance, and preservation from another flood—in a word, a pledge of continuance of the existing natural order. With Abram, it was a covenant of blessing, for himself and his seed, and, through them, for all other families of the earth, in the Messiah. Here, for the first time, grace, instead of law, appears in the covenant, and marks a stage of revelation.

Each of these covenants had a condition: with Adam, obedience to one restrictive command; with Noah, occupation of the desolated earth by multiplication and diffusion of the human race; with Abram, faith, as manifested in renunciation of home and kindred, and separation unto God. And to each covenant there was a seal of confirmation: with Adam, the tree of life; with Noah, the bow in the cloud; and with Abram, the rite of circumcision; each seal being singularly fitting: the tree in Eden, the sacramental sign of continued life; the bow in the cloud connecting heaven and earth, God and man, in harmonious relations; circumcision in the flesh, an expression of separation and consecration in the spirit, a type of the subjection of the carnal to the spiritual.

Each covenant had its method of violation and forfeiture: in Adam’s case, by eating of the forbidden fruit; in Noah’s, by concentration and centralization, instead of diffusion, as shown at Babel; and in case of Abraham’s descendants, by compromise with idolatry.

Two other covenants are referred to in the Pentateuch—one at Horeb (Exodus 34:27), and one in the land of Moab, which is expressly declared to be “beside that which Jehovah made with them in Horeb” (Deuteronomy 29:1). The covenant at Horeb was one of Theocracy, Israel accepting their great Deliverer and Emancipator as King; hence, it was signalized by the promulgation of law—a new code; and its condition was loyalty to a Divine Ruler, its sign and seal two tables of stone, inscribed by the finger of God. The covenant at Moab was one of special promise of national prosperity, prominence and permanence. Its condition, separation from idolaters and submission to the only true God; and its singular seal was the two peaks of Ebal and Gerizim at the gateway of the land, a constant reminder of their solemn Amen to all its provisions. It also hinted for the first time a larger promise and more glorious destiny—a circumcision of heart which forecast the Pentecostal outpouring and the Messianic Era. The new covenant differs from all the rest. It is one of spiritual, not temporal blessing, and made with our Lord Jesus Christ in behalf of man, and hence forever irreversible and unchangeable. Its sign is the blood of the cross and it is without conditions, since our Lord is the contracting party in man’s stead and cannot fail or be faithless.

There is a beautiful hint of the ultimate recovery through the “New Covenant” of all blessing, lost and forfeited through the old, as represented in all three primitive covenants, which may be traced in the Apocalypse, where each forfeiture, under the penalties of law, seems offset by a new favor, under the final triumph of grace. The death, temporal and spiritual, which followed the first sin, is at last remitted and banished: “there is no more death;” and hence, again appears the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God. The confusion of tongues and forcible dispersion that followed God’s visitation on the sins of Noah’s posterity at Babel give way to one tongue among the celestials and a new community in the City of God; and hence, the rainbow appears round about the throne, the new pledge of continuance to the new order. The degeneracy and destruction that followed Israel’s idolatries and apostasies give way to regeneration and restitution; hence, the twelve tribes appear permanently incorporated in the very foundations of the new Jerusalem. This contrast between the beginning and the ending of the race’s history can be seen only as the first chapters of the first book of the Bible are compared with the last chapters of the closing book. Such comparison will make all biblical history seem like the perimeter of a golden ring, where, after a vast sweep of thousands of years, we reach the point of starting in the point of finishing. What was first found in Genesis, is last found in Revelation: Eden, in Paradise regained; the tree of life; the rivers of Eden in the river of the water of life; the companionship and converse of God in the cool of the day restored in the tabernacle of God with men, where there is no decline of day; and, whereas the curse came on the original Eden, in the new Paradise “there shall be no more curse.” What appeared as finally forfeited in the fall, is thus seen to have been only suspended privilege, to be recovered and restored when God makes “all things new.” It is a wonderful vision of the consummation of grace. All that lies intermediate, between Eden and Paradise, is the working out of this amazing scheme of redemption; and the shadows of the midnight, with its darkness that might be felt, can only be understood in the glories of the eternal noon, with the light and luster unspeakable of the final inheritance of the saints. In addition to this covenantal conception is that of successive periods into which all time, and in fact all duration, is divided.

History, in God’s plan, is constituted of ages, each having its own specific character and purpose; and these distinctive features need to be examined with discrimination; the promises, prophecies, ordinances and utterances of the Word, appropriate to one period, may and often do so pertain, principally, if not exclusively thereto, as to be misapplied if referred to any other. “Distinguish the times,” said Augustine, “and the Scripture will be consistent with itself.”

Five great ages, at least, clearly appear in Scripture, all referred to as distinct, in the one Epistle to the Ephesians:

Of these we should get clear conceptions, and there is a hint of an age, following the millennial, but preceding the Eternal—when the triumphs of our Lord shall most fully be realized.[1] [1] G.F. Trench,After the Thousand Years—Knowing the Scriptures. The two ages, which are so contrasted in the Epistles to the Hebrews, the outgoing and the incoming order—the former preparing for the latter, and forecasting it—do not lie in the same plane, and the points of difference are more numerous than those of resemblance. The former was the shadow, type, prophecy, of which the latter is the substance, prototype and antitype and fulfillment; the former, ethnic, national, temporal; the latter cosmic, racial, eternal. One had more to do with the earthly; the other with the heavenly. Christ was far greater than Moses, Aaron and Joshua combined; the coming inheritance infinitely superior to the Land of Promise, and the New Jerusalem to the old, and the throne and Kingdom of the Son of Man to that of David and Solomon. To judge the future by the past or the present, is to misunderstand them all and misconceive their relations. As a clear-minded man has his pigeonholes for distributing his papers, a Bible student needs to have clearly defined departments of truth, so that he can pigeonhole a precept or promise or prophecy or observance where it belongs and not refer to one dispensation or age or economy what belongs to another. And connected with these distinctions is that other so plainly referred to by Paul, “the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God,” which are never confused in the Word of God (1 Corinthians 10:32).

There is a distinct line which separates the writings of John from other New Testament Scriptures.

Though all parts of the Word of God are equally necessary to its entirety, all are not equally important for the instruction of disciples. Even among New Testament books some have a special present application.

Almost the last words of a saintly teacher, now with the Lord, were, “Brethren, do not neglect the ministry of John.” He referred to a fact, often overlooked, that this New Testament writer wrote his Gospel narrative, Epistles and Revelation last of all of those who contributed to New Testament literature. This gives John a unique place among New Testament writers, and the more so because, before he took up his pen a very conspicuous change had begun in church life. So far as dates are known there is a very noticeable order in New Testament writings. Up to about the year 65 A.D., the primitive apostolic order survived in its essential features as appears from I Timothy, Titus, and I Peter. There are only two orders, bishops and deacons, both officially recognized, but no sharp line between “clergy” and “laity,” and a distinct line of separation between the church and the world. That some marked change took place within about one year appears from the altered tone of II Timothy, II Peter, and Jude, which are supposed to date about 66 A.D. The Church, as a witness for God had already begun to fail. Deceivers and corrupters had crept in; heathen usages, legalism, Judaism, antinomianism and various other forms of leaven already permeated the whole lump. In the church assembly an order so new had begun to prevail that individuals loving to have the pre-eminence, were fast assuming authority, so that one of them refused to receive even John himself. Whether God, by His servant, approved or disapproved these changes and this new order, which appears to have become general, we are not left to doubt; for when John wrote, it was of the church as having failed on earth and needing to be judged. This conspicuously appears in his Epistles, and in the seven Epistles to the churches in Revelation 2, 3.

Another remarkable fact must be weighed. For about twenty-five years inspiration seems to have ceased and no new writings were given to the church from about 66 to 91 A.D., when once more the Spirit spake by John. His writings therefore form the last messages to the church. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the writings of the beloved disciple thus mark a dispensation, the last before the Lord’s second appearing, the period of church decline, and the partial withdrawal of the Spirit’s presence and presidency in the church, the cessation of miracle and largely of supernatural intervention.

Many, even among believers, strenuously oppose all such views, denouncing them as pessimistic. But there is a deeper question once asked by the High Priest, “Are these things so?” (Acts 7:1). Not what is most agreeable to the natural man and carnal heart, or most flattering to human pride or self-satisfaction; but what is true, and scriptural, is the prime matter of importance and interest. If continuous prayerful study of the New Testament reveals anything with certainty, it is that, about a generation after our Lord’s ascension, decline in doctrine and piety manifestly began in the primitive church which has ever since continued; and that decline was marked by the following conspicuous features:

1. Loss of unity and equality among disciples, the multiplication of sectarian jealousies and divisions, the caste spirit, and the erection of an ecclesiastical hierarchy, with clerical and lay distinctions, originally unknown, and a multitude of ranks and orders wholly foreign to the apostolic age.

2. Loss of spiritual power and separation—conformity to the world, worldly maxims, methods and spirit; introduction of salaried offices, often very lucrative, which appealed to avarice and ambition; gradual transformation of the original assembly into a religious club with large pecuniary outlay and barriers to the poor.

3. Loss of common witness to the truth, and the Christ-disciples as such ceasing to bear testimony and relegating distinctive Christian service and activity to a clerical class; absorption in temporal interests, identification with the world in its pursuits and spirit; practical union of church and state with consequent corruption of church life and complication with political aims and compromises.

4. Loss of Holy Spirit control; human government and influence rapidly displacing the invisible Sovereignty of the divine Paraclete. Artistic and esthetic standards taking the place of the spiritual; simplicity of worship corrupted by formalism and ritualism, robes, rites, elaborate ceremonies and spectacular effects; costly buildings, choirs, clergy and church conduct generally.

5. Loss of missionary and especially martyr spirit; the declension and final cessation of evangelistic activity; neglect of souls, and finally a thousand years of the dark ages, when the church scarcely survived, and there was only a godly remnant; when all signs of supernatural intervention ceased and prevailing power in prayer. The Reformation, under such men as Wyclif, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Savonarola—revived evangelical doctrine; and the missionary movements, under Carey and his contemporaries, revived Evangelism. But, despite the multiplication of missionary organization and activity, the church has never recovered the spiritual separateness and power of apostolic days. The present decay of doctrine under the rapid growth of rationalistic criticism, assailing the Pentateuch, then the prophetic and even Messianic element in the Old Testament; then the infallibility of Christ as a teacher, and finally even His Resurrection and actual historic existence, may indicate some of the signs of the Times.