A Dispensational Approach to the Study of the Bible

[ LISTEN ]  Dispensation of TIME PAST:  Gentiles in Prophecy (Ephesians 2:11)    God piled up innumerable gifts in the big, perfect Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve.    To enjoy these blessing with God for all eternity, all they needed to do was to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:17).    When they failed, God clothed them with the first blood sacrifice/sin atonement/temporary sin covering (Genesis 3:21).    Adam and Eve received a very harsh judgment (Genesis 3:16-19).    God banished them from the Garden of Eden and from the Tree of Life.     They were separated from comfort and from their intimate, loving relationship with God, the One with whom they had walked in the cool of the day in the Garden (Genesis 3:8).    They now had to make their own way in a sin-cursed world (Genesis 3:22-24) and face a future physical death.    12 Wherefore, as by one man (...

[ LISTEN ]   Dispensation of TIME PAST:  Israel in Prophecy (Ephesians 2:11-12)   The Abrahamic Covenant   1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:    2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:    3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed  (Genesis 12:1-3).   Five hundred years post-flood, God called Abraham, a man of faith, out of the Ur h of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:31, 15:7) by this new Gospel.    He believed God and it was counted to Him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6).    God promised to make of him a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great, and he would be a blessing and in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genes...

[ LISTEN ]   The Mosaic Covenant   3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;    4 Then I will give you rain in due season and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.    5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.    6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.    7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.   14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;    15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break m...

[ LISTEN ] 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:    20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.    21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.    27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;    28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.    33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste (Leviticus 26:3-7, 14-21, 27-28, 33).   1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and t...

[ LISTEN ] 22 Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (of sin) (Hebrews 9:22).   11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.    12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood (Leviticus 17:11-12).   Four hundred and thirty years after God had established the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant (Galatians 3:16-17), He added to this dispensation of promise a second covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, a conditional covenant.    The Lord’s Sabbaths were a sign between the Lord and the children of Israel for them to know that the Lord did sanctify them (Exodus 31:13-17)   Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are u...

[ LISTEN ] 6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.    7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the Lord will answer him by myself:    8 And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord (Ezekiel 14:6-8).   12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.    13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I co...

[ LISTEN ] 5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:    6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel (Exodus 19:5-6).   6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves (Isaiah 61:6).   2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth (Deuteronomy 14:2).   Any stranger in their midst could come to God by faith, believing the Abrahamic Covenant—their Gospel—become a proselyte, be circumcised, and keep the law.    13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy mo...

[ LISTEN ] 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:    30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith (Romans 3:29-30).   11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in TIME PAST Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;    12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:    13 BUT NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:11-13).   In the AGES TO COME, Israel will resume its favored position with God when this BUT NOW Dispensation is concluded with the rapture, the catching away, (similar to Enoch) of the Body of Christ. (I Corinthians 15:51-57; I Thessa...

[ LISTEN ]   1 3 And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.    14 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.    15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.   16 Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.    17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so (J...

[ LISTEN ] So, Israel’s government was changed from a theocracy to a kingdom.  And the people chose Saul, a Benjaminite, a mighty man of power (I Samuel 9:1-2) to be their first king.    13 Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the Lord hath set a king over you.    14 If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God:    15 But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers (I Samuel 12:13-15).   Israel rejected God’s reign over them. Israel rejected God the Father.  In the future, they would reject their prophets, God the Son, and God the Holy S...

[ LISTEN ]   Prophesied Davidic Covenant   David, the fourteenth generation from Abraham (Matthew 1:17),    of the tribe of Judah, the second king of Israel, was first anointed by Samuel (I Samuel 16:12-13),    then by the men of Judah, to be king over the house of Judah (II Samuel 2:4),    and a third time, when the people of Israel anointed him to be their king (II Samuel 5:3)    Foreshadowing the future earthly millennial kingdom, God established the Unconditional Davidic Covenant (I Kings 9:5; II Samuel 7:12c).    Israel would look forward to the coming of their Messiah.    6 But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. (II Chronicles 6:6).    3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,    4 Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah (Psalm 89:3-4)...

[ LISTEN ] Prophesied New Covenant 24 And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.    25 And I will make with them a Covenant of Peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land:  and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.    26 And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.    27 And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.    28 And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.    ...

[ LISTEN ]   Israel’s History   Following the reigns of three kings—Saul, David, and his son Solomon—history reveals that most of the following kings were bad. The nation was divided into two kingdoms.    Two tribes—Judah and Benjamin—comprised the Southern Kingdom, called Judah, with their King Rehoboam, the son of Solomon (II Chronicles 10:8, 14, 16, 19).    Ten tribes comprised the Northern Kingdom, called Israel (sometimes Ephraim), who rejected the united Davidic dynasty, with King Jeroboam crowned their king (I King 12:16-19).    King Jeroboam instructed his people in a form of calf worship of two calves—one in Bethel and one in Dan (I Kings 12:28-30)—and declared the pilgrimage to Jerusalem unnecessary.   17 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them...

[ LISTEN ] Gospel of the Kingdom   (John 20:31) In TIME PAST, when Israel’s Messiah was announced by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-3), God had been silent for more than 400 years.    14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God,    15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:14-15).    23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.    24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them (Matthew 4:23-24).    5 These twelve (apostles) Jesus sent forth, and comm...