classic controversy

Anyone who regularly visits the forum will have noticed that the question “when did our dispensation begin?” ranks high in the top 10. Underlying this is a classic controversy between what is formally called dispensationalism and ultra-dispensationalism.

The former teaches that the Church began in the year of Christ’s resurrection, and that with it “the dispensation of grace” (Ephesians 3:2) commenced.
The latter contradicts this and teaches that the Church—and thus this dispensation—did not begin until Paul’s ministry.
The various nuances within this latter camp I’ll leave aside for the sake of simplicity.

I have just posted an (updated) ARTICLE in which I argue that the equation: beginning of the Church = beginning of “the dispensation of grace,” does not hold up.
Both dispensationalists and ultra-dispensationalists make this mistake.

With the dispensationalists, I believe that the Church began in the year of the resurrection. Saul was a persecutor of “the Church of God,” and so that Church already existed at that time. Note, by the way, that the voice from heaven said to him:
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting ME?”

In essence, this is already the revelation of the Church as the Body of Christ.
That is to say: Christ identifies Himself with the Church that Saul was persecuting.

However, with the ultra-dispensationalists, I do believe that “the dispensation of grace” was only revealed to Paul. That is, after all, exactly what Paul states explicitly in Ephesians 3. A dispensation (oikonomia) is a stewardship, and Paul is the steward of “the grace” and “the secret” that were revealed to him.
This stewardship, by definition, could not have begun before it was entrusted to him as steward.

It is striking, by the way, to read that Saul, upon his calling, did not consult with flesh and blood, but instead went to Arabia for three years. Perhaps because the Lord would instruct him further there (Acts 26:16). It is the same location where Mount Sinai is also found (“Mount Sinai in Arabia”; Galatians 4:25)—the very place where Moses once received the Law from God.

Which suggests that the dispensation of the Law apparently began in the same place as, later on, “the dispensation of the Secret”!

Delen: