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1997 TGF Bible Conference Series
The Five Great Prophetic Clocks of Scripture

The Clock of Dispensations

Robert E. Walsh, 1997

Abstract: The 1997 Trinity Grace Fellowship Bible Conference

November 28 - 30, 1997

Conference Theme

The Five Great Prophetic Clocks of Scripture

Session Title The Clock of Dispensations

Robert Walsh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

(0) ABSTRACT 1

(I) IMPORTANCE OF THE DISPENSATIONAL CLOCK . 1

(II) DEFINITIONS 1

(III)PROPOSITIONS 1

(IV) GENTILE DISPENSATION 2 (A) The Hope of the Righteous Gentiles . 2 (B) The Working Out of the Gentile Dispensation . 2

(V) JEWISH DISPENSATION 2 (A) The Hope of Israel . 2 (B) The Working Out of Israel's Dispensation 2

(VI) BODY DISPENSATION . 3 (A) The Hope of the Body of Christ . 3 (B) The Working Out of the Body of Christ 3

(VII)THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE BODY DISPENSATION TO ISRAEL'S SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION . 3

(0) ABSTRACT The working out of the dispensations of Scripture - the righteous of the Gentiles, elect Israel, and the Body of Christ - comprise the great master clock of all Scripture and Gods dealings with all His Elects When correlated with the preceding clocks, important information is generated: the Body of Christ and its program is precisely the gap between Israel's Second and Third Generations; and the Body of Christ will oversee the angelic restoration of elect Israel to the Land and the establishment of her future empire It will be seen that this clock, particularly the Body dispensation, reveals and completes all of Gods decrees concerning His Elects.

(I) IMPORTANCE OF THE DISPENSATIONAL CLOCK In discussing the Clock of Dispensation it should not be misconstrued that a Dispensation is being defined as a period of time, for it is not (as will be seen below) Rather, Clock of Dispensations addresses the issue of how the Dispensations are related to time or how they work themselves out in time.

If the Clock of Generations is a keystone in God's great prophetic calendar, then the Clock of Dispensations is its capstone The importance of the Clock of Dispensations is seen in that it is the culmination of God's dealings with His Elects, and provides the missing information for Israel's program The prophets had wondered about the time between the Second and Third Generation; it is the Clock of Dispensations (in particular the Body Dispensation) that reveals this wonderful nugget Notice that all the preceding clocks stopped in time (before or at the end of the Second Generation), but the Clock of Dispensations "just keeps of ticking" - it is the Timex Clock! This fact reveals that it is this Clock that provides a complete chronology of God's dealing with His Elects and thus provides the missing element in Israel's program as mentioned above and proved below.

(II) DEFINITIONS The Greek word for dispensation is the compound word ʦ, from , meaning house (or household) and Ê, meaning law or management Thus, ʦ means house law or household management A complete concordance follows: Luke 16:2-4; 1 Cor 9:17; Eph 1:10; 3:2; Col 1:25; 1 Tim 1:4.

(III)PROPOSITIONS Proposition 1 There is ne redemptive covenant of sovereign grace In this one covenant there are three dispensations:

(A) The Body Dispensation (B) The Jewish Dispensation (C) The Gentile Dispensation

In each of the Dispensations is all the fullness of the one covenant.

Proposition 2 The objects of the one covenant comprise the one redeemed elect In this elect are three households:

(A) The Body of Christ (B) The Jewish Nation Israel (C) The Gentile Nations

Each household manifests God's sovereign grace.

Proposition 3 To determine a dispensation, first determine its household.

Proposition 4 To determine a household, first identify its hope.

Proposition 5 To determine the timing / history (or time period) of a dispensation, first determine Gods administration of that household.

(IV) GENTILE DISPENSATION

(A) The Hope of the Righteous Gentiles The Elect Gentiles identified by the Father's Decree with the Son as the Perfect Man and as the Last Adam - their hope is to fill the earth and live in righteousness under the administrative/priestly authority of righteous Israel.

Gen 1:28; 9:1; Job 19:25,26; Isa 2:1-3; 19:23-25; Zech 10:23; Rev 21:24-26

(B) The Working Out of the Gentile Dispensation The Gentile Dispensation (i.e., Gentile Household Management) was first revealed in Gen 1:26 Its first recorded member was righteous Abel (Gen 4:2,4,8; Heb 11:4) and included such Antediluvians as: Seth, Enoch, and Noah.

The Gentile Dispensation continued through the Old Testament period with example members such as:

Job - Job 19:25,26 Rahab - Josh 6:17-25; Heb 11:31 King Hiram of Tyre - 1 Kings 5:1-8 Ninevites - Jonah 1:2; 3:1-10; 4:11

The Gentile Dispensation continued through the New Testament with such member examples as:

The Centurion - Mat 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10 The Canaanite (Syrophenician) Woman - Mat 15:21-28; Mk 7:25-30 The Ethiopian Eunuch - Acts 8:26-39 Cornelius - Acts 10:1-48

The Gentile Dispensation ended in Acts 28 with the Pauline Decree - Acts 28:15-31.cp Rom 11:25 See below under the Jewish Dispensation.

The Gentile Dispensation resumes after the Rapture of the Body of Christ and continues for ever - Rev 21:24-26.

(V) JEWISH DISPENSATION Elect Israel identified by the Father's Decree with the Son as Messianic Lord of all of the Earth -their hope is to live in the Land promised to Abraham and govern and bless the righteous Gentiles Israel does this under the righteous authority of the elect angels.

(A) The Hope of Israel To Bless the Gentile Nations - Heb 7:7 To be the supreme political nation - Amos 9:9-12; Isa 60:1-16; 19:23-25; Joel 3:1 To be the prophetic / priestly nation for the Gentiles - Gen 12:3; Ex 19:5,6 (1 Pet 2:5,9); Isa 2:1-3; Zech 8:3,13,22,23; 14:16-19 To be under the righteous authority of the Elect angels - Psalm 8:5; 104:4; 136:3; Ezek 1:21-2:2; Dan 10:16,17,19; 12:8; Acts 7:53; Gal 3:19.

(B) The Working Out of Israel's Dispensation The Jewish Dispensation was revealed to and begins with Abraham - Gen 12:3

The Jewish Dispensation continues throughout the Old Testament - David, Solomon, the Prophets, Elijah, Elisha, etc.

The Jewish Dispensation continues through the non-Pauline New Testament - Christ as Israel's Messiah (Mat 15:24 context); Temple worship - Acts 3:1; Apostolic authority - Acts 5:1-5 (Ananias & Sapphira); James 1:1 & 1 Pet 1:1 (Acts 8 Diaspora).

The Second Generation is the Generation of the non-Pauline New Testament This Generation saw the announcement of Zacharias; the virgin conception of Jesus; the Messianic ministry; the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; and the Apostolic ministry It also saw the temporary decline of Israel (Acts).

The Jewish Dispensation ended in Acts 28 with the Pauline Decree - Acts 28:15-31 .cp. Rom 11:25 See also Peter's commentary on Paul's ministry (2 Pet 3:10-16 .cp. Acts 1:6-8)

The Jewish Dispensation resumes after the Rapture of the Body of Christ and continues for ever - the parable of the Wheat and Tares (Mat 13), Daniel's 70th week (Dan 9:27), the Millennial and Eternal kingdoms are set up (Rev 20-22).

(VI) BODY DISPENSATION

(A) The Hope of the Body of Christ The personal and eternal union and identification with Christ, both in His holy state and his exaltation over the angelic powers In its administrative position over all God's eternal created order, the Body of Christ is the direct, personal, and full expression of Christs administrative position over God's eternal, created order The Body of Christ is the full extension of Christs righteous non-incarnate humanity.

(B) The Working Out of the Body of Christ The Body dispensation was first revealed to Paul secretly - 2 Cor 12:1-13; see also Rom 2:16 (my gospel) .cp. 16:25; Eph 1:9; 3:1-12.

The Body of Christ is revealed ONLY through the writings of Paul As Moses is the chief architect of Israel and the Law, Paul is the chief architect of the Body of Christ - 1 Cor 3:10.

Examples of Body members are: Sosthenes (1 Cor 1:1); Silas (1 Thes 1:1); Timothy (1 & 2 Tim); Titus (Titus 1), etc.

The Body Dispensation ends on earth at the Rapture - 1 Cor 15:51-53; 1 Thes 4:13-5:11.

(VII)THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE BODY DISPENSATION TO ISRAEL'S SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION The prophets understood that there was a distinction between the 1st advent of Christ as Israel's Messiah (the suffering servant) and the 2nd advent of Christ as the Glorious King in shekhinah (1 Pet 1:10-12) Intentionally, God did not reveal sufficient information regarding Israel's program to make a complete assessment as to the chronological relationship of these two great Messianic events.

Peter well knew the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 - Messiah was to announce His Princeship ending the 69th week (Mark 11 Palm Sabbath), then die BEFORE the 70th week began Thus, the 69th and 70th weeks were KNOWN not to be contiguous, and this produced a great wonderment in the mind of the Elect Jew as Peter states above.

Moreover, Joel 2:28,29 as indicated by Peter in Acts 2:14-21, was fulfilled in Acts 2-8 and this was to be part of the ushering in of the Messianic kingdom Notice that Peter PRIOR to the feast of Pentecost and the coming of pneuma hagion (holy spirit) asked Christ when He would setup the promised kingdom (Acts 1:6-8) This question was NOT from Peter's ignorance, as much as it was from his correct and proper understanding of the Old Testament prophets as stated above Jesus' answer was that Peter was not yet to know Indeed, Peter did not know even by 1 Peter 1:10-12 (Greek text).

The intervening management between Israel's Second and Third Generation is precisely the Dispensation of the Body of Christ The Body of Christ was not seen in the Old or New Testaments (outside of Paul), and was ordained of God BEFORE creation (Eph 1:3-10) Paul states that blindness in part has happened to Israel for the sake of the Body of Christ (Rom 11:25,26), and Peter finally states that if the remaining Elect of Israel desire to know why the Kingdom has been delayed SEE PAUL (2 Pet 3:12-16).

Thus, the Body of Christ is precisely that program between Israel's Second and Third Generation When the Body age ends Israel's program immediately begins.

There is no need for a "transitional period" at the end of the Body age because:

(1) The Body of Christ (an administratively higher Dispensation than Israel) is being "replaced" by Israel Thus, in order to respect the Body's authority it MUST be taken out of the way (2) 1 Thes 5 explicitly states that the Day of the Lord can NOT take place until the Body is taken out of the way.

The following figure illustrates the relationship between the Clocks of Dispensations (in particular the Body Dispensation) and Generations.

Figure 1 A Correlation of the Clocks of Dispensations and Generations

Notice that the figure above clearly implies the need of a transitional period (perhaps we need a better phrase) between the end of the Second Generation and the halting of the Gentile and Jewish Dispensations The reason for this is for the sake of the Earthly Kingdom saints, so that they may KNOW specifically WHY the Kingdom has been delayed (Acts 1:6 .cp. 2 Pet 3:12-16) Peter expressly teaches Israel that it is Paul's Ministry that contains the information why the Kingdom has been delayed Thus, because the Body program is in greater administrative authority than that of Israel, it requires of Paul to have a dual ministry during this time, one to Israel and one to the Body Because the Body is in greater authority than Israel, Paul MUST be the one to expound the reason for the delay - because the Body of Christ IS the delay Once Acts 28 is reached Paul's ministry to Israel ceases and we (the Body) know the "whole" and so does remaining Israel (Peter, John, James, etc.).

(Italics indicate references to the Cylinder of Cyrus)

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