Dispensations
The Bible consists of two parts, Old Testament and New Testament, and in these it is possible to see the general progress of God’s revelation of truth. The former indicates Law, and the latter Grace. The one deals with rules suited to moral childhood; the other, with principles applicable to moral maturity.
But within these two main divisions there are still further and fuller instances of progress. God has revealed His will to man in many parts and in many ways (Heb. 1:1), and it is usual to speak of these as dispensations, meaning certain periods of time when God offers blessing to man on certain conditions. While in general we speak of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, we can and must go into further detail and notice, both in the Old Testament and in the New, the different yet connected stages of God’s revelation to man. Some students suggest seven of these dispensations: the Edenic (innocence); the Antediluvian (conscience); the Governmental (human government); the Patriarchal (promise); the Mosaic (law); the Christian (grace of God) and the Millennial (righteous government). Even these are capable of fuller division, for the Mosaic dispensation can be distinguished as the Theocracy (the time from Egypt to Samuel), the Monarchy (from Saul to the Captivity), and the Return (from the restoration to Malachi). The Christian dispensation can be similarly divided into the times before and after Pentecost.
Now in these various divisions it is often possible to distinguish God’s manifestation of Himself and of His truth at different stages. There was a gradually increasing manifestation of the divine character and will at successive periods, just as the people were considered ready to receive it. This means that while the revelation at every stage or dispensation was perfect for its own time, it was not necessarily suited for a following stage.
However we may divide the periods, it is clear that a distinction of this kind has to be drawn. Thus, when Christ said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12), He was indicating what I am now emphasizing, that truth was progressive in the sense that it was not all delivered at once, for, as the Lord went on to say, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
Gradual Unfolding of God’s Revelations to Man
Other proofs of the same gradual unfolding of the complete revelation of God for man can be seen in these two instances. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ first declared the Old Testament truth, and then supplemented and deepened it by adding, “Verily I say unto you” (Matt. 5:17-48).
In Mark 16:17-20 five miraculous signs are said to “follow them that believe.” They refer to that transitional period when the gospel was being offered to the Jews to repent and accept the Christ they had crucified (Acts 3:12-26) and until they refused it (Acts 7) and the Roman general Titus sacked Jerusalem and the gospel of the grace of God went out to the nations.
No Repudiation of Past Revelations
But in all this progressiveness of revelation, it is necessary and important to remember that it did not involve any repudiation of what had gone before. Like the repealing of a law which is in force up to the time of the repeal, the teaching for each stage was valid and obligatory until supplemented and thereby supplanted by fresh and fuller instruction. But repeal of a law never means repudiation, only a “disannulling” because of a more complete provision (Heb. 7:18).
A striking proof of this has been shown in the fact that there are traces in Scripture of later portions carrying an endorsement of previous stages. Joshua confirms the law of Moses (Josh. 1:8). The first Psalm emphasizes the value of the law (vs. 2). Acts refers back to the third Gospel. The Old Testament is frequently referred to or quoted in the New. These references often give further light on understanding of the truth until the Word of God was complete. All this attestation of one part of Scripture by another is a proof at once of its unity and its progressiveness. Then, in the New Testament in the “dispensation of the fullness of time,” we have the full, complete revelation of the purposes and counsels of God.
Trinity—An Example of Progressive Revelation
Out of many examples of this progressiveness of revelation, two will be adduced. The first is the doctrine of God. In the Old Testament emphasis is rightly placed on the unity of the Godhead as against the “gods many” of heathenism. But in the New Testament there is the additional revelation of the Trinity, which is not contradictory of the unity, but is based on it and developed out of it. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity never had the slightest connection with polytheism, but grew out of Jewish monotheism. It is significant that with all the Jewish objections to Christianity in Paul’s time, no trace can be found of any opposition to his doctrine of a distinction between the deity of the Father and the deity of the Son, which was the germ of the fully-developed doctrine of the Trinity.
The explanation of this was that the Jewish believers, having been led by experience into an acceptance of Christ as a divine Redeemer (and thereby to a distinction in the deity), found in their Old Testament anticipatory hints of the Trinity. They realized that the unity of the Godhead was compound, not simple, as the Hebrew words for “one” clearly indicate (Deut. 6:4; Ex. 26:6-11; Ezek. 37:16-19).
Morality—Another Example
Another illustration of the progressiveness of revelation is seen in the difference between the morality of the Old and New Testaments. This doctrine of the progress of revelation helps us to distinguish between God’s temporary and permissive will and His absolute and inflexible standard. The former is seen in the Old Testament and the latter in the New Testament, and as we study the first-named we can see in it clear indications of its temporary character. Thus, while permitting slavery, restrictions were imposed, and cruelty was prohibited (Ex. 21:16-27). Many of the Old Testament difficulties can be solved, or at least relieved, by the consideration of this purely temporary and merely permissive character of the morality at that time. Christ referred to this when He distinguished between the original, essential divine command about marriage and the Mosaic toleration of divorce (Matt. 19:8).
Principle of Progress of Great Practical Service
This principle of progress in God’s revelation is of great practical service in meeting certain current objections to the Old Testament. There are those who reject it because of its alleged cruelties, such as the slaughter of the Canaanites, or because of certain manifestations in individual life and practice not consistent with New Testament principles. Now, while we are not to be guided today by many of the examples of the Old Testament, it is equally true that insofar as what they said and did was due to a revelation of God, that revelation was perfect for that time, whatever additional truth came afterward for newer needs. We say insofar as what they said and did was of God, because not even in the Old Testament are we to understand that God necessarily approved of all that His servants said and did, even when they thought they were doing Him service. But if this were the place to do it, the instance of the slaughter of the Canaanites, already referred to, could be justified without much difficulty, in the light of the divine judgment on the awful depths of sin to which they had descended (Gen. 15:16).
Gradual Development and Deterioration
There is another point that is also apt to be overlooked, namely, that side by side with the gradual development of God’s revelation there was an equally gradual deterioration of Israel, so that they in their degeneration failed to realize and respond to the ever-enlarging disclosure of God. It has been well pointed out that “there are no setbacks in the revelation made to Israel, but there are many setbacks in the religious history of Israel.” It is the failure to recognize this distinction between the divine and the human that has caused people to regard Old Testament morality as low and unworthy of God, when all the time the explanation has been in the failure of the people to accept the growing revelation of the truth of God.
And so God revealed Himself. He taught men as they were able to bear it. He led them step by step from the dawn of revelation up to the fullness and splendor of His manifestation “in these last days ... by His Son” (Heb. 1:2). A knowledge of this principle of progress in God’s revelation of Himself will enable us to avoid a twofold error. It will prevent us, on the one hand, from undervaluing the Old Testament by reason of our fuller light from the New Testament; on the other hand, it will prevent us from using the Old Testament in any of its stages without guidance from the complete revelation in Christ. We shall thereby be enabled to obtain the correct spiritual perspective from which to study the Old Testament and to derive from it the wealth of spiritual instruction it was intended to convey to all ages (Rom. 15:4).
Temporary Teaching and Permanent Truth
We have thus to distinguish carefully between what may be called temporary teaching and permanent truth in the Old Testament — that is, between what is written to us and for us. All Scripture was written for our learning, but not all was written to us directly. Much of it was not addressed to Christians but to Jews and was primarily and often exclusively for them; it is useful for us today only by way of application. This distinction will solve many a difficulty, for the progress of doctrine is one of the master keys of the Bible.
W. H. G. Thomas (adapted)