Dispensations make me ponder

[_Franktalk]

I am going to throw out some ideas about dispensations. Some we know about and some are just guesswork. The ideas I present are not really a belief system but just things I ponder when I try and see the big picture.

There is a large dispensation that covers the whole plan of salvation. Let us say for a second that dispensations have been going on for a long time. And that what we read in Genesis is just the start of a new one. But before we go there let us look at the book of Revelation. Just what does the world look like after the Tribulation period. Most things are gone. Burned up or in some way destroyed. Most life on the planet is gone. Then we have elements burning up and a new earth. But does this mean a complete redo or does it mean a makeover. I suspect a makeover. I say this because in 2 Peter in describing the flood it states that the earth that was perished. But many things before the flood were around after the flood. Yes there were some changes but I suspect many buried things remained as they were. But I suspect most things were changed near the surface. Moving water and rock tends to grind things to powder. So with Revelation and the Flood in mind maybe we can look at Genesis as a new earth in much the same way we have a new earth in Revelation and an earth perished during the flood. If indeed this is true then what remained of the last dispensation before the Garden of Eden?

Now I have heard that our spirits have progressed from rocks up through plants and animals. Then came a time when some were ready to take on the image of God. Could it be that this is when Genesis starts? A pathway to human flesh was needed so Adam and Eve provided that pathway. Then moving from one life to another each soul learns how to be reborn of the spirit and progress out of this plane of existence into another.

I have looked at scripture to see what kinds of conflicts this line of thought might have. So I would like comments but remember these are just ideas. I have much more to say about these thoughts. But feel free to add any of your own about a big picture view of dispensations.

[_SteelHead]

The earth will be a giant urim and thummin and the streets will be paved with gold.

See D&C 130

[_Drifting]

Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical, futurist, Biblical interpretation that foresees a series of "dispensations", or periods in history, in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.
As a system, dispensationalism is rooted in the writings of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) and the Brethren Movement.[1]:10 The theology of dispensationalism consists of a distinctive eschatological "end times" perspective, as all dispensationalists hold to premillennialism and most hold to a pretribulation rapture. Dispensationalists believe that the nation of Israel (not necessarily the same as the state of Israel) is distinct from the Christian Church,[2]:322 and that God has yet to fulfill His promises to national Israel. These promises include the land promises, which in the future world to come result in a millennial kingdom and Third Temple where Christ, upon His return, will rule the world from Jerusalem[3] for a thousand years. In other areas of theology, dispensationalists hold to a wide range of beliefs within the evangelical and fundamentalist spectrum.[1]:13
With the rise of dispensationalism, some conservative Protestants came to interpret the Book of Revelation as predicting future events (futurism), rather than predicting events that have taken place throughout history (historicism)[4][5][6] or predominantly associated to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, a position known as Preterism.

[_Mittens]

Right now we are living in the dispensation talked about in Daniel 2:44...The Gospel Age started 2000 years ago with Jesus and the Apostles spreading the Good News of Jesus

Daniel 2:

31 “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and £thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of £clay. 34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. 37 You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; 38 and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. 39 But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. 41 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. 43 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”

Head of Gold is the Babylonian Empire
Breasts and arms of silver is the Medo-Persian Empire
Belly and thighs of brass is the Macedonian Empire
Legs of Iron is the Roman Empire
Feet of iron and clay is Rome broken into Ten Kingdoms

1. Alemanni - Germany.
2. Franks - France.
3. Burgundians - Switzerland.
4. Suevi - Portugal.
5. Vandals - Exterminated.
6. Visigoths - Spain.
7. Anglo-Saxons - England.
8. Ostrogoths - Exterminated.
9. Lombards - Italy.
10. Heruli - Exterminated.



Notice in verse 44
God would set up a kingdom which would never be destroyed during the Roman Empire and it would fill the whole earth. Would Jesus come down from his throne in heaven to be tortured and die a terrible death

2 Cor. 8:

9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

[_Drifting]

I thought we were in the middle of the dispensation known as the seventh seal (the last one if memory serves).

[_Mittens]

I thought we were in the middle of the dispensation known as the seventh seal (the last one if memory serves).

We're living in the last dispensation before Jesus returns


http://youtu.be/iHpRlztBUd8

[_moksha]

Pez was big into dispensation.

How many other faith traditions use this word and concept? Where did it originate?

[_Albion]

In all my years teaching in and attending orthodox Christian churches I cannot recall a single time the word dispensation has been used. As the opening post of this thread confirms, to me at least, Mormons seem to spend a great deal of time speculating and theorizing on issues that are without Biblical confirmation.

[_Franktalk]

In all my years teaching in and attending orthodox Christian churches I cannot recall a single time the word dispensation has been used. As the opening post of this thread confirms, to me at least, Mormons seem to spend a great deal of time speculating and theorizing on issues that are without Biblical confirmation.

Actually evangelicals are way more into dispensation periods. I guess that is another church you know nothing about.

I see you have brought nothing to the discussion again.

[_jo1952]

The earth will be a giant urim and thummin and the streets will be paved with gold.

See D&C 130

Hi SteelHead:

Only to those who dwell upon it:

D&C 130:9 This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s.

Nothing about the streets being paved with gold. Is that from another source?

Blessings,

jo