Dispensation

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notmartha
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Dispensation

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The term "dispensation" is misused throughout the churches to the detriment of the Kingdom. The idea that God changes His Laws at whim, and that His Laws no longer apply because they have been replaced by grace is a slippery slope to hell. It is ironic that the same churches vehemently assert that all of man's "laws" apply, which effectively leave us in a condition of lawlessness. This article is excellent in explaining the errors of the dispensational doctrine: http://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/antinomianism.shtml

As you read through the definitions you will see how the Greek word, Oikonomia, meaning "household law" was translated in the KJV to "dispensation", and over time, "dispensation" was changed to mean "exemption from law".

BIBLE

Oikonomia, Greek Strong's #3622, is a noun found in the New Testament 7 times, translated as dispensation (4), stewardship (3). It comes from the root words “oikos,” a noun meaning house or household, and “nomos,” a noun meaning law. In the KJV it is translated as “dispensation” in the following verses:
1 Corinthians 9:17 - For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me
.
Ephesians 1:10 - That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Ephesians 3:2 - If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
Colossians 1:25 - Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Easton's Bible Dictionary, Matthew George Easton, 1897
Dispensation

(Gr. oikonomia, "management," "economy").

(1.) The method or scheme according to which God carries out his purposes towards men is called a dispensation. There are usually reckoned three dispensations, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic or Jewish, and the Christian. (See COVENANT) These were so many stages in God's unfolding of his purpose of grace toward men. The word is not found with this meaning in Scripture.

(2.) A commission to preach the gospel (1Co 9:17; Eph 1:10; Eph 3:2; Col 1:25).
Dispensations of Providence are providential events which affect men either in the way of mercy or of judgement.
The Kingship of Christ, Straight Talk Newsletter, Ben Williams, Jan-Feb 2018
http://benwilliamslibrary.com/pdfs/st18-1&2.pdf
To speak of the “Kingship” of Christ is to speak of his “Reign.” The English word comes from the Greek “basileia.” English versions of the Bible wrongly render this word as “kingdom.” This common error is mostly due to the fact that churches, translators, and Bible publishers promote the error of Dispensationalisrn and Futurism.

Dispensationalism is a recently developed doctrine introduced in the I800s by John Nelson Darby. Darby claimed that God designed transitional eras in which his relationship with mankind changes as the eras pass. Thus, God changes his way of dealing with mankind, and this changes the way men are supposed to interpret the Bible.
Darby introduced the idea that God dealt with men one way before the time of Moses. then a different way after the time of Moses. He then claimed that God changed again when Jesus died and supposedly flew away to outer space. Furthermore, Darby taught that God will change again when Jesus returns to Earth to start yet another era which the churches call “the Millennium.” He referred to these “eras” as “dispensations.” They were sections of time in which God “dispensed his godship differently.

Before Darby this was not the general belief of Bible readers. Then, after Darby, dispensationalism was champiooned by Cyrus Schofield who published the Schofield Reference Bible in which he added notes to support the doctrine of Dispensationalism. The false doctrine became popular in the churches and most have adopted it even though God tells us that He never changes:

6. For I am Yahweh, I change not; therefore you sons of Israel are not ended. Malachi 3:6

The doctrine of Dispensationalism presents people with an unsolvable problem. It causes people to have cognitive dissonance [believing in two mutually exclusive things]. On one hand God tells us He does not change, then on the other hand they are taught to believe that He does change from one dispensation to another.
Scofield's Study Notes
DISPENSATION

A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Seven such dispensations are distinguished in Scripture.
[Note – nowhere in the bible does the word “dispensation” mean a period of time! But this false doctrine has polluted Christian teachings for over a hundred years! See next example…]

http://www.grace-harbor-church.org/pdfs ... nglish.pdf

The Companion Bible, E.W. Bullinger

Appendix re: Dispensations
Bullinger on Dispensations.pdf
(30.18 KiB) Downloaded 820 times
A Christian Stand Against Licensure by Greg Loren: Durand
Scripture openly and without equivocation proclaims the rulership of the Lord Jesus Christ. Contrary to the Premillennial/Dispensational views which are so popular in modern Evangelicalism, this rulership is not limited to the future when Christ will allegedly return to earth to sit on a literal throne in Jerusalem. According to Psalm 2:8, the nations have been given to Christ by the Father as His inheritance. We are told that this inheritance went into effect at Christ's resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father (Psalm 2:7; Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:33-35, 13:33-34; I Corinthians 15:24-28; Ephesians 1:20-22; Hebrews 1:5, 8, 13). Consequently, "the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (Revelation 11:15b). This rulership is not spoken of in the future tense, but as an established fact in the heavenlies which will continue to manifest itself throughout history and into eternity:

"Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever." (Isaiah 9:7).
The Ecclesiastical Principle of oikonomia and the ROCOR under Metropolitan Anastassy
(Report at the Conference on the History of the Russian Church, November 2002)
http://www.synod.com/01newstucture/page ... arina.html
The literal meaning of the Greek word oikonomia, comprised of the words οικος (house) and νομος (law), are well-known: the "law of the house." In the New Testament, this word is used in an abstract sense of God=s administration of His house, that is, the Divine plan for the salvation of the world He created (Ioan Meyendorff, Vizantiiskoye Bogosloviye [Byzantine Theology], Moscow, 2001, p. 159), that is, of Divine "house-building." Apostle Paul writes about this in his Epistle to the Ephesians: "… having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation [εις οικονομιαν] of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him" (Ephesians 1:9-10). The word oikonomia is used in the same sense most often among the early Christian fathers and teachers of the Church (GWH Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon, Oxford 1997, pp 940-941).

It can be said that the fundamental meaning of the word oikonomia in the context of canon law designates the obligation of church leaders to decide ecclesiastical questions in accordance with this Divine plan, "house-building" for the salvation of the world (Meyendorff, ibid, p 160), or rather—in the spirit of Divine love of mankind, of God's wisdom and of God's will for the salvation of man. It is important to note that here we are not speaking of "exceptions to the rule," but of the aim of these rules themselves—the creation of a house of God: the Church.
Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning (1913), pp. 203-204.
Nothing is more indicative of our ignorance regarding the purpose and meaning of the Bible, than the distinction which it is sought to draw between the Law and the Gospel. We are told of different 'dispensations,' as though the Divine method of conducting the world changed after the fashion of political constitutions. If this were the case, we should never know under what system of administration we were living, for we could only be informed of these alterations by persons who were 'in the know' with the Divine Power, and we should have nothing but their bare assertion to depend on, that they were 'in the know.'

This is the logical outcome of any system which is based upon the allegation of specific determinations by a Divine Autocrat. It cannot be otherwise, and therefore all such systems are destined sooner or later to fall to pieces, because their foundation of so-called 'authority' crumbles away under the scrutiny of intelligent investigation. The Divine orderings can only be known by the Divine workings, and the intelligent study of the Divine working is the only criterion which the Bible, rightly understood, anywhere sets up for the recognition of Truth.

The whole of the Psalms are based entirely on this principle, and the Master claimed their testimony to His mission. He himself spoke of tradition as rendering void the true Law of God; and so far from claiming to introduce any new dispensation, he emphatically declared that his special business was to fulfill the Law, that is, to demonstrate it in all its completeness. If the Law taught by Moses is true, and the Gospel preached by Jesus is True, then they are both true together, and are simply statements of the same Truth from different standpoints; and the proofs of their Truth will be found in their agreement with one another, and with the universal principles of Natural Law which we can learn by the study of ourselves and of our environment.

DEFINITIONS

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
DISPENSE, verb transitive dispens. [Latin , to weigh, primarily to move; and perhaps the original idea of expending was to weigh off, or to distribute by weight.]

1. To deal or divide out in parts or portions; to distribute. The steward dispenses provisions to every man, according to his directions. The society dispenses medicines to the poor gratuitously or at first cost. God dispenses his favors according to his good pleasure.
2. To administer; to apply, as laws to particular cases; to distribute justice.
While you dispense the laws and guide the state.
To dispense with,
1. To permit not to take effect; to neglect or pass by; to suspend the operation or application of something required, established or customary; as, to dispense with the law, in favor of a friend; I cannot dispense with the conditions of the covenant. So we say, to dispense with oaths; to dispense with forms and ceremonies.
2. To excuse from; to give leave not to do or observe what is required or commanded. The court will dispense with your attendance, or with you compliance.
3. To permit the want of a thing which is useful or convenient; or in the vulgar phrase, to do without. I can dispense with your services. I can dispense with my cloke. In this application, the phrase has an allusion to the requisitions of law or necessity; the thing dispensed with being supposed, in some degree, necessary or required.
I could not dispense with myself from making a voyage to Caprea. [Not to be imitated.]
Canst thou dispense with heaven for such an oath? [Not legitimate.]
DISPENSATION, noun [Latin See Dispense.]

1. Distribution; the act of dealing out to different persons or places; as the dispensation of water indifferently to all parts of the earth.
2. The dealing of God to his creatures; the distribution of good and evil, natural or moral, in the divine government.
Neither are Gods methods or intentions different in his dispensations to each private man.
3. The granting of a license, or the license itself, to do what is forbidden by laws or canons, or to omit something which is commanded; that is, the dispensing with a law or canon, or the exemption of a particular person from the obligation to comply with its injunctions. The pope has power to dispense with the canons of the church, but has no right to grant dispensations to the injury of a third person.
A dispensation was obtained to enable Dr. Barrow to marry.
4. That which is dispensed or bestowed; a system of principles and rites enjoined; as the Mosaic dispensation; the gospel dispensation; including, the former the Levitical law and rites; the latter the scheme of redemption by Christ.
English-Latin Lexicon (1849), p. 219.
"DISPENSATION.

Distribution, vid. Exemption from some law, immunitas (from any thing, alicujus rei [e.g., omnium rerum, Caes.; magni muneris, Cic.] or a re [e.g., a tributis, Suct.]): vacatio (from military service, militiae). To grant a dispensation from any thing, immunitatem alicujus rei dare, or a re offerre (Suct.): to grant any body a dispensation to do any thing, dare alicui hanc veniam, ut, &c.; alicujus rei veniam dare, permittere licentiam, ut, &c. [vid. PERMISSION]. Divine institution, leges et instituta; praecepta institutaque (with genitive of person, Mosis or Moysis, &c.). The Mosaic dispensation Mosaica religio (Lactant.). Distribution of good and evil with regard to providence, numen divinum (the will of God); also consilium divinum. Dei jussus (only in ablative) or jussum (the command): by a divine dispensation, consilio divino; jussu divino; divinitus (generally; of what is sent from above). I consider any thing a dispensation of Providence, aliquid divinitus accidisse mihi videtur
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
DISPENSATION.

A relaxation of law for the benefit or advantage of an individual. In the United States, no power exists, except in the legislature, to dispense with law, and then it is not so much a dispensation as a change of the law.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891
DISPENSATION.

An exemption from some laws; a permission to do something forbidden; an allowance to omit something commanded; the canonistic name for a license. Wharton.

A relaxation of law for the benefit or advantage of an individual. In the United States, no power exists, except in the legislature. to dispense with law; and then it is not so much a dispensation as a change of the law. Bouvier.
The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
Dispensation

1. The act of dispensing or dealing out; distribution: as, the dispensation of royal favors ; the dispensation of good and evil by Divine Providence.

2. A particular distribution of blessing or affliction dispensed by God to a person, family, community, or nation, in the course of his dealings with his creatures ; that which is dispensed or dealt out by God : as, a sad dispensation ; a merciful dispensation.

3. In theol: (a) The method or scheme by which God has at different times developed his purposes, and revealed himself to man: or the body of privileges bestowed, and duties and responsibilities enjoined, in connection with that scheme or method of revelation : as, the old or Jewish dispensation ; the new or Gospel dispensation. See grace, (b) A period marked by a particular development of the divine purpose and revelation: as, the patriarchal dispensation (lasting from Adam to Moses) ; the Mosaic dispensation (from Moses to Christ); the Christian dispensation.

4. Management; stewardship; an act or action as manager or steward.

5. A relaxation of the law in some particular case; specifically, a license granted (as by the pope or a bishop) relieving or exempting a person in certain circumstances from the action, obligations, or penalties of some law or regulation.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1910
DISPENSATION.

An exemption from some laws; a permission to do something forbidden; an allowance to omit something commanded ; the canonistic name for a license. Wharton; Baldwin v. Taylor, 166
Pa. 507, 31 Atl. 250 ; Vlele v. Insurance Co., 20 Iowa, 50, 90 Am. Dec. 83.

A relaxation of law for the benefit or advantage of an individual. In the United States, no power exists, except in the legislature, to dispense with law ; and then it is not so much a dispensation as a change of the law. Bouvier.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 1919
Dispensation

Distributing, dealing out; management, esp. of the world by Providence; arrangement made by Nature or Providence ; special dealing of Providence with community or person ; religious system prevalent at a period (Mosaic, O. T., Christian, d.); exemption from penalty or duty laid down in esp. eccl. law (with, from) ; doing without (with), [f. L dispensatio (foil., -ation)]
Dispense

Distribute, deal out; administer (sacrament, justice) ; make up & give out (medicine) ; grant dispensations ; release from obligation. D. with : relax, give exemption from, (rule) ; annul binding force of (oath) ; render needless (usu. the need of &c.) do without.
Webster’s New Practical Dictionary, 1957
Dispensation

1. A dispensing, or dealing out; esp., in theology, the distribution of good and evil by God to man.
2. That which is dispensed, dealt out, or appointed.
3. A definite arrangement or provision; as, a happy dispensation of nature.
4. A releasing or exempting; esp. an ecclesiastical permit to do something that is allowable only in special cases and for good reasons.
5. A system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered; as, the Christian dispensation.
Dispense

1. To deal out in portions; to distribute.
2. To apply, as laws; to administer.
3. To exempt; excuse.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, 1968, 5th Edition, 1979
DISPENSATION.

An exemption from some laws; a permission to do something forbidden; an allowance to omit something commanded; the canonistic name for a license. Sweeney v. Independent Order of Foresters, 190 App.Div. 787, 181 N.Y.S. 4, 5.

A relaxation of law for the benefit or advantage of an individual. In the United States, no power exists, except in the legislature, to dispense with law; and then it is not so much a dispensation as a change of the law.
DISPENSE.

Etymologically, "dispense" means to weigh out, pay out, distribute, regulate, manage, control, etc., but when used with "with," it has, among other meanings, that of "doing without," and "doing away with," being synonymous with "abolish." United States v. Reynolds, D.C. Mont., 244 F. 991.

MAXIMS
Dispensatio est vulnus, quod vulnerat jus commune.

A dispensation is a wound, which wounds common law.
Roy poet dispenser ove malum pro hibitum, mais non malum per se.

The king can grant a dispensation for a malum prohibitum, but not for a malum per se.
Dispensatio est mali prohibit! Provida relaxatio, ntilitate sen necessitate pensata; et est de jure domino reel concessa, propter imposslbilitatem prsevidendi de omnibus particularibus.

A dispensation is the provident relaxation of a malum prohibitum weighed from utility or necessity; and It is conceded by law to the king on account of the impossibility of foreknowledge concerning all particulars.
MISCELLANEOUS CITATIONS

Thomas v. Sorrell (Vaughan, 351)
'A dispensation or license properly passeth no interest, nor alters or transfers property in anything, but only makes an action lawful which without it had been unlawful.'
Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. 167 (1925)
"It is settled, by decisions of this Court so well known that their citation may be dispensed with, that any statute which punishes as a crime an act previously committed, which was innocent when done, which makes more burdensome the punishment for a crime, after its commission, or which deprives one charged with crime of any defense available according to law at the time when the act was committed, is prohibited as ex post facto."
Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 1963
It is fundamental that the great powers of Congress to conduct war and to regulate the Nation's foreign relations are subject to the constitutional requirements of due process. The imperative necessity for safeguarding these rights to procedural due process under the gravest of emergencies has existed throughout our constitutional history, for it is then, under the pressing exigencies of crisis, that there is the greatest temptation to dispense with fundamental constitutional guarantees which, it is feared, will inhibit governmental action.
21 CFR § 209.2
For the purposes of this part, the following definitions apply:

Authorized dispenser means an individual licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted by the jurisdiction in which the individual practices to provide drug products on prescription in the course of professional practice.
21 CFR § 208.3 Definitions.
For the purposes of this part, the following definitions shall apply:

(a)Authorized dispenser means an individual licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted by the jurisdiction in which the individual practices to provide drug products on prescription in the course of professional practice.

(b)Dispense to patients means the act of delivering a prescription drug product to a patient or an agent of the patient either:

(1) By a licensed practitioner or an agent of a licensed practitioner, either directly or indirectly, for self-administration by the patient, or the patient's agent, or outside the licensed practitioner's direct supervision; or
(2) By an authorized dispenser or an agent of an authorized dispenser under a lawful prescription of a licensed practitioner.

(c)Distribute means the act of delivering, other than by dispensing, a drug product to any person.
42 CFR § 423.159
(a)Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

Dispenser means a person or other legal entity licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted by the jurisdiction in which the person practices or the entity is located to provide drug products for human use by prescription in the course of professional practice.
42 CFR § 8.2
The following definitions apply to this part:

Dispense means to deliver a controlled substance to an ultimate user by, or pursuant to, the lawful order of, a practitioner, including the prescribing and administering of a controlled substance.
21 U.S. Code § 802 – Definitions
(10) The term “dispense” means to deliver a controlled substance to an ultimate user or research subject by, or pursuant to the lawful order of, a practitioner, including the prescribing and administering of a controlled substance and the packaging, labeling or compounding necessary to prepare the substance for such delivery. The term “dispenser” means a practitioner who so delivers a controlled substance to an ultimate user or research subject.
21 CFR § 1300.01
Dispenser means an individual practitioner, institutional practitioner, pharmacy or pharmacist who dispenses a controlled substance.
42 U.S. Code § 280g–3
(m) Definitions
For purposes of this section:
(3) The term “dispense” means to deliver a controlled substance to an ultimate user by, or pursuant to the lawful order of, a practitioner, irrespective of whether the dispenser uses the Internet or other means to effect such delivery.
(4) The term “dispenser” means a physician, pharmacist, or other person that dispenses a controlled substance to an ultimate user.
QUOTES

Ronald Reagan:
Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.
Benjamin Franklin, Writings VI, pp. 290-291.
"History affords us many instances of the ruin of great states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favour of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy; it being a matter of no moment to the state, whether a subject grows rich and flourishing on the Thames or Ohio, in Edinburgh or Dublin. These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favoured and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connexions, necessarily ensue, by which the whole state is weakened, and perhaps ruined for ever!"
Dick Cavett:
As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.
George Washington:
Happiness is more effectually dispensed to mankind under a republican form of government than any other.
Plato:
Democracy…is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
George Washington:
Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind.
Roger Scruton:
The welfare state that is built upon this conception seems to prove precisely away from the conservative conception of authoritative and personal government, towards a labyrinthine privilege sodden structure of anonymous power, structuring a citizenship that is increasingly reluctant to answer for itself, increasingly parasitic on the dispensations of a bureaucracy towards which it can feel no gratitude.
Edward Zehr:
I wouldn't call it fascism exactly, but a political system nominally controlled by an irresponsible, dumbed down electorate who are manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled mass media that dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political establishment can hardly be described as democracy either.
Samuel Adams:
Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?
Thomas Jefferson:
...Enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more.. .a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
Cicero’s Republic, Barham’s Translation, B. 3, p. 270.
“There is a true law, a right reason, conformable to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal. * * * * This law cannot be contradicted by any other law, and is not liable either to derogation or abrogation. Neither the senate nor the people can give us any dispensation for not obeying this universal law of justice. * * * * It is not one thing at Rome, and another at Athens; one thing to-day, and another to-morrow; but in all times and nations, this universal law must forever reign, eternal and imperishable. * * * * He who obeys it not, flies from himself, and does violence to the very nature of man.”
ETA 7-29-18:

Chuck Baldwin, chuckbaldwinlive.com, 7-26-18
The whole Scofield/dispensationalist/futurist/Israel-based prophecy doctrines are egregious error. These doctrines have produced and are producing great harm to the Church and to our country. In fact, these doctrines are resulting in great death and destruction as evil forces are manipulating these doctrines to inflict much war and bloodshed around the world.
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