Dispensation - Definition - Scofield
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.
C. I. Scofield, ed., The Scofield Reference Bible: The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments (New York; London; Toronto; Melbourne; Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1917), 5.
THE Scriptures divide time, by which is meant the entire period from the creation of Adam to the “new heaven and a new earth” of Rev. 21:1, into seven unequal periods, called, usually, “dispensations” (Eph. 3:2), although these periods are also called “ages” (Eph. 2:7) and “days”—as, “day of the Lord,” etc.
These periods are marked off in Scripture by some change in God’s method of dealing with mankind, or a portion of mankind, in respect of the two questions of sin and of man’s responsibility. Each of the Dispensations may be regarded as a new test of the natural man, and each ends in judgment—marking his utter failure.
Five of these Dispensations, or periods of time, have been fulfilled; we are living in the sixth, probably toward its close, and have before us the seventh, and last—the millennium.
C. I. Scofield, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15): Ten Outline Studies of the More Important Divisions of Scripture (Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia School of the Bible, 1921), 20.
