Summary: This Article was written and published May ’25; I believe Scripture contains the thoughts and mind of God revealed to believers by the teaching of the Holy Spirit.  I believe Scripture teaches a dispensational understanding of God’s dealings with mankind.  We find evidence in Scripture of characteristic features which distinguish one dispensation from another.  One such feature is the character of the throne of God associated with each of the different dispensations.

 

We find evidence for the existence of three dispensations in Scripture.  They are in order of passing time, the Jewish, the Christian, and the future millennium.  A bible dispensation is defined as the time in which God acknowledges His calling of a group of people, giving them responsibility for testimony of Him and His glory in the world.  We only find two groups in Scripture that God has ever called – the nation of Israel and the body of Christ, the church.

Let’s take the Jewish dispensation first.  God began acknowledging Israel’s calling early in the book of Exodus by sending Moses to Pharoah to get him to release the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  Israel’s calling can be found here – Ex. 6:1-8.  Their passing through the Red Sea on dry ground was essentially the birth of the nation of Israel.  They were quickly brought to God at Mt. Sinai where they were given the law.  The practice of the law was the practice of Judaism.  God giving the law to Israel and asking them to obey its every precept, to keep it as a covenant, was essentially God sanctioning the practice of Judaism.  God approving the practice of a religion becomes an identifying feature of the different dispensations.

Another identifying feature of each specific dispensation is the character of the throne of God during that particular time.  For the Jewish dispensation God’s throne was one of government/judgment.  When God came down on Mt. Sinai we hear of thunder and lightning and smoke, a cloud enveloping it by day, a pillar of fire at night.

 

Exodus 20:18 (NKJV)

Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.

 

The loud sound of the trumpet was likely produced by God’s angels.  The presence of a holy and righteous God on Mt. Sinai made His chosen people tremble in fear.  Although God had come down to be among His redeemed people, they had to remain afar off from Him.  Their redemption was only external in the flesh, a deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  Although a redeemed people afforded God the opportunity to come down to be among them, a distance had to be kept.

 

Exodus 19:10-13 (NKJV)

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. ¹¹ And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. ¹² You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. ¹³ Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”

 

No man or animal was allowed to touch the mountain under threat of death.  The people requested of Moses to implore Jehovah not to speak directly to them anymore – their fear and trembling was severe.  There was always a distance between Jehovah and sinful fallen man, even if they were His chosen people.  When the tabernacle was built to serve as God’s dwelling place among them, the people were generally kept away – the priesthood could enter the Holy place for daily service, but only once a year on the day of atonement the high priest came into the Holiest place.  The same restrictions were in place when the Jerusalem temple replaced the tabernacle as the dwelling place of God in Solomon’s day.

All these examples speak of distance from God.  It all speaks of a general lack of access to God.  Even the High Priest’s once-a-year entrance into the Presence was with the blood of sacrifice and a cloud of incense, the rituals done with much fear and trembling.  During the Jewish dispensation Jehovah was viewed as a Judge and His law was His means of government.  The tablets of law were placed inside the ark of the covenant which in type served as God’s earthly throne – government and judgment were the marks of its distinctive character.

The Christian dispensation began on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was sent down.  It is the time when God stopped recognizing Israel’s earthly calling and began acknowledging the heavenly calling of the christian/church.  It is also when God sanctioned the practice of Christianity instead of the practice of law/Judaism.  The Holy Spirit dwells in both the individual Christian and the house of God known as the body of Christ, the church.  However, it is the larger corporate body of Christendom, the entire body of Christian profession, which is given responsibility by God for His testimony in the world.  These are some of the identifying features of the present Christian dispensation.

What also distinguishes the Christian dispensation is the character of the throne of God currently.  Judaism’s throne of government/judgment has been set aside.  In Christianity God’s throne is a throne of grace.

 

Hebrews 4:16

 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

Under Judaism there was no approach to God’s throne.  The Jews were relegated to standing afar off from His manifested Presence, the atmosphere always one of fear and trembling.  But now for christian believers there is access to God on His throne.  When Jesus died on the cross, immediately the veil in the Holiest place in the temple was miraculously torn from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38).  God was showing that in Christianity there would be access to His throne by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.  Those who believed would be privileged to boldly and confidently come near to a holy and righteous God for help whenever there was a need.

 

Hebrews 10:19-23

¹⁹ Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, ²¹ and having a High Priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

 

The third dispensation will begin after Jesus Christ returns to the earth to judge this evil world.  Scripture speaks of His rule and kingdom being world-wide and lasting one-thousand years (Rev. 20:4-7) while Satan is bound in a bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1-3).  In this last dispensation it will be God’s purpose to center upon His Son both His heavenly and earthly glory (Eph. 1:10).  This dispensation is called the millennium. The following verses speak of Christ’s earthly kingdom during these thousand years.

 

Revelation 2:26-27

²⁶ And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—

²⁷ ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—

as I also have received from My Father;

 

1 Corinthians 15:24-28

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵ For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. ²⁸ Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

 

During the millennium Jesus Christ will rule the nations of the world with a rod of iron.  This refers to righteous judgment.  The now perfected heavenly saints will rule and reign with Him over the world.  He must reign until all God’s enemies are put under His feet.  Although the earthly throne of Jesus Christ during the millennium will be one of righteous judgment, God’s throne at this time in the heavenly Jerusalem above the earth will be one of glory.  This city will contain the eternal abodes of the heavenly saints clothed in the glory of God – “then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matt. 13:43…see also John 14:1-3,17:20-26 and Col. 3:4)

 

Revelation 21:9-11, 22, 23

 

⁹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, ¹¹ having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal…

²² But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

 

Revelation 22:1-5

 

22 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. ² In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³ And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. ⁴ They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. ⁵ There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

 

The heavenly Jerusalem will shine forth with divine glory over the millennial earth.  In it the throne of God and of the Lamb will be the source of grace and blessing for mankind at this time.

To complete the picture we are showing about the associations of the differing character of God’s throne with the different dispensations, we certainly need to consider what we find in chapter four of the Revelation.

 

Revelation 4:1-7 (NKJV)

4 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

² Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. ³ And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵ And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

⁶ Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. ⁷ The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.

 

This is a description of God’s throne in heaven and the time frame of the vision being somewhere in the future.  But which of the three dispensations is it associated with?  It doesn’t fit the character of a throne of grace in the Christian dispensation – lightnings, thunderings, and loud voices are not the character of grace.  Nor does it appear to be like the throne of glory in the heavenly city associated with the millennium – there is no river of life proceeding out from it with trees of life on its banks.  But it does very much resemble something we’ve seen in the Old Testament.  When God came down on Mount Sinai there were lightnings, thunderings, and loud trumpet sounds (Ex. 19:16, 18).  And similar living creatures associated with God’s throne are found in Ezekiel’s visions early in his writings, corresponding to a time when God judged Judah’s idolatry, destroying Jerusalem and its temple and sending a remnant captive to Babylon (Ez. 1:5-14, 10:1-20).  These features and others indicate this is God’s throne of government/judgment which must be associated with the Jewish dispensation.

But how is this possible?  The Jewish dispensation coming back in the future?  We want to think the Jewish dispensation ended when the Christian dispensation took its place.  But the reality is that the Jewish dispensation was simply suspended with a week/seven years remaining to be fulfilled (Dan. 9:24-27).  Daniel’s 70-week prophecy explains this truth.  69 weeks (483 yrs) were fulfilled when Messiah came to Israel.  Then the prophecy predicts Messiah would be cut-off and receive nothing – no kingdom given to Him as promised.  This is when the counting down of years in the prophecy stops and the Jewish dispensation suspended – verse twenty-six creates a large time gap in the prophecy.  In the final verse (v. 27) we find the last week/seven years.  It is still somewhere out there in the future waiting to be fulfilled.  It will be the last seven years of the previously suspended Jewish dispensation.

Most believers know that there will be a future seven-year tribulation.  They know that the greater part of the Revelation deals with this time of judgment and wrath.  It is easy to reason that the opening of the first seal at the beginning of chapter six is the starting point of this seven-year period.  The scene of God’s throne in heaven, which the vision reveals to us in chapters four and five, must be considered introductory to the beginning of the tribulation period.  The features of God’s throne we see in these two chapters reveal the character of government/judgment that will be associated with the tribulation soon to begin.  The proper conclusion is that the future seven-year tribulation is the missing week/seven years of the previous Jewish dispensation still waiting to be fulfilled.

What about the Christian dispensation we are presently in?  The overwhelming evidence is that our dispensation will end at the end of chapter three in the Revelation.  This is where God finishes dealing with churches on the earth.  There is no mention of churches in the prophetic narrative from this point on.  The rapture of the heavenly saints (both Old Testament and New) is how the Christian dispensation ends.  This event will separate the body of Christ from the larger body of Christendom, taking true believers to the Father’s house in heaven.  What remains of Christendom will be left on the earth to suffer the judgment and wrath of God during the tribulation.

Another clue is the divisions of the book given in chapter one (Rev. 1:19).  “The things which are” (present things) are distinguished from “the things which will take place after these” (future things).  Chapter two and three, with churches being judged on the earth, are the present things.  In the first verse of chapter four (Rev. 4:1) we are directly told by the Lord that future things begin here with John being taken in the Spirit up to heaven.  We are done with candlesticks on the earth representing Christendom progressing through the different epochs of its dispensation.

Why am I so confident the rapture will have taken place by the end of chapter three?  Because there is evidence found in the heavenly scene depicted in chapter four that indicates it has already taken place.  Who are the twenty-four elders clothed in white, having gold crowns and sitting on twenty-four thrones around God’s throne?  This is the prophetic symbol representing the raptured saints, glorified and perfected, worshipping God and at peace in the presence of lightnings, thundering, and loud voices

By the time John is called up to heaven, the Christian dispensation has ended, and God’s throne is no longer characterized by grace.  Because the tribulation is soon in starting, there is a renewal of God’s throne of government.  God is making preparation to judge the evil and unbelieving world, and the Jews as a significate part of it.  The tribulation brings in the end of the Jewish dispensation.  After Jesus returns, Satan will be bound for one thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3).  This will be the last dispensation of time, and God’s throne in the heavenly Jerusalem will be one of divine glory, raining blessings down upon man on the millennial earth.