A Dispensational Narrative or A Dispensational Theology?

Last time we closed by asking whether dispensationalism is a narrative or a theology. The answer is that dispensationalism is both a narrative and a theology. A biblical narrative tells a story that communicates a theology. What’s interesting is that there are several competing narratives and resulting theologies; covenant amillennialism, covenant postmillennialism, covenant premillennialism, progressive covenantalism, progressive dispensationalism, essentialist dispensationalism,   Pauline dispensationalism, mid-Acts dispensationalism, and late-Acts dispensationalism. The answer as to why there are so many competing narratives and resulting theologies is tied up with hermeneutics, which we’ll discuss in a later post, but for now, what is so powerful about the way the Bible is written is that it is a story, and stories move us. 


The books we read are stories, the movies we watch are stories, and the lives we lead are stories in themselves. How many times do we sit around the kitchen table or campfire with family or friends and share stories? We love stories because we are created in the image of the One who is the greatest story-teller.


God begins the story with His work of creation, putting His essence on magnificent display, as well as uniquely creating man in His own image. The image of God is not happenstance or insignificant, since all design carries an inherent purpose; our head, our arms, our feet...our personality, our conscience, our creativity are not chance aspects of our makeup. They are designed specifically to reveal the purpose of man. This purpose is to reflect God's rule over the universe by ruling over the earth. 


We are uniquely crafted to rule the earth for His glory. This is essentially what a dispensation is; a master initiated stewardship that involves a steward who is responsible and will be evaluated. The first dispensation is kingdom. Of course man was innocent. I don't know any non-dispensationalist that would disagree with that. There is nothing unique about that descriptive title, but if we forget the kingdom on earth concept here, we will certainly not be able to find it later in our theology.


The master, God, wanted the steward, Adam, to rule over the earth. This began as a garden kingdom, but it was to grow to cover the whole earth through good stewardship. Adam started off well, naming the animals under God's watchful eye, but for the purpose of realizing that there was no counterpart like him. 


Thus, in the first surgery, God put Adam to sleep and created the woman out of the man's side. When the man saw the woman, far from taking billions of years to learn to speak and sing, Adam was able to serenade her immediately. The two became one flesh, and together they would work to fulfill God's stewardship responsibility. 


Yet, the serpent  entered the story and deceived  the woman, tempting her to question the truth of God's word regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When she ate the fruit, she also gave to her husband who was with her, and he ate. When he did, their eyes were open and they realized they were naked. They had acquired a sinful nature or disposition toward God that would forever plague the human race.


They had also failed to fulfill their stewardship responsibility. At this point, the garden kingdom that Adam was supposed to rule was turned over to Satan who became the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience. 


God quickly judged by cursing the serpent, the woman, the man, and nature. Conflict between the serpent and the woman, conflict between man and nature, and conflict between nature and nature. Embedded within the curses is one bit of good news, the seed of the woman would defeat the serpent. But how this would all transpire was yet unknown. 


What theology can we learn from this narrative? The first big theological idea taught by the narrative is kingdom. God made man in His own image and likeness to rule over a kingdom on earth. This forever defines the kingdom and forever establishes the purpose of man to rule. Next time we’ll peer into the seed of the woman, and the second big theological idea taught by the narrative…