A.--In talking over the question of membership of the one body with other believers, one

of them suggested the possibility of two dispensations running together at the same time.

This I said was absurd, but thought I would see you about it.

B.--What makes you think it absurd?

A.--Well, you might as well say that April and May can run together as to say that two

dispensations can run at the same time.

B.--I wonder whether your difficulty arises out of the meaning of the word

"dispensation". Do you take the word to indicate a period of time?

A.--Yes, just the same as an age.

B.--That is where you are mistaken. Even an age indicates something more than a period

of time, although the time sense is strong, but a dispensation is much further removed

from a time sense than an age. Turn to Luke 16: and let us consider the first occurrence

of the word in the N.T.

A.--(Reading the first few verses). I see something here about a rich man and a steward,

and the necessity to render an account of his stewardship, but I have not come across the

word "dispensation" yet.

B.--The word translated "stewardship" is exactly the same as that rendered

"dispensation" in I Cor. 9: 17; Eph. 1: 10; 3: 2, 9 (R.V.); Col. 1: 25, and can be

rendered in all cases by the word "administration". The Greek word is oikonomia, and

appears in English as economy, which in its primary sense refers to administration either

in politics or in domestic affairs.

Turn now to Gal. 2: 7, 9. There you have Peter and Paul. The leaders at Jerusalem

recognized that Paul had been entrusted with the gospel of the uncircumcision, and that

Peter had been entrusted with the gospel of the circumcision, and that one was right in

going to the heathen and the other equally right in limiting himself to the circumcision.

So that it appears in this case that two stewardships connected with two sets of good

news, addressed to two divisions of the human race, were in operation at one and the

same time.

A.--If that is the meaning of the word dispensation, then I must admit the possibility.