are fallen from grace" (Gal. 5: 2 and 4). "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in

drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days"

(Col. 2: 16).

How are we to reconcile these, apparently, conflicting statements? You must be

circumcised; you must not be circumcised. You must keep the Sabbath day; you should

not keep the Sabbath day.

You will be cut off if you fail to observe these

commandments; you will fall from grace if you do. Unless the whole of the revelation

of God is to be reduced to a mass of contradictions, surely there is a key provided that

will give an honourable and satisfying solution of the difficulty. There is, and that key is

implied in the term "Truth for the times". We therefore arrive at the next inquiry.

Secondly. Such a discrimination between one scripture and another is both proper and

scriptural. When the Apostle enjoined Timothy "rightly to divide the word of truth", or

when he urged the Philippians to "approve things that are excellent", or, as the margin

indicates, to "try the things that differ", he had this principle of interpretation in view.

When the Apostle distinguishes between Jew and Gentile; between kingdom and church;

between earthly promises and heavenly places;  between the Bride and the Body;

between the citizenship of the New Jerusalem and the seating together of some "in

heavenly places";  each portion of scripture is recognized as "truth", but not every

portion referred to is "Truth for the times".

This principle of discrimination is called "dispensational truth", simply because all

these differences are the result of changes in the developing purpose of God. The word

"dispensation" is sometimes confused with the word "age", but, while a dispensation

must occupy a period of time, it is of itself to be distinguished from a period of time,

inasmuch as two or more dispensations can run together. Paul declares that for preaching

the gospel a "dispensation" had been given to him (I Cor. 9: 17), but, by consulting

Gal. 2: 7, we discover that the gospel of the uncircumcision had been committed to Paul

as the gospel of the circumcision had been committed to Peter;  consequently two

dispensations, the one directed to the Gentile, the other to the Circumcision (Gal. 2: 8),

were in operation at the same time, and recognized as such by the Apostles (Gal. 2: 9).

In the Greek the word "dispensation" is oikonomia, and is derived from oikonomos,

"steward" (Luke 12: 42; 16: 1, 3, 8; I Cor. 4: 1, 2; Titus 1: 7; I Pet. 4: 10);

"chamberlain" (Rom. 16: 23); and "governor" (Gal. 4: 2).  The word is composed of

oikos "a house", and nemo "to deal out, distribute, dispense". The word has entered into

English in the form "economy", and is used in such expressions as "political economy",

"domestic economy", "economics", as well as in the more popular meaning of wise and

thrifty spending of money.

After Israel had been set aside, as recorded in Acts 28:, we find Paul still a

prisoner at Rome, but free to receive all who would come to him, and in that condition he

remained for two years. From that prison he wrote four epistles, each indelibly bearing

the marks of his imprisonment in the body of the epistle.  These four epistles are

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Subsequently, he wrote the second