dispense in an evil sense. The preacher and teacher who boasts that he has no room for

"hair-splitting"  or  for  "ultra-dispensationalism"  often  ignores  the  distinctive

dispensational features of the Scriptural message, e.g. "I am not sent but to the lost sheep

of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15: 24), "other sheep I have which are not of this fold"

(John 10: 16), "now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision"

(Rom. 15: 8), "They gave to me (Paul) and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship: that

WE should go to the GENTILES, and THEY unto the CIRCUMCISION" (Gal. 2: 9), "I

Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles" (Eph. 3: 1), and dissipates or

indiscriminately scatters to all and sundry, instead of giving "convenient" food in "due

season". This time note "in due season" it will be remembered was used of the faithful

steward in Luke 12: 42, and is employed by the apostle Paul when speaking of the truth

entrusted to him. It is a solemn fact that the preacher or teacher who ignores "the due

season" will as surely dissipate the truth entrusted to him, as will the man who

consciously handles the Word of God deceitfully. Dispensational Truth therefore is

Truth for the Times.

We move now from the Gospel of Luke to the epistles of Paul, and there we find the

word oikonomos used as follows "Erastus the chamberlain of the city" (Rom. 16: 23).

The R.V. replaces the word chamberlain by the word treasurer. In either case Erastus

occupied a position of trust, that involved both the disposition of money and of service,

and was used by the same apostle that had already applied the title oikonomos to himself

(I Cor. 4: 1), and was to claim a special oikonomia as the Prisoner of Jesus Christ for us

Gentiles (Eph. 3: 1). If Erastus of Rom. 16: is the same as the Erastus of II Tim. 4: 20,

it appears that he was the chamberlain of the city of Corinth. One feature which is almost

too obvious to mention, but which the undispensational treatment of Scripture makes

necessary, is that Erastus was chamberlain of one particular city. He had not right to

interfere with the finances and the laws of any other city.  Peter, James and John

recognized this essential feature (Gal. 2: 7-9) but alas, dispensational frontiers have been

so indiscriminately crossed and re-crossed to-day, that it is now considered to be a mark

of enlightenment to say that they do not exist, except in the minds of those who hold the

so called "Coles-Bullinger-Welch heresy". Before Romans was written, Paul addressed

two epistles to the city of Corinth, where Erastus exercised his office as oikonomos.

Let it be noticed and remembered, that the first time Paul uses the title "steward" of

himself, he links it with the word musterion "mystery". The fitness of this we shall see in

all its fullness when we come to the epistles of the Mystery, Ephesians and Colossians.

The R.V. reads "mystery" instead of "testimony" in I Cor. 2: 1, as also does the

revised text by Westcott and Hort. In chapters 2: and 3: we have a demonstration of

the faithful stewardship of the mysteries of God  entrusted to the apostle.  The

Corinthians were critical of the apostle's manner of speech saying it was "contemptible"

(II Cor. 10: 10) and Paul was exceedingly sensitive to this criticism, so much so, that he

reveals that he was with them in fear and much trembling (I Cor. 2: 3). This admission is

bounded on either side by a reference to his "speech".