Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

SCRIPTURAL SANCTIFICATION:
An
Attempted Solution of the Holiness Problem
By The
Rev. John R. Brooks, D.D.
Chapter 4
THE THREE DISPENSATIONS AND CORRESPONDING TYPES OF PIETY [1]
The manifestations of God to our race are believed to have been made under three different
dispensations. He is believed to have dispensed knowledge and grace to man in three different
degrees of fullness. These dispensations have by some been called the Patriarchal, Prophetic, and
Gospel dispensations; by others -- and we think more properly -- the dispensations of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. Dr. Pope, the distinguished Wesleyan divine, prefers calling them the
"Manifestations" of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Some think the first of these dispensations
extends from the fall to the giving of the law, the second from the latter period to Pentecost, and the
third from Pentecost to the close of man's probation. Others extend the first dispensation to the
commencement of John's ministry -- his manifestation of Christ to the world -- making the
dispensation of the Son short and transitional, while others still restrict that of the Son to the period
between our Lord's resurrection and Pentecost.
While all three persons of the Godhead have from the first been interested in and working for our
race, it is insisted that each of these persons has been most prominently set forth under the
dispensation called by His name. Under the first, the Father is made conspicuous as the Lawgiver;
under the second, the Son as the Mediator; under the third the Spirit as the Renewer and Sanctifier
of the race, the chief mark of difference between these dispensations seems to be the extent to which
God has revealed himself -- both objectively and subjectively -- through His word and through His
Spirit. The starlight of this external and internal revelation in the first dispensation gradually
brightened into the moonlight of the second, while the latter is eclipsed by the glorious sunlight of
the third. Or, to put it a little differently, the early or gray dawn of the dispensation of the Father
gradually brightens into the later or roseate dawn of that of the Son, while the glorious rising of the
"Sun of righteousness" at Pentecost ushers in the bright day of the Spirit's power and work.
It is believed, too, that there have been and still are three different types of piety corresponding
to these three dispensations.
1. It is thought that the leading characteristic of the type under the first dispensation is the fact that
men served God chiefly, if not solely, from the motive of fear. The sterner side of the divine nature
-- the side of law -- being presented to and made prominent before the mind, the feeling of fear, that
moved men to obedience, was developed. Frequently, if not generally, in the Old Testament man's
service of God is spoken of as one of fear. Such passages as these are of common occurrence: "O
fear the Lord, ye His saints"; "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him";
"Come, all ye that fear God," etc. And Solomon, in summing up man's duty, says: "Fear God and
keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."