On this came on very strong in the 1900s. So let's take a look at it, where it came from and

what it's all about. Well, the story of dispensationalism begins with John Nelson Darby. He was born in 1800 in Westminster, London, but his family

roots were Irish. And so when he came of age to go to college, he was sent to Trinity College Dublin. He excelled as a student there and won

the classics prize. That skill set would come in very handy for him later.

He'd be involved in translating the Bible.

It translated the Bible into German, into Dutch, into French,

and even the complete Bible into English.

He had his own translation.

Darby would die in 1882.

He's known for two things, being one of the early founders

in what is called the Plymouth Brethren Church, and also being the father or founder of dispensationalism.

This came about in the 1830s, 1840s, and there are maybe four significant features to dispensationalism that Darby began and then developed by others.

The first is to see a distinction between Israel and the church. Prior to dispensationalism you could say

it was covenant theology and there was a connection between Israel and the church. The

understanding was there was one people of God. But Darby began

with a distinction between those two, two peoples of God as it were, and so God

had a distinct and unique plan for Israel and a distinct and unique plan for the church.

This led to the second feature of dispensationalism, and that is to see scripture as divided into dispensations.

Now, Darby had seven of them.

The Schofield Reference Bible, we'll talk about that in a minute, it had seven of them.

Dispensationalists were not always agreed on the number of dispensations,

but they did agree on the concept,

...