Dispensationalism - Progressive revelation

One of the most important underlying theological concepts for dispensationalism is progressive revelation. While some non-dispensationalists start with progressive revelation in the New Testament and refer this revelation back into the Old Testament, dispensationalists begin with progressive revelation in the Old Testament and read forward in a historical sense. Therefore there is an emphasis on a gradually developed unity as seen in the entirety of Scripture. Biblical covenants are intricately tied to the dispensations. When these Biblical covenants are compared and contrasted, the result is a historical ordering of different dispensations. Also with regard to the different Biblical covenant promises, dispensationalism emphasizes to whom these promises were written, the original recipients. This has led to certain fundamental dispensational beliefs, such as a distinction between Israel and the Church.

This is the view that I hold.  Consider the following biblical divisions founded around God's promises:

The Adamic Covenant:  God gives rule to humankind to rule over God's creation and makes mankind in His own image (Genesis 1 - 3).

The Noahic Covenant:  God promises to never again bring about total destruction by way of a great flood and places the rainbow over the sky as a reminder of His oath (Genesis 6).

The Abrahamic Covenant.  God promises his servant Abraham to be the mediator of God's grace to the nations by bring forth from his seed a great nation in the people of Israel (Genesis 12).

The Palestinian Covenant: The giving of the land to the descendant's of Abraham.

The Davidic Covenant: The promise that David's heir (Jesus Christ) will come from the seed of David.

The New Covenant - Inaugurated by Jesus Christ that salvation for God's people will be a gift from God by grace received by faith.  This is also know as the Church Age.

Commonly Held Dispensations

The label "dispensationalism" is derived from the idea that Biblical history is best understood through division into a series of chronologically successive dispensations. The number of dispensations held are typically three, four, seven, or eight. The three- and four-dispensation schemes are often referred to as minimalist, as they recognize the commonly held major breaks within Biblical history. The seven- and eight-dispensation schemes are often closely associated with the announcement or inauguration of certain Biblical covenants. Below is a table comparing the various dispensational schemes:

dispensational schemes	Bible chapters
	Genesis 1–3	Genesis 3–8	Genesis 9–11	Genesis 12 to Exodus 19	Exodus 20 until Birth of the Church	Church Age until Rapture	Revelation 20:4–6	Revelation 20–22
7 or 8 step	Innocence or Edenic	Conscience or Antediluvian	Civil Government	Patriarchal or Promise	Mosaic or Law	Grace or Church	Millennial Kingdom	Eternal State or Final
4 step	Patriarchal				Mosaic	Ecclesial	Zionic
3 step (minimalist)	Law					Grace	Kingdom

Dispensationalism - Start of the Church Age

Mainstream dispensationalists such as Scofield^[17][18] and Ironside^[19] identify Pentecost, in the second chapter of Acts, with the start of the Church as distinct from Israel; this may be referred to as the "Acts 2" position. Grace Movement Dispensationalists believe that the church started after Acts 2, focusing primarily on the ministry of Paul. Advocates of the "mid-Acts" position, see the regular Gentile form and order of the dispensation open in the hands of the apostle Paul, the apostle of the uncircumcision, the apostle of the Gentiles. Paul does not derive his ministry from the apostles to the circumcision nor was he indeed a successor to our Lord's Jewish mission. He had a unique commission from the Lord in heaven to go to the uncicumcision. Thus they identify the start of the church with the salvation of Saul in Acts 9,^[20] or with Paul's first missionary journey in Acts 13. The 'Acts 28' position, most notably expounded by E. W. Bullinger and Charles H. Welch, posits the beginning of the church in Acts chapter 28 where the Apostle Paul quoted Isaiah 6:9,10 concerning the blindness of Israel and announced that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentile world in Acts 28:28.

Hyperdispensationalists are considered divisive^[21] notably because they reject^[22] the rite of water baptism practiced by almost all Christian denominations. They do believe in baptism, but instead of water baptism, they believe in baptism by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ, which occurs when a person becomes saved by believing that Jesus Christ died for their sins. Grace Movement Dispensationalists do not see water baptism as being necessary in this dispensation. Acts 28 dispensationalists also believe in the “one baptism” of Ephesians 4:5 being a spiritual baptism which identifies the believer with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Dispensationalists are premillennialists who affirm a future, literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ which merges with and continues on to the eternal state in the "new heavens and the new earth",^[23] and they hold that the millennial kingdom will be theocratic in nature and not mainly soteriological, as it is viewed by George Eldon Ladd and others who hold to a non-dispensational form of premillennialism. Dispensationalism is known for its views respecting the nation of Israel during this millennial kingdom reign, in which Israel as a nation plays a major role and regains a king, a land, and an everlasting kingdom.

The vast majority of dispensationalists hold to the pretribulation rapture, with small minorities holding to either a mid-tribulation or post-tribulation rapture.^[24] 1 Thessalonians 4:16 states "the dead in Christ shall rise first" and Revelation 20:4-5 (after the tribulation and the binding of Satan) says, "They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection!"

Dispensaationalism - Influence

Dispensationalism rejects the notion of supersessionism, still sees the Jewish people as God's chosen people, and sees the modern State of Israel as leading to the Israel who will receive the fulfillment of all God's Old Testament promises.

John Nelson Darby taught, and most subsequent dispensationalists have consistently maintained, that God looks upon the Jews as his chosen people even as they remain in rejection of Jesus Christ, and God continues to have a place for them in the dispensational, prophetic scheme of things. Dispensationalists teach that a remnant within the nation of Israel will be born again, called of God, and by grace brought to realize they crucified their Messiah. Dispensationalism is unique in teaching that the Church is a provisional parenthesis, a "mystery" period, meaning that it was not revealed in the Old Testament, directly, which period will end with the rapture of the church and the Jewish remnant entering the Great Tribulation. Israel will finally recognize Jesus as their promised Messiah during the trials that come upon them in this Tribulation. Darby's teachings envision Judaism as continuing to enjoy God's protection literally to the End of Time, and teach that God has a separate 'program', to use J. Dwight Pentecost's term, for each Israel and the Church. Dispensationalists teach that God has eternal covenants with Israel, which cannot be broken.

While stressing that God has not forsaken those physically descended from Abraham through Isaac, dispensationalists do affirm the necessity for Jews to receive Jesus as Messiah. They hold that God made unconditional covenants with Israel as a people and nation in the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and the New Covenant.

Dispensationalism - Other proposed distinctions: law and grace

Classical dispensationalism teaches that law and grace are mutually exclusive concepts. Statements made by Scofield and other early classic dispensationalists teach a radical law-grace distinction.^[1][2] In other words, they teach that law contains no grace, and that grace is not conditioned on keeping the law. This does not mean that grace was missing from the dispensation of law, only that the law itself was diametrically opposed to grace, which operated by other means (such as promises and blessings). Some modern dispensationalists disagree with making such a radical distinction. In fact, Daniel Fuller, a non-dispensationalist, stated in his book Gospel and Law (p. 51) that "Although today's dispensationalism explains the relationship between law and grace in wording that is different from that of covenant theology, there is no substantial difference in meaning."

Dispensationalism - Distinction between Israel and the Church

All dispensationalists hold to a clear distinction between Israel and the Church. For dispensationalists, Israel is an ethnic nation^[10] consisting of Hebrews (Israelites), beginning with Abraham and continuing in existence to the present. The Church consists of all saved individuals in this present dispensation—i.e., from the "birth of the Church" in Acts until the time of the Rapture.^[11] The distinction between Israel and the Church is not mutually exclusive, as there is a recognized overlap between the two.^[1]:295 The overlap consists of Jewish Christians (such as Peter and Paul – although the Apostle Paul was also a Roman citizen, by birth, he was of the tribe of Benjamin and a strong Jewish nationalist at heart (Rom 9:1-3)) - who are ethnically Jewish and also have faith in Jesus Christ. Dispensationalists also believe that toward the end of theTribulation, Israel as a nation will turn and embrace Jesus as their messiah right before his second coming during the Great Tribulation. Classical dispensationalists refer to the present day Church as a "parenthesis" or temporary interlude in the progress of Israel's prophesied history.^[13] Progressive dispensationalism "softens" the Church/Israel distinction by seeing some Old Testament promises as expanded by the New Testament to include the Church. However, progressives never view this expansion as replacing promises to its original audience, 

Dispensationalixm - Historical-grammatical interpretation

Another important theological concept is the emphasis on what is referred to as the historical-grammatical, or literal, method of interpretation. Just as Israel was said to have literally experienced the curses spoken of in the Old Testament, dispensationalists believe that they will one day, literally, receive the blessings spoken of in the Old Testament. Just as it is with progressive revelation, the historical-grammatical method is not a concept or practice that is exclusive just to dispensationalists. However, a dispensational distinctive is created when the historical-grammatical method of interpretation is closely coupled with an emphasis on progressive revelation along with the historical development of the covenants in Scripture.