ABSTRACT
Dispensationalism is a Christian theology, derived from premillennial eschatology, which divides sacred history into various periods-dispensations-during each of which God differently orders his relationship to humankind. Its distinguishing traits include reliance on a literalist hermeneutics, applied to an inerrant Bible; a distinction between the Church and Israel; the Pre-Tribulation rapture of the saints; a visible reign of Christ in Jerusalem during the millennium; and a restricted view of what constitutes the true church. It is, in large part, the work of an Irish cleric, John Nelson Darby (1800-82). It is confined to Protestantism, especially its conservative or Fundamentalist wing, and is absent entirely in Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christianity. It is especially common in the United States.
