Differences in identities and economies and how said differences impact the particular people living within one economy, or another.
Example, before the Volstad Act was dispensed, and made the law of the land - in the U.S - it was legal to consume alcohol.
While, during what could be referred to as the Dispensation of the Volstad Act, it was not legal to consume alcohol.
Then, after the Volstad Act was repealed, its Depensation ended, and with that, drinking alcohol was once more legal.
A Dispensation is an Economy, House Rule, or Administration that has an impact on a wide scale.
As in the Reagan Administration, or as in the Bush Administration.
Each of which has to be Rightly Divided as to each their characteristics or risk mixing them up as one and the same - as a "one size fits all" - like most on here do, with Scripture.
Case in point, the Bush Administration - which one is being referred to - for there were two of them, and they were not the same. One needs to Rightly Divide them as to those Things That Differ between them.
The following is another example of a Dispensational Distinction, of many, that one finds in Scripture - a distinction in identities between the Nation Israel and all other Nations of the Earth Dispensed by God, to Israel, through Moses...
Deuteronomy 4:5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 4:6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 4:7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? 4:8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
The Law essentially Identified who were God's People (the Nation Israel), and who were not (all the other Nations).
It essentially erected a barrier or Dividing Line between the Nation Israel and all other Nations, for many, many centuries, given God's Purpose through that Division.
Here is another aspect of that SAME Dispensation, or Economy and its Different Identities...
Exodus 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Again, we see a Distinction in Identities - between the Nation Israel, and all other Nations of the Earth.
And such Dispensations, Economies, or Administrations, and the People they impact, follow a Time Line...
Notice, for example, not only the Apostle Paul's use of Time Line language, in the following, but his understanding of Right Divisions Between them...
Ephesians 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 2:17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Here is one more Distinction revealing Time Line language...
Ephesians 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
The information in this post is how I ended up at the Mid-Acts Dispensationalism that I hold to.
It contains some of the very first Distinctions between things that differ from one another, in Scripture, that I first understood:
Which is basically that Scripture appears to follow a Three-Fold Division of Time, and that things that might apply within one Dispensation, might not necessarily apply within another Dispensation.
Time Past
But Now
The Ages to Come
Acts 17: 11, 12.