>> This is where I most strongly disagree with the Dispensationalists-that people were saved in various modes in each dispensation.<<
NO ONE that I know of thinks there are different ways of being saved in different dispensations. It has always been by faith and always will be by faith. That doesn't change the fact that God has managed the affairs (dispensations) of people at different times.
NO ONE that I know of thinks there are different ways of being saved in different dispensations. That may be very true NOW. However, that was not always the case with Dispensationalists.
Below is an excerpt from the Fundamental Baptists which favors dispensationalism. They note how Scofield and Chaffer both "gave the impression" of different salvation methods. However, as explained in the article, the author believes they were misunderstood.
Another is a misunderstanding of the concept of a dispensation. Dispensationalists believe that revelation specific to a dispensation may include dispensationally specific requirements concerning how God approaches man and vice versa. This is assumed to mean that dispensationalists must argue for multiple ways of salvation. A reason more important to dispensationalists, however, comes from statements made by early dispensationalists which indicate that salvation in the Old Testament was not by grace. The Scofield Reference Bible was the Bible of early Fundamentalism, and its editor, C. I. Scofield, was one of the leading popularizers of dispensational thought. Scofield made this unfortunate statement: “As a dispensation, grace begins with the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 3.24–26; 4.24, 25). The point of testing is no longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but acceptance or rejection of Christ, with good works as a fruit of salvation (John 1.12, 13; 3.36; Mt. 21.37; 22.42; John 15.22; Heb. 1.2; 1 John 5.10–12).”[iv] This seems to indicate that in the New Testament salvation came by grace through the acceptance of Christ, while for those under the Mosaic Law salvation came by works through the maintenance of a system of works. Based on other comments by Scofield, this writer has concluded that this was an unfortunate phrasing by Scofield, but that is beside the point—the statement has been in print for over a century. A related problem is that Lewis Sperry Chafer, a leading early dispensationalist, gives the impression that the dispensation of Law was a forsaking of a previous plateau of grace, a reversal in the progress of the dispensations. “When the Law was proposed, the children of Israel deliberately forsook their position under the grace of God which had been their relationship to God until that day, and placed themselves under the law.”[v] The implication is that the Old Testament saint was under grace until Moses, under law until Christ, and the New Testament saint is now again under grace.
Salvation in Dispensationalism
It is convenient that we don't have these gentlement to speak for themselves. As this author points out, dispensationalism is evolving. Undoubtably this is one of the evolutionary forms.
It should be noted that some dispensationalist here have suggested that salvation in the OT came by works of the law. Some believe the Jews now to be under a special dispensation, that God somehow loves Israel.