Excellent post. It is clear that irenaeus liked the word "dispensation." I noticed it myself.
I suspect, since it's a bible word, that there have been others in church history who have used the word itself or synonymous language for the same.
A dispensation is simply "God acting with humanity a specific way in a particular era."
Garden of Eden, Ante-diluvian, Law, Grace, Millennium, New Heavens/New Earth.....these seem to be obvious candidates.
OH, DEAR!??
YOU MEAN . . . uhhhh . . . whispering . . .
DISPENSATIONALISM
is NOT a 4 letter word?
OH, MY!
Don't tell Holland. Not sure they could handle it well.
LOL.
Here's sample from Irenaeus.
This then is the order of the rule of our faith, and the foundation of the building, and the stability of our conversation: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things: this is the first point (Lit. “head:”) of our faith. The second point is: The Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father:As best As I can tell from these quotes Irenaeus uses the word "dispensation" to simply distinguish the time before before Christ birth and the time after.From this, then, whilst it was still virgin, God took dust of the earth and formed the man, the beginning of mankind. So then the Lord, summing up afresh this man, took the same dispensation of entry into flesh, being born from the Virgin by the Will and the Wisdom of God; that He also should show forth the likeness of Adam’s entry into flesh and there should be that which was written in the beginning, man after the image and likeness of God.
The Son of God became Son of David and Son of Abraham; perfecting and summing up this in Himself, that He might make us to possess life. The Word of God was made flesh by the dispensation of the Virgin, to abolish death and make man live. For we were imprisoned by sin, being born in sinfulness and living under death.
And again Moses says: There shall rise a star out of Jacob; and a leader shall be raised up out of Israel; showing yet more plainly that the dispensation of His coming in flesh should be among the Jews. And from Jacob and from the tribe of Judah He who was born, coming down from heaven, took upon Him this economy of dispensation: for the star appeared in heaven.
And others again reject the coming of the Son of God and the dispensation of His incarnation, which the apostles delivered and the prophets declared beforehand, even such as should be the summing up of mankind,
So then in respect of the three points of our seal error has strayed widely from the truth. For either they reject the Father, or they. accept not the Son and speak against the dispensation of His incarnation;
He does not appear to be using the word in the same fashion as modern dispensationalists. Even covenantal people use the word "dispensation", they just assign it its biblcial meaning as opposed to the meaning given to it by dispensationalists.
Now, if one can locate these uses of "dispensation" and demonstrate how the usage is compatible with modern dispensationalism, that would be interesting to see.
A dispensation is simply "God acting with humanity a specific way in a particular era."
The classic defintion is, "A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect to his obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God."
It doesn't appear that is how Irenaeus is using it, nor is that the way it is used in the Bible.