Enoch is an example. It was known to the disciples, quoted in Scripture, beloved for 300 years and then not just rejected but discarded and remained lost until approximately 1775 when surviving manuscripts were discovered in Ethiopia. The true antiquity was confirmed by fragments of copies found in the Dead Sea Scrolls which carbon date to 200 B.C.
The works of Tertullian are another example. From the Papacy of Damasus (circa 366:)
V. The remaining writings which have been compiled or been recognised by heretics or schismatics the Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church does not in any way receive; of these we have thought it right to cite below a few which have been handed down and which are to be avoided by catholics:...
the works of Tertullian...
These and those similar ones, which Simon Magus, Nicolaus, Cerinthus, Marcion, Basilides, Ebion, Paul of Samosata, Photinus and Bonosus, who suffered from similar error, also Montanus with his obscene followers, Apollinaris, Valentinus the Manichaean, Faustus the African, Sabellius, Arius, Macedonius, Eunomius, Novatus, Sabbatius, Calistus, Donatus, Eustasius, Jovianus, Pelagius, Julian of Eclanum, Caelestius, Maximian, Priscillian from Spain, Nestorius of Constantinople, Maximus the Cynic, Lampetius, Dioscorus, Eutyches, Peter and the other Peter, of whom one disgraced Alexandria and the other Antioch, Acacius of Constantinople with his associates, and what also all disciples of heresy and of the heretics and schismatics, whose names we have scarcely preserved, have taught or compiled, we acknowledge is to be not merely rejected but eliminated from the whole Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church and with their authors and the followers of its authors to be damned in the inextricable shackles of anathema forever.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. - 2 Peter 3:8
And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. Genesis 5:5
That early Judeo/Christian understanding was discarded by the Catholic Church and was never picked up (AFAIK) by the Reformation. But surely the belief was dispensational to coin the modern term.
BTW, the Jewish year is 5768 from Adams first moment on earth so under that calendar, Christ is not due for approximately two centuries and change. Using the Christian calendar, 6000 years more or less have already elapsed. The difference is a dispute over the amount of time the Jews were exiled in Babylon.
However, I strongly aver one should not argue against dispensationalism on the basis of absence of evidence as evidence of absence though I find that an excellent argument in the science debates because the geological record is not so easily erased by man.
The bottom line is this:
Excellent points, dear sister in Christ.
Many ignore the fact that “dispensation” is a coined term to describe a phenomenon just as “trinity” is a coined term to describe the phenomenon. The difference is that “dispensation” is a Greek word that does appear in the bible, and it is used in Eph 1:10 in roughly the way that modern dispensationists use it.
In answer to your argument, please see my post 107.
Love the way you present truth.