To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God.…
—Isaiah 61:2
The Greek word for “acceptable” here is dektos. According to the Greek scholar Thayer, dektos is “that most blessed time when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.” Praise be to God, we are still in this dektos season. We are still in the acceptable year under the dispensation of grace. Our preaching and understanding of God’s Word must be according to the dispensation we live in.
Unfortunately, there are many who are getting the larger context of the dispensations and covenants all jumbled up. They mix the dispensation of the law with grace, and confuse the old covenant with the new covenant. The result is a confusing theology.
They preach grace and they also preach the law. They preach new covenant truths, but they also preach old covenant truths.
They take Scriptures that are specifically meant for Israel and apply them directly to the church today. They preach an unconditionally loving Father, but also an angry, frustrated, and disappointed God. What they think is “balance” is really mixture—and it results in confusion for all who hear them.