The notion that Dispensationalism began with John Nelson Darby (often called simply Darby or JND) is indeed widely reported and almost universally believed, but it is simply not correct. Dispensationalism was indeed taught in the early church. The very oldest commentary on Bible prophecy of any significant length that has been preserved is the last twelve chapters of the fampus work by Irenaeus titled "Against Heresies." (There were older Christian comments on Bible prophecy, but every one of them either was only short, or has been lost.) The very long work by Irenaeus is thought to have been published between the years 186 and 188.
Irenaeus taught the essence of dispensationalism in the following statements:
Therefore the Son of the Father declares [Him] from the beginning, inasmuch as He was with the Father from the beginning, who did also show to the human race prophetic visions, and diversities of gifts, and His own ministrations, and the glory of the Father, in regular order and connection, at the fitting time for the benefit [of mankind]. For where there is a regular succession, there is also fixedness; and where fixedness, there suitability to the period; and where suitability, there also utility. And for this reason did the Word become the dispenser of the paternal grace for the benefit of men, for whom He made such great dispensations, revealing God indeed to men, but presenting man to God, and preserving at the same time the invisibility of the Father, lest man should at any time become a despiser of God, and that he should always possess something towards which he might advance; but, on the other hand, revealing God to men through many dispensations, lest man, failing away from God altogether, should cease to exist. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book IV, chapter XX, section 7.)
Before we go on, we need to notice certain key parts of this statement. Irenaeus said that God has from the beginning shown to the human race prophetic visions in regular order and connection, at the fitting time, and in a regular succession, with suitability to the period. And we particularly need to notice his statement that the Word was revealing God to men through many dispensations.
A little further on in the same chapter, Irenaeus clarified this by saying, The only-begotten God, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared [Him]; and He does Himself also interpret the Word of the Father as being rich and great); not in one figure, nor in one character, did He appear to those seeing Him, but according to the reasons and effects aimed at in His dispensations, as it is written in Daniel. And further down in the same section, he added, Thus does the Word of God always preserve the outlines, as it were, of things to come, and points out to men the various forms (species), as it were, of the dispensations of the Father, teaching us the things pertaining to God. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book IV, chapter XX, section 11.)
And a few chapters later, Irenaeus further said, There is one and the same God the Father, and His Word, who has been always present with the human race, by means indeed of various dispensations, and has wrought out many things, and saved from the beginning those who are saved, (for these are they who love God, and follow the Word of God according to the class to which they belong,) and has judged those who are judged, that is, those who forget God, and are blasphemous, and transgressors of His word. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book IV, chapter XXVIII, section 2.)
We already noticed in the first quotation we examined that Irenaeus said that the Word was revealing God to men through many dispensations, and that he said that this was done at the fitting time, in a regular succession, with suitability to the period. Now we see that he added that the Word has been always present with the human race, and saved various individuals according to the class to which they belong.
All of this was about past dispensations, but Irenaeus not only spoke of past dispensations, but of future ones as well, saying, Inasmuch, therefore, as the opinions of certain [orthodox persons] are derived from heretical discourses, they are both ignorant of Gods dispensations, and of the mystery of the resurrection of the just, and of the [earthly] kingdom which is the commencement of incorruption, by means of which kingdom those who shall be worthy are accustomed gradually to partake of the divine nature; and it is necessary to tell them respecting those things, that it behoves the righteous first to receive the promise of the inheritance which God promised to the fathers, and to reign in it, when they rise again to behold God in this creation which is renovated, and that the judgment should take place afterwards. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book V, chapter XXXII, section 1.)
In this short summary, I have included only a few statements that summarized his thoughts on the matter. But he spoke of these things many times, using the word dispensation, or its plural form dispensations, well over eighty times.He explicitly named a few of these dispensations, namely the dispensation of the law, (book III, chapter XI, section 7, and again in book III, chapter XV, section 3) which he also called the Levitical Dispensation, (book IV, Title of chapter XVII.) the Mosaic dispensation, (book IV, chapter XXXVI, section 2.) and the legal dispensation. (book III, chapter X, section 2 and the title of book V, chapter VIII.) He used this last term a third time, contrasting it with the new dispensation of liberty in book III, chapter X, section 4. Finally, he referred to the future dispensation of the human race. (book III, chapter XXII, section 3.) We should also note that he used the term the dispensations of God, eight times, in book I, chapter X, section 1, book I, chapter XVI, section 3, book II, chapter XXV, section 3, book III, chapter XI, section 9, book IV, chapter XX, section 10, book IV, chapter XXI, section 3, book IV, chapter XXIII, section 1, and book IV, chapter XXXIII, section 1.
Irenaeus insisted that his doctrine of the dispensations was what the church had always taught, saying, The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents... (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book I, chapter X, section 1.) He said again that Where, therefore, the gifts of the Lord have been placed, there it behoves us to learn the truth, [namely,] from those who possess that succession of the Church which is from the apostles, and among whom exists that which is sound and blameless in conduct, as well as that which is unadulterated and incorrupt in speech. For these also preserve this faith of ours in one God who created all things; and they increase that love [which we have] for the Son of God, who accomplished such marvellous dispensations for our sake: and they expound the Scriptures to us without danger, neither blaspheming God, nor dishonouring the patriarchs, nor despising the prophets. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book IV, chapter XXVI, section 5.)
Nor is this the only dispensational doctrine to be found in these ancient documents. Several more of them are referred to in the following statements by Irenaeus:
The Lord also spoke as follows to those who did not believe in Him: I have come in my Fathers name, and ye have not received Me: when another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive, calling Antichrist the other, because he is alienated from the Lord. This is also the unjust judge, whom the Lord mentioned as one who feared not God, neither regarded man, to whom the widow fled in her forgetfulness of God,that is, the earthly Jerusalem,to be avenged of her adversary. Which also he shall do in the time of his kingdom: he shall remove his kingdom into that [city], and shall sit in the temple of God, leading astray those who worship him, as if he were Christ. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book V, chapter XXV, section 4)
Moreover, he (the apostle) has also pointed out this which I have shown in many ways, that the temple in Jerusalem was made by the direction of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his own person, distinctly called it the temple of God. Now I have shown in the third book, that no one is termed God by the apostles when speaking for themselves, except Him who truly is God, the Father of our Lord, by whose directions the temple which is at Jerusalem was constructed for those purposes which I have already mentioned; in which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavouring to show himself as Christ, as the Lord also declares: But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; and he who is upon the house-top, let him not come down to take anything out of his house: for there shall then be great hardship, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book V, chapter XXV, section 2)
And then he points out the time that his tyranny shall last, during which the saints shall be put to flight, they who offer a pure sacrifice unto God: And in the midst of the week, he says, the sacrifice and the libation shall be taken away, and the abomination of desolation [shall be brought] into the temple: even unto the consummation of the time shall the desolation be complete.Now three years and six months constitute the half-week. (Against Heresies, by Irenaeus, book V, chapter XXV, section 4)
In this series of statements, we notice that in the first of them Irenaeus clearly says that the Antichrist shall remove his kingdom into [the earthly Jerusalem] and shall sit in the temple of God, leading astray those who worship him, as if he were Christ. In the second he insists that the temple which is at Jerusalem is the place in which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavouring to show himself as Christ. And then he quotes Daniel 9:27, And in the midst of the week, he says, the sacrifice and the libation shall be taken away. So in the last of these statements he very clearly refers to Daniels seventieth week as the week in which the Antichrist will come.
Thus we see in these statements of Irenaeus each of the following concepts:
1. That in the future there will again be a temple in Jerusalem.
2. That this future temple will be the temple of God.
3. That this future Jewish temple is where the Antichrist will sit as God.
4. And that Daniels seventieth week remains to be fulfilled in the future.
Each of these concepts is unquestionably an element of Dispensationalism, and is incompatible with Covenant Theology.
Hyppolytus, writing about twenty or thirty years after Irenaeus, expanded upon this concept of a future fulfillment of Daniels seventieth week, saying:
For after sixty-two weeks was fulfilled and after Christ has come and the Gospel has been preached in every place, times having been spun out, the end remains one week away, in which Elijah and Enoch shall be present and in its half the abomination of desolation, the Antichrist, shall appear who threatens desolation of the world. After he comes, sacrifice and drink offering, which now in every way is offered by the nations to God, shall be taken away. (Commentary on Daniel, by Hyppolytus, book 4, 35.3)
Hyppolytus returned to this subject some pages later, writing:
Just as also he spoke to Daniel, And he shall establish a covenant with many for one week and it will be that in the half of the week he shall take away my sacrifice and drink offering, so that the one week may be shown as divided into two, after the two witnesses will have preached for three and a half years, the Antichrist will wage war against the saints the remainder of the week and will desolate all the world so that what was spoken may be fulfilled, And they will give the abomination of desolation one thousand two hundred ninety days. Blessed is he who endures to Christ and reaches the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days! (Commentary on Daniel, by Hyppolytus, book 4, 50.2)
We know from the writings of John Nelson Darby that he read the early church fathers, so is it any surprise, then, that when he began to write about how God works in various ways at different times, he should have chosen the word dispensations to describe these various periods of time? In so doing, he was not only using the very words of scripture, but the same word used by Irenaeus to describe these same ideas.