I studied the history of dispensationalism in books written by Christian fundamentalists and found nothing that resembled the Christian Spiritist dispensational system. I concluded that the system was unique to Filipino Christian Spiritists. I learned later that one of the most influential dispensational theories in Christian history had come from the early Catholic Church. I learned of it in an historical reference to an abbot of the Medieval Catholic Church, named Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202 A.D.). The abbot's work is detailed in the book, The Calabrian Abbot-Joachim of Fiore in the History of Western Thought, by Bernard McGinn, a professor of Divinity at the University of Chicago.
The basis of the teachings of Joachim of Fiore were revealed to him in a series of visions. One vision, in particular, was the basis for his dispensational teachings. It involved the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Joachim received this vision on the day of Pentecost, in 1183 A.D., while visiting Casamari, one of the most important Cistercian monasteries in Italy. The abbot writes, "I had entered the church to pray to Almighty God before the Holy altar, there came upon me an uncertainty concerning belief in the Trinity, as though it were hard to understand or to hold that all the Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) were one God and one God all the Persons. When that happened, I prayed with all my might. I was very frightened and was moved to call on the Holy Spirit, whose feast day it was, to deign to show me the holy mystery of the Trinity. The Lord has promised us that the whole understanding of truth is to be found in the Trinity. I repeated this and I began to pray the psalms to complete the number I had intended. At this moment without delay, the shape of a ten stringed psaltery (musical instrument) appeared in my mind. The mystery of the Holy Trinity shone so brightly and clearly in it that I was at once impelled to cry out, What God is as Great as our God!"
The teachings of the Holy Trinity that Joachim received in his vision was radically different from any other theological system before or during his time. Had Joachim been any less formidable a member of the Catholic hierarchy, or possessed any less influence, his theology would never have found acceptance during his time or survived into our own. Joachim summed up the fundamental understanding that was revealed to him during his vision with these words, "Therefore, because there are two divine persons of whom one is ungenerated (unmanifest,) the other generated (sent,) two testaments have been set up, the first of which, as we have said above, pertains especially to the Father, the second to the Son, because the latter is from the former. In addition, the spiritual understanding, proceeding from both testaments, is one that pertains especially to the Holy Spirit." In Joachim's vision, the Holy Spirit, as a distinct Divine Person, enters the formal theological world for the first time.
The Holy Spirit revealed to Joachim that the Resurrection was the first stage of the spiritual understanding (intellectus spiritualis) meant to be conveyed by both the Old and New Testaments. While the resurrection conveyed the idea of Jesus' victory over death, it alone did not communicate the fullness of its spiritual understanding. Joachim learned that the revelation of the spiritual understanding conveyed through both the Father and the Son was to be fully divulged by the Holy Spirit in a coming age which he called the "third status."
I was amazed to find that the mystery of the Holy Trinity, revealed to Joachim, taught that the bible was divided into three status or dispensations, exactly like those of the Christian Spiritists. He called the first status the status of Law (Father,) the second status of Grace (Son,) and the third status of Spirit (Holy Spirit,) whom he believed would come in the future. Like the Christian Spiritists, Joachim believed that when the age of the Spirit arrived, the Holy Spirit would communicate Divine knowledge directly to human beings.
In Joachim's vision he saw the coming of what he called the Viri Spirituales (spiritual men) who would possess great spiritual understanding and power. Joachim believed the angel described in the tenth chapter of Revelations to be the Viri Spirituales. In the angel's hand is an open book which Joachim believed contained the revelation of all that has been previously hidden in the Scriptures. The angel is described as having "his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the land" which Joachim interprets as meaning that the Viri Spirituales will be grounded in both the Old and New Testaments. In speaking of the spiritualized human beings of the third dispensation, Joachim says, "All those wonderful things written about Solomon and Christ will be completed in them in the Spirit, because in this people Christ will reign more powerfully."
As the agents of the Holy Spirit, the Viri Spirituales would serve to prepare the way for the emergence of what Joachim calls the "Ordo Novus" or "New People of God" in the third status/dispensation. Joachim saw that the Viri Spirituales would be divided into two groups, one of preachers and the other of pure contemplatives. Joachim foresaw that they would engage in conflict with evil and emerge triumphant. In their triumph, they would usher in an age in which the Holy Spirit would do his own work, distinct from that of the Father and the Son. Joachim tells us that, "He (the Holy Spirit) has reserved his own time for himself in which he will do his work, not like some divine powers which are called gifts of the Holy Spirit, but like true Lord and God just as the Father and Son." Joachim saw that the third dispensation would bring peace, harmony, and spiritual understanding.
BACK Copyright 2001 - All Rights Reserved - Revelator Harvey Martin