Dispensation of the fulness of times

In Christianity, the dispensation (or administration) of the fulness of times is thought to be a future state in which the heavens and the earth are under the government, ordering, or administration of Jesus. The phrase is derived from a passage in Ephesians 1:10 (KJV), which reads: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him."

There are many views concerning the meaning of this passage in Ephesians. According to millennialists, and dispensationalists in particular, the dispensation of the fulness of times represents the Millenial Kingdom, a 1000-year reign of Jesus on the earth, centered in Jerusalem after his Second Coming. According to others, the dispensation refers to the afterlife or the resurrection.

According to some restorationists, the dispensation of the fulness of times is thought to take place prior to the Second Coming of Jesus. For example, in Mormonism, the phrase is often interpreted as the era after which the Church of Christ is thought to have been restored to the earth by the religion's founder Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s. In this sense, the "dispensation" refers to the administration of truth and/or priesthood by the Church and its leaders, guided by revelation.