Question. Hendricks reads DP as teaching a three-phase succession of providential agency: God directly (Old Testament era) → Jesus and the Holy Spirit (Christian era) → “people of faith on earth and in heaven” (Second Advent era). Is this periodization stated in DP itself, or is Hendricks inferring it from the EDP p. 186 phrase (“age of the providence based on the believers’ responsibility”) to scaffold his populist case?
Why it matters. If DP teaches the three-phase schema explicitly, the populist case has firm doctrinal footing. If it is Hendricks’s gloss, the case is weaker — defending a contested reading rather than reporting settled doctrine. The distinction also affects how to engage critics who reject the schema.
Current best guesses. Likely a blend: the EDP passage Hendricks cites is real, but the three-phase framing may be Hendricks’s articulation of an implication rather than DP’s own structural claim. Resolve by close reading of EDP’s “Foundation for the Messiah” and “Restoration” sections once ingested.
Source. Raised in br-00-introduction REVIEW, from believers-responsibility-as-third-providential-phase.