That said, I have seen that the absolute sovereignty of God over history is essential to being a Calvinist, and, I believe, essential to being a dispensationalist. Moreover, understanding that God mediates that rule through his elect is also essential to both reformed theology and dispensationalism. To be sure, covenant theology and dispensationalism may not be that compatible, and if you argue that covenant theology is essential to reformed theology, then it will be more difficult to talk compatibility. But if you hold more specifically to God’s sovereignty over all and his mediating that rule through his elect, then there can be compatibility.

If I can say one more thing, I have observed that many discredit dispensationalism because of Left Behind and Hal Lindsey and those bizarre rapture movies of the 70’s, but to me that’s about as credible as discrediting Calvinism because of Harold Camping. Also, some throw dispensationalism away because of the erroneous “multiple ways of salvation” teaching. I can’t speak for other dispensationalists, though I have yet to hear of any dispensationalist in the last 60 years who have said such things, but I think that it is a misunderstanding of dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is not primarily about the salvific aspects of redemption as it is about the kingdom aspects of redemption, i.e., how God restores his rule through man over the earth. This does involve salvation, of course, but the way of salvation doesn’t change. The responsibilities of the elect in administering God’s rule over earth changes over time as his revealed purposes progress toward fulfillment. Thus I can be reformed in my understanding of God and salvation and be dispensational in my understanding of biblical theology. I admit I’m a little nuanced, but that’s where I am thus far.