Two posts ago I included a quote from Charles Ryrie in which he uses Acts 13:39 as an example of a major shift in the responsibility of man, and this indicates a change in administration, a change from one dispensation to another.
The false assumption that he seems to be making, one that is likely enforced by his hermeneutic, is that this statement in the book of Acts indicates that the saints in "The Age of Law" were required to obey the covenant law of Moses in order to be justified. In the very verse itself is the idea that this was never the case...it never was possible that the Law of Moses could justify. Covenant Theology would submit that the practice of those Old Covenant rituals were a part of the sanctification of the saints under that covenant, but never their justification.
Another, and related, outworking of the Dispensational hermenetical structure is that major shifts in what God has revealed to mankind are emphasized and are either caused by or the effect of the change from one dispensation to another. On the other hand, Covenant Theology places emphasis on the subtle shift of what God has reveled to mankind, not as indicators of a change in administration or dispensation, but rather, these shifts show that God cumulatively reveals knowledge about His relation to His creation and creatures.
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