11/03/21
One of the big mistakes in Christiandom, with major consequences of denominational confusion for centuries, has been to attribute only one meaning to various themes in the Scriptures. However, applying context and right division (2 Tim 2:15 King James) to what we are studying in the Scriptures, will define and determine for us who and what the particular theme is talking about.
For example, there is more than one “church" in the Scriptures.
The church is an assembly of believers, and the Scriptures speak about different groups of believers. As always, the way to correctly understand the Scriptutes, and to know which church is which, will be determined by God's proscribed commands on ‘how' to approach His Word:
Paul said:
(2 Timothy 2:15 KJ) Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
(1 Corinthians 2:13 KJ) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
God the Holy Spirit, the 3rd Person of the Trinity who wrote the Scriptures (2 Pet 1: 20,21; 2 Tim 3:16 King James), said through Paul, that we are to “study" the Word of God.
Incidentally, if your Bible does not say “study” in (2 Tim 2:15 KJ), you do not have the Holy Spirit breathed and preserved (Psl 12:6,7 KJ) Word of God.
He also said to “rightly divide" it, along with “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”….i.e., verses with verses.
“Right Division" is understanding and applying the distinctions in God's Word that He makes Himself, between His kingdom on earth program for Israel, and His church program that is “eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1 KJ)…i.e., His “Body of Christ”…the “church" of today.
God has an earthly agency vested in His nation of Israel. And God has a heavenly agency vested in His “Body of Christ". Both agency's have an assembly of believers called a “church”. The purpose of both Israel and the Body of Christ is to submit all things under the headship and authority of Jesus Christ; Israel on the earth, and the Body of Christ in the heavens.
By applying your grid of right division,
i.e., is God talking to Israel or to the Body of Christ,
every time you “study”
(the word “study" is found in: 2 Tim 2:15 - King James)
… the Word of God, you will be able to tell “who" God is talking to.
All the Scriptures are for you, but they are not all about you or to you.
Look at the Word “Church" in the verse below:
(Acts 7:38 KJ) This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Speaking of Moses in the Old Testament,….did you know that he had an assembly (“church”) out there in the wilderness? He did, but it is important to know that his church is ‘not’ our church of today. How do we know that?
Moses lived in one of the 3 divisions
(Time Past/But Now/Ages To Come - see: Eph 2 for all 3 time periods)
… of time that the Scriptures delineate. He lived in “Time Past”.
In time past, God “spoke” about a kingdom that He was building on the earth. In (Gen 12 KJ) God chose a man (Abraham) whereby the nation of Israel would be born and be His “kingdom of priests” (Exod 19: 5,6 KJ). God spoke about this kingdom on earth from the very beginning. Zachariah, John the Baptists’ father, in speaking about Jesus Christ said:
(Luke 1:68-70 KJ) Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
(69) And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
(70) As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
………..”which have been since the world began:"
That is, God began speaking “by the mouth of his holy prophets,” about His Son Jesus coming to save His people, “since the world began.”
Within God's kingdom was to be His “kingdom of priests" (1 Pet 2:9 KJ) made up of descendants of their progenitor Abraham. These descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were called a “congregation" by God in (Exod 12:3 KJ). That Word “congregation" means “assembly".
Recall that God spoke through His Holy Prophets about His Son coming
……“since the world began”;
that Zachariah had said that those prophets had spoken that God's Son was to be Israel's “salvation".
Israel's “congregation” (church) cannot be the church that we are in today. How do we know that?
Right Division (2 Tim 2:15 KJ)
The Church that we are in today was:
“Kept secret since the world began"
Paul said:
(Romans 16:25 KJ) Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
That church with Moses in the wilderness ‘was spoken about’ in “time past". Therefore, the church of today that God started with Paul cannot be the same church as Moses’ church. Why? Because the church that God started with Paul was a “mystery" …”hid in God", until He revealed it to Paul:
(Ephesians 3:3-5,9 KJ) How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
(4) Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
(5) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
(9) And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
..The Lord Jesus said in (Matt 16: 18 KJ) that He would build His “church” upon Peter's confession that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This church is a different one than Moses’ church, and it is a different church than our church of today. That is, Moses had an assembly (church) in the wilderness, Peter and the believing disciples started a church that God will have in His kingdom on earth, and Paul and all believers who follow after him are in the church of today that God will have in the heavenlies.
In sum:
The churches (Moses'church and the disciple’s church) exist in the time period that “was spoken since the world began". And Paul's church, that began with Paul, exists in the “but now",….that time period that “was kept secret since the world began"and thus cannot be either of the other 2 churches.
Right division of the Scriptures correctly explains God's Word to us.
The greatest distinction that is to be understood by studying your 📖 Bible rightly divided, is to know and understand when God is talking to Israel (circumcusion) or talking to the Body of Christ..(uncircumcision) the Church of today,...between what "was spoken since the world began" and what "was kept secret since the world began".