Thesis 24/36: Rightly Dividing the Word

DOCTRINES OF SCRIPTURE:
Doctrine 24 / 36: Rightly Dividing the Word

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). The Christian is commanded to divide the word of truth rightly. This entails distributing the word of truth at the appropriate time and to the appropriate people, but it also entails appropriating the right passages of Scripture to the believer.

The Bible is God's book revealing His plan of redemption for the world. As Clarence Larkin writes, "The Holy Scriptures are not a systematic treatise on Theology, History, Science or any other topic. They are a REVELATION from God of His Plan and Purpose in the Ages as to the earth and the human race" (Larkin, 1). Since the Bible is not simply a book to systematically teach on some topic, it was not designed in a manner in which any portion of Scripture may be used to apply at any time. God's plan for the human race has been progressively revealed through time. For example, God told Adam that a seed would come (Genesis 3:15), yet Adam was unaware that the seed would be the Son of God. In the Old Testament, God revealed that a Messiah would come, and more and more details were given of Him. However, even when He did come, the Jews did not recognize Him for Who He was. In the New Testament, all of the sufferings of the Messiah and the Deity of the Messiah are able to be clearly understood. God has revealed His plan through time and progressively through the Scriptures.

As a part of God's overall plan for mankind, He established different covenants with different peoples. Each of these interactions with man came with different terms for each. These different economies, or dispensations, can be categorized into ten distinct ages: Innocence (Creation to Fall), Conscience (Fall to Noah), Human Government (Noah to Abraham), Promise (Abraham to Exodus), Law (Exodus to Crucifixion), Apostolic (Crucifixion to Paul), Church (Paul to Rapture), Tribulation (Rapture to Second Coming), Millennium (Second Coming to End of Millennium), Eternity Future. During each of these ages, God had, has, or will have different things for His people to do in order to demonstrate their faith. The fact of the matter is that all salvation given by God since the Fall has been given because of God's grace, given to those of faith, and that faith is a faith that is manifested with works. However, the works which believers did during the age of Promise were different works than those done during the age of Law. Abraham was told to offer his son Isaac to demonstrate his faith. In the law, they were to offer animal sacrifices as a demonstration of their faith. The animal sacrifices themselves were unable to save them, but rather God did not impute sin to those that had faith (Romans 4). In the Church Age, the animal sacrifices were done away with Christ.

However, even though God dealt with different people differently, that does not mean that what He said to people in different ages, and how He dealt with people in different ages, is not important for the Christian. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning..." (Romans 15:4), and "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16). All Scripture is advantageous for the church. All Scripture was written for the profit of the church, yet all Scripture is not written to the church.

Some care must be given when looking at certain portions of Scripture to know to whom it is written. Some would take books in the New Testament, written during the church age, and suggest that the doctrine contained in the book does not apply to the church. For example, the book of Hebrews is written to the Jews as the title of the book suggests. However, the book was written during the church age, and not during the Old Testament. However, the doctrine of Hebrews is not to be thrown out because it was written to the Jews, but care must be given to how to understand what was written. As Clarence Larkin writes, "In the Epistle to the Hebrews many Christians stumble at the words, 'sin wilfully,' 'fall away' (Heb. 6:4-6), and 'if we sin wilfully,' Heb. 10:26. But these words do not apply to Christians. They were spoken to apostate Jewish professors of Christianity who had never been born again, and who, if they did not accept Jesus as their Messiah, practically crucified Him again, and were as bad as their brethren who did crucify Him" (Larkin, 3). In this example, it is properly recognized that the recipients of the letter was a particular culture, the Hebrews, yet the teaching of the passage is doctrine during the church. Knowing to whom it was written helps understand what preconceived biases the recipients held. It was not written to the believing church, but the believing church can and learn from it.

"That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace."



Works Cited:
Larkin, Clarence. Rightly Dividing the Word. Philadephia: Erwin W. Moyer Co., Printers, 1943