The need to divide, or cut, or handle, the Word is paramount to understanding its true context

The need to divide, or cut, or handle, the Word is paramount to understanding its true context

STATEMENT:

Your post about rightly dividing prophecy from mystery reminds me of a story about 6 blind men arguing about what an elephant was like. the poem, “The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John Saxe. In the poem, each blind man had grabbed a different part of the elephant and was vigorously defending his position. The man who had the leg declared the elephant was like a tree, the one who had the ear said he was like a fan, the one who had the trunk asserted he was like a snake, and so forth. So too, Christians can grab different verses in the New Testament and begin arguing—as if the Bible could contradict itself. That is not how to establish truth in the Christian world. The Bible is God-breathed and does not contradict itself. God’s people are to “rightly handle,” the Word and the words in it, and not wage useless word battles with them. The Bible can be wrongly believed and taught, and it can also be wrongly used as a weapon against other people.

ANSWER:

Thanks for your input. I have no doubt that many denominational churches today handle the Word incorrectly, twisting the Word to fit their church creed or traditions instead of truly studying the Word to find out what God’s will and purpose for the Body of Christ truly is. Thus, your analogy is true for people who take parts of God’s Word and change it fit their purpose and views, essentially creating it into something like what you describe with the elephant's anatomy.

Right division is an inevitable result of studying the Word. It is not a view of man or an imagination. When one studies the Word, and runs references between scriptures, one will have to conclude that prophecy is a distinct and separate program in scripture and is different from mystery, which Paul describes his doctrine as. The reason is that God is restoring two realms, the earth (through Israel) and the heavens (through the Body of Christ). One is physical, the other spiritual. The doctrine and principles that dictate these two programs cannot be the same as they span two distinct and separate realms.

So, the need to divide, or cut, or handle, the Word is paramount to understanding its true context. If one ignores this truth and blends the whole Bible together into one program, it is this very thing that is the source of confusion, contradictions, and false doctrines in the church. Ignorance to rightly dividing the truth is the cause of thousands of denominations all believing different interpretations of scripture and all trying to create their own version of the Body of Christ according to their views and motives.

The truth is that the Bible DOES contradict itself IF one does NOT rightly divide. There are no contradictions in the Word when you keep prophecy and mystery apart. Within prophecy, the Bible is perfectly in tune. Within mystery, the Bible is perfectly balanced. When one ignores this divide, there are thousands of contradictions that is the root and cause of denominations contentions, like baptisms, laws, ordinances, and spiritual giftings, to name just a few. All these clear up plainly and clearly when one cuts straight through the two programs, making a wide divide.

Let me end with this thought; Why did God keep a whole body of doctrine secret, revealing it to an apostle outside the 12 that Jesus already taught and prepared for their commission, sending him on a new commission to bless the Gentile nations with God’s grace which went completely against the words that were prophesied all throughout the prophetic scriptures. Was it to confuse the church? No! God is not the author of confusion. He expects students to study His Word and discover for themselves that He is preparing two entities to restore creation, as the verses below confirm.

Eph 1:9-10 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: (10) That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

The key is to rightly divide scripture between these two programs and keep them separate in order to keep them clear. And…by the way, it is important to understand that these two programs are not running at the same time today. The prophetic program was suspended with Israel’s blinding, Rom.11:25. Today, ONLY the mystery program is in operation in which God is saving all men by Paul’s gospel of the cross of Christ without the means of Israel. When this grace program eds, God will resume the prophetic program which begins again with Daniel’s 70-weeks prophecy of the Tribulation.