Rightly Dividing God’s Word ….. :: By Jonathan Brentner

Published on: by RR7 Category:General Articles

Rightly Dividing God’s Word Keeps Us Focused on Jesus’ Appearing 

As a child, I loved AWANA and grew up with its motto verse hanging on the wall of my bedroom. It read, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15, KJV).

The Greek word for “rightly dividing” literally means to “cut straight” with the implication of interpreting Scripture accurately. The English Standard Version translates the phrase as “rightly handling the word of truth.”

Over the many years, I have observed that much doctrinal error has arisen because of a failure to heed the instruction Paul gives us in 2 Timothy 2:15. Many fail to handle Scripture accurately because they do not make proper distinctions in their interpretation of it. They do this by either ignoring the overall context of a passage, failing to recognize the audience to whom the author is addressing, ignoring the dispensation to which the text refers, or by way of all of the above. As a result, they fall short of accurately handling God’s Word; they do not cut a straight path through it as prescribed by 2 Timothy 2:15.

Here are some examples of how teachers combine biblical teachings that Scripture separates:

The Combining of the Church’s Mission with its Hope

If you attend a Bible-believing church, you will likely hear at least one sermon each year on the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). There’s nothing wrong in emphasizing our task as believers to proclaim the Gospel and then bring the saints to maturity through the teaching of God’s Word. The problem is that so many churches emphasize the Great Commission while remaining silent on biblical texts pertaining to our “blessed hope.”

This silence leads to another dilemma in the church; it happens when teachers and pastors confuse or even combine the mission of the church with its hope. The prime example of this is C. Porter Wagner. During his life he authored eighty books and served as the Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Missions until his retirement in 2001. Sadly, he promoted the false teaching of Dominion Theology, which teaches that the church will succeed in bringing the entire world to faith in Christ and by itself bring in the millennium before Jesus returns to earth. I wrote about this doctrinal error in an earlier post, The Five Dangerous Errors of the New Apostolic Reformation.

Wagner impacted a great many churches during his lifetime, even those that reject his end-times theology. In many cases, they have unwittingly combined the mission of the church with its hope. We see this when teachers take verses that refer to the millennium and apply them to the future success of missionary efforts. A prime example of this is Habakkuk 2:14, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, / as the waters cover the sea.” This total covering of the planet with the Lord’s glory happens during Jesus’ reign over the nations, not during the church age. The same is true of Psalm 46:10, which also refers to the millennium rather than missionary efforts in our current day.

Some also err by making Daniel 2:44 a reference to the church age instead of the beginning of the millennium where it belongs. This confusion carries with it the errant implication that the church is God’s future kingdom that strikes down the kingdoms of the world with the spread of the Gospel. They wrongly see the fulfillment of Daniel 2:44 as taking place on the Day of Pentecost.

Please know that I strongly support home and foreign missions and have done so all my life. Missionaries have had a profound and lasting impact on me. Furthermore, in this late hour, it’s imperative that we share the Gospel with as many people as possible. I am not at all suggesting that we ignore the calling of the church to preach the Gospel and teach people the word of God.

However, when the mission of the church becomes its ultimate hope as we see happening today, much doctrinal error ensues, and a Gospel devoid of its “blessed hope” tragically becomes the norm rather than the exception.

The Combining of Government and Individual Saint Responsibilities

Does the Bible assign identical responsibilities to New Testament saints and those in government authority?

Most evangelicals today would answer “yes” to that question. Many politicians, despite their limited knowledge of Scripture and rejection of its overall message, often quote Bible verses in a manner that assumes God has identical expectations of governments as He does of individual Christians.

God’s Word tells us that the primary role of government during the church age is to punish those who break the law and, in so doing, protect its citizens (Rom. 13:1-7). God entrusts human governments with the responsibility of keeping its people safe from those who break the law or would cause them harm. Government leaders do so by enforcing laws so that those guilty of breaking its law receive just punishment while those who obey its statutes enjoy their protection (13:4).

National borders do not represent the evil invention of wayward humanity; both sovereign nations and secure borders originate in God’s sovereign purposed plan for humanity (see Acts 17:26). The Lord instituted human governments as well as national borders, and He holds those in authority over the various nations responsible for keeping their citizens safe within those borders.

As followers of Christ, we have a much different role than that of the government. Jesus summarized our responsibility in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus did not give this command to human government; He gave it to His followers. The same is true of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan.

The instruction for New Testament saints “to show hospitality to strangers” (Heb. 13:1) does not suggest that governments should welcome those who come into their nation illegally. The leaders of nations have a much, much different responsibility than believers, one that involves protecting its citizens and punishing those who break its laws.

The Combining of the Church and Israel

Replacement theology falsely claims that God rejected the people of Israel when they spurned their Messiah, and He replaced the nation with the church. Thus, the promises and covenants the Lord made with Israel now find their fulfillment in the church, albeit in a spiritual rather than physical sense.

This highly popular yet erroneous teaching fails to distinguish between Israel and the church, as does Paul in Romans 11. In the first two verses, the apostle negates the idea that God has rejected Israel. In the rest of the chapter, he explains why the Lord set aside Israel for the time being, although many Jews have come to faith and joined the church.

In Romans 11:25-36, Paul prophesies of a time when Israel will return to the Lord, which is also what Zechariah wrote about in 12:10 to 13:1. The key verse is 11:29, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” In Ezekiel 36:22-38, the Lord tells us that Israel’s future restoration vindicates His holiness.

This is so much more than just a matter of meaningless semantics. Those who miss the distinction between the church and Israel miss all the signs that we live in the last days of human history; they do not understand a key purpose of the tribulation, which is to bring Israel to repentance and salvation. Instead, they interpret the book of Revelation as allegory, which leads to many other errors as well as false hopes for the day in which we live.

The Combining of the Rapture with the Second Coming

During the past two or three decades especially, pastors and teachers have failed to “rightly” divide Scripture by claiming that the Rapture and the Second Coming are the same event. They are not.

The biblical descriptions of the Rapture and Second Coming contain many significant differences that make it impossible to reconcile them into one event. They cannot happen at the same time.

The resurrection of those who have died in Christ confirms that they cannot be the same event. The resurrection of the saints happens first in the event Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-54. With the Second Coming, however, the resurrection of tribulation saints does not occur until after a lengthy sequence of events (Rev. 19:11-20:4), perhaps not until several days later.

This is just one of many distinguishing and significant differences that exist in passages describing the Rapture versus those of the Second Coming.

Do These Things Really Matter?

“What’s the big deal?” you might be asking at this point, “Are these distinctions really that critical?” I would argue that they are extremely important. Here’s why:

The combining of the church’s mission with its hope has led to the current prominence of the New Apostolic Reformation doctrinal error that falsely teaches that the church will bring the entire world to Jesus and bring in the millennium without Him. The Bible does not teach dominion theology; it’s a serious false teaching based on new revelation that contradicts the words of Scripture.

The combining of the government’s responsibility with that of individual believers often arises from the previous error. Once believers regard the mission of the church as its ultimate goal, they soon adopt the posture that those in authority must behave in a manner befitting New Testament saints in order to facilitate the spread of the Gospel. Those with this posture all too often elevate the perceived behavior of a politician above that of his or her agenda, even if it goes against the moral teachings of God’s Word. In their world, good manners trump the sanctity of life.

The combining of the church with Israel has caused many today to discard biblical prophecies regarding Jesus’ thousand-year reign on the earth, which in turn furthers the placing of the church’s mission over its ultimate hope. Through the use of allegory, amillennialists retrofit interpretations of prophetic passages that are foreign to the intent of the authors. This sadly causes believers to miss the many signs of the last days that abound in our world. They fail to see that the seven-year tribulation is approaching this world at warp speed.

The combining of the Rapture with the Second Coming takes the eyes of believers off the “blessed hope” of the Gospel at a time when the saints sorely need this focus. This error facilitates hope in earthly outcomes rather than in eternal matters. Beyond that, such confusion does not provide relief from the anxieties created by the perilous times in which we find ourselves.

So yes, these distinctions absolutely matter. The failure to “rightly” divide Scripture in these areas results in an earthbound perspective that tragically divorces our ultimate hope in Jesus’ appearing from the proclamation of the Gospel. These shortcomings lead to a misguided focus on the temporal things of this life versus eternal realities (see 2 Cor. 4:16-18). If the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that placing our hope in people or expected outcomes brings much disappointment and even despair.

You see, rightly dividing God’s Word in these key areas not only keeps us from doctrinal error, but it keeps us focused on our hope in Jesus’ soon appearing, which is absolutely essential in an increasingly hostile world running headlong toward the seven-year tribulation.

Jonathan Brentner

Website: Our Journey Home

Please consider signing up for my newsletter on my website. Thanks!

E-mail: Jonathanbrentner@yahoo.com

Bible Prophecy Leaps into Open Display :: By Gene Lawley

Published on: by RR7 Category:Gene Lawley, General Articles

It’s done! The New World Order is finally on the agenda for open action. America will now have what essentially will be a dictatorship of leftist ideology that points to a one-world government. That is the dream of many in our United States and around the world.

In the results of Congressional decisions on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, we can see that more likely than not, the “falling away” from lawfulness which 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 speaks of will follow in a short time. The appointments Biden has named for cabinet posts and administration positions tell us much of what to expect, along with his own declaration of actions to come.

A close look at the lack of moral integrity in the Democrat Party’s inner core can be found in the actions of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during the 2012 election campaign. One day he reported that a “friend” had told him that Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, “had not filed his income taxes for ten years!” He was asked to reveal the name of “his friend,” but he exclaimed, “Why ask him? Ask Mitt Romney; he is the one who did not file his tax returns!” When the truth came out that Romney, indeed, had filed his tax returns, Reid replied, with a straight face, “He didn’t win, did he?”

That old saying of dishonest achievement—“the end results justify the means”—worked without any recompense to the senator, except for the resulting blight on his own character. That “safe spot” where the senator stood to make his charge has worked well for subsequent leftist majority leaders as well for their equally untrue charges.

The position of the Democrats, as they have identified themselves in their actions during the past five years, is to reverse all of the changes the Trump administration has put in place. Those who voted for the principles of law and order, sexual morality, elimination of abortion on demand, justice for all, and obedience to the Constitution as it was written, will see the benefits of all those things reversed and lost in the Biden administration. It will be as it was, and worse, during Trump’s campaign and term of office when constant protesting and every crooked scheme imaginable was employed. Even to a second impeachment by the House, at the time of this writing, and further action expected in the Senate after Biden’s move into the oval office on January 20.

There is a loud clamor among some of the new leftist Democratic majority dictatorship to eradicate all who voted for Donald Trump. It appears that all of this will be fully accepted by the collective “deep state” who have infested the nation’s government in untold numbers.

Now, none of those deep investigations and findings of guilt in need of prosecution and punishment will be continued. Justice will not be served, even though every day when Congress and all of the various committees start their business, they all pledge allegiance to the flag and the Republic for which it stands, and they end it, in unison, “with liberty and justice for all!” I am confident that many of them—based on their word and action—have no intention of living that pledge.

Sounds like quite an indictment, doesn’t it? A pledge of allegiance to the nation and justice for all, just what must not happen if a New World Order is to be accomplished.

It would be very hard to get any law or ruling established that would require any elected or appointed person to submit to a hearing of how well they performed their oath of office after each two years is served, when the results would indicate their right to continue in office.

What does God say about these things?

I have thought much about these proverbs of Solomon and their revelation of the character of God. Think with me for a moment on these:

Proverbs 8:13 – “The fear of God is to hate evil.”

Proverbs 9:10 – “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

Romans 3:18 – “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Psalm 53:1 – “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Why am I calling this election result such a leap forward in prophecy fulfillment? It is because it embraces all that the leftists have promoted in their love for evil. Is not Lot’s Sodom a picture of what Jesus said it would be like when the Son of Man is revealed? (Genesis 18 and Luke 17:28-30).

Now that their philosophy is in place, with a dictatorial majority, evil will increase dramatically. It is disappointing, yet as a furtherance of God’s plan to come to the end of this age, it is positive. That plan includes the allowance of increasing evil—the “falling away”—so that the Antichrist will be fully accepted when he, then, can arrive. The introduction of the Antichrist will be by the taking away of “He who restrains” or holds back evil until it is God’s Appointed Time for that to happen. The Antichrist cannot come while the “restrainer” is still in the world, and He, who lives in His believers, will take them out of the way of that sudden judgment that will occur. If the Spirit-indwelt believers in Christ are still here, the Rapture has not come, and the Antichrist has not arrived. 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 tells it plainly:

“And now you know what is restraining, that he [Antichrist] may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.”

What is that “mystery of lawlessness” mentioned there? It is that incessant, driving activity of evil that takes over society with even the slightest opportunity, even by constantly working to create those opportunities. The news media is notable at that task by not reporting the news at all or by twisting it to produce a contrary result. But note what the Restrainer is also constantly doing—holding back that expression of evil with godly forces of righteousness by the Spirit-indwelt believers in Christ. Satan and his servants can only come as “thieves who only steal, kill and destroy,” according to John 10:10a. And he can do nothing else. There is no righteousness in him—none!

(Some have claimed that this “Restrainer” cannot be the Holy Spirit who goes away, for He is of the Trinity and fills all things. But remember also that Jesus fills the hearts of all true believers, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), but this is because they do not “rightly divide the Word of Truth.”)

This “snatching away,” as is the Greek meaning, is the removing of the body of born-again believers from the destruction of judgment that is to come suddenly. Revelation 3:10 is an everlasting promise to the righteous:

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”

Throughout the centuries, God has held back the encroaching evil with His own intervention and with the presence of Spirit-filled believers in churches where He is obeyed and served with godliness. The historical church, as seen in the world, is not the church that is the body of Christ.

When that One who restrains, that body of believers is removed, it will be as sudden as the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of a trumpet, then Jesus will come quickly to meet those believers in the clouds –  first, those who have died, then, those who are alive, and receive them to Himself for all eternity.

Therefore, as these thoughts have indicated, the events happening in our time move us forward in the prophetic timeline very much closer to the end of this age. The very nature of the overall reasoning that allowed the Biden presidency to take place is glaring proof, in my opinion, that it lacks moral integrity and justice.

Primarily, it was the refusal to openly consider, at every level, the validity of any of the mountains of evidence that a massive, fraudulent effort has prevailed, for which 75 million legal voters will not likely forgive nor forget.

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com