Lesson 4 Terms Defined

Explanation and Definitions

I received an email this morning, and I felt the comments were important enough to address them in a lesson, before continuing to look at the Great Commission.

"Email I received this morning, "I have been to the website a couple times and find it interesting. Couple Considerations      1^st comment;    You may wish to define what you mean by “rightly dividing”.  That is subject to interpretation."

I immediately realized that these posts are being read by a large group of people with different backgrounds and viewpoints.

This includes different Christian belief systems, ages, education levels, nonbelievers searching for truth, people of different countries, maybe even people of different religions, etc..

This warrants that I make these lessons so easy, that even a Georgia Plow Boy, or the son of a Georgia Plow Boy such as myself, can understand these lessons, and that the Bible becomes easy for any true believer to understand.

1^st comment answered; I would like to address the term “Rightly Divided” or “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” and what that term means to me.  

2Tim.2 [15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Paul said in 2^nd Tim. that we as believers should study and rightly divide the word of truth.
So when I use the term rightly divided or rightly dividing the word truth, I am talking about divisions, sections, or verses in the Bible that apply to different people, different groups of people, etc. or different time periods or a combination of both, and I will provide examples.

First example, and one probably ninety nine percent of the people reading these posts will agree with.

Most everyone sees the Bible divided into two parts, the Old Testament and New Testament.

I believe this would be an example of Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, and agree with this division. I will tell you that I believe, and plan on proving that there are additional divisions in the Bible.

Second example, Jesus himself rightly divided the scriptures!

Luke.4 [18] The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, [19] To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. [20] And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. [21] And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Isa.61 [1] The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; [2] To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

In Luke Chp 4. Jesus was reading an Old Testament prophetic passage out of Isaiah Chp 61, now notice he stopped mid-sentence, closed the book, and sat down.

His audience was obviously smitten by his reading of the Word of God, again notice everybody’s eyes were fastened on him, and then he tells them that the scripture he just read was fulfilled in their ears!

Now I cannot talk about this, and not tell you, I believe when the Lord Jesus Christ who created the world, and everything in it, who gave those very words to the prophet Isaiah to write down and record 700 years prior to himself being born in the flesh as the Lamb of God, must have been a marvelous thing to hear.

Think about that, to have Jesus the very author of those words, now reading those words to that group of people. 

Moving on let’s look at how Jesus rightly divided the word of truth in this situation.

When he stopped reading mid-sentence, it is because when you look at Isa. 61 verse 2 after the comma, it says the day of vengeance of our God, this part of the sentence had not, and has not taken place yet, even until this day.

Thus Jesus knowing “the day of vengeance of our God”  had not taken place yet, and that that part of the sentence has a future fulfillment, Jesus simply stopped reading, sat down, and told the congregation the part of the verse that he had just read was fulfilled in their ears that very day.

Thus we see that Jesus rightly divided the Word of Truth, in that he only applied the part of the scriptures that belonged to the period of time in history that it was written for.

Learning to rightly divide the Bible, word of truth, scriptures, is one of the most important things you can do.

Rightly dividing, is simply taking the words and teachings that belong to you as a member of the Body of Christ, and being able to separate them from the words and teachings that belong to the Nation Israel or whatever person or group of people God intended those instructions for.

We are not living under or by the Mosaic Law, but living by Grace, and letting the Holy Spirit shine forth Christ in you.

I view the Bible, word of truth, scriptures, “Living Words of the Living God”,  as all being the words of the Lord Jesus.

2^nd  comment;  "Also, you may want to develop the argument in favor of the KJV more fully. For example, the canon.  Why are the books of the KJV there?  What holds them above other non-canonical writings?  Maybe also discuss if you uphold Sola Scriptura?  Sola Fide?"

2^nd  comment answered;  Although anybody who has known me for any length of time is well aware that I do not believe all Bibles are created equal, and I myself believe that we as English speaking people should be using the Authorized Version commonly known as the KJV.

I have come to believe rightly dividing the Bible, the word of truth, scriptures, etc. is a subject on par with which Bible you use, as 99% of the new English translations of the Bible have altered the 2^nd Tim. Chp 2 verse 15 known as the rightly dividing verse!

I also know many Religious Systems which promote the KJV, and in the Christian circles are known as cults, so just using a KJV does not guarantee sound doctrine, no matter which Bible you use, if you can not divide out the instructions that apply to you today it does you no good.

I do plan on having lessons on all the aforementioned items in the 2^nd comment, but it is hard to cover 41 years of Bible Study in 4 lessons, or at least not in 4 short lessons.

I also plan on adding a page covering Bible definitions and terms that may not be familiar to the new comers to the Christian Faith. If you have a Christian term or word that you would like added to the list email me at biblerightlydivided@gmail.com

Remember Satan’s favorite tool, is Bible Truth misused, or misapplied to the wrong group of people, or the wrong time period, or a combination of both.

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