Rightly dividing the Word of Truth. 19
Rightly dividing the Word of truth
This is part 19 in a series of 53 articles about RIGHTLY DIVIDING GOD’S WORD OF TRUTH. All scripture quoted will be from the King James Bible.
In part 19, we pick up where we left off in part 18 discussing the Gentiles.
The fathers of Israel were given the promise of eternal life. To obtain eternal life Gentiles had to either 1- become a Jew, or 2- bless the Jews.
(1)-Becoming a
Jew
The law given to Israel allowed for Gentiles to become a part of the
nation Israel through taking circumcision and following the law: “And when a
stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the Passover to the LORD, LET
ALL HIS MALES BE CIRCUMCISED, and then let him come near and keep it; and HE
SHALL BE AS ONE THAT IS BORN IN THE LAND: for no uncircumcised person shall eat
thereof, Exodus 12:48
(2)-Blessing
Them that Bless Thee
However, if Gentiles did not proselytize and become a Jew then they could
also receive God’s blessing, through blessing Israel as it was promised in Genesis
12:3.
In Luke 7:1-9 Jesus heals a Gentile friend of a centurion because of his many blessings to the nation Israel including building a Jewish synagogue.After this event Jesus replied regarding these Gentiles, “…I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel, Luke 7:9.
Men must always have faith in God, and come to God according to His way, not our way! This means that in time past, before the revelation of the mystery and Jesus’ death, and after the law was given to Israel, Gentiles had to take part in Israel’s promises and covenants to obtain blessing. If they respected the position of the nation Israel as God’s channel of blessing to the world, then they would inherit eternal life in the kingdom.
All Gentiles and Jews from Genesis to Acts 9 were all under the earthly program, and the earthly program was all about law keeping for salvation plus faith. God changed the way men could be saved down through the ages of time. Anyone who wanted to be saved in ages past had to following the instruction given by God at the time they were living. All saved people had to have faith in God and perform a work required by God for the age they lived in.
The Bible refers to these different time periods as dispensations. Have you ever heard of God’s dispensations? Dispensations are connected to Rightly dividing God’s Word of truth. Let’s have a look at the word dispensation.
Mentioning the word dispensation is often returned with blank stares and confused faces. Yet, dispensation is a Bible word! It appears four times in Paul’s epistles in the KJB: Ephesians 3:2; 1 Corinthians 9:17; Colossians 1:25; Ephesians 1:10. ——- To be continued