Dividing God’s Word is Risky Business

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 (KJV 1900)

Anytime someone disagrees with a doctrine or Biblical interpretation, usually Paul’s famous instruction to Timothy is used to remind the person, supposedly who has strayed, that they “must rightly divide the word of truth”. This verse from the King James translation of the Bible is used to reinforce the theology of dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is a belief system that started in the late 19th century and spread through North America during the 20th century with the help of the Dallas Theological Seminary and C.I. Scofield’s study bible. Most evangelical Christians believe in some version of dispensationalism today as a result. The hard-core dispensationalist, who understands what they believe, holds that the words of Jesus in the Gospels were not spoken to you and I but to only the Jews. They insist that the writings of Paul are the sole source of authority where believers today should receive their instruction.

Should we be “rightly” dividing God’s word? Who determines what is right? If we say most of the Bible is written to someone else, it implies that we should not concern ourselves with anything the Creator, or Yeshua told us in these writings. After all, we are in the “age of grace”, the dispensation where God’s instructions don’t matter, according to this belief system. Dispensationalists will claim, “there is nothing one can do to obtain salvation”, yet even Paul preached repentance and performing deeds worthy of repentance. These “deeds worthy of repentance” are the instructions given to us by the Father, Yeshua (Jesus) and others, all contained in the entirety of scriptures. Paul testifies in these verses in the book of Acts:

Acts 26:19–20 (LEB): ¹⁹ “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰ but to those in Damascus first, and in Jerusalem and all the region of Judea and to the Gentiles, I proclaimed that they should repent and turn to God, doing deeds worthy of repentance.

Most Bible versions do not translate second Timothy 2:15 the same way as the King James version does. Without the King James version of the Bible we lose the “rightly dividing” phrase that has lead so many astray. Here are some examples of alternate translations:

2 Timothy 2:15 (LEB): ¹⁵ Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, a worker having no need to be ashamed, guiding the word of truth along a straight path.

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV): ¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

In these two examples, the verse is translated using the words “guiding” and “handling” instead of “dividing”. When we divide the word of God into dispensations, such as the “age of grace”, where we “unhitch” from scripture, as mega-pastor Andy Stanley proclaims, we start seeing things such as music from Flamey Grant at the top of the Christian music charts. Please read the article from the Christian Post for more on that story. Drag Performer Flamey Grant First to Top Christian Music.

This sort of headline will be applauded by more progressive Christians and leave others scratching their heads asking, “How did we get here?”. I will address the sort of Christians that are having a hard time understanding this phenomenon. However, in order to understand this, one must leave behind the deception of dispensationalism and consider “guiding the word along a straight path” instead of dividing God’s word. There is no such thing as “rightly dividing” because dividing the word of God is a completely subjective undertaking. The frame work of dispensationalism is an example of people supposedly “rightly dividing”, but actually butchering the word of God and eventually progressing to the point of 50,000 denominations of Christianity and Flamey Grant topping the Christian charts.

We are all responsible for our own salvation, so I would rather take the time to understand the “word of truth” then to rely on preachers, pastors, church fathers or teachers and professors to tell me. When we are asked to give an account of our lives in the end, explaining our understanding of the doctrines of the “age of grace” will not suffice.

Paul’s letters are one sided glimpses into the affairs of the churches that he helped start. I say “helped” because he left behind leaders to carry on the work. Many of the new converts in these assemblies did not have any knowledge of the scriptures or the Father’s instructions for life and blessings. There also may not have been the ease of access to the scriptures and information that we have at our fingertips today. Much of Paul’s writings were simply explaining the principles of God’s word (the Old Testament) in a way that people with no previous knowledge of the God of Israel could understand, and the fact that through Yeshua the Messiah, they now had a way to be part of the family of the God of Israel if they left their former gods and ways behind. This is why we see these instructions given to the gentiles in the book of Acts with the understanding they will hear the entire word and instruction where “Moses has those who proclaim him in every city from ancient generations, because he is read aloud in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

Acts 15:19–21 (LEB): ¹⁹ Therefore I conclude we should not cause difficulty for those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, ²⁰ but we should write a letter to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. ²¹ For Moses has those who proclaim him in every city from ancient generations, because he is read aloud in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

These commands from the Torah to abstain from the “pollution” of idols, sexual immorality, what has been strangled, and from blood are all listed in the instructions of God, first given to Israel, then proclaimed among the gentiles. The Torah is simply the first five books of the Old Testament in modern, English bibles.

Some Christians wrongly teach that these four items are all they need to be concerned about, then invent their own definitions of the pollution of idols and sexually immorality. These instructions were given very specifically to a group of people that were steeped in these four things from their former religion. These people were coming from a religious system that had temple prostitutes, both male and female, and sexual rituals were part of their religion. This is why the holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, handed down to Christianity from these pagan religions, have so much fertility symbolism in their decorations and traditions.

The leaders in the Jerusalem council intended for the people to continue learning how to live a life pleasing to the Father proven by their conclusion that Moses is taught every where in the synagogues. These items in Acts 15 were meant to be a starting point. For example, once my family realized the whole Bible was still relevant, we started resting on the Sabbath and following the dietary instructions found in Leviticus chapter 11. The more we studied, the more we learned. We then made adjustments once we saw the “straight path”.

The deception that we can define sin ourselves, or not be concerned with sin at all in “the age of grace” has a horrible future for the deceived. I would go as far as to say we are witnessing the forerunner to the “great deception”. Christians will already be so misinformed at the time of the end that they will accept whatever delusion is handed to them. Perhaps tricking Christians into believing they do not need to be concerned with sin against the instructions of God, giving them fake holy days to replace the Biblical feast days, and painting the Messiah as a law-breaking, antinomian, is the great deception.

The Creator tells us what will happen if we view His instructions as repulsive, irrelevant or for someone else.

Leviticus 26:14–16 (LEB): ¹⁴ “ ‘But if you do not listen to me and you do not carry out all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you reject my statutes and if your inner self abhors my regulations, to not carry out all my commands by your breaking my covenant, ¹⁶ I in turn will do this to you: then I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies shall eat it.

The entire chapter 26 of Leviticus tells us the benefits of keeping God’s instructions and the consequences of not having any regard for them at all. Yeshua also tells us where lawlessness (antinomianism) will lead.

Matthew 7:21–23 (LEB): ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³ And then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’

The only logical way we are able to ignore these words from the Messiah is to say we are in the “age of grace” and that these verses do not apply to us, or we can simply redefine lawlessness. That is extremely risky and I certainly will not take the word of the people teaching and preaching this type of theology any longer. I hope everyone reading this will take the time to study these matters for themselves and realize that the Creator’s instructions given to all twelve tribes of Israel are still valid for anyone that is willing to repent and make the God of Israel their God.