Do The Pieces Fit?

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Proper study of the bible can sometimes seem confusing.  I remember back before I understood how to rightly divide the scripture, I found the gospels and especially the book of Acts to be sometimes confusing, almost like a puzzle where some of the pieces didn’t seem to fit.  Especially in the book of Acts…I mean it talks about repentance and baptism and then the Holy Spirit, (in that order) for being saved…and then it talks about it by believing in the death, burial and resurrection for salvation in another part of Acts.  There were also many other things that seemed to me, as I would read them, that  just didn’t all fit..So it was confusing….until I begun to realize some very important. I’m going to try to explain it here.

In 2 Timothy 2:15 it says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  It  began to think about all the divisions I had seen in my bible studies  and I remembered what Ephesians  3:2 says about “If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you ward.”  I began to  learn and understand that there were divisions and  different dispensations in the bible that I needed to consider when studying the bible  in order to get the proper time frame of the events in the bible…hence the proper meaning.

Colossians 1:25 says, “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.

1 Corinthins 9:17 says, “a dispensation of the gospel has been committed unto me.”

So I began to realize that I was to  study, rightly dividing, (or recognizing that there were cerain dispensations or period of times or events  to consider and to be sure I knew which event fit which time period.  So as I began to read and study the bible with those things in mind….little by little these peices  that didn’t fit before now began to fit…I began to see that there are three major divisions in the bible.

Times Past………….But Now………….and Ages To Come…..in fact in Ephesians we can see these divisions spoken of.

Come with me now and you will see them:

Ephesians 2:2 (a) Says   ”Wherein in TIMES PAST ye walked according to the course of this world..

Ephesians 2:11(a) says,  ”Wherefore remember, that ye being in TIMES PAST, Gentiles in the flesh….

Ephesians 2:13 says,  ”But NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made night by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:7 says, “That in the AGES TO COME he might show the exceeding riches of His Grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

I begun to see that there were different era’s of times, or different economies or divisions of time…Times past, But now, and Ages to come..and in these divisions were the different dispensations…the  different ways that God chose to do things down through the ages in the bible…ways that God has chosen in how to deal with particular people within those different economies (dispensations of time.)

So as I began to search and study the scriptures keeping these things in mind…Time Past, But Now and Ages to come, those confusing areas of the bible began to become clearer.  I began to realize how wonderfully God had arranged things in life and had them written in His word just the right way and it made all the peices fit perfectly.

Time Past is the Old testament economy, and it goes all the way up through the 4 gospels because this was all before Jesus death on the Cross…so anything before the cross would be considered “Time Past”.

The  ”But Now”  economy is the dispensation we are living in now…the age of Grace, the Church the body of Christ age and this will exist until the rapture and then after the rapture will be the ” Ages to Come “which includes Tribulation and then the Millenial kingdom on earth and then eternity!

So as I study the bible in this light, I see that the writings of Paul who was the apostle to the Gentiles and the  world now, is written during the “But Now” age…Pauls writings and teachings are  pertinent for the Christian living in this “But Now” dispensation of time.  Which is commonly known as the Church age.

Romans 11:13 says,  For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.

I saw that Paul was telling us that he is the one I am to follow and listen to…Paul teaches us to follow him as he follows Christ.  In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul says…”Be ye followers of me, even as I am also (followers) of Christ.

So while the  entire bible is written for us for our learning and understanding……Paul’s writings are written to US because he is our apostle..  these are the scriptures that we are to use and follow in our Christian walk for we are living in the ‘But Now” age of Grace…..Romans through Pilemon are written by Paul to the church age and those are the things that God tells those of us who are saved in the “But now” economy, those of us living in the age of grace, to follow…we are to listen to and follow after Paul and He was taught and followed after Christ.

Confusion exists within the heart and mind of many Christians today because they don’t understand how the bible is divided and to whom it is speaking to in certain passages of the bible.  I know because I was one of those.

Tags: baptism, Bible, ephesians, old testament, paul, resurrection