[QUOTE=byHismercy;92042]
Quote:
Originally Posted by countmeworthy
Now he really has my interest, Carol. I can see the difference in the teaching based on who the Lord was speaking to, in the new testament. I understand the bible very differently based on who is being addressed. .....
This rightly dividing is utterly crucial!! And I never heard of until these past 2? years post- LC. Thanks for suggesting Larkin. I will try to find his online publications.
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I had never heard of Calvinism until a couple of years ago (although I had heard of John Calvin).
I had never heard of the teaching of dispensation either but the dispensation of the fulness of times is mentioned in Ephesians 1:9-11 and in 3 other places. Truth be told I had no understanding of what that really means but I looked up the definition of dispensation in the biblical sense and this is what I found:
DISPENSATION:
A. The divine ordering of the affairs of the world.
B. An appointment, arrangement, or favor, as by God.
C. A divinely appointed order or age: the old Mosaic, or Jewish, dispensation; the new gospel, or Christian, dispensation.
D. A dispensing with, doing away with, or doing without something.
Clarence Larkin is not the only teacher on explaining the Word of God from a dispensation view point. Gene Kim and Robert Breaker are a couple of online pastors who also teach the Bible from this perspective.
When I began to understand what rightly dividing the Word of Truth was, I remember re reading Hebrews 1. It suddenly dawned on me that in the OT God did not speak through His Son, (although Jesus was indeed present as was the Holy Spirit) but He spoke through the prophets and the fathers.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
So in reading the gospels, I began to understand and pay attention to whom Jesus was speaking to. When the disciples were asking Jesus about His second coming in Matthew 24, He was describing what the JEWS were going to go through during the Tribulation,
not the church for the church had not been born yet. Jesus had not shed His Blood yet. And the church is comprised mostly of Gentile believers who never followed the 'Law'.
So then what Larkin wrote makes perfect sense to me:
"While the bible was written for all classes of people and for our learning, it is not addressed to all people in general. . Part of it is addressed to the JEWS, part of it to the GENTILES and part of it to the CHURCH. The Jews, the gentiles and the church constitute the 'three classes' into which humanity is divided." He cites 1 Corinthians 10:32
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
"It follows therefore that while the whole Bible was for the instruction of the church, it is not all written about the church.
I also like that they all also emphasize salvation through the Blood of Jesus. When we trust in the Blood of Christ and apply it daily over our lives, our mind, our heart, we put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17) and truly then we experience the Peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
I never get tired of studying what all the Blood of Jesus does for us and through us. Not a day goes by I don't apply the Precious Blood over me and my loved ones.