DOCTRINE
MUST DIVIDE
It should!
It must! That’s what it is designed for! Different dispensations have
different
doctrines. Everything in the Bible is true, but if you jam it into the
wrong
place, it’s no longer sound doctrine and applicable is it?
Correct
doctrine MUST divide, as the Bible says we must rightly divide
the word
of truth (2 Timothy
2:15)
EXPLANATION:
Have
you
ever heard people say “Doctrine divides!” as though doctrine was a bad
thing?
Of course you have. What they are actually saying is that we should put
aside
all our differences, and retreat to the lowest common denominator of
“Let’s all
get along no matter what. I guarantee those who say that “Doctrine
divides”
have some doctrine from another dispensation.
Their
motto
is “Let’s have unity in spite of our diversity”. It sounds clever, but
in
reality it’s absolute rubbish and spits in the face of God. They
profess to
love God and Jesus but they hate what God has written down in his final
written
authority to men - the King James Bible. They detest God’s words. They
hate to
be bound by God what God has written. Why? They are rebellious.
HOW
IMPORTANT ARE GOD’S WORDS?
When
Jesus
was tempted in the desert by Satan, he didn’t say “Be gone devil! Don’t
you
know who I am? I created the heaven and the earth and you as well!”
No he
didn’t. Three times he said “It is written”
Matthew 4:6-7,10. Jesus was
placing more
importance on what was written down in the Old Testament than on
himself as a
person.
David says
for
thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Psalms
138:2. And
doesn’t this make absolute
sense. As Jesus is called the Word (Revelation
19:13 notice the
capital ‘W’), he is
most concerned about his word, his final written authority of the King
James
Bible and his words that are written therein.
BUT ISN’T
DOCTRINE HARD TO UNDERSTAND?
No.
God
says My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall
distil as
the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers
upon the
grass:
Deuteronomy
32:2
NOW HOW
GENTLE AND LOVELY IS THAT?
But
if you
won’t have his proper doctrine, then … they that are
unlearned and
unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own
destruction. 2Peter 3:16
WHEN
PEOPLE
WON’T…
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, this is
when it becomes hard
to understand the Bible.
All other
Bibles do not have the word ‘study’ in them, as they have ‘do your
best’, ‘be
diligent’ or ‘have a go’ and so on. This word is only found in
the King
James Bible.
BUT THE
BIBLE SEEMS VERY CONTRADICTORY IN PLACES
This
is
correct for people who won’t or can’t see that God has different rules
and
governance for different times (called dispensations) for man over
6,000 years
since creation.
The
obvious
one is circumcision. “Do I have to be circumcised today to be saved?”
No, not
in this era/age/dispensation, but under the Old Testament, you had to
become a
Jew and get circumcised to be saved.
WELL, WHAT
DOCTRINE SHOULD WE FOLLOW TODAY THEN?
Paul
says
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. (1 Corinthians
11:1)
BUT
SHOULDN’T WE FOLLOW CHRIST AND WHAT HE SAYS?
We do
follow Christ and the apostle Paul shows us how to do this.
Christ
was
a Jew who came to fulfill God’s laws that he had given to the Jews at
Mt Sinai.
For example, Jesus didn’t eat pork and he went to the Jewish temple on
Saturdays and he endorsed animal blood sacrifices. You don’t do that do
you? Of
course not.
So here is
the point - all things in the Bible are true, but not all things apply
to us as
Christians today. Paul says to follow him (Paul) as he follows Christ.
When we
do this, we become more like Christ.
My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you, Galatians
4:19
Of course
this makes sense as you are put into Christ Know ye not, that so
many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Romans
6:3.
PAUL’S
DOCTRINE
Paul
had
been given his own special doctrine from God which superseded and
by-passed all
other previous Bible doctrines.
It’s
called
my (Paul’s) doctrine; it’s called sound doctrine Titus
1:9, 2Timothy
3:10; it’s
called good doctrine 1Tim
4:6; Titus
2:1; we are
to teach no other
doctrine (than Paul’s) 1Tim
1:3 or what
is contrary to sound
doctrine (Paul’s) 1Tim
1:10; it’s
called God’s doctrine 1Tim
6:1; it’s
called the doctrine of
godliness 1Tim
6:3
WAS PAUL
LYING?
Was
Paul
making this up because he had a large ego or something? No, he was
simply
saying that a new era in doctrine had arrived. While the others were
true, they
were no longer relevant to the Christian to follow and obey.
All
the
different doctrines in the Bible (and they are all true) are NOT to be
put on
equal footing with each other and most importantly of all, with Paul.
Paul is
head and shoulders above the rest for doctrine in this ‘church age’.
WHY IS DOCTRINE IMPORTANT?
It’s like a diet. You can’t just eat lollies and cakes – you’ll get
sick. If
you’re given the wrong instructions on how to drive a car, you will
have an
accident or kill yourself.
So
similarly, God has his instructions on being a Christian. It’s in the
thirteen
epistles of Paul – from Romans to Philemon.
Whom shall
he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them
that
are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isaiah
28:9
Paul says
don’t be a baby all your life – grow up. I have fed you with
milk, and
not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet
now are ye
able.
1 Corinthians 3:2
Harley
Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
www.
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com