Well, I have been forced to write this article with the help of one of my dear LL brothers, Padre. He is mixing me up so much that I am like a blender, so I took pity on myself and decided to write this.
People think the Bible is oh so hard. They think the Bible is oh so esoteric. They think the Bible is for ministers who are the only ones who can plumb it’s depths.They think it is for seminaries which are rightly called cemetaries. All these people are wrong. The Catholic Church would not allow it’s parishioners to read the Bible until recently. That is because the Bible is very powerful for personal growth. Personal growth begets independent thought. Independent thought begets people who will not listen to whatever the Catholic Church tells them. Knowledge is power. Independent thought is power. Personal power is where it is at if you want to have a full life. Hence, I will get started.
I am going to give a few guidelines. It will not be very complicated. You have to study the Bible for yourself and not rely on me or anyone to tell you what it says but first you must follow some simple guidelines. There is no field of pursuit that does not have basic rules. Even a simple game of tennis has rules.
The First Guideline
1. One must put what one is reading into it’s proper Dispensation. Dispensation is a fancy word for time period. Think of how different time periods are. A century ago, there was no TV. Now, TV is in every home.Fifty years ago, there were no personal computers. Now, our lives revolve around the computer. A century ago, there was no fast food. Now, fast food is the norm. These are simple examples to illustrate how different life was at different times. I take this simple illustration to the Bible. Life in each Dispensation is VERY different. One major error is not caring in which time period something happened. I assure you that you will come up with all sorts of crazy if you eschew Dispensations.
I will try to provide more practical examples from the Bible to make this clearer. One must take the Old Testament as a time period with certain rules. These rules only apply in the Old Testament time. They do not apply before. They do not apply after. Prior to the Old Testament time was lawlessness. When Adam and Eve were created, they had no rules. They had no laws. Life was perfect in paradise.God still did not have rules until people started becoming very depraved. Men were having sex with angels. Men were shoving their daughter outside of their homes to have sex with strangers. People were murdering people. If God had not stepped in, there would not have been a virgin to whom Jesus could be born. God’s plan will not be thwarted.
Hence, God gave rules or law.The laws were in the Book of Leviticus. There are hundreds of tiny,tiny minute laws. The Orthodox Jews follow them today. People had to try to follow every single one of them. Because this was impossible, God allowed for each person to sacrifice an animal. If a man broke a law without the proper sacrifice of an animal, God could kill him. This happened when one unfortunate man touched the arc when he slipped. No small error was allowed. God killed him on the spot.You may think is is because God is a mean, unfair God. However, it was for a very specific reason and one that few understand. [b]All these laws were given to show man that he could not follow them.[/b] Please, highlight this in your brain because it is of utmost importance.
Many people, today, feel very guilty for breaking small laws such as pettiness, jealousy, lust etc. This shows a glaring misunderstanding of the Bible. The OT man and the NT man lived under totally different rules.
If you find a Christian who is always trying to be perfect( and we all hate this type) she does not understand the NT times. I will explain. In New Testament times, a person who has accepted Jesus as personal savior and lord can do ANYTHING and not break the law. That person can kill, steal, do terrorism, hate, rape etc and still have God’s grace. Your eyebrows raise. You want to throw tomatoes at me but let me explain. In the NT Dispensation, Jesus has borne all our sins. That means that anything I do is forgiven by God. I can kill a hundred people with a machine gun and still be forgiven. I can hate and act like Hitler and still be forgiven. In fact, God will never cast me out for my actions. Man will punish me. However, Jesus sacrifice made me clean, holy and pure in God’s eyes.
Hence, the NT person who acts like the OT person is violating the Bible. I hate the holier than thou woman. These woman think they will earn their way to God. When someone does this, they do not honor God, they disrespect Him. They disrespect His terrible sacrifice for you. His sacrifice makes you holy no matter what you do. The next question will be”Why should I act right, then? You act right because you want to please God and honor Him. You are so grateful to Him for His Love. You act right to give homage to Him, not to get His grace. You got His grace when He died.
To make this practical, an OT person had to follow every, single, teeny,tiny law.Then, he had to sacrifice an animal to cover the many laws he would violate as NO PERSON could keep the law. That is why Jesus had to die. Jesus could.I have done complicated theology, perhaps. All you have to know for this article and subject is that the OT person follows totally different rules and standards than the NT person. I hope that was clear
The Second Guideline
2. The second error is in not identifying groups. There are three distinct groups in the Bible and you must not confuse them. If you do, the Bible will not make sense. They are the Jews, the Gentiles( called the nations) and the Church( the saved Jews and Gentiles) Always know who the speaker is and to whom he is speaking. This will eliminate many errors. If you add Dispensations, you will be very accurate in Bible interpretation. I will explain these groups more.
One has to address these groups by putting them in their proper Dispensations. First of all, in the OT, there are two main groups. One is the Jews and the other is the Gentiles. God came to the Jews in the OT times. They were His people. His outreach was to them. Remember the woman with the bread crumbs. God called her a dog and she called herself a dog. This was because the OT was an outreach to the Jews, only.
.However, the NT times are an outreach to the Gentiles,primarily. Individual Jews can be saved.I am one. There will be a remnant of saved Jews in the NT times. That was what is meant by the world remnant.However, the Jews, as a corporate body are blinded.
The Church is saved Gentiles and Jews. That is the meaning of the world “church”. It is not a building. It is not a denomination like Methodist. It is the group of people in this time period who have made Jesus their Lord.
Replacement Theology
This is the last guideline or error. This outer sword of Anti-Semitism allowed bonding and unity between Jewish people which allowed them to stay a unique group for thousands of years Some people have a natural love and heart for the Jews, even if they are not saved.That was put there by God. However, Anti-Semitism came into the church in the doctrine of Replacement Theology.
This doctrine replaces the Jews with the Church.To do this makes the Bible almost total mush. It would be like replacing the Sun with Chiron in the Astrological chart. It would be like replacing the DSC with the ASC. It would be like replacing the Asteroid Valentine with the Asteroid Nessus. It won’t work. Hence, very few people understand the Bible. They miss out on the great personal change that comes as a result. They miss out on finding God, even, all for the purposes of hate. Hatred can do terrible things in people. Everyone is subject to hatred, as well as any other petty, ego driven state.
At any rate, I hope I was clear to those who cared to understand. Please ask any questions related to the topic and thank you for reading!
* Said with affection 😀