One of the lies constantly perpetrated by ignorant people against right division is that we don’t read, study, or encourage our church to study the Hebrew epistles. Let me explain to you how some people react when confronted with a literal belief in every verse in scripture as I teach. Many quickly run to the internet (Because everything on the internet is true you know) and in thirty minutes they have become experts in what right division is and since it sounds different, then it must all be wrong. These 30-minute experts always find a statement from an ignorant preacher somewhere and repeat this lie; “Dispensationalists don’t use the Hebrew epistles” Let me be as honest as I possibly can here. If you have been told this, the person telling you this is a liar. I read, study, teach from and ENCOURAGE my church to read the Hebrew epistles. Do you know WHY we spend lots of time in Hebrews, JAMES, Peter, John, Jude and Revelation? Because when you believe the bible literally and understand the CONTEXT of these Hebrew epistles they make sense and are understandable. I just taught though 1 John verse by verse. Our people will tell you we teach more scripture in a week than most churches cover in months. One of the more talked about contradictions in scripture is the FACT that James says Justification includes WORKS and Paul says it does not. This discussion has continued for HUNDREDS of years. This is easily proven with just a little research. I believe EVERYTHING in James and Romans AS WRITTEN. Why can I do this? Glad you asked. James is writing about the gospel of the kingdom, where works played a part in justification, JUST AS IT READS. Paul is writing to the body of Christ in this dispensation where works plays NO PART in your salvation. Want some background? Glad you asked.
18 And the [day] following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. 19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. 20 And when they heard [it], they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: When Paul visits James in Acts chapter 21 all James wants to do is brag about how they are zealous of the law. I ask you, is this Paul’s gospel of LIBERTY? Is this Paul’s teaching of the fact that we are NOT under the law? Of course it’s not. BUT, this is 20 chapters LATER than where you are regularly taught that the “church” was started. Can you see the problem? Paul is not saved till Acts 9. He is not sent out by the Holy Ghost till Acts 13. Paul continues to learn his mystery information from Jesus throughout the book of Acts. (II Cor 12:1-7) The gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of grace CONNOT be forced together without causing hundreds of doctrinal problems. Faith and works CONTRIDICT! Law and Grace CONTRIDICT! Prophecy and mystery CONTRIDICT! They are not the same thing. Leave them separate as the Bible does and leave all the verses alone and let them say what they say. This is rightly dividing the Bible. This is how I teach EVERY Sunday. I have referenced the Hebrew epistles thousands of times in the past 5 years and this includes the book of James. Any preacher telling people that we avoid scripture is a liar. I love it all, read it all and TEACH it all as do ALL dispensationalists. Of-course I DO NOT apply works for salvation in James to myself because Paul told me not to. He told me to rightly divide the scripture based on WHO its written to. Can there be a more simple rule of Bible interpretation than to not apply scripture to yourself if it’s addressed to someone else? I think not. YES, it is this simple. Comments are closed.
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AuthorSteve Schoenberger is a student of the Bible and the minister at Abundant Grace Bible Fellowship, A Mid-Acts Dispensational Bible church teaching the Bible rightly divided according the revelation of the mystery delivered to the Apostle Paul Archives
January 2025
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