The Right Division

One thing you can pretty much guarantee in today’s Bible version and perversion industry is the blank page between what tradition calls the Old Testament and the New Testament. This blank page is taught as the dividing point between what belongs to the Jews and what belongs to all of us. Of course Christianity will go back and take the verses they want from the OT when it’s convenient for their agenda, and ignore the ones they don’t like from the NT for the same purpose. This OT/NT dividing line is one of the causes of the mass confusion we see among denominations today. Tradition calls the Gospels the beginning of the NT and we have millions of people who claim to follow the red letters in their Bibles because they want to follow Jesus. I’ll talk about the red letters in another blog, so let’s focus on the OT/NT dividing line. Just like the OT cannot have begun in Genesis 1 the NT cannot begin in Matthew 1. Testament and covenant are sometimes used interchangeably in scripture but there is a difference! Two living people can have a covenant, but a testament is not in force before the death of the testator. Why? Because the testament can be changed or modified while the testator is living and is only in force after the death of the testator. Hebrews explains this clearly. Hebrews 9:16  For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
According to the Bible itself the NT cannot have begun at Matthew 1, Mark 1, Luke 1 or John 1, because Jesus had not died yet. When you are reading the historical accounts of Jesus’ life in these books everything is about Israel and everything concerns the Jews. Christians today pretend to be Jesus followers by claiming to follow what Jesus said but have to ignore and avoid much of his clear teaching in the gospels to do it. If you are not a right divider of your bible now, I would ask you this simple question; don’t you think it’s odd that you claim to follow Jesus but then you don’t do so much of what he said? Jesus required his followers to follow the law and this continued after his death. In fact, the New Covenant would enable his people to follow the law perfectly. Strange because Paul tells us we are not under the law. Jesus told his followers to sell everything they had and Paul tells us we should provide for our family and if we don’t work we shouldn’t eat. Jesus and Peter said to endure to the end to get salvation later and Paul says it’s available NOW. The OT/NT division is the cause of much confusion in the teaching of today’s churches. The true division in scripture is between Prophecy and Mystery. Prophecy is information that was known “since the world began”, and Mystery information was “kept secret since the world began”. Compare Acts 3:21 with Romans 16:25. When you use the dividing line in your Bible that the Bible actually teaches, the Bible becomes understandable just as it stands, and you can clearly see how perfect it really is. When you refuse to follow the Bible and instead choose to continue to follow man made tradition and his OT/NT dividing line you will continue to be at odds with other Christians about doctrine after doctrine. There are some good traditions, but dividing your Bible between Malachi and Matthew is not one of them.