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ACCURATE BIBLE KNOWLEDGE!

QUESTION: “But doesn’t doctrine divide?”

ANSWER: 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 (2Tim 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” Matt 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. Psalm 138:2. And doesn’t this make absolute sense. As Jesus is called the Word (Rev 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: Deut 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. 2 Peter 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 Tim 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. (1Co 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, Gal 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? Rom 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, 2Tim 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 Cor 3:2

Harley Hitchcock

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