Protestantism

» GodChsr - Dispensationalism

I am in the midst of a study and have several friends involved from a few different angles.

I should probably start off by saying that I fully understand that the debate over dispensationalism is not one of salvation (as I yet understand it) but I think it is important for us who ARE believers to understand it.

I have read a considerable amount including Virginia's terrific explanation of the '7 Dispensations' and her Biblical reasoning.

I think a good place to start is the claim that the Word of God needs to be 'divided via Paul's letter to Timothy...
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I may be wrong but this seems to be one of the basis for the claim to dividing the Word into dispensations. I felt very uncertain and uneasy about trusting this verse in it's English writing so I used my Lexicon and found this fact interesting...

"Rightly Divide" in it's original Greek text was a compounded word that meant: To make straight.

There might be some confusion if there were several possibilities to this word but fortunately for us this is the ONLY time this word, in it's compound form, is used. So there is no confusion on Paul's or Timothy's part here. They both understood this to mean 'To make straight'.

A more accurate transliteration of this scripture would be:
Be diligent to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, proceeding on straight paths to teach correctly the word of truth.

It's seems more reasonable considering Paul was a 'mentor' to Timothy that he would encourage him, not give him a secret message on the importance of Biblical divisions.

-- posted by GodChsr