Just How Important IS Right Division, anyway?

How Important is Right Division?

by Justin Johnson

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We all know when we have reached a controversial topic, because no one wants to talk about it. For the sake of ‘keeping the church together’ and ‘eliminating unneeded division’ self proclaimed Christians will try to squelch the teaching of dispensational right division by making it seem unimportant.

Have you ever heard it said, ‘your majoring in the minors’. Or perhaps, ‘your straining at a gnat’, is more familiar. A contemporary response goes like this: ‘In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things love.’ What does that mean, anyway? Where in the Bible does God list the essentials? Why is it loving to gloss over doctrinal division and steer away from serious discussion?

Doesn’t Paul say that we receive liberty through the gospel of Christ (Gal 2:4-5)? Is the gospel a non-essential? Where it is commonplace to be doctrinally apathetic and biblically ignorant, we are bombarded with the influence of disregarding the revelation of the mystery as trivial. Is it true? Not in the least!

More Important than Salvation
There is no more important thing a soul can do than come to a knowledge of the saving grace of God demonstrated on the cross through Christ. In this aspect, the understanding of the revelation of the mystery is the message through which souls are saved. Ignorance of dispensational right division comes at the risk of eternal damnation.

No where else in scripture do we find the gospel for today, the gospel of the grace of God, other than in the revelation of God to our dispensational pattern. Through Paul, Jesus first revealed the meaning and the purpose of his shed blood for all men. Not of our works, but by faith we are justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The glory of this truth ‘kept secret since the world began’ is muddled by erroneously combining it with what God has purposely divided. When teachers of scripture do not rightly divide between what is prophetic and what is the revelation of the mystery they are at risk of blurring or losing the efficacy of the power of God unto salvation.

Though many people have been saved by well meaning people who are ignorant of Paul’s apostleship, it is not because they trusted in another gospel. They are saved despite their exposure to improper biblical workmanship.

Unfortunately many others are deluded by ministers who are also blind to the truth, preaching Jesus, but not according to the revelation of the mystery (Rom 16:25). They instead preach another Jesus according to the flesh (2 Cor 5:16). As a result they are trusting in their water baptism, or their good works, or their obedience to the words of Jesus during his earthly ministry when he was a minister of the circumcision:

“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:” - Romans 15:8

Stunted Spiritual Growth
Despite the unclear gospel presentations, there are those who hear the gospel, and by faith believe it and are saved. However, continued subjection to teaching disparate of dispensational right division will stunt spiritual growth.

It is no wonder that we experience a drought of true spirituality if at the source we are not established according to the teaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, ...” - Rom 16:25

Instead, members of the body of Christ are weak, frail, and useless against the ‘body of this death’ and ‘this present evil world’ (Rom 7:24, Gal 1:4). As a result, we have turned to pop psychology and motivational speakers as substitutes for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is able to teach us from the word of God rightly divided (1 Cor 2:10-13).

By relinquishing the teaching of dispensational right division to the scrap heap of ‘petty doctrines’, we are spoiling those who would thrive in the protected soil of sound doctrine.

Essentials unity; non-essentials liberty; in all things love
Silencing the teaching of dispensational right division is the cause of unclear gospel presentations and stunted spiritual growth as well as being the single most harmful attack against those who desperately need salvation.

While it is far easier to assume that standing for dispensational right division is non-essential, the truth of God says that without this message the cross of Christ would’ve been a shameful defeat (1 Cor 2:7-8). The dispensation committed unto Paul is the manifold wisdom of God and can not be more essential to our salvation!

Paul speaks of unifying the body of Christ in Ephesians 4:3 after he explains the dispensation of God committed to him in chapter 3. He defends unity when it is not ‘contrary to that which ye have learned’ (Rom 16:17).

Christ gave us liberty through the gospel for our salvation, not as an excuse to ignore ‘non-essential’ Biblical discussion. Instead of using our liberty to be complacent towards doctrinal discussion, we are charged to ‘stand fast’ in it, and not to ‘give place by subjection, not for an hour’.

We are subject to the word of truth rightly divided, and there we stand in Christ.

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:” - Ephesians 3:8-9