Hosea pens but it is the words of GOD that tell us concisely that HIS people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. It's not GOD's purpose in HOSEA 4:6 to encourage HIS people to attend college and to get a good education. That's not the knowledge HE is talking about. No, Hosea is writing that if GOD's people are being destroyed, it's for lack of a true and accurate knowledge of their Creator and HIS ways.HOSEA 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...
This is a tremendous verse in revealing to us why many Christians are so distraught. In the Book of PROVERBS alone one can weary in trying to count the many times the advantages of wisdom, understanding and knowledge are demonstrated over ignorance and foolishness. One brief example is in verse 7 of chapter 4;
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Then another from chapter 16 and in verse 16;
How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
And from where does one get all this wisdom, all this knowledge and understanding? "Scripture" is the obvious answer but it is not the complete answer. In order for the words of the Book to be GOD's, they must be "Rightly Divided!" If Scripture is misapplied, taken out of context or misquoted one could say that he doesn't even have Scripture any longer. If the words are not conveying the intent for which they were intended, how can they be called the words of GOD?
This is why it is so important for us to be accurate in our reading, our understanding and in our speaking of what we think to be the words of GOD. This is so simple and logical I am amazed it is so universally ignored. Many think that because they hold the Book in their hand and mouth with their lips some brief section of what is written within, that they speak the words of GOD. This is far from true.
As Pilate wrestled with what to do with his prisoner, Yeshua (Jesus) declared unto him that "everyone who is of the truth heareth my voice". Pilate replied, "what is truth?" Unfortunately Pilate had not followed Yeshua's teaching as He set forth what it took to know the truth. In verse 31 of JOHN 8 He instructs that "if ye continue in My word, then are you My disciples" (disciplined ones). "Continue" means to "remain or abide". One must remain or abide in His word, then become disciplined in that abiding.
He continued, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". Every time I hear someone quote this verse I listen very carefully and hardly ever do I hear it quoted as it is written. Rarely does the speaker declare that the truth shall "make" you free. It is too often said that it will "set" you free. The difference between being "set" free (meaning "likelihood to be released") and "make free" (meaning "inevitability to become free") is obvious. I was once taught that most people don't think, they just think they think. How true! If they can't even get this simple quote right, how far are they from abiding in His word, as disciplined ones knowing the truth? We must read what is written, and then understand what we read.
It is true that "all Scripture...is profitable" (2 TIMOTHY 3:16) but it is only Scripture if it is "rightly divided". Otherwise it is just words on a page that sound holy.
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.
Here we are first instructed to "study". The essence of this word "study" is to "make haste" or "give diligence". Then we are to be "a workman". A workman is not just a listener of other men's opinions. He is one who rolls up his sleeves, opens the Book and works at finding out what it says. As workmen, we need not be ashamed, if we are "rightly dividing" the word of truth.
To "rightly divide" means just that, to correctly divide something up into sections. When one wrongly divides the word of truth, he is applying Scripture from the one place where it belongs, to another where it doesn't belong. Paul gives us an example of this erring of the truth two verses later with Hymenaeus and Philetus. They were saying that the resurrection is past, when actually it was still future.
So, in 2 TIMOTHY, GOD commands us to "rightly divide" the word of truth. It is only in this right dividing that we have the true Word. More demonic doctrine has found a home in the Christian Church today through this gaping crack in the armor than through any other. By failing to read and understand Scripture rightly divided, they are forever learning, yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
There are several excellent works on this subject of rightly dividing the Word so I will not even try to extensively handle it here. Three would be "The Foundations of Dispensational Truth" by EW Bullinger, "Dispensational Truth" by CH Welch and "All Truth" by JE Mills. The reader can get quite a good grasp of this critical subject from any one of these sources. In this brief writing I can only lightly touch on this most vital principle to understanding the right divisions of the Book.
Probably one of the most horrific things for most Christians to learn is that the four Gospels do not contain the "all truth" required to make them what GOD would have them to be. Neither do the Ten Commandments or the Book of Proverbs. Believe it, but not because I say it but believe it because Yeshua Himself said it. Prior to His capture in the garden when Judas Iscariot went out to betray Him, Yeshua spent those last few hours comforting His disciples. It is here, at this most crucial time that Yeshua reveals great things to his faithful followers.
JOHN 16:12-13 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
This is a most intriguing revelation! Yeshua is telling His disciples that "many things" cannot yet be told them. When were they to be told? In but a few hours He was to be marched off and put to death. What kind of truth is this "all truth" that prevents Yeshua from revealing it now, at this desperate hour so close to the end of His ministry?
Yeshua explained that "when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth!" This "all truth" would have to come after the Gospel period, after Yeshua's earthly ministry. If it came after the Gospel period, then of course it would not be found in the Old Testament either.
When was the spirit of truth to come and reveal this "all truth"? One might suppose that it would surely be revealed in ACTS or the Epistles written during that time? No! Those writers tell us that what they wrote were only those things "which the prophets and Moses did say should come" ( Paul in ACTS 26:22) or "I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning" (John in 1 JOHN 2:7). Nor did Peter write any new thing as he declared in 2 PETER 1:12-13 and 3:1-2. Jude wrote also that he only put them "in remembrance" of what was taught before. Neither can one find anything resembling this new truth in the writings of James. They all simply held forth the declared truth that Yeshua had already taught them in the Gospel period. No new truth, no "all truth" can be found in any of the 12 Apostles writings.
Pentecost?
Mistaking the birth of the Christian Church to be on the day of Pentecost shortly after Yeshua's ascension has contributed to the confusion. Pentecost is a Jewish feast observed after the seven weeks of harvest. The phenomenon of "cloven tongues like as of fire" and the "speaking in tongues" of ACTS 2 was as Peter declared "that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" in the Old Testament. Nothing here indicates any new truth that the disciples could not "bear" when they were with Yeshua during the Gospel period. This could not be the "spirit of truth" guiding them into what was never before declared for Peter plainly states a few days later that;
...all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
But if not in the Old Testament, nor in the Gospels, nor in ACTS or the fourteen Epistles written during that period, then when was this "all truth" revealed? All that is left of the Bible is Revelation, which is concerning times still to come, and the seven Epistles written by Paul after the Book of ACTS. And this is exactly where after the final rejection by the Jewish nation of all that GOD was offering them, Paul declared in ACTS 28:28,
Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.
This act by Paul could be considered the true beginning of today's Church. Perhaps conceived in ACTS 13, it was born after Israel was set aside in ACTS 28:25-27. All that had gone before was about Israel, beginning in chapter one of ACTS, a few weeks after Yeshua's resurrection when His followers asked if now He would be restoring the Kingdom to Israel? But it was not to be, for now that salvation was to be sent to the Gentiles.
Sure, the Gentiles during the ACTS period were accepted by GOD as proselytes, but it was always "outside the gate". During ACTS it was the Jew first, then the Greek. But now it is the Greek first, then the Jew. Before it was "according to that which was spoken" (ROMANS 4:18) but now it is that "which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in GOD" (EPHESIANS 3:9).
COLOSSIANS 1:25,26 Whereof I [Paul] am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Now! Not before now, but now it is made manifest. Before it was hid in GOD. No one knew it. No one could know it. Not the angels, the prophets, not even the Lord, but GOD alone. But now it has been made known! And who knows it now? Very few. Most prefer their traditions and the commandments of men to the "all truth".
Most prefer the acceptance, which comes from "working righteousness" (ACTS 10:35) over the justification "not by works of righteousness which we have done" but "through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (TITUS 3:5,6). They pray the "sinners prayer" and every Sunday night repent at some altar refusing to realize that HE has already "forgiven us all our trespasses" (COLOSSIANS 2:13) and has seated us in the heavenlies.
Yeshua came, as He declared in His first message in Galilee, to "preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (LUKE 4:19). That is what the Gospel and ACTS periods were all about. It was for the nation of Israel the "acceptable" time, the age when the door was held open. That time ceased when Paul declared at the close of ACTS that because Israel would not repent, "the salvation of GOD is sent unto the Gentiles" (ACTS 28:28).Before, the Gentiles only heard what was sent to the "children of Israel" (ACTS 10:36) or to the "children of the stock of Abraham" (ACTS 13:26). Now, "the salvation of GOD is sent unto the gentiles, and...they will hear it."
Within a decade of Paul's closure in ACTS 28:28, Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome. More then a million died torturous deaths with nearly one hundred thousand carried off as slaves. The Judeans that survived were scattered throughout the world as Yeshua had warned as recorded by Luke in his Gospel;
LUKE 21:20-24 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Those times are not yet fulfilled, however close they appear to be. Until the age described in the Book of REVELATION commences, we are still in this age between those two. This age sets like a hidden valley between two mountain ranges. We can see the two ranges in the Old Testament, but the valley we can't. Something is there but we know not what from the Old Testament. The valley is revealed by Paul in his post Acts Epistles.
It was Paul who received the "All Truth" promised by Yeshua. That "All Truth" is revealed to us in Paul's "Final Epistles", which are;
EPHESIANS
PHILIPPIANS
COLOSSIANS
1TIMOTHY
2 TIMOTHY
TITUS
PHILEMON
Within these seven Epistles are revealed many truths that have comforted, inspired and amazed Believers the world over for the last two thousand years. Never before was GOD's magnificence understood to be so great, or HIS manifold wisdom to be so known. Never before were the riches of the glory of this mystery ever imagined. Never before were the unsearchable riches of Christ preached among us Gentiles, nor the exceeding riches of HIS grace promised. Never before had concepts such as "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places" and "raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" been revealed, "above all that we could ask or even think".
We are truly a blessed people! But let us beware lest this blessing become boasting, for it is by HIS grace we are saved, not from our own works. We learn from Paul's 1st Epistle to the Corinthians that knowledge puffs up but love builds up. And later in that same Epistle, that the love of GOD does not rejoice in iniquity. We are not to rejoice because we have or know something somebody else doesn't. No, we are commanded to rejoice in Truth (1 CORINTHIANS 13:6). Let us learn of Him, who was "meek and lowly in heart" (MATTHEW 11:29), or Paul, who taught that we should instruct "in meekness" those that opposed themselves" (2 TIMOTHY 2:25).
EPHESIANS 3:8-9 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:
Even a casual reading of the Scriptures with which we are dealing will reveal the great dividing line of which we write.
Jews first and then Gentiles
ACTS 18:4 And he [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
ACTS 19:10 And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
ACTS 19:17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
ACTS 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
ROMANS 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
ROMANS 2:9-10 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
ROMANS 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
ROMANS 3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
ROMANS 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
ROMANS 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-24 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
1 CORINTHIANS 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
GALATIANS 2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
GALATIANS 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
But then after the Book of ACTS, it was all diferent.
Gentiles first and then Jews
COLOSSIANS 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Besides the order of "Jew and Gentile" in the Bible, it is interesting to note there usage. Of the almost 300 occasions that some form of the word "Jew" is used in the Bible, only twice is it found in Paul's post ACTS Epistles. COLOSSIANS 3:11 quoted above and here in TITUS;
TITUS 1:14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.