Dispensational Truth Part II~Pete Garcia / Rapture-Ready.com

By STLloyd
Commentary by ST Lloyd: Pete Garcia is covering the subject of Dispensational Truth over at Rapture-Ready, and this series makes a good follow-up, review, and supplement to my recent series!  You cannot rightly divide the Word without understanding that God “dispensed” His revelation of Himself to mankind gradually over the ages, and each age or time period, those who lived in those periods were judged according to what had been revealed to them.  Salvation is always and has always been, by the Sacrifice of Christ, however, those who lived before that ultimate sacrifice, were given “conditions” to meet by which God “reckoned them righteous” in anticipation of the coming sacrifice of Christ.  Likewise, those who lived while Christ was on Earth, were living in a limited, transitional period.  Thus, the Bible had to be dictated by the Lord to His chosen men, in such a way that those who would be born and live during another dispensational time period, could a) understand where transitions took place, and b.) what applied before, vs. what applies in their own period vs. what will apply during a later era.  Always keep that in mind when you are reading Daniel and Revelation in particular, because when Christians are gone, the Bible will still be here for those living in that seventieth week period, and they will undoubtedly understand things we (who will no longer be here) were never able to fully figure out because they did not apply to us.  Many things that were written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in one age, would not even come to pass until the next age or one further down the centuries.  So, often the writer himself did not fully understand what he wrote about.  A student of the Bible who wants to rightly divide the scriptures, must also “divide” or differentiate between Jews, Gentiles, Christians, the Bride, and the Elect of the nation of Israel.   That is one aspect of what the scripture means when it says that the Word is living and active and sharper than a double-edged sword dividing soul from spirit, joints from marrow, and judge the thoughts and heart.  It is so complex and so specific, that if God doesn’t want you to understand it, you won’t, until He does want you to understand it, then it will.  It is living not in the way some liberals like to say the U.S. Constitution is “living and evolving”, but rather the Word is established.  In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God (is God), He is Truth, He is complex, and He is Living, the author of all life and truth.
We cannot earn salvation, and we cannot earn any “rewards” that the Lord has not promised.  We must know what promises have been made to whom, and that can’t be understood without an understanding of the dispensations.
——————————————————————————————————————-End STLloyd commentary

Last time we went over some very general truths that help the believer understand who he or she is in Christ.  We are not the “new Israel.” We are like Israel in that we are also set aside by God, but we have very different purposes for our calling. Again, I will be pulling heavily from Clarence Larkin’s book,  The Greatest Book of Dispensational Truth in the World.

 

 What the Church Is Not

 

The church is not an organization, but a living organism. An organization can be rearranged, added to or subtracted from or otherwise. But an organism cannot be without causing mutilation or permanently destroying the integrity of the body as a whole.  This is why no one who is truly born-again can become unsaved. Salvation has always come by God’s grace through our faith. The Law never saved anyone, but was the standard in which everyone would be measured by. Nationally speaking, Israel remained in fellowship with God when they kept the tenants of the law, until Israel/Jews got to the point where the Religion became more important than the relationship. (See Psalm 51:16-17; Jeremiah 31:31-34; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Romans 12:5.)

 

“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch theout of My hand.   My Father, who has given  them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.   I and My Father are one” (John 10:28-30).

 

For those of us in this dispensation our eternal salvation is a onetime event. Once you become “saved” you cannot become “unsaved” because it is God who does the changing in us, not us changing ourselves.  But we, like Israel, can also step out of fellowship with God, and although the relationship suffers, our eternal standing in the family of God does not.  In this Dispensation (Church Age) once you are truly born again, you become:

 

1.       A  new creation-something new means having never existed before and can’t become un-new (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).

 

2.        Sealed by the Holy Spirit until the Day of Redemption, which is the Rapture (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:5).

 

3.       Jesus promises that those who are given to Him (a new believer)  He will not lose, nor can he or she be taken from Him or God the Father (John 6:39; 10:28-30).

 

So to teach that you can “lose” your salvation means that you can:  A) undo what God has created  B) Unseal the Holy Spirit’s permanent sealing,  C) Overpower Christ by removing yourself from Him and His Father’s hand.

 

 The Building

 

As previously discussed, we understand that the body of Christ is not an organization, but a living organism. But there is symbolism found in the New Testament that alludes to the individual believer as a building. Jesus first compared His body to the Temple (although misunderstood by the Pharisees) in that it could be destroyed (killed) and raised up again in three days  (John 2:19). Paul and Peter later use similar symbolism to the Christian as individuals as both a building and tent in relation to the residency of the Holy Spirit.  (See 2 Corinthians 5:1; Ephesians 2:20-22; 2 Peter 1:13-14.)

Read the rest at RaptureReady.com