THE BOOK DIVINE

THE BOOK DIVINE

          The Bible is the “word of truth” (II Timothy 3:15).  It is “Scripture breathed out by God” (II Timothy 3:16, 17).  Consider these facts about the Bible.

Consisting of sixty six books, it has two major divisions, the Old,  and the New, Testaments.  The Old Testament is divided into Law (five books, from Genesis to Deuteronomy), History (Joshua to Esther), Poetry (Job to Song of Solomon) Major Prophets (Isaiah to Ezekiel) and Minor Prophets (Daniel to Malachi).

The New Testament is divided into History (Matthew to Acts), Doctrine (Romans to Jude) and Apocalypse (Revelation). 

The Bible is the history of man, and God’s dealing with him, in three parts.  The first part is characterized as the PATRIARCHAL age; in this period God reveals His will by speaking directly to the fathers.  This age or dispensation remains in effect when the second age, the MOSAIC dispensation, is brought in.   The Mosaic age, with its beginning at Mount Sinai, was especially and exclusively for the children of Israel.  When Jehovah spoke to Moses regarding the Sabbath, He said “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord.  Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.  Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath,  observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever.   It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel  that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed” (Exodus 31:15-17).  WHO shall keep the Sabbath?  “the people of Israel”.  No Gentile has ever been obligated to keep the Sabbath; because God said that it is a sign forever “between me and the people of Israel”.  The Law of Moses was the second age or dispensation of Jehovah’s dealing with man.

Then, on the day of Pentecost following the resurrection of Jesus, the third, the CHRISTIAN dispensation, had its beginning.  As it began, the earlier dispensations were ended.  God forgave us “all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” Colossians 2:13, 14.         

It is fundamental to our correct understanding of the Bible’s message that we appreciate that the law of Moses was taken out of the way, “nailing it to the cross”. 

Some appeal to the Old Testament for authority.  They demand Sabbath observation, because it was required of those living in those days.  They appeal to Psalms to justify introducing mechanical instruments of music to Christians and the church today.  In Deuteronomy 18:15-19  Moses made a statement quoted by Peter in Acts 3:22, 23, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.  You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.  And it shall be, that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people” (Acts 3:22, 23).

The law of Moses is not binding on anyone today.  It has been taken out of the way, “nailing it to the cross”, Colossians 2:13-14.  The apostle Paul wrote that Christ “is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances” (Ephesians 2:14, 15).