We often hear that rightly dividing the word of truth means dividing the New Testament from the Old, and people of the New from the Old, and people of Israel from the people of the Church. But is this the meaning of rightly dividing the Word of Truth? The verse says:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV

Nowhere does Paul, who wrote this to Timothy, mention Israel in either his First or Second Letters. “Elect” is mentioned twice. Once in 1 Timothy where Paul speaks of elect angels. And once in 2 Timothy where he does not identify the elect, but in the letter he does mention once that his calling is to the Gentiles.

Then In Romans 8, Paul speaks of the elect:

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:33-37 KJV

And then in Romans 11 Paul speaks of the election of Israel’s Remnant, but obviously leaves out that part of Israel who had fallen out from the Olive tree as unbelievers.

Matthew 2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

So in rightly dividing truth concerning Israel it must be understood that only her elect will constitute The Israel attached to the Covenant promises, to which we also see ourselves attached when we read Ephesians 2. So given this truth provided us in the word of truth, what does Paul mean in Romans when he speaks of God’s people referenced as “My people”?

Romans 9:25 As He says also in Hosea,“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

Who was Hosea referring to here? Paul uses this verse from Hosea to confirm what he had stated before in Vs 24.

Romans 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (KJV)

So paul obviously is including Gentiles into a class of people who elsewhere he includes with the elect as being God’s “My people”. Are these truths within the “word of truth” that we are to rightly divide impactful to our understanding of the Revelation?

Revelation 18:4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;

I think that they are impactful for this reason: in Revelation as the Dispensationalist so readily will point out to us there is no Church mentioned following Revelation chapter 3, and they usually include up through chapter 19 in this. The fact that they are correct in what they say about the word church, does not mean that their’s is a correct division of the word of truth however. For as you have heard me say before, neither is the word church used in the heavenly scenes in these chapters, which basically will cover the entire span of the Tribulation. This according to strict dispensationalist teaching. But in this verse Revelation 18:4 quoted above there is a clarion call for and to “My People” from God Himself. In Revelation 19, there is the pronouncement concerning the Bride of the Lamb. She is now ready. The call out of the world and the result of said call seems clear. The church incorporating Jew and Gentile as “My people” has come out of the world.

The rightly dividing of the word of truth seems clear. It does not divide Israel and the church, nor does it replace Israel with the Church, but it makes us who believe a remnant from both Jews first, with the Gentiles second as a people who were not a people, all of whom are now “My people”, who have come into His bride. The conclusion that the Church is present in His people throughout the Tribulation does not come without a right division of the word of truth. God’s people and His elect are the church or congregation in Israel revealed as the bride (one new man) in scripture, and they are separated from the world. This is a division supported by the word of truth.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10:16 KJV