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God's redemptive plan for earth and heaven. God's clock is always correct and there is
always a special time for the revelation of His Truth. He is never a moment too soon or
too late.
The importance of God's time is seen in Titus 1: 1, 2:
"Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and
the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, a faith and knowledge resting on the
hope of eternal life, which God, Who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,
and at His appointed season He brought His Word to light through the preaching
entrusted to me by the command of God our Saviour" (N.I.V.).
The truth given through Paul's ministry therefore was divinely regulated as to time as
well as to its content. It would have been out of place before this and too late if it had
been postponed to the future. We must therefore learn from this and distinguish between
the time periods of Scripture. What was true and according to the will of God in the O.T.
times is not necessarily true today. If a believer sins now, he does not bring an animal
sacrifice to God in order to be forgiven. Yet this was God's command to Israel in the
O.T. and refusal to obey it would have resulted in judgment from Him. It was truth then;
it is not truth now. This is obvious, but it is a plain example of a principle that obtains
throughout Scripture.
Conversely, the present must not be read into the past. For instance, the great Secret
(mystery A.V.) concerning the Body of Christ, dealt with in Ephesians and Colossians
(Eph. 3: 1-9; Col. 1: 24-27) which God hid in Himself from past ages (time) and
generations (people) must not be read into the past or in fact any time before this was
revealed to Paul as the chosen human channel (carefully note this in the last two Scripture
references). The time of its proclamation was from his Roman prison after the Acts
period. He alone claims to be the appointed minister by Christ in connection with this
favoured heavenly company of believers. If we do not distinguish the time periods of the
Bible we make the Word of God contradict itself, which is a serious thing in the sight of
God, and we turn it from truth to falsehood and rob ourselves of the glorious revelation it
contains.
We must also note that the future must not be read into the present. The future
prophetic period of wrath and judgment of God known as the Day of the Lord must not
be read into the present age of grace (Isaiah 2: 12; 13: 6-9; Zeph. 1: 14, 15; Joel 1: 15;
2: 11).
The example of the Lord Jesus in connection with Right Division.
We have a supreme example of the Lord Jesus applying this principle to the time
periods of Scripture in Luke 4: 14-21. He gave the public reading of the O.T. in the
Synagogue which was taken from Isa. 61: The reader should turn to this reference and
read it carefully and then compare it with what the Lord did. His reading was indeed
short. He stopped in the middle of verse 2, closed the book and sat down. No wonder
His listeners were surprised and gripped, not only at its brevity, but also for the fact that
He stopped reading after the phrase `to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord'. Had