From the Peanut Gallery - "You're not Rightly Dividing. You're Compartmental Partitioning!"

I get a lot of feedback from people about my online efforts. In fact, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the level of correspondence and inquiry that I encounter on a daily basis from the Internet. Those interactions often raise issues that I believe are likely raised in the minds of many who read and participate in theological discussions. As a result I've decided to begin sharing some excerpts from these interactions. In so doing I hope to provide more clarity on some of the nuances, objections, and accusations that come my way.

I recently encountered the following accusation from the peanut gallery:

Exercises in Right Division (Ezekiel 3:20)

Statement One:  Ezekiel 3:20 says, "Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered."  This verse is commonly interpreted to mean that an eternally saved man to lose his salvation through sinning.

Statement Two: The Lord Jesus Christ taught, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (John 10:27-28) Here the Lord is teaching that he gives a gift to a people he refers to as his "sheep" and that this gift is something called "eternal life" which involves a promise that they "shall never perish."  This statement is often used to support the notion that it is impossible for someone who once possessed eternal salvation to ever fall from grace.

Exercises in Right Division (Ezekiel 18:23)

STATEMENT ONE: “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23) This passage is often proffered in support of the notion that God desires the salvation of all of humanity and that the gospel is a well-meant offer of salvation to all of humanity.

STATEMENT TWO:  "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." (Psalm 115:3) This passage teaches that the Lord God does as he pleases with the world he created.

Right Division: A Key Concept in Understanding the Scriptures

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, 

rightly dividing the word of truth." (II Tim 2:15)

One of the fundamentals of the Christian faith is that the word of God must be rightly divided to be properly understood. This means understanding each passage so that it reconciles with the immediate context (line upon line) as well as the over-all biblical context (precept upon precept). Only when the meaning of a passage is reconciled to both considerations is it rightly divided. 

Apart from a right division, the bible's statements regarding the various facets of a number of biblical topics would be flatly contradictory. Right division resolves the "contradictions" that arise out of plain meaningism and establishes God's people in the bedrock truths of the Christian faith.