smvoice, I have a sincere question: I have never heard of dividing up the Bible in the way you have stated above (OT + some sections of NT, versus other sections of NT). Can you please refer me to where this teaching originates? Is there a pastor, or movement, or denomination, which promotes this teaching? It's completely new to me.
Thanks in advance.
"Wherefore remember that ye being in TIME PAST Gentiles in the flesh...That at THAT TIME ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having NO HOPE and WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD;" Eph. 2:11-13.
"BUT NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are MADE NIGH BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST." Eph. 2:13.
So far, we know that there is a "Time Past" and a "But Now" that Paul is speaking of.
"That in the AGES TO COME he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:7.
So now we know there are at LEAST THREE divisions of time here. "Time Past", "But Now", and "The Ages to Come".
The point is to figure out when "But Now" began. When were Gentiles without Christ and strangers from the covenants of promise? That would be "Time Past". The answer is found in Matt. 10:5: "Go NOT into the way of the Gentiles." And again Christ emphasizes that He was sent to Israel in Matt. 15:24: "But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Christ's earthly ministry was fulfillment of prophecy to a nation (Israel), as their Messiah. It was prophecy concerning a kingdom of believers. But there was another reason for His coming. A mystery hid in God since the foundation of the world (Rom. 16:25,26). It was a mystery UNTIL revealed to the Apostle Paul and concerned the formation of a body of believers. The formation of that Body of Believers is found in Romans through Philemon.
As far as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John being part of OT prophecy, Hebrews 9:16,17 answer that. "For where a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force AFTER men are dead; other wise it is of no strength at all WHILE THE TESTATOR LIVETH".
Which means that Christ's earthly ministry, up until His death on the cross, was part of the Old Testament prophecy concerning Him.
Christ came the first time to fulfill prophecy and had Israel accepted Him as their Messiah, He would have set up His kingdom and Israel would have been a nation of priests and a blessings to all nations. Fulfilling the covenant God made with Abraham. But they, as a nation, rejected Him. Gentiles would have been blessed through the RISE of Israel. When they rejected Him, they were blinded and set aside temporarily. Which left Gentiles WHERE? With no hope.
Until Christ reached down, and saved Saul of Tarsus and gave to him the revelations of the church the body of Christ, where there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. He is forming a BODY of BELIEVERS right now, NOT a Kingdom of believers. We are the "But Now" of Ephesians. The ONE NEW MAN. Saved purely by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ.
This is just the shortest overview I could show you. If you have more questions, I would be pleased to answer them. God Bless!
>>> Can you please refer me to where this teaching originates?
Begins with John Nelson Darby in the mid 19th Century, and for some teachings, new variations up to the mid-20th Century. Look up Dispensationalism, Darby, Brethren Movement, hyperdispensationalists, Grace Movement. One overview, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperdispensationalism
They teach that Paul taught a different gospel and soteriology than Christ taught in the NT...