God Himself tells us, in II Timothy 3:16-17, that "Every Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for ... instruction in uprightness: That the man of God may be mature, completely equipped for all good works." Believing this, we immediately recognize that the entire Bible is for us. Equally important is recognizing that NOT all of the Bible is TO us or ABOUT us. In Scripture, God addresses messages to many individuals and groups. He speaks to Man in his unfallen state and in his fallen state. He speaks to Satan, to Angels - fallen and unfallen, to the animal creation, and to inanimate objects. He speaks to His saints before delivering the Gentile world over to its own reprobate worldview and then He speaks to His favored nation, Israel. Even when He speaks to Israel He has messages for the nation as a whole - the messages differ from time to time as Israel's attitude and circumstances change - and different messages for the rebel and for the faithful saint within the nation.

Hopefully none of us would take a message addressed to Satan and apply it to Christ or vice versa. It would be obvious error to apply to Millennial saints a message addressed to fallen angels, or to apply responsibilities to children that God has reserved for parents, or to expect slaves to obey directions that the Bible intends for masters, and so on.

While most of us can readily see the self-evident truths of this reasoning, the Church historically has consistently failed to distinguish between its message and messages addressed to other groups of saints and sinners by God in His Word. For instance, the promises and warnings that God gave Israel are appropriated indiscriminately by the Body of Christ.

A safeguard against this widespread and destructive error and a key to understanding Scripture is recognizing the uniqueness of Paul's Apostleship and the distinctive character of his message. If Paul is one of the Twelve, then confusion MUST reign. Separate Paul from the Twelve as the Bible does, and maintain the Scriptural distinction between their message and program and his message and program. *