Page 36 - SoulWinning Crash Course

Most people believe you have to work your way to heaven, but well-trained
cult members, upon hearing verses like Ephesians 2:8-9, will immediately
direct your attention to JAMES 2, in which verses 14-26 are plainly
contradictory to all the verses above, at least in one sense. The most glaring

verse is James 2:24 "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified,
and not by faith only."

There are two ways to explain James 2, one with and one without
1
dispensational considerations.

[Footnote 1: "Dispensationalism" is a theological term referring to what
Paul called "rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15) A

"dispensation" is something dispensed. In this case, "dispensations" are
different systems God dispenses to different people at different times in
history. The major dispensations are Pre-Law Grace, the Mosaic Law, the
Church Age, the Great Tribulation, and the Millennial Reign of Christ.
Many heresies result from ignoring these divisions. A moderate
dispensationalism asserts that "salvation" (of the soul), with all that it entails
today, is unique to the Church Age (between the crucifixion and the Pre-

Tribulation rapture).]

DISPENSATIONAL EXPLANATION OF JAMES 2

If we are "rightly dividing the word of truth"
(2 Timothy 2:15), we see who the Epistle of James is aimed at.

James 1:1 "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the

twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting."

If the book of James applied to us doctrinally, it would not be addressed to
the 12 tribes of Israel, because in the Church Age, whether you're a Jew or a
Gentile is irrelevant.

Galatians 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor

free, there is neither
male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."