The revelation given in the Scriptures comes to us in three forms:

1. Foundational Truth
2. Administrational Truth
3. Practical Truth

Foundational Truth:

What do we mean by Foundational or Doctrinal Truth?

Foundational Truth embraces all that has been revealed concerning the Being and Attributes of God, and all that God has done, commanded, promised, or foretold in Creation, Law, and Grace.  ‘All have sinned’ is true under whatever dispensation we may be called. ‘God is Just’ is as true under grace as it was under the law. ‘To the Jew first’ was true during the period covered by the Acts, but cannot be put into practice since the dismissal of the Jews in Acts 28. This latter statement, therefore, comes rather under the next heading.

Administrational or Dispensational Truth:

What do we mean by Administrational or Dispensational Truth?

Administrational Truth takes note of the purpose of the ages, the changes that have been introduced since Creation, such as may be denominated the Dispensation of Innocence, Law, Kingdom, Grace, Church, Mystery, etc., and the office of Administrational Truth is to decide whether any particular doctrine - be it command, promise, calling, or prophecy - does or does not pertain to any particular individual.

Administrational Truth would lead the believer to distinguish between the blessing which says, ‘The meek shall inherit the earth’, and … those blessings which are described as ‘all spiritual’ and to be enjoyed ‘in the heavenly places.’

Practical Truth:

What do we mean by Practical Truth?

Not until Foundational or Doctrinal Truth has passed the mesh of Administrational or Dispensational Truth, can Practical Truth put in its claim. It is obvious that the people of Israel, called to be a royal priesthood and a holy nation, with its sphere of influence in the earth, could not be called upon to put into practice the injunctions of Ephesians 4 to 6. In like manner, the Church of the “One Body” has no guarantee that obedience to the special truth of that calling will result in blessing in ‘basket and in store’. Those who are under the law must have a very different form of practice from those who are under grace.

Only by loyally preaching and teaching The Truth of God as related to these three aspects can we hope to become workmen who need not to be ashamed, for only by so doing shall we ‘rightly divide’ the Word of Truth.

To all who discern the ‘things that differ’ (Phil. 1:10 marg.) and who seek to obey the injunction to ‘rightly divide’ ‘the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), we very warmly commend the analysis of words, terms and Scripture references, that are employed in making known the Administrational or Dispensational Truth, believing that it will prove a tool in the hands of the ‘unashamed workman’ and that it will be of great service to both teacher and student alike.

- Drawn and slightly adapted from a post at https://believer.com/right-division/the-threefold-division-of-all-truth -