(Acts 22:14).

As we trace the unfolding purpose in the New Testament we observe that

at each critical moment, a witness is raised up.  This witness will either

have extraordinary confirmation of his calling by the `signs and wonders' and

the `divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost' (Heb. 2:4), or if he is

like John the Baptist who did no miracle, the prophecies that went before and

at his birth (Luke 1:5 -20,57 -80) would be a sufficient attestation.

With most of these assertions we shall find general agreement among

believers, and as our chief interest is related to the special witness of

Paul, and as it is in connection with this witness that the greatest

difference of opinion is found, we will devote the remainder of our space to

that particular ministry.  Witnesses for Pentecost and its message are

abundant in the early Acts.  Even the number `twelve' had to be made up, for

had not the Lord spoken of `twelve thrones' that must be occupied by the

`twelve apostles'?  With the call and commission of Paul, a new witness

appears, and his advent indicates another dispensational change.  He is given

a number of titles, `a chosen vessel' is the earliest one recorded.  Paul was

to bear the name of the Lord before the Gentiles and kings and the children

of Israel, `Gentiles' occupying the first place even as they do in the

prophetic utterance of old Simeon (Luke 2:32).  The emphasis upon the

Gentiles in these passages cannot be disassociated from the withdrawal of

favour from Israel:

`It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to

you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of

everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles' (Acts 13:46).

From Acts 22:6 -15 we learn more fully the commission given to Paul

following his conversion on the road to Damascus:

`For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and

heard' (Acts 22:15);

and referring to this first ministry which ends with the shadow of prison, in

Acts 20, he summed it up as `testifying (or witnessing) both to the Jews, and

also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus

Christ' (Acts 20:21).  In his defence, the apostle more than once linked the

two sections of his ministry by the word `witness' or `testify':

`As thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness

also at Rome' (Acts 23:11).

In like manner, Paul's prison ministry, the ministry that unfolded the

new dispensation of the Mystery, the ministry that finds its exposition in

the Prison Epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon and 2

Timothy, this too is a `witness' or a `testimony'.

The first ministry comes to an end in Acts 20, and a new ministry is

envisaged.  Referring to the prophecies that spoke of `bonds and afflictions'

Paul said `but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear

unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry,

which I have received of the Lord Jesus, To Testify the gospel of the grace

of God' (Acts 20:24).  This implies something more than preaching the gospel

as an evangelist, it includes that, but it authorizes the emphasis which is

laid on `the grace of God', for in the Prison Epistles we read that `the