MYSTERY OR MYTH

The word translated `fable' in 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and 2 Peter is the Greek muthos, another derivative of

muo. At the end of his ministry, the apostle Paul warns of perilous times, and among other things says:

`All they which are in Asia be turned away from ME'.

`They shall turn away their ears from the TRUTH, and shall be turned unto MYTHS' (2 Tim. 1:15; 4:4).

We can see this sad turning away from Paul and his teaching today, and the ever-increasing substitution of the

`myth' with all its blight and deception, for the `mystery' with all its glory and grace.

The first occurrence of musterion `secret' or `mystery' is in the book of the prophet Daniel, and there is

significance in that simple fact. Daniel may be likened to the apostle Paul. Both were `prisoners of the Lord', both

had a special message for the `Gentiles', both exercised their ministry consequent upon the failure of Israel. The

relationship of Daniel, Israel, Gentile and Mystery may be seen in the following sequence:

Kingdom of Israel

Times of Gentiles

Matthew 13

The mysteries of the

Isaiah 6:9,10.

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Kingdom and hope of Israel Mystery `For you

Acts 28

Gentiles'.

So far as Israel is concerned it can be written:

`When HISTORY ceases, MYSTERY begins'.

It can be demonstrated from the Old Testament records, that on more than one occasion the prophetic clock

stopped, and while mundane time goes on, time as related to Israel is limited to their being reckoned as ammi `My

people'; it ceases to be reckoned by God, when Israel becomes Lo-ammi `not My people', and during the waiting

period spoken of in Hosea 3, the parenthesis of the present dispensation of the Mystery was introduced by God at

Acts 28. No prophecies, other than those found in Paul's epistles, especially those dealing with `the last days' in

1 and 2 Timothy, will be fulfilled during the dispensation of the Mystery. Israel are the people of prophecy and

when they emerge from their long exile and look upon Him Whom they have pierced, the present dispensation will

have come to a close.

ISRAEL AND THE MYSTERY

When we consider all that God has said concerning the place that Israel occupies in the outworking of His

purposes, when we remember that the Lord Himself acknowledged that `Salvation is of the Jews' (John 4.22) any

failure on their part to live up to their high destiny, must inevitably bring about catastrophic consequences, and

whether we believe that at Acts 28, that great dispensational rupture occurred or not, the events that happened both

to Israel and Jerusalem in A.D. 70 make a change of the attitude of God to the Gentile imperative if salvation is not

to die out of the earth. What God would do, should Israel fail, no one could tell, for such an event is neither

foreshadowed nor discussed. No one living before Acts 28 became history, except possibly Paul himself, knew that

before the foundation of the world, God had foreseen and provided against such a condition, and until this new truth

was revealed to Paul as the Prisoner of Jesus Christ for us Gentiles, it necessarily remained a `mystery' in the fullest

sense of the term. That aliens and strangers, Christless, Godless, hopeless Gentiles could ever be the objects of such

superlative grace, that of such it could be written:

`And hath raised us up together, and made us SIT TOGETHER in heavenly places in Christ Jesus',

never entered the mind of man, and even today is received by comparatively few.

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See the booklet The Dispensational Frontier.