the Acts, but a new creation (Eph. 2:13-16 and note that `make' in verse 15 should be translated `create') and this

new creation is called one new man. Nowhere in his Acts epistles does Paul use the word mystery or secret,

concerning the calling and constitution of the Pentecostal church, nor does he reveal the unique Headship of Christ

to His Body which is vital to its relationship with Him and is so stressed in Ephesians and Colossians.

This he would have been compelled to do in the early epistles if it had formed a part of his commission during

the Acts, otherwise the claim to have kept back nothing and revealed everything concerning the church would have

been empty and untrue. If we will only keep to what is written, it would be much safer. The apostle Paul in Romans

11 describes that church as the faithful Jewish remnant - the `remnant according to the election of grace' (verse 5), to

which had been added believing Gentiles. When the apostle Peter quoted Joel 2:28-32 it was in a context of

restoration for Israel and the last verse reads:

`And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount

Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call'

(Joel 2:32).

Now the faithful Jewish remnant is indissolubly linked with the Messianic kingdom and the return of Christ to set it

up and this is therefore in complete accord with the trend of God's purpose throughout the Acts.

We come to Paul's speech before king Agrippa recorded in Acts 26. In this speech Paul gives a clear testimony

as to the contents of his ministry up to that time. He says:

`And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise

our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come' (verses 6 and 7).

There are several important points here. His hope, he declared, was linked with the promise God had made with the

patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There can be no doubt to what this refers. Earlier in this study we have

shown that God made unconditional promises to them concerning an eternal posterity (a seed) and a large portion of

land as their home in the Middle East of which Palestine is only a portion. For this, he says the twelve tribes were

waiting. Note, it is twelve tribes not ten as some would have us believe. Again we are reminded of the fact that

Israel had not been cast off by God even as late in the Acts as this. In Romans, the last epistle he wrote in this

period, he states `God hath not cast away His people (Israel) which He foreknew (Rom. 11:1,2). One would have

thought this would have settled the matter for all who believe and frame their doctrine solely on the Word of God.

But no, Israel was cast off at the crucifixion we are told or at the death of Stephen, or at Acts 13, anywhere but

where inspired Scripture places it and that is at Acts 28. Not only this, but in verses 22 and 23 of Acts 26 he says:

`Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none

other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer, and that He

should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles'.

This statement is valuable because it shows us that the Apostle was keeping his witness within the bounds of the Old

Testament. This being so, he could not have been revealing the mystery, the great Secret concerning the Body of

Christ, for the simple reason that it was not revealed in the Old Testament, but at this time was `hid in God' (Eph.

When we reach the 28th chapter, we come to the second great crisis point for Israel. The first had been when

Christ presented Himself publicly as Israel's Messiah and King (Matt. 21). This later one occurred at the time when

it could be said with truth that the Dispersion (Israelites living outside the land of Palestine) had heard the gospel

and the great re-offering of the kingdom equally with those Jews living in the land. And now they had to decide one

way or the other whether they would repent and turn back to the Lord, but their attitude all along made it only too

clear which way it was going to be.

Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal to Caesar, so that in the providential governance of God, he

arrives at Rome as a prisoner. He tells us in his Roman epistle that he had often planned to visit Rome and meet the

believers there, but had been prevented (Rom. 1:13). He hardly imagined that his visit when it occurred would be as

a prisoner, not as a free man, although he knew and recognized the fact that he was the `prisoner of Christ Jesus'

(Eph. 3:1). He certainly did not regard himself merely as a prisoner of Nero. Before he reached Rome, he had been

shipwrecked on Melita (Malta) and there exercised his divine gift of healing, evidently several times, for he not only