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While we are dealing with the question of Paul's defence, let us turn back to the
preceding chapter and read his statement before Festus:
"Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Cęsar,
have I offended anything at all" (Acts 25: 8).
Before Felix, in the previous chapter, the Apostle had said:
"This I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets; and
have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a
resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust" (Acts 24: 14, 15).
On the surface it appears that the Apostle intended to convey quite literally that up to
the time of his imprisonment in Cęsarea his ministry had been but the legitimate
expansion of Old Testament prophecy, whether with reference to the gospel, the hope, the
outpouring of spiritual gifts, or the inclusion of the Gentiles. None of these things has
any reference to the Mystery as made known for the first time in the epistles to the
Ephesians and Colossians.
If in all Paul's ministry up to the date of Acts 26: he had said "none other things
than those that the prophets and Moses did say should come", then it is both vain and
unbelieving to look for the Mystery in these early epistles. If upon examination it should
be found that the early epistles do contain truth which neither the prophets nor Moses did
say should come, then there will have to be a drastic readjustment of our teaching. At the
moment, however, our position is that the Mystery is not found in these early epistles,
and that they belong to a different dispensation. Salvation by the blood of Christ, and
justification by faith, are taught in both sets of epistles, but this does not touch the subject
of the Mystery. Until a man is saved, no dispensational position is possible for him,
either in the earthly kingdom, the heavenly city, or "far above all".
So far as the Acts of the Apostles is concerned, our examination enables us to affirm
that there at least the Apostle is found saying "none other things than those which the
prophets and Moses did say should come".