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appearing to him of the Lord had taken place, according to the promise originally made,
and "NOW", that is at the time of his defence, he was being "sent unto the Gentiles", the
Roman powers undertaking his transport as a prisoner.
The apostle's prison ministry is called "the testimony (or witness) of our Lord" and of
Paul "His prisoner" (II Tim. 1: 8). The special teaching which Timothy was enjoined to
commit to faithful men, was a teaching which he had heard of Paul "among many
WITNESSES" (II Tim. 2: 2). So, in his first epistle to Timothy, Paul speaks of the great
message concerning "One God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all", he adds (our translation):
"THE TESTIMONY IN ITS OWN PECULIAR SEASONS" (I Tim. 2: 5, 6).
Then immediately following this most discriminating claim, he adds:
"Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ, and
lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity" (I Tim. 2: 7).
The words translated "in due time" in I Tim. 2: 6, which we have rendered "in its
own peculiar seasons", are the Greek words idios and kairos in the plural dative. Idios
means something peculiarly one's "own", and is so translated in I Tim. 3: 4, 5, 12. A
similar phrase, similarly translated in the Authorized Version is found in Titus 1: 2, 3:
"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before age-times (pro
chronon aionion); but hath in due times (kairois idiois) manifested His word through
preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our
Saviour."
Here we find it is a "God that cannot lie" which strikes the same note as the interjected
words of I Tim. 2: 7 "I speak the truth in Christ I lie not", and suggests that this peculiar
dispensational claim here "attested" would be strongly "contested", a fact that most of
those associated with The Berean Expositor will endorse. Here also we have a message
"committed" to Paul in harmony with a "commandment of God", which is but another
way of saying "whereunto I am ordained" (I Tim. 2: 7).
The revelation of the mystery and the dispensation of the grace of God, especially
committed to Paul the Prisoner with its accompanying Gospel of the grace of God (?),
and its teaching concerning the one Mediator Who gave Himself a ransom for all, as
distinct from the more limited reference in Matt. 20: 28, which was "for many", this
new ministry was a testimony or a witness that had its own peculiar season for its
manifestation and announcement. Therefore every fresh unfolding of the dispensations
has been accompanied at its inception, with a specially equipped and commissioned
witness. Dispensational truth, like all other aspects of truth, can be supported, illustrated
and enforced, by comparison, by study and by every other legitimate means, but it is an
occasion for thanksgiving to have seen, that its discovery does not depend upon the WIT
of man, but stands solidly and unassailably upon the WITNESS of God. From the days
of John the Baptist until the end of time, each and every dispensational change could be
heralded with the words employed by Paul "A testimony in its own peculiar season".
Dispensational Truth is "Attested Truth".