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Preacher
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Apostle
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of the Gentiles.
Teacher
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The time had come when `all men' not Jews and proselytes only were to be manifestly
the objects of Divine love. The ministry was entrusted to the Apostle Paul, the only one
designated `the Apostle of the Gentiles'. This testimony had its `own peculiar season' for
making its blessed theme known.
The translation `in due times' entirely hides the peculiar character of these times from
the reader.
Idios means anything peculiarly one's own. Thus an idiograph means a trade mark,
which must of necessity be `peculiarly one's own'. An idiom is a note of expression
peculiar to a language. An idiosyncrasy, is a peculiarity of temperament or constitution,
something peculiar to and distinguishing an individual. Even the words idiot and
peculiar when taken to mean one who is of weak intellect, are so used because such
persons are `on their own', and different from the normal.
The word `peculiar' in like manner is derived from the Latin peculium `private
property'.
We have it therefore on the highest of all authority, that (1) Dispensational changes
are not left to the process of deduction, they are the subjects of witness and testimony.
(2) The present dispensation is differentiated from all that goes before it, by the fact that
it has its own peculiar apostle, Paul, who ministered in his own peculiar condition `the
prisoner of Jesus Christ', to his own peculiar company `the Gentiles', relative to a
peculiar period `before age times' regarding a calling that had its own peculiar seasons,
which season is drawing near to its close, as a comparison of the signs of the times with
II Tim. 3: and 4: will make clear.