"woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" (I Cor. 9: 16). This is the good news of

God to the sinner, and (2) the making known of the great secret we are now considering.

This is God's good news to the saved. In the mercy of God, we still hear (1), but what

about (2)? In the evangelical world we are glad to say there are still those who faithfully

preach the gospel of God's grace. But where in the same evangelical world do we ever

hear the proclamation of this secret with all its wonders which eclipse all other truth? We

have before pointed out the fact that it is God's will and His wish that this should be done

(Col. 1: 25-27) so there is no holding back on His part. The more one considers this, the

more astounding and tragic it becomes, and one seeks to discover the reason or reasons

for such a situation. There are undoubtedly a number of them, of which we can state:

The almost total lack of knowledge among leading preachers and teachers, due

to blinded eyes and the ecclesiastical set-up of modern Christendom into which

the Mystery and its out-working could not possibly fit.

The immature condition of most believers which, like the church at Corinth,

limits truth to the ABC, the milk of the Word (I Cor. 3: 1, 2) and makes further

revelation impossible.

The confusion between the Hebrew church, formed on the Day of Pentecost

which was a fulfilling of O.T. prophecy (Acts 2: 16-21) and was therefore not a

secret and the New Man, the Joint-Body of Ephesians which was a secret, which

we are now considering.

The fear of man that bringeth a snare. We are convinced that some Christian

Leaders who do know the truth of this great Secret, keep quiet because they are

afraid of offending their congregations and other leading teachers.  Their

standing in evangelical circles must be kept at all costs and they realize that if

they gave a full and faithful witness to this truth, they would be dubbed as being

in error and then dropped from well-known platform. Their reputation would be

gone. This is too big a price to pay and so they kept silent.

This is tragic enough from the human standpoint, but what about the future judgment

seat of Christ, when all actions will be made known and assess by the righteous Judge,

and the possibility of disapproval by Him? (I Cor. 9: 27). Such a condition of things

makes the unfettered witness of this little magazine and that of its individual supporters

all the more necessary, and by God's grace we seek, as Paul did, to declare all the

counsel of God, to keep back nothing (Acts 20: 20, 27), and to deviate neither to the right

hand or to the left.

The Apostle, in Eph. 3: 10 R.V., give us another reason for his desire to "enlighten

all", He states "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly

places, might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God". In other

words, there are heavenly scholars as well as earthly ones. How vastly important this

part of God's great plan must be when we realize that the very aristocracy of heaven is

learning by the out-calling and building up of this company of the redeemed! They are

watching and noting every detail of this masterpiece of God's manifold wisdom. Paul

uses a rare word in "manifold".  It literally means "many-coloured" or diversified.

Nothing less than this could have conceived such a Creation, and all of it is "according to