Acts 28:29-31

29 Verse 29 is not in the three manuscripts on which this version is based.

31 This proclamation of the kingdom would include its present abeyance and future manifestation. "That which concerns our Lord Jesus Christ" is purposely vague, and is the only hint in the whole book of the greatest of all Paul's ministries, those mysteries or secrets which could not be revealed until the kingdom had been finally rejected. Paul's prison epistles were written during this period.

PAUL'S EPISTLES

Paul's Epistles are for the present. All the rest of Scripture finds its interpretation and application either before or after the present secret administration. Paul alone gives the truth for the ecclesia which is the body of Christ. This is found nowhere outside of his writings.

Israel and the nations occupy all other parts of divine revelation. What is true of them in other eras and eons must not be mixed with the present truth or it will lead to confusion and error.

All Scripture is profitable, as a revelation of God's ways, but it must not be applied outside its proper place.

The main subject of the Greek Scriptures is the kingdom of Israel. It is refused in the four accounts of our Lord's ministry, it is again rejected In the treatise called Acts, It is reaffirmed in Hebrews, James, Peter, John, and Jude, and it is realized in the Unveiling. In Paul's epistles it is in abeyance.

It is God's purpose to bless the nations through Israel. But when Israel, the channel of blessing, fails, this becomes impossible. In Paul's epistles the nations are blessed during

Israel's defection. The sphere of blessing is changed from earth to heaven. Repentance and pardon are replaced by justification and reconciliation. Grace replaces mercy.

The scope of Paul's epistles, both in time and In space, far transcends all the rest of revelation. He is not confined to the earth, but includes the whole universe in God's grand climax of reconciliation (Col_1:20). He is not confined to the eons, or ages, but reveals a purpose formed before they began, and not concluded until after their consummation. His range reaches from a time long anterior to the first of Genesis to a period long past the final vision of the Unveiling.

Paul's writings naturally fall into two divisions, his epistles to the ecclesias, and his personal letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon. Paul wrote nine epistles to seven ecclesias.

They arrange themselves into three groups. The epistles in each group are very closely related,

the first epistle in each, Romans, Ephesians and 1 Thessalonians, setting forth the truth didactically, while the other epistles of the same group are explanatory and corrective. The best commentaries on Romans are Corinthians and Galatians; on Ephesians, Philippians and

Colossians; and Second Thessalonians supplements the first epistle.

The Thessalonian group we have called the Promise Epistles, because they deal with the expectation of our Lord's return. The Romans group we have named the Preparatory Epistles because they deal with the transitional era which prepared the saints for the final revelation found in the Ephesian group, which we therefore style the Perfection Epistles.

Each group is characterized by one of the abiding trinity of graces, faith, expectation and love (1Co_13:13). The following outline will serve to show the groups and the relation each epistle sustains to the others in its group.

PAUL'S EPISTLES

THE PREPARATORY EPISTLES

FAITH

ROMANS Justification

Conciliation

Deportment

I CORINTHIANS Deportment

II CORINTHIANS Conciliation

GALATIANS Justification

THE PERFECTION EPISTLES

LOVE

EPHESIANS Doctrine

Deportment

PHILIPPIANS Deportment

COLOSSIANS Doctrine

THE PROMISSORY EPISTLES

EXPECTATION

I THESSALONIANS

II THESSALONIANS

THE PERSONAL LETTERS

I TIMOTHY

II TIMOTHY

TITUS

PHILEMON