Two Mysteries of Ephesians 3

Guojing said:

Again, you are avoiding the question that I am asking.

If Paul really did what you claimed he did, to preach the same ONE gospel as Peter and the rest, then there would have been no need for the Jerusalem Council event in Acts 15.

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You aren't going on Acts 15 for support for teaching there are TWO gospels. The point you are trying... to argue is about the keeping of God's laws.

What you are doing is heeding MEN'S DOCTRINES instead of actually staying with Bible Scripture. So let's see just what Acts 15 does... say:

Acts 15:1-20
15 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved."
2 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

Certain Jews that came down among Paul and Barnabas to teach the brethren (likely many Gentiles among them), there was dissension because those Jews were wrongly teaching that one must be flesh circumcised to be saved by Christ. The KEY to knowing those Jews were preaching falseness in connection with The Gospel? The fact that Lord Jesus NEVER said one must be circumcised in the flesh to be saved. No brainer here so far.

3 And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.

The apostles and elders at Jerusalem were overjoyed... about Paul's preaching The Gospel, is what that above shows. Paul and Barnabas were thus received by them, but not by all the Jews there.

5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

There's that same problem Paul wrote about in Galatians about certain ones of the Jews, Pharisee converts, that were going around spying out the brethren's liberty in Christ.

They were trying to make law keeping a part of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, when it is NOT!

6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, "Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

Amazing, does that mean Apostle Peter preached the SAME Gospel to those Gentiles? Sure it does, for there is only one Gospel of Jesus Christ. Did Peter preach that those Gentiles needed to be flesh circumcised, and keep God's laws to be saved? NOPE!

8 And God, Which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us;
9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Not only did Peter preach the One Gospel to those Gentiles, but God gave them The Holy Spirit just as how the Apostles received by their Faith, according to Peter. Still no law keeping commandments with that.

10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

WOW! Peter preached being saved by GRACE ONLY right there, for both believing Jews and believing Gentiles. So HOW can any man create a division between them when Peter shows there is no division when it comes to Faith on Jesus Christ?

12 Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, "Men and brethren, hearken unto me:

14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.

15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,

16 'After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord, Who doeth all these things.'
18 Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.

19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:

20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
KJV

Only there, in that 20th verse is a commandment by James to the Gentiles of keeping those things in God's law, to not worship idols, abstain from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood. Why those specific things? Because the pagan Gentiles were well known for doing those things connected with pagan religious ritual. Even fornication with sexual orgies was used among the pagan Gentiles in their religious rituals. Blood drinking was another feature of old pagan religious worship. Not to eat what dies from being strangled because the blood stays in the animal. So doing those things represent pollutions, spiritually and physically.

Thus per the Acts 15:22-29 verses, the Jewish Apostles and elders in Jerusalem wrote letters for the Gentiles, delivered by Paul, Barnabas, and some of their own disciples from Jerusalem, saying that as they had heard, "CERTAIN (MEN) THAT WENT OUT FROM US HAVE TROUBLED YOU WITH WORDS, SUBVERTING YOUR SOULS, SAYING, YE MUST BE CIRCUMCISED, AND KEEP THE LAW: TO WHOM WE GAVE NO SUCH COMMANDMENT:"

It's apparent you and those who follow men's false Dual Gospel theory need to let that in bold sink in, because even the head Apostles and elders in Christ at Jerusalem were AGAINST what those certain Jews (Judaizers) had told to the Gentiles! That completely... exonerates the Jewish Church at Jerusalem of any wrong doing.

readywriter said:

Hello @Davy,

Your statements concerning dispensationalism are not true in my experience. Though my experience is limited to the teaching of Mr Charles Welch, Mr Stuart Allen, and Dr E.W. Bullinger. All three having been labelled as Hyper-dispensationalists by their critics. Yet all three stress the necessity to bring all that they say to the written word for confirmation that what they say is true, and the means of doing that is available to all.

Thank you
In Christ Jesus
Chris

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Well, I suggest you go back to John Darby's teaching about Dispensationalism. That's where those you mention got their ideas from.

One of the main errors of those teachings is the false Pre-trib Rapture theory that John Darby taught. That is the anchor doctrine Darby's Dispensationalist theories were based on, and the same with those other fellows too.

I do not believe in a Pre-tribulational Rapture theory. I see it nowhere written in God's Word, and I've already heard all the supposed Scriptures used to 'try' and support the theory. In Ezekiel 13, God speaking to the ten scattered tribes of Israel, shows He is specifically against that doctrine, and those men that teach His people to fly to save their souls.

readywriter said:

The latter, was revealed to Paul as the prisoner of Christ, following the rejection of Christ by the Jews in the land, and in the dispersion, and their final departure into unbelief marked by the quotation of Isaiah 6:9-10 in Acts 28, and made known in the latter epistles of Paul, of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. This mystery concerns the Church which is the Body of Christ, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1). Which is a joint body, of believing Jew and Gentile, a unity and an equality, in Christ Jesus, brought nigh unto God in Him. In which the nation of Israel plays no part.

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This is my understanding as well and it deals with who the elect are. In the OT, it's only "Israel mine elect". In the NT, the gentiles are chosen (elect) "in Christ". It's the Book of Ruth playing out - Naomi (the jewess) gets her original inheritance (which she lost) redeemed for her, and Ruth (the gentile) gains an inheritance she never had through marriage. The gentiles were never elect, they were "chosen in him", in Christ The Elect, and this was the mystery revealed to Paul