Paul’s Post-Acts “great [Grk. megas] mystery” (Eph. 5:32) was God’s plan for the celestial, spiritual, “church, which is His Body” to reign in the heavenly places (2Tim. 2:12). His purpose in this celestial “body of Christ” is to complete His eternal plan for recovering both “the heaven and the earth” that presently is reigned over by “the God of this world [Grk. aion, age]” (2 Cor. 4:4), “Lucifer.”

Though God conceived and planned to have His “chosen” members before the present world began, it was “kept secret SINCE the world began,” “hid in God” until the time of its revelation to Paul for us today.

“This is a great mystery [Grk. musterion, secret]: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Eph. 5:32

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath [already] blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” ⁴According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” Eph. 1:3-4

Yet this present age of the “dispensation of the mystery” is still a mystery to most believers today. How can this be? Could it be that the traditional teachings of man’s religious organizations of Christendom are erroneously based on the wrong gospel?

This “Great Mystery” is not something mysterious, It is simply is something outside the range of unassisted natural comprehension; it can be made known only by ‘divine revelation.’ It is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and only by His Holy Spirit. God’s hidden truth in the Bible is not revealed to just anyone. (Mark 4:9-12, 1 Cor 2:9-11, 13-15)

There are at least two differing gospels in the N.T.

• Jesus’ “gospel of the kingdom” that He and the Twelve Apostles preached to Israel during the Acts period is that which Peter says was of the message “preached by all the [Old Testament] holy prophets [of Israel] since the world began” (cf. Acts 3:21). 
• But just think about it, something preached so widely as Jesus’ “gospel of the kingdom” in accord with the O.T Prophets of Israel cannot be of the same as Paul’s “my gospel” (secret gospel),” that “had been kept secret since the world began.” 

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my [Paul’s] gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of THE MYSTERY, which was kept secret since the world began,” Rom. 16:25

Paul here above in Rom. 16:25 refers to the formerly secreted gospel message that Paul explains is for today’s age of “the dispensation of the grace of God” Ephesians 3:2. The word “mystery” in Paul’s epistles comes from the Greek form ‘musterion’ which is from the root ‘muo’ which means “shut the mouth.” He precedes the word ‘mystery’ with the Greek ‘megas,’ meaning this mystery [secret] is hugely significant. In the Bible it was used by God to withhold His eternal plan from … Satan, intending to reveal the truth when it serves God’s purpose to … those He ‘chose before the foundation of the world [Grk. kosmos, the heaven and earth]’ (cf. Eph. 1:4).

A revealed “mystery [secret]” is no longer a mystery to those whom it has been revealed. Being revealed of God it then becomes a ‘truth.’ It is only a mystery to whom it has not been revealed. To them the truth is still hidden, as it is today among most token Christians.

Satan’s works to ‘veil’ God’s truth using religion and its tradition, which most effectively hides the truth of the mystery. The teaching of religious tradition sounds somewhat similar to what God might say but it is misleading, as it is mainly based upon the wrong gospel. Most often religious tradition is related to Jesus’ “gospel of the Kingdom” and its hope of the Nation Israel. Even Paul preached “the hope of Israel” right up to the end of Acts 29:20, just 8 verses before the fall of Israel and its hope of the kingdom was put in abeyance, set aside during today Post-Acts dispensation age. The religious tradition of teaching the gospel of “thy kingdom come on earth” as promised to Israel is the binding agent to Satan’s misplaced truth that today is a lie. These half-truth lies create all the confusion, contradiction and divisions in man’s religious Christian churches. It is no wonder the churches are powerless, as they are preaching as gospel of time past and of another age.

The “mystery” of today concerns the celestial, heavenly, spiritual Gentile “the body of Christ.” It consists God’s chosen of the called-out souls who fill His “One body” in “the heavenly places” … to fill the vacancy of the cast down Luciferian host.

The details of this celestial spiritual body are found only in Paul’s Post-Acts prison epistles: primarily as seen in Ephesians 1:1-23 and Colossians 1:21-29, 2:11-15, 3:1-4. This company is of a “heavenly” calling with a “heavenly” hope.

Thus, it is totally apart from Israel’s Earthly Kingdom Hope and Gospel. It is apart from Israel’s calling and hope of a restored kingdom on earth that is seen in Paul’s inter-Acts writings before Acts 28:26-28.

The ‘dispensation of the mystery’ is found nowhere in the Old Testament, the 4 Gospels, the epistles of James, Jude, John, or Peter, nor Paul’s Acts period epistles, or John’s book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ!

During this present ~2,000-year age Israel is set aside, as Lo-Ammi (“not my people” Hos 1:9), while the “salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and that they will hear [heed] it” (Acts 28:26-28).

This is not a matter of Salvation and Eternal Life; it is a matter of the culmination of the ages that fulfill God’s eternal plan and purpose in Christ Jesus. It is clear John’s Gospel per Jn. 3:16 promises Christs “everlasting life” to “whosoever believeth.” Such believers will be on the new earth. This does not mean that all such saved believers have been “chosen” unto the calling of “the heavenly places” according to Paul’s “revelation of the mystery,” which is of a totally separate calling and hope from anything to do with Israel with her calling and hope.

During today’s dispensational age, God is calling out his “chosen” to form “His body” (ekklesia), revealing the “great mystery” to those whom he already “chose” to reveal it by the Holy Spirit, as seen in the “word of truth” “rightly divided.”

The ‘ekklesia’ [i.e., Church] of “the mystery” is His gathered body, a celestial, heaven-bound spiritual “body” (Eph 2:22). Today it is invisible to the world, but well seen in the revealed “word of truth.” The truth of God sets men free (John 8:32, 36; free as the wind, free from bondage to man’s ‘tradition’ and ‘religion.’

This called out company of believers are of God’s choosing (Eph 1:4), not at all of our merit. We must be given ‘the spirit of wisdom and revelation to acknowledge Him and whose eyes of understanding are enlightened to know what is the hope of His calling’ as Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:17-18). This “mystery (secret)” was totally hidden but it is now unveiled by God for us to see and understand. For this we are thankful always that…:

• He has blessed us with every blessing that is spiritual (Eph 1:3)
• He has chosen us in Him before the overthrow of the world (Eph 1:4)
• That we should be holy and without blame before Him (Eph 1:4)
• He predestinated us unto the adoption as sons (Eph 1:5)
• He made us accepted in the beloved (Eph 1:6)
• He redeemed us through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7)
• He abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence (Eph 1:8)
• He made known to us the mystery of His will (Eph 1:9)
• He obtained us as an inheritance (Eph 1:11)
• He sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph 1:13)
• He quickened us together with Christ (Eph 2:5)
• He raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus where Christ sits on the right hand of God (Eph 2:6, Col 3:1)
• We died and our life is hid with Christ in God (Col 3:3)
• When Christ who is our life shall appear (epiphaneia), then shall we also appear with Him in glory (Col 3:4)
  1. Those of the Post-Acts called-out of “the church, which is His body,” are looking for Christ’s “appearing” (Grk., epiphaneia, Col 3:4) and for their “out resurrection,” out from among the dead. (Phil. 3:11) to dwell eternal “in the HEAVENLY PLACES.”

Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

1. 2. By contrast, the inter-Acts Judeo-Christian church was looking for Christ’s return and presence (Gr. parousia, 1Thes. 4:17) in a so-called “rapture” unto the Millennial kingdom of Israel ON EARTH.

These above are two are separate, different, events; for the two blood-bought believing peoples of God.

God’s next move is the manifestation of Christ in the heavens, complete with this “His body”; the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Christ as “the Head” of the body cannot be manifest in Heaven until His body is filled full;

Only after the heavenly places are rectified, will Christ “come again” to set up His literal, physical, Kingdom On Earth. This will fulfill His ‘promise,’ which is Israel’s hope.

In the end He will have “gathered together in one all things in Christ.”

Eph 1:9-10 Having made known unto us the mystery [secret] of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in The Dispensation Of The Fulness Of Times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

• Portions adapted from writings by Alan Naas with emphasis added.