This phrase "Since the world began" has intrigued me recently. Performing a search in the KJV bible, here are some places where it appears.
Luke 1
67And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,
68Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
69And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
70As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
72To perform the mercy
promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
73The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
Acts 3:21
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which
God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Both the Luke and Acts account are speaking of the same thing, which is how Jesus came as a promise from God to the Jews, to be their King, their Messiah, their redeemer. This is the
Gospel of the Kingdom.
However, we know that the Jews rejected their Messiah for the final time in Acts 9, with the stoning of Stephen. It was at that time, Jesus raised Paul and revealed to him a secret, or a mystery, the
Gospel of Grace.
Romans 16
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to
my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery,
which was kept secret since the world began
My question for reflection is this, the prophecy of Jesus being their King, the Gospel of the Kingdom, was
spoken by God since the world began. Yet Paul in Romans revealed that there was also a mystery which was
kept secret since the world began.
For those people who believe that both Gospels contain the same message, wouldn't this be some kind of contradiction? How do people still see both messages as the same?
