There are two questions frequently asked by those who are pondering the validity of the Grace Message. First, if our position is true, then why has the Church largely failed to see it? Secondly, why doesn’t the Grace Movement have large numbers, if this is truly God’s message for today?

These are indeed legitimate questions that deserve thoughtful consideration. There are numerous reasons as to why believers have been so reluctant to acknowledge Paul’s gospel. Tradition ranks high on the list. Many are satisfied to simply attend church every Sunday and accept what is being taught without ever searching the Scriptures for themselves. In defense of their church tradition we often hear: “If it was good enough for my grandfather and my father, it’s good enough for me!”

Fear runs a close second to tradition. Sometime ago we heard from a Godly father who had given a set of our books to his son, who was a pastor of a large denominational assembly out west. Lo and behold, if the son didn’t come to rejoice in the Mystery! When the father inquired as to when he was going to preach it, the son replied, “I can’t, Dad—the church would never accept it.” When positions, salaries, and retirement plans are at stake, the truth many times is swept aside.

Even many of the well-known Fundamentalist leaders of the past, some of whom we have good reason to believe knew about the Mystery, were silent because of the fear of men. In fact, it is amazing when reading their writings how they followed one another through the labyrinth of God’s now dormant Prophetic program, leaving their hearers both past and present destitute of the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. But they forgot one thing in their haste to remain accepted by the mainstream of Christendom—the Judgment Seat of Christ, where every man will give an account of himself.

In the meantime, there are multitudes who have never even heard about the Mystery. And the sad part about this is, many of these dear saints sense that something is missing in their understanding of the Scriptures. They are diligently searching for the key that unlocks the Word, rightly divided.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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