God kept certain things secret from Peter and the eleven because He is sovereign and has the prerogative to keep truth hidden until His chosen time of revelation.
Les Feldick grounds this in Deuteronomy 29:29: secret things belong to the Lord, and revealed things belong to His people. At the time of Acts 3 and Acts 10, Peter and the apostles had not yet received the mystery that Paul would later reveal—especially salvation for the whole human race through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. God did not reveal everything at once; He revealed it when He was ready.
Deuteronomy 29:29 — This is the verse Les Feldick repeatedly uses to show that secret things belong to God until He reveals them.
Colossians 1:26 — Shows the hidden mystery was kept from ages and generations and only later made manifest to the saints.
Deuteronomy 29:29 draws a clear line between what God keeps secret and what He reveals: "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." The verse does not say God is obligated to reveal everything; it acknowledges that some things remain with Him. Colossians 1:26 speaks of "the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints." This shows a pattern in Scripture: truth can remain hidden for long periods and then be made known in God's timing.
Les Feldick begins with Deuteronomy 29:29 as the basic principle: secret things belong to the Lord, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children. He stresses that God is sovereign and has the prerogative to keep things secret until He is "good and ready" to reveal them. God does not reveal everything all at once; He reveals only what people need to know, in His own time. He applies this to Peter and the eleven in Acts 3: they still had not understood what God would do through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. They understood Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God who proved it by miracles, and they understood that He was for Israel—but the secret of salvation for the whole human race was not yet revealed to them. Even in Acts 10, when Peter went to Cornelius, Peter "hasn't had any revelation of the mystery." By that time Paul had been converted and was in the desert for three years, and God was beginning to move toward the Gentiles while also setting Peter up for a crucial situation 12 years down the road. Les also observes that after Acts 10, Peter fades off the scene of the book of Acts and Paul fills the narrative with his ministry to the Gentiles. Les says the whole Pauline doctrine was secret until God, in sovereign grace, chose to release and reveal it. When God does reveal a secret, He expects people to believe it. Before that, even Adam and Eve and Abraham were not expected to understand the gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, because it had not yet been revealed.
Les shows that in Acts 3 Peter and John still had not had an understanding of what God was going to put on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. All they understood at that point was that He was the Messiah and the Son of God, proven by miracles, and that He was only for the nation of Israel. God had not yet revealed that the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection held the salvation of the whole human race; He was still dealing with Israel on the grounds of covenant promises.
Les says God is sovereign and has the prerogative of keeping things secret. Deuteronomy 29:29 shows that secret things belong to God until He reveals them. God does not tell everyone everything they would like to know; He tells everyone what they need to know, in His own time. God kept the gospel of grace secret and held it in His mind until the right moment—while Paul was in the desert and the Gentile mission was about to begin.
Les teaches that when God reveals something that was secret, He expects humanity to believe it. The secret things belong to God; but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children. So once God revealed the Pauline doctrine—that salvation is by believing the gospel—it became something God expects people to respond to. Peter, too, was being prepared for a moment when the Gentile issue would come to him at Caesarea.
Les shows the timing of God's revelations in Acts. Saul was converted in Acts 9 and was already in the desert for three years when God began to move toward Cornelius in Acts 10. While Paul was receiving revelation in the desert, God was setting Peter up for a crucial situation 12 years down the road. Paul, by inspiration, speaks of himself as a pattern for those who would hereafter believe on Christ to life everlasting—in contrast to Peter's earlier "repent and be baptized" message.
Paul's pattern of faith vs. Peter's message
Les contrasts Peter's "repent and be baptized" with Paul's "believe on Him to life everlasting," showing that Paul's salvation was a pattern for those who would later believe the gospel.
Peter and John in Acts 3
Les shows that Peter and John had no understanding of God's purpose in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection; they only knew Him as the Messiah for Israel.
Deuteronomy 29:29 and Acts 10
Les applies Deuteronomy 29:29 to the whole of Scripture: God keeps things secret, and when He reveals them He expects both Jew and Gentile to believe.
God's prerogative to keep secrets
Les says God has the right to keep things secret and does not have to reveal them until He is ready—a basic key to understanding the Word of God.
Adam, Abraham, and unrevealed truth
Les says Adam and Eve and Abraham were not expected to understand the gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection because it had not yet been revealed.
Peter had not received the mystery
Les says Peter had not yet had any revelation of the mystery, even as Paul was already in the desert for three years and God was beginning to work with the Gentiles.
The Pauline doctrine was secret
Les shows that the whole Pauline doctrine was secret until God, in His sovereign grace, chose to release and reveal it.
Salvation of the whole human race still hidden
Les says God had not yet revealed to Peter and the others that the death, burial, and resurrection contained the salvation of the whole human race; He was still dealing with Israel.
Deuteronomy 29:29: The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
The foundational verse Les uses to show God keeps secrets until His time of revelation.
Colossians 1:26: Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
A New Testament example of a secret hidden from past ages and then revealed to God's saints.
God, as sovereign, has the prerogative to keep things secret until He chooses to reveal them. Deuteronomy 29:29 says the secret things belong to the Lord, and Les shows that Peter and the apostles had not yet received the revelation of the mystery that Paul would later make known.
No, not yet. Les says in Acts 3 they only understood Jesus as Messiah for Israel; the revelation of salvation for the whole human race through His death, burial, and resurrection had not yet been given to them.
Les points to Paul's conversion and time in the desert: while God was dealing with Saul, He was also beginning to move toward the Gentiles, and Peter was eventually brought to Cornelius's house. The Pauline doctrine was the secret that God then revealed in His time.
No. Les says God had not blanked the Gentiles out of His thinking. He was simply not revealing yet, even to Peter, that in the death, burial, and resurrection was wrapped up the salvation of the whole human race. God revealed it later, in His timing.
Watch the Teaching: Paul's Gospel vs. Peter's: What You Must Believe to Be Saved