Paul, before Festus, appeals unto Caesar. Agrippa desires to hear Paul.
(See Acts 25:1–22.)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:
“Falsely imprisoned, with no specific or substantial charge against him, Paul declines to go willingly back to Jerusalem, back to stand in jeopardy before the fanatical mob which had caused the crucifixion of his Lord. Instead, Roman citizen that he was, he appeals unto Caesar. And Caesar’s Procurator decrees that unto Caesar shall Christ’s Apostle bow.
“But why? Why all this imprisonment? Why these repeated mock-like-trials before one ruler after another—all to no avail as far as freeing the innocent Paul is concerned. Why does not the Lord send an angel to deliver his Apostle, as he did when Peter was imprisoned by Herod? [see Acts 12:1–19].
“Clearly it is the design of Deity to use Paul’s imprisonment as the means of taking the testimony of Jesus to the great and the mighty of the world. The gospel is for the poor and for the privileged. It is to be ‘proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers’ (D&C 1:23). What matters it that Augustus sits amid Roman might and splendor, with the power of life and death over millions of people, yet his hope, if any, of peace here and eternal life hereafter, is in the hands of the prisoner of Christ who, though in bonds, has eternal power from on high. How better could the witness of the truth be borne to Felix, Festus, Agrippa, and Augustus, with all their court retinues forced to give ear? [compare Acts 11:19–26].”
(Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 2:198.)
