Knowing the Unknowable Requires The Key;
This Blasphemous Key Reveals Lost’s Mind
Why is it so hard to understand the Bible? Is God deliberately hiding His Truth from everyone except His select few? Can the unknowable become the knowable through logic and human reasoning? I struggled to understand the answers to these questions. It seems I cannot reach hardly anyone with the Gospel. I also struggled to understand Isaiah’s Mandate: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive…” (Is 6:8-10). Is this why Jesus taught in parables; to keep the Lost, Lost (Mk 4:10-12)? In preparing for my study of Revelation I believe I have gained understanding of this mystery through the study of three words: Encrypt; Mystery and Reveal.
For centuries Christendom, those claiming to follow the Bible but rejecting the true Gospel of Salvation by Grace, alone have redefined Jesus to make their path to Heaven palatable to the masses. The above graphic shows Jesus as one of the masses, a nod to Christian socialism, with Jesus seen as accepting you as you and good enough for Him. Unfortunately, not in the Bible! All false religions accomplish basically the same thing; attempting to know Truth through rituals and special knowledge doled out to the masses who follow the special rituals! But, God condemned this view around 1,100 B.C. through David with the statement that He desires a broken, contrite heart rather than offerings and rituals (Ps 51:16-17). So, if we cannot bring Jesus down to our level and we cannot build ritualistic bridges to access His special knowing; how can we understand the Gospel?
Understanding Begins with Knowing
What YOU Do Not Understand; and Why!
The first major word of Revelation is revelation; or in the Greek: ἀποκάλυψις (Re 1:1). To no surprise it means to uncover or unhide what is hidden. Yet, this begs the true question: What is hidden? Why is it hidden? To understand this one must challenge one’s basic assumptions and grasp the plain teaching of the Bible.
One of the most basic assumptions about God is that He can do anything! After all, He is God and by definition is: Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent. However, though God, the Father, is infinite He does have limitations or boundaries He cannot cross. God cannot do evil nor does He tempt people with evil to do evil; that is, He does not play, Gotcha (Ja 1:13)! Once we understand and dismiss the logic fallacy of the False Dilemma that God can do anything; we can gain a new appreciate of Creation.
God, actually Christ, made angels, man, and the physical universe once the Father brought the physical from nothing (Ge 1:1-2; Jn 1:1-5; Col 1:15-17; He 11:3). It is also. apparent, even to the Lost, that this Creation is temporary: Entropy (He 1:8-12). Thus, I postulate that God cannot make Man directly in His image or He would have. Instead, God made Man from His essence but from the elements of this temporary Creation; i.e., the Flesh (Ge 2:7). Man, and later Woman made from Man, were sinless but they did not directly have God’s nature. This meant that Man did not have the capacity to discern Truth from God’s perspective (Isa 55:8-9). This would become especially true once Man and Woman rebelled against God, suffered spiritual death and could only bequeath to their children this sin nature (Ps 51:5; Ro 3:23).
Man before sin did not grasp God’s truth demonstrated by the grasping after knowing apart from God; Tree of Knowing. Man after sin certainly did not understand God as demonstrated by Eve. Christ said that the seed of Woman would destroy Satan and she immediately assumed this meant Cain, her first born Ge 3:14-15; 4:1-8). Obviously not since God rejected Cain who then became consumed with anger and killed Abel demonstrating that God’s will, though revealed, was not knowable; i.e., it was secret to them.
The Greek word translated as secret is, ἀποκρύπτω. from which we derive our word, crypto or encrypt. Simply put, God spoke from His perspective which is different from Man’s perspective, especially after sinning. God’s words, though plainly spoken, were encrypted and thus indecipherable to Lost Man. Isaiah’s Mandate was to speak plainly though it would remain unintelligible to the Lost. It would be impossible for them to grasp God’s Truth and be saved. Is God evil then? No! Man actively takes that which may be perceived as God and reinterprets it according to his own sinful mind elevating himself as god(s) (Ro 1:18-28). Each person takes what spark of truth shines within, moral code emphasized by guilt, and seeks to justify one’s sin as good (Ro 2:1-11).
If no one had believed God then God would be the author of evil; however, people in every age have humbled themselves to God, repented and received a changed heart; even before the New Covenant Nature (1Sa 10:9; Isa 6:1-8; Ro 4:1-13; 2Co 5:17). This leads to two questions: 1) If Christ’s Gospel is encrypted how can People know it; and 2) How is it Revealed to them?
Cypher Requires a Key to Decrypt the Message:
Who or What is the Key for God’s Gospel?
Since there are secrets this must mean there are mysteries Man cannot hope to understand on his own. Greek mystery {μυστήριον} does not mean that which is unknowable. It means that which is knowable to God and can be revealed to Man. In fact, there is one main mystery and all other mysteries flow from it just as there is the Abrahamic Covenant and all subsequent covenants, including the New Covenant, flow from it. Christ as the Sacrifice for Sin is that one major mystery beyond the comprehension of the Fleshly mind (Ep 1:3-14). Abraham realized that God could and would provide himself as the sacrifice for sin which was finally realized on Calvary (Ge 22:7-8). Once Christ satisfied Father’s justice with His own atonement, He became the channel through which Believers would become adopted sons of God (Ga 4:1-7). Lost Man could only conceive of a god that executed sinners; they do not understand Messiah who died for sinners (Ro 5:6-11). Indeed, no one can unless He is revealed to them (Ro 9:6-13; Ga 4:21-31). Christ, via the Spirit, is the Key to decrypt God’s Truth (1Co 2:9-14).
The word reveal is the Greek word apocalypse; to remove from hiding or to uncover. The entire Bible reveals to Man the mystery of Christ’s Gospel; however, it must be decrypted by the Spirit. The Lost of their own volition reject God’s Truth; therefore, Christ must force His Truth onto those whom the Father has foreordained to salvation so they, like Paul, can now see the Truth and respond, Abba or Father (Ac 9:17-18; Ro 11:1-8). The Book of Revelation reveals the return of Christ during the Great Tribulation and the mystery of lawlessness already at work; i.e., Satan (2Th 2:3-12).
Satan Hides His Involvement in the World;
Just as He Hides the Gospel from the Lost
Satan actively assists the Lost in suppressing the Gospel of Life (2Co 4:3-4). He also works behind the scenes assisting the Lost in suppressing the Saved, violently, to usher in his kingdom. It is this process that the Revelation of Christ given to John reveals to the saved who through maturation in the Word via the Spirit can read decrypted (He 5:11-14). God is not actively hiding His Word, He is actively revealing His word through the Bible which is rejected as foolishness to the Lost (1Co 1:18-29). It is the fulfillment of God’s promise that His Spirit would forever strive against Man’s spirit (Ge 6:1-3). Noah’s Cataclysm was the First Warning; the Great Tribulation is the Second Warning and the end of Creation is the beginning of Judgment for all who did not believe (Re 20:11-15).
The Saved cannot boast because not of us by our own understanding repented and accepted Christ as Lord. It was only through the grace of Christ that anyone is saved (Lk 10:21-22; Jn 10:22-30). Thus, knowledge of Christ’s Gospel does not come through logic or human reasoning for it is encrypted; it comes by faith in Christ via the Spirit based on His Word. False Teachers would lead you astray keeping you from believing but Christ is greater and able to keep us so we hear His voice and follow Him (Jn 10:1-18; He 11:1-3).