Dr Greg Bahnsen - Higher Thoughts: Mystery and Mysticism (Part 4)

In the introduction this evening we're going to be considering the subject of mystery and mysticism this evening. And let's turn in our Bibles as we begin to Isaiah, the 55th chapter. And we'll read again this chapter, and particularly verses 18 and 19, which constitute the theme of our summer reflections on the Knowledge of God, which we've called Higher Thoughts, A Theological exposition of Isaiah 55, 8 and 9. I'll begin the reading at verse one. And again hear this as God's own word to you. Ho. Every one who thirsts, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money? For that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfies not. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me. Hear, and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of Jehovah, thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring, forth, and bud, and giveth seed to the sower, and bread to the so shall my word be, that goeth forth out of my it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. And thus far the reading of God's word, verse nine says, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. God says, even when you return unto me, as verse 8 has indicated, and have got your thoughts in line with mine, even when your ways are brought back to being in line with my ways, you must remember still my thoughts and ways are higher than yours. There is a dimension to them, a difference in quality about them that has to be taken into account. We can speak of this as the transcendence of God. God goes beyond human experience. God goes beyond anything in the temporal order of creation. God does not originate in our thoughts. God does not originate from creation, but he is rather the originator, the creator of everything in this world. He is the Creator of man and the creator of man's mind. And therefore he is greater than man. And God is sovereign over everything. He determines the end from the beginning. He gives the meaning to everything. It's only because of God's sovereign disposition that history has any meaning in any direction, that there's any order or coherence at all. And so God transcends us. And because of his transcendence, we recognize his exaltation, that he's greater than us. He is more powerful than us. And many religions and many theological. Even in the Christian tradition, theological schools say the transcendence of God keeps him from being known. And yet we saw that the transcendence of God is the very foundation of his knowability. It's just because he's transcendent as creator and sovereign Lord that He can come right into this world and make Himself known clearly in general revelation, God says, they have no excuse. I've made myself known. Make Himself known in the pages of a book that no one can say, well, that's just one of many. God says, this is it. This tells the truth clearly a child can understand it, and yet it's too great for the greatest scholar. But the truth is there clearly to be found and make Himself known in the person of His Son, in the incarnation, come right into our experience, or in the work of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, we see God. God's eminence is grounded in his transcendence. There's no tension there. And so we do believe that though God is high and lifted up and certainly far greater than man, he is nevertheless knowable. In subsequent lesson we talked about theological rationalism. The idea that whatever God says is going to be governed somehow by my ability to comprehend. And what I can't understand, if it's predestination or the Trinity or what have you, will then have to be lopped off. And we saw what a dangerous thing that is in Christian theology to not have an appropriate understanding of reason. Reason is not a standard for us. Reason is a tool. And as a tool it is to be used in subservience to God and his purposes and not made into the ultimate arbiter of what is right and wrong or true and false. We look then at the incomprehensibility of God, the sense in which God is not only beyond the mind of man in a quantitative way, but there's a sense in which God's thoughts, being higher than our thoughts, are incomprehensible. They are apprehensible. We can be put in touch with them. We can know about God, but we can never fathom completely God. And our thoughts can never have the same quality as God's thought. Our thoughts are not creative, they are not the standard, they are not self attesting our thoughts. The more we get to know the thoughts someone else, the less we stand in awe of that person. And one of the things I left you with last week is the more we get to know the thoughts of God, the more we stand in awe of Him. His incomprehensibility, the awesomeness of him grows as the quantity of our knowledge grows. So it's just the opposite of what it is in a relationship between two created thinkers, two human beings. Tonight we come and want to pursue this further. We come to the subject of mystery and mysticism. I've already rejected in a previous lesson the idea of theological rationalism. As I've summarized for you already, one must not think that his reason or her reason can be used as a tool that's higher than the word of God and can be used, as it were, dismissed. Things that are taught in the word of God because they cannot be understood. Those of you who listen to the radio program Sunday evening saw a good example of theological rationalism in this Jewish fellow, Dennis Prager, who did not want to accept that God could predestine everything and yet people are free and responsible because he couldn't understand it. And he made the immediate jump from I can't understand it to it's illogical. Well, of course he can't understand it, but that doesn't make it illogical. And I don't think that I got through to him, you know, But I hope those of you who listened and have been in this class understood the point. I was at one point I tried to suggest to him that, you know, what is real, what is true, is not limited by his ability to comprehend. He's not the standard of right and wrong. So theological rationalism is something which Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9 would certainly have us put away. God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. It's in the light of God that we see light, according to Psalm 36:9. So we can't just go around laughing off things that we don't understand. Now, since we don't want to be rationalist, the temptation, however, may be to run to the other end and become mystics. And tonight's lesson is to argue against the idea that religious mysticism is called for, since God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. I'm going to argue that Christianity is not tied to a mystical understanding of reality, but Christianity fully affirms the presence of mystery. So we're going to distinguish between mysticism and mystery. Rejection of rationalism in theology does not mean that we should become irrationalists. The fact that we don't hold to a rationalistic view that man's reason is the standard of right and wrong and therefore can judge the word of God. The fact that we throw out rationalism does not imply that we endorse, therefore irrationalism. It does not mean that we accept logical contradictions in the expression of our faith. It does not mean that we affirm the ineffability of reality. To be ineffable means to be unspeakable. It's beyond words cannot be uttered. We do not hold to the ineffability of reality or the ultimate absurdity of reality, nor do we hold to the ultimate unintelligibility of reality. Now, I can put those big words out there and leave it at that, and you'll probably accept, but what's the problem here? Who does holds those sorts of things? The Eastern religious tradition. The mystical tradition in religion is precisely the tradition that accepts logical contradictions in religion. Because religion is so mysterious. The ineffability of reality and its ultimate unintelligibility when all is said and done, for instance, the Hindu view of reality is that reality cannot be comprehended, not just because we have finite minds, but because reality is not comprehendable. It's not intelligible. It is ultimately darkness and absurdity. In Eastern religions like Hinduism, first of all you have an affirmation of monism rather than a creator creature distinction. I mean, I know that's a real simple point in Christian theology. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But that is one of the most foundational points of Christian theology. The difference between the created order and the creator. Monism, the idea that all reality is one, doesn't hold to that. According to the Eastern tradition, the Hindu tradition, there is no difference between God and the world. It's pantheism. Pantheism says that we're all kind of pulled up into God. We're all part of Brahman. Not only is the Eastern tradition monistic, it holds to the doctrine of Maya. So you want a summary of monism and Maya? Maya is the word for illusion because everything is one. All temporal experience as it is tied to distinctions. I think there's a difference between you and me, between the chair and the podium, between the book and the paper and between the car and on and on and on, all those distinctions. That way of thinking is illusion, since ultimately everything is Brahman, everything is one. So the way we see things and experience things, things is misleading. It's illusion, it's Maya. So in the Eastern world, everything is one. There is no creator creature distinction. And all of our experience, therefore is misleading, is illusory. Therefore ultimate reality, Brahman, God, the ultimate reality, is beyond description. You couldn't ever describe in rational language what God is or ultimate reality is because the minute you said anything, you'd have to have a subject and a predicate, and therefore you'd have to have a distinction. But that would violate what ultimate reality is. And so all talk, all rational talk, all argumentation, all communication is ultimately misleading. Now that is mysticism. It's a mysticism that. I mean, after they say what they do about Brahman, they have to end up saying, but we couldn't even say that. The mysticism that is so irrational, that holds that ultimately reality cannot be intelligible and not just because our minds are too small. But it couldn't be intelligible to an infinite mind either, because it's not, not the kind of thing that's intelligible. Buddhism likewise stresses meditation. When this was kind of the big cultural fad back a few years ago, it bothered me the way Christians so easily said, oh, well, they believe in meditation, we believe in meditation. We're all into this kind of get our heads together religiously. We can borrow from the Buddhist because the Bible tells us to meditate too, of course. Do you see the big Difference, you know what you're supposed to meditate on in Buddhism? Well, one of two things. First of all, you meditate upon a particular word. Hindus do the same thing. The most common that you know, is the word om, okay, that is no content at all. It's a word that is calculated to do away with distinctions and to clear the mind of any content. And that's where you get peace of mind and heart is from distancing yourself, meditating, uttering the word Om, getting into a certain trance like state. Or on the other hand, you meditate upon what are called cones, not like ice cream cone. K O a N a cone is an intellectual conundrum, something which purposely is to strip the mind of the ability to think rationally. Probably the most famous one is one that Alan Watts. But what is the sound of one hand clapping? A lot of people thought that was profound, you know. Yeah, remember the comedian who indicated, you know, it's kind of like he reaches up and slaps this guy and says, that's what it sounds like, the sound of one hand clapping. But the point here, joking aside, is that in Buddhism, meditation is for the purpose of emptying the mind or stripping it of rationality. Whereas in Christian theology, meditation is for the sake of knowing God's word and committing it to memory and letting it take deep root in your heart and so forth. It's the very opposite, even though they both speak of it as meditation. So in religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, the closer one gets to ultimate reality, things in our thinking become less clear, less consistent and more irrational. Think about that. The more you come into touch with what ultimate reality is, the more your mind is stripped of rationality. That is to say, the closer you come to reality, the closer you come to darkness and confusion in your thinking. This is amazing because in a moment what we're going to see is that in the Bible, the closer we come to God, even though God is mysterious, the more light we have, not the more darkness we have. That theme is very significant and if I had the time, I'd probably just sit here for 10 minutes repeating it. I want you to reflect on this how the Eastern religions stress that coming closer to ultimate reality, Brahman or whatever it may be, means moving into the darkness where the mind is not able to be used at all. Whereas for the Christian, drawing closer to God, even though his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and he is mysterious, means drawing closer to the light. Let me give you just some passages that indicate that Psalm 19:8, you know these, memorized them in Sunday school, didn't they? Psalm 19:8. What does the Word of God do for us? The precepts of Jehovah are right. Rejoicing the heart. The commandment of Jehovah is pure. Enlightening the eyes. As we know God's precepts and commandments, our eyes are enlightened. They're not shut in a mystical way, they're open. And now we can see things in the proper light. Or Psalm 119, verse 105. Again, when God reveals himself, gives us his word, the result is not darkness, but the very opposite. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my paths. In Psalm 36:9, which I've referred to previously, David says, in thy light we see light. You see, God is thought of as light. And drawing closer to him means that things lighten up for us. We can see light in his light. We are enlightened because of his light. His Word doesn't draw us closer to the darkness then, as in Hinduism and Buddhism, but rather knowing him better means we see better and better. Our minds are important. Our rationality is sharpened by knowing God. And so to say that God's thoughts are higher than ours and we can't endorse theological rationalism does not mean we endorse mysticism. The opposite of that. The Bible does not endorse inconsistency in our theological doctrines. In Second Corinthians 1:19, Paul tells us that his word to the Corinthians and through them to us is not yes and no, is not yes and no. God doesn't come and say one thing and then contradict Himself. You don't have to worry about this flip flop and dialectical stuff from God. He doesn't do that sort of thing. And in Hebrews 6:18 we are told it's impossible for God to lie. See, if God said one thing, then turned around and said the opposite, that's what we call a lie. If he does that on purpose, he's a liar, he's a deceiver. And the Bible says that's not the kind of God we have. He does not contradict himself. He does not lie. So we do not endorse mysticism. We do not think that logical contradictions are something that are perfectly acceptable. Nor do we believe that unintelligibility and irrationality are to be endorsed because of God's greatness. There is a difference. And if you're taking notes, this probably one of the most crucial points. So at least wake up for this one. There is A difference between mystery and contradiction. A mystery is that which is beyond human understanding. A contradiction is senseless to any understanding, human or divine. Let me say that again. There's a difference between mystery that is something that is beyond human understanding and a contradiction which is senseless to any understanding, human or divine. What I'm saying is a contradiction is senseless even to God. God doesn't say yes and no. He doesn't lie. He doesn't expect us to endorse that which is without sense. And yet he does expect us to believe things which go beyond our human understanding. Now, there's been a popular way of putting this in theology, which I suppose could be troublesome if not understood properly, but for the most part this will help you. There's a difference between those things which are above reason and those things which are contrary to reason. Mysteries are above reason, to use the metaphor. Contradictions are contrary to reason, they violate reason and therefore they are sense less. Okay, so my point is that in Christian theology we accept mystery, but we don't accept mysticism and logical contradiction and the unintelligibility of the world or of what God says. Sadly enough, there is a mystical tradition in the history of Christian theology. However, it's a very big tradition, especially in the Middle Ages, but it continues through to today. The other evening on the radio program, the Jewish fellow who considers himself an Orthodox Jew spoke of the rational and the mystical traditions in Jewish theology, which is true enough. And because he was willing to endorse them both, which is real strange, I think he was willing to hold to the transmigration of souls as an Orthodox Jewish. Yeah, well, it's beyond me. In the Christian tradition, the mystical theologians do very similar kinds of things. It's not necessarily transmigration, but once you endorse mysticism in theology, you get any number of weird things. A Master Eckhart you would think of in this line are Catherine of Siena or St. John of the Cross. These are well known Christian mystics. The medieval book, one of the best known, the Cloud of Unknowing. God is the cloud of unknowing. The only way you can know God is mystically because he cannot be known. So you have to come into contact with him through love and affectional communication rather than rational communication. In the mystical tradition, both inside and outside Christianity that I'm talking now about Christian theology and its mystical tradition. In that mystical vein, the goal is to attain higher consciousness. This is crucial for you to understand. The mystic wants to get beyond rationality into a higher mode. Of knowing or a higher mode of experiencing, a higher mode of communicating. And specifically, this is described in a lot of different ways, and I bore you to tears. But go into all the details of the different schools of mystical thought, but all of them hold this in common. They want to attain a higher consciousness which will give immediate communion with God. Immediate communion, not mediated through His Word, not mediated through reason. But I have an experience of God which is God Himself as it were, merged into God Himself through this experience. This is very frightening to me in terms of its connection with Eastern thought and pantheism and the actual sacrifice of one's mind in favor of an experience which cannot be described and cannot be controlled theologically. One wants a higher consciousness because we hear of higher consciousness all the time in our day, don't we? Eastern thought has infected us in that regard. People want to get beyond reason to a higher consciousness of God. This is the mystical tradition. Notice how that contrasts, though, with what we learn in the Bible. The Bible would rather have us stand in awe of God's higher thoughts, which are mediated through God's work of revelation. Mystical theology says we want a higher consciousness within ourselves. It puts us into immediate contact with God. Whereas the Bible says we stand in awe of God's higher thoughts. I don't want a higher consciousness. I want to recognize God's higher thoughts, which he mediates to me through revelation. So there are two points here that you want to see the difference. In mystical thought, I become higher. My consciousness is raised, whereas in the orthodox Christian tradition, it's God's thoughts which are higher, not me. And in the mystical tradition, I have an immediate contact with God. Therefore, whereas in the orthodox tradition, my contact with God is mediated through revelation. God unveils mysteries to me rather than having me come up to his level at a higher level of consciousness. The Bible does not endorse mysticism. The Bible does not endorse contradiction. The Bible does not endorse arbitrariness, allowing you to believe just anything you wish so that it would be acceptable to engage in empty religious utterance, blind ritualism, superstition or nonsense, all in the name of the transcendence of God and the fact that his thoughts are higher than ours. I've run into this repeatedly, my experience as a pastor and a Christian teacher. The idea that when we get into ritualism or we get into superstition, or we get into any kind of blind nonsense and religious utterance, people say that's because God is so mysterious, he's so beyond us, and that's why we do this sort of thing. It's amazing the logic that is used here, because the very point of the Bible is to regulate what we believe about the supernatural, not to throw the door open to believe just any nonsense. That's why God gives the Bible. These are the limits. This is the foundation for everything you do. So this defines how you think about me. I didn't give you this book so that you can say, oh, well, God is really mysterious. I guess. We can think anything we want or nothing at all and just engage in unintelligible gibberish. Notice how Scripture insists that what we say in the religious area must be intelligible. Turn in your Bibles to First Corinthians 14 and we'll find here a reference to what is perhaps a more evangelical version of mysticism. Speaking in tongues 1st Corinthians 14. Paul is specifically taking up the question of the charismatic gifts. Speaking in tongues, prophesying, and so forth. I wish I could go through the whole chapter. Time won't allow that. But let's just look at verses 6 to 17. Beginning at verse 6, Paul says, but now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophesying or of teaching? Paul says, if I come speaking tongues, and it doesn't become a revelation or a teaching or a prophecy, what good does that do you? Even things without life giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they give not a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? Musicians will understand that. If you don't play your chords correctly, and if you run everything together, how are people going to understand what is being played? For if the trumpet gives an uncertain voice, who shall prepare himself for for war? So also ye, unless ye utter by the tongue. Speech easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye will be speaking into the air. When you get into religious utterances that cannot be understood, he says, you're just speaking into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and no kind is without single signification. If then I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaks a barbarian, and he that speaks will be a barbarian unto me. Paul says, this is the very basis of an uncivilized way of relating to each other. Not being able to communicate, not being clear in what you're saying. So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts Seek that which you may abound unto the edifying of the church. Therefore let him that speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. If you're going to speak in a tongue, then it's got to be interpreted. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Very good verse for you to mark out. And people want you to get involved in just as much kind of, you know, we do these ritual little. Well, evangelicals do this too. You know, we just do the little ditties and the choruses and we get into this frame of mind. Or you're talking to Hare Krishna people that want you to go into the, you know, their little ditties so you can have peace of mind and so forth. Paul says, no, I'm going to pray and I'm going to speak. I'm going to sing with the understanding else. If thou bless with the spirit, how shall he that fills the place of the unlearned say the amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he doesn't know what you are saying. For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. Over and over again, Paul emphasizes the intelligibility of our religious talk, prayer, singing, the edification that it is supposed to. To serve, and the importance of understanding. Intelligibility, edification, understanding. What a major difference. You see, the mystical tradition in Christian theology says it's all right to give up the mind, give up rationality, become arbitrary, engage in unintelligible utterances. Even Paul says, no, it's got to be with the mind. It's got to be with the understanding. It's got to be with. Got to be intelligible. It's got to be edifying. So my first point this evening is simply that the incomprehensibility of God and the transcendence of God and our rejection of theological rationalism do not have as their cash value the endorsement of mysticism. Rejecting both rationalism and mysticism, Christian theology, nevertheless. This is my second point, nevertheless. Insist that there are great mysteries about God and his work. This brings me back to our theme verse. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts because God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Mystery is inevitably part of our faith. Mystery, not mysticism. So I have to review that point. Mysticism says, the closer you come to reality, the darker it is. Mysticism says rationality's got to be given up. Intelligibility's got to be given up. A Christian doesn't believe that the more we come to God, the closer we draw to the light God demands of us. Even in our religious utterances, intelligibility. Nevertheless, we endorse mystery. God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. The mysterious nature of Christian theology takes, takes as its implication that nobody can ever fully grasp the divine revealed truth and stop learning more. To say that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts is to say that we can never fully grasp God and what he has given to us. We can never stop learning. Even with the advent of computers, even if we hooked everything together and could take everything every Christian has ever learned throughout history and put it on a computer disk and have it all accessible and online to us, we wouldn't stop learning. That's one of the truths about God. It's unfathomable what he has given us. There are things about God, moreover, which will always be inscrutable to finite minds. I know that some people like to believe that once we get to heaven, we'll understand everything. Well, let me tell you something. Once you get to heaven, you're still going to be finite, still going to be a creature. You're not going to take on the characteristics or attributes of the divine. You're not going to become omniscient. There are things about God himself, and I think there are things about God's relationship to the universe, and I'll fudge a little on this one, but probably also things about the universe itself which will always be inscrutable to us. Always. It's not just when sin is taken away and we have enough time to study it that we'll finally get to the bottom. I don't think we will. There is mystery here, and I know it's a real simple analogy, real simple metaphor, but Isaiah says God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and because they're higher, we'll never be able to. We can jump higher and higher and higher, but his thoughts are always going to be higher than ours. I'd like to read the opening paragraph of Herman Babinck's book, the Doctrine of God, because it's very important to understand the place, the important place mystery has in Christian theology. Chapter one. This is one of the best known Reformed works on theology proper. I should probably tell you that if you don't know the name Herman Balving, he's one of the ones we all stand in awe of. He's one of these great theologians of the last hundred years that has written in defense of the Reformed faith in its exposition in his book the Doctrine of God. Chapter one is entitled God's Incomprehensibility. That's where he begins. Theology begins with that. But here, the opening paragraph, indeed the very first line, should be memorized by all students of theology. Mystery is the vital element of dogmatics. Mystery is the vital element of dogmatics. It is true that the term mystery in Scripture does not indicate abstract supernatural truth in the Romish sense. Nevertheless, the idea that the believer would be able to understand and comprehend intellectually the revealed mysteries is equally unscriptural. By this he means comprehend fully. This is a translation of the Dutch I wouldn't want you to be. He knows that we can know about God. That's what this chapter is all about. Let me continue. On the contrary, the truth which God has revealed concerning himself in nature and in Scripture far surpasses human conception and comprehension. In that sense, dogmatics is concerned with nothing but mystery, for it does not deal with finite creatures, but from the beginning to end raises itself above every creature to the eternal and endless One himself. That's the opening paragraph of his dogmatic about God. Mystery is the vital element of dogmatics. It is concerned with nothing other than mystery, for it does not deal with finite creatures, but from beginning to end, since it deals with God. Christian theology is characterized by mystery, not mysticism, but mystery. The Bible speaks of mystery. The Bible speaks of mysteries as things which are hidden or things which are secret. Hidden or secret. And we're going to spend the rest of our time, which is short, talking about the different kinds of mysteries that we find in the Bible. Let me see if I can run through these quickly. I wanted to look them all up, but we won't have time to do that tonight. Mysteries are things which are hidden or secret. Now that's the generic sense in which I'm using the word mystery. Hidden things. Secret things. But now let me give you how many 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 different kinds of mysteries that we find in the Bible. First of all, there are those things which are not divulged to man. Deuteronomy 29, 29. The sacred things of God. We learned that the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but what he's revealed belongs to us in our children, in all generations. And that's a very important verse for teaching people not to try to go beyond the Bible and not try to pry into the secret plan of God. They should evaluate things not on the basis of, well, I think God's going to do this, but on the basis of what he told us. Thou shalt and thou shalt not. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. So they're. There are some things which are kept back by God, which are not divulged by God. But secondly, there are things which amount to unutterable utterances for the sake of their greatness. This is probably one of the most fascinating verses in the New Testament. 2nd Corinthians 12, 4. In 2 Corinthians, Paul was defending his apostolic credentials, and some of his detractors in Corinth talked about their great religious experiences and so forth. And so now Paul talks about his own. He talks about a man. He does this very humbly. He talks about him as well as someone else. But everyone knows you're talking about himself. Paul. I knew a man 14 years ago. He says, whether in the body or not, I'm not sure. And he talks about how he's caught up into the third heaven and so forth. And then he describes it again. He says, and he was caught up into paradise to the very heaven of God. Verse 4 says how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which. It is not lawful for a man to utter a fascinating verse. He heard unspeakable words. Of course, you know what I'm going to. Anybody who has followed my exposition of Scripture the last few years, I love that kind of thing, because what is that? It's an apparent contradiction. Unspeakable words. If he heard these words, they were spoken. And so if he heard them, they are spoken, and yet they're described as unspeakable. So he heard someone speak the unspeakable, and then on top of it. And of course, the commentators just go wild, treating us in different ways. It's not lawful to say these things, okay? Some people have even thought he heard, you know, like, you're not supposed to talk that way, you know, in heaven, you know, which I don't think. I don't think that's true at all. I think what Paul means, that it is unlawful for him to utter. God said, this is a revelation for you, and you're not to tell anybody else. This was a special thing given to Paul and that it was unspeakable and yet spoken. What does that mean? I think that's just a very clever literary device for saying. For its greatness. You can hardly put it into words. Paul heard and experienced things in the Third, heaven in paradise in the presence of God, which he couldn't put into words. They're just unspeakable. Now, that doesn't mean God can't speak them. I think what that means is Paul couldn't speak them. He said, even if I wanted to, there's no way I could give you the grandeur and the greatness and the glory of what I saw. Okay, so there are some things which are mysteries because they are not divulged by God. Secondly, and this is what we're on right now, there are some things which are so great and grand that they cannot be uttered. They're a ineffable in the sense that human words would never be adequate to express them. Thirdly, there are things from God which are not understood for one reason or another. There are things from God which for one reason or another are not understood. In 1 Corinthians 14:2, Paul says, for he that speaketh in a tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God. For no man understands but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. Here's a case where a man is speaking in tongues, and it's called speaking mysteries because it's not understood. Now, I'm not going to get into an argument over the nature of tongues and so forth. I'm just going to state my position. I think tongues were rational languages. They were known human languages. And in this case, the man speaking them doesn't know how to translate what he's saying. God has given him a miraculous experience of saying things in a language that he's never learned. That's why he doesn't understand it, because he's not learned the language. In that sense, he speaks mysteriously because he doesn't even know what he's saying in that language. All right, so we have three kinds of mysteries. Then. Those things that are not divulged to man. Those things which are unutterable for their greatness and glory. Thirdly, those things which for one reason or another, are not understood in this case because you don't understand the language. Fourthly, there are things which the intellectually proud cannot spiritually understand. There are things which the intellectually proud cannot spiritually understand, and this is very common in the New Testament. And because time is short, I am not going to be able to look at all the verses. But Matthew 11:25 is basic to this entry in the notes. At that season, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal Them unto babes. That's tongue in cheek. The wise in understanding means the spiritually proud. Those who think they know so much, you've hidden it from them, but the little children, you've revealed it. There are things which, because of spiritual pride, will always be a mystery to certain people. Now, I do pray for Dennis Prager's salvation, so forgive me for using a particular name. I don't often do this, but the other evening you have a man who has intelligence. He is well spoken, he's well experienced, he knows a lot. And yet you present a simple truth from Scripture which my children as babies understood and accepted. And yet he said, it's illogical, can't be. God keeps the intellectually proud from understanding. And that will make certain things, which even babies can understand, mysterious. Isn't that incredible that God has the ability to do that, to take that which children can understand and veil it from those who are intellectuals? The nature of the kingdom of God was kept a secret from those who were not born again. Nicodemus came to Jesus in John the third chapter. Jesus said, in order to see the kingdom, you must be born again. Then he goes on to tell Nicodemus about being born again and all this. And Nicodemus was all befuddled by it. And Jesus says, are you a teacher of Israel? You don't understand. If I tell you earthly things and you don't understand, what good will it do to tell you heavenly things? Here's Nicodemus, this great teacher, but because he's not born again, he does not see the kingdom of God. Or in Matthew 13, just look at verses 11 through 17 and verse 35 in your devotions tonight before you go to bed. Jesus speaks in parables. Why he speaks in parables because in so doing, it tells God's people the nature of his kingdom and at the same time veils it from the eyes of those who don't belong to him. So that you must have an ear to hear, you must have your eyes open. And Jesus says, I'm doing this so that it will harden their hearts and they will not understand. And yet the parables open the door of understanding for God's people. So in the fourth sense, I'm saying there are mysteries in the sense that if your heart is not open, there are things you'll never understand, even if you can intellectually talk about these matters. I use the analogy sometimes of taking somebody who knows nothing about art into an art museum for the first time. Take a 16 year old who has not been precocious and looked into these things, that 16 year old may be able to tell you things about the chemical composition of the paint on the canvas, may tell you something about the adherence of paint to canvas, may be able to tell you something about the geometric shape of the canvas and so forth, and yet can still, for all of the knowledge of the details of the picture that's up there, say, you know, what's the big deal here? I just don't see it. This does not have an aesthetic sensitivity to what that is and the grandeur of that painting. And in the same way, you can have people who can know all the fine details, they can quote the Hebrew, you know, they can give you all the details of the text and the history and so forth or something, and yet completely miss the point. Completely miss it. A lot of modern theologians that way children understand the Bible better than they do, even though they know more in terms of what you might put down on an objective test about the text of the Bible. In Second Corinthians 3, verses 12 to 18, we read that Jews have a veil upon their hearts in understanding the glorious message of the Old Testament. Until the veil is taken away, they don't understand the Old Testament. And so in the fourth sense, there are mysteries because of the spiritual process, pride and arrogance of man. Until you are born again, you can't see and understand these things. Fifthly, there are things which God has delayed, revealing or are utterly marvelous about salvation. This is such a common one. I just hate to see myself running out of time. But I'll run through a few examples things which God has delayed rem dealing or are utterly marvelous about salvation. In Second Corinthians 2, 7, 10, Paul speaks of deep things about God's redemptive love, which were true from the very creation of the world. I got to read a few of these. Will you bear with me if I'm over time and break my promise that I would never do this again? First Corinthians 2, 7, 10. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory, which none of the rulers of this world hath known. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man save the Spirit of the man which is in him. Even so, the things of God knowest no one save the Spirit of God. These things from the foundation of the world about God's redemptive love not even entered into the heart of man. Things that are so great you couldn't even imagine them. But now he's made them known. But if the rulers of this world have understood that quote mystery of God's redemptive love, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory, obviously. Another example, Ephesians 17:10, Paul speaks of God's purpose to sum up all things in Christ as a mystery which is now made known. In Ephesians the third chapter, verses 3 to 6 and 9. 11. God's plan to bring the Jews and the Gentiles into the church on an equal footing is called a mystery which is only now being revealed by the Apostle Paul in his ministry to the Gentiles. He also refers to that in Colossians 1:25 to 27, this mystery that is now being made known through the ministry of Paul, that God is going to accept Jews and Gentiles alike, and that they will be on a par together. That is the mystery, I think, that is spoken of in Revelation 10, verse 7, where the angel says, and now is completed the mystery of God, where the fall of Jerusalem is predicted. And so God's mystery is indicated that he is not happy with the Jews that have rejected Christ, but Jews and Gentiles alike are accepted in the church. In Romans 11:25, the plan to bring the Jews en masse back into the kingdom of God is called a mystery that Paul is now revealing. In First Corinthians 15:51, Paul speaks of the mystery that we shall not all sleep, but rather be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The transformation that takes place at the future resurrection is called a mystery. So our fifth category, just be real quick. Here are things which God has delayed revealing, things which were not formally known, but are now divulged, or things which are so utterly marvelous about salvation. And then sixthly, I think the Bible speaks of mysteries in the sense of that which is the very heart of the faith itself. In one sense the Gospel is called the mystery of God. Ephesians 6:19 speaks of the gospel as God's mystery. In Ephesians 3:19, the love of Christ is God's mystery. In Colossians 2, verse 2, Christ is God's mystery. In 1st Timothy 3, verses 9 and 16, the Christian faith is God's mystery. And I'll just read one example in closing. Romans 16:25. Now, to him that is able to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal. But now is man manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal, God is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith that really brings it all together, that which is the eternal mystery of God. The Gospel itself, the very Christian faith, is now openly divulged and made known to people. So Six Ways in which the Bible Speaks of Mystery My concluding note about mystery in the ancient world at the time of the New Testament, there were numerous cults which stress communion with the supernatural through special secrets and hidden rituals. They were called mystery cults. The mystery cult said, you know, there's this esoteric knowledge, these secrets that are passed among the entire initiated so that they might have, through their rituals and their special knowledge, communion with God. In Paul's theology, however, the word mystery is not associated with that which is kept a secret. In Paul's theology, the word mystery is associated with terms for revelation and understanding. For Paul, a mystery is not something which is absolutely, without qualification, unknowable. First Corinthians 13:2, he says, and if I know all mysteries and have not love, then I am nothing if I know all mysteries. Mysteries are knowable things in Christian theology. Mysteries outside of Christian theology and in the mystical tradition are always full of darkness and indicate the unintelligibility of reality. And that's really the heart of what I wanted to get across in tonight's lesson. Sorry to hurry at the end like this, but I'm gonna have to hurry you with the questions, too. Do you have anything you'd like to ask before we run, say, John, and then John? Well, do you agree with using the word antinomy or the conflict between God's sovereignty and man's will? Yeah, I think it's acceptable to call the difficulty of that doctrine or set of doctrines known as predestination and human responsibility. And antinomy. If you mean by antinomy an apparent contradiction. No, no. If it were a clear contradiction, it would be senseless. What's that? Antinomy? Yeah, I guess it would. That which it. Well, that which is against law or against reason here would be against logic, I guess. I see. Yeah. It all depends on how you're going to define antinomy. I don't think it is against reason or against logic. But I do think it's a very deep mystery. I think the people who like using the term antinomy would say, in the case of a paradox, you can state the resolution. In the case of an antinomy, you know that it's resolvable, but you can't state the resolution. I hope I'm right about that. I think that's the way they use the terms. In the end, I think it's better just define your terms and let you know what you're saying. Okay, John. Yes, but if mystery is above reason, how can we determine if it's really a mystery? Well, if it's a contradiction, then you have a premise that's both affirmed and denied. That's the sign of a contradiction. But if I have something which doesn't involve affirming and denying the same premise, premise, and yet it's hard to understand, I call that a mystery. Is beyond our comprehension and likewise the contradiction. How can we make a decision? No, I'm not. History is beyond our comprehension, but it's not beyond our apprehension. That is to say, we can know what we are saying and make sense of it to a certain degree, even though we can't understand it completely. Whereas in the case of a contradiction, you can't understand it at all because it's senseless to affirm P and not P at the same time is believed. I mean, what is being said. I mean, you're taking away what you're affirming and so that sense less. Whereas in the case of a mystery, it's full of sense. In fact, there's so much sense to it that I can't understand it all, but I can make some sense of it. Like, we know how to use the confession of God's sovereignty. We know how to use the confession of man's responsibility. So it's not senseless to us. But when someone says, well, how does God do that? How do you put it all together? Boy, I don't know. I don't know how God controls the world or made it out of nothing. So it's a great mystery, but it's not a contradiction. And do remember, John, that I was using above reason and against reason because that's common parlance. But that was at the end. That wasn't really the way I would prefer talking about mystery and mysticism. Okay, Tim, this is a use of the term that's unrelated what you're talking about. When I think of the mystical union our mystical union describes, which category does this fall Yeah, I don't think that that terminology is related to the six different senses that I was talking about or even to the word mysticism as I reject it. The mystical union of believers is a spiritual union with Christ, which is mysterious, but I really think the emphasis is upon spiritual oneness. We have some people who have difficulty with the idea of mystical union. If that means that we somehow are in connection with dead saints. We have a well known song in the Trinity hymnal that suggests that we do that sort of thing. We have mystic, sweet communion with those whose rest is one. And I had a seminary professor who said utterly, we do not have mystic, sweet communion with dead people. I'm sorry. But there is a sense in which we are one with them in Christ because they are in Christ now and we are in Christ now, spiritually speaking. So that's why I said it's a spiritual union. Okay, Marty, and then we'll quit. I think what John was asking was if mystery and contradiction, things of that nature, astrological or transcendent logic, maybe we don't understand, then we can't use logic to determine whether they are a mystery or whatever. How would you determine then whether it is a mystery or contradiction? Well, the test for whether it's a mystery or simply a contradiction is whether you have one premise that is being affirmed and denied. Then you have a contradiction. And that's the source of the conundrum. When you don't have that and yet it's not the sort of thing you can easily understand. We call it a mystery. That's the key, is there's an atomic inscription. You're not speaking of arbitrary inscriptions. Oh, that's true. Sometimes people have said they'll argue. Well, predestination and free will. They contradict each other and that makes it a mystery. And I'm always wanting to say no, they don't contradict each other because you're not affirming one thing and denying it the same breath. And yet it is a great mystery. The mystery is not found in its being illogical, though. The mystery is in not knowing metaphysically how God relates to the universe in such a way as to protect man's freedom and yet determine the certainty what he will do. How does God bring it about without compulsion? That's a mystery. But there's no logical contradiction because there's no premise, both affirmed and denied. Well, we'll go on and on. I promised we'd stop. We'll do it now. And remember, our host and hostess would like to go to bed sometime. Tonight, and maybe down the line, we should have maybe a whole half hour of questions to pick up, ones we haven't been able to do in previous sessions. My word of prayer as we close, We come to you, our Heavenly Father, with a sense tonight, renewed sense and deepened sense of how glorious it is to know you. What a wondrous blessing it is that you should take those things about yourself and about your redemptive life which would be hidden from us, which would be completely secretive, and yet have openly displayed them, indeed shown us things which cannot really be uttered when we get right down to it, things that are so great and so marvelous, we really are overwhelmed that you would love us this much to save us when we're totally undeserving of it. To sacrifice your own self, your own son in so doing, and then by your own spirit, to open our darkened minds and our hard hearts, that we'd be able to comprehend and appreciate this kind of love. We do pray that you would help us by your spirit, to be faithful to you, faithful to your rationality, faithful to the light which is your own character, which shines through your own word. That we would develop our minds and our rationality, that we might be sharp intellectually and love you with all of our minds. That we would not take the easy and the faithless and the disobedience obedient path of being willing to say just anything to contradict ourselves, to be superstitious and ritualistic. When it comes to knowing you. We do pray that you would keep us from mysticism and yet humble us by the mystery of the Gospel. For we pray in Jesus precious name, Amen.