Are you ready to peek over into mystery?

    The Bible will not clear up every doubt. In fact, sometimes Scripture seems, at least at first glance, to generate new doubts. The Bible embraces paradoxes.

    For example, the Proverbs say, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly.” Then the next verse instructs, “Answer a fool according to his folly.” (Proverbs 26:4-5) Make up your mind, Solomon! Paul charged, “Carry one another’s burdens,” then added three verses later, “Each one should carry his own load.” (Gal. 6:2, 5) Which is right, apostle? Scripture says that Christians are “set... free” and should not be “burdened again by a yoke of slavery,” yet at the same time we are to be “slaves to righteousness.” (Galatians 5:1; Romans 6:15-22)

    And these are only some of the little paradoxes. There are larger ones as well — predestination and free will, or works and grace, or judgment and mercy, just to hint at a few. Possibly you know how to explain these. But, if you read long enough, you will confront biblical paradoxes that confound the wisdom of the ages. Heaven offers some of her best truth suspended between such paradoxes.

The living God knows, loves, and is omnipotent.

    The Word of God also presents mysteries. For example, God exists. God has all power. God is all knowing. God is all loving. But thousands of people starved to death again this year, and the horror of war has slaughtered thousands more: Why? If God knows, why does He not act? If God loves, why is He not moved to do something? Not enough power? Come on now. Either God is not all powerful or He is not all loving or He is not all knowing or — He doesn’t exist!

    I believe the living God knows, loves, and is omnipotent. Yet I do not know how to untangle this dilemma. Oh, I have read books on it: C. S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain and one chapter of God in the Dock, Philip Yancey’s Disappointment with God, and others. Yet this mystery still boggles my mind. It has boggled the best minds of the centuries.

    And yet mystery is precisely the point, isn’t it? A God so small that we limited humans can explain Him is not big enough to be worshiped. Keep following the mystery. (Be back again later)

Title: "The Case for Mystery"
Author: Lynn Anderson
Publication Date: April 11, 2001

Share with Others	Related Heartlight Resources
Print this Article Send it to a Friend Discuss	How Do You Explain? Someone for All of Us