One of the standard Evangelical definitions of mystery takes all the mystery out of mystery. That particular definition claims that there is no mystery to mystery. In other words, the claim is that a New Testament mystery is only something that was mysterious in the Old Testament but that is no longer mysterious in the New Testament because God has revealed it to us. The claim is that Saint Paul only ever used the word to signify something that God revealed in the New Testament. So, there is no such thing as a New Testament mystery.
Needless to say, this type of claim conveniently allows those Evangelicals who agree with that definition to do away with quite a few centuries of the idea that God is unknowable by us. When I say unknowable, I do not mean that we do not know God in Jesus Christ, but rather that it is impossible for us to know God in his essence. One of my priest friends put it this way:
The first is that the encounter with the tri-personal God directly impinges upon the question of Divine Essence vs. Divine Energies. There is an analogy that can be drawn here in terms of our experience of other human persons. I can “know” another human from the “outside” in terms of what they say and what they do, but I cannot directly experience them from the inside. Only they can experience themselves in this way and, even then, our experience of ourselves interiorly is limited.
The reality is that we cannot know God from the inside anymore than we can know anyone from the inside. We can only know God from the outside. But, here is where those who follow Florovsky are wrong. They speak as though we cannot know God at all. But, the reality is that in Our Lord Jesus Christ we can know God. We may not know him exhaustively, but we can certainly know him. God may be unknowable in the sense that we cannot know him from the inside. But, we must say that in Jesus Christ we know God well, otherwise our salvation comes into question. If God became man so that we may become gods is true, then we must also say that God became man so that we might know him. We cannot make God so unknowable that our deification becomes doubtful and questionable.
So, why did I post the video above both yesterday and today? Because in this video we see something of the mystery of God. This Christmas season, flash mobs performing the Hallelujah chorus of The Messiah by Handel have been found in several USA, and outside the USA, cities. A chorus which proclaims the sovereignty of God and that he is in charge has been performed over and over. There have already been several “analyses” posted that have to do with those performances.
So, did God quietly work behind the scenes to ensure that his name was proclaimed by even secular classical music choirs? I have no idea and neither does anyone else. Whether we claim that this is a random cultural happening or whether we claim that God in his sovereignty arranged the singing of these various flash mobs Messiahs, we have no way to prove either thesis. And, now we enter the area of faith and mystery. Because God is omnipotent, it is quite possible that he arranged every detail of the flash mobs without in any way contradicting free will. And that is because human free will is contingent on quite a few matters. (But that is another subject.) On the other hand, it is quite possible that this is a random cultural happening. We have no way of knowing until the day that we meet Our Lord.
If you read my last post, this is the area where our mind splinters and we end up simply taking our shoes off and acknowledging that God is holy and omnipotent and omnipresent, etc. We come to God in worship and say that he is both unknowable and has revealed himself fully in Jesus Christ. We say that he has fully allowed us to choose, but he has chosen the path in which this world will walk. This is where we acknowledge both mystery and revelation. Finally, this is where we go to the Divine Liturgy and enter into the heavens while at the same time saying that we have yet to arrive.
Yes, this is where our logic reaches its endpoint but where the mystery of God begins.
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