FIRST QUARTER 2020

SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #3

JANUARY 18, 2020

“FROM MYSTERY TO REVELATION”

 

 

In our study for this week we will consider the revelation of the mystery of God in Daniel chapter 2. The word “secret” in the KJV is translated “mystery” in the Septuagint (the Old Testament Greek text). I have over 20 Bibles that translate the word “secret” as “mystery” in this chapter. The revelation of this mystery is the dominant theme, the distinctive idea, the motif in this second chapter of Daniel.

The word “secret” or “mystery” is used 8 times in this chapter. A word associated with this word is “revealed” in various forms. This word is likewise made use of 8 times in Daniel 2. And further, the term “mystery” used here, is the same in the New Testament.

In the English language the word mystery usually means an unsolved problem. But in the Bible, it means something revealed by God and is knowable. Jesus said, “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 13:11).

The New testament speaks of two mysteries – “the mystery of iniquity” and “the mystery of godliness” (2 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Timothy 3:16). These are the two mysteries in the world, even in the universe. “The mystery of iniquity” is Antichrist. Lucifer is the first Antichrist. The question here must be, how could a perfect angel become a devil? There is no reason for this change. It is unexplainable. Lucifer is fully responsible and accountable for creating the “mystery of iniquity.” He is that mystery.

The other mystery in the Bible is the “mystery of God” which is the divine Christ revealing Himself in human flesh. Beyond any doubt the most important of the two mysteries is “the mystery of god” and of godliness, which is the gospel (Ephesians 6:18; 3:3; Colossians 4:3).

This mystery was hidden in the mind of God from the creation of the world and from eternity. In Paul’s benediction as he closed his letter to the Romans, he wrote the following thought, “Now to Him Who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 26but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith.” (Romans 16:25).

Involved in this mystery is Christ living today in human flesh. It is the “mystery … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

God’s Mystery is Incomprehensible to Satan

“The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations so amazing that Satan with all his triumphant boasting, with all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of his government, stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery.” E.G. White, General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 27, 1893.

In and through Daniel, the revelation of the mystery of God was revealed to a pagan king who was finally converted as recorded in chapter 4 of Daniel. This revelation of the mystery of God meant life, not only to Daniel and his companions, but it was also life for the false counselors (Daniel 2:24). And the revelation of the mystery of God is for your life also. This revelation reaches all the way from the time of Daniel to our day and beyond – until the second coming of Christ when His solid Rock kingdom brings down all the nations of the world as outlined in the image of king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2:43-45).

This brings us to the weakest part of the image in the dream. The feet are the foundation of the image. The weakness of the feet is in the watered-down clay joined to the iron. The destruction of the image will be simple but sure. Mineral and metal do not mix in the natural world, but in this false spirituality as depicted in the metaphor of “miry clay” mingled with iron is “the mystery of iniquity” made after the order of “that old serpent, called the Devil” (Revelation 12:9).

The four nations symbolized by the evolution of metals from gold, to silver, to bronze and to iron will collapse in the destruction of the amalgamated mixture of clay and iron in the feet and toes – the weakened underpinning of the image.

Clay in the Bible always represents God’s people who are supposed to be molded by the hands of the heavenly Potter (see Jeremiah 18:1-6). We sing a Hymn based on verse 3. It is titled, “Have Thine Own Way Lord.” Following is the first verse:

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still.

These lyrics were written by Adelaide Pollard. In 1902, she was longing to go to Africa as a missionary but found herself incapable to raise the needed money to fund the journey. Very disheartened, she visited a prayer meeting and heard a woman pray, “It really doesn't matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way with our lives.” These words encouraged Adelaide as she pondered the story of the potter from Jeremiah 18:3. After returning home that evening, she wrote all four stanzas to what would become “Have Thine Own Way, Lord.” In these lyrics she called upon Jesus to guide and shape her life by His will, not her own: “Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.” It follows a powerful theme of devotion to Christ and a willingness to trust in Him.

So, the problem we observe in Daniel 2 is this clay – God’s people – which becomes watered down and sewers away from the Potter. The church can survive only by the power of God. When she loses God’s power she turns to the strongest power on earth, which is the state. Her very existence is at stake. In days of old, this mingling of clay and iron ushered in the Dark Ages. The church of Rome in, and by, her watered-down doctrines and experiences seeped imperceptibly into the state. She leached out the life of the state, thus strengthening herself at the expense of the kingdoms of the world. Leaching (chemistry) is the process of extracting substances from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid. In this case the wine of Babylon not only caused drunkenness among the nations, it flooded governments with her seemingly endless supply of wine. In short, she used the muscle of the state for her puffed-up proud purposes.

A.T. Jones, writing about the trial of Huss, wrote of how “the mystery of iniquity” – the mingling of churchcraft with statecraft worked:

“Why should [the papal authority] not use all the powers of earth in behalf of the church? Were not the ‘chief discussions’ settled by the church? Were not the ‘final decisions developed there’? And when John Huss on his knees before the Emperor Sigismund, in presence of the Council of Constance, listened to the vindictive denunciation of the Bishop of Lodi against heresy, he felt comparatively safe as he held in his hand the pledged honor of the empire, in the form of a safe-conduct signed by the Emperor's own hand. But when the Bishop turned to the powerful Emperor, and, while pointing to the kneeling saint, cried out, ‘Destroy this obstinate heretic,’ poor Huss mentioned his safe-conduct, and its shameful violation, with his sad eyes turned appealingly upon the Emperor; and although Sigismund was deeply moved, Huss could receive no answer from him, except in the deep blush that overspread his face; then he knew that although he held the safe-conduct of the empire, and although the Emperor was disposed to let him go, yet the church held him, the Emperor, and the empire all in its cruel power, and that the church could say, ‘We will not allow the civil government to decide’ in matters that concern the church. Where is the difference between the arrogance of the papal church not allowing the civil government to do thus and so, and the arrogance of the National Reformers [in the United States] saying that when they get the power ‘we will not allow the civil government’ to do this or that? If that was church and State, why is not this the same? If that was the beast, what else will this be but the image to the beast? If persecution was there, WILL THERE NOT BE PERSECUTION HERE?” A.T. Jones, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, April 1, 1884. (Emphasis in the original).

And so, the outline of nations and the principles of the two mysteries in Daniel 2 bring us down to our time. And beyond. We can observe, today, the almost imperceptive working of some persons (thank God, not all) within Protestantism toward a union of church and state, not only in Europe but here in America, thus the making of the image of the beast by this union as revealed by Christ to Daniel in the watered down clay mingled with iron.

In 1888 God sent a message to prepare His people for the time of the final mingling of the clay with the iron Republic. That message, then, was the beginning of the loud cry which was to be the finishing of “the mystery of God” (Revelation 10:7). Why was it not finished during that bygone era? Most certainly God cannot be blamed for not finishing His mystery. We His people were not willing.

When Christ, the “mystery of God” is fully in control of us both individually and corporately, then the command will be given to the angels who hold the four winds of strife to let them go and blow. This shall come; perhaps is even now in the beginning stages which will end in the death rattle of the “mystery of iniquity.” The “mystery of God” will totally obliterate the union of church and state – “the mystery of iniquity.”

Are you, am I, ready for the full manifestation of the two mysteries? We will be involved fully in one of the two. Are we mingling God’s clay within ourself with the world? Or are we standing on the solid Rock? Are we getting ready to meet Christ in the clouds? Are we learning to depend fully on Him and Him alone, as did Daniel? Does our faith involve a full commitment to Him?

In closing, consider the last verse of “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”:

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!

 

~Jerry Finneman