Purity

 

This is a brief comment on the article on virginity.

I wonder if the volley of criticism against sexual purity is misguided as the well-intended, -WHAT?  evangelical sex culture?!?!?! Then again, it may  be more an indication of a person’s memory, self-confidence and understanding.

Certainly, the memory of one’s past can haunt one in the present to cause a serious weakening of their self-confidence. However, those who have drawn near to God by putting their trust in Jesus have not only understood and rejoiced in the gift of new life in Christ, but have ceased to be haunted by the memory of their past.  They are no longer enslaved to it. Their confidence is foremost, not on self, but in Jesus as Lord and Savior and their determination to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives.

Please note, this is not a erasure, as some foolishly believe, of their memory. It remains with them as a constant reminder of where they once were and from where the came when they committed their lives to Jesus.

As much as the saints are called to live in purity and to love what is pure, there is nothing uplifting  about purity, or virginity, by ever more striving for the gutter low, shock-jock tactics that disgust. The preacher whose idea of having all attendees fill a cup with their spit and then asking if anyone would like to drink it makes him a cause for pause as to his love for the purity he professes. His message to shame a sinner as damaged goods was:

“This is what you are like if you have sex before marriage,” he said seriously, 
“you are asking your future husband or wife to drink this cup.”

It is as warped and asinine about purity by one who professes to be a teacher of Israel as it is about his understanding of grace and forgiveness in Jesus.

those whom Jesus never met

Someone once said Jesus never met a prostitute. I wondered if they had read the scriptures. Then, I reflected and understood their point. Jesus never met a prostitute, a drunkard, a leper or a thief. He met sinners. They are the ones whom he came to see, to meet and to eat with and lift up their faces to behold, rejoice and receive his love.

two sinners

Some years ago a man visited the assembly of the saints where I was ministering at the time. It was not long before I discerned he was a brother in Christ. Soon his wife joined him in his fellowship with the saints. Shortly afterwards they invited me to visit their home.

It was  then that he informed me they were not married. They also asked if I would consent to perform their marriage. I consented. They agreed and accepted to go through some counseling sessions with me. During the counseling I advised with great emphasis it was not a command, a condition or an order from me that they would do well to abstain from any sexual intercourse until after their wedding. They excitedly and eagerly expressed their total agreement and stated they had already mutually agreed to abstain from sex some time prior to our sessions. I told them in numerous and various ways throughout those sessions that God would bless their marriage.

The day of the wedding arrived. I presided at the solemn ceremony. The bride and groom were happy and the saints in Christ rejoiced with them. It was customary for me to do a follow-up counseling session six months after the wedding.

It was about two months after the wedding that they invited me over to their home. They wanted to talk with me. As soon as I arrived she quickly revealed they had not had sex since weeks before their wedding. She said they had been unable to have great sex as before let alone any sex. They were frustrated. She blamed me. I should say, as a testimony of their love towards me, that this was a friendly, cordial visit. There were no rants or outbursts.

a gift from God

I was stupefied. I sat silent for a what must have seemed an eternity. Then I reminded them of what I had told them. Their mouths dropped open in speechless silence.

I said, What did I tell you about how God would bless you? You have honored God and He has blessed you. You longed and eagerly desired to unite your bodies in sexual bliss just as you said you used to do. This was your own carnal mind thinking it could just move into your new marriage life as husband and wife with your old ways. You thought you knew each other’s bodies and desires and you would resume where you left off.

However, God has blessed you beyond your wildest imagination with a gift neither of you expected. It was God who brought you together on your wedding night in your wedding bed as two virgins. You were as uncomfortable, clumsy and excited as two virgins could be on seeing each other for the first time, and  - - - you did not see and rejoice in this beautifully, wonderful, pure gift of love God has given you!

the gift of God

Jesus saw what many, like us, do not see. People then, like today, saw Zacchaeus as a corrupt tax collector. When I ask children, and adults, why did Zacchaeus see Jesus they (adults, especially) reply with wonder at the obvious that he saw Jesus because he climbed up on a sycamore tree. Really? Or, did Zacchaeus see Jesus as a fulfillment of prophecy? Could it be that as was the meaning of his name, “pure”,” so too was Zacchaeus in heart? Jesus said:

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they shall see God.

So too, are those blessed who have been made pure by the blood of the Lamb of God. Though you may remember the sins of your past, understand you have been freed from it. Rejoice in the confidence of life in Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God.

Now, rejoice in the gift God has given you.

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Searching for the Baby in the Bathwater --- a partial response

There are many and familiar questions raised by Libby Anne in this article. I will not presume to answer all those questions, but I will take up her cue on one of the "more troubling questions" in this article: why did God have to have his son murdered? I have no need to blast or malign her. Her struggles are not unique and quite common among the saints in Christ, and while they may not all survive they can all be raised up yet again. Rather, it is because the particular question concerning the death of Jesus on which I want to focus is as paramount as church, trinity, (a term for which I have no need or use) Bible and God and the status of absurd these take on with the erosion of faith and conviction.

At the risk of repelling the reader I find Anne's not-too-keen conclusion that "Christianity (a term for which I have no personal use, but will accept her use of it) was built on the foundation of actual literal (emphasis, gt) human sacrifice" a great insight of truth.

The parallelism between God and herself on forgiveness is priceless. She wonders why/how God could forgive people through the death of his son. After all, she can forgive people without the need to have something murdered. This, on the sole weight of her words, is true. However, what she overlooks is the need for her to DO something for, because or towards the one she forgives. This could be something she DOES, even if she never saw the person again, as passive as a change of attitude because she has forgiven. Outwardly, it might involve telling the person directly of the forgiveness she has extended to that person. The point is her forgiveness involved DOING something.

God did nothing different than Libby Anne. He also forgave, and, like her, he DID something beyond that forgiveness. Certainly, Jesus himself asked the Father to forgive those whose actions in the moment had resulted in his crucifixion. I will come to what Jesus DID following that forgiveness, later.

Imagine the blandness of a forgiveness without words or actions. If this is true of humans it would be totally appalling, and, rightfully unacceptable without the shedding of blood, if God forgave without words or actions? Even then, what if God merely THOUGHT to forgive the sins of man, but SAID nothing audible for human ears? And had God only SPOKEN through a colossal, universe size megaphone, "I FORGIVE YOU" for the hearing of all man how long before succeeding generations doubted and rejected the veracity of the testimony of their ancestors about the voice they claimed to have heard from the sky?

Here is the great STOP sign which will declare an end to all thought, actions, plans, good and bad deeds since the birth of the individual:death.

This is why God HAD to have his Son murdered, because anything less is as bland as forgiveness with words, without words or without actions. It would be just so many lovely, wonderful words or things done not unlike any other individual, and while the resurrection in itself does not make Jesus God incarnate it poses a matter for all to examine and judge. What is that matter to examine and judge? It is the fact that Jesus declared openly and unabashedly in the presence of friends and foes alike he would lay down his life and then took it up again.

As words go it is plausible SOMEONE in the history of the world may have uttered such a claim while they were alive, but who is that individual? Where is the testimony and record of his words as taken up by his followers? Jesus not only declared these things, but when these things were fulfilled after the resurrection there was no denial by his foes. Instead, they schemed to secure their positions of power and prestige.

None of this makes any sense to Libby Anne, nonbelievers and even some saints in Christ. She is right it is not to be accepted on faith; the default answer given by too many teachers and preachers to brothers and sisters, instead of the dialog of learning, when saints are caught up in the struggles of doubt. The stark, repelling reality is that death, human sacrifice, as Anne rightly describes it, is far more impressionable without the vague, obscure muddle served up on church, trinity, Bible and God.

Just as every human being experienced a birth they cannot remember but about which they have been told regarding time, place and parents; every human has a death before them regardless of their beliefs on church, etc. Death is the inescapable necessary reality every human being faces and it was necessary that the Creator and Giver of life, even while not being recognized as such, come into his own creation and declare then demonstrate that death is nothing to him; it is in the palm of his hand. This is the reason, Jesus, the incarnate God and by all outward appearances a human being, sacrificed himself willingly to accomplish his purpose: to draw all mankind to belief in Him.

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Out-gunning the un-gunned

(note: This article was published in January 2013 and alludes to the aftermath of Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in December 14, 2012.)

I have never owned a gun, I do not presently own one and have no desire or need to own a gun. I have no problem with my neighbor who may have multiple guns, rifles or semi-automatic guns. As a disciple of Jesus it is neither a source of trouble nor an issue for me to hear saints in Christ voice their zeal and fervor to stake a right as Americans to own and use a gun. I understand and accept the constitutional right not only to own a gun as well as to use it on a mad dog, on the hunt, against an intruder into one's home, or as our Founding Fathers warned, when government ceases to be a servant of the people and presumes to rise up against its own.

What I do take issue is the gun control rants in the aftermath of every mass shooting. Worse than the rants are the disingenuous politicians and media Piers Morgans and Alex Joneses who run with it with no more desire to find a solution to the problem than to enhance their chances of re-election or buildup their egos and ratings. True enough, gun rights are no better expressed as rants and slogans than the sound bites of some saints in Christ on the convictions of their faith.

Government is not an anomaly. It is made up of American citizens. Really? A government with the authority given to it by the people and which it has been unable (or unwilling) to handle and solve the problem of violence presumes to effectively solve the problem by disarming its citizens? Government is a minister of God. The power and authority it has failed to exert on the lawless it aimlessly seeks to exert on the law abiding. As mindless as is a mass shooting so too is the notion of a policy that disarmed citizens in, Chicago for example, would be well protected by a government which has done no more for this inner city than its international southern border.

The solution is no more a gun than it was a sword when Jesus was arrested. Peter, who drew his sword in defense of Jesus, experienced a real and painful realization, namely, that for all his bravado about being ready to die for Jesus, - the fear of death compelled Peter to resort to the sword. Clearly, the response solution impressed by Jesus on Peter and for all who would surrender their lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior is one no more forced on believers than nonbelievers. It took Peter, like many other disciples, to grow in his conviction to willfully give up his life for Jesus. (This insight on Peter's death came to him from Jesus himself. [John 21:19]) Those who live without the sword are as prepared to face death as are those who live by the sword. I do not live by the sword, but I can understand the man who won't live without it and who won't die with it. I am not troubled by his/her decision anymore than I am about the appropriation of these words of Jesus:

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

However, the truth is that while these words have been commonly adopted by various armed personnel the two are not to be mistaken as being equal. When Jesus laid down his life as a demonstration of that greater love he did so without first taking someone else's life.

The clear stance of the National Rifle Association as delivered by executive vice president Wayne LePierre has no political angle and no eloquence, but is founded on the authority of the constitution.

Lastly, I remember then Senator Obama's series on YouTube when he wondered out loud just about what brand of Christianity an imaginary Christians-only nation would follow. He wondered if it would be according to the Torah, James Dobson, Al Sharpton or the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus preached. (Matthew 5 - 7) Thereby, President Obama acknowledged the value, importance and role of authority, and, while the scriptures are not the source of authority in question on the matter of gun control and disarming citizens it is the constitution that is the authority to be heeded. It does not take a lawyer or the President of the United States to know and to understand that basic tenet of American democracy. Law is not for the law abiding, but for the lawless and all who will not submit themselves to order. Government, which rightly professes authority, is just as accountable and is to be held accountable to that authority by the people. Here's the grotesqueness of disarming people. It is when a simple hand gun becomes no less than an assault weapon (pardon the media misinformation with my use of that term) to out-gun and inflict unbridled terror on the un-gunned.

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Human sacrifice at Moriah and Egypt

an ancient sacrifice in the Torah

(This is a brief examination of two ancient biblical events in history for the purpose of gaining understanding. It is NOT an advocacy for such a practice involving human sacrifice by anyone today, but it is look at human sacrifice, by God himself, in a way Israel never understood and rejected. gt)

Recently, I found myself reading various articles (see links at end of article) by both Jews and Christians on a particular Jewish perspective. The perspectives in these articles were drawn on as much on the Torah as from the New Testament. (NT) I am not one to take offense at slights and accusations on the faith that is in Christ Jesus as it sometimes seems in the Torah on these matters. Notably, some appear, at least to this Christian, as a reconstructive, retroactive interpretation with no other objective than to resist and counter the message of the sacrifice of Jesus as recorded by the NT writers. This objective from Jews is understandable as we will see later.

The purpose of this brief article is to bring a focus to bear on the death, or sacrifice, of Egypt’s firstborn as the tenth and final plague which God brought on Pharaoh.

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Our Responsibility as a Society

My prayers and condolences go out for those mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who have suffered a great loss in their families in America, today. Even as they grieve there is no reason why others of us can not, yet again, speak to this evil that ensnares itself on our society only to rear its ugliest at any season.

I

I do not own a gun, but I do not have a problem with anyone owning a gun, guns, rifles including assault rifles. I have no need for any of these things. No need to paint a scenario as to what I would do if the picture were painted in different shades. I know the Lord, my God. I can understand and have no problem with someone exercising their pre-determined judgment either to shoot or to kill anyone who assaults them or intrudes into their home.

I also understand the American constitutional right, not only to own guns, but to use them. The problem is neither gun control, guns, the type of gun nor the mental state of one who has grossly abused the right to own and use a gun.

We

The problem is our sense of responsibility as individuals and a society. Only in some rare instances has a murderous assault on society been averted by those middle and high school children who would not be silenced by the social stigma of telling on another. When they, like others, heard one of their own utter his intentions to come back with a gun they did the responsible thing and spoke up. Their immediate response to the problem was neither to ignore the individual nor to ask the individual to stop talking that way, but to go to adults in positions of responsibility who, wisely and prudently enough, acted accordingly. Our society pressures its own to keep silent and never tell what is spoken or happens behind closed doors, that is, unless you're a baby or you are not a man. Our society regularly learns of acts long kept secret because the exposure would mean a blow to individuals or organizations deemed more worthy than the victims. No wonder the children and adults alike will often keep silent when they ought to speak up.

Gun owners' talk

Gun owners know their duty to be responsible with their guns. They do not wander about shooting them off as they please. Here is where adults, both gun owners and non owners, have yet to understand and live responsibly, not with guns, but with their tongues. Even the (so called) dialog and statements in the aftermath of the latest atrocity the chorus heard is the exchange of one-liner assertions of what is NOT the problem instead of a probing for the problem and the solution.

There is a sporting talk heard as much on social media on the use of one's gun as it is heard aloud in many other settings. This is as common from professing Christians as non Christians. It is the blood lust thirst for the foolish intruder on whom to gladly and eagerly unload a gun. It's a common scenario painted too often to assert one's right to self-defense and ready willingness to, in the popular vernacular, - blow someone away. This bravado is often accompanied complete, as if we did not know, with a photo or illustration of a weapon.

Acting and talking responsibly

Like I said, I have no problem, I understand and accept the individual's right and use of his/her gun, but by what stretch of our collective social mind is it acceptable to ignore with total silence when that same individual shoots off his mouth irresponsibly about using that gun as his answer to a problem?

And, if we are to hold the bar up to a higher standard than comparing ourselves with one whose mental state is questionable, by what stretch of a responsible mind does anyone feel their mental soundness ought not be suspect if they think this is the stuff, that is, "blowing him away," for coffee table talk and posting on Facebook?

Politicians and gun control

I do not support or advocate gun control. I would advocate and would support legislation which would result in the permanent confiscation and revocation of future gun ownership when two or more witnesses can attest they have heard him/her shoot off their mouth about shooting off their gun. The ONLY way this can work is NOT through government, but through private citizens, responsible individual children and adults, who have a tongue to speak and understand and exercise a true sense of responsibility regardless whether or not they own a gun. If a gun owner can not distinguish between confiscation in this manner to support it and generic, across the board gun control which he can oppose; I would have cause to wonder.

I wonder how many of you, along with friends, would call to responsible accountability one of those friends when he is heard to shoot off his mouth about the use of his gun? Before gun control comes tongue control. Don't shoot off your mouth regardless whether or not you own a gun. Be just as eager and ready to speak up as you might be to use a gun. This basic message on tongue control by the apostle James is for the saints in Christ. However, let everyone judge for themselves and discern if it is not true that one who will not control his tongue so as to shoot off his would just as soon should his gun.

I would vote against the politicians' legislation which blindly and broadly attempts to deny gun ownership or similarly confiscate guns from citizens as their idea of a solution to the problem involving violence with guns.

Jesus: He laid down his life

Lastly, here's something I can say without threat to anyone or fear of anyone because I am responsible and accountable to God: Jesus came and did as He said He would do. He laid done his life, because no one can take it from him, (John 10:18) in order that you might have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) When not only his fingers but his whole body were stiff cold, he arose to triumph over death and its grip of fear. He is Lord only over those who have committed their lives to him as Lord and Savior. I understand and accept, as I learn from Jesus, the thought of laying down one's life is not something most individuals are prepared to do because the specter is frightening. Do you believe? Do you trust?

Peace to all.

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This Mystery is Great: Unity and Marriage

A few months ago I began meditating, reading and praying over a familiar New Testament (NT) passage. It is a passage popular at weddings. It was my turn to read it as I had done many times I had presided at weddings. This time, however, I was the father and the bride was our firstborn daughter. I prepared fully anticipating the possibility I just might choke-up a bit. I did, _ but I got past it to pronounce my daughter and her fiancé as husband and wife. It was during my preparation that I sensed a need to understand and appreciate more fully the title words of this article which are the words in that passage. (Yes, of course. The condensed wedding message was about a three sentence summary.)

Sometimes when things are not explained or not explained satisfactorily they are often dismissed and written off as being incomprehensible, mysterious, conspiracies, matters to be scorned and mocked. Discussion is often averted with glib, unconvincing responses such as, “You just gotta have faith” or the squeaky new modern, “It is what it is” neither of which offers any understanding which might enlighten listeners.

This is often true in matters of faith and politics. Some of the New Testament writers in the Bible often wrote of what they called a mystery. This has led some NT readers to view those scripture passages as a mystery; secretive and incomprehensible. Worse still is when saints in Christ are admonished by those who preach and teach to simply believe rather than do the work of praying, examining, discussing and understanding those mysteries like all other difficult matters of faith. The result is saints live weak lives, are easily troubled or confused or drawn away by what, at least in the moment, seems to make sense to them. However, the NT use of the term by those writers is nothing like the above when they spoke of mysteries.

A great mystery

When people ask, “Can you keep a secret?” it can mean two things. They want to tell you a secret, or they want to make sure that what they tell you will remain a secret and unknown to anyone. A mystery can be like a secret in that it too can remain unknown. However, unlike a secret which can remain unknown by choice a mystery can remain impenetrable and without comprehension despite great efforts to understand it, to reveal it and to make it known. The apostle Paul in the first century made reference to a mystery that is great when he wrote to the church in the city of Ephesus in chapter five of his letter.

This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Paul wrote these words after an immediate, prior reference to man and woman in the same letter.

For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother,

and shall cleave to his wife;

and the two shall become one flesh.

Specifically, he related the flesh oneness of man and woman with the spirit oneness of Christ and the church. This use of flesh and spirit by the apostle may seem strange especially given the constant appeals and admonitions by Paul for the saints in Christ to walk not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

Yet, Paul does not appear to speak of this mystery as something which was unknown or which was to remain unknown to the saints in Christ at Ephesus or throughout the ages. He definitely did not intend to be deliberately obscure or cryptic in his message to the saints in Christ on this matter.

The mystery seems to be something which was to be understood, as in the relationship between man and woman, but also as between Christ and the church.

Again, this seems especially true given that Paul uses the word nourish, cherish and love in the marriage union as clear and palpable outward expressions between spouses in marriage. His call for husbands to love their wives is likened to how Christ loved the church.

The importance of understanding this mystery that is great

Why is it important for the saints in Christ to understand the meaning of this great mystery? One reason is the fact that it centers on the human relationship between Adam and Eve. Second, it necessarily takes one back to that moment when Satan came between Adam and Eve to disrupt their relationship with each other and with God. Third, it is the fact that Satan didn't stop after he lied about God to Adam and Eve. A fourth reason may be as concerns the significance of mysteries in religious cults. Specifically, in Ephesus and throughout Asia the cult of Artemis was dominant in which mysteries were known only to a select, elite few.

After the fall of mankind in the garden Satan proceeded to lie about God. Satan continues to deceive many concerning what God said about the fulfillment purpose of a man with a woman and a woman with a man. There are many who have believed Satan. They have believed their own rationale that all manner of human relationships are pleasing to God if, 1) one was born in that way, 2) they are not hurting anyone, or 3) they are happy. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I believe to understand this great mystery is to understand something about the nature, the oneness, of God and how he desires to see that same oneness in marriage and in the church.

There are some questions which emerge for the saints to examine on this great mystery.

1. What is the significance of this great mystery?
2. What does this great mystery suggest about the nature and purpose of God and his relation to mankind and the church?
3. How does it concern man and woman in marriage?
4. How does it concern the church?
5. Why does Paul draw such a correlation between man and woman and Christ and the church?
6. Is there a manner in which all mankind, not just the saints in Christ, participate and are therefore aware of the reality of this great mystery?

In the beginning

The significance (1) of this great mystery of human interaction is that it has been lost. This is not to say one cannot understand or acquire this great mystery anew. It is to say it is forgotten in troubled, abandoned relationships and marriages. This mystery is not something which was never known prior to Paul's writings. Yes, it has come to be rejected by some for whom the flesh union is the sum of human relationships as well as by others for whom spiritual/spirituality is a personal matter and no business or concern of God, the saints, the church or the scriptures. Rarely are the physical and spiritual valued as essential to the completeness of relationships. Yet, as much as God, who is spirit, declared man had become like Him knowing good and evil it is the flesh form of man which makes man different from God since the beginning.

When Paul referred back to the beginning in the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis it was because it was there that the prophecy was first spoken by God before the fall of Adam and Eve. Genesis relates the creation account. It relates the beginning of the marriage of man and woman. It relates the beginning of the relationship between the Creator and his creation. God, who is spirit, relates to and is in relationship with the man and woman he created who are flesh. Since that time God has beheld before his eyes the intimate, physical and spiritual interaction, even if shattered and fragmented, between the man and the woman he had created. This same garden scenario suggests (2) the oneness that is God, which He knows and He has seen mere glimpses of that oneness in the marriage union. This same oneness He desires to see in the church.

Why does this glimpse of the oneness of God in the scriptures strike some as something to regard as a human behavioral curiosity while it sends others into a theological scramble? It may be how God refers to himself in the plural (“let US”) form, hence the theological scramble, and when he spoke the mystery of the man and the woman (“man has become like one of US”) becoming one flesh, hence, the human behavior curiosity. The ancient unresolved, misunderstood plural references by God to himself in the scriptures are not the exclusive domain of Jewish, Christian or Muslim scholar discussions. This plurality is as evident in the scriptures about God as it is in the troubled plurality of human relationships.

A prophet: The oneness of God

The mystery of the oneness of God, to whom scripture often refers in the plural sense, was prophesied by God in this reference to a prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15.

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.

As much as first century Jews and twenty first century Christians quantify this passage and see a single individual in the references to a prophet, that is not the interpretation and application by the inspired apostle Peter in Acts 3 and Stephen in Acts 7. The interpretation and application is on the lineage of prophets which God was to send to Israel soon after Moses. Notice how the Deuteronomy passage is framed from beginning to end with references to the prophets in the plural. Notice also, the mention of the disobedience of Israel as much towards Moses as towards the prophets who, Stephen says,

They (Israel, the fathers) killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One  (Acts 7:52)

Unfortunately, that clarification and declaration by Stephen of "the Righteous One" is quite likely quantified by fellow saints in Christ with the numeric value of one. Yes, there was and is ONE Jesus, the Son of God, but the reference of one is of the God clarified and declared by the NT writers inspired by the Holy Spirit as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; all who are Righteous.

What God impressed on Israel through Moses was the one, single, complete, total harmony between 1) everything God said directly to Israel, 2) what Moses said God said, 3) what the prophet(s) said God said, 4) what Jesus said came from God, 5) what the apostles said the Holy Spirit said, and 6) what the saints in Christ state when they read the scriptures.

As much as prophets were to speak with one calling the will of the Lord so, too, the husband and wife in marriage and the church have received the same call from the beginning in the garden and on Pentecost to speak and act in harmony and unity as one.

However, Israel, to the extent that she killed the prophets, no more understood or accepted this unity; this oneness of God through the many messengers of God any more than Israel ever grasped and resolved those plural references. The response to those plural references by Jews to, “just ignore them,” as one rabbi states on the Shema:

Hear Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. (Deuteronomy 6)

seems hardly worthy of a teacher of Israel.

Before His eyes

This is the mystery which God has observed since the beginning of creation. He’s had a front row seat to the longest running stage play in the history of the world on display before his eyes. The principle actors in this performance, which opened in the garden, is the creation of his hands, the man and the woman, of whom God spoke,

Let US make man in OUR image

and later,

Behold, the man has become like one of US.

God viewed as the interaction played out between Adam and Eve. Yes, like Adam and Eve, we are amateur actors consistent only in our missed cues, forgetting our lines and poor performances. Too often we live in the love of God with something less than a convincing conviction for those who observe us. Yet, the initial creation of Adam alone in the garden to interact with God alone was not good in the eyes of God. Although Adam was one with God it was God who in essence acknowledged  that Adam needed a relationship with one of his own kind. Adam was deprived. God was deprived of the interaction He desired to see between two living beings - different one from the other and yet, like God.

Could it be that what God observed in the marriage of the man and woman (3) was what he purposed to see:

A semblance of the Divine Father, Son and Holy Spirit and as incarnated in Jesus, the Son of God?

What is the semblance of the divine which God hoped to see in the interaction of two human beings as different from one another as Father and Son and Son and Father, Son and Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit and Father? Could it be that the mystery which is great and which God desires and hopes to see is the oneness, the unity which is God, not just in our human flesh, but in spirit?

Unity of one

This unity of one is not a quantitative expression of God as one, two, three or four, as mistakenly viewed by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. The Jews were privileged to receive the scriptures of God, but every generation is called to search for the unity and harmony in the interpretation of those scriptures and to discover, rejoice and proclaim that discovery. This is the same unity and harmony; the oneness, which God desired and in which He delighted to see between the man and the woman in the garden before the fall. This is the same unity, the same oneness, which Christ desires to see and delights to see in His body, His bride, the church.(4) How this concerns the church is that without this same unity and oneness the marriage of a man and a woman will remain in a constant struggle to survive.

The church, too, may survive but without the whole fullness and oneness that is God and which he desires for the health, goodness and joy of man and woman and the church without which neither one magnifies the glory of life in Jesus.

As humans, it is extremely difficult to be in complete agreement with anyone whether one’s intimate spouse, friend, acquaintance or much less a complete stranger. However, this is the unity the New Testament reveals about God through Jesus, the Christ. There is nothing which the Father, Son or Holy Spirit had to run by the other for prior approval and authorization before saying or acting out the will of God. Such is the God who is one. The explanation by some saints (self-proclaimed, “oneness”) that Jesus is the Father and Holy Spirit are at best a failure to grasp this plurality and at worse a denial of these divine living beings as they are portrayed by Jesus in the gospels and by Paul in Ephesians 1, particularly. There, Paul spells out the details of what the Father purposed, what the Son was to fulfill in accordance with the Father, and what the Holy Spirit was to do to signify with the seal which designates those who have believed God and obeyed the Son according to the Father's good pleasure. All this was defined before the foundation of the world.

All for one

Since Paul speaks of and frames this great mystery in the context of human relationship, specifically; man and woman in marriage, it is imperative that other human relationships be made subject to discussion. All, atheists, agnostics and theists alike, know and experience the human interaction of relationship in which every man and woman participates. This same human interaction is no less present in the homosexual relationship. Whether or not the homosexual regards or acknowledges God’s purpose as declared in the garden or merely professes a superficial acknowledgment of that beginning, the homosexual relationship he is not exempt from the discussion. It is, in fact, especially subject to the discussion because the mystery of unity of oneness which characterizes God is undeniably to be desired and a delight in all human relationships holy or profane.

Unity through diversity, -- not

Yet, the homosexual/lesbian relationship graphically epitomizes, both in the carnal mind and the flesh of the body, the very thing which God did not like after he created man – that the man was alone.

The response by God to Adam’s need was not to create another human male like Adam, but a human female like Eve. The homosexual/lesbian life is characterized, not by loneliness as some may distort the use of the word here, but by aloneness. It is the human (homosexual and lesbian) affront, not only to God, but even to the very same culture so much touted in the world of the homosexual and lesbian. You may wonder how. It is that the hearty slogan of “unity through diversity” extolled in the workplace, the athletic field as well as in the gathering of the faithful is nothing more than a dull, hollow thud. The mere fleshy union of two same-sex individuals does not and cannot equate to diversity or unity and is, in fact, contrary to the unity-through-diversity culture banner slogan. As much as God acknowledged He was not enough for the human Adam if Adam were ever to experience the joy of human fulfillment it was essential that Adam have a human female companion who was different than the male Adam, not as between male and male or female and female, but as between male and female.

Heterosexual and homosexual relationships are showcase display attempts at unity between two people. Either through the difference of heterosexuals or the sameness of homosexuals there is the mystery of unity which affects them both. This is true of the witting and unwitting regardless whether or not they know or acknowledge God as the Divine Creator. This unity and oneness of God is prevalent. It is the desire and delight of all human relationships even when the moral makeup of those relationships represents a rejection of God and his will. Yet, a union with a gender other than one's opposite is like a battery with two positive or two negative terminals. Such a thing cannot be made and still function as a battery even if it is called a battery. A behavioral homosexual can no more be produced by two homosexuals any more than a physiological woman/man can be produced by two women or two men together.

Other uses of the term, mystery

These are some appearances of the term and phrase involving the word mystery by the apostle Paul:

Paul refers to the mystery, that is, the will of God which was initially unknown only because it was drawn up by the Father BEFORE the foundation of the world or human minds and eyes could focus on it. Ephesians 1:9

The ancient mystery was that Israel were the people with whom God had a covenant. The other side of that was the Gentiles did not have a covenant with God. This changed when Israel's heart was hardened which resulted in the Gentiles hearing and obeying the gospel of Jesus. Romans 11:25

and

3 how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words,4 by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; 5 which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News, of which I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. 8 To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ; Ephesians 3:3-9

This mystery has been in the scriptures of the prophets from long ago. Romans 14:24,25

on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Good News, Ephesians 6:19

The mystery is inclusive in the entirety of the Good News.

the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, 27 to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; Colossians 1:26ff; 4:3

Clearly, the mystery in its fullness is revealed, understood and proclaimed best by those who have heard it, believed it and accepted; the saints in Christ. Yet, the unwitting too live in and participate in this mystery.

Conclusion

There is an important need for the saints in Christ to understand the mystery that is great in Ephesians 5 because of its far reach from the beginning in the garden to the church today. The mystery is related to and understood and lived in the relationship of the husband and wife in marriage as much as in the church, the bride of Christ. Paul's use of the phrase is much more than a superficial generality about marriage and the church. These relationships were created in diversity and difference in the beginning, not just in flesh, but in spirit too. Both relationships share a similar calling to speak and act in unity and harmony. This is the same unity, harmony and oneness, the mystery that is great, that is God.

Selected readings:

Great is the Mystery After a brief definition of terms and virtual synonyms the author stakes the content of this article on the importance of sacraments. There's no attempt to explain the phrase in its immediate or broader context.

Sacrament This outline form includes a substitution of sacrament for mystery and offers nothing more than the above.

“The Mystery” What is it? Although this article, in my estimation, also fails to identify the mystery that is great with respect to, as Paul states, the church the author rightly emphasizes the importance for saints to understand the mystery.

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The Mystery Satan Did Not Know

Satan presumed to know what he did not know. Satan’s first appearance in the scriptures was to reveal himself as a liar. He lied to Adam and Eve about the truth God had told them. God had told them they would die on the day they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan thought God did not want the man and woman to become like him. Yet, that is precisely (and not to God’s surprise) what happened. God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:22)

What Satan did not know was what God had already purposed and chosen since before the foundation of the world. The apostle Paul spelled it out in the first chapter of Ephesians. This mystery, unknown to Satan, was according to the good pleasure of God. What was that mystery?

Paul’s explanation of this mystery in Ephesians (1:9) was that it was per the desire (1:5) and will (1:9) of God. It was in accordance with God’s good pleasure. It was his good pleasure to adopt children unto himself through faith in Christ Jesus.

The language Paul uses is reminiscent of Satan’s lie to Adam and Eve: Your eyes will be open. (Genesis 3:5) While Eve TOOK and gave some of the fruit to her husband Paul’s prayer language is that, the Father of glory, may GIVE to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of [Christ]; (v. 17)

And

having the EYES of your hearts ENLIGHTENED, that you may KNOW what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, (1:18)

God GAVE us the favor of being blessed with every spiritual blessing in the Beloved, that is, Jesus. This was even before the foundation of the world. We COULD NOT have TAKEN it even if we had wanted, but he GAVE it freely.

The lie Satan spoke was exposed. Adam and Eve did die. The initial death, that is their spiritual separation from God, eventually manifested itself in their physical death when the breath of life left their bodies. What does a liar do when his lie is exposed? He changes it. Satan's lie is well known today. It is the belief held by those ignorant and mistaken that death is final. It is for this reason that Paul continues his message in Ephesians:

and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might 20 which he worked in Christ, when he RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD. (1:19, 20)

Although Satan knew God as creator he did not know the exceeding greatness of his power. Satan learned of God's power over death. When God himself put on a human suit and triumphed over death, as he said he would, Satan changed his lie again.

Those who submit to the one who sits far above all rule, authority and power, and dominion (v. 21) are those who at one time were unenlightened and without hope. The mystery, Paul explains, is that God purposed in accordance with his own good pleasure to call those who were without hope in life. Now, having believed in the historicity and reality of the power of the resurrection of Jesus they are called to make known life and love in the Son.

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