Christ vs. Pannenberg vs. the Hermeneutic Death Spiral, pt 4:

But, more to the point, since the Old Testament prophetic template is that because the message is intended for a public and free disclosure of previously secret and divine knowledge with implications to all, proving and explaining God, it’s not going to be about things that pertain only to the prophets finances, happiness, family, job or other like matters.  True, it is also understood here, correctly, as applying to the individual and his circumstances. It’s a revelation that is given is on rare occasions as an unverifiable divine experience and personal edification. But the difference between how revelation is emerging and how it was laid down prevents its content and its carrier to be treated apart and from the revelatory motivations of God and man for the revealing of a knowledge which is of the greatest conceivable importance. First, we point out 2 Corinthians 12:1:

• 2 CO 12:1: “It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” Paul refers to a revelation he received being transported to Heaven. Seeing things so glorious that he can’t speak of them, making a boast of himself of his work on earth would be puerile and vain. The message is that no work for Christ that we can perform, no matter how obedient and righteous, is a source of pride, but the “lifting up of the head” (Ps 110:7), his success, is in the of pure love and joy in knowing the otherwise impossible knowledge of God in his plan of redemption through the prophets. The carrier of this revelation is the insight of the directly contacted prophet and the content is for the education of the greatest evangelist that the world has ever known.

I would point out that Paul was given a heavenly revelation that was as unique as to the normal function of revelation as the manner in which God took a violent unbeliever and revealed himself to him on the Road to Damascus. Christ has done these special things because he knew Paul and knew that he would be ideal for his ministry, giving him both the blessing of seeing and talking to him and seeing with his own eyes what awaits him for serving him. It was needed to break through the mental calcification that pharisaical tradition worship created in his soul that prevented him from seeing Christ in the Old Testament, which was the only other place he could have seen him if he were to come to faith. Although a special blessing, it’s not to be taken as anything that could be given to us unless the world’s spiritual condition was so needful, such as the need for a specially equipped gentile evangelist, that there was no other way. Under normal circumstances, we have the completed corpus of scripture and have all we need for faith to see Christ as the only miracle of history.

• 2 CO 12:7: Same thought, but to prevent him from thinking of himself too highly he was given a “thorn in the flesh” by God to keep him humble. This revelation is designed by God to be depreciating, by comparison, not exhaling to the individual who receives it.

At this tear at the seam of the meaning of the original historical revelation opened after the deaths of the Apostles, Paul was given a very personal revelation of Heaven. It was not a public revelation except through Paul’s public testimony. The OT prophet utters a revelation from God that is meant to be written down and carried through the ages, receiving its positive confirmation of a real revelation from God when it is historically fulfilled. The crucial point is that revelation, whether public or personal, a matter of seeing or only believing,  is still not decoupled from that of the OT Prophet, among which the Apostles and the early Church are the ultimate examples, because revelation is still for the sole purpose of public benefit for the furtherance of the prophetic Gospel. The Prophet receives knowledge only for the purpose of the dissemination and explanation of the Gospel, never for the main purpose of giving the prophet happiness or to satisfy curiosity. It has a content that is always intended for future expansion of the knowledge of God, and, in all but rare circumstances, must always be verifiable and true, at least through prophetic realization, given to a person chosen by God whom he knows will not interpret it as a means of personal glory.

• Gal 2:2: Paul went up to Jerusalem by revelation, by a special communication by God.

Notice that this revelation was for the specific purpose of meeting with James, Cephas, and John who confirmed Paul as one of them with the specific mission to the Gentiles. This is missionary, not merely personal. It’s a gift to further the prophetic Gospel.

• Ephesians 1:17: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.”

Clearly wisdom and revelation as gifts pertain to the acquiring only of knowledge about or for the Messiah: “revelation in the knowledge of him.”  The context and content of this information are locked to the Old Testament prophets. It is disclosed and understood in the spirit, but it applies only to the understanding of this prophetic Truth about Jesus Messiah which was at the time of Paul manifested openly to the world.

But, backing up to v. 4, Paul uses the prophetic language of past and future fulfillment, that before the foundation of the world the faithful were chosen by God to be redeemed. This is prophetic language. In v. 5 the prophetic word is “foreordained” or “predestined,” the same prophetic language. In v. 7 and 8, the benefits were forgiveness of sins, wisdom, and prudence, and v. 9 identifies the source of this information in the Prophets: “the mystery of his will.”

The Mystery

We should pause here to focus on the word “mystery” which is so closely tied to revelation.

This is the μυστήριον, the mystḗrion. In the 27 occurrences of this word, it is first applied to the mystery of the Kingdom of God/Heaven (Mat 13:11, Mark 4:11 and Luke 8:10). This is a present, spiritual kingdom of believers in the fulfilled oracles of Christ, and a future kingdom prophetically promised for them which they believe will come to realization because of those past fulfillments.

In Mat 13:11, Jesus speaks of the mystery hidden in his parables. The reason people don’t understand this is because they don’t know or understand messianic prophecy, for which Christ gives an example:

Matthew 13:14 (KJV) And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

What Isiah the prophet specifically refers is not a general conception of not hearing and a general conception of not seeing, or a general conception of “Bible,” or some voluntary choice, but specifically of God’s promises for the future of which his book in its entirety is the greatest example for the predictions of Messiah.

In Mark 4:11 is the same thought, presenting the Parable of the Sower as the mystery which is not understood but is revealed by those who are looking for it. This is not just the meaning of the Parable, but the whole parable is a prophetic trope that is expected to be taken as a symbol of the New Covenant rule of faith and religion, which is not a man and not merely the imagination. Its God’s fulfilled, historical Word. That is religion because that is Jesus Christ.

Luke 8:10 presents the same teaching. We should pause and consider this parable briefly.

The Sower is Christ or his evangelist and the Seed if the “Word of God.” This is not a matter of speculation, but Christ gives it to us for free. However, it’s a hint, and he expects you to connect the dots. It must be remembered that the New Testament was not written at this time. This “Word of God” refers only to the Old Testament, and if to the Old Testament this Word of God that Messiah casts is prophetic of Jesus Messiah. There is not another kind of seed. There is one kind of seed that is sown in evangelism, which is the “good news” of gospel promise and fulfillment by Messiah Jesus. There is no possibility to make “Gospel” mean conclusions events or propositional statements but not their predicating prophetic promises which prove them as coming only from a transcendent being. Leave that out and you have nothing but religious statements.

• The mystery is the blindness of Israel pertaining to the true Messiah (Rom 11:25). This was predicted and revealed.
• The mystery of the Gospel kept secret from the beginning of the world (Rom 16:25). This indicates the Gospel is a prophetic Gospel, a Word once foreordained by God and revealed by Christ.
• Again, we see the hidden wisdom of God kept secret from before the world began in 1 CO 2:7.
• As knowledge of which the apostles as stewards, that it may be known, but must be propelled first by a love of Truth (1 CO 13:2). Love must love truth before it is a love of people or else there is no love to give them that is of eternal benefit and is therefore useless.
• Mysteries can be spoken to God for which no one understands but God and the speaker (1 CO 14:2). However, this is still for the furtherance of the prophetic revelation, not for the satisfaction of personal curiosity, happiness or pride.
• The mystery is a prophecy revealed pertaining to the resurrection (1 CO 15:51).
• The prophetic mystery of God’s will to gather all who are in him, implying Jews and Gentiles (Eph 1:9). This is future prophetic.
• The prophetic mystery which is “revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Eph 3:3) pertaining to the Gentile ingathering. This is future prophetic.
• Paul preaches the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8), the content of preaching, and the reason for the Church, which is the meaning of the phrase “fellowship of the mystery” (v.9). This is prophetic knowledge of Christ that is promised in the OT and confirmed in the New.
• The mystery again of Christ and the Church (Eph 5:32), which is set forth in the prophetic scriptures of the OT.
• The mystery of the Gospel (Eph 6:19), the mystery hidden from ages and generations and made known to the saints (Col 1:26). Again the equal to “messianic prophecy.”
• Again, the mystery now revealed of the ingathering of the Gentiles (Col 1:27). Future prophetic.
• The mystery that comforts and binds believers together in assurance (Col 2:2). This is nothing other than the assurance of faith that can only come from messianic prophecy.
• Again, referring to the prophetic mystery of Christ of the Old Testament (Col 4:3).
• The prophetic mystery of the nature and agent of sin (2TH 2:7).
• The mystery of a new faith which was prophesied (1TI 3:9).
• The “mystery of Godliness” (1TI 3:16) which is the Messiah prophetically fulfilled in the flesh.
• 1 PE 4:13: the revelation of Christ in this sense awaits the last day in his parousia. It’s not going to happen now, it’s a mystery coming to fulfillment.
• The rest of the occurrences are in Revelation (1:20, 10:7,17:5, 17:7), which is entirely apokálypsisa, a prophecy of the future.

None of these occurrences of “mystery,” the hidden knowledge that is revealed in “revelation,” applies to idiomatic applications and all apply either directly to messianic prophecy or knowledge used for the fulfillment of its service of dissemination and explanation.

Please go to the next page…