52 - Christianity is God's mystery
- rcbarbas
- Jun 10, 2024
- 20 min read
Christianity is God’s mystery.
Because this is a bible study, I will default to Christianity and the bible being the standard for right, wrong and truth. I understand that someone who believes in another principle will think I’m wrong, but we’re all betting our eternal existence on what we believe here and now, and I’m quite comfortable saying that the bible is absolutely correct.
Generally when you speak with a Christian and ask how many true religions God has established, the answer is likely to be “two, Judaism and Christianity”; maybe when they stop to think that there was right and wrong before Moses they will make note that there must have been three.
A belief system that doesn’t get much consideration in general conversation is what existed from Adam and Eve until Judaism was given to Moses. But God did give Adam rules that he passed down. Cain’s sacrifice was unacceptable: God spoke with Cain and said “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”. God did not introduce new ideas to Cain, He spoke to a person who knew what was right and wrong. Adam had passed the rules on.
Judaism is the first recorded belief, from God, via written law. God is recorded to have given Moses the law written on two stone tablets (Deuteronomy 9:9-11), Moses got mad and broke them (Deuteronomy 9: 17) and God made new copies for the ark of the covenant in Deuteronomy 10:1-5. This is the beginning of the 2nd religion God gave mankind. The first was whatever He told Adam and Eve to follow and believe. There is not much record of that besides “don’t eat from that tree”, “name the animals”, “take care of the planet”, “love God above all else”.
After Adam sinned, sacrifice was brought into the picture, along with hard work and labored child birth, etc. (Genesis 3:14-24). Adam’s offspring were in his image; people were no longer made in the image of God (Genesis 5:3). From this point, through Moses, there is no written record of law, or proper worship of God. It was apparently passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. We are left to assume that’s how Cain and Abel learned about sacrifices – which Cain failed in Genesis 4:3, 4. Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all lived without the written law of Judaism, but with the knowledge of God passed from generation to generation via word of mouth.
The law of Judaism, above, came first to Moses, at Mt Sinai, after God had escorted the Israelites from Egypt. When Moses received the written law from God (The Ten Commandments) the people followed and became known as Jews. (Some people say that Abraham was the first Jew, but he lived hundreds of yeas before the Jewish law was given to Moses. Their definition of “Jew” is usually someone who has separated themselves from the world and decided to follow God. There’s always something to argue about.)
In Christianity, we have the Old Testament and the New Testament. (The Hebrews/Jews call the Old Testament the Tanakh.) The Old Testament/Tanakh has many prophecies regarding the coming messiah, depending on who is counting there are between some 200 - 300 prophecies. In Judaism, they are still awaiting the messiah. In Christianity, we have seen the messiah - Jesus, believe in His first advent (arrival on earth) which includes His life, sacrificial and atoning death on the cross, His rising from the dead and ascension into heaven. We see the Old Testament/Tanakh as history looking forward to the coming of Jesus, the messiah, and the New Testament as the gospel announcing His life and work while He was here on earth, as well as prophecies looking forward to His coming to earth’s sky to call Christians to meet Him in the sky (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 “16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”) as well as prophecies looking forward to His second advent, to live, and reign, on earth for 1,000 years.
Christianity’s history includes whatever the (apparently) correct unwritten “religion”/belief was between Adam and Moses, and it includes the Jewish system as the lawful word of God for the period that it was in force. During this time people were safe from eternal death, but not yet saved.
My dad taught me this in a conversation some years back; it was a brief conversation, and I didn’t really understand that full meaning of it at the time – and probably still don’t - but the point was huge. The Jewish law (“law of Moses”) made people safe; it did not save anyone. In Romans 8:3, Paul wrote “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son...”; and in Romans 3:20 ““Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.””, then Hebrews 10:11 says “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”. The law didn’t save anyone.
When we read the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we see that Lazarus went to Paradise (or Abraham’s bosom) for rest and to wait for Jesus to bring salvation. These spirits, according to Peter, in 1 Peter 3:19 (“by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison” Strong’s 5438 phylakē, fulakή guard, watch
A.a watching, keeping watch
i.to keep watch
B. persons keeping watch, a guard, sentinels
C. of the place where captives are kept, a prison)
were waiting. They were keeping watch for something - that something had to be Jesus. He was bringing salvation to them; they hadn’t yet been saved; they were safe. 1 Peter 3:21 says that we are saved through the resurrection of Jesus, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”. If we are saved through the resurrection of Jesus, then no one was “saved” until He arose from the dead; therefore, the folks in paradise/Abraham’s bosom, were “safe” until Jesus rose from the dead and took them to heaven. That’s when they were saved. Resurrection is key to salvation.
As well, during the Christian era, before which all of the prophecies regarding Jesus’ life on earth were completed, requires acceptance/belief that Jesus is the messiah. He is God, He is the savior.
While on the cross, in John 19:28-30 “28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” “Ghost”, here, in English comes from the Greek word pneuma, pneύma, Strong’s number G4151, refers to “the third person of the triune God, coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Son; also human soul that has left the body, life giving spirit, breath of nostrils or mouth”. We can easily see that Jesus died upon His choosing, at His time. He noted that it is finished and then gave up His life.
“Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled”; this is a tricky part of reading correctly. All things were now accomplished – which “all” things? Jesus hadn’t yet died, much less been raised from death, so salvation hadn’t been complete. So we refer to Strong’s concordance (because it’s widely accepted) to define “all things”. Strong’s G3956 gives the Greek word as “pas” “pas”, defined as
1. individually
1. each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything
2. collectively
1. some of all types
This definition includes “each”, “every”, “any”, “the whole” and “collectively” so it seems that it is not necessarily discussing everything in existence, or even everything related to Jesus and His upcoming death. It is discussing things that scripture might be fulfilled. The scripture about salvation were not fulfilled until His resurrection, so that wasn’t included in “all things”. The “all things” being discussed were the prophecies of His life on earth, before His death. The sponge was the last prophecy that was to be fulfilled before His death.
When He said “it is finished” He was not referring to salvation being finished/completed; salvation was not completed upon Him receiving a sponge filled with vinegar. We need to read what was actually said “knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled”; “all things” was a reference to the prophecies of His life before His death, not all prophecies about Him.
Psalm 16:10 “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” hadn’t yet been completed.
Matthew 12:38-40 “38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Hadn’t yet been completed.
John 2:19 “Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”” Hadn’t yet been completed.
At the time they put the sponge with vinegar to His mouth, Jesus’ time in Hades hadn’t yet started, much less been completed, His resurrection hadn’t yet been completed, salvation yet hadn’t been completed; we need to know what we’re reading and not just jump on the first idea that sounds plausible. I’ve known people who believe that when Jesus said “it is finished”, He was speaking of salvation – salvation was completed at that moment. If that’s true, then there would have been no need for Him to die. If everything was all done, He could have just gotten down off the cross and had supper. “It is finished” referenced everything that needed to be done before He died.
Salvation, and thereby Christianity, was completed – or became effective - upon Jesus’ rising from death. He demonstrated His power over death.
1 Corinthians 15:55 ““Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?””
Hosea 13:14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.”
Death has no sting to the Christian; it can be scary because, individually, it’s something that we haven’t faced before and we’re not completely enlightened about the process. It might be properly analogized like a college football player going to the pros, in the sense that he’s played before, he knows the rules, he knows the game, but it’s on an entirely new level. As Christians, we’ve heard the rules, we’ve been told how it plays out, but we haven’t been through death before, so it might cause some hesitancy. But just as the college player succeeds in the NFL, Christians are secure after death. The story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:22 “So it was that the beggar (Lazarus) died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.” Tells us that Christians are escorted into heaven (Paradise in the center of the earth at the time of Lazarus) by angels. I have no idea how great that ride will be; zipping through the universe to heaven. Seeing the universe from such a different perspective, then seeing heaven, which is incredibly beyond our present comprehension, as our everlasting residence, will be incredible. What if there’s a time warp and the space time continuum dissolves and we just pop into heaven without taking a ride across the universe to get there? That will be equally astonishing.
Seeing Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father with angels and all the saints worshipping because they want to, not because they were assigned to worship will be overwhelming at least. If you think a Superbowl is an event to behold, I would counter that heaven is infinitely more arousing.
Satan gets a mention in our existence because of his role in wrecking humanity. He plays no role in salvation; he is completely feckless in the conversation about humans being saved. Christianity/salvation is about God redeeming us from the penalty He has assigned for sin.
Satan is an angel, created at the same time all angels were created en masse; he developed a great opinion of himself, convinced other angels to follow him and they all got thrown out of heaven. (Notice that this use of “all”, just like “all” above, doesn’t refer to all angels, but to the limited list of those who followed Satan) (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 covers most of this, Revelation 12:4 details that he took 1/3 of angels with him when cast out of heaven – note that “stars” refer to angels (Revelation 1:20)).
Satan was thrown out of heaven. Revelation 12:9 “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”.
In Luke 10:18, Jesus said “And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” The Greek word that was translated as “fall” is the Greek word piptō, pίptw; it is defined by Strong’s number G4098, as
I.to descend from a higher place to a lower
A. to fall (either from or upon)
i.to be thrust down
B. metaph. to fall under judgment, came under condemnation
II.to descend from an erect to a prostrate position
A. to fall down
i.to be prostrated, fall prostrate
ii.of those overcome by terror or astonishment or grief or under the attack of an evil spirit or of falling dead suddenly
iii.the dismemberment of a corpse by decay
iv.to prostrate one's self
v.used of suppliants and persons rendering homage or worship to one
vi.to fall out, fall from i.e. shall perish or be lost
vii.to fall down, fall into ruin: of buildings, walls etc.
B. to be cast down from a state of prosperity
i.to fall from a state of uprightness
ii.to perish, i.e. come to an end, disappear, cease
a. of virtues
iii.to lose authority, no longer have force
a. of sayings, precepts, etc.
iv.to be removed from power by death
v.to fail or participating in, miss a share in
Satan was thrown out of heaven for sinning against God. There is no mention of Satan in regard to the act of salvation.
If God is the author of salvation and the bible (2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.”), and He says to not lie (Leviticus 19:11 “Do not steal.’” “Do not lie.” “Do not deceive one another”), I would submit that He did not create any other religions (beliefs) outside the bible. And, because Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44 “You belong to your father, the devil... for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”) I must believe that he created all other religions (beliefs).
The Old Testament is filled with prophecies of Jesus coming to provide salvation for people. Our very nature includes a knowledge of God. (Romans 1:19, 20 “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”) so we generally seek to find a higher being that will help us. Granted, some people deny the existence of any god, and go through life pleasing themselves as best they can, but they will find out and acknowledge it at some point. (Isaiah 45:23 “By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear” Romans 14:11 “It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’””).
That having been stated, God says He will not lie, but that Satan IS the liar. All religions other than the bible are false and were created by Satan. He understands that we have a basic belief in God in our being, but he tries to sway each of us to believe in a little bit of a different truth. If I believe that Jesus is God’s son, and that Satan is one of God’s sons (Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.” Satan came with the sons of god – angels - because he WAS an angel, though a fallen angel by the time of Job) so if Jesus is the Son of God and Satan was a son of God, it should be easy to see that they must be brothers – as the Mormons believe – it’s in their doctrine. But that’s not the case; according to Colossians 1:16 “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” (powers, rulers, thrones, authorities generally refers to angelic beings) Satan is a creature, he was created. Jesus did the creating, so they cannot be brothers. But the lie is out there and many people believe it.
The ancients had gods like Zeus, Nike, Athena, Poseidon, Thor, Odin, etc. Even to include up through modern times Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu, Buddha, etc. None of these were God. None of them loved humans so much as to come to live amongst people and die to pay for the sins of His creatures.
With Satan making false religions, he NEVER saw, or considered, that the infinite God of the universe, the creator and sustainer of all things in existence, would submit Himself to reside with His creatures, allow them to taunt and beat Him, and allow them to crucify Him, much less did Satan see an opportunity wherein he would be allowed to tempt and taunt his creator; the creator who exiled him from heaven and set his doom for eternal hell and burning in the lake of fire.
In considering this though, there was no way that Satan could have conceived of making a religion (belief) that would include some sort of off shoot of Jesus coming to redeem humans. Only after Jesus came and died and rose for our sins did Satan begin including Jesus in his false religions. The truth was out of the bag with Christianity, so Satan had to get on board with that reality and start including Jesus in his lies, but with just enough “Jesus” to seem like the truth, while just enough lie to keep people from believing the truth. Believing there is no Hell is a Jehovah’s Witness concept, because God is love and what kind of loving God would make His creatures suffer. They use basically the same bible as Christians, but have a few lies included that teach a wrong “Jesus” and are therefore a disaster. I.e. The Jehovah's Witness bible (New World Translation (NWT) has John 1:1 reading ""In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was a god". Inserting the indefinite article "a" implies more than one god, and that's a lie.
All false religions are based off some facet of truth, but are wrong enough that their believers do not accept the truth of Jesus and salvation.
Leviticus 11:44, 45 “44 I am the Lord your God... be holy, because I am holy... 45 I am the Lord... be holy, because I am holy.” Holy comes from the Hebrew word qāḏôš, קָדוֹשׁ, Strong’s H6918, which means sacred, holy, Holy One, saint, set apart. God’s people are to separate themselves from behaving like the people of the world. Have you ever wondered why some of God’s rules in the Old Testament were (Deuteronomy 22:9) “You shall not sow your vineyard [together with] a mixed variety of species, lest the increase, even the seed that you sow and the yield of the vineyard [both] become forbidden.”, (Deuteronomy 22:10) “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together” (Deuteronomy 22:11) “You shall not wear a mixture of wool and linen together”? (mixing clothing materials is known as known as shatnez; some say it is specifically wool from sheep or lambs and only linens from the flax plant. There are multiple ideas about what can go with what and what can’t, but the general conclusion is to not mix things that are dissimilar) These rules were to teach the Jews to keep things separated; don’t mix things that are unequal. On the same theme, in the New Testament, (2 Corinthians 6:14) Paul wrote “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?”, and in Romans 12:2 he wrote “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world...”. In 1 John 2:15:16, John penned “Do not love the world or anything in the world...the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world”
Being holy (separating from the world and being sacred – set apart) is a basic tenet of being a Christian - separate from everyone else; separate from the world. We live in the world and are constantly surrounded by people and the wrong things they do and approve, but we are supposed to make every effort to not mimic what they do. There is a great deal of writing in the bible on this topic. I particularly love the second half of Romans chapter one.
Paul probably addressed the mystery of God best in Ephesians chapters 2 and 3, but he discussed it elsewhere as well. We'll just stay in Ephesians 2 and 3 for now.
2: 11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world... 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity... 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
3:1For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles... 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel...8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Everywhere in the bible, there is a lot to unpack in the writings. This section is huge with meaning. I said earlier that Satan had no idea that the creator of everything in existence would come to earth and reside among His creatures, and offer Himself as the payment for our wrongdoings, even to allow mankind to beat Him and allow Himself to suffer the cruelest of executions at the hands of infinitely lesser beings. In Ephesians 3:10, Paul expressly stated the same thing when he penned “...wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” powers and principalities refer to angels, and no angel had any idea about this until God revealed it.
Keeping in mind that the population of mankind could be delineated into two groups – Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles, anyone who is not a Jew is a Gentile), the mystery of God is, to be concise, bringing Jews and Gentiles together into a single population of mankind. All together as members of the household of God. Jesus is the cornerstone of the church, the foundation of the family of God, and He died and rose from death to pay for all of our sins so that we, His creatures, could be engaged with Him eternally.
The Jews were the first “chosen” people, in the Old Testament. The Gentiles that accept His offer of salvation are His “chosen” people during the Christian era; at all times, anyone could have become a member of His chosen group, but now the invitation is more open to anyone and everyone.
When Jesus died on the cross (gave up His spirit/life) the curtain in the temple was rent/torn; God opened access to Himself for everyone without requiring a representative to go in our stead.
Jews and Gentiles could all become part of the family of God; we could become children of God. John 1:12 says “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
God’s mystery was kept secret from everyone for all existence until He made it known. The mystery was that He was going to bring Jews and Gentiles together into a single family of children of God, and He was going to do it by taking our place and paying for our sin debt.
No angel could have imagined that. They all lived in His presence and saw Him as almighty creator, not an infinite sacrifice for His creatures.
Christianity is the completion – of what we know now – of the systems that God has set for His creatures. Maybe there will be something else revealed in the future that we don’t know about yet. But as far as we can determine, Christianity is the culmination of God’s work for our salvation. He kept it a secret from everyone else in existence, but allowed prophecies so that we could see, in hind sight, that it was coming.
Sidenote - Case in point for “what we know now” above; In Judaism, sacrificing lambs, sheep, certain birds etc. was for forgiveness, offering thanks, celebrations, etc. In Ezekiel 40-48 we read about sacrifices in the future temple during Christ’s reign on earth. If Jesus already paid for our sins there can be no reason for sacrifices to accomplish forgiveness of sins. Speaking of Old Testament, Jewish sacrifices, Hebrews 10:3, 4 says “3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Jesus has already removed sins, so will those sacrifices be for? Well, there’s no 2 Hezekiah 4:18 that says “The sacrifices Ezekiel discusses will be for memorial events; to remind the people of what Jesus has already accomplished for us”, but that may well be the reason for those sacrifices. The bible doesn’t clearly state it, but we can reason the answer from “what we know now”.
In the Old Testament, God said that the Israelites were His chosen people, His children. In the New Testament, Christians are called His “elect”, “chosen” and “children”; He has chosen those that He calls His children.
He came to earth to pay the debt He set for sin, because the only way we would be able to pay the debt is to live the punishment forever. That punishment is for not believing in Him; failing to believe in our creator and the gift He’s provided.
We don’t go to Hell for stealing, lying, murder, etc. In Mark 3:28,29 Jesus said that all those sins can be forgiven “28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” The debt of eternal Hell and Lake of Fire is because we fail to believe in Him; those behaviors are indicators that we don’t believe. Surely we all sin, but the key is asking for forgiveness from the one, true God who can and will forgive us. Asking Allah, or Vishnu to forgive us won’t work – they don’t exist, and can’t forgive us; we didn’t sin against them. And the one, true God that we do sin against does not tolerate equal billing with another entity - real or imagined.
The fact that God came to pay for the sins of His chosen children, and bring them/us together into His single family is the mystery. All believers will be children of God together and there was no way that Satan, or other angels, could have envisioned their creator, our creator, lowering Himself from omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God Almighty to go to Hell and pay for the sins of lower beings. Angels witnessed His wrath when He threw Satan and the demons out of Heaven; it would probably seem obvious to them that His wrath would carry on to other beings who misbehaved. It couldn’t have crossed their minds that the creator of everything in existence – besides Himself – would offer grace and mercy to other beings who sinned. God had not shown His attributes of grace and mercy until mankind was created, and even when He offered His grace and mercy to us, there was no way that angels could have conceived of Him suffering for His creatures.
Thank God that He saved us from having to pay for our sin debt. The fact that He kept it a secret until He completed it, again, shows how we don’t know as much as we think we do. We only know what He allows us to know, and even that is only when He allows us to know it.
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