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REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 4 - THY KINGDOM COME (REVELATION 10:1 - 12:17) – The two witnesses of the last days and the expulsion of Satan from heaven

PART 4.3 - SUPPLEMENT: THE MYSTERY OF GOD IN ITS COMPLETION THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST


The Proclamation Foretelling the Fulfillment of the Mystery of God

REVELATION 10:7
7 … but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he declared to his servants, the prophets.

Is a mystery that has already been uncovered still a mystery? Whoever reads his Bible finds again and again references to the merciful dealing of God, which has the salvation and renewal of His fallen creation as its goal. We would do well to consider these revelations of God to His prophets. By doing so we will not lose sight of the mysteries of God, but, through prayer, contribute to their completion.


1. Revelations of the Mystery of God in the Old Covenant


Abraham, the Chosen: The All-Merciful called Abraham in Ur, on the Euphrates. Abraham obeyed this inspiration, departed from his protective clan, and became a wandering Bedouin in the Middle East without a lasting home. He entrusted himself to the One who had called him. His faithful obedience is the key to the realization of the mystery of God. The Lord promised to Abraham, who obeyed in faith, that through him He would bless all the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3). Abraham proved his unconditional trust in God when he was prepared to sacrifice his own son, the promise bearer. The Almighty swore by Himself that He would multiply the descendants of this fully yielded aged man and make them as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the 200 billion known galaxies (Genesis 22:11-12; 15-18).

Muhammad claimed that Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but much more a seeker of truth and the first Muslim (Sura Al ‘Imran 3:67). Therefore, the beginning of Islam does not date from Muhammad, but from Abraham, the father of all the faithful.

The faith of Abraham grew, and, therefore, the mystery of God was able to be realized in him, and the Spirit of the Most-High could overcome the barrenness of his wife (Romans 4:13-25).

The Mystery of God Revealed to Moses: The Lord called Moses in the wilderness when he was still a refugee, who had to flee Egypt because of his murder of an Egyptian. The Lord revealed to him His law for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. No nation can exist without law. Maimonides understood there to be 613 commands of the Lord in the Torah, 365 bans and 248 commands, which could be summarized in two primary commands. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37).

This multi-layered command formulates both the purpose and goal of the mystery of god, which discloses itself to the one who opens himself to divine love. No one should rashly boast that he loves God, but should think it thoroughly through what it practically means to love God with all of his strength, with all of his time, with all of his money, with all the longing of his soul, to love and to serve with all of his heart – just like God loves and serves us (1 John 4:16). Jesus pictured to us the fulfillment of this command in the way He lived (Matthew 20:27-28; Revelation 2:4-5).

The Lord also declared to us the echo that should arise from this most important of all commands: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39).

Every person is, in accordance with his nature, an egoist, and everything continually rotates around himself. This command aims at the shattering of our “me, myself and I carousel”, so that the Lord can become the center of our life, and we learn to love both our friends and enemies as the Lord Himself loves them (Matthew 5:43-48).

Every sincere person is shattered in the light of these two commandments. The law of the Lord has been given to us for that very purpose. Its purpose is to lead us to repentance. His commands break our pride by revealing to us that we are poor, faulty sinners (Romans 3:9-24). One of the goals of the law is to draw the chosen of God out of the destruction of our “I complex” into the love of God. In the beginning we were created to be “mirror images” of God (Genesis 1:27). Thus, no one should hate or despise another person, but forgive and bear with one another, just as God loves and forgives us (Matthew 6:12, 14-15).

The Law of Moses was and is the strict tutor for the people of God. It prepares the way for the unfolding of His mystery. The one who recognizes and attempts to keep the laws of God becomes diminutive and wise. The law is like a stone-crusher for our arrogance. Through the law of the Lord comes the recognition of sin and judgment!

In Islam law has another purpose. The Sharia trains a Muslim for business-like dealing with Allah (Suras Fatir 35:29-30; al-Tawba 9:111 etc.). It creates in him a “reward thinking”, and not a humble, serving heart. The Muslim reads in the Koran: “Surely the good deeds will drive away the evil deeds” (Sura Hud 11:114). The Muslim does not know the distant, incomprehensibly great Allah. The god of Islam is not his standard. Therefore, he also does not recognize his own deficiencies. Islamic law makes a Muslim proud and increases his arrogance, just like Allah himself (Sura al-Hashr 59:23). Unlike the Law of Moses, the Sharia permits a Muslim to take revenge, or, in the case of homicide, to demand blood money. He cannot forgive, because every injustice must be atoned for. The law of Islam creates much fear and little love.

From Abraham, however, we learn the obedience of faith, and from Moses we learn love to God and fellow man.

The Mystery of God for David: The Law of Moses cannot save anyone, nor can it improve any nation. To condition us for salvation, however, it shatters our conceited imagination (Micah 6:8; Isaiah 6:5). David, too, as prophet and king, adulterer and murder, had to be broken and learn to repent (Psalm 6; 32; 38; 51 and 103). His Psalms help us recognize our depravity and to confess our guilt to the Holy Judge. David has instructed and role-modeled for millions of repentant sinners how to lay their sins entirely and forever into the hands of the All-Merciful (Psalm 51:1-19; 1 John 1:8-10).

No earthly piety and no human wisdom can in itself expound the mystery of God. The All-Wise God, however, revealed His plan in stages to His broken servants. He commissioned the prophet, Nathan, to reveal to David the subject of His mystery: “The Lord tells you that He will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son” (2 Samuel 7:11-14).

In this early Christological promise the Lord elucidated to His prophet-king four principles of His mystery:

  • David was unworthy and incapable to build God a house for His dwelling.
  • The Lord Himself intended to build David a “house” (temple or kingdom).
  • King David was not to carry out this plan himself. The Almighty promised him, however, that He would choose one among the bodily offspring of David. To him God would confirm the royal kingship. This son alone would be worthy and capable to build a temple for the Lord.
  • The promised “Son of David” would also be called the “Son of God”, because God would be his Father. In the “Son of David” God and man become one. Since that time the title “Son of David” is a paraphrase for the “Son of God” title of Jesus Christ.
  • The kingdom of this God-King will abide forever, just as the Eternal Himself is immortal.

This breathtaking promise is the first word of the Bible that clearly attests to the fact that Christ is the Son of God and true man at the same time. This revelation came 1000 years already before the birth of Jesus Christ, and shows that the attempts of Mohammed to portray Jesus as a bodily progeny of Allah and Maria are unfounded.

The context of the prophecy of Nathan to David can be summarized in the name “Jesus”, which means: “He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The holy nation will not choose and crown its king; rather, the “Son of David” cleanses, creates and sanctifies a people to His Father, and builds a spiritual temple, in which the Father and Son will dwell for eternity. This verse (2 Samuel 7:13-14a) is the unfolding fundamental theme of the mystery of God, and contains the plan of strategy to build His kingdom.

David himself grew in the knowledge of the promised kingdom of God, and in the consequences arising out of it for all people. In his songs of the kingdom he acknowledged the great deeds of his God-King and applied His lordship demands to all of the living. Whoever prays these Psalms over the kingdom of the Son of David draws closer to the mystery of God: 1 Chronicles 29:11; Psalm 22:28-29 (the suffering Psalm of Jesus); Psalm 45:7-8 (the hymn of anointing for the Messiah); Psalm 103:1-22 (a praise to God for His forgiveness); Psalm 118:14-17 (the victory Psalm of Christ, that He prayed at the Last Supper); Psalm 145:10-13 (God is the King in His kingdom).

PRAYER: We magnify You, Holy One, because You have the salvation plan and Your world plan. You revealed to the fathers of faith in the Old Testament the indications of the great hidden mystery that they might not be satisfied with their success in this world, but expect the fulfillment of Your true promises. Widen our insight that we may not stare at our present situations, but expect the penetration of the divine truth into our existence.

QUESTION:

  1. What did God reveal to the fathers of faith about His sealed mystery?

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