Before Honor

By Dave Herr

In a day when the church's voice is increasingly silenced by the world's opposition, a call to stand for the good fight of faith must be made. But in God's call to His people, He asks them to stand up by first kneeling down. In an address to Solomon, God said: "If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves...then will I hear from Heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land." The first motion toward the awesome, sovereign God is downward, in humility. The title of the book, Before Honor, is taken from a verse from Solomon's Proverbs: "Before honor is humility." Before a hearing from heaven and preceding any honor to God or from Him is humility. The author of the book confirms this principle of humility with a plethora of Biblical evidence. Using a Biblical overview, the writer demonstrates the continuity of the theme from Genesis to Revelation, thus supporting the claim that humility is a fundamental attribute of God and the only attitude a follower can have that exalts and glorifies Christ. Though pride, the inverse of humility, is a destructive force, humility is a beneficent one. Humility is the hope of revival for all God's people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640798588

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Before Honor

Dave Herr

Copyright © 2018 Dave Herr

All rights reserved

First Edition

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc

New York, NY

First originally published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc 2018

ISBN 978-1-64079-857-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64079-858-8 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parents, Ray and Betsey, who started me on my journey; to Sarah, my beloved partner and companion, who has taught me much; to Micah and Nathan, cherished sons, and our daughter-in-law, Amy; to Rosalind, Victoria, Douglas, and Joseph, treasured grandchildren; to Ken, a good departed friend; and above all, to Jesus, the Author and Finisher.

Preface

Andrew Murray is a mentor of mine. Although he has long ago passed away into God’s presence, his work still follows him. God used Murray’s book Humility to inspire me to embark on a lifetime course. The course is a study of the subject of humility and a commitment to that fundamental principle. However, let it be said from the beginning: I am still very much a student—not the teacher. Daily, I need reminders and learn new lessons. I see the insidious working of pride in my own heart, more than I care to admit. Sometimes I wonder: Have I learned anything? I have had so many repeat lessons. Regardless of how fast or slow a learner we are, our study of humility will not be completed on this side of the Jordan. The course of study is more than a semester, a year—it is a lifetime. Who is the instructor? Well, there is only one teacher qualified to teach the spirit of humility—the Holy Spirit.

For more than twenty years, I have been accumulating thoughts and notes on the subject of humility. I cannot be certain that my understanding is accurate, but of this one thing I am certain: His Word is truth. Therefore, in an attempt to conform to the truth, I have referred often to Scripture. Although it makes the reading more cumbersome, I wanted to include the Scripture in the text, rather than making it a footnote. What truth there is in these writings, the Spirit of Truth has made it known. It was not because of his keen insight that Peter knew the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said to Peter, Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in Heaven (Matthew 16:13-17). May the Heavenly Father use the Bible, books, people, circumstances, experiences, every means possible to lead us to Jesus who has said about Himself: I am meek and lowly of heart (Matthew 11:29).

The following directive statements are the book objectives:

Confirm the principle of humility with Biblical evidence, thereby supporting the claim that humility is a fundamental attribute of God.

Present humility as the mind of Christ: the only attitude one can have that exalts and glorifies God; hence, something to which His people should aspire after.

Substantiate the position: humility is the hub of the spokes of the wheel of virtue.

Show that the devil, the author of pride, is the antithesis of Christ and the archfiend of man.

Reveal pride to be the inverse of humility and a destructive force that leaves in its path historical, personal, and social repercussions.

Make clear that self (the flesh) is empowered by pride and encouraged by the devil to act independently and at variance with the sovereign God.

Through a biblical overview, demonstrate the continuity of the theme and its vital significance to God’s people as the hope of revival.

Chapter 1

Introduction

For many years, God has been impressing upon me the importance of humility. My recognition of this work started late in 1989 when God enrolled me in a course on humility—a crash course. My world started to crumble around me.

City of Destruction

Prior to 1989, I was an assistant minister at a fairly large church. My active involvement in the church was surpassed by few, if any. Among other responsibilities, I taught in the Christian school, codirected the high school youth program, conducted the Sunday school children’s church, and ran a neighborhood Sunday school bus route. I went to every church service: two on Sunday, Tuesday visitation, Wednesday Bible study, Saturday prayer meeting. As a leader of the church, I was well respected. Though I never would have said it (that would have been acknowledging pride), I entertained the thought: I am one of the spiritual ones of the church. In subtle pride, I rated spiritual acuity by a comparison of others, basing that comparison on others’ compliance to ethical standards, obedience to religious laws, accuracy of understanding of biblical doctrines, conformity to church policy, etc. How shallow! How little I understood the humility of Christ.

In my legalistic church, an overemphasis on biblical laws and church requirements, led to a preoccupation with one’s performance. There was an intense concern and awareness of how well people perceived themselves to be keeping church law. This was an unhealthy introspection that directed inordinate attention on themselves and consequently displaced proper focus on God. Instead of looking more for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, keeping themselves in the love of God (Jude v. 21), they looked more at their own righteousness, keeping themselves in the law of man. Church members judged other’s and their own spirituality on the basis of visible observance of the law: attending church, teaching a class, preaching or speaking about the Bible, going to a prayer meeting, and adhering to certain outward standards of dress and conduct. Captured in deception, an individual felt superior (or inferior) formulating that judgment on a destructive comparison of oneself to others. An ever-changing, competitive but unspoken, spiritual pecking-order existed. Chicken A was more spiritual than Chicken B, but Chicken B was more spiritual than Chicken C, and C more than D, etc. Pride was the feed that fueled the chicken fight. A holier-than-thou attitude was a consequence. Those chickens at the top of the order were distinguished as the leaders of the church—the spiritual elite, much like the Pharisees of Jesus’s day. What a fowl spirit! (Sorry, I could not resist the pun.) The words of Jesus spoken to the Pharisees could also have been spoken to me and to many in the church: You also outwardly appear righteous unto man, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (Matthew 23:28). We may have fooled ourselves and others by our spirituality but not God. The Lord sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Well, by 1989, my eyes were slowly opening. The church and I were caught in the devil’s net of pride. I felt shame, having been a chump of the devil, seduced into listening to him. Embarrassed but emancipated, my family (my wife and two sons) and I left this legalistic church. However, anyone leaving the control of the church received not a sad farewell to a departing brother or sister but disdainful scorn spewed upon a quitter. When you recognize pride and renounce it, the father of pride is enraged. In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress, Apollyon met Christian on his flight from the City of Destruction. Because he was losing one of his subjects, Apollyon was infuriated. In anger, he flailed upon Christian.

Down to Go Up

This was only the beginning of my crumbling little world (on which I once thought I sat high) that now was spiraling downward. Like Jonah when he fled to Tarshish, he went down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the water, and into the belly of a great whale. Because I was employed by the church, leaving the church meant having no job. Two subsequent jobs ended in failure. For several years, the bill collector was at the doorstep. The Scripture says, Blessed are the poor. My wife and I did not feel blessed; we felt abandoned. We were going down, and God seemed to be nowhere in sight. I felt like the woman in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Only instead of the letter A on my forehead, it was L for loser.

Abraham Lincoln once said, When I do not know where else to go, I go to my knees. The options are limited: one can either go toward God or go away from God. Peter made the only logical decision when he responded to a question from Jesus: Will you also go away? Peter replied, To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (John 6:67, 68).

A favorite story of many Sunday school children and adults is the story of Joseph. His jealous brothers sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt. While under bondage to an Egyptian governor, he was wrongfully cast into prison. Surely, the thought that God had abandoned him must have crossed Joseph’s mind. But God was present teaching Joseph a valuable lesson. Once Joseph and his brothers were reunited, he shared this insight with them: You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good(Genesis 50:20). Be certain, any bad that happens to you or me, God means it for good. He is merely opening the door for us to enter into His school of faith to learn a Christlike humility. Humility is the starting point of our Christian education, our life of enjoyment with Him, and our service to Him. On second thought, it is not only the starting point but also the ending and everything between. Humbleness of mind is the only attitude one can put on before God. As a hungry beggar, one comes to God to find the loving embrace of a Heavenly Father who is longing to feed His estranged ones the Bread of life, to honor them with the adoption of sons and to shower His beloved with the exceeding riches of His grace. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life (Proverbs 22:4). By going down we go up with Him.

School Lessons

I became a Christian in 1974. I took a few sporadic humility classes before 1989. Regretfully, I did not recognize the magnitude of the problem of my pride until then. The following are some lessons I had to learn in the school of humility:

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9).

The heart has an affinity for pride—the inverse of humility.

Lessons of humility are quickly forgotten.

Humility does not come naturally; it must be put on: Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering (Colossians 3:12).

Humility must be nurtured by confession of sin, prayer, study, and exercise by walking in the Spirit. Walk…with all lowliness and meekness (Ephesians 4:12).

When I lived as a Pharisee in self-righteousness in the legalistic church, I crashed. Self-promotion and pride precede self-destruction. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). Jesus stated an inexorable principle that is as sure as gravity: what goes up, comes down. He that exalts himself shall be abased. I needed to come down to taste a big plate of brokenness and swallow a large cup of contrition. Thankfully, the wounded and downcast can look beside and see that the Lord is near unto those who are of a broken heart and save such as be of a contrite spirit (Psalm 34:18).

God’s school of humility is mandatory. Someway, somehow, all people are enrolled. Because of His love for all, God drives them to school. It is not His will that any should perish. God wants all to humble themselves to come to Him: Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). But because of pride, most people refuse instruction. Pride causes a hard heart and a stiff neck. While Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel were in the valley making sacrifices before a golden calf. God spoke to Moses and said, I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people (Exodus 32:9). When one has a stiff neck, it is hard to bow the head. However, all will sooner or later bow down to the great King. One day, as it is written, Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Whether one bows the head and knee now to be picked up by the outstretched arms of a loving Savior or bows later to be cast out after a postmortem courtroom appearance before a solemn Judge; it is destiny—every person most certainly shall bow.

Chapter 2

Honesty

Though for many years the subject of humility was on my mind, I was reluctant to write for two reasons. Firstly, I am not much of a writer. Nevertheless, the subject is paramount; it warrants any attempt (regardless of how feeble) to convey the topic and accentuate its importance for the church. Secondly, before picking up a pen, this question required a solution: how can I write a book on humility when pride exists in my own heart? The place to find an answer is with honesty: with an honest examination of human nature. Then the discovery of other truths can follow: of God’s remedy for the human condition, of the Spirit of truth, of the definition of humility, of the reason for humility as man’s first and continuous response to God, and lastly, of the problems one experiences walking humbly.

We Have a Problem

Ben Franklin said, Honesty is the best policy. His common-sense wisdom is twenty-first century pertinent. Honesty is the best and only place to begin a careful examination of the subject of humility. Before a remedy can be applied to a problem, it must first be identified and acknowledged. Alcoholics Anonymous has a successful working plan called The Twelve Steps to Recovery. The first step is an acknowledgement: I have a problem. On July 20, 1969, an Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong took a step onto the moon. NASA continued the Apollo missions into the early 1970s. On the voyage of Apollo 13, thousands of miles from earth, there was an explosion on board the space capsule. The astronauts radioed back to NASA this great understatement: Houston, we have a problem. Thankfully, NASA was able to get the crew safely home, but for the crew, avoiding or denying the problem and telling headquarters that everything was fine would have been foolish. They needed to acknowledge it before any solution could be identified. We also need to be honest about the problem in our own lives. John said, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). If we are human, sin is present in the heart. In his prayer at the dedication of the temple, Solomon said to Israel: Who shall know every man the plague of his own heart (1 Kings 8:38). About the human heart, Jesus said, Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness (Mark 7:21-22). Not a bright, encouraging diagnosis. This sin-virus is a deadly killer. The bubonic plague is only a hiccup by comparison.

Hope in God

Though we all have a problem, we all have hope. Though you and I are infected with the sin-virus, there is an antidote—a Savior Jesus Christ. He has taken on human flesh so that He might be the representative for all humanity and bear the punishment for sin: For God has made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus took our sin and its awful punishment on the cross and gave us His righteousness (some trade!). Now, all that remains is to believe. God looks at the believer as having the righteousness of Christ. God does not judge the wickedness of the sinner’s heart; God sees the sinner’s substitute—the Lord Jesus in His perfect righteousness. Now, God can say about every believer just as He once said about Jesus: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). And as well as having the righteousness of Christ, believers have a comforter-the Holy Spirit. Before the death and resurrection of Christ, Jesus assured His disciples that they would not be left alone. Though Jesus would ascend into Heaven, God would still be present in the person of the Holy Spirit. Now, He would be present in the heart of every believer. Jesus said, I will pray to the Father and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it sees Him not neither knows Him; but you know Him for He dwells with you and shall be in you (John 14:16-17). Though God cannot endorse evil, He can dwell in the heart of a believer who is righteous—righteous by faith in Christ. Let this be perfectly clear that no one is righteous; we all have a sinful heart. No need to reiterate the works of the human heart. However, a person is declared righteous by God because of faith in man’s substitute, the Righteous One. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness apart from works (Romans 4:6). Therefore, because every believer has the imputed righteousness of Christ (i.e., righteousness that is not ours but placed in our account by Christ), the Holy Spirit then can take up residence in the heart. Once the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, is present in the heart, He can begin to teach us and guide us into truth (John 14:26, 16:13). Note John’s description of the Holy Spirit: When He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me (Jesus) and shall show it unto you.

Walking with God

Should one be reluctant to write about humility? Of course, because of human nature, one is better suited to write about pride—our natural inclination. However, the Holy Spirit brings newness of life. For if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you (Romans 8:11). As His little children, we are called to walk with God. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory (Galatians 5:25-26).

Walk in the Spirit; the instruction is straightforward, but because of our sin nature, the natural inclination is to walk in the wrong direction. We are vexed with a proclivity to pride. Our tendency is to ignore God and to go our own way—to glorify ourselves. The way of the Spirit or the way of the flesh—the two ways are contrary to each other. The modus operandi of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ. He shall not speak of Himself…He shall glorify me (John 16:13-14). So then, if a believer imitates the teacher and walks with and in the Spirit, whether in speaking, in writing, or in plain old living, the Christian will share the same objective—glorify the Lord Jesus. If one promotes himself, the listener or reader or observer can safely deduce—that is man doing what is befitting fallen nature, but if one promotes Christ, then one has denied focus on himself to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. Jesus said, If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24). The Holy Spirit will always lead us to an exaltation of Jesus, not to a worship of ourselves or of someone else. Even the angels follow the same operating procedure (not the angels who followed Lucifer). While receiving the words recorded in the book of Revelation, John fell down before an angel to worship; in fact, John did it twice. Both times, the angel said: See you do it not. I am your fellow servant and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10, 22:9). Many years ago, I remember my dad giving me this tip: follow the acronym KISS—Keep It Simple Stupid. To keep it simple, the two ways can be summarized in this dichotomy: pride exalts self; humility, which is Spirit-like, exalts Jesus.

By copying the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, one is safe to write about humility. As in all things, when writing, glorify Christ. Look away from oneself (in all one’s pride) to Jesus (in all His humility). As the angel said, The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Prophecy is not just a foretelling of the future; it is a telling forth of all truth, of which Jesus is the essence. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life (John 14:6). Jesus is worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for He created all things, and for His pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11). For the created to glory in anyone but the Creator is folly. Pride is like the fig leaf masquerade Adam and Eve put on to hide their nakedness. Like them, we spend futile effort trying to cover up and pretending to others that we are clothed with glory, but in the eyes of God, we are naked. All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:13). The bare, sinful heart has nothing in which to boast. Now Jesus, that is a different story—in Him every person has reason to boast: My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad (Psalms 34:2). When we come to terms with our own nakedness and Christ’s glory, then we can follow the Biblical admonition: Walk honestly by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and by glorifying Him, all the while making no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:13-14).

Lowliness

Honesty is imperative in a liberation from sin and in a procurement of humility. It has been said that humility is the only virtue that when you think you have it, then you lose it because you became proud that you have it. (Confusing?) Well, even a casual look at the word humility and an honest evaluation of oneself and God will prove this statement false. The word humble in Greek is tapeinos, signifying low-lying or lowliness.¹ If one is honest about his/her proud, sinful nature, and stands before God in contrast to His perfect, holy nature, can a person feel anything else but lowliness? If one makes an honest appraisal of himself and God, not simply a passive, Yeah, yeah, I know I am a sinner and Sure, sure, God is holy. If one really stops to consider the contrast, tapienos lowliness will be a natural reflex. Why is it that anyone who appears before God in His glory falls flat on his face? These are a few examples: Abraham (Genesis 17:3), Moses and Aaron (Numbers 20:6), Joshua (Joshua 5:14), Daniel (Daniel 10:8-9), Peter, James, and John at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:6), and John when given the revelation of Christ (Revelation 1:7). Not surprisingly, even unbelievers who do not necessarily concern themselves with their own sinfulness and God’s holiness, when confronted with the stark contrast of God’s glory and their sinfulness, fall down. The night before the crucifixion, when Judas and his band of armed men came to arrest Jesus in the garden, Jesus came forth and said unto them, I am He. When Jesus spoke, they went backward and fell to the ground (John 18:6). Falling on our faces before God is an outward manifestation of an inward feeling. Humility, lowliness is a frame of mind, a heart attitude. Isaiah, when given a glimpse of the Lord sitting on the throne of Heaven, uttered: He is high and lifted up and His glory filled the temple (Isaiah 6:1). Therefore, if you and I are honest, we admit just like Isaiah that God is high and lifted up and we are low. Isaiah cried, Woe is me for I am undone! Undone is a Hebrew word damah that means to be dumb or silent.² There are no words; what could Isaiah have said? Certainly, he could have offered nothing in his defense. Standing in God’s holy and awesome presence, we react to the feeling flooding from the soul and assume the posture every other person before us has taken—we fall on our faces. This type of humility is a simple recognition of our fallen human nature juxtaposed to God’s holy nature. (There is another facet of humility to be discussed later. Despite an absence of sin, Jesus, high above every name, still is meek and lowly of heart.)

It is important not to misunderstand the discussion on tapeinos—lowliness. This is not self-deprecation. Humility is not beating oneself down to feel lowly. An exposition of our human nature is not some bizarre masochistic exercise. There can be no pleasure in examining the deplorable condition of the human heart. Neither has God left us to wallow in the mire. If a person does not intrinsically feel lowly without a beating, then two things are necessary: Firstly, one needs to look again at Jesus’s description of the human heart (Mark 7:21-22). Even the believer who possesses the Divine new nature is still besmirched by the old. Secondly, one needs to take a closer look at the Holy One Isaiah beheld (Isaiah 6:1-5). If one does not cry like Isaiah, Woe is me for I am undone! then a person has either an inflated opinion of oneself or a deflated view of God or both.

The first and ever-continuous attitude of the heart is humility. The first honest cry of the sinner’s heart—Help me! I have sinned. I cannot help myself. Please forgive me! God has already supplied the answer—Jesus sacrificed Himself to provide for forgiveness. And after every sin, the believer’s attitude should always be the same: I have sinned again, forgive me. God has not changed: He is faithful and just to forgive, and the indwelling Holy Spirit provides enabling grace to overcome and to walk with Him again and again. Daily while walking with God, one can readily admit: I am sinful and lowly and in need of His grace and mercy. Humility is an honest appraisal of the situation. Keeping it simple, one can summarize it: my inability, God’s infinite ability.

Deception of Pride

Honesty is the starting point. However, the problem of a lack of humility in our lives goes past the starting point. Perhaps, one agrees to what has been stated thus far: Yes, I know that I am a sinner and that God is holy. Very true, God has provided redemption for humanity. True, in God’s presence, I bow before Him. Agreed, humility is the only attitude one could have before God. Well, wherein does the problem lie? It is not because we think we have humility, hence lose it. No, it is not the claim it lose it hocus-pocus. The problem lies again in our fallen human nature. It is a failure to remember. We forget humility. It is no longer fresh in our mind. How quickly we forget the simple truth: God is high, we are lowly. The lowliness of mind attitude is gone; something has displaced it. We pick our faces up off the ground from before an awesome God, dust ourselves off, proceed into the day, and begin to speak and act as if we are the exalted one—high and lifted up. As the self-proclaimed king or queen, we decide to do this or that. Our present attitude rewrites the statement accordingly: My will be done on earth as it ought to be in heaven. We act superior to others. We manipulate others to help them conform to the accuracy of our proper viewpoint. We give commands and expect obedience. We require royal treatment from people, or at least treatment deserved by our elevated position and standing; then, we are annoyed if we receive otherwise. Usurping the place of Judge, we cast judgments about people, as though we are higher and better. What has just happened to us? A moment ago, in humility, hell-deserving sinners were on their faces before a holy, righteous God finding His mercy and grace. Ugly pride, where did you come from? Why did you lie and deceive us into thinking that we deserve anything better than hell and God’s judgment? We have earned only one thing—the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Repentance

In conclusion, as a matter of life and death, we must honestly face and accept our sin (or in the modern less offensive and more politically correct terminology—weakness, deficiencies, shortcomings, failures). Jesus said, They that are well need not a physician, but they that are sick (Matthew 9:12). Pride deceives us into thinking that we are well, and if we think that we are well, we will not come to Jesus to find healing. But He calls us to repentance. Repent is a Greek word metanoeo that literally means: to perceive afterwards.³ In contrast to foresight, which is perceiving before, repentance is seeing afterward—that is, understanding the mistake or problem and changing one’s mind to make a correction. When we recognize (perceive afterward) that we are sick and hurting, wounded, and dying, we will change our mind about the need for the Doctor. We will look to the Great Physician for His remedy. But this is a continuous action. Pride would have us forget our need for Jesus. Pride is easily recognizable in the blatant evil of this world. In September 11, 2001, an awful event took place in New York City that manifested such sickness of the heart. Pride, defiance, evil, Antichrist, Taliban-terror are apt designations for such depravity. It is easily identifiable in the actions of the world’s terrorists. However, the insidious influence of the sin-virus is also seen in ordinary good people. None are sickness-free, whether in the church or without. Though in the good people, the effect of the virus is more subtle, but it is no less harmful. Pride goes before destruction. If we do not recognize it in our own hearts and continuously get and keep healing, it will bring its destruction in some form—in our families, friendships, schools, organizations, churches, etc.

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¹ W. E. Vine, Merrill Unger, and William White, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985), 314.

² James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Madison, NJ. n.p. 1890), 1089.

³ Vine, Expository Dictionary, 525.

Chapter 3

Origins

During the latter part of Jesus’s earthly ministry, He began to speak certain truths in the form of parables. Religious leaders opposed Jesus and solicited many of the Hebrew people to join with them in their antagonism. Before long, the shouts Crucify Him Crucify Him; we have no king but Caesar, could be heard from their lips. The people to whom Jesus came to minister rejected Him. Jesus said of them: Therefore I speak to them in parables, because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand. For this people’s heart is become gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them (Matthew 13:13-15). The Jew had eyes to see and ears to hear, but they did not perceive and understand spiritual truth. Something or someone had blinded their vision and distorted their understanding so that they did not recognize Jesus: the very promised Messiah for whom they had been waiting. The King of kings, though dressed in commoner’s clothes, stood right in front of them. The ox knows his owner and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel does not know (Isaiah 1:3). Pride makes one dumber than the jackass. Sadly, the Jew still waits. They still cannot see nor hear (like much of the world—blind and deaf). An old cliché describes the problem appropriately: They cannot see their nose in front of their face. However, Jesus spoke to His disciples who were open to spiritual truth and said: It is given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given (Matthew 13:11). Israel had a stiff neck and a hard heart. They refused to bow in the presence of the King. The truth from the lips of Christ could not penetrate their hardened heart. Hence the first parable was the parable of the sower. Christ, the sower of the seed of truth, distributed the seed. The seed that fell upon the hardened path, the rocky ground, or thorny ground could not penetrate, germinate, and grow in this impervious soil (the hardened heart). But he that received seed in the good ground is he that hears the word and understands it and bears fruit (Matthew 13:23).

A Mystery

Jesus said, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world (Matthew 13:35). Everybody likes a mystery; it is universal. Is there anybody who does not appreciate a good Sherlock Holmes-solving enigma? Who among us would say no to the question: Do you want to know a secret? Man is naturally curious; God created us with an innate desire for knowledge and truth. We want to solve the puzzle, we want the mystery to be explained, we want the secret to be revealed, we want the question to be answered—with the correct answer. We want to know the truth.

The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven Jesus did not keep secret. For every mystery mentioned in Scripture (except one), there is a subsequent revelation: the key that unlocks the door to understanding. It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom. And having been given the key, we have a responsibility not only to know the truth but also then to take care of it. God has appointed us stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1). But along with the task comes the Teacher, Jesus, said of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, He shall teach you all things (John 14:26). The King gives the mystery and enables us to comprehend the knowledge of the kingdom and charges us to be caretakers of the truth. And if God is infinite, then there must be an infinite capacity for learning truth. One can grow in knowledge, but one does not grow in an absence of it. Learning nothing causes zero growth. Zero times one million zeroes is still zero. A person not growing in truth is stifled, as though thrown into prison’s solitary confinement with no activity, other than staring at four blank walls. But when one learns the mysteries of God, one is liberated to life on earth and beyond. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32). Truth frees us to be in right relationship with God—the Giver of the mysteries of life. When the seed of truth falls upon the receptive soil of our hearts, it springs forth to life growing as a beautiful flower, a productive grape vine, or a luscious fruit tree, and growing for eternity.

Many mysteries are mentioned in Scripture with a subsequent explanation provided. In an addition to the parabolic mysteries (Matthew 13:3-51), others are given for our understanding:

The mystery of Israel’s blindness (Romans 11:25-26)—Until the fullness of the Gentiles come in and Christ returns, Israel will remain blind to the truth of Christ.

The mystery of the resurrection of the saints (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)—In heaven, believers will exchange corruption for incorruption, mortality for immortality.

The mystery of God’s will (Ephesians 1:9)—God will gather together in one all things in Christ: Jew and Gentile, male and female, nationalities, languages.

The mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:4-6, Colossians 4:3)—By the gospel of grace, the Gentiles also should be fellow heirs and partakers of His promise in Christ.

The fellowship of the mystery (Ephesians 3:9-11)—Because of the eternal purpose in Christ to the church, the heavenly host also can marvel in God’s manifold wisdom.

The mystery of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32)—A man and a woman joined in marriage are a symbolic picture of Christ (bridegroom) and the church (bride).

The mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19)—Because of the righteousness of Christ and His sacrificial death, God can declare us righteous and can declare our sin-debt paid.

The mystery of the indwelling Christ (Colossians 1:26-27)—Bringing the hope of glory, Jesus dwells in every believer in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The mystery of God (Colossians 2:2-3)—In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16)—God was manifest in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

The mystery of the seven stars and candlesticks (Revelation 1:20)—Through seven angels, Jesus sends a message of the last days to seven churches. (Some think that the seven churches are representative of seven types of churches and/or seven periods of church history.)

The mystery of God (Revelation 1:1, 10:7, 22:16)—As He has declared the Word to His servants, the prophets over the course of centuries, Jesus finishes the final words of the Bible through the seventh angel to John, the apostle.

Mystery Babylon, the woman, and the beast (Revelation 17:1-7)—The seventh angel reveals the connection between ancient Babylon and the beast, the devil incarnate, and his kingdom in the last days.

Mystery of Iniquity

Yes, it is given unto us to know the mysteries of the kingdom. God wants us to understand not only the physical world but also the spiritual. He has given us eyes to behold Him and ears to hear His words. However, there is one mystery mentioned in Scripture of which God is intentionally silent. God gives no explanation for the mystery of iniquity (2 Thessalonians 2:7). God never intended for us to know, understand, and experience evil. When God created, He created goodness. God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31). The forbidden fruit was from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). Certainly, God wanted us to know good; everything in the created order was good. God’s power and wisdom and grace and goodness could be seen and known from the beginning. His unsearchable riches He would distribute throughout eternity. However, God’s instructions about evil were explicit: do not partake of it. Why would a loving God want His children to experience evil, the antithesis of good? Even to know about evil would cast a shadow for humanity that would darken the pristine beauty that sparkled in paradise. The Heavenly Father desired to keep His children from sadness, pain, pride, selfishness. Consider examples, pictures of horrendous evil: Jewish casualties of the holocaust in a Nazi death camp; black victims of the KKK in an unjust racial lynching; death tolls of innocent people in the aftermath of ethnic cleansing, terrorism, or war; dead babies legally murdered at an abortion clinic; children abducted by kidnappers; young women forced into prostitution; political or religious dissenters tortured in a communist prison; dismembered bodies of a crazed, psychopathic serial killer. Evil was to be concealed in a closed box, kept behind a locked door. A loving God must withhold the key to a door leading to such awfulness. God never relinquished the key. In response to a question, God spoke to Moses and His people: The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things that are revealed belong unto us (Deuteronomy 29:29). Yes, it is a secret He cannot tell us. God said no in the garden of Eden; it is still no. What we now know about evil, we learned by default. The only prohibition given to humanity (given for protection) in the midst of limitless possibility and freedom, man defied. Refusing to obey God, Adam and Eve battered down the door and opened the box filled with destruction and despair. Once they walked through the doorway and opened Pandora’s box, evil sprang out. Then they and subsequently all of humanity learned firsthand the horror from which God wanted to protect us. Our painful, limited understanding of the mystery of iniquity came not from Divine revelation but from dreadful experience.

Iniquity has overrun and ravaged every human being. Ugly evil and pride, where did you come from? In history hindsight given to Isaiah and Ezekiel, God has provided insight into the distant past. Because of Divine disclosure of early ancient history, we know who was the host of the sin-virus. We also know the reason God permitted it, knowing by foreknowledge its awful consequences (to be discussed in the next chapter). But even in the disclosure, the mystery remains. There are still questions that cannot be answered. How did evil originate in a universe that God created good? And why would any angelic or human being choose to disobey God?

No one can understand the why of the mystery of iniquity. And if God does not reveal it, there is no authoritative answer. Remember, the subject of evil was to remain a secret thing. But once Adam and Eve opened the closed door, evil became a present reality. Our inquisitiveness of the subject can muster only a deduction. To approach the unknown, we start with the known. What we do know about the Creator and the created helps us partially comprehend the mystery. The subject is subdivided and addressed in two distinctly different spheres—the conceptual sphere where God abides and the experiential sphere occupied by fallen men and angels.

Conceptual Shere

Firstly, in the conceptual sphere, evil has always existed as a concept. Webster defines evil as morally bad or wrong. Anything that God declares good and right, the opposite would be bad. If God is love, then hate would be evil—simple deductive reasoning. Since God is all-knowing (omniscient), He would know everything—the good and the bad. He even knows it before it happens. The sudden appearance of evil did not take God by surprise. In fact, we are told that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Before man sinned, even before the world began, God was prepared for man’s redemption. (Wow! Figure that one out!) God knows good, and He knows evil (as a concept). After Adam and Eve sinned, God (Elohim—the Hebrew name for God that implies the trinity) said about man: Now he has become as one of us (Genesis 3:22). Meaning: God knows good and evil; now man does too. (Important to note: man sunk from innocence to experience in one instant). It is critical that one does not extrapolate to suggest that God’s essence