There are many deep questions people still debate after centuries: suffering, free will, prophecy, Heaven, spiritual experiences, and more.
Why do you think God sometimes gives enough truth to guide us, but not always enough detail to remove every mystery?
At times, people are not ready to accept/bear more. At times, if more had been revealed, it would not have been understood. At times, if more was to be revealed, it would be profanced. So, in the letter of the Word is revealed as much as is needed for the simple reformation, but not more. What is more is supposed to be further seen via the doctrinal points, provided they are genuinely derived and confirmed from the Word.
Ah @ellenvera,
This idea has an easily accessible simile, your own parents. When you were small, no doubt your parents explained things to you in ways you could grasp, ways that an immature and inexperienced mind could grapple with a concept. Likewise, God does so for his newly born-from-above infantile followers. Those ideas which we call “mystery” necessarily include information too wonderful for human comprehension; concepts that will not conform to our dimensions of space and time, possibilities that to us are impossibilities. If a precise explanation of a miracle were to be explained to even the most intelligent human mind, I suspect that person’s head would explode. While we do not see a portion of the population walking about cerebrally truncated with bloody frayed necks, we know our loving Father is withholding that kind of decapitating detail.
Praise The Father from whom ALL blessings flow.
KP
There is also the fact that evil is no metaphor. That separates down two roads; the demise of believers, and the chance to avoid its own demise.
Evil is destroyed before judgement, it wants to know what is the exact reason for that to happen. It understands the logic for the beast and false prophet, but not the exact reason for it to be thrown in the lake in one sudden move. The answer is in scripture, but it does not know where it has been placed, and neither do we.
If scripture were to be seen as spoon feeding information, causing one universal belief system, it would only take evil one lie to bring it all down. That is pride saying otherwise. Humans are so addicted to what that thing spits out, we would believe the lie.
Your question can be answered, @ellenvera, with the idea in Scripture that God inspired the Bible to present HIStory and his will to show us his relationship with humanity and with true believers and their relationship with each other, the latter of which is called the old and new covenant.
Other matters we question fall outside his purpose of inspiring his Word.
Ellen-----
I’m sure there are MANY reasons God does not explain things FULLY. But one reason can be because of the Powers of Darkness. They read the Word of God. But God hides things so well they cannot comprehend the meaning—look at these verses:
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Cor. 2: 7,8)
We see by this that God DID proclaim a Messiah in the Old Testament. And AFTER the crucifixion it became obvious that Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 were talking about a “suffering Messiah”. But BEFORE the crucifixion is wasn’t as easy to see this. In fact, the Powers of Darkness missed the meaning. If they had KNOWN that crucifying Jesus would lead to THEIR OWN DEFEAT they would not have done it.
This is only ONE reason why I believe God does not CLEARLY and COMPLETELY reveal things–I’m sure there are many more. God never does anything for ONE reason–He always has a multitude of reasons for doing things.
Hi ellen,
I think that people do not know enough of the character of the Father and His purposes and thus judge things by earthly standards.
The Incomprehensibility of God
Scripture teaches that we can have a true and personal knowledge of God, but this does not mean we will ever understand him exhaustively. The Bible is clear that God is ultimately incomprehensible to us; that is, we can never fully comprehend his whole being. The following passages show this:
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. (Ps. 145:3)
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand? (Job 26:14)
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:8–9)
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” (Rom. 11:33–34; cf. Job 42:1–6; Ps. 139:6, 17–18; 147:5; Isa. 57:15; 1 Cor. 2:10–11; 1 Tim. 6:13–16)
These verses teach that not only is God’s whole being incomprehensible but each of his attributes—his greatness, power, thoughts, ways, wisdom, and judgments—are well beyond human ability to fathom fully. Not only can we never know everything there is to know about God, we can never know everything there is to know about even one aspect of God’s character or work.
…we can never know everything there is to know about even one aspect of God’s character or work.
Why God Is Incomprehensible
The main reasons for God’s incomprehensibility are:
God is infinite and his creatures are finite. By definition, creatures depend on their Creator for their very existence and are limited in all aspects. Yet God is without limitations in every quality he possesses. This Creator/creature, infinite/finite gap will always exist.
The perfect unity of God’s attributes is far beyond the realm of human experience. God’s love, wrath, grace, justice, holiness, patience, and jealousy are continually functioning in a perfectly integrated yet infinitely complex way.
The effects of sin on the minds of fallen humans also greatly inhibit the ability to know God. The tendency of fallen creatures is to distort, pervert, and confuse truth and to use, or rather abuse, it for selfish ends rather than for God’s glory (Rom. 1:18–26).
A final reason God can never be fully known is that in his sovereign wisdom God has chosen not to reveal some things: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). Many would label it unloving for God to decide to withhold some information from his people. They wrongly believe God should reveal everything they may want to know. Yet, as with all good fathers, God’s wisdom leads him to refrain from answering all the questions his children ask him, and this contributes to his incomprehensibility.
In heaven, God’s incomprehensibility will no doubt be lessened when the effects of sin no longer ravage minds and when he will most likely share some of his secrets. However, God will always be infinite and humans will always be finite, so he will always be beyond human ability to know exhaustively.
Implications of God’s Incomprehensibility
Because God can never be fully known, those who seek to know God should be deeply humbled in the process, realizing that they will always have more to learn. The appropriate response to God is a heart of wonder and awe in light of his incomprehensible greatness.
God’s incomprehensibility also means that beliefs can be held with firm conviction even though they may be filled with inexplicable mystery. The Trinity, the divine and human natures of Christ, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, and many other core teachings of the Christian faith are profoundly mysterious; believing them requires a robust affirmation of the incomprehensibility of God.
The Knowability of God
The incomprehensibility of God could lead to despair or apathy in the quest to know God, but the Bible also teaches that God is knowable. While God can never be exhaustively understood, he can be known truly, personally, and sufficiently. God is personal, has definite characteristics, and has personally revealed himself so that he can be truly known. The multiplication of grace and peace in our lives is dependent on knowing God (2 Pet. 1:2–3), and this knowledge provides sufficient resources for life and for becoming the people God wants us to be.
J.
I don’t think we are capable of understanding all that God could tell us at this moment. It’s like school: In second grade you can’t understand tenth grade lessons, because there is a lot you have learn first.