Mystery and Revelation
“The word “apocalypse” means “to remove the veil from that which is hidden, that which is in darkness, that which is covered.” It’s the appearance of things, events, and messages that God wants to convey to man. And this revelation was given by God to the Apostle John because we needed to know it. Why do we need to know it? The path of this world is linear; it leads to an end. Christ told us about the end of the world; He told the world that it will end one day.” (Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol)
“…we, the faithful, do not have to guess what God the Holy Trinity is up to in our world. We no longer wish that somehow everything would turn out alright. Instead, we know the inheritance that God has in store for us. And we already have the Holy Spirit, the down payment for the final fulfillment of our salvation (Ephesians 4:4). The world may be spinning out of control, crises piling up on top of each other. Yet, the word of scripture assures us that the end of all things is in our spiritual sight. By the revelation of God, we not only know our end but also the destiny of the universe.” (Fr. Basil)
“In earth’s dark and dangerous places, many people think themselves alone and abandon – the elderly sick woman lying in pain in her small apartment without medical insurance; the Western journalist held captive by terrorists; the young child abused by a family member, frightened and with no one to turn to. But God has not abandoned any of these. The Church is the friend of the world, and it commends all those in need to God, who has revealed Himself as the hope of the hopeless, the protector of widows and the father of orphans. No tear falls that our God does not see, no fear grips the human heart that leaves our God untouched, and the Church intercedes for all those in distress.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley)
“Holy Scripture is categorical: The Lord didn’t create evil; He isn’t the cause of evil; He doesn’t want human pain; He doesn’t create diseases; He doesn’t punish people with diseases, troubles, trials, and so on. He doesn’t kill children or fill cancer wards with sick children to sit and watch them suffer because He desires it. In this story, the Lord is a suffering God. He weeps when we weep, and He prays together with us. He doesn’t stand aloof from the mother who is burying her child, but is near her, next to her, together with her. It is God Who suffers; He is the Suffering Servant. The Holy Fathers of the Church say that Christ never came down from the Cross, and until the end of the world and the ensuing Kingdom of God come, Christ remains crucified and resurrected. He’s with us during our pain and suffering and strengthens, helps, and comforts us.” (Fr. Charalampos Papadopoulos)
“Many modern Christians who have been taught erroneous ideas about the future widely overlook, if not completely deny, the fundamental Christian hope of a transformed world….modern Christians widely assume that Jesus will return to destroy rather than to renew the earth. By wrongly interpreting the apocalyptic language in 2 Peter 3:10–12, many imagine that God does not care about the world but plans to destroy it with fire. Saint Symeon argued that the renewal by fire St. Peter spoke of is comparable to a metalworker renewing a bronze vessel by reworking it: so it is not destroyed but made new…recent translations have noted that major manuscripts use the Greek verb eurisko to mean not “burn up” but to “discover” or “expose.” (Robin Phillips, Dr. William Dyrness)
"Paradox and mystery are everywhere…and are part of the very essence of Christianity itself. Jesus Christ died to defeat death. Through death He gave us life. He who humbles himself will be exalted. If one tries to save his life, he will lose it. The Christian faith is built on paradoxes such as these.” (Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou)
“The Book of Revelation takes its name from the first verse, identifying the text as “the Revelation (Apokalypsis) of Jesus Christ” This is important to understanding the text. It is not the revelation of “end time” events in the distant future. It is not the revelation of esoteric spiritual secrets about the cosmos. It is a revelation of who Jesus Christ truly is.” (Fr. Stephen De Young)
“…when it comes to understanding God there is always mystery. God cannot be grasped by us nor completely explained by our logic…The Trinity exceeds our comprehension. The knowledge that divine revelation gives us of this mystery, however, opens to us a deeper understanding of God and love then might otherwise be possible.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh, Vigen Guroian)
“…mystery is not only an aspect of the divine, but part of the nature of all reality. Everything is far more than it appears….Mystery is a major term in some of St. Paul’s writings…But there is more to the word than mere secret. St. Paul also speaks of the “mystery of godliness” and the “mystery of iniquity.” In those expressions the word does not describe secret information, but a hidden process at work. And this gets closer, I think, to St. Paul’s other uses as well. For him, “mystery” is not the same thing as “secret.” It is not information that is being held back. Rather, it is a reality that is not made manifest as of yet…I personally think that there is something within the human that is particularly attuned to revelation. We describe the experience by saying, “A light came on,” or “The coin dropped.” The movement between ignorance and knowledge in such situations is not a path. It is sudden and even jarring. We see when shortly before we were blind. I would suggest that the knowledge acquired in such a manner differs qualitatively from knowledge gained in other ways.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“All knowledge is in God, and when He wills it, according to His mercy, He will reveal these mysteries to the mind of an individual…Because God’s mystery revealed is divine, it is possible for some to misunderstand it. God reveals to each of us according to our abilities. So, it is possible that to protect some from falling into error, that it is better for them that certain aspects of God’s revelation remain a mystery. God will give them to know what they need to know, but there may remain some things beyond their comprehension. This is OK because God in His love reveals to each what they need to know for their salvation.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Fr. Ted Bobosh)
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