Based on SWRC interviews
Christians know that in this life, we only see through a glass darkly, so oddities, secrets and mysteries pique our interest and often confuse and perplex us. God, however, is never perplexed, and mysteries to Him are just part of His greater plan, says Rob Lindsted, Bible scholar, mechanical engineer and founder of Bible Truth in Prophecy ministry.
“What we see is God had a plan and He has not deviated from that plan… In fact, that’s one of the great proofs of God and the great proofs of Scripture. God doesn’t make it up as He goes.
“God said, ‘Here are these mysteries and I am going to expose you to the mysteries. I am going to show you I had a master plan.’”
In the four-DVD set, Lindsted provides six hours of teaching on what he calls the 11 Mysteries of God.
“Whenever we talk about the mysteries of God, I always enjoy looking at the face of people, because they think of mysteries in the sense that we normally use the word,” Lindsted said in an interview with SWRC. “We talk about a series of mysteries or who murdered so-and-so, and what weapon did they use or who stole this? That may be a mystery in the common sense, but it’s not a mystery in the biblical sense. A mystery in the Scripture is the truth of God that was previously hidden and now God divinely reveals it …
“Let me just give a quick example: A savior was promised in the Old Testament. Matter of fact, in the garden of Eden right after sin, God promised to Adam and Eve that there would be a savior, a redeemer. Adam and Eve thought it was going to be the first child that was born, and so, they named him Cain, “man from God,” but that wasn’t the redeemer. Matter of fact, that man was a murderer… Think of all the promises of God in the Old Testament that there would be a redeemer to the nation of Israel. And we now know He’s going to be of the seed of David. We know he’s going to be from the tribe of Judah.
“We have the Scripture and we can look backward. So, mysteries are easy to understand once you say, ‘OK, here’s the pattern. Here’s what God teaches.’ So, that was a mystery, but it was fulfilled in the New Testament and it was revealed.”
THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION
… Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory (1Tim. 3:16).
No one but God could come up with the concept of a virgin giving birth to introduce Jesus on Earth in human form, Lindsted says. “Jesus pre-existed, but Jesus came as a man, clothed as a man, and it was a mystery,” he says. “Why? God didn’t reveal how it was going to be. John 1:14 says, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us for we beheld His glory, the glory of the only-begotten, of the Father full of grace and truth. That was the plan of God, the incarnation …
“If Jesus would’ve been the actual son of Joseph, He would’ve been under the curse and He could not be the king. If He was an actual child of Joseph, He would have a sin nature, because Joseph had a sin nature. But instead, in God’s plan, God’s mystery that He puts forward is that Jesus would be virgin born. As a result, He wasn’t under the line that was cursed. Isn’t God amazing? Isn’t our salvation an amazing story? It’s a great gift from God.”
THE DIVINE INDWELLING
“God says, ‘OK, the indwelling, I’m going to make it so that there’s an external covenant, that was the Old Testament,” Lindsted explains. “There’s an internal covenant: You’re part of the body of Christ. When you accept Christ as your Savior, you move into the body of Christ. In other words, you’re some part of that body. Christ is the head and we’re the body.”
“How does that work? Well, that’s just an incredible spiritual mystery, just like, here’s my liver. Now, no one sees my liver, but I know I have a liver, because it does the work of the liver. And so, here’s what Galatians says: ‘I’m crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.’”
In the New Testament, Jewish religious leader Nicodemus asks Jesus how an adult can be “born again.” Jesus explains the rebirth is spiritual, rather than physical.
“So, this whole idea that Christ in us, the hope of glory and us in the body of Christ, we’re part of the body of Christ, and there’s going to be a day coming when the head of the body, that’s Jesus, is going to come in the clouds and He’s going to say, “Come up here.”
THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH
That whisking away of believers, living and dead, is often called the rapture. “Thessalonians 4, and Corinthians 15 call it a mystery,” Lindsted says. “They’re going to be snatched off the Earth. They’re going to meet Jesus in the air …
“And so, this mystery is, ‘How is Jesus ever going to get His bride or the part of His body? He’s the head. We’re the rest of the body. How’s He ever going to get them to heaven? In my [DVD] study, I give seven examples.”
UNION OF THE JEWS & GENTILES
In the days of the Apostles, the first century, there were interracial hatreds just as there are now.
“There was a hated race, and that hated race, it was still the Jews. And today, guess what? The Jews are being persecuted again. The Jews at that time referred to the Gentiles as dogs.”
Two thousand years later, anti-Semitic sentiment is once again prevalent. “I’ve got hundreds of articles that show the anti-Semitic feeling that’s sweeping the country,” Lindsted says. “We know that it’s going to increase in the last days and we’re watching it, even in our country, the discrimination, race against race.”
But, LIndsted says, God has revealed in His Word that the Jews and Gentiles are going to be one.
“In Christ, there’s no racial distinction, there’s no class distinction, there’s no nationality distinction. All distinctions disappear in the body of Christ. That’s an incredible mystery,” that can be found in Ephesians 3.”
In one “body,” Scripture says we will all be joint heirs.
“You see all the way back, even if you go back to the story of Abraham, remember Ishmael and Isaac, there was discrimination,” Lindsted points out. “If you go back even to the flood, there was discrimination. But when God sets up His kingdom and when God has us enjoy our eternal abode, we’re going to have a joint body, be joint heirs and [there will] be joint promise.
“That mystery was revealed in the New Testament, and you know what? I love it—because I can be treated and I can treat others the way Christ would have them to be treated.”
SEVEN STARS & LAMPSTANDS
The seven stars and seven lampstands of Revelation represent not just the seven churches of John’s time, but it could represent today’s churches, as well, Lindsted says.
“In any local church, there are these seven kinds of people there. There’s someone, and they’re lukewarm. They’re neither hot nor cold. It’s hard to tell if they are real or not. That was like the church at Laodicea. There’s others and they are like Ephesus. They left their first love. There was a time when they were excited about the things of God and now it’s put on the back burner. Maybe sports is more important or education is more important or business is more important and they’ve left their first love. They’re born again, but they’ve lost the priority of this.
“And so these represent seven different aspects of any believer. And you know what it does? It makes me examine my life. I don’t want to be one that’s left my first love and I don’t want to be one that’s lukewarm because God says he’s going to vomit them out of his mouth.
“I just want to be like the church at Philadelphia, little but powerful and little and looking for the power of God to energize me.”
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
This mystery, Lindsted says, mirrors the process of finding, securing and preparing for a bride in Jewish culture 2,000 years ago. God could have selected an angel or any created being for Jesus’ bride, but no …
“I’m going to take humans. I’m going to take mankind, and even though they sinned, well, I’m going to send a redeemer for them,” Lindsted says. “So he came to Earth. He saw us in our sinful conditions. He died for us to redeem us, to make us a suitable bride.
“And the thing that’s wonderful about it, he said, ‘I’m going to come back and I’m going to claim my bride.’ He left. He went back to heaven. And remember what He told his disciples, ‘Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in my father, believe also in me.’ He said, ‘If I go, I will come again.’ So He’s back in heaven, preparing our honeymoon cottage and He’s going to come and I think that’s the rapture of the Church…”
“We are the bride of Christ. He’s the bridegroom and we’re the bride. This is another reason why I don’t think the Church goes through the tribulation. Can you imagine a bridegroom who loves his bride … having her beat up for seven years before he marries her? Absolutely not. He’s going to take her out of that judgment. He’s going to take her out of that wrath of God. So I think this idea is, again, a wonderful proof of the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church.”
THE BLINDNESS OF ISRAEL
Despite Jesus’ miracles, ministry and teaching–and that of His Apostles–Lindsted says Romans 11 predicts the continuing blindness of the Jewish people, Jesus’ own people.
“It shows that God knew that it would come, and He even says this, that they’re going to have eyes, but they’re not going to see spiritual things,” he says. “And He even says that they’re going to have a stumbling block, and because they’re blind, they stumble over this rock. But this rock is the very one that’s the foundation. This rock is the one that’s going to come and smash the image of Daniel and it’s going to dwell forever and it’s going to grow and fill the whole Earth.
“It’s upon this rock that He’s going to build His Church, so Jesus is referred to all the time as the rock. He’s the rock of ages. He’s the stabilizing force. And yet the mystery is this: When He was so close, among them, why would they reject him? The Bible said that this is what would happen. Why? Because they became blind to the promises of God.”
A PLAN, NOT A MYSTERY
Rather than being puzzled or put off, Lindsted finds great joy in plumbing the depths of the mysteries of God. “This is not finding some writings of some old rabbi’s and he predicted this,” he said. “No, the mysteries of God are revealed by God. They’re put in God’s Word, so that as we study, we’re going to know here’s the mind of God and the plan of God.
“You know what? I get really excited about the plan of God. I don’t want my own plan, because half my plans don’t come to fruition. But I get really excited about the plan of God because the plan of God is so good you can’t improve on it.
“I just want to understand, what does God say in His Word about His plan? If I could know that, then I know that I’m going to be on the right track.”
