03 The Word "Mystery"

The Word "Mystery" The word "mystery" is a transliteration of the Greek word mustērion. The Hebrew word ratz is mustērion in the Septuagint. The Aramaic word is araza. The earliest Latin Version of Ephesians 5:32 translated mustērion as sacramentum. The word "mystery" originally meant that which is concealed, hidden or secret. This was also the meaning of the word sacramentum in its earliest usage. Etymologically and semantically the usage of the word "mystery" has degraded through the years and does not carry the significance of its original biblical usage. The word "mystery" (mustērion) in the Bible means something kept secret, yet it can be understood when revealed. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever" (Deuteronomy 29:29). The word mustērion is used twenty-eight times in the New Testament. Three usages are in the Gospels, four in the book of Revelation, and twenty-one in the Pauline epistles. The "great mystery" is only one of its usages. mustērion may be used of a scripture that has a deeper meaning than that which we note upon first reading. Not every mustērion need have a religious connotation, but may be a natural phenomena or even actions of men which are done in secrecy.

However, to the Church of God, the born-again believers, the body of Christ, there is no subject of such significant importance as the great mystery. The time of the great mystery begins with the day of Pentecost and terminates with the gathering together of the believers. This period is referred to as an administration, oikonomia. In government circles, from local government to federal, we have different administrations. For instance, it may be a Republican administration or a Democratic administration. We speak of it as the administration of this President or that President. So in the Bible the different times under different leadership represent different administrations. The last administration preceding the day of Pentecost was the administration of Christ’s presence upon earth in person. The Bible refers to this period as the Christ administration or the Kingdom of Heaven. As far as God’s work was concerned the Christ administration officially ended with the Ascension. In practice, however, the Christ administration ended much later. This has caused misunderstanding and wrong dividing of The Word. If the Church of grace without the law began on the day of Pentecost, why did so many born-again believers continue their zeal for the law many, many years after Pentecost? We are told in Acts 21:20, "How many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law." What is the answer? It is very simple. The believers were born again on the day of Pentecost and as such were part of the body of Christ. Since they had not been given the revelation of what came on the day of Pentecost, they, as born-again believers, continued to be zealous for the law. For instance, we utilize electricity day-in and day-out, but we cannot explain what it is. On the day of Pentecost when the power from on high was given, believers were born again, filled with the holy spirit for the first time, but they could not explain what they had.* They utilized it, they operated it, but they could not define it nor describe it, because the revelation of what came on the day of Pentecost was given later to the apostle Paul. This revelation was the great mystery.

* Victor Paul Wierwille, Receiving The Holy Spirit Today, Fifth Edition (The American Christian Press of The Way, Inc., New Knoxville, Ohio 45871). The entire subject of Pentecost, including God, the Giver, and His gift, are covered in detail.