One of the conflicting ideas of Mormonism with mainstream Christian theology is the concept or understanding of the "Mysteries of the Kingdom". While mainstream Christian theology sees a mystery as something not revealed and indeed beyond men's reach, Mormonism sees it as something to be achieved, acquired and understood. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that mysteries can only be perceived or learned by direct revelation, and they are one of men's promised blessings in this life.
A scripture in the New Testament is a good example of why a mystery is
not unreachable but was actually something the early Saints enjoyed and through which they were blessed. Let's turn to I Corinthians, chapter 2 and start with verse 6.
"Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:"
Paul is talking about a specific wisdom, or knowledge, that men in general lacked, but was only known to a few, to whom he calls "perfect". This will make one wonder if there were some that had achieved perfection, but a look at the Greek word translated as "perfect" will shed some light on this. The Greek word here translated as "perfect" is teleios, and its original meaning, when in a religious context, was "initiated" or someone who had been entrusted with a sacred knowledge through some sort of ritual. The next verse, number 7, actually adds light to this concept.
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:"
The two key words in this verse are "mystery" and "hidden". We already learned from verse 6 that this wisdom or knowledge was in the possession of a few, the "initiated", and this verse actually explains this knowledge was ordained by God before the creation of the world for the glory of men. So, what does Paul mean by "speak[ing] wisdom in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom"?
The Greek word for "mystery" is mysterion, the direct root for the English counterpart and in fact for the same word in so many modern languages, and the meaning of mysterion is "sacred ritual". I guess the early translators of the letters of Paul had no idea what ritual he was talking about, and decided not to translate the original word, in fact adding a new word to the Latin and later the modern languages.
The word "hidden" comes from the Greek apokryptos, root word for encryption and cryptography, and its meaning is "to keep secret", which you probably have guessed by now.
A new reading of these two verses would then be:
"Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are initiated: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
But we speak the wisdom of God in a sacred ritual (or ordinance), even a wisdom to be kept secret from the world, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:"
Paul then continues to explain that these things had been revealed to the Apostles by revelation, "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit" (verse 10), and that even though they speak of it and transmit this sacred knowledge, it is the Holy Ghost that truly teaches this special knowledge or understanding of God, "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth" (verse 13).
A great insight from Paul is that the natural man will judge these things as foolishness, but the spiritual man will discern them by the Spirit (verse 14). So true.
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