This is an age in which we pretend to be very smart. I suppose this could be called, "The Age of Academia," "The Age of the Mind," the age in which man boasts a knowledge of everything that's worth knowing. But when we think about it one extra time, we realize that there's very little that we really know for sure! The rest is shrouded by a very thick veil that we might well call "mystery."

It was Thomas Edison who said that we do not know one one-hundredeth of anything. That's not a bad observation by someone who was quite brilliant by comparison to most of us. The mystery of things - that's what we want to think about. There are many mysteries afloat in this society of ours, and happily, quite a number of them are named in that Book which understands it all, the Bible.

Let's think about the mysteries of the ages. You may already suspect what they are. But if we look a little deeper, we will uncover some exciting nuggets of knowledge that lie just below the surface.

Principal among the mysteries of the ages is the mystery of iniquity. Most of us have good thoughts and fine aspirations in life, and want things to go well. But as is so often the case, we sometimes find ourselves swept away by a hidden river that is prurient and poisoned, that runs deep beneath society. It tears things down and ruins our best plans. "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley," said Bobby Burns. That's really the way it is. No matter how well we make our plans, they so often go terribly wrong.

What is it that takes a brilliant young man, who looks like he has a life filled with potential, and turns him into a hopeless derelict before too many years have gone by? What is it that takes a beautiful, virtuous young lady, for who we would have instantly forecast greatness, and leaves her life in ruin before she has even begun to live? The Bible calls it "the mystery of iniquity," and we must never ignore it. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says:

"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now hindereth will continue to hinder until he be taken out of the way," 2 Thessalonians 2:7.

That is a fascinating verse in the Word of God. There is a subversive, terrible, swirling tide that tears down the best laid plans of everyone. That activity, however, is retarded by a certain force that will not allow it to actually take over the world. So the mystery of iniquity continues to fester, and spread beneath the surface of all activity on earth.

You see, we don't really understand life until we realize that we are in a great conflict between Christ and Satan. We are born on a battlefield. On the one hand is the power of God and the reality of Christ. On the other hand is the mystery of iniquity, which continues to cut down everything.

What keeps the mystery of iniquity from taking over, and producing total ruin everywhere? What holds back "The Great Tribulation," preserving perhaps three billion lives until some can find safety in the Savior?

It is really the Church, the Body of Christ, used as an instrument of the Holy Spirit, that does its job as the salt (the preservative) of the earth. By proclaiming the Gospel, telling others that they need to be saved, we hold back the terrible hand of iniquity.

When that restraint is taken out of the way, watch out. The world will be devastated so quickly that it will reel in incredulity as to how terrible sin is, how terrible it was all the time. The world will be shattered because of the rise of iniquity.

Time would fail, if we were to talk in detail about sin. Do you realize that sin cost trillions of dollars? Do you realize it threatens at all points and at all times the very bankruptcy of society? Look at what it takes to keep sin from taking over now! Police forces and armies and alarm systems and all the rest of it - the mystery of iniquity continues to chew away at the reality and the goodness of life. So my advice is, don't let the mystery of iniquity overtake your life, but join in the combat against it.

We can learn something additional about this when we consider a second mystery that works in life: the mystery of human nature. The Psalmist started asking the question, and the writer of the Book of Hebrews continued asking the question:

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visiteth him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet," Psalm 8:4-6 (See also Hebrews 2:6-8).

This is what the Bible says in answering the question, "What is man?" What is this being who has perhaps a brilliant mind and high aspirations, but at the same time sets such limitations on himself by his actions, that he lives a life of frustration? What is this thing called man, who is able to build great buildings, but many times is unable to master his own spirit?

It all boils down to the question, "Who am I?" The answer is that man is an individual being made in the image of the eternal God. There is something about you that is just like God; something about the way you think that resembles God's intelligence; something about the character of your being that's like the Lord.

Never believe, not for one idiotic moment, that you are simply a beast in the field, a worm in the dust, a leaf on a tree. Rather, the Bible says you are an individual, made in the image and likeness of God. That truth alone causes my heart to leap with joy, to think of the power and potential that God has entrusted to us!

That brings us to consider the mystery of Divine love. One of the most cryptic but wonderful passages in the Bible is the verse that says,

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," John 3:16.

When I know that I am a sinner, having been captured by the mystery of iniquity; when I know that God is a holy Being that presides above the universe; when I know that God could cause me to disappear with the snap of His fingers, never to exist again - when I know those things, then I ask again: how is it that God loves me? Why is it that He loves me?

Strictly speaking, the answer to that question is that it cannot be answered. Love is so absolutely majestic and amazing, that it is utterly beyond description. Even the great chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13, fails to tell us what love is, but instead describes what love does.

"Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up," 1 Corinthians 13:4

It tells us about Divine love, agapao, without which life does not really exist. The mystery of Divine love should lead us every day to pray with tears that God should help us to understand how much He loves us.

The poet said, "How thou canst love me as I am, and be the God thou art, Is darkness to my intellect, but sunshine to my heart."

Still the Apostle Paul was pressed by this mystery. He said in his letter to the people at Philippi:

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus," Philippians 3:12

"I am pursuing the great reason why Christ pursued me. I would like to know," Paul says, "what God ever saw in me, to offer me the gift of salvation." And by the way, Paul was made a chosen vessel unto God. "Why should this happen to me?", Paul asked.

He didn't have any answer, but he said, "That is going to be the great pursuit of my life. I am going to find out about the mysterious, amazing, infinite love of God."

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins," 1 John 4:10.

Explain that to me, and believe me, I promise to listen with great attention. But since we are unable to suggest even the simplest answer, we stand in awe at the remarkable love of God. We write songs about it. "The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell." It is a mystery that should stagger our imaginations every day that we live.

From here, we go to another mystery which is essential to life: the mystery of salvation. How is it that God is able to translate Divine love into eternal salvation for me? How is it that the mystery of iniquity could be cancelled in my life by the mystery of salvation? How is it that my human nature, infected by the dread disease of sin, could yet become the heir of salvation? It is a mystery, but it is marvelous evidence of the love of God.

How can I be saved, being a sinner? Can I be saved just by saying, "I'm sorry?" Can I be saved just by saying, "I'll never do it again?" Can I be saved just by saying, "God, I'll follow You all the days of my life; Lord, I'll submit to Your Lordship; I'll be a perfect reflection of Your desire for me; I'll join a church and be baptized and do many things?" Is that how I can be saved?

Let me tell you something: not one of those suggestions has anything to do with salvation, and how it comes to me. How does salvation come to me? The Bible says:

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God," Romans 3:23-24.

It is the blood of Jesus Christ that saves from sin. We are not saved through high purposing or life changing. We are not saved by newly deciding that we will try to be different. We are saved by properly answering the age-old question: "Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?" Hear it again: "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins; and sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their filthy stains."

Salvation by the blood of Christ - that's the only way. It is a great mystery how God saves us: by grace rather than by works; by the blood of Christ rather than by our own high purposing. But there it is - it is the mystery of salvation.

The mystery of salvation announces that the most Godless reprobate, the most terrible sinner, the most wretched individual you could think of in all of life, who comes to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, will be given eternal life. Christ says he will never perish. It is fantastic, marvelous, wonderful beyond description, but it is true. You are saved by the blood of the crucified One.

"I understand God," some people say. "I know all about Him." You'd better watch out, making presumptuous statements like that! Everything that is a part of the Divine creation grew out of the mind of God. He made them; He arranged it that way. Therefore, we ought to consider, "What is the mind that stands behind it all?" Listen to the mystery of the mind of God:

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen," Romans 11:33-36.

That question stands out, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord?" Take some time, maybe on your knees, to try to figure out what God is thinking - what is coming from His eternal mind. I can assure you that after you've done all the reviewing you possibly can, then you're going to have to lay even your best ideas down and say, "God is greater that I; He is beyond comprehension. The fact that I am an object of His grace is enough for me." When we realize who God is, we should be stunned to think that He would permit us to be in His presence, even for one moment.

Do you want to know who God is? There are a number of ways to find out, the Bible tells us. For instance:

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge," Psalm 19:1-2.

The Bible tells us that God made the heavens and the earth. Talking about Jesus Christ, the Scripture says:

". . .all things were created by him, and for him; And he is before all things, and by him all things consist," Colossians 1:16-17.

The mind that fashioned this fantastic universe is totally beyond comprehension. In addition, let me tell you a little secret that applies to the Christian. (If you are not a Christian, you are not an heir of the universe. If you are not a Christian, you are becoming progressively more stupid, and I say that respectfully.)

But about the Christian, the Bible says, we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16). In another place, it comes to us in the form of an admonition:

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, But made himself of no reputation. . .," Philippians 2:5-7.

We have the mind of Christ. We are to allow ourselves to be taken over by the mind of Christ. Speaking about the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul says:

"In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," Colossians 2:3.

All of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are where: at Cambridge, at Oxford, at MIT? Are they in the ancient libraries of Alexandria, or in the library of Congress? The treasures of wisdom and knowledge - are they hidden in some computer somewhere?

The answer is, while these suggestions may be interesting, the true treasures are not there. All of these entities are pitiful little dead leaves in the great living forest, by comparison to the knowledge of God and the mind of the Lord, which is ours when we believe the Gospel.

Ideally, a Christian should be in the process of becoming progressively more brilliant, because the mystery of Divine knowledge is his. This is the prayer Paul offered for the Colossians. Remember that these were the smart guys of the New Testament. They invented Gnosticism when their knowledge turned into heresy. But Paul prayed that they would have full knowledge: not just gnosis (knowledge), but epignosis (full knowledge), the knowledge of God. That is also my prayer for you, as well as for me.

"Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore, get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding," Proverbs 4:7.

That is to apprehend within myself the mind of Jesus Christ. Are you smarter today than you were yesterday? If not, forget some of your other plans. Go get your Bible off the shelf, and spend some time reading it. Pray: "More about Jesus and His Word, Holding communion with my Lord; Spirit of God my teacher be; Showing the things of Christ to me."

One more mystery that we must consider is the mystery of Godliness. When we hear about God, and especially about having the mind of Christ, I'm sure there's an inconsolable longing that grows up within our minds and souls that says, "How can I be like God?"

That's a proper aspiration. We are to be imitators of Christ. We are to be like the Lord as much as possible. So the Bible says "great is the mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16). God was manifest in the Spirit. He took the form of human flesh. He was seen of angels. He came into this world to die for us.

The mystery of Godliness - that is presented to us in order that we might know the core reality of the universe, and of our salvation. How the God of the universe bacame human flesh, went to the cross, died for our sins at Calvary, and makes it possible to be like Him - this is a mystery. You will never find out the details of that marvelous plan just by going to the grade school or the high school in your neighborhood. The answers can only be found by looking into the sacred pages of the Word of God.

How can I be like God (which is what it means to be Godly)? I can be like God by accepting Jesus Christ into my life as personal Savior. He came to make that possible. As a result, I can live the quickly passing days of my life for His honor and glory. That is what you and I must genuinely intend to do.

The poet said, "Ah, sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you." I'm not sure he was correct, because there is not just one, but there are many mysteries of life. Whoever we may be, whatever brilliance we may achieve in all of life, we can never claim to have probed too deeply the mysteries of life. Certainly, we cannot claim to have exhausted them.

The things that God wants to tell us about, we should know. The things God wants us to continually think about, we should hold constant in our minds, until we arrive on the wonderful shores of Heaven.

We have talked about some mysteries that have challenged the minds of men through the ages. Now let us focus on the mysteries which have implications for the future, and in particular the Prophetic future.

First of all, think about the mystery of the future. The person who wrote Proverbs had something very important to say about this:

"Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth," Proverbs 27:1.

Never forget that. The future is a mystery, and it's going to continue to be so. This is a good time for a word of warning, because we have lots of so-called "prophets" walking around in today's world. Sometimes they appear at county fairs, and sometimes they apear in churches. They say, "I can tell you what the future is going to bring." And they'll announce the day or the hour of something: perhaps the return of Christ, perhaps an economic collapse, perhaps a particular spectacular event like an earthquake or a firestorm. They ask you to believe that what they say about the future is going to come true.

Put it down in your diary, and never forget it: the future is a mystery! Therefore, the person who attempts in his own name to predict the future is a charlatan. He is lying to you. "Hold ere this truth before your eyes, that all the world is lies and lies." And particularly is this true about the people who attempt to predict the future.

However, that having been said, there is one exception to the future being a mystery. Amazing details of the future can be found in the Bible, contained in Scriptures we have come to call the Prophetic Word.

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy, unto which ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts," 2 Peter 1:19.

We can look into the Prophetic Word, and we know a number of things for sure. We know that the future is going to continue until the appointed day of the Lord. We know that as we move into the future, we will be in the midst of a deteriorating culture. We know that Christ is going to come again, as we shall mention further. We know about a period of time called the Great Tribulation. We know about the glorious second coming of Jesus Christ. And we know quite a number of significant details in the midst of those high points of knowledge.

The Book of the Revelation, the Book of Daniel, and other of the books of the New and Old Testaments tells us about the future, so it must have legitimate meaning for us. The Bible says that it contains all that pertains to life and Godliness, and to some degree, that imcludes the future. In fact, God presides above all of the future.

But beyond that, watch out for the charlatans. Never put money into the hands of people who look into a crystal ball, and tell you whether your marriage will work or that you will soon come into some easy money. Do they read by the lines of your hand: your life line, and your death line? Well, the future is not determined by our hands. "My times are in thy hand" (Psalm 31:15), says the Word of God about the future. Keep your eye on the mystery of the future. You don't know what the day or the hour shall bring forth, but God will be in the midst of it all.

Consider the mystery of the Church. This is far more profound and important than we can consider in a short space, but the Bible very definitely tells us that God has brought to pass a very remarkable plan.

"For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles - If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me toward you, How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote before in few words, By which, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel," Ephesians 3:1-6.

What was the mystery? It was that God would produce something new in history, a new living entity. Some people would call it an organization, but that's not true. It's an organism: a living entity called the Body of Christ. The mystery was the startling announcement that the whole world, the Gentile world especially, would be given the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Christ, and be Born Again.

He also told us that the message that would go out to the Gentiles would not be the message that says, "Keep the Law, and you will be a part of the State of Israel." But the message was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).

So the mystery of the Church began to be revealed in the pages of the New Testament, totally unforeseen in the Old Trstament. No prophet knew about it; Christ did not tell us about it; it came as a result of His death and resurrection, and God's program for the nation of Israel being temporarily set aside. He brought to pass the Church, the Body of Christ. When you are a Christian, you are a member of His living Body.

That helps us to consider the mystery of the Rapture of the Church. What is the ultimate destiny of the Christian? Is the Christian supposed to be dragged through the awful years of the great Tribulation? Listen to what the Bible says:

"Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed," 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.

Here the Apostle Paul is saying, "One more mystery I want you to know about," a mystery being something you could not figure out by your own logic, but which is told to us by God. He said, "I want you to think about the mystery of the Rapture of the Church." He's telling us what he has told us in some other places as well: that we live in a period of time, this dispensation of Grace, in which God is building this organism, the Church. God is calling out to the world a people for His Name.

But there is coming a day in which the Church Age will be done. What will mark that day? The answer is:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

Now, the logic of attempting to predict the day or the hour that Christ will intervene in history and take His own home to be with Himself, is not logic at all. It's simply an attempt to name the future, based upon human reasoning. We cannot know the future, except as God tells it to us.

He tells us that there is coming an event that will be unprecedented. There will be no build-up to it. You can't put a date on it by calculating a series of signs step-by-step. It's going to happen quickly. It's intended to come as a great surprise to the world, and a great deliverance to many Christians.

God has told us that there is going to be a period of time called the Tribulation, but He speaks to the Church and says:

"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth," Revelation 3:10.

How will He do that? He will do that by catching us up to be with Himself. So I give you a promise, and the promise is this: there is a generation of Christians who will not die. Rather, in thier living bodies, they will be caught up to Heaven, into the very presence of Christ Himself. What a day that will be!

You ask me to explain this? The Bible says, it is a mystery. "Behold, I show you a mystery" (1 Corinthians 15:51). Now, having been shown that mystery, we should look with great expectation toward the return of Jesus Christ. That expectation should cause us to live lives that are pure, clean, and enormously capable for Him, filled with bright anticipation.

Think , then, about the mystery of the Antichrist, Which is also carefully explained in Scripture. You'll recall we mentioned how the mystery of iniquity doth already work" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). However, that mystery, that tide of iniquity, is hindered by the activity of the Holy Spirit working through the Church. But keep in mind what will happen, when that retarding force is taken away:

"And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders," 2 Thessalonians 2:8-9.

So, you have a mysterious person, who may even now be lurking on the scenes of history. He may even now be in some walnut-paneled office, laying out his schemes, his territorial imperatives, his plans for the future. Maybe he's a hard charger, who already is the president or king or leader of some country, but who never will be satisfied until he achieves his burning ambition to run the world.

That person is not known to us now. But the Bible says when the force that restrains is taken away, "then shall that woicked one be revealed."

Sure, we can quess at who the Antichrist may be. I have papers on my desk with a least a dozen different approximations of that. But we can't really know with any certainty - that is, by Divine revelation - who the Antichrist is, until he is revealed, when the Church is taken out of this world.

Thr mystery of the Antichrist - he's a mysterious guy. But it's also mysterious that there can be a principle in the world called "the spirit of antichrist," a spirit which John says is already in the world (1 John 4:3).

Isn't it mysterious how a principle can slowly become embodied, finally taking shape in the form of a person? That person is as much the embodiment of evil, that he is called "that man of sin. . . the son of perdition, Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

How can a human heart become so wicked, that finally he will be responsible for the murder of millions of people, vast coercion across the world, and all of the rest of it? How can this happen? Well, it is the "mystery of iniquity," finally embodied in the mystery of the Antichrist, to be unveiled to the world when the Church is gone.

Does it ever frustrate you that here we are, little creatures, in the midst of an awesome universe, large and complicated beyond description? In those moments of humility that I trust come to us all rather frequently, we must ask, "Who are we - little tiny spects of dust in the midst of this vast creation?"

Well, that set of questions almost moves over into the realm of philosophy. Philosophers are constantly discussing the question of ultimate reality. It's called "cosmology," and then it's called "teleology," and finally it's called "ontology" - the ultimate nature of reality.

We think we are smart and brilliant and know a lot. But we don't even know what life is. We don't know what light is. We do not know how the mind influences the body. We do not know anything about spiritual things.

Besides that, there are many in the realm of science who are willingly ignorant about a lot of other things. They don't even know where morality comes from. In fact, it's one of the great things to wonder at today - how little science knows, and how it limits itself by its inhibiting philosophies, guaranteeing thereby that it will know even less in the days to come.

What about ultimate reality? What is the final substance of eternity from which all things come?

We have a hint in the Word of God. The Apostle Paul was a very astute philospher. He makes some statements to us that are wonderful.

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal," 2 Corinthians 4:15-18.

To see this can instantly solve some pressing questions of life. The Apostle Paul is being asked, in effect, the question, "What is final reality?" Now Paul is not quite a neo-Platonist, but he did say there were two kinds of reality: that which is not seen, and that which is seen.

Everything which you can see: houses, and lands, and cars, and clothes, the human externals of people, what we call the realities of life: - these things, the Apostle Paul says, are temporal. They are only significant within the confines of time. Yes, they are relatively important, but there will come a day when - poof - they are all gone! They are not lasting. We have only a temporary association with any of those things, and you cannot keep them. These are passing scenes in life.

In effect, the Apostle Paul says, don't trust them. Don't think money is the ultmate reality. Don't think that fame is ultimate reality. There is very little difference between "Who's who" and "Who's that?" Don't trust your friends and their promised fidelity to you. All things which you can see with the sight of your eyes, which you think you can prove empirically - these things are not important, the Apostle Paul says.

Paul goes on to say that reality is made of what you cannot see. Reality, if you please, is a set of mysteries that are unfolded to us by a gracious God. It is out of the unveiling of these mysteries that we begin to understand reality. For instance, talking about Jesus Christ, the Bible says:

"Whom, having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing. . .'" 1 Peter 1:8

Reality is a Person, Jesus Christ. We have never seen Jesus Christ, but we beliwve in Him. And the Bible says:

". . .believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls," 1 Peter 1:8-9.

This is because we have believed in the Person of the living God who is invisible. The Bible tells us about believing Christians, and the reason for their fidelity. It says they seek a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). There is an invisible city, that is out there somewhere, that we are moving toward, and that we're going to live in one day. That city is called the New Jerusalem. That city is Heaven. And we live for Heaven, rather than for the purposes of earth.

Ultimate reality, then, is unseen. Ultimate reality is the Person of God. It is the Being of Jesus Christ. What is real above all else in our lives, is the connection that we have with Him.

How do I become a part of ultimate reality? Strictly speaking, until I know Christ, I am nothing. I have no significance, no real contact with reality. But when I believe the Gospel, I become something, and what is that?

"Beloved now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is," 1 John 3:2.

My congratulations to you, if you are a Christian. You are on the right track. All of these mysteries of which we have spoken will one day vanish like a morning cloud. The sunlight of Divine illumination will make every one of them perfectly clear. Then we shall know even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).

By the way, one of the horrible things about being a lost sinner, is that you'll never really know. No promise is given to the lost sinner that then shall we know even as we are known. But perfect knowledge, perfect wisdom, the solving of every mystery, is a promise given to every Christian. For many other reasons, but especially for that one, I invite you today to become a Christian.

Thank God salvation is no longer a mystery. But rather, Christ says, "Come unto Me," and He says it to you. Would you like to know Christ today, to be a real Christian, to have everlasting life? If you will believe in Him, the He is the Son of God, and died for your sins, He promises to give you eternal life. You have the opportunity to receive Him now. Let me invite you to do this. You may want to pray this prayer, truly accepting Christ.

"Heavenly Father, I know that I am a sinner. I know that Christ died for my sins on the cross, and rose again. I want now to take Him as my personal Savior. Please come to live within me, and give me the assurance of salvation, I pray in Jesus' precious Name, Amen."

If you have said that prayer to accept Christ, and meant it in your heart, your eternal destiny is no longer a mystery. You are a child of God beyond a shadow of a doubt!