Some people are like I was as a young man: they love to find answers to those things which are mysterious. Others, however, are content to accept that some things in life must always remain a mystery, and not everything has an answer – or at least an indisputable answer.

When I became a Christian believer in my very late twenties, my tendency to be a problem solver served me well: I sought answers to the big questions of faith, and along the way I became fairly well versed not only in the Bible, but also in the ancillary fields that intersect faith such as science, archaeology, comparative religions and so on. I learned a lot about my faith, but it bothered me that some questions seemed to evade an answer. If I could go back in time I would tell my young self, welcome to the world of faith!

One of my college professors was a former Roman Catholic priest who had also taught religion courses alongside his priestly duties. When he suffered a heart attack, his cardiologist told him that he was burning the candle at both ends, and he needed to choose which calling he would continue to pursue, pastoring or teaching. He loved being a priest, but he loved teaching even more. I benefitted from his decision to remain in teaching.

My professor taught us that there are two types of people in the world of faith: problem solvers and mystery accepters. I was already coming to that conclusion, so it was fascinating to hear someone else voice it. He said that being a problem solver can help one learn about his or her faith, but there is great beauty to be found in being a mystery accepter. In fact, allowing oneself to accept the mysterious can deepen one’s faith tremendously. That, for me, was a changing point in faith.

The German theologian Rudolf Otto described God with the Latin term mysterium tremendum et fascinans, meaning that God is tremendously awesome in power and majesty yet fascinatingly mysterious at the same time. One of the many ways in which God is tremendously fascinating is in his triune nature: God is one yet exists in the form of three persons. Try wrapping your mind around that one! We see God’s three-but-one nature throughout Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 3:13-17; 28:16-20; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

When I was a radiation therapist, I worked alongside a medical physicist by the name of Muhammad Ali. Not the same Muhammad Ali who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. A different one.

As you can guess, Muhammad is a Muslim. We had many opportunities to discuss faith, and as you probably already know, one of Muhammad’s greatest objections to the Christian faith lies in the triune nature of God, as taught in the Bible. This is where the mysterium tremendum et fascinans came into play.

I told Muhammad that I expect God to be not just quantitatively greater than us – in other words, God is not just like us but bigger, stronger and smarter – but rather God is also qualitatively different from us. We see this in Scripture, perhaps best in Isaiah’s writing: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).” I expect God to be different from us in some major ways. (Yet Scripture makes it clear that we are created in God’s image, and therefore we are like God in some major ways as well.) I urged my Muslim friend to embrace the “otherworldly” and different qualities of God. I pray that God opened his heart and mind to that idea.

Can any of us completely and thoroughly understand God’s triune nature? Of course not. We accept it by faith, as it is revealed to us by the Lord God Himself in the words of Scripture.

Getting back to problem solvers and mystery accepters, theologian Malcolm Yarnell has said, “The mystery of the Trinity should drive us to worship, not cause us to try to explain it.” There is, once again, beauty in mystery. There may be no “beauty in mystery” for cold case detectives or people in other vocations where finding an answer to a mysterious matter is of paramount importance, but when it comes to faith, we should earnestly seek answers but also be willing to embrace the mysteries of God.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed (Scripture) belong to us and to our children forever (Deuteronomy 29:29).”

Randy Hroziencik
Pastor at First Baptist Church

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.

***This column is sponsored by the Kewanee Ministerial Association