K. Scott Oliphint is professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and author of Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practice in Defense of Our Faith.

Article: Mystery Is the Lifeblood of Worship (original source someone told me that the primary problem with Calvinism is that it puts God in a logical box. But the more I was exposed to the central teachings of the Reformation, within the Reformed understanding, God’s majesty shines brightest, bursting all boundaries and exceeding all expectations. When a biblical understanding of God takes root in our hearts and minds, it inevitably and everywhere points to the infinitely majestic mystery of his character.

Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck writes, “Mystery is the lifeblood of dogmatics” (29). This is a perfectly apt metaphor. Any thinking about God, any theology, that does not have the lifeblood of mystery flowing through its veins will be, by definition, dead. Far from attempting to contain God in a logical box, true and lively thoughts of God will always, happily, and majestically, bump up against his mysterious incomprehensibility. It is that very incomprehensibility, the glorious and magnificent mystery of God’s character, that should motivate the praise and worship of every Christian.

There are three central truths attached to the majestic mystery of God’s character.

1. Mystery Is Infused with Knowledge

A biblical view of mystery is the polar opposite of mysticism. Mysticism focuses on experience; it demeans and depreciates knowledge. Mysticism at times has knocked on the door of Christianity, but it can never find its home there — because knowledge is central to biblical Christianity. Continue reading →