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How Keys Unlock Bible Mysteries

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Jesus said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Luk.10:21, Mat.11:25). The disciples of Christ were the "babes" to whom Jesus was revealing the mysteries that are mentioned in the scriptures. Jesus also told his disciples, "Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables" (Mar. 4:11).

Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes because his job was to work mainly with a few disciples to lay a foundation in their minds. Then later, after Pentecost, they could go out and give the understanding of the mysteries to others. Mysteries are deep secrets, ideas that a person doesn't understand until the understanding is revealed. Once revealed, they are no longer mysteries.

Paul said, "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge. . ." (ICo.13:2), showing that one can understand all mysteries. The apostle Paul knew the mysteries and was asking the Colossians and Ephesians to pray for utterance for him so he could speak the words of the gospel to others and make the mysteries known to them also (Col.4:3, Eph.6:19). So Paul was a minister of the mysteries contained in the word of God (Col.1:25,26). That's why he said, "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but NOW is made manifest to his saints; (v.27) To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Paul writes in Eph.3:9, "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God. . ." Again, Paul's job was to speak out the mysteries so that there could be a fellowship among those who would accept them, the ones that would get Christ in them (Php.2:5). He describes God's ministers as faithful stewards of the mysteries of God (1Co.4:1,2).

There are actually two major categories of mysteries mentioned in the scriptures:
1. the mystery of godliness (1Ti.3:16), and
2. the mystery of iniquity (2Th.2:7).

1. The Mystery of Godliness

The mystery of godliness reveals how we can get God in our minds: Eph.3:19 "And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." The mystery of iniquity reveals what is keeping us from being like God: Php. 3:15 "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." To become holy like God, we need to first understand the mystery of iniquity or have the evil in our minds revealed so that we can get it out (2Th.2:3,8). Just as you would use a physical key to unlock a physical door, there are keys of knowledge (Luk.11:52) contained within the scriptures themselves that can unlock the mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity.

Jesus said to his disciples, "It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. . ." (Mat.13:11). And Jesus went on to explain several of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in Mat.13:chapter by using physical examples of things that they could relate to easily, as visible pictures of spiritual things they could not see. Rom.1:20 says that we can understand the invisible things of God by looking at the visible things that he created: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."

Jesus told Nicodemus, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven "(Joh.3:13). Jesus was on the earth talking to Nicodemus, yet said he was "in heaven." So heaven is not a literal place off in the atmosphere somewhere. The Ephesians were a group of people on the earth and yet they were sitting "in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph.2:6). They were not lifted up from the surface of the globe to sit in the sky, but this key scripture shows heaven was a condition in their minds.

Another key scripture to unlock the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven is in Rom.14:17, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Natural things like meat and drink are excluded from the kingdom of God, but spiritual things like righteousness, peace, and joy are included in the kingdom. Another key is Luk.17:20,21, where Jesus states, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." The kingdom of God is not observable with physical eyes because it is not literal, it is within you!

Jesus said to Peter, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. . ." (Mat.16:18,19). Jesus told the lawyers, "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge" (Luk.11:52). This shows Jesus using a physical thing to represent something spiritual. Just as it takes physical keys to unlock physical doors, it takes spiritual keys, or knowledge, to unlock the spiritual meaning of the scriptures. The keys Jesus gave Peter were keys of knowledge to unlock the meaning of the scriptures so that they were no longer a mystery to Peter.

Jesus used a key to unlock the meaning of a parable about a sower sowing seeds (Luk.8:11) "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God." The key he gave the disciples in this instance is seed = word. Words are like seeds being sown into the earth of our mind.

Another key is in Jer.22:29, "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD." The globe doesn't have ears to hear with, so this would be people's minds that need to have God's words planted in the earth between their ears. We see that Peter accepted the key given to him by Jesus because later he writes (1Pt.1:23), "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Peter's teaching is consistent with Jesus' teaching that the seed is the word of God.

Another example is the key that stone = entity. Jesus said (Mat.21:42), "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?" Jesus was referring to himself, the stone (entity) whose message was rejected by the builders (religious leaders); and this was prophesied in the old testament (Psa.118:22). John the Baptist said to the religious leaders, "And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." No natural stones could be raised up as children, but when the Jews rejected Jesus' message, God could present it to the Gentiles (who previously had no words of life) and by accepting the message they could be raised up as children unto Abraham by their faith (Gal.3:7). Peter gives the key in 1Pt.2:5, where he calls people "lively stones."

Peter was not the only one who would have gotten the keys to understand God's mysteries, but other disciples were given the keys as well. John used the key on stone in Rev.2:17, which shows that an overcomer is given a white stone or becomes a soul without sin. The key to show white = free of sin is in Isa.1:18 ". . .though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

What about the rock in Mat.16:18? A key for rock is given in 2 Sam.22:2,33, "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. . . For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?" Rock = God. So when Jesus said to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build by church. . .", Jesus was talking about the portion of God that Peter had within his mind. Jesus had just asked the disciples (v.13), "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Peter is the one that answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (v.16). And Jesus said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" (v.17). This witness Peter got was a "piece of the rock" because it was a truth revealed to him from the rock, God Almighty. How will Jesus build his church on the rock (witness)? The church is not a natural church building but a "spiritual house" as Peter said in 1Pt.2:5. When the writers of the new testament wrote to "the churches of Galatia" (Gal.1:2, etc.), they were not writing to church buildings but to people's minds. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1Co.3:16). When one gets the witness from God, as Peter did, that this is the anointing of God working through a vessel, then there is a foundation within that mind that God's church can be built on. Then God will give witness after witness after witness to help that person build a church for God to dwell in.

Jesus told a parable (Mat.7:24-27) about a wise man who built his house upon a rock. This was a spiritual house within the man's mind (2Co.5:1) that was built on God's witness. The foolish man in the same parable built his house on sand. Sand is shifty and unstable because it gets washed away easily by weathering of winds and rain. So "great was the fall of it." This is what happens to us in the spirit realm if we try to build a spiritual house on man's changeable ideas and opinions rather than on God's rock-solid witness.

Mat.16:18 also says, ". . . the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." If hell is a literal place, the "gates of hell" would also be literal. How could literal gates prevail or fight against a church? This is nonsense. Therefore, the gates must be spiritual. Indeed! There is a key in Psa.24:7,9, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates. . ." Literal gates do not have heads, so the gates in Mat.16:18 must be people (specifically ministers) that are leading people into a condition of hell by teaching them lies. So gates = ministers is the key. A true minister would be leading people into the heavenly city (condition) within their minds (Rev.21:12,13), but a false minister would be leading people into a hell condition (Mat.23:13-15).

2. The Mystery of Iniquity

We saw that there are keys of knowledge to unlock the mysteries of the kingdom of God. There are also keys of knowledge to unlock the mysteries of the devil's kingdom (hell) within our minds. In Rev.1:18, Jesus says, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Death is not a literal place but a condition; so to be consistent, hell would have to be a condition and not a literal place. Jonah was in hell while he was alive in a whale's belly in the Mediterranean Sea (Jon.2:2). He was in torment in his mind through disobeying God.

Mar.9:43-48 mentions a hell-fire condition where the fire is not quenched and their worm dieth not. Heb.12:29 shows God to be a consuming fire. What is God doing in hell? And why would a worm not die in a burning fiery hell? The answer is that this is another parable. Fire = God's word (See Jer.23:29 and Jer.5:14). "Worm"s picture sin. The word crimson in Isa.1:18 could have been translated "worm." "Though your sins ... be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." This scripture shows sins are red like crimson (worms), so worms = sin. If we have some of God's word (the fire) in our minds, but we also have some sin in our lives (the worm), then we are in a hell-fire conditon because we know the truth and we're not obedient to it (Jam.4:17), just like Jonah. In that condition, God's word in our mind is eternal so it won't be quenched, and neither will the evil spirit die until we cast it out.

We need the keys to hell and death so we can understand why we end up doing the things we don't want to do and don't do the things we want to do (Rom.7:15). One key to help answer this is in Pro.24:9, "The thought of foolishness is sin. . ." This shows sin is in the thoughts. Respect of persons (Jam.2:9), doubt (Rom.14:23), and unrighteousness (1Jo.5:17) are all thoughts that are called sin in the scriptures. This is the kind of information we need to help unlock the mystery of iniquity in our minds.

So the mystery of godliness is revealed by keys of knowledge that teach us how to get heaven within our minds. Likewise, the mystery of iniquity can be revealed through the keys of hell and of death. These keys are given to help us stop sinning, get out of hell, and never die anymore (Joh.11:25,26; (1Co.15:26,57; (Rev.21:4).

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