Retreating Behind Divine Mystery

"Divine mystery" is a phrase sometimes invoked by desperate or irrational theists in order to argue, contrary to logic, for some conclusion about God's nature that cannot be the case Scripturally or logically--or that is logically possible but has no genuine evidence in its favor.  Whether it is conjured up to defend the Trinity as popularly defined, the idea of absolute omnipotence, or some other such concept, it is still erroneous and fallacious.  Am I saying that there are no aspects of God that I do not currently comprehend?  Not at all!  But there is not a single aspect of God described in the Bible or discoverable through reason that I cannot, at the very least, apprehend.

There is a huge difference between claiming that there may be aspects of God that I do not currently comprehend and claiming something about God's nature that no one can verify--or, even worse, something that is objectively, inherently impossible.  There is also a vast difference between claiming that humans can't fully comprehend a certain select of God's nature at this time and claiming that God's nature transcends logic; the former is possible, but the latter is impossible.

Just as God cannot bring it about that truth doesn't exist or that I am both married and not married to the same person at once [1] and just as God cannot be three minds and only one mind at once [2], so can God not defy logic.  God cannot exist and not exist at once; he cannot both be omnipotent and be able to make a rock so big he cannot move it (spoiler: God can't do everything because that's an impossibility); he cannot love and not love someone at the same time; he cannot be something that is not God.  No cry of "divine mystery" about claims that God can set aside logic can make the claims true.

The popular doctrine of the Trinity as articulated by many Christians is
a perfect example of a doctrine that not only is not taught by the Bible [2]
but also is logically and mathematically impossible by the very nature of
the doctrine.

God could not have a nature of order and consistency apart from logic.  Logic and truth are a part of God's nature, but they, unlike moral values, would exist even if no deity existed at all [3].  If God didn't exist, it would be inescapably true that God does not exist.  If God didn't exist, things would still be what they are and not what they are not.  Logic and truth still exist by necessity.  To pretend that God exists outside of them or that these things cannot exist apart from him is to do a disservice to both reason and Christian theology, misrepresenting Christianity in a way that some nonbelievers will see right through.

When people say that they cannot comprehend aspects of God that are plain in Scripture, like how he exists without a beginning, how he exists outside of time, and how he is an immaterial being, they may be speaking inaccurately depending on what they mean.  All of these Biblical attributes of God are not logically impossible (and these three can be proven in full from reason alone [4]) and one can understand them as rational concepts even if one does not experience being an uncaused cause, being atemporal, or existing on a purely immaterial level in everyday life.  It is misguiding and false to represent these things the Bible does say about God as beyond reason, for not only is that impossible, but it is contrary to the information the Bible itself presents.

I certainly don't claim to fully understand everything about God's nature, but I don't make indefensible claims and then retreat behind the fallacious cry of "divine mystery" in order to protect those claims.  I do know that nothing in God's nature can defy logic.  Even if the claim in question is not inherently impossible but merely unverifiable, the very fact that someone appeals to "mystery" at all means that he or she knows that the claim cannot be rationally defended or affirmed.  It is a cop out method used to defend something that either cannot be established as true or that is not even possible to begin with.  My brothers and sisters, let us not ascribe to God's nature that which logic and Scripture do not necessitate, and let us not represent as a part of Christianity a doctrine that defies reason.

[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/08/is-omnipotence-possible.html

[2].  See here:
A.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-refutation-of-trinitarianism-part-1.html
B.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-refutation-of-trinitarianism-part-2.html
C.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-refutation-of-trinitarianism-part-3.html

[3].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/03/atheism-does-not-deny-truth.html

[4].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-uncaused-cause.html