Mysteries of God — Why Not Everything Is Revealed Yet
How more is revealed as we become ready — and why Joseph Smith received so much.
What Are the “Mysteries”?
The word “mystery” carries different weight in scriptural usage than it does in casual conversation. We use “mystery” to mean something puzzling, unknown, perhaps unknowable. In scriptural usage — both biblical and in the Latter-day canon — “mysteries” refers specifically to truths that God possesses and reveals by His own choice, in His own timing, to those who have prepared themselves to receive them.
Paul uses the word this way repeatedly. The mystery of the gospel is not that it is mystifying — it is that it was hidden for ages and is now being revealed. The mystery of God's will, disclosed in Christ, is the plan that had been kept from earlier generations. Mystery is not confusion. Mystery is reserved knowledge in the process of being disclosed.
In Latter-day usage, the mysteries of God are the deeper doctrines — the truths beyond the first principles of the gospel that are revealed as individuals and communities become prepared to receive them without abusing or misunderstanding them.
Revelation Comes Line Upon Line
The principle of progressive revelation is explicitly stated in Isaiah — a passage quoted in the Book of Mormon and referred to throughout the Doctrine and Covenants:
Isaiah 28:10
“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”
Revelation is cumulative. It is not delivered all at once, and this is not a failure of communication on God's part. It is the method. Understanding must be built in layers. The principles received first must be lived before the next layer can be added. Someone who does not understand baptism is not ready for the mysteries of exaltation. Someone who has not learned to pray cannot yet receive what comes through years of faithful prayer.
Alma 12:9–10
“And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil.”
This is a sobering teaching. The capacity to receive more is not fixed. Those who respond to what they have received get more. Those who harden their hearts to what they have receive less, until eventually they know nothing of the mysteries. The spiritual thermostat moves in both directions.
Why Not Everything Is Revealed at Once
The question of why God does not simply reveal everything at once has a direct scriptural answer: because we cannot bear it. Not because the information would be cognitively overwhelming, but because truth received before its time — before the person has the moral and spiritual foundation to handle it correctly — does harm rather than good.
Christ told His disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). This was not a complaint — it was a description of the pedagogical reality. They were not ready. After the resurrection, after Pentecost, after years of ministry and suffering, they would be. But not yet.
The same pattern appears everywhere in scripture. The law of Moses was not God's ideal — it was what Israel could handle after centuries of Egyptian bondage. The fullness of the gospel waited for the meridian of time. The restoration of the fullness waited for the last dispensation. Every revelation comes when the people and the person are ready to receive it without destroying themselves with it.
Key References
- Alma 12:9–11 — Greater and lesser portions of the word given according to readiness
- D&C 42:61–65 — Mysteries given to those who keep commandments and ask in faith
- D&C 76:5–10 — God willing to give wisdom to all who seek in the Spirit
- Matthew 13:11 — Mysteries of the kingdom given to disciples, not to all
How to Qualify for Greater Light
The Doctrine and Covenants is explicit about the conditions under which the mysteries are opened:
D&C 76:5–10
“For thus saith the Lord — I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory. And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.”
Three conditions appear repeatedly in this and related passages: fear of God (meaning reverence, not terror), service in righteousness and truth, and faithfulness to the end. The mysteries are not given to the intellectually curious. They are given to the faithful. Not because God is withholding from the curious, but because faithfulness is the condition that produces the spiritual capacity to receive and correctly use what is revealed.
D&C 42:61 adds the element of asking — “If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge.” The mysteries are not automatically delivered. They require seeking, knocking, asking — the active engagement of the soul with God through prayer, study, and covenant faithfulness.
Why Joseph Smith Received So Much
The volume of revelation that came through Joseph Smith — the Doctrine and Covenants, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, the revelatory additions to the Bible, the King Follett Discourse, the temple ordinances — is staggering by the standard of any single prophet. Why did God give so much through this one person in this one generation?
The answer is in the nature of the dispensation. This is the dispensation of the fullness of times — the last, the greatest, the one in which all previous dispensations are gathered up and their keys restored. Everything that was lost in the apostasy had to be restored. Everything that had been revealed in previous dispensations had to be recovered and made available again. The volume of Joseph's revelations reflects the volume of what was missing.
But Joseph also received so much because he asked so much. The First Vision came because a fourteen-year-old boy read James 1:5 and actually went into the woods to ask. D&C 76 — the vision of the three degrees of glory — came while Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were pondering John 5:29. The pattern is consistent: Joseph encountered a question, he took it to God, and God answered. Often far beyond what the original question required.
That pattern is available to everyone. It scales with the calling, but the method is the same. Ask. Seek. Knock. Live what you receive. Then ask again.
What Mysteries We Still Await
Latter-day prophets have noted that much has been revealed — and much remains unrevealed. The Urim and Thummim described in D&C 130 suggests that celestial knowledge is so vast that even a translated or resurrected being would use a revelatory instrument to access it fully. What we have received is real and sufficient for salvation. It is not everything.
The sealed portion of the Book of Mormon — which Mormon says contains greater things than the unsealed portion — has not yet come forth. The exact content of Enoch's writings, described in scripture, has not been fully revealed. The details of what exaltation actually consists of, beyond the broad outlines in D&C 132, are reserved.
This is not cause for frustration. It is cause for anticipation. The doctrine of progressive revelation means the revelations are not finished. The God who spoke to Joseph Smith continues to speak to prophets. The mysteries that have not yet been given are being held not as permanent secrets but as reserved gifts, awaiting a people prepared to receive them.
The question is whether we are becoming that people.