To be sure, God’s plan and our history are not identical. God’s plan consists of much more than what God chooses to reveal to us or what we are able to discern of it. Much of what we see appears to be the work of a concealed God, even at times a seemingly capricious God. In Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) colorful image, history is ‘God’s mummery and mystery,’ ‘God’s joust and tourney.’ History is ‘God’s theatre,’ in which the play cannot be fully understood until it ends and until we exit. To equate one act or actor, one speech or text, with the divine play itself is to cast a partial and premature jugment. To insist on one interpretation of the play before it ends is to presume the power of eternal discernment. To judge the play on the basis of a few episodes is to insult the genius of the divine playwright.
— John Witte, Jr., God’s Joust, God’s Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition.