1.
Revelation
General Revelation
God created the universe and everything in it, and His eternal glory is shown in all of His creation. God also created in us moral conscience. Through God’s creation and the conscience that He has given us, not only should we know that God exists, but also we should obey all His commands and be able to know, to worship, to glorify, and to enjoy Him. General Revelation is given to all mankind.
The concept of general revelation is found in Romans 1:19 and 20:
Since what may be known about God is plain
to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the
world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been
clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse.
We should know God from what He has made plain to us in general revelation. God’s invisible qualities are also shown in the world that He has created. The Psalmist writes, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” What are God’s invisible qualities? The Westminster Confession of Faith states the following:
There is but one only, living, and true
God: who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible,
without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible,
absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and
most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful,
long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him; and withal, most just and terrible in His judgments,
hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty (Chap. 2 Article 1)
This is a summary of what the Bible has told us about God. We should know all of these things through general revelation. Philosophers should be able to find God and know the Truth of God through what has been revealed to all of mankind. Yet, the fact is that no one has ever come to know God through general revelation. So what went wrong with general revelation? Well, nothing went wrong with general revelation. It was we that went wrong. Since the sin of Adam, we have all fallen into a state of total depravity—every aspect of our being has been stained by sin and become imperfect. The natural tendency of a totally depraved man is to hate God. In Chapter 1 of Romans, Paul continues to write:
For although they knew God, they neither
glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him but their thinking became futile
and their foolish hearts were darkened. (
As a result, we can no longer gain true knowledge of God through general revelation. The Westminster Confession begins with the following statement:
Although the light of nature and the works
of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power
of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not
sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of His will, which is necessary
unto salvation.
Thank God, because He didn’t just abandon us. As we failed to know God through general revelation, God revealed Himself to us by the incarnation of His Word and the inspiration of His Spirit. We call this special revelation.
Special Revelation
Special Revelation is the Word of God written by men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. God spoke to us through the Old Testament prophets, and then sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to us as His Word in human flesh, after which the Holy Spirit inspired the evangelists and the apostles to complete the New Testament as the account and testimony of the Word who came among us. Not only that, the New Testament itself is the very Word of God. John 1 says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
That Word in human flesh is Jesus Christ. What does it mean? “Word” is to be spoken. When God speaks to us, He uses His Word. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to us in human flesh in order to speak to us. So, Jesus Christ is the “Word in human flesh.” Note that this is only from the point of view of revelation. It’s not the entire meaning of “Word in human flesh.” Let’s now look at Hebrews 1:1-2:
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
Clearly, the author of this book was a Jew, as he speaks of his Jewish forefathers. He says that God spoke to the ancient Jews through the prophets—Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc. All of their prophecies pointed to Christ the Messiah. After the last Old Testament prophet spoke for the last time, God became silent for a few hundred years, and then came the Messiah. The New Testament is all about this Messiah and how He relates us to Him, His Father, and His Spirit.
Now, who is the author of this Bible? Evidently the Bible is physically written by many different authors through a long span of history. Yet, the Bible from Genesis to Revelations is completely coherent in its entirety, which is a strong indication that all the co-authors of the Bible were all instructed by the same Holy Spirit. The Bible explicitly mentions how the Holy Spirit has inspired the prophets Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Malachi[1]. Paul also says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “all Scriptures are inspired by God.” The Spirit of God spoke to human authors whom the Father has chosen, and these authors wrote down what the Holy Spirit told them to write. This is called the “inspiration of the Scriptures.” All that God wants us to know about Him is written in the Bible. Therefore, the Bible is God’s complete special revelation. He who adds any word to the Bible or deletes anything shall be cursed (Revelation 22).
Yet, another question arises: The Bible is written through such a long span of history, how can we be sure that its contents have not been altered? Isaiah 44:26 tells us that God keeps the word of His servant. In other words, God keeps the Scriptures that He inspired His servants to write. It is not difficult for us to accept this whole concept. If there is a most loving and caring God out there, why would He not reveal Himself to us? If He is almighty and in control of history, why would He not preserve His revelation for all the generations to come?
God revealed Himself to us through the inspiration of Scripture, and God preserves His Word through the ages. But why is the Bible revealed through such a long span of time? God could have just written the Bible himself and throw it down from heaven to earth in an instant. Why take all the trouble?
There is a concept that theologians refer to as “progressive revelation.” Progressive revelation means that God reveals the Truth to us, but He doesn’t do so in an instant. Rather, He does so progressively. He didn’t just send His Son to us right after the sin of Adam. Rather, He spoke to us through the prophets first. So, man’s knowledge about God progresses, until the entire Bible is completed, and at last we can see the whole picture. Progressive revelation is necessary for us because we have become totally depraved after the fall of Adam. Our understanding of the Bible would be very twisted if God did not start to teach us from the basics. Special revelation is progressive rather than instant because God wants to lay down the most important principles first, and then slowly give us the details. For example, in the Old Testament God keeps on telling us about His righteousness and how He hates sin, so in the Old Testament we see an angry God more often than we see a loving God. This is for us to know that God hates sin, and we all deserve eternal punishment. Then, in the New Testament we learn of the salvation of Christ. We learn of how great the love of God is. Yet, if we never read the Old Testament, we’d never know how great this love really is; we’d never know how precious salvation is to sinner like we. That is why the Old Testament puts a greater emphasis on God’s wrath and the New Testament on God’s love, but by no means does this mean that the Old Testament and the New Testament reveal two different gods. In fact, the Old Testament repeatedly teach us about the great love of God, and the New Testament also shows us the righteous wrath of Jesus[2], but evidently the Jews who never accepted the New Testament see God as much more righteously angry than mercifully loving, whereas the antinomians (those who discard Old Testament laws and only follow New Testament teachings) have very little idea what it is like for a sinner to be in the hands of an angry God[3]. There is indeed a difference in emphasis in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
God revealed to us His love and righteousness in a progressive way such that we may know what sinner like we deserve, and then learn of His unconditional mercy in salvation.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity has also been revealed in a progressive way. The Old Testament contains many verses pointing to the Holy Trinity, but without the light of the New Testament it is really difficult to spot these verses. The Old Testament has a greater emphasis on the oneness of God. The prophets keep telling us that there is only one true God. The Jews went through many painful lessons to learn that God is the only true God. Thus, the Old Testament has laid a firm foundation of monotheism. If God told the Jews in the beginning that He exists in three persons, then the Jews would probably have developed a faith of “tritheism” (three gods) instead of trinitarianism (one God in three persons). Thus, God first told us that He is the only true God. Then, in the New Testament, the “threeness” of the one God becomes clearer and clearer, until Jesus finally declares the Trinitarian nature of God in John 14 to 17.
With the concept of progressive revelation we may understand why we should still study the Old Testament. There is a general preference among Christians today for the New Testament. Just remember that the Old Testament is, in certain ways, the foundation of the New Testament, and we may never dispense with it. The Old Testament and the New Testament are equally important as God’s only special revelation to us.