The Source of Theology: Revelation

Models of Revelation

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way I. Models of Revelation

• Model 1: Revelation as Doctrine (God as Teacher)

• Model 2: Revelation as History (God as Actor)

• Model 3: Revelation as Inner Experience (God as Guest)

• Model 4: Revelation as Dialectical Encounter (God as Judge)

• Model 5: Revelation as New Awareness (God as Poet)

Model 1 focuses on divine revelation as the propositions contained within Scripture.

Model 2 focused on divine revelation as God’s might acts in history. The Bible witnesses to these acts, but it is not revelation itself. It is a witness to and record of revelation. It is an interpretation of the human author recording the revelation. The author always leaves part of himself in the record.

Model 3 focuses on revelation as an immediate (often mystical) experience. More than Christ’s “external Word”, the indwelling Christ is the highest authority. Calvinists and Lutherans stand most resolutely against such enthusiasm.

Model 4 focuses on revelation as an event of personal encounter. Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Emil Brunner are its biggest proponents. God could never be known as an object by way of inference from nature or history, by propositional teaching, or by direct perception of a mystical kind. Utterly transcendent, God encounters the human subject when it pleases him by means of a word in which faith recognizes him to be present.

Model 5 is similar to 3 except that it focuses more on revelation as “an expression of consciousness or shift of perspective when people join in the movements of secular history. God reveals from within, not from without. [modern liberalism - gay Christianity, bible is antiquated, their revelation is not our revelation]

What are some examples of models of revelation we are dealing with now that introduce problems into Christian thought?

Toward a Biblical Doctrine of Revelation

Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way II. Toward a Biblical Doctrine of Revelation

None of these models, by itself, can account for the diversity of actual occurrences of revelation in Scripture.

Revelation Depends on Divine Initiative

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way A. Revelation Depends on Divine Initiative

Louis Berkhof reminds us, “It should be observed that in theology it [revelation] never denotes a mere passive, perhaps unconscious, becoming manifest, but always a conscious, voluntary, and intentional deed of God, by which he reveals or communicates divine truth.” In other words, human beings do not discover God; God reveals himself. God is never the revealed object without being the revealing subject.

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 33:5 ESV

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,

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Isaiah 57:15 ESV

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isa.

Isa

Ecclesiastes 5:2 ESV

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way C. Revelation Serves Redemption

One weakness in all of the theories proposed above is the tendency to reduce God’s communication to revealing. However, God’s speech does not merely interpret history; it creates it. Revelation is not gnosis or enlightenment: a way of salvation by discovering God’s hidden essence or will. It is never an end in itself, whether as supernatural information, existential encounter, or as inner experience and heightened awareness. God reveals himself only inasmuch and insofar as he deems necessary for our invocation of him for our salvation and life

Revelation Serves Redemption

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way C. Revelation Serves Redemption

One weakness in all of the theories proposed above is the tendency to reduce God’s communication to revealing. However, God’s speech does not merely interpret history; it creates it. Revelation is not gnosis or enlightenment: a way of salvation by discovering God’s hidden essence or will. It is never an end in itself, whether as supernatural information, existential encounter, or as inner experience and heightened awareness. God reveals himself only inasmuch and insofar as he deems necessary for our invocation of him for our salvation and life

Propositions without Propositionalism

Knowledge of God is not just knowing a bunch of propositions about God. Knowledge of God is personal knowledge. It is knowledge of a person, a divine person.

Revelation and Mediation: A Way with Words

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way E. Revelation and Mediation: A Way with Words

In short, for the Reformers, revelation is never as lofty as univocal knowledge nor as inadequate as equivocal knowledge, and this accommodated revelation is given directly in Scripture. To put it crudely, God gets the job done. He displays his power in weakness and his wisdom in what Greeks consider folly. God is capable of revealing himself, his will and works, and his redemptive plans through creaturely mediation. The creatures themselves are not worthy, but God sanctifies them for his loving and sovereign purposes.

The Word of God

John 1:1–3 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Colossians 1:15–17 ESV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Col

Hebrews 1:1–4 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Revelation 19:13 ESV

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way III. The Word of God

In this way, God ensures that there is a normative canon (or constitution) on the basis of which contemporary preaching continues to be a medium of Christ’s saving activity in the world. Since I treat the topic of preaching as a means of grace under ecclesiology, I will focus here on general revelation and, in the following chapter, on Scripture. Before considering the scope of revelation, it is important to distinguish the two parts of the Word of God.

The Word of God as Law and Gospel

Romans 3:19–22 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

Rom. 3:19-22

Institutes of the Christian Religion 4. The Opposition between Law and Gospel Ought Not to Be Exaggerated

But the gospel did not so supplant the entire law as to bring forward a different way of salvation. Rather, it confirmed and satisfied whatever the law had promised, and gave substance to the shadows. When Christ says, “The Law and the Prophets were until John” [Luke 16:16; cf. Matt. 11:13], he does not subject the patriarchs to the curse that the slaves of the law cannot escape. He means: they had been trained in rudiments only, thus remaining far beneath the height of the gospel teaching.

Christ is came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. He came to demonstrate the veracity of the law. The law kills. How does life then get imparted by keeping the law? Only one way! Christ’s keeping of the law earns for us positive righteousness by grace through faith in his name only.

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way A. The Word of God as Law and Gospel

The law’s imperatives tell us what must be done; the gospel’s indicatives tell us what God has done.

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way A. The Word of God as Law and Gospel

There is still law in the covenant of grace. However, it is no longer able to condemn believers, but directs them in lives of gratitude for God’s mercy in Christ.

God’s Revelation in Creation: General Revelation

Psalm 19:1–6 ESV

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Romans 2:14–15 ESV

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

Romans 1:18–20 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Rom. 1:18

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way 2. Historical Interpretations of General Revelation

In Western theology and philosophy, we may discern two broad approaches to general revelation, approaches that may be defined in terms of a recurring struggle over the relation of reason and revelation, nature and grace, logic and faith. Roman Catholic theology, on one hand, even when admirably defending the coinherence of faith and reason, typically assumes an underlying ontological dualism between nature and grace that provokes this problem in the first place. Roman Catholic theology teaches that grace elevates nature, orienting it to the supernatural, away from the lower self (the body and its passions). Grace is a substance that is added (infused) to nature in order to direct the aim of its gaze upward from material things to spiritual reality. For Lutheran and Reformed theologies, on the other hand, there is no such thing as a gift of grace superadded to nature (donum superadditum); creation p 141 itself is a gift (donum concreatum). Grace, however, is a particular kind of gift: God’s merciful favor toward sinners. The Reformers challenged the idea that there was some inherent tendency toward sin in God’s creation. Grace is therefore not given to already good creatures in order to elevate them beyond nature, but to sinners in order to redeem and renew their nature so that it may be “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24).