The Revelation of God

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Meaning of Revelation

2. General Revelation

2.1 Natural Theology

2.2 Through His Creation

2.3 Through Organization and Man

2.4 Through Providence

2.5 Through Preservation

3. Special Revelation

3.1 Dreams and Visions

3.2 Direct Speechs

3.3 Through Jesus Christ

3.4 Angels and Prophets

3.5 The Word of God (Bible)

Conclusion

Bioliography
Introduction

1. Meaning of Revelation
The word revelation is of Latin derivation and means
unveiling. It is the Greek translation of apokalypsis. Usually the
words revelation refers not to the unveiling, or making visible of an
object or a person, but to the making known of the truth. Human
knowledge of God is revealed knowledge since God, and He alone,
gives it. He bridges the gap between Himself and His creatures,
disclosing Himself and His will to them. By God alone can God be
known. God’s makes himself known as Lord through divine
revelation, which is given to all people through creation and human
nature and to specific people through events, inspired human words
recorded as Scripture, and Jesus Christ himself. In Christian theology
the doctrine of revelation is the doctrine of God’s making Himself
and relevant truths about Himself, know to man. Thus, this
revelation can be divided into two, general and special. 1
2. General Revelation
General revelation, which is preliminary to salvation, reveals
aspects about God and His nature to all mankind so that all
humanity has an awareness of God’s existence. God had also
revealed Himself to all humanity through His providential provision
and control. General revelation is based on the existence of God and
creature-hood of man. Psalm 19:1-6 is a primary passage
emphasizing the general revelation of God in the universe and in
nature.2 General revelation is God’s revelation of general truths
1
James Oliver Buswell, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion
(Michigan: Zondervan, 1962), 183.
2
Paul P. Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago: Moody Press,
1989), 186-187.
about Himself to all people in every time and place, such as his roles
of creator and judge, available through the creation and
conscience.3
2.1 Natural Theology
Natural Theology comes into its own with the deists and then
continues in the classic liberal tradition associated with
methodological naturalism, the historical critical method, and a
growing embrace of panentheism. Within humans, God has placed
reason and conscience, and by the use of reason and following one
conscience, one is able to formulate a “universal religion of reason
and nature,” without any need for Scripture. In fact, Scripture, as a
historical revelation is inferior since only reason and nature can
yield the universal truths of reason. In addition, deists denied a
biblical view of sin, and viewed humans as basically good, thus
denying any need for salvation from God; what mattered was living
a moral life according to one’s conscience. 4
2.2 Through His Creation
God’s revelation is given by His works or actions in His
creating and governing the universe. His creating the universe
manifest His eternity, power, divinity, glory, purpose, wisdom, and
immensity. God’s government of the universe reveals His goodness
in providing for man and beast, His sovereignty in controlling nature
and the affairs of man, His holiness in expressing wrath against
wickedness, and His mercy in dealing with His people. 5 Hence, the
argument for God existence cosmological points out that the
universe around us is an effect which connotes an adequate cause.
If something now exists then either it came from nothing or it came
from something which must be eternal. To say that the cosmos
came from nothing means it was self-created. This is logical

3
Adam Harwood, Christian Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Systematic
( Bellingham: Lexham Academic, 2022), 78.
4
Stephen J. Wellum, Systematic Theology (Tennessee: B&H Academic,
2024), 196-197.
5
Floyd H. Barackman, Practical Christian Theology (New Jersey: Fleming H.
Revell Company, 1984), 26.
contradiction, because for something to be self-created it must exist
and not exist at the same time in the same way. Two key passage of
scriptures show Creation to be a channel of revelation. Psalm 19:1-
6, the verses express continuous action indicating that the Heavens,
the expanse, day, and night continually tell the God’s glory. Romans
1:18-32, in this passages the emphasis is on the revelation of the
wrath of God because mankind rejects what can be know of Him
through the avenue of Creation.6
2.3 Through Organization and Man
Another argument frequently employed is the teleological
argument. This focuses particularly upon the phenomenon of
orderliness or apparent purpose in the universe. Some of the objects
in the universe, however, cannot have done any purposive planing.
Certainly rocks and atmosphere have not chosen to be as they are.
Their ordering according to a purpose or design must come from
somewhere else. Some intelligent being must, therefore, have
ordered things in this desirable fashion. And this being we call God.
All of this argues for the existence of a supreme Designer, a wise
and capable Creator.7 Furthermore, anthropological argument for
the existence of God says, how can man, a moral, intelligent and
living being, be explained apart from a moral, intelligent and living
God? The several facets of man and all of them together demand
some explanation as to their origin and argue for the existence of a
being who is moral and intelligent and living who could have
produced man.8
2.4 Through Providence
The execution of all details of the divine program of the ages
is included in the broad scope of divine providence which is set forth
in many Scriptures. The divine program that sweeps the ages from
eternity past to eternity to come including its minutest details is
called divine providence. This is what is referred to in Romans 8:28.
6
Charles R. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Paris: Chariot Victor, 1986), 28-30.
7
Millard J. Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine, 1992, 2nd edn.,
(Michigan: Baker Academic, 2001), 44.
8
Ryrie, Basic Theology,31-32.
Though this all comprehensive, it is not without its intellectual
problems as the human mind seeks to grapple with explanations for
history including sin and suffering in the world. From the standpoint
of divine providence, however, history is “His story” and Scripture
records not only the history of past events in which God has worked
but also the divine direction that will bring all future events to
fulfillment with every promise of God fulfilled. 9
2.5 Through Preservation
The New Testament is specific in its declarations concerning
the relation which the Second Person in the Godhead sustains to
this material universe. It is also stated that this One who by the
Word of His power called all things into existence, does by the same
word of power cause them to hold together, or continue as they
were. God is likewise revealed in the care which He exercises in the
preservation of each individual, especially those who trust trust
Him.10 In His work of preservation He cares not only for the physical
and natural world but also for those who put their trust in Him.
Accordingly believers are exhorted not to be concerned about the
physical things of their lives because they have the promise stated
by Paul in Phil. 4:19.11 Thus it is seen that God id revealed through
His preservation of all things in general, and His people in particular.
3. Special Revelation
Special revelation by which God makes Himself known to
people by some communication with them through personal
manifestation and or words. This completes general revelation by
providing additional information about God and the universe, by
making known God’s will for mankind, and by revealing salvation
through the Lord Jesus.12 The revelation is not the giving of some
supernatural information or ideas about God and man and the
9
Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1980,
67.
10
Lewis Sperry Chafer, Chafer Systematic Theology (Texas: Dallas Seminary
Press, 1947), 55-56.
11
Chafer, Systematic Theology, 67.
12
Floyd H. Barackman, Practical Christian Theology: Examining the Great
Doctrines of the Faith (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2001), 44.
world. It means that God confronts us with himself, person-to-
person. To receive God’s self-revelation is not know someone we did
not know something we did not know before, but to know someone
we did not know before. The revealed truth Christians believe in is
not an “it” but a “He”. In God’s self-revelation we are of course
given some new thoughts and ideas about God, but with a living,
personal God.13
3.1 Dreams and Visions
God apparently used dreams to communicate many times
during the O.T period, and He will do so again at the time of the
second coming of Christ. Nonbelievers as well as believers
experienced God-given dreams. Through a common experience,
dreams were used by God in this special way to reveal truth.
In a vision the emphasis seems to be on what is heard, while
in a dream, on what is seen. Moreover, the human being involved
seems to be more active in receiving a vision. 14
3.2 Angles and Prophets
Old Testaments prophets brought God’s message to mankind as did New
Testament prophets. They spoke with authority because they were communicating the
Word of the Lord. God also uses created angels to carry His message to people.15
3.3 Direct Speech
God had revealed in His speech. A very common expression in
the Bible and especially in O.T is the the statement, “The word of
the LORD came to me, saying,…” The prophets had a consciousness
that their message was not of their own creation, but was from God.
We may be inclined to think that God’s speech is really not a
modality at all. It seems so direct. Yet we should note that it is
necessarily a modality, for God is spiritual and thus does not have
bodily parts. Since speech requires certain bodily parts, it cannot be
an unmediated communication from God. Furthermore, it always
comes in some human language, the language of the prophets or
Shirley C. Guthrie, Jr., Christian Doctrine (Georgia: John Knox Press, 1968),
13

73.
14
Ryrie, Basic Theology, 63.
15
Ryrie, Basic Theology ,64.
apostle. Yet God presumably does not have a language in which he
speaks. Thus, the use of language is an indication that God’s speech
in mediated rather than direct revelation.16
3.4 Through Jesus Christ
God revealed Himself uniquely through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unlike a temporary theophany, this special revelation was
permanent incarnation of God the Son. Assuming a complete,
sinless human nature, the Lord Jesus revealed the Father by His holy
character and moral excellence. His actions, His words, and His
emotions. Although He was personally distinct from the Father,
Jesus’ life and ministry so manifested the Father that to see Him was
to see the Father. Indeed, He was the Revelator of the Father. 17
Undebatably, the incarnation of Jesus Christ was a major avenue of
special revelation. He exegeted the Father, revealing the nature of
God, the power, the wisdom of God, the glory of God, the life of God,
and the love of God.18
3.5 The Word of God(Bible)
The most common Christian term for special revelation is the
word of God. For most Christians this refers primarily to the Bible.
For Barth, at the heart of the concept word of God is a person, a
divine person, the Word, sent to live among us to show us the way,
the truth and the life. In its most basic sense, then, the special Word
that God addresses to humanity is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of
God, who is the culmination of God’s redemptive acts and words in
history.19 There is a distinction between the Bible as the Word of
God and Jesus Christ as the Word of God-the distinction between
God himself and our midst and a book about him. However, there is
also unity here: we know the personal Word of God only as we meet
him in the written the Word of God. 20 Scripture is the faithful witness
16
Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine, 55-56.
17
Barackman, Practical Christian Theology: Examining the Great Doctrines
of the Faith, 45.
18
Ryrie, Basic Theology, 64.
19
Richard J. Plantinga, An Introduction to Christian Theology (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010), 57.
20
Guthrie, Jr., Christian Doctrine, 82.
to God’s historical redemptive acts that culminate in the Christ
event. The written word has its origin and inspiration in God, but it
came to the covenant people through history, culture, language,
and human mediation. It can be referred to as the word of God
because it faithfully mediates the story of the incarnate Word, the
gospel- Christianity’s fundamental hope and declaration. 21
Actually, the Bible serves as the most inclusive of all the
avenues of special revelation, for it encompasses the record of
many aspects of the other avenues. All that we know about the life
of Christ appears in the Bible, though, of course, not all that He did
or said was recorded in the Scriptures. However, the Bible is not
simply the record of these other revelations from God; it also
contains additional truth not revealed. Therefore, the Bible, then, is
both the record of aspects of special revelation and revelation itself.
The Bible’s claim to authority is not in itself proof of its authority;
rather there exist factual, historical evidences and which constitute
the Bible’s credentials and validate the truths of its message. 22
Conclusion

Plantinga, An Introduction to Christian Theology, 57.

21

Ryrie, Basic Theology, 64-65.

22
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