The Idea of Revelation

Where one begins a discussion of theology is an interesting question in and of itself. Should one perhaps begin with God? After all God does precede everything, perhaps we should go in chronological order! As Christians we might like to begin with Jesus and from him work our way to discussions of God, the church, and salvation. Still others might like to be creative and begin with eschatology (the study of the last things) because once we know where we are heading we understand some of the reasons for why things are the way they are now. We, however, decided to begin with revelation: how we know God. This seemed an appropriate place to start because we needed to first have a discussion about how we can know that there is a God out there to talk about. So here it goes. What follows is a brief introduction to the idea of revelation and then we will break it down a little bit more. --peace, Adam

Okay, so if there is a God and we say there is a God, how do we know what we are saying is true? How do you know there is a God in the first place? Were we born knowing a God and then as we get older some of us succumb to amnesia? Or do we come to realize there is a God sometime over our lives? How is it that I am so convinced that God exists and others are so convinced that God does NOT exist? How is it that people can believe in the same God and have completely different ideas about that God and differing (even sometimes conflicting) experiences of God?

When it comes to talking about how we know God we usually begin with two basic routes: Revelation and apologetics. One is the top down model and the other is from the bottom up. Apologetics is when humans defend the existence of God, or defend some aspect of our faith in God. It begins with us humans down here and is designed to convince someone of a God up there. Revelation begins with God and descends to humanity. It is God initiated communication. The problem with the idea of revelation is that sometimes you have real and true communication from God, and other times you have crazy people saying they have heard God speak (or completely normal people claiming they have heard God speak in order to manipulate you into doing what they want—this happens all the time and we call it the Holy Spirit Trump card). When someone claims that God told them to do something, or that God wants them to deliver a message how do we know it was truly God who was speaking and not some ulterior motive?

Also, when God reveals Godself, who/what is it that God reveals? When Moses asked what God’s name was, God said, “I am who I am,” which does not satisfy our longing for simple answers. Does God reveal specific knowledge, or is God’s revelation perhaps a general awareness that God does exist? Does God’s revelation, reveal something that we didn’t previously know, or does it simply clear up that which was before confusing? Perhaps the revelation of God is simply God saying “I am here with you.” revealing the presence of God. Or maybe God reveals to us that we cannot fully know God, that what is revealed to us is that God is ultimately a mystery, and that, at least for now, we see only in part.

Finally, when God reveals something, why does God do so? It seems obvious to us that God reveals some things, but not everything. The problem of evil is a classic example. Why would God allow evil things to happen to good people? Of all the people, Job is the one who had the right to demand such an answer from God on this topic, but God chose not to reveal to him an answer. Yet, the classic text John 3:16 is about the desire for God to reveal Godself and provides us with a pretty good reason why: For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, that whoever believed in him shall not die but have eternal life. So God loves us and because of that wants to be known by us.

When it comes to the idea of revelation we can attempt to have a discussion about it from five different perspectives: Natural revelation, Scripture, Reason, Tradition, and Religious Experience. Depending on your own upbringing and religious education, you may have had one or more of these emphasized over the other. Within each is both general revelation and specific revelation. General revelation, as you might guess, simply reveals, generally, that there is a God. Specific revelation reveals something specific about God.

We shall begin with a brief discussion of Natural Revelation...