General and Special Revelation - Sola Scriptura, Pt 6
At its core, Christianity is a revealed belief system about the one true God who has shown Himself in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. I say belief system because I just don’t like the word “religion” as a description of Christianity. Religion is about how man has endeavored to reconcile himself to God, but Christianity is just the opposite, it's about how God provided the way to reconcile mankind to Himself. And how does He do that? Through two types of revelation called general and special revelation. So when we talk about ‘revelation’ in this context, we mean the process or the way that God reveals or discloses Himself to mankind.
General Revelation
What is “General Revelation”? A nice simple definition is that it is “God’s communication of Himself to all persons at all times and in all places.” [2] God has shown Himself in three ways: nature, history, and human beings. These three can be seen in the created physical order of the universe. We understand general revelation by just looking at the world around us. But we also see it described in Scripture:
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. (Ps 19:1)
It is hard not to see a created order in virtually everything we see in nature and the universe around us. From the billions of stars in the universe to the smallest atomic particle. From a one celled organism to the largest land and sea animals, from the intricate functionality of the brain and eye to the periodic table of elements, from the immense size of the universe to the precise placement of the earth and the moon around the sun, from the complexity of the human body to the consciousness of mankind, God has left evidence of Himself everywhere and in everything. And again, it is Scripture that tells us about the God that created it all:
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they [mankind] are without excuse. (Rom 1:20)
We can even see General Revelation in mankind’s religious nature. “In all cultures, at all times and places, humans have believed in the existence of a higher reality than themselves, and even of something higher than the human race collectively.” [3] That doesn’t mean mankind understood the God of the Bible, but they do understand there is someone superior to and outside of mankind. This means that general revelation is sufficient to reveal there is a creator God for all to see.
The end of creation is thus to be another preacher pointing to the Lord, not indeed with a perfect message but still with one of infinite value. The Apostle [in Rom 1:20] does not develop further the theme of ‘the knowledge of God’ at this point, but rests the matter there – creation and providence, viewed from the medium of the innate awareness of God, and the indwelling conscience of every man, certainly proves that God exists, that He is all-powerful and that He is all-just. [4]
There is nowhere mankind can go to escape the presence of God since His handiwork is in everything that exists (Ps 139:7-8). And since we can clearly see this, we are, as Romans says, “without excuse”.
But there is an aspect of general revelation that is insufficient. It is “... insufficient to manifest God’s grace to undeserving sinners, or to reveal the way of salvation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.” [5]
Mankind may see that a creator has to have existed for a creation to exist, but he cannot know the will of that creator from General Revelation alone. They cannot perceive God’s purpose for them in His creation. So on their own, mankind ends up inventing a purpose and incorporating this invented purpose into some form of ‘religion’, and virtually every culture on earth through the ages has done exactly that. Mankind saw an earthquake and thought ‘god’ was mad at them. They saw rain falling on their crops at the right time as ‘god’ was pleased with them. But mankind was still ignorant of God’s purpose for their lives.
Special Revelation
What religions like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christian Science and Mormonism lack is “special revelation.” All of these religions have attempted to create something that looks like ‘revelation’, and in this context, ‘special revelation’, but none of them have anything that even comes close to qualifying. So, what then is “special revelation”? It can be defined simply as:
“God’s manifestation of Himself to particular persons at definite times and places, enabling those persons to enter into a redemptive relationship with Him.” [6]
A more expanded definition is:
Special revelation is how God has chosen to reveal Himself through miraculous means. Special revelation includes physical appearances of God, dreams, visions, the written Word of God, and most importantly—Jesus Christ. The Bible records God appearing in physical form many times (Gen 3:8, 18:1; Ex 3:1-4, 34:5-7), and the Bible records God speaking to people through dreams (Gen 28:12, 37:5; 1 Ki 3:5; Dan 2) and visions (Gen 15:1; Eze 8:3-4; Dan 7; 2 Cor 12:1-7). [7]
Unlike most other religions, the God of the Bible is a personable, knowable and loving God. And the way we know God today is through His Word, the Old and New Testaments, but there were times when men and women had direct encounters with God Himself. God walked and talked with Adam in the Garden of Eden and threw him out when Adam broke the only rule he was given to keep. He told Noah to build a boat when it had never rained on earth, to save a human race that had done evil continually in His sight. He intervened to save Moses’ life as a newborn, made Him a ruler in Egypt, had him cast out of Egypt into a foreign land, only to raise him up again for the purpose of delivering a people, the Israelites, from captivity. God then told Moses to write down everything from the creation up to himself, while leading the disobedient Israelites for a 40 yr journey through a desert so that an entire disobedient and unbelieving generation could die off, all so that God could lead His people into a land He had promised to give them centuries before their birth. God raised up Prophets to rebuke and correct His disobedient people, having these same prophets write their own stories for us to read today. All of this was to show His beloved people that they cannot follow God’s rules that require them to be perfect. And this was for the singular purpose of preparing the way for a redeeming savior, God’s own Son, to provide an undeserved salvation to a disobedient people whom He has always loved, even when they were at their worst.
But in all of this, God sought to make sure mankind would know His ultimate goal was for everyone that wanted to be ‘His people’, would know what was required. He gave them His very words through prophets, apostles and His only Son, Jesus. All of it written down for us to read as Scripture.
While God has revealed Himself in various ways through special revelation, the principle of Sola Scriptura holds that that revelation is now restricted to Scripture alone. God revealed Himself orally through the prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus and the apostles in the New, but the only revelation we possess today of the prophets, or Jesus or the apostles is that which is recorded in Scripture. [8]
It is Scripture alone that provides mankind with their only objective link to an infallible record of God’s redemptive plan in history for mankind. And it is Scripture that is that ‘Special Revelation’ that God provided for mankind for the last 2000 yrs to understand His redemptive plan. And we see this in Luke 24:25-27, where Jesus appeared to some of his disciples and pointed them to Scripture, explaining to them that it was revelation about Himself,
And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:25-27)
They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)
Now He [Jesus] said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44-47)
It was Scripture that the resurrected Jesus pointed these men to first. The same was true of Paul,
And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” (Act 17:2-3)
Even Apollos appealed to Scripture and all he knew was the baptism of John,
Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. (Act 18:24)
The appeal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was always to Scripture, not some nebulous ‘tradition’ that cannot be defined or demonstrated.
It is clear that Jesus, his disciples, and the Jewish people in general presupposed Scripture to be not only the infallible record of God’s revelatory acts, but the authoritative, objective link between the prophetic nature of revelation and its fulfillment. The consistent appeal by Christ and his apostles to the Scriptures, as the objective standard of authoritative truth, together with the recognition of their binding authority, demonstrates the biblical link between Scripture and special revelation, the former being the only inerrant record of the latter. If in their day, there existed alongside Scripture, a legitimate God-given, objective standard of authority such as extra-biblical tradition, the nature of which could be attributed to special revelation, it has failed to surface. The oft repeated scriptural formula of ‘It is written’ (or ‘it is inscripturated’) knows no such rival formula as ‘it is traditioned’ or ‘tradition says’ in the apologetic method of Christ and his apostles. It is most conspicuously absent from the gospel record. [9]
For the Christian, it is Scripture that we must appeal to as the authoritative source of truth. It would seem to be one of the reasons why Paul closed his letter to the Romans with this,
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; (Rom 16:25-26)
It is Scripture that makes known the mysteries of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is what leads mankind to the faith that God desires we all come into. If some sort of unwritten tradition was meant to be the source of a binding ‘special revelation’, and meant to be an unwritten, perpetual, authoritative revelatory source along with Scripture, and meant to be handed down by the apostles, then why was Paul (and the other Apostles) silent about it? Why did he fail to mention it anywhere in his writings? (And ‘no’, 2 Th 2:15 does not do that. Please see: Sola Scriptura - Part 3 - 2 Th 2:15)
The only consistent view that is defendable is a position that rejects the notion of ‘revelation’ existing outside of Scripture, such as tradition. So let me provide a practical example from the Protestant Charismatic side. It is inherently dangerous for any Christian group to claim a modern day revelatory capability. If you claim to have this ability, then you are going to have to provide a clear understanding of how this can be true, and what provisions are in place to prevent abuses. What validates these “prophetic words of God”? Likewise, what corrects them? What protects the body of Christ from abusive churches, leaders or people? Charismatics today say they have the power and the ability to speak God’s revelatory word but it is usually based on emotion. Was that ‘word of God’ filtered through Scripture? In my experience, virtually never [10]. When you have people barking like dogs or laughing like hyenas it's hard to understand how this is “inspired by God” or “God-breathed” (2 Tim 3:16). If these Christians accept that and have no way to validate those supposed ‘prophetic words’, then what is the basis for these same Christians to state that the Book of Mormon is NOT a modern day revelation from God? The same can be asked of the Jehovah’s Witness and its blatant additions to the NT. And the same is true for the Catholic Church and their ‘tradition’.
Scripture has always been and continues to be God’s Special Revelation to mankind, and Sola Scriptura is the protection and filter that makes sure we understand His Special Revelation. If you disagree with this, then please answer this one question - ‘Can you name one example of an oral, extra-biblical tradition that can be demonstrated as being passed down from the apostles?’ Remember, this has to be a tradition that is necessary for the faith and practice of the Church. Just to prepare you, this has been asked and unanswered many times over the last 500 yr. The reason for the deafening silence is simple, there are none that can be demonstrably traced to the apostolic age. Not a single one.
The Special Revelation found in Scripture has been purposely preserved through the ages to be that authoritative source for the Christian on the faith and practice of the Church. And it is Sola Scriptura that provides that protection and filter for the church to defend herself against the false teachings and false prophets that are continually confronting the church. And it is the Christian - you and I - that is responsible to defend the Christian faith as we rely upon the Holy Spirit to speak the truths of the Gospel through us as His instrument (1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:14; 2; 4:15; Pet 3:17; Php 1:16), after we’ve equipped ourselves for that service, for the purpose of building up the body of Christ (Eph 4:12). But that defense is impossible without the Word of God, the Holy and inspired, ‘God-breathed’ Scriptures.
[1] James White, Alpha and Omega Ministries, who has written and debated extensively on the subject of Sola Scriptura.
[2] Milliard Erickson, Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker House Books: 1983), pg. 153.
[3] Ibid, pg. 155.
[4] David T. King, Holy Scripture, Ground and Pillar of Our Faith Vol I, (Battle Creek, WA: Christian Resource, Inc, 2001), pg. 27.
[5] Ibid, pg. 28.
[6] Milliard Erickson, Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker House Books: 1983), pg. 175.
[7] What is general revelation and special revelation?
[8] David T. King, Holy Scripture, Ground and Pillar of Our Faith Vol I, (Battle Creek, WA: Christian Resource, Inc, 2001), pg. 34.
[9] Ibid, pg 42.
[10] I speak from personal experience as having seen some of these things first hand. Charismatics do a terrible job of ‘testing the spirits’, which is why so many degenerate into such bizarre behaviors as laughing revivals. They want so badly to experience the ‘move of God’ in their lives that they are willing to open themselves up to so many unbiblical beliefs (1 Tim 1:3; 4:1-2; 3:13; 2 Pet 2:1). They don’t know how to ‘be still and know that [He] is God.’ (Ps 46:10 KJV)
All Scriptures quotes are from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Revision, unless otherwise noted. Verse links from Blue Letter Bible, https://www.blueletterbible.org/
For the best treatment of Sola Scriptura in book form, please consider investing in the 3 volume set of: David T. King, Holy Scripture, Ground and Pillar of Our Faith, Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 (Battle Creek, WA: Christian Resource, Inc, 2001). It's the guide I'm using to integrate some of my own study on this important subject. This book set is inexpensive and worth every penny.
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