Revelation Through Scripture

Revelation Through Scripture

1. Natural/General Revelation

   • Information about God that is available to all people and all times
   • E.g. the natural beauty of creation

2. Special Revelation

   • E.g. the Torah to Moses
   • What is revealed to God to specific people at specific times and places

3. Propositional Revelation

   • Defending
     • Francis Schaeffer argues we should reject propositional revelation if we do not believe that God is the beginning of all things. He argues for a personal beginning to things
       • To not regard God as the beginning of all things would be to suggest that God must remain an impersonal being, rendering communication impossible
       • God must be able to communicate with us because:
         • We are created 'in the image of God'
         • Anything we do God can surpass due to his unlimited nature
   • Challenging
     • "Propositional Revelation is too passive and inconsistent with human rationale"
       • Propositional revelation overlooks the working of the mind which actively seeks to receive knowledge. Mistakes can be made when attempting to learn things actively. Propositional revelation may be inaccurate as humans are prone to error
     • "How is one able to discern what it truthful or not?
       • Aquinas argued a truthful proposition is one that accords itself with Christian teaching, but what is to say this is reliable?
       • We may be able to observe and understand the effects of revelation e.g. conversion of Paul following his journey to Damascus, but this is not in and of itself a guarantee or the genuineness of the revelation itself
     • "Every religion claims different propositional truths have been revealed to them. Where, then, is the ultimate truth?"
   • When God revealed himself to the writers, he did so directly teaching facts and/or truths about himself through words, which were written down by humans as revealed
     • Faith is agreement to those truths and is rooted in the knowledge that we can speak with certainty that 'something is the case'
       • E.g. Believing that Jesus is the son of God

4. Non-Propositional Revelation

   • Defending
     • William Temple implies a non-literal interpretation of the Bible, where people and writers have been inspired. These believers could argue for an impersonal God that does not speak directly to humans.
       • "There are truths of revelation, that is to say propositions which express the results of correct thinking concerning revelation, but they are not themselves directly revealed."
       • One can be brought into union with God through feeling and a sense of the noetic
   • Challenging
     • Non-Propositional Revelation undermines Biblical unfolding"
       • If non-propositional revelation regarding scripture is true, then that arguably undermines faith shown by people and figures in the Bible who, like Abraham for example, obey the word of God as revealed directly to them
     • "Non-Propositional Revelation limits life to a human, not a divine understanding"
       • How can one claim with certainty that they reveal direct and accurate knowledge about God? They are non-factual by nature and so they cannot be considered as infallible
     • "Non-Propositional Revelation is a matter of interpretation"
       • One can wonder at different forms of non-propositional revelation e.g. the beauty of nature, but that doesn't automatically infer that it will be experienced as God.
   • God is revealved to writers via religious experiences, facts are not communicated directly, due to the ineffability of the event.
     • Faith in response to non-propositional revelation becomes the human response to God
       • Faith is 'belief in' rather than 'belief that'

5. Interpreting the Bible today

   • The Literalists/Fundamentalists
     • Interpretation of scripture reads every word of the Bible as literal truth, revealed directly by God to humans.
     • E.g. Genesis is a factual, historical account of the world
     • No part of the Bible should be disregarded
     • The literal teachings of the Bible are to be followed and adhered to in the lives of the fundamentalist believer.
     • The Bible has ultimate authority that ensures the survival of communities who follow the direct word of God.
   • The Conservatives
     • Interpretation of scripture is normally associated with many Protestant Christians who are not so fundamentalist in their interpretation, as they accept Biblical scholarship
     • The Bible is the ultimate source of morality and guidance and the Bible cannot be added to by human kind
     • Writers were human and so errors can exist as they were also influenced by the society they lived in. Society changes and so sometimes our method of thought and interpretation will too
     • The message behind the words is of primary importance, rather than the actual words
   • The Liberals
     • Interpreters of the scripture believe that the Bible records the experiences of people who are seeking God in their lives
     • The words written are human words, influenced by the society in which the writers lived. The Bible is not directly inspired by God
     • Passages that are outdated and irrelevant are rejected. Individual conscience also guides bahaviour

6. Wider Contributions

   • Hermann Gunkel
   • Julius Wellhausen
   • Ivan Panin
   • Friedrich Schleirmacher