Concept of Revelation through Sacred Writings

Revelation is communication of knowledge to man by a divine agency. In monotheistic religions, revelation is the process in which God makes himself, his will and other information known to humanity.

There are two broad forms of revelation:

• General – available to all people at all times and in all places. Examples include the beauty of creation and the voice of the conscience which is interpreted as God
• Special – God’s revelation of himself to particular persons and at particular times such as the revelation of sacred writings i.e. The Torah to Moses

If we assume the Bible to be a special revelation, the question remains as to how the scripture was revealed. Was God revealing facts or, was he merely making himself known through the process?

“All scripture is divinely inspired and has its use for teaching the truth and refuting error” – 2 Timothy 3: 16

Revelation refers to any act in which God is revealed to human beings. The characteristics of revelation is that it reveals knowledge of God  / God's nature. In Christianity there are two types:

1. Propositional revelation

• Refers to God directly revealing truths about his nature to people
• 'Proposition' indicates that the revelations are facts from God or about God and therefore for theists, they are true and beyond doubt or debate.
• The Ten Commandments: Jews and Christians would argue that they are a revelation from God and thus, not open to questions.
• The Qur'an revealed to the Prophet Muhammad from God and there is without fault or need of reinterpretation.
• Faith comes into play because the recipient accepts that the revelations is from God
• Propositional revelations are truths revealed by God but they are not demonstrable using human reason.
• Believers do not reject the use of reason but acknowledge that it cannot prove God's revelations but, there are cases when God can be revealed through using reason through arguments such as the teleological argument
• Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologies) suggested that 'faith' concerns knowledge about God who is transcendent.
• For him, faith is based on something factual which opinion is not but, it is not as certain as science. 
• Aquinas emphasised the role of propositional revelation and natural theology (using reason to learn about God from the natural world)
• For Aquinas revelations can be accepted as genuine if they accord with the Churches teaching (seeing if it fits in determines if it was revealed, ultimately going back to Jesus)

2. Non-propositional revelation

• The idea that God does not reveal facts or information during the process of revelation. God makes himself known during the experience
• It may be through nature i.e. Paley was impressed by the structure of the human eye
• Nature can reveal God but is indirect and a matter of interpretation
• The experience is ineffable – beyond what can be described
• There are indirect experiences of God which lead a person to understand something about him
• Faith is about how people experience God through events in daily life
• If the Bible is a non propositional revelation, the role of the reader is highly important as this revelation takes place in their life so every person will see the world in a different way according to their worldview.
• The writers attempt to put their experience into words by reflecting on it
• Schleiermacher (1768-1834) believed that the biblical texts came about as writers reflected on their religious experiences
• This is about having ‘faith in’ something, not a matter of having facts and information to prove it
• Human beings are free to respond to God's revelation or not since the revelation is not received passively but actively
• So if a human book i.e. The Bible is a witness ad record of how the revelation of God has been understood in history by religious believers.
• People may learn about God through the miracles that Jesus did and those who witnessed them interpreted what they saw

Can we trust the Bible?

NO

• Religious people persecuted scientists such as Galileo and rejected Darwin because they contradicted the Bible
• The writing of the Bible was a very human process – stories were passed down by word of mouth before being written down it is interpreted in so many ways and some of the commands of the Old Testament make no sense today
• Belief in the Bible causes conflict between those who take it literally, those who take it symbolically and those who follow other faiths

YES

• The fact that humans were involved in the writing does not mean that there are mistakes as God guided the process of revelation throughout
• The difficulties lie in reading some parts too literally
• Jesus came to bring the new standards so these should be adhered to as the Old Testaments standards as no longer applicable because of him
• The Bible influences the way of life of millions and millions of people – it changes lives and communities