God reveals Himself to us through His Creation,
His Word, and His Son.
The God who speaks has done so in the Bible—His revelation to us. It is important we understand this, because much “new revelation” is being claimed today.
After I had spoken at a seminar, a young woman came to me and asked, “You don’t believe there is any more revelation being given today, do you?”
“No,” I replied, “I believe the revelation of God is completed.”
“Well, I happen to go to a church where we have an apostle,” she insisted.
“That’s very interesting. Who is he—Peter, James, John, or Paul?”
“Oh, he’s not any of those, but he is an apostle.”
“How do you know he is an apostle?”
“Because he speaks direct revelation from God.”
I blinked. “You mean, when he gets up and talks, it isn’t just a sermon, but it’s God speaking through him?”
“That’s right. He gives direct revelations every Sunday.”
How can we evaluate a claim such as that? What shall we think when we go to a Christian bookstore and pick up a book that describes a revealed vision from God and contradicts or adds to the Bible?
For the answer, we must look to the origin of the claimed message. Is it certain that it came from God’s voluntary act of love in disclosing Himself, or did it actually come from the mind of a person who thought he spoke for God?
Did Moses, having nothing better to do one day, suddenly decide he would record the creation of the world? “Now, let’s see. I wonder how this whole world came about. It seems to me that… ”
That’s not how it happened. God told Moses what had occurred, and Moses in obedience recorded what God revealed to him: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). This is revelation from God, not a supposition from Moses.
Imagine Isaiah sitting down to write, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). I couldn’t come up with that, but Isaiah did because it was revealed to him.
Envision Micah saying, “You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel” (Mic. 5:2). He couldn’t have made this valid prophecy unless it had been revealed to him.
Can you picture David writing in relation to the Crucifixion, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Ps. 22:1), and doing it hundreds of years before Jesus was born, if it had not been revealed to him by God?
The supernatural wisdom and great prophecies in the Bible came from God, not from men. They were God’s thoughts and words, not the speculations of men (Matt. 16:17; 2 Pet. 1:21); and nothing is to be added to them (Jude 3; Rev. 22:18, 19). Let’s think further about God’s revelation.
Natural Revelation
God has revealed Himself to us in two ways: through natural revelation and through special revelation. We can’t look at the beauty we see during the day or look at the stars of the night without concluding that Someone greater than us made it all. Everything cries of the existence of God and of His work. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20).
The world of nature reveals three things. The first is God’s power. When we look at the created world, we can only stand in awe of the tremendous power that must have been exerted in its formation. For example, one star, Betelgeuse, is twice the size of the earth’s orbit around the sun and is 500 light-years away. At 186,000 miles per second, it takes 500 years for its light to reach the Earth. This is only one star on the edge of a universe that contains billions of stars like it. All of this was made by God!
Nature also reveals the Godhead. The Greek word for Godhead stresses God’s sovereign deity—the fact that He is God. The God who created the universe is sovereign. He runs the show. He is in complete control.
Third, nature tells us of God’s wrath. We read that unbelievers are without excuse when they face God’s judgment (Rom. 1:20). It is evident everywhere we look that a curse is on the world—that it is under a moral sentence. The world groans as if in labor, awaiting its redemption (Rom. 8:22).
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. (Hebrews 1:1)
That briefly is the content of natural revelation.
“Well, it’s fuzzy, and hard to understand,” you might be tempted to say. But Scripture tells us that God’s existence is “clearly seen.” The revelation from nature is clear. No one can excuse themselves because of ignorance. There is no alibi for the atheist, and there is no excuse for the agnostic.
If creation is so clearly the work of a Creator, why have so many missed this conclusion? The difficulty is not in the revelation, but in man.
Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened… They… changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. (Rom. 1:21–23)
When man deliberately rejects the truth that can be known about God through nature, God gives man up to idolatry (v. 23), to sexual impurity (vv. 24–27), and to a reprobate mind (v. 28). As a result man can’t know God on his own, even though he lives in a world that shows God’s character, attributes, power, and works. Spiritually, man is dead (Eph. 2:1). A dead man doesn’t respond. Man is blind (Eph. 4:18). A blind man can’t see the truth no matter how well it is illuminated. The same verse tells us that not only is unregenerate man dead and blind, but he is also ignorant. His state is the terrible result of sin.
Natural revelation is not confined to the creation which is external. Natural revelation also comes internally through our own conscience. “What may be known of God is manifest in them” (Rom. 1:19). People today, because of what they have on the inside, are conscious that God exists. Even Albert Einstein felt he had to believe in a cosmic power. He was convinced that a man who did not believe in a cosmic power as the source of all things was a fool.
A person can deny this, of course. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Ps. 14:1). Interestingly enough, the word fool can also be translated “wicked.” Atheists are wicked. That is how they get to be atheists. They have wickedly reduced God to nonexistence in order to entertain their sins without a sense of moral obligation.
In order for the fool to say the word God , however, he must have a concept of God. And if he has a concept of God, that implies that God is. It is impossible to think of something that is not; therefore, he is trying to eliminate something that his very reasoning powers tell him exists. For the fool to work that hard to deny God’s existence is testimony that God must exist, or the fool wouldn’t have to worry about getting rid of Him.
Nature, then, is God’s disclosure of Himself in man and in man’s environment. The astronomer Herschel said, “The broader the field of science grows, the more manifold and irrefutable become the proofs for the eternal existence of a creative and omnipotent wisdom.” Linnaeus, the famous professor of medicine and botany from the 1700s, declared, “I have seen the footsteps of God.” The astronomer Kepler testified, “In creation I grasped God as if He were in my hands.”
A Christian leader of the third century, known for his wisdom, was once asked where he got such wisdom.
The source of all I have learned is in two books. The one is outwardly small, the other is very large. The former has many pages, the latter only two. The pages of the former are white with many black letters on them. One of the pages of the big book is blue, and the other is green. On the blue page there is one big golden letter and many small silver ones. On the green page there are innumerable colored letters in red, white, yellow, blue, and gold. The small book is the Bible; the large one is nature.
These two “books” belong together. Both testify to the revelation of the one living God; their testimonies are in harmony and point to the power, greatness, and love of the Lord of the world.
So we have natural revelation given to us through creation and through our consciences. Natural revelation was fully effective before the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Then, there was no sin. There was no barrier. Adam and Eve could live with God out of the depths of pure hearts. God didn’t need to write to them in the Garden, but after the Fall natural revelation was not sufficient. Sin placed a barrier between man and Holy God. Someone had to take the punishment for that sin and provide a way to restore man to fellowship with God (2 Cor. 5:21). God foretold through His prophets (in the Old Testament) that such a One would come and later recorded (in the New Testament) how the Son of God came to the world, died, was buried, and then rose from the dead. Jesus Christ became the way.
The New Testament makes this clear. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Peter said, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:1). Jesus told men that they were condemned because they did not believe on Him (John 3:18). Paul declared to the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Faith in Christ is necessary.
Special Revelation
Special revelation takes up where creation and conscience leave off. Special revelation tells us all we need to know about God—truth that was never before understood. It tells us about God’s mercy—about His grace—about how sin can be forgiven. It tells about the sacrifice of Christ—about salvation—about the church.
Special revelation gives us specifics. When God spoke, He didn’t mumble. God spoke clearly and to the point. He was precise, even to the choice of words, verb tenses, and distinguishing between plural and singular words.
God’s special revelation came progressively. When we read the Book of Genesis, we get part of the revelation of God. It is limited. When we read only the Old Testament, we get only part of the revelation. Scripture is progressive revelation in the sense that it goes from partial to complete—not from error to truth or truth to error.
Some of the Old Testament prophets read what they wrote and tried to figure out exactly what it meant. They searched in their own prophecies to determine who would fulfill the prophecies related to the Messiah and when it would happen (1 Pet. 1:10–12). It was to come later.
Special revelation, then, was a process. First God revealed Himself in a small frame, later in larger measure. First revelation was to a man, then to a family, then to a tribe, then to a nation, then to a race, and ultimately to the world.
How has God revealed Himself in special revelation? He has revealed Himself in three main ways. The first is theophany—the visible appearance of God in some form. We see in the Old Testament that God at times appeared as a man. He and two angels appeared to Abraham as visitors. Abraham greeted the guests and invited them into his house. He asked Sarah to prepare her best culinary delights (Gen. 18:1–8). Imagine Abraham and his wife fixing a meal to entertain God and two angels! In this instance, God assumed human form to appear to Abraham.
There were other ways God revealed Himself in visible form. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush (Ex. 3); He also appeared as the Shekinah Glory in the Tabernacle (Ex. 33–40). Jacob wrestled with a “Man,” who was in fact God in human form (Gen. 32:24–32). Theologians call this a Christophany—a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.
The greatest theophany of all, in a sense, is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in human form to walk on earth and to dwell with men. God is not a man, as the Bible clearly teaches. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), but He has chosen to reveal Himself in human form, and most perfectly in Jesus Christ.
Note that in each of these cases, God’s special revelation accomplished a specific purpose. God had a specific message for Abraham, for Moses, and for the others to whom He appeared. Each had no doubt about what God was trying to communicate.
When God wanted to communicate specific messages, it was not necessary for Him to appear in person. He also spoke through the mouth of a prophet. The man of God would open his mouth and say, “Thus says the Lord.” God would take control of his mind and mouth. In fact, sometimes in studying the prophets it is impossible to isolate God from the prophet who spoke.
Take Deuteronomy 18:18 , for example: “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.” Here is a prophecy concerning Christ, but it also pictures a human prophet.
The commission of Jeremiah as a prophet is another example: “Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.’” (Jer. 1:9). When Jeremiah opened his mouth, God’s Word came out.
It is also amazing to notice other ways God put His messages across. Sometimes He communicated by the casting of lots. God wanted Jonah to take a short ride in a long fish, and He wanted to make sure it would happen that way. So the pagan sailors on board the sinking ship cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. God made sure Jonah got the short stick.
Another fascinating way God communicated to His people was through use of the Urim and the Thummim, though no one today quite knows what these objects were. All we know is that they fit into the breastplate of the high priest—perhaps they were beautiful stones or jewelry (Lev. 8:8). Somehow they were used to tell the will of God (Ezra 2:63; 1 Sam. 28:6).
God also communicated through dreams, as in the case of Jacob (Gen. 28:12–15), Joseph (37:5–10), the butler and baker (40:5–23), and Pharaoh (41:1–44).
Another very common way for God to communicate was through visions. Daniel had both dreams and visions to learn the will and purposes of God.
At times God communicated by speaking audibly. For example, God said to Abraham, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1).
Think of the apostle Paul on his way to Damascus. All of a sudden the Lord talked to him from out of heaven. What a fantastic concept. God could send His voice across the sky, from heaven, to communicate with spoken words.
The Means of a Miracle
In addition to communicating through nature and prophecy, God spoke through miracles. Simply defined, a miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting God’s intervention so that God may reveal Himself in a special way.
Jesus verified His teaching with miracles so people could know He was God. The entire Gospel of John supports this. Jesus healed the lame man as easily as He forgave the man’s sins (Mark 2:1–12). Only God could do that. This miracle demonstrated and authenticated that Jesus is God.
God used miracles to attest the truth of what He had said through His prophets. Elijah, for example, could announce what God had said, but it didn’t mean anyone would listen. Some might ask, “How do we know you’re telling the truth?” But when God empowered Elijah to raise somebody from the dead, it would inspire confidence that God was truly at work through his prophets (see 1 Kings 17:17–24).
Peter preached the gospel. Then he demonstrated divine power by healing the sick. That made people say, “This man must really be from God.”
We see, in the New Testament accounts especially, that God accompanied His Word with signs in order that people might know it was His Word. In 2 Corinthians 12:12 we read about signs and wonders and the mighty deeds of the apostles that were used to certify the Word of God.
Any miracle testifies that God exists. It is one way God lets us know, “I am here, and I have something to say.”
We should note that it isn’t a problem for God to perform a miracle. He made the world, didn’t He? For God, a miracle is like sticking His finger into a pond and making waves. And when God does a miracle, it doesn’t create havoc in nature until the end of time, until Jesus comes back. It is self-contained. For example, Jesus stood at the tomb and said, “Lazarus, come forth,” and Lazarus came out and took off his grave clothes. But later he would die again (John 11:43).
Miracles do stand—and so do all the other means through which God has chosen to reveal Himself. They are recorded for us in the Bible, the embodiment of God’s self-disclosure.
Jesus never healed anyone, Ernest Renan says in his book The Life of Jesus. According to Renan, Jesus only aided sick people by His gentleness so that they felt better. Yet His followers considered these actions as miracles. At the Sea of Galilee, according to Renan, Jesus was not walking on water but was stepping on a very heavy growth of lily pads.
How did the feeding of the five thousand occur? Renan declares that a large quantity of food was stored in a nearby cave. Jesus knew about it and ordered His disciples to sneak it out.
It takes more faith to believe Renan’s explanations than it does to accept the Bible record as it stands.
Isaiah, in his day, even with all that God had said to the prophets in those days, wanted more: “Truly You are God, who hide Yourself… Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down” (Is. 45:15; 64:1). And God did what Isaiah asked:
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Heb. 1:1–3)
This becomes clear in the next aspect of our study. (Consult a Bible reference tool, such as the MacArthur Study Bible, for more on how God inspires the Scripture.)
THINK BACK
1. Identify at least four ways in which God communicates with people.
2. How did sin become a factor in God’s relationship with humanity?
3.What is the ultimate expression of “special revelation”?