A Brief History Of Divine Revelation -- By: Fred G. Zaspel

Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 09:4 (Fall 2000)
Article: A Brief History Of Divine Revelation
Author: Fred G. Zaspel


A Brief History Of Divine Revelation

Fred G. Zaspel

Surely among the most important considerations that we can ever entertain is this: God has spoken. It is a staggering thought, and it carries far-reaching implications. That God has spoken and that we are enabled to hear his Word is a marvelous condescension of grace. It is life’s greatest privilege to hear him. But it is a privilege which entails enormous responsibility.

“General revelation,” God’s self-disclosure in creation and in providence, offers us much. We can learn from it of God’s great power and Godhood, his glory, his goodness, his wisdom, his patience, even something of his righteous requirements of us. And since the very beginning, men and women created in the image of God have heard God speak. Although in varying degrees God’s self-disclosure has been universally suppressed and denied, it has remained constant and evident and sufficient to render all of humanity guilty of conscious rebellion against its creator (Psalm 19:1–3; Romans 1:18–21).

But as marvelous as God’s general revelation is, it lacks specificity and detail. We need something more. We are ignorant, and we are rebellious; and so we must have more knowledge of him than is available generally through the created order and in our conscience. We need desperately to know what his Law requires and how that Law can be kept. More than that, we need desperately to know how we can find remedy for our rebellion. We want to know if God

will have us back. We want to know how he can take us back and under what terms. For all this, and so much more, God’s highest earthly creatures require more revelation, a further self-disclosure of God.

Amazingly, he has condescended to our need. God has spoken “at many times and in various ways” (Hebrews 1:1). The ancient prophets, his commissioned spokesmen, relayed God’s Word received through vision, dream, and other methods of direct communication. “Thus says the Lord,” they would announce. “The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ...” “The Spirit of the Lord speaks through me, his Word is upon my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2). Each of these men was God’s own mouthpiece, and through them he made himself known to the world. Through them we hear him. The Old Testament Scriptures have God’s own imprimatur. More, they are themselves his Word.

But God was not done—he had more to say. And as privileged and as royal as the ancient prophets were, God’s ful...

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