Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/85

Contributor - Michael De Jong

Title - General Revelation

Topic - Revelation

The predominant thought about knowledge that represents western liberals can be exemplified in what Soren Kierkegaard quotes Lessing as having said. G.E. Lessing stated that, if God held all (absolutely, pure) truth in his right hand and in his left hand the endless and always active life-long pursuit of it (though with the additional certainty that I shall always be found in error) and told me to choose, I would fall with humility upon his left hand -pure truth and say: "Father, give this, indeed is only for you alone."

This supposed humility is in actuality hypocrisy. This statement presupposes a knowledge of the one Wisdom and Truth that the gods possess and that men can only strive after. Represented here is a one dimensional knowledge which is identical between the gods and men.

As an opposition to this western, liberal mind set, scripture informs us that the knowledge we possess is not of the same kind as the divine knowledge. Man's knowledge is the offspring of God's revealing himself to men. The distinction in the knowledge of God and man arises from the internal functional structure of one holding the knowledge. Simply because of the Creator/creature distinction, "God's 'knowing' relates to his function as Creator, and man's 'knowing' relates to his function as creature.112

To understand this distinction, we turn to Matt. I 1: 25 - 27 where Matthew records Christ's relation to the Father and his position as Mediator. Christ said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for suck was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (RSV)

Christ is the only one, by nature of his status, who knows the Father intimately and this knowledge he reveals or brings down to the creaturely level. Thus Christ, who is both God and man, is the ultimate revelation. He knows the Father fully and he knows man fully through and through - Dutch ("dooren door"). Only he can bring the Creator down to the level of the creature.

Calvin demonstrates God's "wholly otherness" and makes a distinction between God's hidden and revealed will when in a sermon he writes: In as much as (seeing that) we scarcely understand him in his majesty, in that it is too high, it is necessary that he lower (humble) himself, and that he use a means of speaking which are accommodated to our crudity and weakness of spirits. Our knowledge does not correspond point for point with God's actuality and we must realize that what we know in our crude state is only a portion of the revealed will of God.

The nature of revelation is not that it is an end in itself but that it constantly points past itself. Revelation exists to shed light upon reality, and therefore Christ, who is often referred to as the "Light", is the ultimate reality of revelation. In revelation something of the divine is shown to man on his level with the "hope of illuminating that person's heart to a deeper knowledge. That knowledge is t a theoretical or intellectual knowledge but it a rational knowledge that a man gains when he intimately embraces Christ. Revelation is relational in character. No one knows the hidden will of God. Even Abraham, who was God's friend needed things revealed to him (Genesis 18). It is important that we make this biblical distinction between the hidden and revealed will of God because there is a complete tradition in the Western Liberal Christian mind set (as shown earlier in G.E. Lessing) that speaks of a continuity between the mind of God and the mind of men.

The Western tradition of thought which says that "reason is the divine in man; it is that which God and man have in common, 114 has a radical influence upon Christian thought. Men have accepted the immortality of a light within men's rationality and have approached scripture with it. Many Christian thinkers have had a hard time "conceiving of reason or rationality as subject to the corrupting effect of man's fall into sin." One such thinker is Thomas Aquinas. He endorsed the validity of man's rationality as a way to come to a direct knowledge of the Divine. Thus natural theology developed out of his tradition. For Thomas Aquinas faith supplements reason. A definite distinction is drawn between a man's faith and his reason.

We must not place revelation on an intellectual plane, but we must notice the necessity of the intellect. God, because of his faithfulness, loving heart, and normative law has, out of his good pleasure, confronted men with his revelation to prod them to an obedient response. He has done this for the sake of his kingdom and the desire to see it come to fruition. However, man's response can be in two directions. Romans 1 tells us that God's eternal power and divine nature are clearly revealed to men, but they suppress the truth by worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator. Revelation does not set us on a higher level before God (knowing his hidden will) but it illumines our eyes to our guilt and demands our submission to God's Law.

As a result of the glory and power of God, man contains a naive sensing of that divinity (sensus divinitatus) and thus all men are always conscious of God and without excuse. Calvin describes this sensing and general revelation as constantly confronting man and motivates him to search for his Heavenly Father. Calvin writes that God, daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe. As a consequence, men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see him. Indeed, his essence is incomprehensible; hence, his divineness escapes all human perception. But upon his individual works he has engraved unmistakable marks of his glory, so clear and prominent that even unlettered and stupid folk cannot plead the excuse of ignorance. Finally Kuyper adds to the approaches to the study of general revelation by pointing to man's sensus divinitatus. Abraham Kuyper brings into the discussion the two directions that a man may respond to God in. All men are confronted by the Law, Word, Will of God Almighty and they must respond. This response can take place in obedience, incurring the blessings of God, or in disobedience, incurring the wrath of God. Kuyper explains that unbelief is not non-belief but apostate belief. Thus Kuyper also repeats the point that Calvin makes by telling us that we need the "spectacles" of special revelation (the Bible) to properly see the general revelation and know the revealed God Almighty. The two, special and general revelation, are inseparable.

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