BIBLE DOCTRINE | WINTER-SPRING 2012
WEEK 2 OF 13: REVELATION
A. WHAT IS REVELATION
1) Revelation is God’s means by which he has chosen to reveal himself to humanity.
B. THERE ARE TWO CATEGORIES OF REVELATION
1) General Revelation: The knowledge of God’s existence, character, and moral law, which come through creation to all humanity.
a) Creation – God reveals himself through creation.
(i) Romans 1:19-21 – “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (ESV)
(ii) Psalm 19:1 – “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (ESV)
b) Providence – God is sovereign and reigns over all creation. Cares for humans and creation and sustains them.
(i) Acts 14:17 – “Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did goo by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with good and gladness.” (ESV)
c) Consciousness – Humans all have an innate ability to know right from wrong.
(i) Romans 2:14-15 – “For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” (ESV)
2) Special Revelation – God’s words addressed to specific people, such as the words of the Bible, the words of the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles, and the words of God spoken in personal address such as at Mount Sinai or at the baptism of Jesus.
a) Supernatural Occurrence – God supernaturally revealing himself to humans (dreams, visions, burning bush, etc.)
b) Jesus – Jesus reveals God to humans.
(i) Hebrews 1:1 – “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world.” (ESV)
c) The Bible – Old Testament and New Testament; 66 books; multiple writers over centuries; written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
C. “THE WORD OF GOD” AS A PERSON: JESUS CHRIST
1) Jesus is sometimes referred as “the Word of God.”
a) Revelation 19:13 – “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is ‘The Word of God.’” (ESV)
b) John 1:1 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (ESV)
c) 1 John 1:1 – “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – “ (ESV)
d) Jesus in his person as well as in his words has the role of communicating the character of God to us and of expressing the will of God for us.
D. “THE WORD OF GOD” AS SPEECH BY GOD
1) God’s Decrees – Powerful decrees that cause events to happen or even cause things to come into being.
a) Genesis 1:3: “And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.” (ESV)
b) Genesis 1:24: “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so.” (ESV)
c) Psalm 33:6: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth” (ESV)
d) Hebrews 1:3 – Christ is continues to “uphold the universe by his word of power.” (ESV)
E. GOD’S WORDS OF PERSONAL ADDRESS
1) Personal Address – God sometimes communicates with people on earth by speaking directly to them.
a) Genesis 2:16-17 – “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (ESV)
b) Genesis 3:16-19 – God confronts Adam and Even after they sin, “To the woman he said….and to Adam he said,” (ESV)
c) Exodus 20:1-3 – ”And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 You shall have no other gods before me.” (ESV)
d) Matthew 3:17 – “and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (ESV)
e) God’s words of personal address are also “human” words in that they are spoken in ordinary human language. This does not diminish or limit their divine character or authority in any way.
F. GOD’S WORDS AS SPEECH THROUGH HUMAN LIPS
1) God raises up prophets through whom he speaks.
a) Deuteronomy 18:18-20 – “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all I have commanded him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.”(ESV)
b) Jeremiah 1:9 – “Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, ‘Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.’” (ESV)
c) Jeremiah 1:7 – “But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.’” (ESV)
d) Other verses – Exodus 4:12; Numbers 22:38; 1 Samuel 15:3, 18, 23; 1 Kings 20:36; 2 Chronicles 20:20; 25:15-16; Isaiah 30:12-14; Jeremiah 6:10-12; 36:29-31
G. GOD’S WORDS IN WRITTEN FORM (THE BIBLE)
1) God’s words were put in written form
a) Exodus 31:18 – (10 Commandments) “And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” (ESV)
b) Exodus 32;16; 34:1; 28 – “The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. (ESV) 34:1 – “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.” (ESV)
c) Joshua 24:26 – (Joshua made additions) “And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.” (ESV)
d) Isaiah 30:8 – (Isaiah made additions) “And now go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.” (ESV)
e) Jeremiah 30:2 – “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.” (ESV)
f) Benefits
(i) In the Bible we have a much more accurate preservation of God’s words for future generations.
(ii) The opportunity for repeated inspection of words that are written down allows careful study & discussion leading to better understanding and more complete obedience.
(iii) The Bible is accessible to many more people than they are when preserved only through memory and oral repetition.
H. THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE
1) Meaning: The canon of Scripture is the list of all the books that belong in the Bible.
2) The Old Testament
a) The earliest collection of written words of God was the Ten Commandments. They begin the biblical canon.
b) These collections of authoritative words from God grew in size throughout the history of Israel.
c) Moses wrote additional words to be deposited beside the ark of the covenant in Deuteronomy 31:24-26
d) Other references to writing by Moses indicate that the first four books of the Old Testament were written by him as well (Exodus 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Numbers 33:2; Deuteronomy 31:22).
e) After Moses died, Joshua also added to the collection of words written by God in Joshua 24:26.
f) Deuteronomy 4:2 – “You shall not add to the word that I command you nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” Therefore, Joshua must have been convinced that God wanted him to continue to add to the words of God and that God authorized this.
g) Joshua must have
h) Later, others also wrote additional words from God, usually prophets
i) Samuel (1 Samuel 10:25)
j) Samuel (1 Chronicles 29:29)
k) Isaiah (2 Chonicles 26:22)
l) Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30:2)
m) This process continued until Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament.
n) Haggai is dated 520 BC by scholars, Zechariah 520-518 BC and Malachi around 435 BC.
o) Around this time, the historical books were concluded. Ezra around 458 BC, Nehemiah was in Jerusalem from 445-433 BC. Esther is dated around 465 BC
p) Thus, the canon of Scripture was completed around 435 BC.
q) Other historical books were written after 435 BC but were not considered God’s words.
r) In the book of 1 Maccabees 4:45-46, it says, “so they tore down the altar and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them.” (100 BC)
s) Josephus, a Jewish historian born around 37/38 AD explained that from 435BC to his time, there was no book deemed worthy of equal credit with the ealier books because there was no succession of prophets after Malachi.
t) Rabbinic literature also supports this statement ’After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi had died, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel” – Babylonian Talmud
u) In the New Testament there is no dispute between Jesus and the Jews over the extent of the canon.
v) Jesus and the New Testament authors quote the Old Testament 295 times but do not cite any writings after Malachi.
w) The collection of books after Malachi are called Apocrypha.
x) In 1546, at the council of Trent, the Roman Catholic church officially declared the Apocrypha to be part of the canon.
y) The Protestant canon does not include the Apocrypha.
z) Roman Catholics would hold that the church has the authority to constitute a literary work as “Scripture,” while Protestants have held that that church cannot make something to be Scripture, but can only recognize what God has already caused to be written as his own words.
aa) Apocrypha should not be included in the canon because:
(i) They do not claim for themselves the same kind of authority as the Old Testament writings
(ii) They were not regarded as God’s words by the Jewish people from whom they originated
(iii) They were not considered Scripture by Jesus and the New Testament authors
(iv) They contain teachings inconsistent with the rest of the Bible (salvation by faith plus works, prayers for the dead, et. al)
3) The New Testament
a) The New Testament writings begin with the writings of the apostles.
b) Malachi closes with the expectation that a Messiah is coming. The NT begin with the coming of the Messiah.
c) It is primarily the apostles who are given the ability by the Holy Spirit to recall accurately the words and deeds of Jesus and to interpret them rightly for future generations.
d) John 14:26 – “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (ESV)
e) John 16:13-14 – “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (ESV)
f) The Apostles recognized other writings of the other Apostles and authors of the New Testament as Scripture. 2 Peter 3:16 – as he (Paul) in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (ESV)
(i) The Greek word for Scripture used here is “graphe” and it is used 51 times in the New Testament. Each time it refers to the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
g) 1 Timothy 5:17-18 – “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’ (ESV)