Part 2 of 3 on the Doctrine of Revelation, taught by Mike Reeves on UCCF Summer School with the South massive.  Listen to it here.

 

In particular, a doctrine of Scripture, but not just about Scripture!

 

Often this is seen as a prologue to real theology.  However, this attitude leads to treating it in a non-Christian way.  So in the last 200 years it has been seen as a theistic and not a Christian theology.  Abstractly, the classic question has been: is it possible for God to make himself known?  That depends on the God!  Instead, the better question to ask is: how has God revealed himself? 

 

First principles

 

A fundamental principle to begin with is the helpless, hopeless plight of humanity in this area.  There is nothing we can do to grasp a knowledge of God.  

 

Because of this, we must avoid natural theology.  Many think this refers to a theology of nature, and rant that evangelicals don’t have one because they don’t care about the planet etc etc.  That’s not what it is!  Natural theology is the attempt to do theology naturally, without grace.  It is a problem because, as Jim Packer explains, it is “blasphemous in principle, and bankrupt in practice” (from his introduction to Martin Luther’s ‘Bondage Of The Will’).  The true God is a personal God, and a person needs to proclaim/disclose themselves to make themselves known.  Thus, revelation is dependant on God’s grace, not the works of man.  Natural theology leads to knowledge of God by our own works, known as pallagianism. 

 

Is this evangelical position too strong?  Is it too dismissive of the ability of the human mind?  No.  Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones once said “the evangelical distrusts reason, and particularly reason in the form of philosophy”.  In this quote he was not being anti-intellectual at all, but tackling reason as an independent authority or infallible means of finding out knowledge, rather than a servant.  Instead, his conviction was that there is no neutral human mind (see Romans 8 ) and no neutral human logic, but Christ the Logos is the true logic; so we must start with Christ in the Scriptures – it is illogical not to!  Natural theology, however, builds on an independent logic, separate from the Logos.  Take Immanuel Kant as an example – for him, the enlightenment = rely on your own logic.  This replaces our logic to the position where the Logos should be.  Colin Gunton, on the other hand, argues that as creatures of the Word, we need revelation.  So natural theology doesn’t so much deny divine revelation, but replaces it: “but they are parodies of the truth, and they destroy”. 

 

Truth

 

So we need revelation; we need truth.  But what is truth?

This is the question Pilate asked Jesus in John 18.  Ironically, the truth Pilate longed for was not a concept, but a person – the person standing in front of him.  Jesus is the truth.  This however does not deal with Pilate’s question; he’s not the truth on his own – “by myself I do nothing”.  Instead, he is the truth because he makes the Father known.  In John 1:17 we’re told the truth is made known through Jesus – but what truth?  The answer is in 1:18. 

Jesus is the revealing Word; he reveals the truth of the Father.  But John also wrote in 1 John 5:16 that the Spirit is truth, for he is the Spirit of truth/Jesus (see also John 15).  What’s going on?! 

The answer is that truth is essentially trinitarian.  If so, a revelation of the truth must be also.  So, a robustly Christian doctrine of revelation must be trinitarian. 

 

How does this relate to each member of the Trinity and their role in revelation?

1. God the Father

Perfectly expresses and reveals himself perfectly by sending out his Word, Christ, by his Spirit.  This Word is the exact representation of his heavenly being. 

2. The Son

Makes himself known by sending his words by his Spirit; the “Word of Christ” = the Scriptures.  Again, a perfect revelation.  Christ is proclaimed so plainly by the Scriptures, that when people fail to see it, they are rebuked for being foolish.  2 Timothy 3:15 highlights that making people wise for salvation is the function of all the Scriptures. 

3. Spirit

God speaks his word by his Spirit – through humanity, in the flesh of Christ, and human authors.  But it doesn’t stop there!  As God’s word has gone out in the person of Christ, by the apostles and prophets, so now it is taken out and proclaimed by God’s people, the Church.  So the Word of the Spirit = the proclamation of the church.  There is strong language about this in church history; Calvin said that preachers are “the second mouths of God” (see also the Second Helvetic Confession (Heinrich) and Hebrews 13:7).  So preaching (in the widest possible sense of proclamation) is the end point of God’s revelation.  This changes the content of preaching: real preaching cannot be other than taking you to the Word of Christ (the Scriptures) to know Christ, through whom you know God.  This also changes expectations of preaching.  Is it just ‘explaining the passage to us’ as it is so often introduced on a Sunday morning?  No – it is hearing God speak to us; it is proclamation of the Word of God!

 

So there are three Words:

• The Word of God (= Christ)
• The Word of Christ (= Scripture)
• The Word of the Spirit (= preaching)

Because revelation is trinitarian, this means:

(i) The Bible is relational, not just a textbook – so if you harden yourself to what the Spirit is saying to you through Scripture, you will not understand it (see John 14:21). 

(ii) There is a profound difference between a trinitarian and a non-Christian doctrine of revelation.  This can been seen starkly in the difference between Christian and Islamic doctrines of revelation.  The Koran plays both roles that the Father & the Son play in Christianity: the Koran is both the written Word and the eternal Word, not the written Word (Scriptures) leading to the eternal Word (Christ) leading to God.  The Koran is fundamentally informational; the Bible invitational, or relational.  This changes the way you open the Bible – not to learn things to do, but a person to know.  In an Islamic doctrine of revelation the end point is: you know the Koran.  You’ll know about Allah, but you won’t know him.  That’s why it’s important to distinguish between  trinitarian and  non-Christian doctrines of revelation, or else faith = knowing about God.  A trinitarian doctrine of revelation introduces you to a person, and you’re drawn into knowledge of God, not about God.  A non-trinitarian doctrine of revelation can easily lead to bibliolatry (bible-idolatry).  But the point of the Scriptures is to lead you not to themselves, but to lead you to Christ.  This leads to holding a high view of Scripture without idolatry, as the Bible tells us to.

 

Implications for Scripture

 

This trinitarian doctrine of revelation has implications for Scripture.  The Reformers had 4 characteristics (“perfections”) of Scripture.

 

1. Necessity – already explored above.

 

2. Authority.  One one level, obvious.  Calvin claimed we can’t trust our minds outside of Scripture.  But the Reformers were much stronger: “it is God’s word that calls things into existence; so creation and new creation are called into being by God’s Word alone”.  This was foundational for the Reformation.  The Roman Catholic church said that the Church births the Word; the Reformers said that the Word comes from God, and so to put ourselves in any way over the Word is to think we are God.  So how do we know the Bible is the Word of God?  We couldn’t have a reason for trusting Scripture other than Scripture, or else that other is in the place of God, and our true source of worship.  Calvin argues this in Book 1, Chapter 7 of his Institutes. 

Another Reformer’s argument was put forward by Ulrich Zwingly, in the first essay on Scripture in the Reformation, ‘The Clarity & Certainty of the Word of God’ in 1522 (two months after Luther’s crucial ‘Here I Stand’ speech).  There were 2 points to Zwingly’s argument.  The Word of God:

(a) is certain.  When God speaks, it happens.

(b) has clarity.  It’s not just intelligible, but it brings its own enlightenment.  So you don’t need to be previously knowledgable; it brings light to the soul – so you can preach it to all.  But he also meant: we don’t recognise the Scriptures are divine because someone else (at the time meaning the Pope) tells us but because the Bible says so.  We read it and know. 

So, fundamental to the Reformation was that God’s Word is primary, and supreme in its authority. 

 

3. Clarity & Sufficiency.  If unsupportedly authoritative, it must be able to be read and understood without another authority (though this may not be necessarily easy).  It is clear in itself because it is sufficient in itself; I can read ‘sola Scriptura’ because the Scripture is self-authenticating and self-interpreting.  Luther: “Scripture is its own light – it is a grand thing when Scripture interprets itself”.

 

These four perfections of Scripture gave the preacher an incredible dignity (he was God’s mouthpiece) and humility (for all his learning, he was never an authority – he could always be tested by the common people).