Chapter
8 – Realising Gradual Revelation
“In
the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many
times and in various ways,
but
in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”
(Heb 1:1,2)
Chapter
8 Contents
8.1
Reviewing History: the ‘need' for Gradual Revelation
8.2
Two Keys: God doesn't change but man's understanding of Him does.
8.3
The Gradual Revelation of God in the Old Testament
8.4
Listing the things learnt about God so far
8.5
Moving into the New Testament Era
8.6
And So?
8.1
Reviewing History: the ‘need' for Gradual Revelation
Part
way through the last chapter on the gradual development of human society,
we noted that there are two very important and significant facts that
are rarely thought about:
1.
Mankind has developed or evolved in
knowledge, understanding and ability to where we are today.
Much of the previous chapter was given over to thinking about
this. |
| 2. God who
is all-knowing, has always existed, and is unchanging,
but has only gradually revealed Himself to the human race. (The
father in the analogies in the previsous chapter) |
Now
if we put these two together there are some natural outcomes, for
example:
- man's
understanding of God was initially very limited,
- God
chose to reveal Himself to mankind, not by direct teaching, but
by His interactions with individuals and peoples,
- thus
the revelation of God through the Bible comes very largely from
observing the way He dealt with or interacted with individuals or
peoples (mostly Israel),
- man
living three thousand years ago was very much more primitive and
could only receive a limited understanding from God,
- i.e.
God would not have said some things to them because they would not
have understood it,
- similarly
He also had to speak in certain ways to help them understand, ways
that he might not have had to use with a more developed world,
- yet,
as we'll soon see, that was the only realistic option open to Him.
Difficulties
When
it comes to looking to archaeology for answers, we find we are limited.
In his book, “Is Religion Dangerous?” professor Keith
Ward, an expert in this area, declares, “The
truth is that we know virtually nothing about the first origins of
religious belief.” He continues, “From
a purely scientific point of view, all we have to go on are grave-goods
and archaeological remains.”
If
we hope to look at, say, masses of ancient parchments of the Old Testament
of the Bible to help us, we again find ourselves disappointed.
The reason for this was, as we noted in a previous chapter, that the
Jews destroyed every old, damaged document once they had fastidiously
copied it. Yes, there were lots of copies, but they don't go back
some three or four thousand years.
We
suggested in an earlier chapter that we can trust what we have in
what we call the Old Testament in terms of accuracy of what has been
conveyed through the centuries. Our work then becomes to understand
what is written and ponder how it ‘fits' what else we know about the
world.
You
may wish to examine other ancient world religions, but our task here
is to examine the Old Testament of the Bible, and God's revelation
of Himself through the Hebrew people, and that is where we will start.
Nevertheless, in passing, we can acknowledge that God is likely to
have revealed truths about Himself to other parts of the world, not
recorded in the Hebrew Bible.
For
instance, in the book, “God's Promise to the Chinese”, writers
Nelson, Broadberry and Chock point out that two thousand years before
Christ there are indications, in ancient Chinese language, of belief
in a Supreme God, the temptation and fall of a human couple, and a
similar sacrificial system as used by the Hebrew people. That bears
thinking about.
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8.2
Two Keys: God doesn't
change but man's understanding of Him does.
To
see the gradual revelation of God we need to start with two preliminary
considerations, and then work our way through the history of the first
two books of the Bible. These are things that many sceptics apparently
rarely understand.
i)
God doesn't develop
This
first consideration needs to be said from the outset. We've said it
before, but it needs repeating: unlike man, God didn't develop.
He always was as He is and always will be. It defies our imagination
and understanding but that's what the Bible says, and it makes sense
for an ‘Ultimate Being'.
ii)
Our Understanding does develop
Now
for the second consideration: God may not develop but our understanding
of Him does and that's what we see in the Bible. I'm not very
bothered whether or not you accept the story of Adam and Eve, but
it does explain a lot of things and makes a lot of sense and without
it there are big questions over us as a human race.
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8.3
The Gradual Revelation of God in the Old Testament
| In what follows we
will consider what we find in the Bible, and note alongside that
what it tells us (at that point) about God, and we will thus see
a gradual development in the revelation of God or, if you like,
our growing understanding of God. |
Gradual
revelation of God also means only gradual understanding of Him |
We're
going to use lots of bullet points to emphasise what is being said
and, hopefully, to make it easier to read and take in. Yes, we will
be recapping much of what we covered in the ‘World View' section of
an earlier chapter, but now we'll be also include this new perspective
of revelation about God being added.
- Genesis
chapters 2 & 3 show us these first two truly-human beings relating
to God.
- Now
we don't know how this happened but all we know is there was this
communication-interaction which occurred daily. When they rejected
that, this daily communication was broken.
- In
the chapters that follow in the book of Genesis, in succeeding generations
that could have been spread over a very long period, there is sporadic
contact.
- It
is not until we come to Abram, in chapter 12 of Genesis, that we
see God taking the initiative to establish a long-term relationship
with this particular man.
- It
is for that reason that we will use Abram as out starting point
for learning about God as a personal God who interacts with human
beings. There could, without doubt, be many more things that we
could include in respect of things that these early chapters reveal
about God, but we'll pick up some of the more obvious ones.
- As
we do that we will highlight, by numbering them, some of the things
that become obvious about God that are revealed at that point in
history:
- Serious
thinkers might ponder this question. Why Abram? Why this childless
nomad?
- The
answer, we suggest, is that God saw in him a man through whom He
could reveal things about Himself, a man who would respond to the
‘mind-communications' of God speaking to him.
- The
first revelation that is shown though this, I want to suggest, is
that:
1.
God sees and knows and understands everything there is to know about
us.
- God
sees this man who has gone along with his father on a trek from Ur
to Canaan
but has settled in Haran.
- He
sees he is childless and sees that this is something through which
He can reveal something of Himself. (The unfolding story indicates
all this is true).
- The
second thing God shows is that:
2.
He has a purpose for the earth which stretches far into the future.
- He
communicates with Abram and tells him that He has a land for him
to settle in and He will make him great and He will give him many
descendents, and that the whole world will be blessed through him.
- For
a childless nomad, this is an amazing promise. God is going to take
him and use him to bless many people in the centuries to come.
- The
third thing that comes through about God is that:
3. He
persists with our slowness to understand.
- Remember
Abram is the first man that God is going to really reveal Himself
through.
- This
is a very embryonic relationship. Abram has nothing to go on beyond
what he senses he is hearing. Difficult!
- Yet
God understands us and understands Abram and knows how difficult
it is, so we find Him speaking again and again to him, reiterating
His original first promises, that the land
of Canaan
will be his, and he will
have many descendents.
- Now
after many years pass and no children arrive, Abram's wife Sarai
suggests that perhaps Abram has misheard (I'm assuming) and in all
those previous promises there was no mention of her, so why not
take her maid and have the first of the children through her (culturally
a common thing to do).
- So
this is what happens and Ishmael is born.
- But
God doesn't give up. His plan has to wait until both Abram and Sarai
are beyond child-bearing age.
- Some
twelve years later He speaks to Abram again and tells him that a
coming son is in fact to be born to Sarai.
- Now
the only trouble about this is that Sarai is also very old and well
past the menopause and well beyond child-bearing capabilities.
- By
now, Abram has learnt that he can trust what he is hearing from
God, so this lovely old couple try for a baby, and miracle of miracles,
she conceives and Isaac is born.
- So
fourthly, through this incredible event, God reveals that He is:
4.
A God who can intervene in His material world and bring miraculous
changes
- i.e.
the things He can do, can go completely against what we call the
course of nature, the way that God originally designed things to
be.
| Why
Isaac and Jacob and....? |
- So,
as the book rolls on, we see Isaac growing up, getting a wife and
eventually having twin boys, Esau and Jacob.
- Isaac
doesn't come over very well in some of this, but one thing that
does become clear through him (if you read it) is that he has learnt
that:
5. God
knows the future and acts into it.
- We
then watch Jacob growing up, and he's a real little twister.
- He's
an opportunist who gets his older brother to sell him his birthright
(culturally the older son became the leader and took over management
of the farm) and later cons his father into promising him the goodness
of taking the role of the older son, with all that went with that.
- We
watch him working his way through life as a schemer, working for
his own selfish good.
- Now
here's the tricky part: God has chosen him, even though he's the
younger son, to become the leader and also to become a major figure
in history.
6.
God knows what He can do with individuals.
- Thus
Jacob encounters God, submits to Him and we gradually see some remarkable
changes taking place, until eventually in old age (renamed as
Israel),
he is a wise old man, patriarch of a family of twelve sons and one
daughter, with a great understanding of God.
- Following
Jacob, we said, are twelve sons, but one of them, Joseph, is picked
out by God.
- He
is given pictures of the future by God but then apparently everything
goes wrong (it's a good story to read), except the end result of
it all is that he ends up as Prime Minister of Egypt, one of the
most powerful men in the world.
- It
is in this position that, with the wisdom God gives him, he acts
as saviour of that whole part of the world, by making provision
for seven years before a further seven year period of famine strikes.
- We
see behind Joseph, all the way through his tumultuous circumstances,
the invisible hand of God at work, being there for him.
- In
this we come to realise that:
7.
God works in and through and around us, as He works for
His end goal for the good of mankind.
- He
is the God of destiny. He doesn't make us do things, but uses what
we do for His long-term goals.
- In
other words, God who is Almighty, works for the good of mankind
and uses those He sees will be open to Him, as He sees the future
and knows what He wants to achieve in it.
- He
doesn't force them but calls them – despite their initial apparent
negative, self-centred and godless attitudes.
- Part
of the process of revealing Himself, involves drawing the best out
of men and women who will be open to Him.
- With
Jacob and Joseph in particular, it is the picture of a God of grace
and mercy who tolerates their self-centredness because He knows
their potential – the ability to develop into men of faith and goodness.
| What
about Moses & the Exodus? |
- Remember
this is all about God gradually revealing Himself to mankind
.
- At
the end of Genesis we are left with Joseph and the rest of this
family settled in Egypt.
- In
the book of Exodus, about four hundred years pass and with the passing
of time two things have happened:
- First,
this family, now named Israel,
has multiplied and may well have been in excess of a million
people. Each son has essentially become a separate ‘tribe'.
- The
second thing is that their numbers have become a threat to the
Egyptians, who have now made them slaves.
- In
the early chapters of Exodus we find a miraculous encounter of Moses
with God (not visible, but a voice from a burning bush).
- In
the discussion that ensues, God instructs Moses to go to the Pharaoh
or king and demand the release of the Israelites. This Moses does
but Pharaoh refuses. (We'll see this in detail in a later chapter.)
- Through
a series of ten ‘plagues' of increasing severity we learn some more
things about God.
- Because
He is Creator:
8.
He is all powerful and can act into His world and change it with what
we call acts of nature.
9.
Where He does bring pressure to bear on individuals or a nation, He
always gives a warning and options first.
- But
more than that, when He does bring such pressure to bear it is always
with:
10.
The intention of bringing such people through to a place of agreeing
with Him, for their good and the good of His people.
- Stubbornness
and total refusal to respond means the death will ensue, i.e.
11.
When all else fails, God will sometimes take that person or people
off the planet,
- yet
it becomes very clear in Scripture that,
12.
God does not delight in death but wants people to repent and live.
- This
part of Scripture reveals the shear folly of proud men who think
they can outthink God, but it is also a chance to realise, as some
modern counsellors have concluded, that ‘love must be tough' and
it is not loving to let tyrants carry on beating up on people.
- Why,
we may ask, doesn't He do it with all tyrants, and the answer from
this part of the Bible is that He only does it when He is able to
speak into the lives of such tyrants and give them the option to
repent.
- For
anyone carefully reading and thinking about the ‘plagues' that came
upon Egypt, it becomes obvious that God could have wiped out the
entire nation instantly from the beginning, yet the process that
follows through chapters 4 to 12, amazingly gives ordinary individuals
in Egypt, as well as the ruling class, the opportunity to come in
line with God's wishes for all people, and to avoid the plagues.
- Moreover,
carefully observing the plagues shows that they gradually increased
in intensity so that the message could gradually sink into to these
obtuse people.
- It
was left to the prophet Ezekiel, many years later, to declare the
truth from God which was obvious in this situation: “Do
I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign
LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and
live?” (Ezek 18:23) and “I
take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign
LORD. Repent and live!” (Ezek 18:32).
- As
became obvious many years later with Israel
before the Exile, God
warned again and again and again before He acted.
- Some
of us today might become exasperated with a father who kept on warning
his wayward child and did nothing but warn, yet that is what we
find again and again in the Old Testament.
- Those
who speak about God as a capricious, hasty or angry God simply reveal
they have never read the Old Testament carefully!
| What
about the Law of Moses? |
- Moses,
at God's instigation, leads his people out of Egypt,
and across the desert to Mount
Sinai where they have a longer
encounter, as a people, with God.
- God
conveys to Moses the Ten Commandments and then a number of other
laws which might be divided into national, social, or ceremonial
laws.
- The
national ones applied to them as a nation, the social ones were
about relationships, and the ceremonial were all about how they,
as individuals or as a people, should deal with their sins.
- Within
these we see two more important things about God.
- The
first one, which should not surprise us, if we accept that He is
the Creator of the world, is that:
13.
God knows best how we ‘work',
14.
Any laws He gave Israel
could perhaps be seen as His ‘design rules' for living'.
15.
God knows we are weak and will fail,
16.
He provides for a way for our guilt to be dealt with.
- That
comes out clearly in the provision of the ceremonial or sacrificial
law.
- This
is all about how to deal with personal or corporate guilt.
- God
knows what many counsellors state today, that one of man's biggest
problems is that of guilt.
- So
how did God deal with it?
- He
gave them a procedure whereby they would present an animal that
would die in their place, and in presenting it they would become
aware of the seriousness of their wrongs and seeing the animal die
in their place, determine not to repeat that wrong.
- Also,
having gone through the procedure instituted by God, they knew that
they had dealt with it according to His requirements, and therefore
they also knew that they would not have an ongoing issue with God.
It was sorted!
- So
many religions (or people) today try to appease God, for their guilty
consciences, by their own striving to do good things to make up,
but the trouble is you never know if you have done enough.
- When
God lays down a simple and specific procedure to deal with your
guilt, when you have done it, you know it is dealt with and you
can walk away from it without fear, and carry on with your life.
- Are
we advocating we all follow the sacrificial law of Moses? No, the
teaching of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ came as our sacrifice
and all we have to do is believe that.
- When
we do, and approach God on that basis, the New Testament says, we
ARE forgiven.
- In
the midst of these laws comes the clear and stated revelation that,
17. He
is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness,
rebellion and sin. (Ex
34:6,7)
- Can
we see that everything God does here is to show us how we can live
in peace and harmony with ourselves, with others and with Him?
- The
Law didn't only provide a ‘blueprint' for living for Israel;
it also made provision for when they failed.
- This
is a picture of God who seeks to work for our ‘success' in life!
- This
is a far cry from the callous, capricious, angry God that others
try to make Him out to be.
- We
thus see that this God is more concerned to bring people into a
place of peace and harmony than He is to tell off, chide or punish.
| Unity
in the Old Testament |
- Those
who struggle with the idea that God inspired people to write all
these different books of the Old Testament also struggle to see
(often because they won't read it) the incredible unity that there
is throughout it.
- These
seventeen points that we have picked up purely from the first two
books of the Bible, are seen again and again throughout the Old
Testament.
- There
is no contradiction of these points throughout all those books.
- We
need to reiterate that these are just some of the things that come
out, or are revealed, in God's dealings with mankind.
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8.4
Listing
the things learnt about God so far
Let's
pick out those points again that have come as gradual revelation,
and put them all together:
1.
God sees and knows and understands everything.
2.
He has a purpose for the earth.
3.
He persists with our slowness.
4.
He can intervene in His world and bring changes.
5.
God knows the future and acts into it.
6.
God knows what He can do with us.
7.
God works in and through and around us as He works for His
end goal.
8.
He is all powerful and can act into His world and change it in what
we call acts of nature.
9.
Where He brings pressure to bear on individuals, He always gives a
warning and options first.
10.
The intention is of bringing such people through to a place of agreeing
with Him.
11.
When all else fails, God will take that person or people off the planet.
12.
God does not delight in death but wants people to repent and live.
13.
God knows best how we ‘work'.
14.
Any laws He gave Israel
could perhaps be seen as
His ‘design rules.
15.
God knows we are weak and will fail.
16.
He provides for a way for our guilt to be taken.
17.
He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love
and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness,
rebellion and sin.
THIS
is the revelation of God that is gradually shown through the first
two books of the Bible, of a personal, all-powerful God who interacts
with human beings, intervening in natural events sometimes on their
behalf, knowing us and understanding us and being there for us. THAT
is the type of God revealed in the whole of the Old Testament.
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8.5
Moving into the New Testament Era
The
Coming of Jesus
- Now,
at the end of the Old Testament, we have a nation, Israel,
who have the role of revealing God.
- By
the beginning of the New Testament, history has moved on some four
hundred years and they are now under the rule of Rome.
- It
is into this environment that Jesus Christ comes.
- Although
he is born as a little baby, his arrival is surrounded by supernatural
events.
Jesus'
Ministry
- At
the age of about thirty Jesus starts preaching, teaching, healing
people and performing miracles.
- He
clearly has a power beyond anything known to mankind.
- He
reveals himself as the Son of God who has come from heaven.
- After
three years he is arrested, falsely tried and put to death by crucifixion.
- It
was clear that he knew this was going to happen; more than this
he had predicted that he would come back from the dead after three
days.
- This
happened, and in such manner he convinced his followers that he
was who he said he was.
Jesus'
Transforming Power
- To
all who believed in him he gave life transforming power and in the
Acts of the Apostles, following the four Gospels, we see the power
of God flowing through these followers of Jesus, who has now returned
to heaven.
- It
is so staggering that it would be almost impossible to believe if
the same life transforming process is not observed in every new
follower of Jesus down to the present day.
Jesus
reveals God
- The
New Testament teaches us that Jesus came to more fully reveal God,
his Father.
- Thus
when we look at the life and character of Jesus we see this same
love that the Old Testament spoke about, a love which accepts
us exactly as we are, and yet which loves us so much that wants
to help us change so that we can more fully enjoy being who God
has designed us to be.
- The
work of Jesus on the Cross, for that was what it was, a purposeful
‘work of God', was to deal with our guilt in the same way that the
sacrificial system in the Old Testament had helped the people of Israel.
- That
Old Testament sacrificial system, the New Testament teaches, was
simply a picture of what the Son of God would come and do.
- The
end product is a people who can call themselves ‘children of God'
who are not ‘religious' but who have been made whole or complete
and able to live at peace and harmony with God.
- There
is nothing servile about this in the same way that a poor child
adopted into a rich family does not have to be servile, only to
enter into the fullness of a child of that family.
The
Struggle of the Years of Church History
Because
there are, so often, criticisms of the Church, it is important that
we continue our considerations about the revelation of God and His
purposes for us, into the centuries that followed:
- As
we are still very much aware today, the ongoing history of the Church
is an ongoing battle.
- Those
who do not want to submit to a sovereign God speak out and do all
in their power to destroy Christianity.
- In
the early centuries of the life of the Church there was tremendous
persecution that went on against the Church,
which went on for the first three hundred years of its life.
- In
some measure that persecution has carried on throughout the whole
period of Church History and in some parts of the world is just
as terrible as ever.
- The
sceptic would do well to consider why such a pointless religion
(as they see it) should evoke such terrible violence and horror
against it.
- There
was also a battle against heresies throughout
those early centuries, those teachings that sought to distort the
historical truths of Christianity.
- In
the beginning of the 21st century we see a resurgence of many of
those heresies.
- What
those who refuse to study these things fail to see, is that the
traditional Christian beliefs are clear cut and free from the ‘weird
and wonderful'.
- The
New Testament accounts and teaching is free from mystical or weird
teaching.
- It
is very simple and straight forward and can be understood by anyone
coming to God through Jesus Christ.
- There
is no ‘special' or ‘mystical' knowledge required, as the variety
of heresies have demanded.
- The
testimony of John in his letter, that we have noted previously,
is that this was all about the eternal Son of God who had come,
and who they had seen, heard and touched.
- This
was as down to earth as is possible to get!
Internal
Struggles
- Possibly
the biggest struggle that the church has had is within itself, with
what the Bible calls ‘sin', that tendency to self-centredness and
godlessness, that we mentioned in an earlier chapter.
- So
the further history moved on from the life of Jesus and the early
apostles, the greater the distortions and variations and mishandling
by men involved in leadership in the Church.
- Thus
we had one part of the Church growing up with a central focus at
Rome
while the eastern part grew under the focus at Constantinople
.
- Eventually
came what was referred to as the Great Schism where the Roman Catholic
Church and Eastern Orthodox Church split apart to go their separate
ways.
Reformation
& Revivals
- Through
the Dark Ages, abuses within the Church (which, as far as we in
the West were concerned, was the Roman Catholic Church) eventually
so upset one priest, Martin Luther, that we had the Protestant Reformation,
the start of a return, away from tradition and abuses, back to Biblical
Christianity.
- At
various times in Church History in various places around the world,
different areas experienced ‘revival' where the sovereign working
of God brought many people to know Him, often accompanied by signs
and wonders, and a renewing of church life.
Renewal
and Restoration
- At
the beginning of the twentieth century, while much of the Church
was suffering the ravages of liberal theologians, God came by His
Spirit in California with the start of the Pentecostal wing of the
church, emphasising the use of the gifts of the Spirit (see 1 Cor
12), now a strong worldwide movement.
- In
the latter part of the twentieth century came a fresh emphasis on
the teaching that the Church is the body of Christ.
- With
this came charismatic renewal and the so-called restoration movement.
- In
each of these movements can be seen, by those with eyes to see,
the ongoing revelation of God to and through His church, confirming
and affirming all that is found in the New Testament.
The
history of the Church has included:
- a
struggle by the early Church to arrive at the truth of what happened
two thousand years ago, in and through the life of Jesus Christ,
and its effects for us as his followers,
- a
diluting of that truth by the formation of human institutions and
ideas of men, over the centuries, to ‘run' the Church,
- a
recovering of reliance on the Bible and on biblical truths through
the Protestant Reformation,
- a
recovering of the biblical life of the Spirit, by a variety of moves
of God over the past hundred years.
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8.6
And So
In
this chapter we have seen the following:
| |
8.1
Reviewing History: the ‘need' for gradual revelation
- we
considered how it is logical for revelation of God to be gradual
8.2
Two Keys: God doesn't change but man's understanding of Him
does.
- we
identified these two needs for understanding
8.3
The Gradual Revelation of God in the Old Testament
- we
saw how God gradually revealed Himself through Genesis and
Exodus
8.4
Listing the things learnt about God so far
- we
grouped those things all together
8.5
Moving into the New Testament Era .
- we
briefly noted how the revelation continued in the New Testament
and after
|
|
In
these notes (and that is all they are) we have observed the gradual
revelation of God through the first two books of the Bible which is
echoed throughout the Old Testament.
We
briefly considered the greater revelation of God through His Son,
Jesus Christ, and the effects of that on mankind.
The
ongoing battle is to hold onto the truth of the revelation of God
through the Bible, and to counter the many distortions that we, the
sinful human race, seem to manage to come up with about God, that
are contrary to the Biblical revelation.
Now
that leads us on to a further question mark. Surely, say some, all
that you have said in this chapter has been about one little group
of people, the Israelites? What about the rest of the world? This
seems very parochial. Doesn't God care for the rest of the world as
well? These will be the launching platforms of which we move out into
the next chapter.
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