Theology – the study of God and his truth – is only possible because God has revealed himself. Otherwise we could know very little about God. Thus the topic of God’s revelation is a good starting point for theological reflection. God has made himself known to human beings in three primary ways.
General Revelation
God has revealed himself through the creation he has made – called “general” revelation. Psalm 19:1-4 describes how “the heavens proclaim the glory of God.” Romans 1:19-20 declares that human beings should understand the existence and power of God “through everything God made.” While creation can reveal much about God, many of his attributes cannot be discerned from the created order. Creation cannot reveal God’s Triune nature or the incarnation of Jesus. Looking at the grandeur of the heavens cannot help us understand how to be right with God.
The Bible
By contrast with general revelation, the Bible is considered “special revelation.” Consider nine important truths about the Bible as the word of God.
Inspiration: Every book of the Bible has two authors: divine and human. God did not dictate the words of the Bible to its human authors, but worked through each author’s own personality, intellect and culture so that every word written by the human is also God’s own word (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:21). For example, Jesus quoted the words of David in the Old Testament and attributed those words to the Holy Spirit (Mark 12:36).
Inerrancy: In its original manuscripts, the Bible does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact. It always tells the truth. The Bible does not speak on every conceivable topic, but wherever it does speak, what it says about any subject will be true. This reflects God’s character, because God cannot lie (Heb 6:18).
Authority: Because the Bible is God’s word, it is our ultimate source of truth. This makes the Bible our final authority for what we believe and how we live. To disbelieve the Bible is to disbelieve God (Luke 24:25). To disobey the Bible is to disobey God (2 Pet 3:2).
Reliability: Has the Bible been corrupted? Have important truths been removed from its pages? Even though we have no original manuscripts of the Bible, we have reason to trust the reliability of the Bibles we have. Our confidence rests on three factors. The first is the meticulous process of transmission. The scribes who copied the Bible adhered to very high standards of accuracy. Because of this, any mistakes made in copying are clearly identifiable as slips of the eye or pen, and no intentional corruption has ever been demonstrated. Second, consider the consistency of manuscripts over long periods of time. For example, when it was discovered, the Isaiah scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls predated the oldest existing manuscript of Isaiah by almost 1,000 years. Yet the two are almost identical, with only trivial differences. The third confidence-building factor is the abundance of available manuscript evidence. Thousands of manuscripts of the Bible exist, some very ancient. By comparing manuscripts, a reliable text can be established.
Clarity: Not everything in the Bible is equally clear or easy to grasp. But the Bible’s authors expected people to be able to understand and act on their words (Deut 6:6-7). All things a person needs for salvation and Christian life can be understood by anyone who will read the Bible, if they ask for God’s help and are willing to follow it.
Necessity: We need the Bible. Without it, no one can know how to be right with God, how to maintain a relationship with him, or what God commands or desires of us (Matt 4:4; Ps 119:1; 1 John 5:3).
Sufficiency: The Bible is enough. It contains everything we need God to reveal to us for our eternal salvation (2 Tim 3:15), We need anything else in order to know and trust God or to obey him (Ps 119:9; 2 Tim 3:17). We can be fully content with the Bible. We do not need to rely on other sources of truth or guidance as equal to the Bible, for any matter on which the Bible speaks.
Efficacy: The Bible has power to accomplish God’s purposes (Isaiah 55:10-11). More than just words on a page, the Bible conveys the power of the Holy Spirit into the life of the reader (Hebrews 4:12). It transforms the mind and heart (Psalm 19:7-11) and equips people to know and live for God (2 Tim 3:16-17).
Canonicity: Is the Bible as we have it now complete? The word “canon” means a rule or standard. Canonicity is about whether a book that claims to be scripture meets that standard. In general, a book was included in the canon based on two steps. The early church did not create the canon of Scripture. But it recognized the divine inspiration of certain books, and rejected others, based on five tests.
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- Universality. Did the writings in question reflect the unified view of the whole body of Christians?
- Apostolic origin. Was it written by a known prophet or apostle, or by a close associate reflecting the apostle’s perspective?
- Orthodoxy. Are the doctrines and values expressed consistent with the rest of Scripture (Deut 13:1-3)?
- Divine efficacy. Did the message of the book have life-changing power in people’s experience?
- Antiquity. Did it originate in biblical times, or was it composed long afterwards?
God’s Self-Revelation in Jesus Christ
The final and ultimate way that God has revealed himself to humanity is through Jesus Christ. In him, God became human and lived among us. John 1:18 explains that no one has ever seen God, but Jesus “has revealed God to us.” Jesus told his disciples, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). Hebrews 12:1-3 explains that, while God made himself known in the past through the prophets, “in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son,” because Jesus “radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God.” Thus God’s greatest way of making himself known is not the Bible, but the person of Jesus Christ.
The study of theology begins with God’s revelation. The Bible is how we know who God is, because the Bible reveals God’s mind, heart and will. It also reveals the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is the highest revelation of God. Sound theology is built on what the Bible says as the final word about what we believe and teach.
