Bible
and revelation
God has created heaven and earth. After the fall of
man, God has revealed himself to men to redeem him from sin and guilt. God sent
his servants the prophets. He revealed himself in mighty acts. The climax of
God's revelation was the sending of his Son. The Bible is the record of God's
saving acts. In the Bible, we find the interpretation of God's mighty acts.
But, we must even say more. The Bible is not only a record of revelation. It is
revelation itself. The Bible is the
Word of God.
In every biblical statement (which we must take always
in its context) God reveals some aspect of himself and how we have to honour
and worship him. To give an example: the Psalms are more than human confessions
of guilt and praise. They are inspired records of the work of the Holy Spirit
in the hearts and lives of men. The Bible is not only the standard of what we
have to believe to be saved. But God has revealed to us how men experience
their faith in him, too. The Bible is also the standard and rule of the
experience of faith.
In and through the Bible we meet the living God. The
revelation of God has a personal character. At the same time we must say that
the Bible is the revelation of God, about his nature, his will, and about God's
way of salvation. We can call that the propositional aspect of revelation,
that means revelation as revealed truth with an objective content; truth about
God. The personal and propositional aspects of revelation do not contradict
each other, but they presuppose each other.
To say it in other word: faith in God and in Jesus
Christ has a distinct content. Faith is not feeling or emotion without content.
To believe in Christ means trust in him, but also to know that he is God
revealed in our flesh, the eternal and only begotten Son of God, who
propitiated with his death the wrath of God against human sin.
When we deny the propositional aspect of biblical
revelation, the element of knowledge in faith is not longer thought to be
essential. All thoughts about God and Christ are seen as principally of the
same value. Their remains just one sin: to have your doubts about the sincerity
about the faith of others.
The denial of the Bible as the infallible Word of God has a universalistic tendency. Regardless of the content of their faith all men calling themselves Christians, are seen as Christians, or even further every man is seen as a child of God.
The denial of the Bible as the infallible Word of God has a universalistic tendency. Regardless of the content of their faith all men calling themselves Christians, are seen as Christians, or even further every man is seen as a child of God.
Our view on the Bible itself and on the biblical
message is interrelated. Sometimes it is said: "The way you see the
Bible is not of primary importance. The matter is: what means Christ for you?
Do you love him?" But that is a wrong approach. After the close of the
canon we can only come in contact with God in and through his Word. When we
love God, we also love the book in which he speaks to us.
In Psalm 119 we find a clear witness of the interrelationship of love to God and love to the scriptural record of his revelation. A view on the Bible, that is not in accordance with its self-witness, leads to another view on God and on the way of salvation. Faithfulness to God can never be separated from faithfulness to the book by which God speak to us and reveals himself to us.
In Psalm 119 we find a clear witness of the interrelationship of love to God and love to the scriptural record of his revelation. A view on the Bible, that is not in accordance with its self-witness, leads to another view on God and on the way of salvation. Faithfulness to God can never be separated from faithfulness to the book by which God speak to us and reveals himself to us.