Chapter 7.1

Glory & Grace

The Purpose & Nature of Divine Revelation

Overall Objective

To introduce the essential biblical issues under the immense and vital topic of how God communicates with humanity

Table of Topics

A) The Purpose & Recipients of Divine Revelation:

Glory in all Creation

B) Divine Responsibilities in Divine Revelation

B.1) Divine Initiation: vs. science

B.2) Divine Disclosure: vs. atheism & divine manipulation

B.2.a) Divine Disclosure vs. atheism

B.2.b) Divine revelation vs. divine manipulation

B.3) Divine Regeneration: vs. religion

B.4) Divine Explanation: vs. liberalism, lying & divination

B.4.a) Explaining divine deeds to avoid liberalism

B.4.b) Confirming miracle working to avoid lying

B.4.c) Confirming miracles to avoid divination

 

Table of Topics

Continued

B.5) Divine Authentication: vs. pluralism, super-supernaturalism, prophetism, & mega mysticism

B.5.a) Divine authentication always accompanies divine revelation

B.5.b) Miracles are God’s signature

B.5.c) Authenticating the Gospel against pluralism

B.5.d) Authenticating Scripture against super-supernaturalism & prophetism

B.5.e) Authenticating the divine from the demonic against charismaticism

B.5.f) Authenticating divine thoughts against mega mysticism

C) The Neglected Natures of Divine Revelation:

Certain, discontinuous, indirect, & physical

Extras & Endnotes

 

Primary Points

• Glory is the revelation of someone’s worth and power. Therefore, while we cannot enhance God’s attributes, we can increase His glory.
• Divine revelation can be defined as God’s self-initiated and divinely authenticated disclosure of His ways, works, or will to His Creation for His glory.
• The most valuable truths require divine revelation which God must initiate and provide.
• The Scriptures know of no acts or words of God intended to be divine revelation, which were not recognized by humans as such.
• Unregenerated humanity cannot properly receive divine revelation.
• We cannot interpret our circumstances as divine revelation unless we have additional unmistakable revelation indicating this, as biblical characters did.
• Nothing in Creation is “self-attesting” and humans are not capable of recognizing something as divine without evidence. Accordingly, God always provides divine authentication with any divine revelation.
• God’s authenticating signature is miracles. Therefore, God has ordained that God-like deeds are the required authentication of anyone or anything claiming God-like authority.
• The miracle of the superior supernatural virtue of uniquely Spirit-indwelled Christians proves the exclusivity of the Gospel to save humans from sin.
• The foundation of our confidence that the writings of Prophets and Apostles recorded in Scripture is divine revelation, rather than mere human invention, is that we believe these men uniquely possessed miracle working abilities. This is why you will not find a single God-sent miracle worker in Scripture who was not also a source of new extra-biblical divine revelation to be wholeheartedly trusted and obeyed.
• Contrary to the discernment of many in the Church, not everything supernatural is holy.
• Christ warned that there will be “many” self-deceived and deceiving fakes specifically among those people who especially promote prophesying, exorcisms, and miracles, all done in the name of Jesus.

Primary Points

Continued

• God always spoke through obviously miraculous and unmistakable ways in the Bible because it is sin to disbelieve or disobey a revelation from God. Accordingly, knowing God’s will was never the struggle that many make it out to be because biblical characters were never trying to discern it from the nature of subjective impulses or “trial by error” experience as many suggest.
• Against postmodernism we claim divine revelation is certain. Against charismaticism we claim its methods are discontinuous. Against mega mysticism we claim its nature is indirect. Against common theories of “inspiration” we claim the divine revelation received by Prophets and Apostles was physical.

A) The Purpose & Recipients of Divine Revelation: Glory in all of His Creation

God, our Creator, Savior, and King, wants to be known. ^[1] More than that, He wants to be renowned, because His ultimate purpose for Creation itself is His glorification. Glory is the revelation of someone’s worth and power. God is infinitely worthy and powerful. But His attributes remain hidden until they are revealed. It is only when God is “seen” by those in Heaven, Hell or on Earth, that He is glorified. Therefore, while we cannot add to God’s worth and power, we can increase His glory by being revelations of His attributes and giving all credit to Him. Which is why the history of divine revelation in the world and in our lives could simply be called “the story of God’s glory.” That is what divine revelation is.

If there is no revelation of God, there is no glorification of God. ^[2] Therefore, God’s ultimate goal is to one day unmistakably reveal Himself to all humanity. And because of Who He is, such a revelation will result in an irresistible, blinding, and knee-bending Glory!

We cannot add anything to God’s intrinsic glory, but we are His foremost opportunity to increase His glorification. And this is the ultimate reason for our existence, and the existence of everything else. God wants to be glorified.

The ultimate desire of God is not love as so many wish to think. If it was He would not have created a Hell and people whom He knew would end up there. God’s greatest motivation is glorification, and because Hell glorifies Him greatly, there is a Hell. Glorification is the ultimate reason for everything He does.

Why did God create the Universe the way He did? “The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands” (Ps 19:1). Why has, “He predestined us to be adopted as His sons”? Because it is, “to the praise of His glorious grace” (Eph 1:5-6). “The plan of Him Who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will,” is “for the praise of His glory,” and “to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:11-12, 14). God’s ultimate reason to save us by His works instead of our works is for His glory. This is precisely why God has made our salvation not “depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Rom 9:16).

Why did God harden Pharaoh? “The Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you and that My Name might be proclaimed in all the Earth’” (v. 17). God is infinitely powerful. But He wants to “display” it.

Why did God, “use the same lump of clay to make one jar [human] for decoration and another to throw garbage into” (v. 21 NLT)? Because, “God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath—prepared for destruction. . . . He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory” (vs. 22-23). And again, God is infinitely powerful, but He wants to, “make His power known.” Likewise, “the riches of His glory” are infinite, but “He did this to make the riches of His glory known.” God’s plan for humanity is all about displaying, showing, and revealing His true glory. This is why God does everything He does.

Listen to how God thinks in relation to the nation of Israel. What does He want?:

“Wherever [Israel] went among the nations they profaned My holy Name, for it was said of them, ‘These are the LORD’S people, and yet they had to leave His land.’ I had concern for My holy Name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of My holy Name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of My great Name, which has been profaned among the nations, the Name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show Myself holy. (Ezek 36:20-23)

God is passionate about what people think of Him! He hates it when His people embarrass Him. So much so that He Himself will ensure that His rightful reputation is restored. Whatever it was that God was going to do “through” the Israelites, its purpose was to “show Myself holy through you before their eyes.” Considering all the things that God could care about, here God cared the most about how He looked and was perceived by “the nations.” In fact, Scripture reveals this is ultimately what He always cares about.

Along these lines, John Piper writes at length:

What does make God happy? What is it about redemptive history that delights the heart of God? The way to answer this question is to survey what God pursues in all His works. If we could discover what one thing God pursues in everything He does, we would know what He delights in most. We would know what is uppermost in His affections.

The high points of redemptive history, which include Creation, the call of Abraham, the Exodus, the giving of the Law, the temple, the life, ministry, and death of Jesus, and the Christian life, reveal God’s ultimate goal in all He does. . . .

My conclusion is that God’s own glory is uppermost in His own affections. In everything He does, His purpose is to preserve and display that glory. To say that His own glory is uppermost in His own affections means that He puts a greater value on it than on anything else. He delights in His glory above all things. . . .

God’s ultimate goal is to preserve and display His infinite and awesome greatness and worth, that is, His glory. God has many other goals in what He does. But none of them is more ultimate than this. They are all subordinate. God’s overwhelming passion is to exalt the value of His glory. To that end, He seeks to display it, to oppose those who belittle it, and to vindicate it from all contempt. It is clearly the uppermost reality in His affections. He loves His glory infinitely. ^[3]

We realize this can all sound somewhat petty. Why does God care so much what people think of Him? Why is everything He plans or does designed to produce the most glorification as possible? Why is everything about His glory? Nobody knows. And nobody knows because Scripture does not say. Theologians such as Jonathan Edwards and John Piper have reasonably demonstrated that at least one reason God wants to be glorified is for our happiness. ^[4] But such a human-centered purpose cannot be the ultimate reason. In the end, it is clear that Scripture has a whole lot to say about God’s ultimate and passionate desire to be glorified through and before His creatures, but it says nothing about ultimately why. For His creatures, it is abundantly enough to know that He just does.

Dr. Piper goes on to admit what we have encountered ourselves:

Glory is not easy to define. It is like beauty. How would you define beauty? Some things we have to point at rather than define. But let me try.

God’s glory is the beauty of His manifold perfections. It can refer to the bright and awesome radiance that breaks forth in visible manifestations. Or it can refer to the infinite moral excellence of His character. In either case it signifies a reality of infinite greatness and worth.

C. S. Lewis helps us with his own effort to point at it:

Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the “fear” of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable mountains. ^[5]

Indeed, it is perhaps the handiwork of God in Creation that most clearly and purely gives us a sense of the glory of God, especially since we cannot see Him Himself. “The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands” (Ps 19:1).

It is important to notice that the very first thing the Bible tells us about God is that He is the Creator: “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth” (Gen 1:1). . . . According to Naves’s Topical Bible, the Scriptures list nearly 150 such statements including:

I am the LORD, Who has made all things, Who alone stretched out the Heavens, Who spread out the Earth by Myself. . . . It is I Who made the Earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the Heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. (Isa. 44:24; 45:12)

 

The sheer mass and amazing intricacy of the cosmos, reveal a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and in considerable sovereign control. It is interesting to ponder specifically the divine purpose behind the creation of the stars. There would seem to be no practical or essential reason for their existence, as there is, for example, the sun. It would seem that our solar system, and life on Earth itself, would be able to exist without the multitude of stars that peer at us from billions of miles away. So why did God put them there? It is perhaps only because of the Creator’s desire to provide humanity a clear and unavoidable communication of His “eternal power and divine nature” (Rom 1:20).

Both Creation and its subsequent preservation are nothing less than a loud, unavoidable, “in your face” communiqué from the Creator to all humanity that He is there. For the regenerated Christian, however, God’s Creation is a revelation of His glory. The breadth, beauty, and intricacies of what He has fashioned leaves us in awe of His wisdom, creativity, and power.

The Apostle John describes the universal response of a human being to an unveiled revelation of God: “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead” (Rev 1:17). This in spite of the fact that “the disciple whom Jesus loved” had calmly laid his head in God’s lap when He walked the Earth (cf. John 20:2; 13:23). Even the sinless Seraphim cover their eyes in His presence (cf. Isa 6:2-3). And the hosts of Hell? They squeal for mercy whenever they meet Him (cf. Matt 8:31). When God is truly seen for Who He is, His Creation can do nothing but kneel, and one day, “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth” (Phil 2:10 NLT). When God fully reveals Himself, no one will be left standing, neither angel (“in Heaven”), nor man (“on Earth”), nor demon (“under the Earth”). ^[6]

Indeed, seeing “all” of God is frightening. Yet, when He is pleased to reveal just His mercy, instead of all His might, it is endearing. Even more, the revelation of His mercy and grace is eternally saving. God reveals Himself to scare some, and to save others. Abimelech and “all his officials . . . were very much afraid” after God had revealed to the pagan king, “You are as good as dead” because Abraham’s wife was among his harem (Gen 20:3, 8). “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us” (Tit 3:4-5).

Whether the effect of divine revelation is fear or forgiveness, God’s purpose in it is His glorification. Accordingly, we would define divine revelation as God’s self-initiated and divinely authenticated disclosure of His ways, works, or will to His Creation for His glory.

We note in our definition of divine revelation that it is for the purpose of God’s glory and encompasses all of God’s Creation. This avoids the common error of limiting its purpose to salvation and its recipients to humans. For example, the rightly respected Reformed theologian J. I. Packer writes in the New Bible Dictionary:

[W]hen the Bible speaks of revelation, the thought intended is of God the Creator actively disclosing to men his power and glory, his nature and character, his will, ways and plans -in short, himself-in order that men may [savingly] know him. ^[7]

Likewise, Carl F. H. Henry (1913-2003), probably the foremost Evangelical authority on the topic of divine revelation in his day, defines it in the popular Evangelical Dictionary of Theology as, “God’s communication to humanity of divine truth, that is, His manifestation of Himself or of His will.” ^[8]

To the contrary, God’s revelation of Himself extends to the multitude of both holy and evil angels as well. In other words, divine revelation, and therefore, divine glorification, do not only occur on Earth, but are even now occurring in Heaven and Hell in even greater magnitude than what humans see. And God certainly isn’t revealing Himself to demons to save them, but to scare them. Even more, we demonstrate elsewhere that scaring instead of saving is precisely God’s purpose for His revelation to the non-elect. ^[9] Therefore, divine revelation is better understood as being directed to His Creation (not just humans), and for His glory (not simply salvation). Divine revelation, then, is: God’s self-initiated and divinely authenticated disclosure of His ways, works, or will to His Creation for His glory. ^[10]

Finally, we will note here that because the purpose of divine revelation is so grand, all three Persons of the Trinity are engaged in it. The King told Simon Peter after the latter’s confession of who Christ was: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in Heaven” (Matt 16:17). The King claims to be the divine revealer Himself when He explains: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Matt 11:27). Finally, the Lord reflected the dependence of the Scriptures on the revelation of the Holy Spirit when He promised its apostolic authors that, “the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:25-26).

Pastoral Practices

• If the ultimate purpose of all divine revelation is to glorify God, then we should ensure that the ultimate purpose of the messages we preach is the same. How unfortunate for God to give us the Scriptures for the purpose of glorifying Himself, and then to have that purpose fail because the preacher misuses it through popular human-centered messages, or neglects it by attractive story-telling, or even preaches to glorify himself.

We are reminded here of the Apostle’s principle: “So . . . whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). More specifically regarding preaching itself, the Apostle Peter writes: “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God . . . so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Pet 4:11).

B) Divine Responsibilities in Divine Revelation

B.1) Divine Initiation: vs. science

Regardless of whether divine revelation is the scary kind or the saving kind, it is always God who “speaks” first. If God never said, “Hello,” we would never meet Him, and God would not be glorified for us. Accordingly, our definition of divine revelation is God’s self-initiated and divinely authenticated disclosure of His ways, works, or will to His Creation for His glory.

Divine revelation is the antithesis of human discovery (i.e. science). As we have distinguished elsewhere, in divine revelation humans are passive and God is active, while in human research, humans are active and are searching for something passive. ^[11] Revelation is something God does to and for us, as we could not find Him on our own. The fact that God must initiate in disclosing Himself to us should not surprise us, as it is much the same for even relationships between humans. Accordingly Baptist theologian Bernard Ramm (1916-1992) adds:

Persons . . . are known only as they choose to be known. The beliefs, feelings, or intentions of a person are best known through conversation. . . . Only in speaking does the inner life of man become adequately known. ^[12]

Likewise, the respected “Old Princeton” theologian Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949) wrote:

In scientifically dealing with impersonal objects we ourselves take the first step; they are passive, we are active; we handle them, examine them, experiment with them. But in regard to a spiritual, personal being this is different. Only in so far as such a being chooses to open up itself can we come to know it. All spiritual life is by its very nature a hidden life, a life shut up in itself. Such a life we can know only through revelation. If this be true as between man and man, how much more must it be so as between God and man.

The principle involved has been strikingly formulated by Paul: ‘For who among men knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God’ [1 Cor. 2.11]. The inward hidden content of God’s mind can become the possession of man only through a voluntary disclosure on God’s part. God must come to us before we can go to Him. ^[13]

Dr. Packer succinctly explains why humans are incapable of finding God with merely their own resources:

The Bible assumes throughout that God must first disclose himself before men can know him. The Aristotelian idea [followed by Anselm and Aquinas] of an inactive God whom man can discover by following out an argument [of reason] is quite unbiblical.

A revelatory initiative is needed, first, because God is transcendent. He is so far from man in his mode of being that man cannot see him (Jn. 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; cf. Ex. 33:20), nor find him out searching (cf. Job. 11:7; 23:3-9), nor read his thoughts by shrewd guesswork (Is. 55:8f.). Even if Adam had not sinned, therefore, he could not have known God without revelation. In fact, we read of God speaking to unfallen Adam in Eden (Gn. 2:16).

Now, however, there is a second reason why man’s knowledge of God must depend on God’s revelatory initiative. Man is sinful. His powers of perception in the realm of divine things have been so dulled by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) and sin (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14), and his mind is so prepossessed by his own fancied ‘wisdom’, which runs contrary to the true knowledge of God (Rom. 1:21ff.; 1 Cor. 1:21), that it is beyond his natural powers to apprehend God, however presented to him. ^[14]

Elsewhere, Dr. Packer responds to the question, “Can man by his own abilities discover God?” Dr. Packer answers:

To man’s proud ‘not yet’ the Bible replies ‘not ever.’ In Scripture it is axiomatic that human thoughts about God which do not depend on revelation are worthless. ^[15]

While humanity may come to a mere conviction that a Creator exists, they will never know Who He is unless God humbles Himself to their level and supernaturally reveals Himself to them. And God is pleased to humble Himself to our level of understanding, like a father is pleased to get down on his hands and knees to talk “eye to eye” with his young child and to speak to them with all the simplicity he can muster in order to “connect” with his kid.

Apart from God initiating communication with us, we are essentially animals of mere instinct, much like an ant that scurries about to maintain its existence, but is deaf, dead, and dumb to a whole world of reality that exists around it. Unless God shows Himself to us, we are hardly different. In fact, the comparison between humans and insects will seem ridiculously generous on that Day when we will actually “see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2) and recognize just how much this God has had to humble Himself in order to have a relationship with us.

B.2) Divine Disclosure: vs. atheism & divine manipulation

God may act in many “secret” ways in His Creation, but such deeds are hidden, and not intended to be revelation. ^[16] Accordingly, divine deeds in and of themselves are not divine revelation. Revelation is communication which Webster’s defines as: “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals.” ^[17] Accordingly, our definition of divine revelation is: God’s self-initiated and divinely authenticated disclosure of His ways, works, or will to His Creation for His glory. A revelation discloses something, and if God does something rather “secretly,” it is not divine revelation. Accordingly, for any divine deed to become divine revelation, humans need to recognize it as such. And God is able to ensure humans will recognize divine revelation for His glory when He intends something to be so.

B.2.a) Divine Disclosure vs. atheism

Some may suggest the Creation has failed on this point, as particularly atheists profess to see no revelation of God in it. Along these lines, one of the more famous atheists of the twentieth century, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), wrote in his book, Why I Am Not a Christian:

God and immortality, the central dogmas of the Christian religion, find no support in science. . . . No doubt people will continue to entertain these beliefs, because they are pleasant, just as it is pleasant to think ourselves virtuous and our enemies wicked. But for my part I cannot see any ground for either. ^[18]

On the contrary, the Apostle Paul wrote:

The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the Creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–His eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking [dialogismois: “reasoning”] became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Rom 1:18-23)

Accordingly, we have written elsewhere: ^[19]

[H]umanity is guilty, justly condemned, and “without excuse” (v. 20) for not responding correctly to the message of Creation. There are several reasons why. First, the message is unmistakable, “plain” (v. 19), and “clearly seen” (v. 20). Secondly, the God-given faculty of human reason is dependable and powerful enough to understand there is a Creator by recognizing His handiwork in the supernatural order and immensity of Creation. Like deciphering 1+1+1=3, God has made the mind fully capable of observing the data of Creation, concluding there is a Creator, and further deducing enough about His character, that they would infer that they owe Him their worship. And those theological conclusions are hardly more difficult or complex than a simple mathematical conclusion. . . .

However, the ultimate reason we are “without excuse” is because all reasoning humans really do understand the message of Creation. . . . While David insists that all humanity has “heard” the message of Creation (Ps 19:1-4), the Apostle insists they have “seen” it (Rom 1:20). Creation is not simply an opportunity to see God that some will miss, and others will recognize. On the contrary, the Apostle says that if a person has seen Creation, then they have also automatically and inexcusably “clearly seen” and “understood” both God’s “eternal power and divine nature” (Rom 1:20).

Accordingly, NT scholar Douglas Moo comments:

Just what does the Apostle mean when he claims that human beings “see” and “understand” from Creation . . . that a powerful God exists? Some think that Paul is asserting only that people have around them the evidence of God’s existence and basic qualities; whether people actually perceive it or become personally conscious of it is not clear. Paul’s wording suggests more than this. He asserts that people actually come to “understand” something about God’s existence and nature. How universal is this perception? The flow of Paul’s argument makes any limitation impossible. ^[20]

Dr. Packer adds:

In all this, Paul’s point is not that of [Thomas] Aquinas [and other “Natural” theologians], that the existence of God is abstractly provable by argument from created things, but the much more fundamental point that God’s existence and law are actually known to all men, even where both are denied in theory and in practice. ^[21]

As we have written elsewhere:

It is not that Creation might reveal “the wrath of God . . . from Heaven” but it, like any other divine revelation, fulfills the purpose God has for it, and it universally, unrelentingly, and unmistakably does reveal God’s anger toward sinful humanity. The divine communiqué from Creation is that the One powerful enough to create the Universe we see, is also very angry about our wickedness. Such a scary truth is understandably repressed. How would you like to be reminded day after day by a big billboard in the sky that the Creator is really ticked off at you because of the way you are living? ^[22]

Accordingly, we demonstrate fully elsewhere that atheists, like all reasoning humanity, really do understand the divine revelation of Creation. ^[23]

B.2.b) Divine revelation vs. divine manipulation

God intended Christ to be a divine revelation, and He was to such an extent that those who denied it were guilty for not recognizing it. Accordingly, the King proclaimed concerning the world’s response to His revelation:

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. . . . If I had not done among them what no one else did [i.e. miracles], they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both Me and My Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ (John 15:22-25; cf. Ezek 2:5; John 9:41)

And again, even the world’s denial of Christ’s revelation fulfills God’s purpose in condemning them. ^[24]

God ensures that it is never His fault that humans do not recognize an event as divine revelation when He intends it to be so. Accordingly, as discussed elsewhere, we deny the implication of super-supernaturalists (who exaggerate the need for, and occurrence of miracles), that they are more able to recognize miracles than other Christians. On the contrary, if God intends a miracle to be a revelation of Himself for His glory, He will make it very easy for believers to recognize it. ^[25]

Likewise, the mega mystics who claim all kinds of extra-biblical revelations for personal guidance, also claim to provide a great deal of extra-biblical instruction on how to recognize divine acts in our life for such revelation. For example, they may give a great deal of instruction on how to tell if a certain circumstance is a message from God or a coincidence. In addition, mega mystical theology is dependent on the idea that God is habitually leading us in extrabiblical matters through some sort of divine/human mental telepathy in which He directly plants thoughts in our mind that we are to recognize as authoritative divine revelation.

However, this denies the biblical fact that, if God desires something outside of Scripture to be a revelation to us, possessing His authority, that He will make it evident. And mega mystics also need to recognize that God may do something “secret” to control a circumstance, but have no intention of revealing that act to us as a divine revelation that must be recognized. This is the important difference between divine revelation and divine manipulation through divine/human mental telepathy. As demonstrated elsewhere, the latter is only clearly demonstrated in Scripture as occurring with pagans, not God’s people. ^[26] Which should give mega mystics some pause when their entire theology essentially depends on it. Make no mistake about it, because mega mystics continually make it. When God wants to grant a divine revelation to His people it will be abundantly obvious and will not be just some extrabiblical and subjective impulse in the brain that you cannot be sure is from God. ^[27]

B.3) Divine Regeneration: vs. religion

The reason that unregenerated humans do not properly recognize and interpret divine revelation is that they are spiritually dead (cf. Eph 2:1). “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

Accordingly, in addition to humans being unable to seek and find God on their own, requiring God’s initiation, humans do not even desire to do so. The Apostle writes that the whole world is, “all under sin . . . there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away” (Rom 3:9, 11-12). As someone has said, the reason that humans do not find God is the same reason a crook never finds a police officer: they don’t want to. Along the same lines, the Apostle says, “the sinful [unregenerated ^[28]]mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Rom 8:7).

Like animals in the wild that flee at the first indication of the presence of a human, it is our natural in-born instinct to run away from God, and we will never get near Him unless He spiritually catches and tames us. Actually, Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me drags [elkusē ^[29]] him, and [then] I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

It is the domineering influence of the sinful nature operating in the unregenerate that causes them to insanely reject the “good news” contained in the Gospel. Accordingly, as we have written at length elsewhere, a supernatural regeneration of the human “heart” is necessary for humans to properly receive, understand, and process the divine revelation that is communicated through such things as Creation, Scripture, and the Gospel. ^[30] Without this regeneration, God’s revelation in such things does not glorify God because it is not received.

For example, Scripture says unregenerated humanity, “cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ” until God has “made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:4-6). And as we have noted, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God [including the Gospel], for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

The need for regeneration in saving faith is illustrated in Luke’s portrayal of the salvation of Lydia. We read:

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak [the Gospel] to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. (Acts 16:13-14)

Notice that Lydia was a religious person, “a worshiper of God” and she was “one of those listening” to the Gospel. But if “the Lord” had not “opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message” all of her religion and exposure to the Gospel would have been in vain to save her. Only God can open hearts to respond to the Gospel because it is a supernatural thing.

Because of unregenerated humanity’s inability to correctly recognize and receive divine revelation, they attempt to meet their spiritual needs through its antithesis: human religion. Bruce Demarest and Gordon Lewis, Professors of Theology at Denver Seminary, make an important point when they remark:

Christianity differs from religion, commonly understood, in that it involves God’s gracious quest for the person rather than the person’s groping search for God. ^[31]

Along the same lines, Reformed theologian R. C. Sproul comments:

[E]ven in primitive religion there is at least a vague recollection of God the Creator. According to Paul [in Rom. 1:22-3], religion is not the fruit of a zealous pursuit of God, but the result of a passionate flight from God. The glory of God is exchanged for an idol. The idol stands as a monument not to religious fervor but to humanity’s flight from an initial encounter with the glory of God. ^[32]

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) were right, then, when they said religion is the invention of humanity. But they were wrong to include biblical Christianity as a religion. This is because human religion is the result of humanity’s effort through devil-darkened reason ^[33] to hide from God, while the essence of Christianity is God’s effort through divine revelation to form a relationship with humans.

Pastoral Practices

• Remembering that supernatural regeneration from God is necessary for any divine revelation to be saving, should keep us from the common error of thinking like Charles Finney (1792-1875), known as “the Father of modern revivalism,” that we can sufficiently convince people to salvation through persuasion or oratory techniques. ^[34] Our responsibility is to sow the seed of the Word of God. It is up to God to do the miracle of regeneration necessary for people to properly repent and be converted (cf. 2 Tim 2:25).

B.4) Divine Explanation: vs. liberalism, lying, & divination

By divine explanation we mean divine revelation that is provided to confirm that an event is intended to be divine revelation, or to give us the correct interpretation of that event. These explanations today are normally provided in Scripture. The requirement to insist that Scripture guide us in determining the occurrence of divine revelation and its meaning helps us avoid many modern errors.

B.4.a) Explaining divine deeds to avoid liberalism

While atheists insist that God has not revealed Himself at all, liberal and neo-orthodox theologians claim that God has only revealed Himself in deeds, not words. Subsequently, according to such perspectives, even if they admit that there was a historical Creation, Exodus, Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, Scripture is merely the attempt by some humans to explain these things and they may be open to many interpretations.

However, the respected “Old” Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield (1851-1921) pointed out our need, and God’s provision, for a revelation of explanation to go along with God’s revelation of deeds:

It is easy to talk of revelation by deed. But how little is capable of being revealed by even the mightiest deeds, unaccompanied by the explanatory word? Two thousand years ago a child was born in Bethlehem, who throve and grew up nobly, lived a life of poverty and beneficence, was cruelly slain and rose from the dead. What is that to us? . . .

If God did not so speak of old to the fathers by the prophets, if He has not in the end of these days so spoken to us in His Son – He may indeed have intervened redemptively in the world, but to us it would be as if He had not. Only as His voice has pierced to us to declare His purpose, can we read the riddle of His operations; only as He interprets to us their significance can we learn the wonder of His ways. ^[35]

More recently, Dr. Packer has written:

[T]he claim that revelation is essentially verbal [implies] that no historical event, as such, can make God known to anyone unless God Himself discloses its meaning and place in His plan. Providential happenings may serve to remind us, more or less vividly, that God is at work (cf. Acts 14: 17), but their link, if any, with His saving purpose cannot be known until He Himself informs us of it. No event is self-interpreting at this level. The Exodus, for instance, was only one of many tribal migrations that history knows (cf. Amos 9: 7); Calvary was only one of many Roman executions. Whoever could have guessed the unique saving significance of these events, had not God Himself spoken to tell us?

All history is, in one sense, God’s deed, but none of it reveals Him except in so far as He Himself talks to us about it. God’s revelation is not through deeds without words (a dumb charade!) any more than it is through words with-out deeds; but it is through deeds which He speaks to interpret, or, putting it more biblically, through words which His deeds confirm and fulfill. The fact we must face is that if there is no verbal revelation, there is no revelation at all, not even in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. ^[36]

Therefore, not even a great divine deed is adequate for divine revelation without additional divine explanation. Accordingly, the Apostles pray to God after Christ’s resurrection:

Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, Whom You anointed. They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. (Acts 4:27-29)

How did the Apostles know that? They certainly didn’t know it on the day Christ was crucified. The most likely answer is that it was explained to them during the forty days of teaching they experienced from the resurrected Christ Himself (cf. Acts 1:3). Likewise, even God’s Prophets experienced the need for divine explanation of their own divine revelations (cf. 1 Pet 1:10-12).

B.4.b) Confirming miracle working to avoid lying

The issue of confidently distinguishing between natural and supernatural events is particularly important in our day with the rather recent rise of super-supernaturalism which overemphasizes the need, expectation, and occurrence of the miraculous. Miracles, by definition, are rare,^[37] but not for the super-supernaturalist. While no Christian can be an anti-supernaturalist, believing that no miracles occur, super-supernaturalists do not value the natural processes that God has ordained to accomplish His will.

Therefore, they are not only constantly expecting miraculous interventions from God, but claiming them, and far too often doing so when no real miracle has actually occurred. This is particularly true of the super-supernatural practice of faith healing. This movement claims miracle workers who have supernaturally healed people. Are these healings the work of God and a revelation of His power and goodness?

The divine explanation of Scripture regarding the gift of healing tells us otherwise. As discussed further elsewhere, those in Scripture who possessed this gift, healed people instantly, completely, unmistakably, and commandingly, and always without exception to authenticate themselves as messengers of new divinely authoritative revelation. ^[38] Modern “faith healers” in super-supernaturalism have none of these attributes and we are therefore justified in our counter claim that they are lying about the nature of their ministries. ^[39] Especially when there are a number of powerful forces in Nature that can just as well explain the phenomena. ^[40]

Nonetheless, the divine explanation provided in Scripture for what real miracle working empowered by God will be like, enables us to determine if God is revealing Himself through such means today.

B.4.c) Confirming miracles to avoid divination

When a hurricane hits the Louisiana coastline, is God sending a message as He did when He caused other weather anomalies in Scripture (cf. Jonah 1:4-12)? ^[41] If we are experiencing painful circumstances, is God causing them in order to discipline us (cf. Heb 12:5-13)? How many would have interpreted Job’s trials as divine discipline, just like his friends, even though by God’s own admission Job was blameless? When bad things happen to good people is it God’s doing or the devil’s? If an opportunity for a job we want becomes available in another city, is this God directing us to move there?

The vital importance of distinguishing a remarkable, but naturally occurring event from a miraculous divine revelation is obvious. Divine revelation carries divine authority and must be believed and obeyed as such, or we sin. In addition, if a natural coincidence is interpreted as a “message” from God, we will be deceived. Accordingly, God Himself takes full responsibility to ensure that His revelations are always clearly recognizable.

The only way such events can be confidently attributed to the direct intervention of God is if and when God unmistakably reveals that such events are His hand and intended to be divine revelation. Only then can a storm, difficulty, opportunity, coincidence, or circumstance be interpreted as an act of God for the purpose of divine revelation to be believed and/or obeyed. Otherwise, the causes of such things are best assumed to be their more common and natural ones (e.g. natural weather patterns, the normal struggles of being human, remarkable coincidences, etc.). ^[42]

The only way Jonah knew a storm was divinely caused, rather than allowed as a natural event, was that God told Him as a Prophet of God receiving divine revelation of such things. Only then could he confidently tell some sailors that, “I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you” (1:12). Likewise, it would have been fruitless for Job to attempt to interpret any divine revelation or intention in his difficult circumstances apart from God’s divine explanation in which Job physically heard and saw God (cf. 42:4). Along the same lines, God warned the Israelites through divinely authenticated Prophets of coming divinely orchestrated disasters, so that when they occurred, the people would know they were directly and miraculously caused by Him.

Obviously, if we have a biblical promise of divine intervention in some particular circumstance, we are in a better position to claim an event as divine revelation. For example, we are told that, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will . . . we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:14). So then, if we pray for something, and it happens, we can be more confident of divine intervention rather than mere natural coincidence. We can conclude that God’s answer to our prayer is divine revelation based on what God Himself has said about such things. ^[43] Likewise, we know from Scripture that conversion to Christ is a miraculous deed of God and therefore, when it happens, we can confidently accept this as a divine revelation of God’s mercy on the person.

God’s desires to accomplish communication in any revelation, and His provision of explanation in the event that such revelation might be missed, is a biblical rebuke to much of what is popular today in what we call mega mysticism. Mega mysticism is the belief that God is providing extra-biblical revelation for personal guidance in all sorts of biblical matters. For example, mega mystics believe God wants to reveal to the Christian what school they should attend, what Christian they should marry, and which job they should choose, etc. Obviously this kind of specific guidance is not provided in Scripture. Therefore mega mysticism claims other sources of divine revelation including “open” and “closed” doors in our circumstances. Accordingly, mega mystics are apt to interpret mere natural coincidences as divine revelation, without any divine explanation such as Scripture to prove this. There are many problems with this popular view.

First, contrary to mega mysticism, there is little, if any instruction in Scripture on how to correctly interpret our circumstances as divine revelation. ^[44] Accordingly, mega mystics are dishonest to claim they can so confidently interpret the divine intention of circumstances and instruct others on how to do so as well. The reason that there is no biblical instruction on what mega mystics think is so vital to following God is that God rarely intends our circumstances to be divine revelation of anything, and if He does have such an intention, He will explain it as illustrated by Jonah and Job. And do not miss the fact, as mega mystics do, that those divine explanations of personal circumstances involved obvious, verbal, physical, and miraculous revelations, not mere human intuition.

Secondly, and thankfully, mega mysticism exaggerates the need for us to correctly recognize and interpret divine revelations apart from Scripture. As noted above, when God wants to say something, it is never difficult to know He has said it. Contrary to mega mystics God does not whisper, hint, or make mere suggestions. When He “speaks” it is loud, clear, and commanding. This is, again, because to miss or misunderstand divine revelation in any form is to sin against God. And sin will never be His fault.

God is, of course, capable of intervening in the circumstances of our lives in order to protect and guide us, but this does not mean we will, or need to, recognize such divine deeds. In fact, we cannot confidently claim such things as divine revelation without God telling us they are, through a promise in Scripture, or another miraculous revelation of some kind.

Finally, mega mysticism is demeaning to Christianity as it reduces it to something no better than the primitive pagan religions which promote the interpretation of virtually every occurrence in life or Nature as messages from the gods. In such environments, superstition becomes divine revelation. Superstition is defined as, “a false conception of causation” and mega mystics [and super-supernaturalists for that matter] are constantly susceptible to this.

Mega mysticism’s superstitious nature unfortunately leads it into the demonic practice of divination to find divine revelation in places outside of Scripture where it does not exist. Divination includes the unholy desire to discern God’s will apart from the means He has provided, which is something mega mysticism is constantly promoting. We discuss the important topic of mega mysticism and the biblical approach to divine guidance and human decision making elsewhere in KOG. ^[45] Of course, the cure to mega mysticism is insisting that the only divine revelation we are responsible to believe and obey is Scripture, and whatever part of God’s will for us that He does not reveal in Scripture, we do not need to know, as He Himself intends to make it happen.

B.5) Divine Authentication: vs. pluralism, super-supernaturalism, prophetism, & mega mysticism

Above we have discussed the need for divine explanation in properly recognizing and interpreting an event as divine revelation. In addition, we have made the point that anything God intends to be divine revelation involves divine disclosure so that the revelation is obvious. Here we enter a related topic in divine authentication. Divine explanation was the process in which God provides divine revelation to confirm that an event is intended to be divine revelation, and this confirmation today comes in the form of Scripture. Divine authentication, however, consists of God providing a miraculous event in order to confirm a divine communication. The most common biblical example is the fact that every God-sent miracle worker described in Scripture was also a source of new divine revelation to be believed and obeyed.

B.5.a) Divine authentication always accompanies divine revelation

We have claimed above that divine revelation must be accompanied by human recognition in order to be revelation at all. This is why we define divine revelation as God’s self-initiated and divinely authenticated disclosure of His ways, works, and will to His Creation for His glory. However, while the divine gift of regeneration is critical for the human recognition of divine revelation, it is not sufficient in itself. Even regenerated people need supernatural authentication in order to correctly distinguish divine revelation from that which may come from merely humans or even demons.

Most people, in and out of the Church, simply do not value the biblical imperative for authentication of anything that would claim to be divine revelation. For example, we read:

Back in 1990, Nancy Fowler, of Conyers, Georgia, claimed that Mary [mother of Jesus] had visited her in her farm home about thirty miles east of Atlanta. “The future holds no concern to those who truly seek God and truly love him and remain in his favor,” she told the crowd. For four years she delivered the same message on the thirteenth of each month. Then she announced that Mary would appear only once a year, on October 13. The crowd has steadily increased during the years, although she said that 1998 would be the last appearance of Mary on her farm. A hundred thousand people gathered as she read to them for some thirty minutes. ^[46]

Did any of those “hundred thousand people” demand divine authentication that Nancy Fowler was, in fact, a source of divine revelation? Apparently not. Consequently all kinds of demonic deception occurred, and worst of all people spoke for God, but God did not send them. Accordingly, we have written elsewhere in KOG:

[M]ost would agree that it would be foolishness, not faith, to believe an unidentified or unauthenticated voice or vision. Accordingly, the Apostle John writes: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Likewise, the Apostle Paul tells the Galatians: “But even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach a Gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal 1:8). We see then that the source of any revelation must be identified and authenticated as divine before it can be considered worthy of biblical faith. ^[47]

Therefore, our definition of biblical faith as discussed elsewhere is: an absolutely certain commitment to a correct understanding of a divine revelation, based on divine evidence. ^[48] There is no such thing, from God’s perspective, as a “leap of faith” for Him in which we really don’t know whether or not He has spoken. An unauthenticated faith based merely on a personal whim instead of an authenticated revelation will actually lead us to disobey God.

On the importance of the authentication of divine revelation we have written elsewhere:

We would humbly suggest that nothing in all of Creation is subjectively “self-attested” without objective evidence evaluated by our private judgment. Not even God is self-authenticating without objective evidence, but rather provides an abundance of such evidence for His existence (cf. Rom 1:18-20).

Likewise, Jesus Christ Himself said, “If I testify about Myself [i.e. self-authentication without objective evidence], My testimony is not valid” (John 5:31; cf. vs. 32-37). We note as well even the Apostle Paul’s remarkable need to authenticate the Gospel he had been given by revelation (cf. Gal 1:11-12; 2:1-2). . . .

One may think of a captain in the army who receives written orders that claim to be from his general, commanding him to advance against the enemy and risk the lives of his men. No one would question the captain’s right and even responsibility to authenticate such a message, especially in a time of war when the enemy is constantly working to deceive (cf. 2 Cor 11:14). Far from showing disrespect for the authentic commands of his superior, the captain’s inquiry would actually show a great regard for that authority. ^[49]

This need for divine authentication even applies to Scripture of which Dr. Warfield wrote:

It is easy of course to say that a Christian man must take his standpoint not above the Scriptures, but in the Scriptures. He very certainly must. But surely he must first have Scriptures, authenticated to him as such, before he can take his standpoint in them. ^[50]

Accordingly, no revelation is “self-authenticating” as divine revelation. This is a particularly important point regarding Scripture because it does not come in a miraculous form, being communicated in a mere book. As thoroughly discussed elsewhere, we disagree with the rightly respected John Calvin (1509-1564) and other Reformed theologians who suggest Scripture is self-authenticating. ^[51] On the contrary, the ultimate reason we can believe that Genesis carries God-like authority is because we believe it was written by a man like Moses who performed God-like deeds. ^[52] And the ultimate reason we believe something even as supernatural as the original Creation is divine instead of demonic is because the miracle-working Moses said so.

Along these lines we can quote several theologians who have written helpfully on this important topic. John McClintock (1814-1870) and James Strong (1822–1894), in their standard nineteenth century Christian reference, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, reflect the Church’s historical view when they wrote:

Now, if we reflect for a little, we shall see that there is no obligation incumbent upon men to accept, or even examine, the claims of any and every one professing to be the bearer of a revelation from God. Before this duty arises, there must at least be something to call our attention to his claims. Mere self-assertion imposes no obligation upon others, unless it have something substantial to back it up. . . .

The office of Christ as the bearer to mankind of God’s final and complete message involves too much for us lightly to ascribe it to him. And no merely natural proof would suffice. We could not possibly believe what we believe of him had he wrought no miracles. We could not believe that he was the appointed Savior, to whom “all honor was given in heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18), for man’s redemption, if he had given no proof during the period of his manifestation on earth of being invested with extraordinary powers. . . .

For a revealed religion claims authority over us. If it be God’s voice speaking to us, we have no choice but to obey. Our reason might not approve; our hearts and wills might detest what we were told; yet if we knew that it was God’s voice, we must sadly and reluctantly submit to it. But it would be wrong in the highest degree to yield up ourselves to anything requiring such complete obedience unless we had satisfactory proof that God really was its author. And no subjective proof could be satisfactory.

The purity of the doctrines of Christianity, their agreement with the truths of natural religion, their ennobling effects upon our characters, and the way in which they enlighten the conscience — all this and more shows that there is no impossibility in Christianity being a divine revelation: the perfectness of our Lord’s character, the thoroughness with which Christ’s atonement answers to the deepest needs of the soul, the way in which Christianity rises above all religions of man’s devising — all this and more makes it probable that it is God’s gift.

But at most these considerations only prepare the mind to listen without prejudice to the direct and external proofs that Christianity is a revelation from God. The final proof must pledge God himself to its truth. But what are the divine attributes which would bear the most decisive witness? Surely those which most entirely transcend all human counterfeits — omniscience and omnipotence. Now these are pledged to Christianity by prophecy [fulfilled predictions] and miracle. . . .

In their proper place and degree . . . they were and still remain essential to the proof of a divine revelation. We could not accept a revelation, or give it the authority over our conscience due to the direct voice of God, unless we had indubitable proof that it was God’s voice. The supernatural can only be proved by the Supernatural. ^[53]

Likewise, J. Oliver Buswell (1895-1977), former President of Wheaton College wrote:

One epistemological trait is characteristic of the biblical writers throughout, that is the appeal to empirical evidence in verification of the divine authority of their message. . . . [A]part from empirical evidence, we have no such thing as revelation, no such thing as the Bible. ^[54]

The respected Christian philosopher Gordon H. Clark (1902-1985) wrote:

Other miracle traditions lack external confirmation of this [Christian] sort. Take the Book of Mormon (BOM). According to the official story, Joseph Smith found golden tablets buried in the Hill Cumorah in western New York. Unable to read the tablets, Smith allegedly used two miraculous stones set into spectacles to translate the golden tablets, thus producing the BOM. Initially, the story of miraculous translation seems far-fetched. But we must examine it carefully by looking for confirming or disconfirming evidence. Since our only documenting source for this alleged translation miracle is the say-so of Joseph Smith [i.e. self-authentication], other forms of corroborating evidence-archaeology, for instance-would help [but are unavailable]. ^[55]

William Abraham, Professor of Philosophy and Theology at SMU writes:

The fact is, revelation does not wear its authenticity on its face. We have to live in a situation where various religious traditions equally, sincerely, and confidently claim to speak definitively for God. Even within the Christian tradition the exact locus of revelation is disputed. ^[56]

Likewise, Christian apologist Alan Richardson has written:

Special [divine] revelation itself, however, clearly needs miraculous attestation, since without such attestation we have no powers in ourselves by which we might know it to be true. We are incapable of finding out for ourselves the truth which comes to us through special revelation; our spiritual, rational and moral perceptions are inadequate, to establish truth without divine attestation. ^[57]

Finally, Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland writes:

In Scripture, God does not call people to trust in him or some truth he reveals without first revealing himself to those people or providing tests for the truth he reveals (e.g., fulfilled prophecy, a public manifestation of his power, or a manifestation of his presence in New Testament times and subsequently up to the present). In this way, God provides knowledge of himself and attesting credentials for revealed truth. ^[58]

B.5.b) Miracles are God’s signature

How then does God authenticate His revelation? Simply put, the signature of God is miracles. Accordingly, we have repeated throughout Knowing Our God: God has ordained that God-like deeds are the required authentication of anyone or anything claiming God-like authority.

These God-like deeds come in two general forms: physical miracles such as healings, and spiritual miracles such as love. Supernatural power to perform a miracle authenticates a person as possessing divinely delegated authority. Supernatural virtue to be holy and loving authenticates an otherwise supernatural person as being divine instead of demonic. Accordingly, both supernatural physical power and supernatural virtue are necessary to authenticate something as divine.

God’s desire to authenticate divine revelation is clearly reflected in biblical history. When He promised Noah that He would never flood the Earth again, He also said, “I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the [supernaturally authenticating] sign of the covenant between Me and the Earth” (Gen 9:13). ^[59] Likewise, the fact that the voice of God came from a miraculously burning bush was apparently intended to confirm for Moses that it was indeed God speaking to him (cf. Exod 3:1-6; cf. 3:12). Then, of course, there is the example of Gideon in which he asked for supernatural authentication of miraculous direct divine communication and received it . . . three times (cf. Judg 6:36-40; 7:9-15), without any reproach from God whatsoever. ^[60]

The King, of course, is the best example of miraculous authentication accompanying divine revelation. No one could have confidently and correctly recognized Him as a source of new divine revelation, distinguishing Him from a mere human or false prophet, without miraculous authentication of His claims. Authentication appears to be one of the primary purposes of God raising Christ from the dead as well. The King told the Pharisees that the ultimate authentication of His authority would be His resurrection (cf. John 2:19; Matt 12:38-40). Accordingly, the Apostle Paul, in the context of an evangelistic message, says to the Athenians: “For He [God] has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man [Christ] He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him [Christ] from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

In fact, Christ was the center authentication of Scripture. He authenticated His own divine authority by performing divine deeds. He then authenticated the OT as divine revelation by quoting it as divinely authoritative and miraculously fulfilling its predictions concerning Him. In addition, this proven messenger of God promised the Apostles divine revelation (cf. John 14:26; 16:13), establishing an expectation of the divine authority of their words and writing in the NT. Accordingly, it is the miracles of Christ that are the center of the authentication of all written divine revelation, because miracles are the signature of God. ^[61]

Accordingly, Christ claimed:

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just My own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, Who is doing His work.  Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me [and that He possessed the Father’s authority]; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves (John 14:10-11; cf. 5:36).

The Apostle Peter said:

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited [“publicly endorsed” NLT] by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know (Acts 2:22).

And the early church believed:

This [authoritative revelation of the New Covenant] salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. (Heb 2:3-4)

Accordingly, we have written elsewhere:

God’s approach to authenticating His truth has always been miracles. For example, it is the miracle of Creation that provides proof that leaves humanity “without excuse” (Rom 1:20) for not believing its message of the existence and authority of a Creator. Accordingly, when the Creator came to Earth, He did not simply claim a superior spiritual knowledge, but proved it with supernatural deeds (cf. John 4:11; 20:20-21; Acts 2:22).

Likewise, Christ’s Apostles authenticated themselves as sources and messengers of superior spiritual truth with the miracles they performed (Acts 14:3; 2 Cor 12:12; Heb 2:3-4). Even in the OT, it was the miracle of plagues in Egypt (cf. Exod 7-12), the miracle of conquests in Canaan (cf. Josh 5-13, esp. 2:8-11), the miracle of fire before the prophets of Baal (2 Kgs 18:15-40), and the supernatural humbling of the king of Babylon (Dan 4), that God intended as evidence that He was the only true God. . . .

The greatest miracles occurring today are the transformation of sinners into saints, lusters into lovers, and the greedy into givers. This miracle of supernatural regeneration is the ultimate apologetic for the superiority of the Christian faith, far surpassing all other apologetic approaches combined. ^[62]

Therefore, in spite of the contemporary confusion regarding the God-ordained purpose of miracle working, Dr. Ramm writes:

An unbroken belief stretches from earliest Hebrew times to the present century that supernatural knowledge in the form of a fulfilled prophetic utterance, and supernatural power in the form of a miracle are indicia of a divinely given revelation. The Biblical appeal to this type of evidence is clear; the Church Fathers wrote extensively on the subject; and the witness of the fulfilled prophetic word and the accomplished miracle has been central in Christian apologetics in the subsequent Catholic and Protestant centuries. Few convictions in Christendom have such a sustained historical continuity. ^[63]

The various miraculous ways in which divine revelation has been authenticated will be discussed throughout this volume of KOG as we discuss different kinds of revelation. ^[64] Also, noting the quotes above, it is obvious that we have discussed divine authentication a great deal elsewhere in Knowing Our God. ^[65] Finally, this God-ordained method for the human recognition of divine revelation through divine authentication has several critical applications which are discussed in more detail elsewhere, but briefly noted in what follows.

B.5.c) Authenticating the Gospel against pluralism

First, our confidence that the Gospel itself is an exclusive divine revelation of the only way to be saved from sin, is primarily authenticated today by the supernatural and superior virtue it produces in those who truly believe it. ^[66] Even the fact of whether we are saved is authenticated in the same way. This approach that we have labeled as virtue apologetics simply claims that no humans love people and live morally as much as born again Christians who alone are indwelled with the Holy Spirit. And these supernatural virtues produced by the Spirit are the ultimate divine authentication of the exclusivity of the Gospel to save. This virtue apologetics defends the Gospel against the growing popularity of pluralism and inclusivism ^[67] which claim there are other ways that people can “go to the Father” (John 14:6).

B.5.d) Authenticating Scripture against super-supernaturalism & prophetism

The foundation of our confidence that the writings of Prophets and Apostles recorded in Scripture is divine revelation, rather than mere human invention, is that we believe these men uniquely possessed miracle working abilities. ^[68] This is why you will not find a single God-sent miracle worker in Scripture who was not also a source of new extra-biblical divine revelation to be wholeheartedly trusted and obeyed. Such miracle working abilities were always tied to men with new divine revelation for the purpose of authenticating them as such.

This denies a central tenet of super-supernaturalism ^[69] which claims that many people today have miracle working abilities similar to biblical Prophets, Apostles, and Christ Himself. Unfortunately, by not properly recognizing the uniqueness of the Bible’s miracle workers, the biblical attributes of the real gift of healing, and the primary purpose for the miraculous gifts, we fear that super-supernaturalism undermines the primary God-ordained authentication of Scripture and the spiritual authority of the men who wrote it. ^[70]

A related error is what we call prophetism. This is our word for the modern belief that prophets with the biblical gift of prophecy are operating today. This is an important question in itself and is dealt with thoroughly elsewhere. ^[71] It is a serious thing to claim to speak for God apart from Scripture. It is an amazing thing that so many in the Church allow such a thing without requiring sufficient authentication. Accordingly, the claims of modern “prophets” in prophetism to be receiving direct divine revelation is exposed as unbiblical, fraudulent, arrogant, and dangerous when these “prophets” cannot and will not authenticate themselves by supernaturally and perfectly predicting the future, which is a biblical credential of all God-sent Prophets (cf. Deut 18:20-22; Acts 11:28; 21:10-11, 27ff). ^[72]

Accordingly, the biblical purposes and attributes of the miraculous Scripture & sign gifts will be discussed in detail in Books 7-13 of KOG. In biblical times, Scripture gifts included the divine knowledge and wisdom possessed by the Apostles, and the prophecies of those possessing the gift of prophecy. In order for these messengers of divine revelation to authenticate themselves, God granted them sign gifts including miracle working, healing, prediction, and tongues. Unfortunately, the modern versions of these gifts being claimed today will be found non miraculous, unbiblical, sometimes fraudulent, and even perhaps demonic, and therefore, not worthy of the name of a Holy spiritual gift at all.

B.5.e) Authenticating the divine from the demonic against charismaticism ^[73]

While a revelation from an angel may authenticate it as supernatural rather than natural, it still must be authenticated as divine rather than demonic. This is because, contrary to the discernment of many in the Church, not everything supernatural is holy. Accordingly, the Apostle warned us, “the devil himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14) and can produce miracles and visions. ^[74]

If the devil can forge the miraculous signature of God, then how can its value remain? We argue elsewhere that the miraculous virtues of love and holiness are the ultimate divine authentication of divine revelation, and cannot and will not be duplicated by the devil. ^[75]

Against the popular misconception in the Church that anything supernatural, or done in the name of Jesus, is holy, we are repeatedly warned in Scripture of:

• False christs (cf. 2 Thess 2:9; Matt 24:5, 24; 1 John 2:18),
• False angels (cf. 2 Cor 11:14; Gal 1:8)
• False apostles (cf. 2 Cor 11:13; Rev 2:2),
• False prophets (cf. Deut 13:1-3; 18:20-22; Jer 23:11-40; 29:8-9; Matt 7:15; 24:11, 24; 1 Thess 5:21; 2 Pet 2:1; 1 John 4:1),
• False teachers (cf. Acts 20:29-31; Rom 16:17-18; Gal 1:6-8; Eph 4:14; Col 2:8, 18-19; 1 Tim 1:3; 6:3-4; 2 Tim 2:17-18; 3:13; Tit 1:9-11; 2 Pet 2:1-22; 2 John 1:7; Jude; Rev 2:14-15,20),
• Deceptive miracles and miracle workers (cf. Deut 13:1-4; Matt 7:22; Acts 8:9-12; 2 Thess 2:9; Rev 13:12-14; 16:13-14),
• Deceptive visions (cf. Deut 13:1-3; Jer 14:14; 23:16, 25-26; Zech 10:2),
• False spirits (cf. 1 Tim 4:1; 1 John 4:1, 6).

Throughout the books on divine revelation in this volume of KOG, we demonstrate the repeated deception of modern Christians by these very means that Scripture warns us of. And all because Christians do not take the need for the authentication of divine revelation seriously enough.

This is especially true of those in charismaticism which teaches false definitions of biblical Scripture gifts such as prophecy and knowledge, and dilutes the biblical attributes of sign gifts such as miracles, healing, and tongues. Because of charismaticism’s apparent craving to claim they uniquely possess these gifts, both their desire and discernment to properly authenticate claims to these gifts is woefully lacking. There would seem to be a complete disregard for Christ’s warning:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. . . . “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’ (Matt 7:15-21-23)

Elsewhere, we have written regarding this warning:

First, we notice the word “many” . . . However, this does not refer to “many” out of the whole mass of humanity that will be fakes . . . [B]y “many” Christ did not even mean many in the Church will be fakes. Rather, Christ very drastically narrowed His focus to a very unique and specific group of people in the Church who will be fakes. Here He says there will be “many” self-deceived and deceiving fakes particularly among those people who specifically claim to “prophesy,” “drive out demons,” and “perform many miracles” all while using the name of the King! It is specifically “many” of this kind of people whom Christ will expose as having false faith, and “will tell . . . plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’”

Does a focus on these ministries of prophecy, spiritual warfare, and miracles sound familiar? This would seem to be an astounding prophecy of where false faith would be the most abundant and deceptive in our own day. For at least 1600 years of Christian history there were only very few within the Church who would even claim to be Prophets and miracle workers, and most who did were considered heretics. ^[76]

However, for several years now, one of the fastest growing segments of Christendom has virtually defined itself with its promotion and prioritization of these very things. It is the very ministries that Christ warns us of here that are the basis for charismaticism’s claim to be unique and even superior to the rest of Christianity. And this is so even though the King points out that such things as prophesying, exorcisms, and miracle working, are often not synonymous with doing, “the will of My Father Who is in Heaven.” The King specifically distinguished such “ministries” from doing God’s will, and contrary to the false assumptions of charismaticism you can do all the will of the Father and not do what is vital to charismaticism.

Is it not rather chilling that the very things Christ warned us of in a sermon over two thousand years ago, so accurately and uniquely describe a large segment of Christendom today? The very kind of people that charismaticism commonly applauds, is the very kind of people the King specifically picked out as very likely to be fakes. . . .

Of course, leaders of charismaticism would want us to quickly point out that certainly this is not a condemnation of all their prophets, exorcists, and miracle workers. However, as we demonstrate elsewhere, the ministries and attributes of modern prophets and miracle workers in charismaticism do not meet the biblical qualifications for claiming such gifts from God. . . . ^[77]

That word “many” should make all of our hearts skip a beat or two. Jesus Christ the Lord, the One Who truly knows the hearts of people, warns us that “many” of those who “prophesy,” “cast out demons,” and “perform many miracles” in His Name are fakes being deceived and deceiving others with false faith. History and Scripture tells us that it is not popularity, numerical growth, or finances that tell us whether or not a movement is empowered by God. ^[78]

All of which is why we must understand the biblical principles of divine authentication, and take this biblical perspective seriously, in order to avoid all of the demonic deception the Scriptures warn us of.

B.5.f) Authenticating divine thoughts against mega mysticism

Because of our obvious inability to recognize supernatural revelation without supernatural authentication, God always accompanies divine revelation with divine authentication when He desires the revelation to be recognized as such. Accordingly, when ones like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the Apostle Paul received direct divine revelation from God, they knew for certain the source was divine because it was always divinely authenticated to them as such.

How else could Moses and the Levites know that God wanted them to “strap a sword” to their side and “Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor” which was “about three thousand of the people” (cf. Exod 32:25-29)? Likewise, without divine authentication of some kind to the Prophet Hosea, how could he know that God told him to marry “an adulterous wife” (Hos 1:2-3), something that would have been otherwise sinful? ^[79] The same is true of the divine revelation that Abraham received to murder his son (cf. Gen 22). Without some kind of divine authentication of such divine revelations, the actions of such men would rightly be considered perverted and insane, instead of obedience and faith. ^[80]

Here, we can again briefly address the claims of mega mysticism. Mega mysticism includes the belief that God is leading and guiding us on a rather continual basis on extra biblical matters through divinely inspired impressions and impulses. Typically in mega mysticism this divine revelation is said to occur rather directly through a kind of divine/human mental telepathy which plants divine thoughts directly into the human mind. M. Blaine Smith, a popular writer on the topic of divine guidance describes mega mysticism when he writes:

Inward guidance—guidance through mystical impressions . . . is an extremely popular approach to [knowing] God’s will. . . . It’s popularly assumed that intuition is in some sense the direct voice of the Holy Spirit. A strong inspiration to do something is as clear a leading of the Holy Spirit as the audible voice of God itself. When someone says “God spoke to me,” most often he or she does not mean hearing God’s audible voice but simply feeling a sense of inspiration to move in a certain direction. Many refer to this as “the still small voice,” or “inward guidance. ^[81]

The foundational reason that mega mysticism claims we need such guidance is because they believe that God’s will for us involves a number of extra-biblical things that we would not know apart from such direct divine revelation. In other words, for the mega mystic, Scripture is not sufficient to communicate all of
God’s will for us. While super-supernaturalism over-emphasizes the need, expectation, and occurrence of miraculous deeds from God, mega mysticism does the same with miraculous communication from God, and likewise ignores the need for divine authentication for their claims. Unfortunately, such mega mysticism exaggerates not only our need for such extrabiblical divine revelation, but also leaves us constantly unsure if God truly is providing it because divine authentication in such matters is not taken seriously enough.

While we discuss the many practical and biblical problems with mega mysticism elsewhere, we will briefly note here again why God always spoke through obviously miraculous and unmistakable ways in the Bible. It is because it is sin to disbelieve or disobey a revelation from God. That is why God always made sure that the people in the Bible always knew immediately and certainly that God was speaking to them. Knowing God’s will was never the struggle that mega mystics make it out to be because biblical characters were never trying to discern it from the nature of subjective impulses or “trial by error” experience as mega mystics suggest. Rather, biblical characters always knew for certain God was speaking to them because they relied on either Scripture or other miraculously authenticated, unmistakable means, not some subjective “inner voice.”

It is vitally important to distinguish our own extra-biblical thoughts from divine revelation because if we think those thoughts are actually God’s thoughts, then we will give them a weight and authority they do not deserve, leading to great error and harm. The issue of mega mysticism will be encountered throughout this section of KOG and thoroughly discussed in Book 14. Our emphasis is necessary because it is so popular and its claims have so many ramifications on the topic of divine revelation.

Finally, while we obviously disagree with the doctrines and practices of super-supernaturalism, prophetism, and mega mysticism, all of which are especially evident in charismaticism, and think that these perspectives are unbiblical and bring significant harm to God’s people, we need to remember that they represent a large number of good and godly Christians. Often in polemical writing, as any helpful theology must often be, such isms can essentially become cuss words. That is not our intention, and the mature Christian will maintain their respect for those they disagree with, while still earnestly disagreeing with them when Scripture necessitates it. In our opinion, the great number and harmful nature of contemporary misconceptions of divine revelation does unfortunately make it a necessity.

C) The Neglected Natures of Divine Revelation: Certain, discontinuous, indirect, & physical

Let us summarize then four biblical characteristics of divine revelation that are often neglected today.

First, as we have argued elsewhere, and contrary to postmodernism, divine revelation can be received and interpreted with certainty. ^[82] God has designed both divine revelation and Spirit-liberated reason to ensure this so that the former accomplishes His purpose for it. Otherwise, His commands and doctrines would not be clear and we would sin against Him and worship a false God.

Secondly, contrary to charismaticism, God’s methods of divine revelation are discontinuous. Jesus has come in the flesh, and is now gone, discontinuing this amazing method of divine revelation. Likewise, it is a mistake to assume that God intended all methods of divine revelation recorded in Scripture to be operating today as well. ^[83] The proof-text that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8) isn’t even literally true, and has nothing to do with what modes of revelation He may choose to use. Goodness, even divine covenants are discontinuous.

Thirdly, against mega mysticism, God’s current methods of divine revelation are rather indirect. Of course we would like to see, hear, and touch Jesus, but we have no correctly interpreted biblical promises of this occurring. As with so much of the false teaching in the Church, it readily corresponds with what we would like to be true. But we now live in the Age of Faith when our primary revelation of God is in a book. Obviously, this is not as personal as we would like, which is one reason we look so forward to God coming to Earth. But we should not allow our craving for a more miraculous and direct revelation deceive us into assuming God speaks to us apart from that Book, and as a result eventually devalue the written revelation we do have in that Book. “Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Cor 4:6) was evidently a popular “saying” in the early Church, and it needs to be again.

Finally, as if we were not controversial enough, we claim against the common theories of “inspiration” that divine revelation to Prophets and Apostles was physical. They did see God with their eyes and hear Him with their ears. Contrary to the traditional explanation of how Scripture was “inspired” (a word never used in a properly translated text of Scripture), the writers of Scripture did not receive their divine revelation through some sort of human/divine mental telepathy such that thoughts were planted in their mind such that they could not know whether their thoughts were God’s or their own. No, God appeared to them, whether in the form of a vision, Angel, or God the Son Himself. ^[84]

 

Extras & Endnotes

A Devotion to Dad

Thank you Father for your humility and graciousness to reveal Yourself to us. Our knowledge of You is by far the most precious knowledge we have and we greatly value every bit of it. We are thankful that your revelation to us has been the saving kind instead of the scaring kind. We confess our desire to know you with our physical senses, but recognize the value of living by faith as well. Therefore, we will be content with the normal and wonderful means of revelation You have implemented and be careful not to be overly expectant or dependent on the miraculous. Help us to do the hard work of researching your Scriptures so that we might understand You better, worship You more accurately, and serve You more devotedly.

Gauging Your Grasp

1. What is the ultimate reason that God reveals Himself at all?
2. How do we define glory? Why do we claim that we can increase God’s glory? Do you agree or disagree?
3. How have we defined divine revelation?
4. Why is there a need for God to initiate revelation to us?
5. Why is there a need for us to be regenerated to properly receive divine revelation?
6. Why is there a need for divine revelation to be supernaturally authenticated? How does this apply to contemporary debates in Christianity?
7. Why does divine revelation in the form of deeds or events require explanation?
8. Is there biblical precedent for the idea that God may desire to reveal Himself but humans do not perceive it?
9. Why do we claim that unregenerated humanity cannot properly receive divine revelation? Do you agree or disagree and why?
10. We claim that nothing in Creation is “self-attesting.” Do you agree or disagree and why?
11. How does God authenticate revelation?
12. How do we claim that the Gospel is authenticated? Do you agree or disagree and why?
13. What do we claim is the foundation of our confidence that the writings of Prophets and Apostles recorded in Scripture is divine revelation, rather than mere human invention? Do you agree or disagree and why?
14. What do we mean by the claim that not everything supernatural is holy?
15. We claim that God always spoke through obviously miraculous and unmistakable ways in the Bible. Do you agree or disagree and why? Why do we claim God communicated in this way? What then is the error that we see in popular teaching about divine guidance?

Recommended Reading

• The rest of Book 7: Divine Revelation
• Gary Friesen and J. Maxon, Decision Making and the Will of God (Multnomah, 1980). Very good book on the nature of God’s will and His guidance. A rare but very biblical perspective for our day.
• B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (Banner of Truth Trust, 1972), 26. A classic historical study on miraculous revelation.
• Alexander Mackie, The Gift of Tongues: A Study in the Pathological Aspects of Christianity (Doran, 1921). Very good historical information about miraculous manifestations in Christian cults.

Publications & Particulars

1. Of course, even the most direct divine revelation is limited in its ability to convey knowledge of God. This is actually true of any revelation of another person (cf. Prov 14:10; 1 Cor 2:11). Only God has the ability to fully know another without being them (cf. Prov 20:27). Accordingly, ancient Greek Orthodox theologians in particular spoke of divine revelation as the rays of the sun, but not the sun itself. ↑

2. Of course, God can and does possess glory all by Himself, but glorification is the communication and recognition of glory, for which others are needed, even if those others would be the members of the Trinity itself. ↑

3. John Piper, Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, Kindle Edition (Random House, 2011), 41-43). ↑

4. See for example, God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (Crossway, 2006).

   ↑

5. Ibid., 42. ↑

6. P. T. O’Brien in the well regarded New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC) supports our view that Phil 2:10 is referring to all “rational beings” in the Universe (Eerdmans, 1991, 244-45). It is possible that those “under the earth” refer to dead humans, and if so, then we would suggest those “in Heaven” include demons, in order that the universality of the statement be preserved as the Apostle intended. ↑

7. Ibid. ↑

8. Carl F. H. Henry, “Revelation,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (EDT) Walter Elwell ed. (Baker, 1984), 946. ↑

9. For further discussion regarding condemning revelation for God’s eternal enemies see section 7.5.A. ↑

10. Our definition reflects the essential meaning of “revelation” (apokalyptō; Latin: revelo) in Scripture of which J. I. Packer, the renowned Anglican theologian, writes:

    The revelation vocabulary in both Testaments is a wide one, covering the ideas of making obscure things clear, bringing hidden things to light, showing signs, speaking words and causing the persons addressed to see, hear, perceive, understand and know. None of the OT words is a specifically theological term-each one has its profane usage-but in the NT apokalyptō and apokalypsis are used only in theological contexts, and the ordinary profane use of them does not appear, even where one might have expected it (cf. 2 Cor. 3:13ff.); which suggests that for the NT writers both terms possessed quasi-technical status. J. I. Packer, “Revelation” New Bible Dictionary (NBD), J. I. Packer, et al. eds., 3rd ed., (Inter-Varsity, 1996), 1014. ↑

11. For further discussion regarding the relationship between divine revelation and human research see section 2.3.C.1 and chapter 2.5. ↑

12. Bernard Ramm, Personal Revelation and the Word of God (Eerdmans, 1961), 25. ↑

13. Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Eerdmans, 1948), 3-4. ↑

14. J. I. Packer, “Revelation” in New Bible Dictionary, Packer, J. I., et al eds., (Intervarsity, 1996), 1015. ↑

15. J. I. Packer, God Speaks to Man: Revelation and the Bible (Westminster Press, 1965), 36. ↑

16. God’s “secret” acts can be defined as divine manipulation and is discussed further in chapter 7.16. ↑

17. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communication ↑

18. Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian (Simon and Schuster, 1957), 50-51. ↑

19. Excerpt from section 4.13.A.2 ↑

20. Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, (Eerdmans, 1996), 105. ↑

21. J. I. Packer, God Speaks to Man (Westminster, 1965), 37. ↑

22. Quoted from section 4.13.A.3. ↑

23. For the biblical teaching that even atheists really do understand the message of Creation see section 4.13.A.2. ↑

24. Regarding condemning revelation from Christ see section 7.5.A.3. ↑

25. Regarding the rather easy recognition of real miracles see section 10.3.D.2-3. ↑

26. Regarding divine manipulation through divine/human mental telepathy which so much of mega mystical theology depends on, see chapter 7.16. ↑

27. For further on mega mysticism see Book 14. ↑

28. For arguments against interpreting Romans 8:7 as including sinful believers see section 4.14.B.3 ↑

29. The NIV translation of God “drawing” someone to Christ means much more than inviting or coaxing. The word is elkusē which the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (BAGD) defines as: “To move an object . . . with implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or in the case of persons is unwilling to do so voluntarily.” Accordingly, see its use in John 21:6, 11; Acts 16:19; 21:30; and James 2:6. The insertion of “drag by God’s power” is warranted in this text, and the context is salvation. ↑

30. Regarding the necessity of regeneration for properly processing divine revelation see chapters 4.12-16. ↑

31. Bruce Demarest and Gordon R. Lewis, Integrative Theology (Zondervan, 1987), I:61. ↑

32. R. C. Sproul, John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsey, Classical Apologetics (Academie Books, 1984), 54-5. ↑

33. Devil-darkened reason is our term for the handicapped mental faculties of unregenerated humanity. For further discussion see chapter 4.12. ↑

34. For further discussion of Finney’s theology regarding salvation see 6.2.C.2 ↑

35. B. B. Warfield, “Christian Supernaturalism” in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, reprint, 10 Vols. (Baker, 2000), IX:41-43. Michael Horton seems to be at odds with Warfield when he writes:

    [T]he most important and interesting things the Bible says concern historical events rather than eternal truths. If we know God only according to his works, not in his essence, then the history of God’s action—revealed and interpreted in Scripture — is our only access. (The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way [Zondervan, 2010], Kindle Locations 1149-1151). ↑

36. Packer, God Speaks, 51-2. ↑

37. Regarding the rarity of miracles see section 10.2.B. ↑

38. For further discussion of the attributes of the gift of healing see chapter 11.1 ↑

39. For further discussion of the fraud in modern “faith healing” see section 11.7.B.9 and chapter 11.8. ↑

40. Regarding the power of “mind cure” see chapter 11.9. ↑

41. For further discussion on discerning the natural or divine nature of dangerous weather anomalies see section 10.3.D.6. ↑

42. Such regular events in Creation can be referred to as divine Providence through which God maintains life and order on earth. However, we would distinguish between Providence and miracles, as the former does not, from our perspective, involve divine intervention, but is accomplished through the normal processes of Nature that God has established. ↑

43. For further discussion on the relationship between prayer and miracles see section 10.3.C.2. ↑

44. The emphasis placed on the need and ability to properly interpret circumstances to obtain divine direction would be one critique we would have with Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God materials. For others relevant chapters of Book 14. ↑

45. Regarding biblical decision making see chapter 7.15. On mega mysticism see Book 14. ↑

46. Lutzer, Judge, 208. ↑

47. Excerpt from section 6.13.E. ↑

48. Regarding the definition of biblical faith see section 6.1.D. ↑

49. Excerpt from section 3.1.C.1. ↑

50. B. B. Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 2 vols. (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1980), 2:98. ↑

51. For further discussion on the erroneous claim that Scripture is self-authenticating, see chapter 3.4. ↑

52. For further discussion on the divine authentication of Scripture see sections 3.1.C-D; 9.8. Concerning the historical evidence for the biblical canon see forthcoming Book 15. ↑

53. John McClintock and James Strong, “Miracles,” in the Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, CD-ROM (Ages Software, 2000), VI:43. This excerpt covers some essentials regarding the divine authentication of divine revelation which we also cover in more detail elsewhere. These include the need for such divine authentication, the supernatural means, and their need to be objective (cf. sections 3.1.C-D; 6.12-14). ↑

54. J. Oliver Buswell, A Christian View of Being and Knowing: An Introduction to Philosophy (Zondervan, 1960), 170. ↑

55. Gordon H. Clark, Religion, Reason, and Revelation (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1961), 212. ↑

56. William Abraham, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (Prentice-Hall, 1985), 83. ↑

57. Alan Richardson, Christian Apologetics (Harper, 1948), 167. ↑

58. J. P. Moreland and Klaus Issler, In Search of a Confident Faith (Intervarsity, 2008), 18-19. ↑

59. Although since the flood, rainbows are obviously a natural phenomena, this first one would seem to have been directly caused by God at that particular time and place. ↑

60. For a defense of Gideon’s requests for authentication of divine revelation see section 6.13.E. ↑

61. For a fuller discussion of the need for miraculous authentication of divine revelation see chapter 3.1. ↑

62. Excerpt from section 5.1.A. ↑

63. Bernard Ramm in Revelation and the Bible: Contemporary Evangelical Thought, Carl F. H. Henry, ed. (Baker, 1958), 253. ↑

64. For further discussion on the authentication of different kinds of divine revelation see especially pertinent sections of chapters 10.4-5. ↑

65. Regarding divine authentication of divine revelation see chapter 3.1. ↑

66. For further discussion of the supernatural authentication of the Christian’s exclusive claim to salvation see Book 5: Biblical Apologetics. ↑

67. For further discussion of pluralism and inclusivism see section 6.10.A-B. ↑

68. For further discussion of the divine authentication of Apostles and Prophets, and therefore, Scripture, see an introduction to this topic in section 3.1.D. ↑

69. Super-supernaturalism is the unbiblical over-expectation and over-valuing of physical miracles and is obviously foremost in charismaticism. See chapters 10.13-16. ↑

70. For further discussion of charismaticism’s undermining of Scripture’s authority by claiming miracle working abilities see section 11.3.B. ↑

71. See the introductory discussion on prophetism in chapters 9.1-3. ↑

72. We do not wish to suggest that the ability to predict the future is the only miraculous authentication involved in distinguishing true prophets from false ones. Christ, for example, mentions supernatural virtue (cf. Matt 7:15-23), the lack of which would eventually expose any demonically empowered miracle worker or prophet. Nevertheless, the inability for modern prophets who claim to speak for God to accurately predict the future is a first hurdle to acceptance that they cannot get over. For further discussion see section 9.11.F.3. ↑

73. By modern charismaticism we are primarily referring to what is commonly labeled the “charismatic” movement that began with the Pentecostals in the early 1900’s, spread into denominational churches in the 1960’s and 70’s, and has merged with what is referred to as the Third Wave churches today. Pentecostal churches include Assembly of God, Church of God, Open Bible, Apostolic, Foursquare Gospel, and Full Gospel. Third Wave churches include Vineyard and a variety of independent congregations.

    We thank God for all He has done through the “charismatic” movement, and for the dear Christian brothers and sisters who would claim membership in it. However, throughout Knowing Our God (KOG) we refrain from referring to this movement as “charismatic,” because this erroneously implies a uniqueness and even superiority in Christian grace (charis), and by further implication, a superior possession or experience of the Holy Spirit.

    Surely no right-minded “charismatic” would desire to claim such a superiority over their Christian brothers and sisters, especially since they cannot demonstrate one. Biblically speaking, being “led by the Spirit,” experiencing His power, and living “not under law” but by “grace [charis]” is most clearly manifested in the “fruit of the Spirit” which the Apostle Paul describes as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:4, 18, 22-3). “Charismatic” Christians in general are not superior in these virtues of love and holiness compared to other Christians, and these virtues are the real essence of Christian charisma, making all obedient Christians true “charismatics,” not just a particular sect.

    In fact, the greatest and most important uniqueness of charismatic churches over other authentic Christian churches is not their love or holiness, but rather an emphasis on, and practice of: 1) emotional worship, 2) speaking and/or praying in an incoherent tongue, 3) claims to direct divine revelation through spiritual gifts such as prophecy, and 4) claims to a greater abundance of miracles in general through the gifts of healing and miracle working.

    Therefore, throughout KOG we use the terms emotionalism (see chapters 4.8-11), glossaism (Gr. glossa: “tongue,” see Book 12: The Truth About Tongues), prophetism (see Book 9: God’s Prophets), and super-supernaturalism (see chapters 10.14-16) to refer to these distinctives respectively, while recognizing that they may exist elsewhere as well. Accordingly, we believe this allows us to address the areas of concern we have regarding the movement, and avoid speaking critically of the movement as a whole, which has many good, although not unique, attributes as well.

    Likewise, we refrain from referring to those Christians who would differ from “charismatics” as “non-charismatics,” erroneously implying again that the latter is somehow lacking in grace. Rather, those who oppose the sometimes bizarre worship of emotionalism, the obscure utterances of glossaism, the extra-biblical revelations of prophetism, and the miracle-a-minute mindset of super-supernaturalism are better labeled as historicists. This reflects the fact that for at least 1600 years of Church history, the great majority belief and practice of God’s people was opposed to all of the uniquenesses that the “charismatic” movement claims today.

    It is a historical fact that miraculous gifts such as healing, tongues, and prophecy ceased functioning in the church in the fourth century when the NT canon had been completed, recognized and sufficiently distributed. Accordingly, the very few people since then who have promoted bizarre forms of worship, obscure utterances in prayer, claims to extra-biblical revelation, and miracle working abilities, were always thought to be deceived and dangerous, and not accepted as biblical Christians. What those in charismaticism also refuse to admit, or take seriously enough, is that the modern versions of the miraculous gifts being claimed do not match the attributes of their biblical counterparts. For a great deal of discussion on these matters see the books in Volume 2 of KOG. ↑

74. For further discussion of Satan’s ability to perform the miraculous see section 10.6.A and chapters 11.11-13. ↑

75. For further discussion regarding the distinction between demonic and divine miracles see chapter 11.13. ↑

76. For further documentation of the historical condemnation of claims to miracle working and prophecy see chapters 11.7-8 and 9.13. ↑

77. For an introduction on the biblical qualifications for Prophets see section 9.1.B. ↑

78. Excerpt from section 6.6.E. ↑

79. For further discussion of how God authenticated Himself to the Prophets and Apostles He spoke to see section 10.7.D. ↑

80. For further discussion on the need for divine authentication of divine revelation see sections 3.1.C-D and 6.13.E. ↑

81. M. Blaine Smith, Knowing God’s Will: Finding Guidance for Personal Decisions (InterVarsity, 1991), 132, 165-6. ↑

82. For further discussion of absolute certainty in the Christian life see section 2.6.A ↑

83. This discontinuation of methods of divine revelation is further discussed section 10.7.D. ↑

84. The physical nature of such divine revelation is further discussed in section 10.7.D; and chapters 8.3 and 9.5. ↑