God’s Revelation: 5 God’s Message to Enemies & Elect

Table of Contents

1 Glory & Grace
2 From Universal to Personal
3 From Faith to Sight
4 The Fingerprints & Face of God
5 God’s Message to Enemies & Elect
6 Guiding Revelation for Friendship
7 The Divinity of Scripture
8 The Supremacy of Scripture
9 The Sufficiency & Relevancy of Scripture
10 The Limitations of Scripture
11 God Around Us
12 God in Us
13 God Through Us
14 God Through Others
15 God’s Will & Human Decision Making
16 Divine Revelation vs. Divine Manipulation
Appendix A Detailed Contents

Chapter 7.5

God’s Message to Enemies & Elect

The Targets of Personal Revelation

Table of Topics

A) Condemning Revelation for God’s Enemies: Sometimes God speaks to scare, not to save

A.1) The Neglect of Condemning Revelation in Christian Theology

A.2) Condemning Revelation in the OT

A.3) Condemning Revelation in the NT

A.4) The Divine Authentication of Condemning Revelation

B) Covenant Revelation for God’s Elect

B.1) The Nature of Covenant Revelation

B.2) The Ultimate Expression of all Covenant Revelation: Love

C) Saving Revelation that Saves

C.1) The Nature & Method of Saving Revelation: Personal revelation becomes saving revelation through regeneration

C.2) The Expanding Scope of Saving Revelation: From one nation to all nations

C.3) The Fore-ordained Result of Saving Revelation: Many are invited but few are chosen

C.4) The Divine Authentication of Saving Revelation: Supernatural virtue

Extras & Endnotes

Table 7.5: The Types & Purposes of Particular Revelation

Figure 7.5: The Expanding Scope of Saving Revelation

 

Primary Points
  • Unlike universal revelation, personal revelation is only given to relatively few.
  • God’s revelation always accomplishes what He sends it for.
  • Sometimes personal revelation is condemning revelation for His enemies.
  • Sometimes personal revelation is covenant revelation for His elect in order to implement and maintain a relationship.
  • To accomplish its purpose, covenant revelation involves saving revelation to bring God’s elect into the covenant, guiding revelation to maintain it, and authenticating revelation to confirm it.
  • The ultimate expression of all categories of covenant revelation is love.
  • Throughout history there has been an expanding scope of saving revelation.
  • The differences in how people respond to God’s saving revelation are explained by whether or not the recipients are God’s elect or enemies.
  • Saving revelation is authenticated by the supernatural virtue it produces.

 

In contrast to universal revelation that is provided to all humanity, personal revelation from God is only given to relatively few people. [1] For example, while everyone on earth sees the Creation, only a few have seen the Christ. Christ’s presence on the Earth was certainly a revelation of God, but it was only to particular people, not all. [2]

Because of the myriad of different methods God has used to specially reveal Himself, it is helpful to first gain an understanding of the two different targets for this category of divine revelation. These are: condemning revelation for the eternal enemies of God and covenant revelation for the elect of God. Within covenant revelation, the Scriptures reveal four kinds of revelation in order to implement a divine/human covenant: saving, doctrinal, directional, and authenticating revelation (See Table 7.5 below under Extras & Endnotes for a distinction between these). These categories enable us to have a significantly broader and deeper understanding of divine revelation.

A) Condemning Revelation for God’s Eternal Enemies: Sometimes God speaks to scare, not to save

A.1) The Neglect of Condemning Revelation in Christian Theology

Throughout the history of humanity, God has at times provided a personal revelation of Himself to His eternal enemies designed to warn, rebuke, or condemn them, not to save them. [3] Here, we would point out a biblical difference between personal revelation that only a few receive, and saving revelation that saves. This is because a great deal of personal revelation in Scripture was intended by God to be condemning, not saving. This is an important point, as it would often seem to be missed in most theological discussions of divine revelation.

For example, the rightly respected J. I. Packer writes in the context of personal revelation: “God’s purpose in revelation is to make friends with us.” [4] Likewise, the great Evangelical theologian and renowned authority on divine revelation, Carl F. H. Henry (1913-2003) wrote in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, “Special revelation is redemptive revelation.” [5] Along the same lines, the well known Protestant theologian Bernard Ramm writes in the well regarded International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “The intention of special revelation is to heal and restore; therefore, its content must be redemptive.” [6]

Likewise, Bruce Demarest and Gordon Lewis, Professors at Denver Seminary write: “The comprehensive purpose of special revelation is the reestablishment of the full communion of sinful people with God.” [7] The popular Baptist theologian Millard Erickson as well writes: “By special revelation we mean God’s manifestation of himself to particular persons at definite times and places, enabling those persons to enter into a redemptive relationship with him.” [8]

Finally, the Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof agreeably quotes the great B. B. Warfield as stating:

The one [universal revelation] is addressed generally to all intelligent creatures, and is therefore accessible to all men; the other [personal revelation] is addressed [only, apparently] to a special class of sinners, to whom God would make known His salvation . . . to rescue broken and deformed sinners from their sin and its consequences. [9]

Unfortunately, such statements support an important, and we would suggest harmful position of neoorthodox theology. Karl Barth (1886-1968), for example, believed that all divine, “revelation is redemptive in nature,” [10] therefore denying any natural revelation from Creation which he admitted did not contain saving revelation. Likewise, John Baillie, a well known neoorthodox theologian wrote:

Only that which rescues us from our predicament, only that which lifts us out of the forlorn condition in which we have hitherto stood, makes upon us the impression of being something utterly new, that is, a genuine [divine] revelation. [11]

Such would be the view of liberal theologians such as Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), and Paul Tillich (1886-1965).

However, such a view would not seem biblical. Not only is it clearly not true of the future universal revelation of Jesus Christ in His Second Coming, but it is not true of many past personal revelations of God either. Confining personal revelation to saving revelation serves to leave the condemning kind of personal revelation out of theological discussions completely, ignoring an important concept in Scripture. And none of the authors above suggest other categories for the damning type of personal revelation demonstrated below.

A.2) Condemning Revelation in the OT: God expresses His wrath every day

King David wrote: “God is a righteous judge, a God Who expresses His wrath every day” (Ps 7:11). [12] One of the clearest examples of personal revelation designed to condemn instead of save involves the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt (cf. Exod chs. 6-14). Through the various plagues, not to mention the opening and closing of the Red Sea, God specially and personally revealed Himself to the Egyptians in a way that He did not to any other nation at the time. Therefore, these revelations were personal, not universal. [13] And the purpose of this personal revelation was not to save them, but to rebuke them and their gods. Accordingly, God told Pharaoh: “I will send the full force of My plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth” (Exod 9:14; cp. 7:5).

In spite of the fact that Pharaoh and the people of Egypt received this unique revelation of God, it only resulted in fear (cf. Exod 10:7) and hardness of heart (cf. Exod 9:34), not saving repentance. According to the Bible, ultimately, not a single Egyptian responded differently. Any argument that even one Egyptian was saved at the time of the Exodus is an argument from silence, not Scripture. This strongly suggests that the differences in how people respond to divine revelation cannot be explained by factors that originate within individual humans, as one would think that at least one of the Egyptians would have repented and even converted to Judaism in order to escape the wrath of God.

The Apostle Paul’s commentary on the revelation of God to the Egyptians supports our suggestion that this revelation was not intended to be redemptive. He writes:

It [God’s choice of who receives His mercy [14]] does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For 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.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. (Rom 9:16-18)

In the Apostle’s view, the personal revelation that Pharaoh received was not intended to save him, but to “harden” him. In fact, God knew exactly how Pharaoh was going to respond to this revelation of Himself, and He provided it anyway because of His purpose for it.

Another indication that God did not intend for these personal revelations to be redemptive is that there was no saving content in them. It was only to His elect people that He revealed the saving instruction to put lamb’s blood on their doorposts (cf. Exod 12:1-30). God didn’t tell any Egyptians how to avoid the Angel of Death, because He did not intend to save them, but rather to glorify Himself by punishing them.

As will be demonstrated throughout our discussion, the differences in humanity’s response to divine revelation are best explained in terms of the will of the divine Sender, not the human receiver. God’s revelation always accomplishes precisely what He sends it for (cf. Isa 55:10-11). [15] The plagues of Egypt were not to save the Egyptians, but rather, this personal revelation was to scare them.

Thus Moses sings after the closing of the Red Sea:

Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You– majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? . . . The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia. The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away; terror and dread will fall upon them. By the power of Your arm they will be as still as a stone [and scared, not saved]. (Exod 15: 11, 14-18)

There are additional OT examples of personal revelation from God intended to condemn people. One thinks of the Pharaoh’s cupbearer in Joseph’s day, who received a dream from God which Joseph interpreted as communicating, “Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat away your flesh” (Gen 40:19). Other OT examples of such revelation include: a divine dream given to the Midianites whom Gideon was attacking (cf. Judg 7:13-14); Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams (cf. Dan 4:2), Belshazzar’s message on the wall (cf. Dan 5:1-31), and of course, the unrepentant recipients of preaching from God through the OT prophets (cf. Isa 65:2ff). All such personal revelations from God were for the purpose of condemning, not saving.

For example, we read in Ezekiel:

The word of the LORD came to me:  21“Son of man, set your face against Sidon; prophesy against her  22and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “‘I am against you, O Sidon, and I will gain glory within you. They will know that I am the LORD, when I inflict punishment on her and show Myself holy within her. 23  I will send a plague upon her and make blood flow in her streets. The slain will fall within her, with the sword against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD. (Ezek 28:20-23)

While these sinners would certainly “know that” God is “the Lord,” they would not know Him in a saving way. So much for the unqualified claim of theologians above that personal revelation from God is always friendly, redemptive, healing, and uplifting. However, as we have written elsewhere, it is always God-glorifying. [16]

We recognize that particularly some of the revelation in the OT prophets may qualify for condemning revelation to God’s elect, not just His eternal enemies. Two responses can be made. First, as the Apostle explains, not all those born into the nation of Israel were God’s elect (cf. Rom 9:6-8). Therefore, often times the OT prophets were indeed delivering condemning revelation to God’s eternal enemies even as they prophesied to the nation of Israel. Secondly, one will notice in the prophets that in the midst of warnings of punishment toward God’s elect people, there was often a promise of future forgiveness and blessing as well.

A.3) Condemning Revelation in the NT

As we move into the NT, we also see examples of what we would deem condemning revelation. [17] For example, and as discussed thoroughly elsewhere in Knowing Our God (KOG), the unique supernatural virtue of Christians is a divine revelation of God’s power. [18] And while it is often intended to authenticate the Gospel, Christian virtue at times becomes a condemning revelation. Accordingly, the apostle Paul tells the Philippians not to be “frightened in any way by those who oppose you. [Because] This is a sign [condemning revelation] to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God” (1:28; cf. 1 Pet 3:14-15; 4:14-15). The Philippians’ supernatural courage in their difficult circumstances would act as a divine revelation to unbelievers of their coming judgment.

Likewise, what kind of personal revelation have the “demons” received such that they “believe that there is one God,” but “shudder” (Jas 2:19)? Has God revealed this to them to save them or condemn them?

The greatest example of condemning revelation in the NT is the King Himself. In the first coming of Christ, we encounter several examples of personal revelation that was intended by God to bring greater judgment on people, not save them. [19] Much of the revelation of God that came through Christ was of the damning type, rather than the saving type.

For example, we think of His memorable condemnations of the Pharisees which include:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. . . .

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth.” (Matt 23:13-15, 33-35)

Accordingly, Simeon prophesied concerning Christ: “This child is destined to cause the falling [and subsequent condemnation] and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed” (Luke 2:34-5).

Accordingly, the King told His disciples:

If I had not come and spoken to them [people of the “world” cf. v. 18-19], they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, 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. Matt 11:20-27; John 12:37-41)

Christ makes it clear that the personal revelation of Himself to “the world” was meant to make them “guilty of sin,” just like the purpose of the universal revelation in Creation. In fact, the condemning result of this revelation was intended by God to “fulfill” an OT prophecy. For such people, God had no other intention for this revelation, because they did not get saved from it and God knew they would not. This parallels the purpose of God’s miracles in Egypt as discussed above.

Not only was some of the revelation of Christ the condemning kind, but so is some of the continuing revelation of the Holy Spirit. The King said:

When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11)

When people receive such convicting revelation from the Holy Spirit, and do not respond to it in a saving way, God has foreknown that fact and it fulfills His purpose as a condemning revelation.

All of this would seem to argue against the popular thinking that is reflected in the following by Norm Geisler in his Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics when he writes: “One result, though not the purpose, of miracles is condemnation of the unbeliever (cf. John 12:31, 37).” [20] Such a statement implies that God never intends personal revelation to be condemning. On the contrary, God’s miracles to both Pharaoh and Pharisees accomplished precisely what He knew, and therefore, desired they would: greater condemnation.

God’s personal revelation always accomplishes precisely what He sent it for as He promised through the prophet Isaiah:

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word [or any divine revelation] that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isa 55:9-11)

Therefore we do not accept the popular notion that there is well-intended revelation from God that merely results in condemnation. Rather, the purpose for which God sends a revelation will be precisely what is accomplished. This is particularly true because God knows perfectly how people are going to respond to any given revelation before He provides it. He knows people’s hearts and eternal destiny and it is their hearts that dictate their response, and if their heart is bad, He knows divine revelation will result in their greater condemnation. [21] Ironically, then, even the Gospel, a divine revelation with saving content, is usually a condemning revelation because of the hearts of those who hear it, and a God Who wants them to hear it anyway.

Accordingly, Luke describes the result of personal revelation for those who do not respect it:

That servant who knows his master’s will [and has received abundant personal revelation] and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know [and maybe has not received any personal revelation] and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much [personal revelation], much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:46-48)

The context here is the provision of personal revelation to unbelievers, and here the Bible indicates that those who have received more from God will be judged more severely.

Along these lines, John Calvin (1509–1564) commented on Isaiah 55:11: “As the Word is efficacious for the salvation of believers, so it is abundantly efficacious for the condemning of the wicked.” [22] Likewise, the Puritan theologian Thomas Watson (c. 1620–1686), wrote:

The word will be effectual one way or the other; if it does not make your hearts better, it will make your chains heavier. . . . Dreadful is their case who go loaded with sermons to hell. [23]

The influential Reformed theologian John Gerstner (1914-1996) pointed out the following concerning the thoughts of Jonathan Edwards:

The case for Christianity succeeds only in being a “savor of death to death” to the fallen heart of men. . . . The last condition of “Gospel sinners” is incomparably worse than that of pagan idolators. While the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to all who believe, it is the power of God to still greater damnation to those who disbelieve. Men in hell will wish that they had never heard the name of Jesus. [24]

 

Finally, Reformed theologian John Frame writes:

[T]he Word can also be dangerous. As the Word is the power of God to salvation, it can sometimes also bring condemnation. God commanded Isaiah to preach the Word, but told him it would not bless its hearers (Isaiah 6:9-10). . . . Jesus quotes this passage in connection with his own parabolic teaching (Matthew 13:13-15 and parallels), and Paul quotes it as he turns from unbelieving Jews to the Gentiles (Acts 28:26-28).

We know that often in biblical and later history many people have heard the Word of God without benefit to themselves. Rather, hearing it has hardened them, provoked them to greater sin (Romans 7:8-13). They respond to it indifferently, or even with hostility. So they pile up to themselves greater condemnation. And on the last day, the Word is their judge (John 12:48). [25]

A.4) The Divine Authentication of Condemning Revelation

Elsewhere, we have noted our need, and God’s desire, to authenticate any divine revelation that God wants recognized as such. [26] This applies to condemning revelation as well. The King Himself said regarding the unbelievers who had rejected Him, “If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles” (John 15:24). The divine authentication of the condemning revelation that came through Him was sufficiently supernatural to leave the King’s hearers with no excuse for not recognizing His message as divine.

Such was the case with the condemning revelation given to the Egyptians. One notices that initially when Moses performed a miracle, “the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts” (Exod 7:11). This included being able to turn the Nile River into blood (cf. Exod 7:21-22) and make “frogs come up on the land of Egypt” (Exod 8:7). Thus far, not even God would have expected Pharaoh to believe that Moses was a messenger of God. However, God ended this charade when Aaron turned the dust of Egypt into gnats, “But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not” (Exod 8:18). Accordingly, “The magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God’” (v. 19). Now, we would suggest, Pharaoh was without excuse for rejecting Moses as a source of divine condemning revelation.

Other instances of condemning revelation from God were also given supernaturally convincing authentication as well. “God came to Abimelech in a dream one night” (Gen 20:3), and spoke to Him in a supernatural way such that the pagan king knew without a doubt he was receiving a divine revelation. God communicated His condemning revelation to the pagan king Belshazzar in a similarly convincing way. We read:

Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. (Dan 5:5-6)

God ensured that this wicked man had no excuse for not recognizing that the condemning revelation He was sending was indeed from Him.

B) Covenant Revelation for God’s Elect

B.1) The Nature of Covenant Revelation

While God provides condemning revelation to rebuke, scare, and bring greater judgment on His eternal enemies, He also provides covenant revelation to His elect in order to bring them into a personal relationship with Him. We have written elsewhere:

While the divine revelation of Creation certainly fulfills the over-riding purpose of glorifying God, He has demonstrated an additional desire that goes beyond people simply knowing that He exists and He is great. Accordingly, one of the most important divine characteristics revealed in Scripture is that the Creator is a covenant-making God and He desires to enter a relationship with His chosen people. He desires more than worship which regenerated people could offer Him merely through the universal revelation of Creation. In addition, He wants friendship which requires personal revelation within a Covenant.

The implementation and maintenance of such a relationship requires a good deal of communication, and it is such covenant revelation that constitutes a great deal of the divine revelation recorded in Scripture. In fact, covenant-making is essentially the “story” of the whole Bible, consisting of two major divine-human relationships, involving the Jews and the Church, referred to as the Old and the New, and which have resulted in two written Testaments of those relationships (cf. Exod 24:7). . . .

[T]he purpose of covenant revelation . . . includes God’s desire to implement a covenant with people, guiding them in it, and necessarily miraculously authenticating the covenant. These different purposes within covenant revelation are accomplished through different kinds of divine revelation which we refer to as saving, guiding, and authenticating. In the New Covenant, for example, saving revelation (i.e. the Gospel) implements the covenant and brings people into it. After God provides saving revelation in order to enter a personal relationship with someone, He then provides guiding revelation (e.g. Scripture) so that His people can better understand the covenant and grow in their relationship with Him. Subsequently, all of these revelations are accompanied by authenticating revelation to ensure their divinity by the ability of its messengers to perform miraculous deeds and possess supernatural virtue. [27]

We will note here the biblical meaning of covenant, described in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology as:

A compact or agreement between two parties binding them mutually to undertakings on each other’s behalf. Theologically (used of relations between God and man) it denotes a gracious undertaking entered into by God for the benefit and blessing of man, and specifically of those men who by faith receive the promises and commit themselves to the obligations which this undertaking involves. . . .

Uniformly the word used to express the covenant concept [in the OT] is the Hebrew berith. The original meaning of this word was probably “fetter” or “obligation,” coming from a root [meaning] to bind. . . . Thus a berith would originally signify a relationship between two parties wherein each bound himself to perform a certain service or duty for the other. . . .

[The] covenant constituted a divine announcement of God’s holy will to extend the benefits of his unmerited grace to men who were willing by faith to receive them, and who by entering into a personal commitment to God bound themselves to him by ties of absolute obligation. The characteristic statement of this relationship occurs in the formula “I will be their God and they shall be my people” (cf. Jer. 114; 247 30:22; 32:38; Ezek.1 11:20; 14:11; 36:28; 37:23; Zech. 8:8; etc.). [28]

Below, then, we further discuss the various kinds of revelation required to implement, maintain, and authenticate such a covenant.

B.2) The Ultimate Expression of all Covenant Revelation: Love

Because “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), it is not surprising that the ultimate aspect of each type of covenant revelation is love. While the human conscience & Creation work to communicate guilt, the unique and ultimate message in saving revelation is the love of God demonstrated in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 5:8). We can understand our guilt from a variety of sources, but the saving love of God in Christ is the ultimate core of the saving revelation in the Gospel.

We see that love is the ultimate in guiding revelation as well. Concerning the doctrinal type, we are reminded of the definitive doctrinal statement in Scripture: “God is love.” This is the core characteristic of God that motivates all covenant revelation. [29]

Regarding directional revelation The King Himself told us that:

[T]he greatest commandment in the Law [is to] Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matt 22:37-40)

Accordingly, about all the directional revelation we need from God is to love. If we do only that we will be perfectly pleasing to Him. [30]

Finally, we demonstrate elsewhere that the ultimate authenticating revelation is love as well. Both the devil and fakes can perform amazing miracles (cf. Matt 7:16-23; 24:24), but they cannot produce God’s unique signature of supernatural, unconditional love. [31] Such love is not only the ultimate credential of God’s divine messengers, [32] the ultimate apologetic for the exclusivity of the Christian Gospel, [33] but also the only trustworthy authentication that we ourselves are forgiven and destined for Heaven. [34]

Accordingly, the Apostle John wrote:

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. . . . We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. . . . Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. (1 John 2:9-11; 3:14, 18-20)

Love is indeed the ultimate expression of every aspect of covenant revelation.

C) Saving Revelation that Saves

C.1) The Nature & Method of Saving Revelation: Personal revelation becomes saving revelation through regeneration

A full discussion of the process of salvation will not be given here, even though one’s perspective on saving revelation heavily depends on it. For the sake of this discussion, several points will be made regarding this process that will be more fully supported elsewhere. [35]

First of all, in both the OT and NT, God’s unconditional election to a saving relationship with Him is a central theme. A careful reading of the following passage reveals clearly that God chose the Israelites for a saving relationship with Him and His election of them was by grace:

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession. The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD [unconditionally by grace] loved you and kept the oath He swore to your forefathers that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deut 7:6-8; cf. 2 Sam 7:23; 1 Kgs 8:53)

 

Likewise, in the NT, we see that there is an unconditional election to salvation as well. The Apostle Paul writes the Ephesians:

For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In [unconditional agape] love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will. . . .

All of us also lived among them [those who are disobedient] at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because [and only because] of His great [unconditional] love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. . . .

For it is by [unconditional] grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the [gracious, unconditional] gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast. (Eph 1:4-5; 2:3-5, 8-9; cf. 1 Cor 1:9, 26-30; Rom 8:28-30; 9:10-24)

God’s election to a saving relationship with Him has always been made by unconditional grace, and not because of anything that person has done to earn being chosen.

And because all of the elect will be saved, all the elect are granted saving revelation from God. As discussed thoroughly elsewhere, this type of personal revelation occurs when the Gospel is communicated to the regenerated mind of a person. Such a revelation becomes a saving revelation because it results in a saving relationship with God. It not only has some affect on the mind and emotions of a person, as any divine revelation may have, but it actually transforms their life and spirit into “a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17).

While all personal revelation will reveal something about God, saving revelation actually and always saves people. Therefore, it is not merely a communication of the Gospel that makes it a saving revelation, but it must be believed as well. If not, the Gospel may actually become a condemning revelation as discussed above.

It is clearly taught in Scripture that it is something God does that makes the difference between divine revelation being personal, condemning, or becoming something saving. Salvation requires a spiritual understanding that only the Holy Spirit can give (cf. 2 Cor 4:4-7; Luke 10:21-24; John 1:5; 6:44, 65; 1 Tim 1:14). When the Spirit does this miracle of regeneration in the context of hearing the Gospel, the person “naturally” comes to saving faith, thereby making it and salvation an unconditional gift of God’s grace instead of a conditional human work.

In other words, people can be privileged to a personal revelation of God that contains saving content (i.e. a Gospel presentation), but if they are left to their own natural understanding of and response to that revelation, saving revelation will not occur. It is personal revelation from God coupled with the supernatural regeneration by God that becomes saving revelation from God. And supernaturally regenerated people will always respond to saving revelation with saving faith. [36]

Thus, our King explains:

No one can come to Me [savingly believe in Christ] unless the Father Who sent Me draws him. . . . The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. . . Yet there are some of you who do not believe . . . This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled him. (John 6:44, 64-65)

The King explains that although there was saving content in His words, they would only result in disbelief because the Father did not do a supernatural work in their lives, enabling them to believe in a saving way.

Such a work is described throughout the NT including the following passage where we read:

One of those listening [being exposed to personal revelation with saving content] 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 [in a saving way]. (Acts 16:14)

No doubt there were others listening who did not respond in a saving way to the Apostle’s message, and the reason was that their natural hearing of the Gospel was not accompanied by the supernatural work of God to “open their heart” so that they could truly believe the message.

This saving revelation to God’s elect can be found in the OT as well. Obviously God revealed Himself to Adam and Eve in a saving way, and forgave them for their sin. Abel as well had a personal, saving relationship with God, as demonstrated by his God-pleasing sacrifices. This personal relationship with God was no doubt passed on to Seth, Adam’s second son. When Seth had Enosh, the Scriptures tell us that, “At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD” (Gen 4:26). This obviously implies that particularly those in the godly line of Seth (as opposed to Cain) were enjoying saving revelation from God that resulted in a personal relationship with Him. [37] Such a passage tells us that there was a whole other progress of salvation before Noah that we have no other information about.

Clearly God uniquely revealed Himself to the nation of Israel, and that revelation was simply the means by which He brought these people into a saving covenant with Him. It was especially the sacrificial laws for the forgiveness of sin (cf. Lev chs. 6-7, 16) that might be seen as saving revelation. It is these very “saving” laws that are referred to by the psalmist who writes:

He has revealed His word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws” (Ps 147:19-20; cp. Deut 4:7).

And the nations who had not received such revelation from God, were not His people, nor were they in a saving relationship with Him. Through Ezekiel God says:

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted hand to the descendants of the house of Jacob and revealed Myself to them in Egypt. With uplifted hand I said to them, “I am the LORD your God (Ezek 20:5).

Here again is a description of God revealing Himself to His chosen people so that they become His people and He becomes their God in a way that was not true for any other nation.

J. I. Packer adds along these lines:

This covenant [with the Jews] was a royal imposition whereby God [uniquely] pledged himself to Abraham’s clan as their God thus [uniquely] authorizing [only] them to invoke him as our God and my God. The fact that God [uniquely] made known his name (Yahweh) to Israel (Ex. 3:11-15; 6:2ff.) was a witness to this relationship. The ‘name’ stands for all that a person is, and for God to tell the Israelites his name was a sign that, such as he was, in all his power and glory, he was pledging himself [uniquely] to them for their welfare. [38]

Again, saving revelation, as opposed to the general category of personal revelation, works to bring people into a covenant relationship with God whether that covenant be the Old or the New.

C.2) The Expanding Scope of Saving Revelation: From one nation to all nations

While there was an extended period of time in which saving revelation was restricted to the nation of Israel, God did not intend for it always to be that way. In fact, the story of the Bible is the story of God progressively expanding the scope of those who receive saving revelation. Keeping in mind that we are suggesting that saving revelation always saves those who receive it, we can see this is the case.

For example, in Noah’s day, saving revelation was confined to one family, for “only a few people, eight in all, were saved” (1 Pet 3:20). [39] This is especially remarkable when we note that renowned Creation scientist Henry Morris reasonably calculated that there were over a billion people on Earth at the time of the Flood. [40]

With the arrival of Abraham, God expanded His plan of salvation to a whole nation of people, but just one nation. As God says in Amos, “O people of Israel . . . You only have I chosen of all the families of the Earth” (3:2; cf. Deut 7:6; cf. Deut 14:2; Isa 41:9; Ezek 20:5). Even the King reflected this understanding when He said, “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22) and “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt 15:24). The King limited the ministry of the Twelve in a similar way:

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt 10:5-6).

Accordingly, we read in Acts of the astonishment of even Christian Jews that non-Jews were getting saved, and after the testimony of miraculous confirmation of this Luke records: “they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). While we may be astonished at the attitude of these Christian Jews, we need to understand that for 2000 years of human history, since the time of Abraham, essentially only Jews were saved. All of this was because God had a planned progression for the scope of saving revelation (cf. Rom 3:1; 9:24; Eph 2:11-13).

However, with the implementation of God’s New Covenant with humanity, God not only changed the message of salvation, but He expanded the parameters of it, such that the King’s “blood . . . purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev 5:9) which gave the Church reason to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). We see then that the God-ordained scope of both personal revelation (i.e. the Gospel) and saving revelation (i.e. those being saved) has expanded considerably throughout salvation’s history (see Figure 7.5 below under Extras & Endnotes). [41]

In addition, even within the Church Age of the New Covenant there has been an expanding geographical scope to saving revelation. While the New Covenant was theologically expanded to all Gentiles in the first century, it was not practically expanded to the South and North American Indians for another 1500 years. Humans were not even aware that these other continents existed. In that period of time, while those in other parts of the world were enjoying the blessings of the Gospel, a multitude of generations on the other side of the planet were dying without any opportunity to enter God’s covenant through Christ with humanity. The same could be said of whole nations and villages throughout particularly Asia that have suffered through many centuries without an opportunity to be saved.

It is facts such as these, of course, that prompt inclusivists and pluralists to suggest that throughout human history there have been other ways for humans to enter a saving relationship with God apart from His Old and New Covenants. [42] Neither Scripture, nor the moral attributes of such people give any evidence of this. Just as Scripture reveals that under the Old Covenant it was generally not His will to have a relationship with the Philistines, so for centuries He desired to have no saving relationship with those in the Western Hemisphere. Be assured that God will provide saving revelation wherever His elect live, because:

He chose . . . [them] before the creation of the world. . . . He predestined [them] to be adopted as His sons. . . . [They] were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him Who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will” (Eph 1:4-5, 11).

C.3) The Fore-ordained Result of Saving Revelation: Many are invited but few are chosen

Still, there is a significant gap between those who are exposed to the Gospel (i.e. personal revelation) and those who are saved by it (i.e. saving revelation). The King said the same when He remarked, “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt 7:14). And the reason for this is that while “many are invited . . . few are chosen” (Matt 22:14; cf. Luke 13:23-24).

As already mentioned above, we see that the effect of God’s personal revelation depends on whether the individual is God’s elect or eternal enemy. The affect of preaching the Gospel is a good example of this. [43] The Gospel is personal revelation, in that only some human beings receive such revelation. However, simply being exposed to the personal revelation of the Gospel does not result in salvation. The eternal enemies of God will reject it to their condemnation; but those “predestined . . . before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph 1:4-5) will accept the Gospel for their salvation.

This divergent response to the Gospel is portrayed in the following passage from Acts:

When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying [the Gospel]. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. (Acts 13:45-48; cf. 18:27)

These different reactions to the Gospel were not dependent on the substance of the message or the skill of the messengers, but rather, on a decision God had made “before the creation of the world” (Eph 1:4). From God’s perspective, there have always been only two types of people in the world: His elect and His eternal enemies, and He has known from all eternity who was which. And it is who someone is that dictates their response to the personal revelation of God provided in the Gospel. [44]

This is what the King was referring to when He said, “All that the Father gives Me [has chosen] will [not might] come to Me” (John 6:37). Notice the intentional order of His statement. He did not put the coming to Christ before the belonging to Christ. No, previous to us coming to Christ we had in some way already been given (chosen) for Christ.

Likewise, the King told some Jews who were “ready to kill [Him] because [they had] no room for [His] word” (John 8:36):

Why is My language [and message concerning salvation] not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. . . . If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe Me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. (John 8:43-4, 46-7).

Also, in His prayer to the Father, the King says: “I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word” (John 17:6). The Gospel is a saving revelation to those who have already been chosen by the Father and given to the Son.

The Apostle Paul wrote of this connection between the pre-determined destiny of a person, and the effect of the Gospel when he wrote:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to [unregenerated] Jews and foolishness to [unregenerated] Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:22-24)

Unless a person is chosen to respond to the Gospel and “called,” drawn, and regenerated to do so, the Gospel will be “a stumbling block” or “foolishness.” But to those chosen, the Gospel is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” resulting in their conversion.

Likewise, the Apostle alludes to the differing responses to the Gospel based on who the recipients are when he explains:

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. (2 Cor 2:15-16)

A person’s response to the Gospel is determined by whether they are “among those who are being saved” or “those who are perishing.” The former are always those God has “chosen by grace” (Rom 11:5) “before the creation of the world” (Eph 1:4), which is why the Apostle said, “I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory” (2 Tim 2:10).

Likewise the Apostle Peter writes:

Now to you who believe, this stone [Christ] is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” and, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message–which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. (1 Pet 2:7-9)

In our evangelistic efforts, we must discard the unbiblical (however popular) notion that a human’s natural understanding is automatically able to produce a saving knowledge of Christ. Even the most supernatural revelation from God is virtually wasted on natural man in his fallen state, without the supernatural regeneration of the mind and heart from God to go with it. When we remember ones like Pharaoh and the Pharisees, we are reminded of just how spiritually blind unregenerated humans really are (cf. 2 Cor 4:2-6). This is in no way to devalue the importance of preaching the Gospel. However, those who would solely (or even primarily) rely on convincing arguments, loving deeds, and even miracles to produce a saving understanding of God forget that fallen humanity is spiritually dead, and until they are spiritually alive, having been indwelled and regenerated by the Spirit, they will not believe. [45]

Accordingly, the Apostle Paul writes:

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God [like the Gospel], for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:14)

C.4) The Divine Authentication of Saving Revelation: Supernatural virtue

Elsewhere in KOG we have written:

How then are Christians today supposed to prove to themselves and others that they possess superior spiritual knowledge? How do we justify our claim that we are right and saved, and the rest of the world is wrong and damned? Is it with intellectual arguments? No, it is again with miracles. Do we mean casting out demons and healing headaches? No, we mean real miracles, the kind that only God can do (cf. Matt 7:15-23).

We mean the “greater works” of power that the King said would accompany His people after His departure and the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:12). Here, however, we part company with many Christians today and claim that by “greater works” Christ did not mean the physical healing of the body, but rather, the spiritual healing of the soul. [46]

Ordinarily, God does not intend today to authenticate the Gospel with “charismatic” miracles, but rather, with “character” miracles. [47] The greatest miracles occurring today are the transformation of sinners into saints, lusters into lovers, and the greedy into givers. As NT scholar Leon Morris (1914-2006) puts it in a rare study on the topic, “Love is a sheer miracle.” [48] This miracle of supernatural regeneration is the ultimate apologetic for the superiority of the Christian faith, far surpassing all other apologetic approaches combined.

How do we know that the Gospel of the King is the only Gospel that saves? We know because real and supernatural human transformation is in the name and power of Christ alone. No other Gospel can claim or boast of the same holy, miraculous, moral fruit of this Gospel. We know the spiritual transformation that we have experienced has occurred in the name and power of the King, because it only occurs with the communication and reception of the Gospel of the King.

To the question of, “How do we know this spiritual experience of regeneration cannot happen by some other religion?” we answer simply that it cannot and never has. The kind of superior life change we have experienced only happens in the name of the King and this is because the Holy Spirit (the only One who can create such change) only acts in the name of the King and no other. [49]

Again, God is in the business of granting divine authentication of any divine revelation and the Gospel is no exception. Through the spiritual regeneration that saved us (cf. Tit 3:5), God also gave us a New Nature of supernatural love and holiness to authenticate our salvation to us and to the world. [50]

Extras & Endnotes

Table 7.5: Types & Purposes of Personal Revelation

\

Type & Target

Condemn-ing

to God’s Enemies

Covenant

to God’s Elect

Saving

Guiding

Authenti-cating

Doctrinal

Directional

Purpose

Rebuke and condemn God’s eternal Enemies.

Establishing a personal relationship with God’s Elect.

Instruction in who God is, who we are, why we should trust & obey Him, and what we can expect of Him

Commands regarding what God expects of us and how we can love Him.

Supernatural confirmation of doctrinal & directional revelation.

Methods

Miracles, dreams, conviction of Holy Spirit, Scripture, etc.

The preaching of the Gospel.

Scripture

Scripture & New Nature

Divinely delegated miracle-working abilities.

Result

Always a great deal of fear, often a hardening of the “heart,” but never salvation.

The power of God for salvation (Rom 1:16)

The only true knowledge of God & ourselves

Guidance in the very best way to live our life

Confidence in the covenant revelation of God.

Figure 7.5: The Expanding Scope of Saving Revelation

The World

Jesus to End

c. 2000 yrs.

One Nation

Abraham to Jesus

c. 2000 yrs.

One “Family”

Adam to Noah

several 1000 yrs.

A Devotion to Dad

Our gracious heavenly Father, we are reminded today just how gracious you really are. We recognize how fortunate we are to have been chosen to receive a revelation of your mercy, rather than your wrath. We know that just like the nation of Israel, there is nothing different about us that has prompted your grace to us, but that the reason for our salvation is to be completely found in you, not us. We give you all the glory, honor, and credit for our salvation today. Thank you that there are many more of your lost children to be found among “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) on this earth, and we ask you for divine courage and divine opportunities to be instruments of your saving revelation to the people around us. Help us to “endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).

Gauging Your Grasp

  1. How would you distinguish between what we are labeling as universal revelation and personal revelation?
  2. Why is it a mistake to claim that all personal (special) revelation is intended to save people?
  3. What are the differences between what we refer to as condemning revelation and covenant revelation?
  4. What are some OT Scriptures that would describe what we have called condemning revelation? What are some NT Scriptures?
  5. How do we describe the purpose of covenant revelation?
  6. What are the different categories of covenant revelation?
  7. How do we illustrate that the ultimate expression of all categories of covenant revelation is love?
  8. What are we suggesting is the difference between personal revelation and saving revelation? What is needed for personal revelation to become saving revelation? What are some examples of this in the NT?
  9. In this study, what explanations were offered for the different responses that people have to personal revelation from God? What (or who) determines if the revelation will be the condemning or the saving kind? What Scriptures were used to support the explanations offered?
  10. Would you agree or disagree with the suggestion that God’s revelation always accomplishes what He sends it for? How do we even apply this to directional revelation that may be disobeyed?
  11. What Scriptures indicate an expanding scope of saving revelation from God? How would you describe the sequence of that progression in both biblical and otherwise human history? Why have we suggested that saving revelation has not been provided in vast areas of the earth over vast amounts of time? Do you agree or disagree with our perspective?
  12. How do we suggest saving revelation is authenticated by God?

Publications & Particulars

  1. Many theologians refer to personal revelation as special revelation. ↑

  2. For further discussion on the attributes and differences between universal & personal revelation, see chapter 7.2. ↑

  3. Our point here is not to deny that before the elect are saved they too are called God’s enemies (cf. Rom 5:10; Col 1:21; Eph 2:3), and therefore, God grants these “enemies” saving revelation. But it is because they are the elect that He does so, and those who are destined forever to be His enemies, which is everyone who is not of the elect, will never be provided saving revelation. Accordingly, it is more correct to refer to this group as God’s eternal enemies. ↑

  4. J. I. Packer, God Speaks to Man (Westminster Press, 1965), 32, 34-35. Italics in the original. ↑

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

  6. Bernard Ramm, “Apologetics, Biblical” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), Geoffrey W. Bromiley ed., 4 vols. (Eerdmans, 1988), I:191. ↑

  7. Bruce Demarest and Gordon R. Lewis, Integrative Theology (Zondervan, 1987), I:122. ↑

  8. Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Baker, 1998), 201 ↑

  9. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Banner of Truth Trust, 1958), 37 ↑

  10. Erickson, 188. ↑

  11. Quoted by John Baillie, The Idea of Revelation in Recent Thought (Columbia University Press, 1956), 42. ↑

  12. David was not referring to Creation (cf. Rom 1:18) but asks God to rise up in anger against his enemies (Ps 7:6), describes God preparing to battle against David’s enemies (vs. 12-13), and warns the wicked that God will return their violence back on them (vs. 15-16) ↑

  13. Some may note that God tells Pharaoh: “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you My power and that My name might be proclaimed in all the Earth” (Exod 9:16). This would suggest to some that this personal revelation became a universal one. However, we have no reason to believe that every person living on the earth at that time, or any time, including today, was and is aware of what God did in Egypt c. 1450 B. C. Therefore, such revelation would not fit the accepted definition of a universal revelation such as Creation. This is yet another example of the need to carefully interpret universal words like “all” in Scripture. ↑

  14. NT scholar Douglas Moo comments on Romans 9:16:

    The sentence reads like a general principle (note the present tenses of the verbs). But to what does the principle apply? Our translation preserves the ambiguity of the original in not making clear the subject of the sentence (“it”). We might substitute “salvation” [Charles Hodge] or “God’s purpose in election” (cf. v. 11b), but the connection with v. 15 suggests rather “God’s bestowal of mercy.” (The Epistle to the Romans [Eerdmans, 1996], 593). ↑

  15. The statement that all divine revelation ultimately accomplishes the purpose of God reflects the category of divine will that we refer to as His consenting sovereignty in which even sin ultimately accomplishes His purposes. See endnote below. ↑

  16. See section 7.1.A. ↑

  17. Obviously Romans 1:18 is a well-known description of God revealing His wrath, but the revelation described there is the universal revelation of Creation to all humanity, rather than the more limited but personal revelation being discussed here. For further discussion of Romans 1:18 see section 4.13.A and 7.4.A.3. ↑

  18. Regarding Christian virtue as a revelation of God see Book 5: Biblical Apologetics. ↑

  19. Some might object to suggesting that Christ was a condemning revelation in light of John 3:17 where the King declares, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” However, the reason that the King did not come the first time to “condemn the world” is because it was already condemned. Thus, in the next verse He says, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” The King did not need to condemn the world because it was already condemned. And the fact that the King did not come to place the world in a situation in which it already existed, would not preclude Him communicating their condemned condition as He most certainly did. ↑

  20. Norman Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (BECA) (Baker, 1999), 482. ↑

  21. While we insist that God’s own statement in Isaiah 55:9-11 must be taken more seriously (and literally) by many, we would add that a distinction between God’s controlling sovereignty and His consenting sovereignty would be helpful here. The former includes those things that God directly controls, even against human will, in order to accomplish a specific purpose. The latter concerns events and human decisions that God allows because they either accomplish His purposes or do not thwart His ultimate purposes.

    In other words, there is room within God’s sovereign purposes for a great deal of human choice, but when such choices would violate God’s ultimate purposes, He will directly intervene and not allow it. The Apostle Paul essentially said so when He wrote: “In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him Who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will (Eph 1:11).

    This helps to explain how even the disobedience of God’s people can conform to God’s perfect plan. He only allows people to disobey a command because His ultimate purpose in many cases is not their obedience, but rather giving them an opportunity to demonstrate real love for Him. Therefore, when God gives us a command He knows we will not obey, it still ultimately accomplishes precisely what He sent it for. For further discussion regarding the controlling and consenting sovereignty of God see chapter 5.? For related concepts see the discussion of God’s predestined, prescribed, and permissive wills in section 3.6.B. ↑

  22. John Calvin in Calvin’s Bible Commentaries in The Comprehensive John Calvin Collection, CD-ROM, (Ages Software, 1998). ↑

  23. Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, (Banner of Truth Trust, 1971), 379. ↑

  24. John Gerstner, The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, 3 vols. (Berea, 1991), I.136. ↑

  25. John Frame, “Studying Theology as A Servant of Christ” in Reformation & Revival Journal, Vol. 11, [no. 1, Winter 2002]: 51. ↑

  26. For further discussion regarding the need for divine authentication of divine revelation see sections 7.1.B.5 and 3.1.C-D. ↑

  27. Excerpted from section 7.2.C-D. ↑

  28. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (EDT) Walter Elwell, ed. (Baker, 1984), 276-7. ↑

  29. For further discussion of the divine attribute of love see 5.1.B.1. ↑

  30. For further discussion of the great sufficiency of love for knowing God’s will see sections 4.4.A. ↑

  31. For further discussion of distinguishing fake and demonic miracle working from divine, see chapter 11.13. ↑

  32. For further discussion on virtue as the ultimate authentication of divine messengers, see section 8.4.B.3 and 9.12.D. ↑

  33. For a discussion of the biblical and historical fact that unconditional love is the ultimate apologetic and proof of the exclusivity of the Gospel see Book 5: Biblical Apologetics. ↑

  34. For discussion of the biblical fact that virtue is the ultimate proof of our own salvation see chapter 5.5. ↑

  35. Admittedly, much of this section is based on a belief that the process of our salvation is completely a work of God, and therefore by grace (cf. Eph 2:8-9), and not at any point a human work, but rather an automatic human response to that divine work. For further discussion on this topic see chapters 4.16 and 6.2-5. ↑

  36. For further discussion on the biblical nature of saving faith see chapters 4.16 and 6.2-5. ↑

  37. As OT scholars Keil and Delitzsch point out, the language of Genesis 4:26 demonstrates a personal relationship with God:

    The name of God signifies in general the whole nature of God, by which He attests His personal presence in the relation into which He has entered with man, the divine self-manifestation, or the whole of that revealed side of the divine nature, which is turned towards man. . . .

    We have here an account of the commencement of that worship of God which consists in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, or in the acknowledgment and celebration of the mercy and help of Jehovah. While the family of Cainites, by the erection of a city, and the invention and development of worldly arts and business, were laying the foundation for the kingdom of this world; the family of the Sethites began, by united invocation of the name of God of grace, to found and to erect the kingdom of God. (Commentary on the Old Testament, Electronic Edition STEP Files CD-ROM [Findex.com, 2000]. ↑

  38. J. I. Packer, “Revelation” in New Bible Dictionary (NBD) J. I. Packer, et al. eds., 3rd ed., (Inter-Varsity, 1996), 1015. ↑

  39. Even before Noah’s day we read:

    Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD. (Gen 4:25-26

    Keil and Delitzsch comment here:

    We have here an account of the commencement of that worship of God which consists in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, or in the acknowledgment and celebration of the mercy and help of Jehovah. While the family of Cainites, by the erection of a city, and the invention and development of worldly arts and business, were laying the foundation for the kingdom of this world; the family of the Sethites began, by united invocation of the name of God of grace, to found and to erect the kingdom of God.

    This passage tells us that there was a whole other progress of salvation before Noah that we have no other information about. ↑

  40. Henry Morris, Genesis Flood, 27. ↑

  41. For further discussion of the scope of saving revelation see section 7.5.C.2 ↑

  42. For further discussion of pluralism and inclusivism see sections 6.12.A-C. ↑

  43. For further discussion regarding the response of spiritually unregenerate people to the Gospel see chapter 4.14. ↑

  44. The Apostle Paul indicates, however, that even God’s elect were at one time His enemies when he writes, “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Eph 2:3). In other words, for further clarification, we might say we were the enemies of God unconditionally elected by grace to become the children of God. Which is why we often refer to those whom God knows will never be saved as His eternal enemies. ↑

  45. For further discussion regarding the response of spiritually unregenerate people to divine revelation see chapters 4.12-14. ↑

  46. For further discussion of the vital understanding of what Christ meant when He said His followers would perform greater miracles than He upon His departure see section 10.5.B.2. ↑

  47. For further discussion and a critique of what has come to be known as “Power evangelism” see chapter 11.6. ↑

  48. Leon Morris, Testaments of Love: A Study of Love in the Bible (Eerdmans, 1981), 277. ↑

  49. Excerpt from section 5.1.A.1 ↑

  50. For further discussion regarding the divine authentication of the Gospel through supernatural virtue see Book 5: Biblical Apologetics. ↑