The Word Of God

By Author: Johnson Philip
Total Articles: 90
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Right from the beginning of creation man has desired to know about God. The more religiously inclined thinkers actively sought this knowledge through meditation, contemplation, and even through mystical experiences. However, human methods are inadequate to reach God, or to discover detailed information about Him. Thus human attempts in this matter have always failed.

At the same time, the Creator-God did not keep himself aloof from mankind. Rather, He made Himself known to man right from the beginning of human existence. He gave General Revelation in nature, and Special Revelation through the Bible.

All of the above can put together into three categories: Knowledge Of God Through Human Speculation, Through General Revelation, and Through Special Revelation.

I-Human Speculation: A large amount of information available about God is the result of mere human speculation. Since man's wisdom has totally been corrupted by sin, the result of human speculation about God is also corrupted by his sinful mind and method of thinking. Thus NO definite conclusion about God and His actions can be obtained through ...
... mere human speculation or contemplation.

A survey of various man-made religions would immediately reveal that there is a great diversity of opinion in them about God, often contradicting each other. What's more, even within individual man-made religions and philosophies, their viewpoints about God are often inconsistent and contradictory. Further, when man speaks about God from his human wisdom, the result is often a devaluated God. Such Gods are nothing more than highly elevated humans. Consequently one can note that in many non-Christian religions their gods are as sinful (or more) than their human creators are.

Since the human wisdom is totally corrupted by sin, not only is the consequent human speculation about God totally erroneous, but also all the religious books written by human wisdom are similarly corrupted. While an occasional statement here and there in them might correspond with what is said in the Bible, this similarity of accident does not elevate these books or these statements to the level of Bible (divine revelation).

2-General Revelation: God being love, He has not left mankind in darkness. He loves every human being in spite of human sin. He thus provides them enough information for them to realize that there is a God. This information also helps them to realize that this God is to be feared and obeyed.

General Revelation comes through the mighty creation of God seen all around. It also comes from man's observation of God's sustaining power. All of this is enough to make man aware of the existence of God, and to create in him a desire to know God. Further, when any person desires to know the real God, the omniscient and righteous God would surely make information available about Himself to this seeker.

While the General Revelation is available to every person of every generation and religion, in itself it is not sufficient to lead a person to salvation through Christ. In fact the General Revelation does not contain any information about the gospel or about Lord Jesus Christ. Thus it is not possible for any person to receive salvation merely on the basis of general revelation.

The purpose of General Revelation is to create God-consciousness in humans. While this God-consciousness fills certain people with a sense of their own inadequacy, they still need to be introduced to the gospel before they can be saved. This gospel of salvation comes to the unsaved people only from those people to whom God has entrusted the information through Specific (Special) Revelation.

3-Specific (Special) Revelation: Specific Revelation always comes directly from God. Man's human understanding or wisdom is not the source for this type of revelation. Nor can this type of revelation be obtained by the use of mere human wisdom -- howsoever great this wisdom might be.

It is a doctrinal FALLACY to believe that people outside God's chosen ones received spiritual light or revelations through their meditation or human insight. It is a false doctrine and heresy to claim that sages, rishis, or ascetics of the ancient world received "insights" into spiritual matters through their own efforts. Apart from the chosen people in the Old and the New Testament, Special Divine Revelation has NOT been given to anyone else.

In the Bible we notice that God chose people from the line of Seth up to Methuselah for passing on Divine Revelation. Once Abraham was chosen by God, all revelations came through people of the chosen race. Subsequently this information was written down by Moses and others in the Canon of the Old Testament. This Canon came to completion with the writing of Malachi. After four hundred years came the New Testament Canon which was written and completed in less than one century.

Whether during the Old Testament period or during the New Testament times, only God's chosen people were entrusted with divine revelation. NO other people, family, or religious seekers were entrusted with divine revelation. Of course, God in His mercy gave his message to many seekers belonging to various cultural groups (like the Ethiopian Eunuch), but such message was always sent through a messenger belonging to the chosen groups. The chosen people were the godly descendants of Seth to Methuselah, the descendants of Noah, and finally the descendants of Abraham. In the New Testament period the messengers were all Born-again Christian believers.

Since many people moved into pagan religions after having their origin among God's people, they might have carried some knowledge of Biblical truth with them. These truths might have found a place in their religious books. But this mutilated human version (if such version exists anywhere) is NOT to be equated with divine revelation. Further, what people of other religions discovered through their efforts is also NOT to be equated with divine revelation. No amount of human speculation can discover doctrinal truths, and thus the occasional similarity between statements in the bible and statements in other books does not make those non-Christian books divinely revealed.

Summary

The human mind is TOTALLY blinded by sin. It knows nothing except rebellion against God. Thus anything that comes out of pure human speculation about God and His nature is bound to be wrong. Thus whatever people of other religions write about God on the basis of purely human intuition or (human wisdom) is bound to be totally erroneous. Any similarity with the Christian scripture is only a COINCIDENCE, and such similarities are not to be overemphasized.

On the other hand, God has provided enough indications in nature to show that He exists and controls it all. Anyone with reasonable intelligence can thus come to a realization that God exists. However, after reaching this point of God-consciousness, that person needs to come in touch with Specific Revelation (the Bible) so as to know truths about the divine way of salvation. General Revelation does NOT lead anyone to salvation (or even to information about salvation).

Specific Revelation is contained in the Bible, and Bible alone. NO other religious book in the world was inspired by God. None of them contain inspired information about salvation or Jesus Christ. There might be some accidental similarities between the statements in the Bible and books of other religions. This might be accidental, ore even the corrupt form of truth found in the Bible. Alternately it might be pure human speculation that somehow look somewhat similar to some statements of the Bible. However, such statements are a mere human imitation of divine truth, and they are NOT inspired by the Holy Spirit.

There is NO specific revelation from God outside the Bible. Information about salvation or Lord Jesus Christ are NOT available in any book other than the Bible. Claiming that books of other religions (or even parts of such books) are inspired like the Bible is an ERROR and a HERESY. Whether such teachings are spread directly or indirectly, believers should reject and even SUPPRESS such teachings. Specific Revelation from God is found only in the Bible, and nowhere outside it !!
Dr. Johnson C. Philip is a scientist and an acknowledged blogging guru having a worldwide following.