Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20010325.htm
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY: (ORGANIZED BIBLE KNOWLEDGE)
Part I: Bibliology (Knowledge of the Doctrine of Scripture)
B. Biblical Revelation (The Study of How God CAN Communicate With Mortals)
- Introduction
- The complexities of the universe argue for the existence of a brilliant, supreme Creator God.
- Due to this elevation of the Creator's intellect, some cultists argue that no limited mortal man can communicate with the mind of God.
- The doctrine of the special revelation of God in the Bible answers this argument (as follows):
- Biblical Revelation (The Study of How God CAN Communicate With Mortals
- In a real sense, we freely admit that there is a complex barrier to the communication of God with man:
- God is inaccessible to mortal man, Isaiah 55:9; 1 Timothy 6:15-16.
- There are causes for this divine inaccessibility (as follows):
- Though God loves to fellowship with man (Genesis 3:8a, 9), man's sin has broken the grounds of communication with God, Genesis 3:6-7, 8b with Isaiah 6:1-3.
- In the state of sin, man is further alienated from understanding God's intentions by the deceitful, blinding work of Satan who is much more powerful than mortals, 2 Cor. 4:4; Jude 9; Dan. 10:1-18.
- Through His great grace and extensive measures, God has crossed these barriers to communicate clearly with mortal man as follows:
- God has revealed His eternal power and Godhead in a general way through creation's witness (Rom. 1:18ff) and through the human conscience which was created by God, Rom. 2:14-16
- Specifically, God has gone to great lengths to communicate detailed messages to man so that he can know how to operate in every pertinent detail of his existence on the earth:
- God has supplied mortal men with specific revelation of His thinking in various ways: (a) He has made visible appearances in human-like forms called theophanies, compare Gen. 17:1, 22; 18:1and 26:2. (b) God has used dreams and trances to speak specific truths to men, Numbers 12:6. (c) He has made contact and communicated truths through use of miracles and signs for man, Ex. 3-15. (d) God has given His messages to prophets by these methods and they in turn have proclaimed or written them out for general distribution, Amos 1:1. (e) God revealed Himself in the Incarnation of the Word of God, in the God-in-the-flesh Jesus Christ, John 1:1-18. (f) >From all of these, men have recorded God's message in written form as our all-sufficient input from God, 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 4:1-2.
- To insure that man can understand this specific input in spite of the obstacles of personal sin and Satanic influences, God has used Almighty God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity as follows: (a) The Spirit generally convinces all men of righteousness, sin and judgment to draw them to see their need of salvation, John 16:8-11. (b) The Spirit, the Author of the written Word through the apostles and prophets (2 Pet. 1:20-21), has put the stamp of divine authority and power into the words of the Bible to convince men of the truth of the Bible's message, Rom. 1:16; Heb. 4:12; 2 Tim. 3:16-17. (c) When men believe the Gospel, the Spirit regenerates their souls and comes to indwell them, 2 Thess. 2:13b; Rom. 8:9. (d) As such, the Holy Spirit ministers to the believer's heart so he can understand the message God has written in Scripture, 1 Cor. 2:12-15. This ministry bypasses the effects of sin within the believer as well as Satan's deceptive efforts, 1 John 2:14.
- God has so worked to make the Bible not only authoritative, but also applicable to life, so the believer has all the information he needs from Scripture to function in every way in the most mature manner until at least the establishment of His Kingdom on earth, 2 Tim. 3:16-17 with 2 Tim. 4:1-2.
Lesson: Since God is of infinite power and goodness as revealed from creation (Rom. 1:20; Gen. 1:31), and since God allowed sin to exist (Gen. 2:16-17), and since sin created obstacles to communication between God and man (Gen. 3:8-11), the goodness and power of God necessarily must make way to reach back to sinful, mortal man and make God's message clear to restore communion with man!
Application: To assert man cannot understand his Creator is to limit the goodness and power of that Creator! Rather, God HAS communicated with man effectively because He is an Almighty, Good God!