How has God revealed himself?
1. For the Creation.
A part of this revelation of God is found in nature and has been given to all men everywhere.
(Ps 19: 1-4) "The heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament announces the work of his hands. One day he gives word to another day, and one night to another night he declares wisdom. There is no language, no words. his voice is not heard. His voice has gone out all over the earth, and his words to the end of the world ... "
(Ro 1: 19-20) "Because what is known of God is manifest to them, for God manifested it to him. Because the invisible things of him, his eternal power and deity, become clearly visible from the creation of the world, being understood by means of things done, so that they have no excuse. "
This revelation convinces us of its infinite wisdom, its power, that it is a source of beauty, that it is God of order: From the greatest representatives of the starry world to the smallest creatures and plants, including molecules, atoms and electrons that It is composed, nature is built with inconceivable accuracy according to the most refined and powerful laws. From the wing of a butterfly with its hundreds of thousands of scales, or the eye of a fly with its six or seven thousand lenses; the web of a spider with three hundred strands per thread, the eight thousand pairs of silkworm muscles; The 31,000 sensitive hairs of the drone, the 5,000 lenses in each eye of the bee, all of them equally hexagonal, are an eloquent testimony of this accuracy.
2. By the Bible.
But God has completed this partial revelation through the Bible.
Through revelation in nature, human beings cannot get to know God personally. It needs a revelation that includes holiness, love, justice, God's forgiveness ... With that "primary" revelation, there are still unresolved issues vital to the human being: how can I reach the forgiveness of my sins and enter in an intimate communion with God?
So, supernaturally, by a process generally called "inspiration," God gave us a book, the Bible, in which through our own language we came to know God's thoughts. And by being collected in a written book, this revelation could be transmitted reliably to future generations.
3. For the nation of Israel.
God completed his revelation through a special people, Israel and special messengers, the prophets.
God formed the nation of Israel in order to receive, keep and transmit his revealed Word. The prophets spoke to men the secrets of God (Am 3: 7). Many of his messages supernaturally announced future events for which men were to prepare.
And we must also say that this revelation of God through Israel did not depend solely on these prophetic messages, but included direct interventions from God in history (Psalm 105-106). All the great events in the annals of Israel are somehow related to the divine message that God wants to convey to men.
4. For Christ.
God's revelation reaches its fullness in Christ.
In the Lord Jesus Christ the Word of God "takes body", is incarnated.
(Jn 1: 14,18) "And that Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth ... No one ever saw God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. "
Christ is the voice of God speaking with and to men in a direct way. By contemplating and hearing the Son, men can know what God really is (Jn 14: 8-11). God could not have come closer, nor could he have revealed more clearly the wonders of his person.
Since God has made himself known in Christ, the Christian can confidently say to the agnostic and superstitious, as Paul said to the Athenians in the Areopagus of Athens: "To the unknown God, whom you worship, then, without knowing Him, It is whom I announce to you "(Acts 17:23).
Credits for the Bible school following the teacher.
source