Revelation Through Scripture
- Created by: Grace Lidgett
- Created on: 03-01-13 16:40
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- Revelation and Scripture
- General revelation = available to all people at all time [beauty of creation]
- Special revelation = defined as God's revelation to particular people at definite times [this is where sacred writings would fall]
- There are two views of sacred writings and revelation
- 1 - Propositional
- The belief that God directly reveals information to people in factual human terms = the revelation is then written down and becomes holy scripture
- Any occasion where God speaks directly to an individual is propositional
- E.g = Adam and Eve [Gen 1-3], 10 commandments [exodus 20], conversion of st paul [acts 9]
- Believed by fundamentalists, evangelicals and creationists
- Facts and truths are communicated
- 2 - Non-propositional
- The belief that God inspires certain people which, in turn, brings the reality of his message
- This would mean the Bible represents a two-way process
- 1 - humans in search of fulfilment receive an awareness of God, 2 - God reveals himself in the events of human history
- Facts and truths are not communicated
- E.g in this view, stories concerning Adam and Even and St. Paul are not to be taken literally, these individuals have been inspired rather than spoken to
- Believed by liberal christians, Hick, Schleiermacher and Bultmann
- Schleiermacher believed that biblical texts came about as writers reflecting on their religious experiences
- 1 - Propositional
- Criticisms
- Of propositional revelation
- Different religions claim different propositional revelations and sometimes truth claims conflict - How can contradictions be resolved?
- No direct way to verify or prove
- May not have been recorded accurately as the human mind makes mistakes
- Of non-propositional revelation
- They are the result of human understanding and interpretation and not facts so there is no way of resolving debates
- The content of revelation is entirely due to interpretation so does not reveal anything about God
- Of propositional revelation
- Can we trust the Bible?
- No
- Writing of the Bible was a very human process, stories may have been passed down by word of mouth so unreliable
- The Bible is interpreted in so many different ways, some of the moral commands in the old testament make no sense
- Belief in the Bible causes many difficulties and conflicts
- Yes
- God guided the process of revelation throughout which stops the chance of error
- There is so much influence in the Bible, millions follow it and it changes lives
- It is difficult due to old writings but old testament standards are no longer applicable now Jesus has come
- No
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