Lesson 2 Flashcards
How does Psalm 19 help the Christian understand the economy of divine revelation?
Psalm 19 help sus appreciate two forms of divine revelation and their place within a broader economy in which God makes us flourish to his glory in the knowledge and love of himself.
Saved - How does Psalm 19 help the Christian understand the economy of divine revelation?
Psalm 19 help sus appreciate two forms of divine revelation and their place within a broader economy in which God makes us flourish to his glory in the knowledge and love of himself.
- The book of nature (1-6)
a. The reach of general revelation is universal: all times (2), all ears (3), all places (4, 6)
b. The sun, our teacher: The sun declares God’s glory by running its divinely ordained course
with joy (5). - The book of Scripture/torah (7-11)
a. Attributes of God’s law/torah (perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true and righteous altogether,
desirable, profitable)
b. The law and human wholeness/flourishing (soul, mind, heart, eyes, taste) - Sin is the antinomian enemy of God’s glory and human flourishing (12a).
- The psalmist pleads God’s work in the gospel: to address our need and to restore us to a life of
lawfulness/human flourishing to the glory of God (12b-14).
a. At bottom, the foundation of all the psalmist’s pleas, “YHWH,” the God of the covenant,
“my rock and my redeemer.”
b. In the Covenant of Grace, he has given himself to us to be our God. We may therefore expect
from him every blessing we need to flourish in his presence for his glory. - This “psalm of revelation” thus teaches us about general revelation and about special revelation.
It also teaches us that, in special revelation, God not only speaks to us, but he also teaches us
how to speak to him, for our blessing and flourishing, for his glory
How does one understand the relationship between human nature and divine revelation before and after the Fall?
The economy of divine revelation is ultimately realized and perfected in the beatific vision (1 Cor13:12; Titus 2:13; 1 John 3:2; Rev 22:1-5)
In sum
1. The state of nature before the fall
a. General revelation via God’s works
b. Special revelation via God’s Word
2. The state of nature after the fall
a. General revelation via God’s works
3. The state of grace
a. Special revelation via God’s Word
b. Old Testament and New Testament
c. Various administrations of the Covenant of Grace
d. Jesus Christ: the Word made flesh
4. The state of glory: the beatific vision
What are the similarities between general and special revelation?
Similarities between general and special revelation
a. In both general and special revelation, the invisible God makes himself known through
creaturely media to creatures (cf. the beatific vision, which is immediate).
b. Both general and special revelation manifest certain common objects of knowledge regarding
God and ourselves.
c. Due to God’s “design plan” for communicating knowledge (he has made his world and his Word intelligible modes of communication; he has made us intelligent creatures), both general and special revelation are able to produce knowledge (= warranted true belief) that is “properly basic” (Alvin Plantinga), i.e., that is not dependent upon other modes of knowledge (e.g., proofs).
i. General revelation God’s works sensus divinitatis (John Calvin)
ii. Special revelation God’s Word/testimony Spirit-illumined faith
iii. Contra “classical foundationalism”
d. Though general and special revelation are able to produce knowledge independently of proofs, proofs may nevertheless play a secondary, servant role in strengthening the knowledge of God available in general and special revelation. Proofs are not essential to obtaining knowledge, but they can assist us and others in becoming conscientious knowers. But note: being conscientious knowers always presupposes that we are already knowers by virtue of God’s design plan for obtaining knowledge.
i. General revelation God’s works sensus divinitatis + proofs
ii. Special revelation God’s Word/testimony Spirit-illumined faith + proofs
iii. Contra radical fideism/presuppositionalism
What are the differences between general and special revelation?
Differences between general and special revelation
a. In general revelation, God makes himself known through his works to human reason. In special revelation, God makes himself known through his Word to Spirit-illumined faith.
b. In general revelation, God makes himself known through a universal medium of communication to a universal audience (Ps 19). In special revelation, God makes himself known through specific utterances to specific audiences (Heb 1:1-4).
i. This distinction is the source of the adjectival labels, “general” and “special.”
c. In general revelation, we come to know God through God’s works by natural faculties of perception. In special revelation, we come to know God through God’s Word/testimony, received by Spirit-illumined faith (belief and trust).
d. While there is some overlap between the objects of general and special revelation, the latter reveals truths unavailable through general revelation (e.g., Trinity, incarnation, salvation, worship). This is true both before and after the fall.
e. General revelation does not successfully produce a fully adequate knowledge of God and of ourselves, unmixed with error, because sin has diseased our cognitive faculties and we suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18ff). Special revelation does successfully produce true knowledge of God, of the gospel, and of ourselves through Holy Scripture (principium cognoscendi externum) and the illuminating and converting power of the Holy
Spirit to produce faith (principium cognoscendi internum) (2 Cor 3-4).
f. Both general and special revelation are essential to the theology of pilgrims (Psalm 8!), but the former must always be interpreted and judged in light of the latter, because the latter is a superior form of revelation.
g. Only special revelation can lead us to the ultimate form of revelation, and to the source of our ultimate happiness, in the beatific vision (Pss 27:4; 43:3; Matt 11:25-30). This is true both before and after the fall. Viewed from this perspective, general revelation is radically incomplete (Job 28)
In what ways is special revelation covenantal in nature?
- God’s “special act of providence” (WSC 12): By means of his covenantal Word, God moves and
directs human beings to their divinely appointed end of possessing, knowing, and loving God
(i.e., happiness in God).
a. God gives himself to us through covenant with the result that we possess God, our supreme happiness.
i. The covenant formula (Lev 26:12; 2 Cor 6:18; Rev 21:3, 7)
ii. “Kinship through covenant”
b. God’s covenantal Word is also the means whereby God moves and directs us to our supreme
end of happiness in God: Ps 16:2, 5-6, 11 - How God moves and directs us through his covenantal Word with the result that we know, trust,
and love God
a. Speech acts: law and promises/gospel
b. Covenant elements covenant substance
i. God’s name
ii. What God has done for us and what God will do for us
iii. Faith, hope, and love - The unfolding economy of God’s covenants with human beings
a. Nature: the covenant of works
b. Grace: the covenant of grace
i. Noahic Covenant
ii. Abrahamic Covenant
iii. Mosaic Covenant
iv. Davidic Covenant
v. New Covenant
c. Glory: the beatific vision, covenant consummation (Rev 21:3, 7) - Christ and covenant
a. Jesus is the author, with the Father in the Spirit, of God’s covenantal Word.
b. Jesus sums up the substance of the covenant (God’s name, history, promises, our faith, hope,
and love).
c. Jesus fulfills the economy of the covenants by means of “the covenant of redemption.”
d. The economy of the covenant is consummated in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (“kinship
through covenant”).
e. Accordingly, the Bible is the announcement of and invitation to a wedding (Matt 22:2).
By what modes has God given special revelation to his creatures?
1. Short of the beatific vision, all modes of special revelation are creaturely modes of revelation: God himself speaking to creatures by means of creaturely media
Jesus Christ is the supreme mode of special revelation.
a. John 1:1, 14-18 (cf. Moses); Heb 1:1-4
b. “Theology of union”
c. This mode of special revelation is incarnational revelation: God himself speaking to us in the
person of the Son in human form.
d. Short of the beatific vision, all other forms of special revelation flow from this form of
special revelation.
i. They are, in some sense, revealed by him: “The word of the Lord came. . .” (Gen 15:1;
etc.) (Thomas Aquinas); 1 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 3:2.
ii. They are, in some sense, a revelation of him: John 1:14; 12:41
iii. In other words, the incarnate Son is the ultimate author and object of all forms of special
revelation.
3. Other modes of special revelation (Heb 1:1)
a. Angel and theophany: Exod 3:1-6
i. The character of special revelation is a holy wonder
b. Dreams, visions, riddles: Numbers 12:6-8
c. Direct speech: Deut 34:10; 2 Pet 1:16-18
d. Again, compare Moses (Num 12:6-8; Deut 34:10) and Jesus (John 1:1, 18)
4. Prophets and apostles (Heb 1:1; 2 Cor 5:20)
a. “Double agency discourse” (Nicholas Wolterstorff)
b. Next lecture…
5. Holy Scripture is the literary extension of the prophetic and apostolic ministry, the means
whereby God himself transmits and communicates his covenantal, Christ-centered Word to his
people at all times and in all places until Christ returns.
a. Transmission and communication of the prophetic Word: Deut 29:14-15; 31:9-11
b. Transmission and communication of the apostolic Word: 2 Pet 1:13-15
c. Until Christ returns: 2 Pet 1:19
d. “There I will give you my love” (Song of Solomon 7:12)
e. Hence the “necessity” of Scripture
