Originally Posted by epistemaniac

"revelation" is either special or general.... general revelation is God's witness of Himself in nature, and is thus open to and observable to all..... eg
Rom 1:18-20 ESV For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."

.... but special revelation, "In its narrower sense it is confined to the communication of knowledge in a supernatural as distinguished from a natural mode; or, passively, to the knowledge of God which has been supernaturally made known to men." (BB Warfield, The Idea and Theories of Revelation) or "Special revelation involves a narrower focus than general revelation and is restricted to Jesus Christ and the Scriptures. Of course, all that is known of Christ is through the Scriptures; therefore, it can be said that special revelation is restricted to the Scriptures." Enns, Paul P.: The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago, Ill. : Moody Press, 1997, c1989, S. 158)



eg Heb 1:1-2 ESV Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."

and most importantly

2Pe 1:19-21 ESV And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, (20) knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. (21) For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

as far as personal individual subjective revelations go, the problem is asking how we can know that a person's subjective experience where they think God has spoken to them is in fact the Triune God and not either their own subjective imagination or a demon? Jim Jones was quite convinced that God told him to poison and kill hundreds of people, Heavens Gate was quite convinced God told them to hitch a ride on a comet by committing suicide, and on and on such stories could go. The only way we have to check an individual person's claim to have been given a special revelation from God, as to whether or not this revelation is true, is to compare it to Scripture.

But that brings up the following conundrum: if what a person says (ie their recounting of their personal "revelation") is consistent with Scripture in that we can point to specific Scriptures or general Scriptural teaching and say that yes, this teaching is true because it lines up with Scripture, then why did we ever need this person's "special revelations" to inform us of this teaching in the first place, since we already have the teaching present in the Scriptures? If what they say God revealed to them is already present in the Scriptures, there is obviously no need for that person to have had such a special revelation from God. Or, finally and conversely, if their personal revelation is not consistent with the Scripture, then of course we can reject it as untrue.

But the point is that we have to have a standard by which to measure anyone's teaching regardless of how the person conceived of their ideas in the first place, or in the second place, how they convey these teachings to us. We all have a responsibility to subject and scrutinized everything everyone says, including what I am currently saying, to the Scriptures themselves. And whether or not, as to the individual themselves generically speaking is concerned, their ideas came to them in their personal study as they prepared a sermon on a biblical passage, or the idea just seemed to hit them out of nowhere, or they feel that God personally gave them a particular message via a dream or a a mystic encounter of some sort, their ideas have to be consistent with Scripture or rejected.

1Jo 4:1 ESV Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world."

1Th 5:21 ESV but test everything; hold fast what is good.

blessings,
Ken

Originally Posted by Boanerges

Heh Ken- where have you been? I sent you a few pm's and you have been in my prayers!

Originally Posted by Dusty