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Purpose of this Blog

A correct treatise on Christian evidence deals with facts vital to the evangelization of the world. The ultimate triumph of the Christian system depends on its inherent truths. This treatise aims to set forth its divine origin, as taught in the Old and New Testaments. Does the Bible contain a revelation of the divine Mind to man? This question arises for every investigator of its pages. Are the motives of Moses and the prophets, and of Christ and His apostles, as contained in the Old and New Testaments, true? Is Christianity supernatural, and are its claims of God? If the history recorded in the Scriptures and the statements therein relative to revealed religion are worthy of belief, these questions must receive an affirmative answer.

Limitations of the Subject

It is not the business of the apologist to step aside from his legitimate task to prove the existence of God and the truths of natural religion. That, along with all that belongs to the subject of theism, falls to the theologian and comes more properly under the head of natural theology. These facts, namely, the existence of God and His manifest governance of the universe, are taken for granted in these pages.

No Valid Objections Against Revelation

There is no valid objection to a revelation of God to man. Man is a compound of material and spiritual substances. The ego, the personality, the rational soul, is spirit and lives in a material body. Thought is the act of the spirit, not of the body; wisdom and knowledge are its possessions and do not inhere in the body.

God Revealed in Nature

God is a spirit, and a revelation from Him as such to man is essentially the communication of one spirit with another, one person with another. Man, as a rational spirit, is endowed with a capacity for receiving and storing up knowledge. This he does by coming into contact with thoughts and ideas communicated to him from outside. The earth beneath his feet and the heavens above, with all their starry hosts, constantly yield thoughts and ideas to him, enriching his knowledge through their revelations of truth. Nature does not speak into human ears with a human voice, but she communicates to the conscious soul by “marks of design,” which are plainly written in every fiber of her being, disclosing “the eternal power and Godhead” of her supreme Architect.

The Special Revelation Is Personal—a Father to His Children

God’s special revelation to man, the Old and New Testaments, is a personal revelation from one person to another. It is the great Father communicating useful information to His children in their own language, which they understand well. There is nothing unreasonable in this; it is what reason demands from every father who claims to love his offspring. This revelation from God to man implies a making known of the Father’s will to the child, intending that the child may understand and obey. This relation of will and obedience implies moral obligation, which in turn implies specific knowledge of what is required from the one making the requisition to the one from whom obedience is required. Nature may speak her ideas in mute forms and movements, but will God, who is historical, not speak clear and definite truth? The creation of the world may declare “the power and Godhead” of its Creator, but only the historical governance of that world can reveal His attributes of justice, love, mercy, and goodness.

Revelation Is Historic

A general history would be an inadequate medium of revelation, for while it may refer to the individual, it deals more especially with the race. The acts of divine providence are too general in their application to produce conviction or the peace of faith. But a revelation to creatures morally depraved and willfully sinful should be specifically historic—a sacred history within the profane history of a fallen world. The sacred Scriptures claim to be such a history from God to His children, detailing the redemptive act for man and the mediation of Jesus Christ to lift him into reconciliation with God.

Special Revelation Possible and Necessary

A special revelation from God to man implies the gift of information additional to what man already has and also man’s capacity for receiving such revelation. Denying the possibility of special revelation implies that God gave man all the information he was capable of receiving at creation. This does not align with common sense. Man knows he is capable of receiving additional information and believes that God is capable of giving it. If additional information was needed for the redemption and salvation of the world, who would acknowledge the need for light from heaven but deplore God’s ability to give it?

God, the Creator of the spirit, understands the constitution of man and knows how to enlighten and influence him. Having all power, He can adopt means to act upon man according to His will without infringing on man’s nature. Just as a man can be influenced intellectually and morally by his fellow man without violating any natural law, so he can receive communication from his Creator without the destruction of the laws of his constitution or the world.

In considering special revelation, it must be regarded as supplemental to God’s first and universal revelation, the light of nature. The facts attesting its divine authority may transcend but not violate the laws of man’s nature; they may be supernatural, immediate, and additional to nature, but never out of accord with or subversive of its constitution.

By a reasonable mind, it will scarcely be questioned that God, in giving a special revelation, is capable of rendering the recipient able to distinguish between what comes from natural sources and what is revealed by special revelation. All who recognize the possibility of revelation also recognize God’s ability to communicate His truths to man unmistakably.

Hume’s Objection to Miracles Answered

The skeptical objection against the supernatural in Christianity has little influence on honest investigators and earnest truth-seekers; and as the world recedes from the days of David Hume, its influence gradually diminishes. Its syllogistic form states, “That as testimony is more likely to be false than man’s general experience, therefore no miracle can be true.” Such reasoning undermines all truth, natural as well as supernatural or spiritual. The good sense of mankind will always reject it as proving too much to be true or reliable. Skepticism has always failed to recognize this fact regarding the miracles recorded in the Scriptures, namely, that they were both objects of experience and subjects of testimony to the men who lived where they were performed.

While it may be doubtful whether the apologist must show the necessity of a special revelation before considering its truths as matters of fact, there is scarcely room for reasonable doubt that such a necessity has, and does now, exist.

Need of Special Revelation as Shown in the Condition of Pagans

The condition of religion among pagan races in the past and present serves as a forceful argument for man’s need for special revealed truth. Nature’s light has been free to all, but its religious teachings have not been sufficient to lift the world out of its sins into true civilization. It has never succeeded in doing so. Pagans have long complained about the lack of needed light from heaven to guide man in religion and the afterlife. Even with the addition of Christian revelation, no right-minded person would complain that the world has too much light on immortality and human duty. Serious-minded people in all ages and lands have recognized that “it is not in man to direct his steps.” When philosophy and learning reached their peak in the ancient world, the wisest and best of that age, Socrates, expressed the need for a teacher qualified to reveal the mind of God to humanity. He said, “It is necessary to wait till such a personage shall appear to teach them how they ought to conduct themselves, both towards God and towards man.” He added, “Oh, when shall that period arrive? And who shall be that teacher? How ardently do I desire to see that man, who he is!”

Need of Special Revelation as Shown in the Gospels

With all that Jesus says in the Gospels about a future life and immortality, and what is necessary for man to gain heaven, who that reads His sacred message does not wish He had given us a little more light on the future world—on heaven and the relation the dead sustain to the living?

If the record of what claims to be a special revelation does not contain what it professes, and its effects on mankind are contrary to its teachings, then its high claims of a revelation from God may be justly questioned and rejected. But when its records have been subjected to just criticism, and they contain all they claim, and its effects on men accord with its teachings, and these teachings are wise, just, and good, then its claim as a special revelation becomes highly probable and must have great weight with right reason.

Claims for Special Revelation Considered

If a special revelation has been given to man, it must be contained either in the so-called sacred books of paganism or in the Bible, the sacred book of Christians. A careful examination of the Vedas, the Koran, or any other sacred books of the world, apart from the Bible, reveals that their claims lack foundation in truth and do not compare with the grounds of claim upon which the Holy Scriptures rest. Heathenism is ancient, and its religions claim special revelation, but the condition of paganism, with its human sacrifices and dark practices over five thousand years, shows it is not entitled to claims of revelation from God.

About the Author

EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).