Revelation

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Revelations :: Revelation

Revelation is an uncovering or disclosure via communication from the divine of something that has been partially or wholly hidden or unknown. In monotheistic religions, revelation is the process, or act of making divine information known. Revelation in a religious sense is that which God, a god, or other supernatural being such as an angel makes known about divine will, principles, laws and doctrines.

Revelation has been defined as containing three types. These are (1) General Revelation, (2) Special Revelation, and (3) Direct Revelation. The first two were determined by Orthodox Christianity, as they interpreted from the Bible, through the scripture of 2 Timothy 3:16-17, where it says (summarized) that all scripture is God-breathed for the benefit of man to all good works. The third is actually part of "special revelation", but has become a distinct type since the nineteenth century with the advent of the First Vision (- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).

The recipient of revelation is commonly referred to as a prophet, and sometimes is termed a messenger.

A common claim of religious apologists is that due to the subjective nature of revelation, it is not amenable to scientific proof.

There are a number of ways that religious thinkers have traditionally approached this topic; many widely differing views have been proposed. Generally speaking, one can find all of the following viewpoints in varying segments of Judaism and Christianity.

Verbal

Some people hold that God can communicate with humans in a way that gives direct, propositional content: This is termed verbal revelation, but is a misnomer of revel, perhaps from a misspelling of reveal, Orthodox Judaism and traditional Christianity hold that the first five books of Moses were communicated by God in such a fashion. Most proponents of verbal inspiration in the Christian tradition do not subscribe to a dictation theory in which the writer simply records the words of God. Rather, they argue that inspiration is an organic process wherein God superintends the writing such that the document communicates what God wants to reveal using the writer's style and circumstances.

Non-verbal propositional

One school of thought holds that revelation is non-verbal and non-literal, yet it may have propositional content. People were divinely inspired by God with a message, but not in a verbal-like fashion.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel has written that "To convey what the prophets experienced, the Bible could either use terms of descriptions or terms of indication. Any description of the act of revelation in empirical categories would have produced a caricature. That is why all the Bible does is to state that revelation happened; How it happened is something they could only convey in words that are evocative and suggestive."

Through historical development of faith

Some believe that God is non-anthropomorphic, and thus believe the above listed forms of revelation are impossible. Hence they believe God's will is revealed through the interaction of man and God throughout history.

For instance, Rabbi Louis Jacobs proposes that by viewing how the Jewish people have understood God's will throughout history, we see how God has actually influenced the development of Jewish law; it is this process that we should recognize as revelation.

One part of the Talmud declares rabbinic interpretation superior to biblical prophecy: "Rabbi Abdimi of Haifa said: Since the day when the Temple was destroyed, the prophetic gift was taken away from the prophets and given to the Sages. Is a Sage not also a prophet?" The question is rhetorical, the answer clearly is "yes". The Talmud goes on to say: "What Rabbi Abdimi meant to say was this: although it has been taken from the prophets, prophecy has not been taken from the Sages. Amemar said: A Sage is even superior to a prophet, as it says "And a prophet has the heart of wisdom" (Psalms 90:21) Who is usually compared with whom? Is not the smaller compared with the greater?" (Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 12A)

Revelation as described in The Urantia Book is connected with earned knowledge through humankind's evolutionary growth. In the Urantia papers can be found an explanation of several types of revelation both as group revelation and as individual revelation. Other revelations are epochal and yet others are incidental.

"The Gift of Revelation"

"Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive. Down through the ages of a world's history, the revelations of religion are ever-expanding and successively more enlightening. It is the mission of revelation to sort and censor the successive religions of evolution. But if revelation is to exalt and upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in touch with evolution, as this is really, really, really, really important to understand yeh. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man's capacity of receptivity." (Urantia, 1007)

"Revelation is a technique whereby ages upon ages of time are saved in the necessary work of sorting and sifting the errors of evolution from the truths of spirit acquirement." (Urantia, 1110)

Overall, revelation as described in The Urantia Book is something that is given to mankind by divine personality when mankind is unable to discover that truth on his own by mankind's usual and normal means of discovering truths and facts.

Divine Revelation in Islam

Divine Revelation plays a very important role in the Muslim faith. While religious books of other faiths were recorded by followers of prophets and are therefore at best second hand recordings of divine revelations, the Qur'an claims to have been revealed word by word and letter by letter. The Qur'an is therfore, no doubt, the most extensive piece among all revelations of different religions. Islam knows different forms and degrees of Divine revelation. See for example .

Latter Day Saint concept of revelation

The Latter Day Saint concept of revelation includes the belief that revelation from God is available to all those who seek it—provided they submit to the will of God—as opposed to being imparted to certain special individuals (independent of their own actions or desires).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and some other Latter Day Saint denominations claim to be led by revelation from God to a living prophet, who receives God’s word just as Abraham, Moses, Peter, and other ancient prophets and apostles did. It also believes everyone is entitled to personal revelation with respect to his or her stewardship. Thus, prophets may receive revelation for their people, parents can receive inspiration from God in raising their families, individuals can receive divine inspiration to help them meet personal challenges, church officers may receive revelation for those to whom they serve, etc. The important consequence of this is that each person may receive confirmation that particular doctrines taught by a prophet are true, as well as gain divine insight in using those truths for their own benefit. In the Church, personal revelation is expected and encouraged, and many converts believe that personal revelation from God was instrumental in their conversion.

Joseph F. Smith, the sixth prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, summarized this church's belief concerning revelation by saying, "We believe... in the principle of direct revelation from God to man." (Smith, 362) He also more specifically detailed the importance of the principle of modern-day revelation to the church he then led:

The gospel cannot be administered, nor the Church of God continue to exist, without it. Christ is the head of his Church and not man, and the connection can only be maintained upon the principle of direct and continued revelation. It… is a living, vital principle to be enjoyed on certain conditions only, namely – through absolute faith in God and obedience to his laws and commandments. The moment this principle is cut off, that moment the Church is adrift, being severed from its ever-living head. In this condition it cannot continue, but must cease to be the Church of God and, like the ship at sea without captain, compass or rudder, is afloat at the mercy of the storms and the waves of ever contending human passions, and worldly interests, pride and folly... (Smith, 362)

James E. Talmage, a noted LDS scholar, attempted to connect this belief with the nature of God and also emphasized the importance of the principle of continuing revelation to his faith:

It is at once unreasonable, and directly contrary to our conception of the unchangeable justice of God, to believe that He will bless the Church in one dispensation with present living revelation of His will and in another leave ^* Church... to live as best it may according to the laws of a bygone age.

Latter Day Saints believe that God answers prayers. Communicating with God is seen by many Latter Day Saints as an important part of developing faith and coming to know God, resulting in Eternal life.

Existentialism

In the 20th century, religious existentialists proposed that revelation held no content in of itself; rather, they hold that God inspired people with His presence by coming into contact with them. In this view the Bible is a human response that records how we responded to God.

Revelation or information from a supernatural source is of much lesser importance in some other religious traditions. It is not of great importance in the Asian religions Taoism, and Confucianism but similarities have been noted between the Abrahamic view of revelation and the Buddhist principle of Enlightenment.

Visitation

An experience of presence or communication between the recently deceased and their spouse or progeny is called visitation. This experience may be interpreted by some persons as revealing the will of God. Such experiences are deemed normative and not pathological according to the DSM IV (Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association).

Arguments against revelation

In the Age of Reason Thomas Paine maintained that revelation can only be considered valid by the original recipient and when subsequently communicated by the recipient to a second person it ceases to be a revelation but rather becomes a hearsay second hand account, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it.

More recently one of the themes of Jon Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven was the danger that revelations can be used to justify any immoral action as the supposed will of God.

Many philosophies and some religions reject revelation as a valid method of learning the true nature of the universe or human spirituality. Humanism bases its ethics and morality on universal morality. Rationalism asserts that the truth can best be discovered by reason and factual analysis. The scientific method acquires knowledge through a process of examining observable, empirical, measurable evidence, and subjecting it to the laws of reasoning and logic. Criminal courts do not recognise revelations from God as a valid defense of criminal acts

Notes and references

The Newsletter of the Foundation for Ancient Research & Mormon Studies (FARMS) at Brigham Young University Insights! volume 25 | 2005, Number 4, p.5

Prophecy

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