General vs Specific Revelation: Which Is Better?
“So, which is better? General revelation needs specific revelation to make it truly comprehensible.” - P&D
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So, which is better? General revelation needs specific revelation to make it truly comprehensible.
This is true, but so is the inverse:
Special revelation needs general revelation to make it truly comprehensible.
This is because special revelation relies on language and language relies on referents.
As an example, start with Genesis 1:1: “In the begninning.” How do we know what “beginning” means? We know it from experience, which is knowledge usually included under the ‘general’ category.
I have read some making the case for a third category: conscience, or law written in their hearts (Rom 2). Others put that under ‘general’ also. So whether we understand ‘beginning’ from experience or intuition, it’s not special revelation.
Then we come to “God.” It reads “In the beginning, God created.” How do we know who God is?
I hear some saying, “well we know from Scripture.” True, but how do we know who Scripture is talking about when it tells us things about “God”?
That one I believe is in intuitive, but still not special revelation.
Special revelation builds on general. General is completed by special. Neither is in any way inferior to the other. We use the word “revelation,” which assumes a Revealer. If there is a Revealer, and that Revealer is God, then nothing He does can be said to be ‘better’ than anything else He does. It is all perfect.
The problems come on the receiving end—and this is true of both general and special revelations. We don’t read words in a vacuum. We read the in the context of human experience, our ecclesiastical history, our intuitive knowledge, the groups we belong to.
Neither special or general are impervious to bias. And sometimes I think we overlook that.
Whether special or general, we now “know in part” and “see…. darkly” (end of 1 Cor 13).
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
If there is a Revealer, and that Revealer is God, then nothing He does can be said to be ‘better’ than anything else He does. It is all perfect.
The Bible does not support your view that "nothing He does can be said to be 'better' than anything else He does."
Scripture speaks explicitly of better promises, all of which were made by God Himself. It speaks of a better resurrection, which God Himself performs.
Scripture speaks of a better covenant that God Himself enacted. It also speaks of humans as better than sheep and fowls of the air even though God made humans, sheep, birds, and all other living beings.
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