RevelationGod’sUniversalWi.mp3
👆Click and listen to this training as you get ready or drive somewhere.
If you want to really know God—not just know about Him—you cannot get there by guessing, imagining, or climbing your way up to heaven with your own ideas. The Bible teaches that God is infinite and we are finite. He is Creator, and we are creatures. That means, by nature, we are limited. We cannot investigate God the way a scientist studies rocks or plants. If we are going to know God in any true and meaningful way, He must take the first step. He must choose to make Himself known.
That is what Christians mean by the word revelation. Revelation is God’s act of showing Himself, God’s self-manifestation to human beings. He lifts the veil and lets us see what we could never discover on our own. And Scripture tells us that God has done this in more than one way. Traditionally, Christians talk about two main kinds of revelation: general revelation and special revelation.
General revelation is God’s communication of Himself to all people, in all places, at all times. It is wide, constant, and universal. Special revelation is more focused. It refers to God’s particular words and actions given to specific people at specific points in history, so that they can truly know Him and enter into a saving relationship with Him. These two kinds of revelation are different, but they are not enemies. When they are rightly understood, they are deeply connected and perfectly harmonious.
In this chapter, we will explore why revelation is necessary, how general revelation works, how sin affects our ability to see it, why special revelation is essential for salvation, and how all of God’s revelation comes together most clearly in His written Word and in His Son, Jesus Christ.
The idea of revelation starts with a simple reality: God is above us. He is not part of the created world. He is not limited by time, space, or matter. You and I learn by experience, by trial and error, by observation. But God cannot be “studied” in exactly that way, because He is beyond our normal ways of knowing.
Even if humans were not sinners, we would still be creatures trying to know an infinite God. That alone makes revelation necessary. But the situation becomes even more serious because of sin. The Bible teaches that human beings are not just limited—we are also fallen. Our minds are darkened, our hearts are turned away, and our wills are bent in rebellion against God.
Think of Adam and Eve before the Fall. It is possible that they enjoyed a clear, ongoing awareness of God. Perhaps they had repeated special encounters with Him in the garden. They lived in a world without sin, and there was no barrier between them and God’s presence. But once sin entered the world, everything changed. Adam and Eve no longer looked at God with trust and delight; instead, they hid from Him. Their relationship with Him was broken. Their understanding of spiritual things became clouded and confused.
From that moment forward, humanity didn’t just need more information about God; we needed God Himself to come to us in a new way. We needed a revelation that would not only inform our minds but also address our guilt, our shame, and our separation from Him. We needed God to speak and act in a way that could rebuild a relationship that had been lost. That is why special revelation is not just helpful—it is absolutely necessary.
Special revelation is God’s focused, saving communication. It does not exist simply to expand human knowledge in a general sense, the way a textbook adds facts to your brain. Its goal is relational and redemptive. It moves people from knowing about God to actually knowing God. Through special revelation, God deals with sin, guilt, and spiritual death. He provides the only way of atonement, redemption, and reconciliation.
At the same time, special revelation does not stand all by itself. General revelation is still important. Through general revelation, people recognize ideas like existence, power, beauty, order, and morality. These concepts form the basic framework that allows them to understand the God who speaks through special revelation. The two kinds of revelation are meant to work together. General revelation gives a broad, universal witness of God’s reality and power. Special revelation gives the clear, detailed, saving message that brings people back into fellowship with Him.
When we speak of general revelation, we are talking about God’s self-disclosure that reaches every person, everywhere, at all times. It is “general” for two main reasons. First, it is universal in its audience—no one is excluded from seeing it or hearing it in some way. Second, it is general in its content—it reveals real truths about God, but not in the detailed, specific way that the Bible does.
General revelation comes to us in at least three main arenas: nature, history, and the inner life of human beings.