I have finished Carl Henry's exposition (in three volumes of the six in God, Revelation and Authority) of his 15 theses about God's self-disclosure, or the "God who speaks and shows." Masterful.
One excerpt today, regarding not just the truthfulness of God's revelation (corresponding to reality) but also its consistency (or, coherence). Very helpful in presenting God's truth in a pluralistic (relativistic) society.
Thesis #4. "The very fact of disclosure by the one living God assures the comprehensive unity of divine revelation."
"The polytheistic religions played off one deity against another. On the presupposition of many competitive gods there can be no unified divine revelation. The sense of the Hebrew Shema ('the Lord our God is one God') may well be that Yahweh cannot be split up into such multiple divinities. From the very outset the self-revealing God of Scripture stands out as Creator and Lord of all. God who makes himself known in revelation is the one sovereign God. Elijah knew that the issue at Carmel was God or Baal, not God and Baal. The Bible relates the whole of history to this one God. In his letter to the Romans the apostle Paul underscores this very point: 'Do you suppose God is the God of the Jews alone?... Certainly of Gentiles also, if it be true that God is one' (Rom. 3:29-30). Only the fact that the one sovereign God, the Creator and Lord of all, stands at the center of divine disclosure, guarantees a unified divine revelation. While this revelation awaits completing in the future, the knowledge 'in part' given prophets and apostles is nonetheless trustworthy and coherent however incomplete it may be. Divine revelation is reliable and consistent, or it would not be revelation. The capstone revelation of the end-time will confirm all past and present disclosure of God. The fact of revelation by the one sovereign God assures the comprehensive unity of God's disclosure."
~ Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation And Authority, II:9
One excerpt today, regarding not just the truthfulness of God's revelation (corresponding to reality) but also its consistency (or, coherence). Very helpful in presenting God's truth in a pluralistic (relativistic) society.
Thesis #4. "The very fact of disclosure by the one living God assures the comprehensive unity of divine revelation."
"The polytheistic religions played off one deity against another. On the presupposition of many competitive gods there can be no unified divine revelation. The sense of the Hebrew Shema ('the Lord our God is one God') may well be that Yahweh cannot be split up into such multiple divinities. From the very outset the self-revealing God of Scripture stands out as Creator and Lord of all. God who makes himself known in revelation is the one sovereign God. Elijah knew that the issue at Carmel was God or Baal, not God and Baal. The Bible relates the whole of history to this one God. In his letter to the Romans the apostle Paul underscores this very point: 'Do you suppose God is the God of the Jews alone?... Certainly of Gentiles also, if it be true that God is one' (Rom. 3:29-30). Only the fact that the one sovereign God, the Creator and Lord of all, stands at the center of divine disclosure, guarantees a unified divine revelation. While this revelation awaits completing in the future, the knowledge 'in part' given prophets and apostles is nonetheless trustworthy and coherent however incomplete it may be. Divine revelation is reliable and consistent, or it would not be revelation. The capstone revelation of the end-time will confirm all past and present disclosure of God. The fact of revelation by the one sovereign God assures the comprehensive unity of God's disclosure."
~ Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation And Authority, II:9
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