‘God is most clearly revealed to humanity through scripture.’ Discuss. 35 marks
Most commonly, religious people believe that God is revealed to them through the Bible, through the stories, or through the meaning which is in the story. The scriptures include books such as the Bible or the Qur’an. The Holy Scripture is called Holy because it means ‘set apart.’ This shows us that humans are separate from God, and we are set apart from God because the Bible or the Qur’an is revelatory. Some people on the other hand, believe that God is revealed to us through the earth he provides us with and the scenery we are given. A revelation is when God reveals his work to the person that experiences the revelation.
Propositional revelation refers to God directly revealing truths about his nature to people. They are propositions made by God. Revelations communicate facts from God or about God, believers argue that revelations, therefore must be true because they come directly from God. In Exodus 20:1-17, God appeared to the Moses on Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. For Christians and Jews this is one of the most significant revelations. This is because when God appeared to Moses he gave him the Ten Commandments that are now very significant to Christian life because they believe in obeying them. As the Ten Commandments came from God they are not up for debate, neither are they open for questioning.
Most religious people believe that God reveals himself through the Bible. This is because there are many occasions throughout the Bible that allow us to think that God is revealing himself. For example, in Acts 9: 1-31 God appears to Saul on the way to Damascus. In this Bible story Saul says “Who are you, Lord?” then Jesus replies “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” Then Saul and he was blinded for three days, when Jesus appeared to him. This shows us that God appears to people and directly talks to them, to either give them a message or tell them how they need to behave. Some people believe that God reveals his divine word through the scriptures.
In the same way a Muslim could state that the Qur’an is propositional revelation. This type of revelation is very specific and particular because it means that there is no need for reinterpretation and it is without error. The role of faith is to accept the revelation of God. In Islam this is expressed as the submission to God.
Thomas Aquinas concluded that faith concerns knowledge about God. This knowledge isn’t similar to scientific knowledge but it doesn’t mean that it is made up. He believed that faith was built upon facts as it was demonstrated to be true. However, faith isn’t certain as it can’t be proven true by reason. Even though propositional revelations are seen as truths from God they can’t be explained by human reason as they are not provable. This is why some people believe that propositional revelation isn’t the best way to see God and his message.
Since propositional revelations are just commands given to believers from God, people can argue that these revelations are very passive. This is seen as useless because psychologists believe that for people to gain knowledge they have to be active in their learning. Another reason as to why propositional revelations could be seen as incorrect because every religion claims to receive revelations from God, but which one is really true? How can two revelations, from two different religions be true if they contradict themselves?
Many Christians believe that the Bible is divinely inspired but they don’t believe that it is a propositional revelation from God. Divine inspiration refers to the belief among Christian that God inspired the writers of the books of the Bible. This is called non-propositional revelation, as people describe the Bible as a collection of accounts and stories about people’s experiences of God, it means that God didn’t directly reveal himself to people. The author in that case isn’t dictated about what to do, but