The Doctrine of Revelation

If God speaks through creation, why does everyone not see him the same way?

Paul says everyone sees enough in the sky and the world to know a Creator is there. The difference is not a shortage of evidence but what a person does with it. In this psalm of David, the heavens pour out speech to every land, and the same light that shows a sunset also shows a person the way to turn away.

The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,…

Psalms 19:1–4

For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things.

Romans 1:20–23

“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of the same nature as you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

Acts 14:15–17

Can I really know who God is, or am I just guessing about him?

David moves from general beauty in the sky to something specific and exact: the law, the testimony, the precepts, the commandment. He does not say they feel true; he says they are perfect, sure, right, pure, and clean. That kind of specificity gives a person something firm to stand on, not a vague feeling that changes with the weather.

Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple. Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. Yahweh’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether.

Psalms 19:7–9

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.

Psalms 119:105

Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16–17

Why do I want to hear God in the sunshine but not open the Bible?

David calls God's words worth more than gold and sweeter than honey, and then says they warn him about hidden faults. The part of the Bible that keeps a person away is often the part that shows him a defect he would rather not see. That is the same word David found sweeter than honey, and it is the word that revives a soul.

They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb. Moreover your servant is warned by them. In keeping them there is great reward.

Psalms 19:10–11

Who can discern his errors? Forgive me from hidden errors. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

Psalms 19:12–13

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

Hebrews 4:12–13

But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:22–25

Does God actually come close to me, or is he only out there?

David prayed to the Lord as his rock and his redeemer before he knew the Redeemer's name. He saw the silhouette, and he trusted there was a person behind it. Looking back, that person is Jesus, the exact imprint of God's nature, who did not stay out in the universe but came down to be with us and bring us into the family of God.

God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,…

Hebrews 1:1–3

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 14:8–9

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer.

Psalms 19:14

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,…

Ephesians 2:13–19