How does God reveal Himself through people?
Dr. Richard Pratt unpacks existential revelation—the powerful ways God makes Himself known through humanity.
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Although it has not been common for theologians to speak about “existential revelation” — God’s revelation in persons — the idea that God reveals himself in and through persons has always been recognized by the mainstream of Protestant theology as a part of general revelation.
While this traditional approach is helpful in some ways, it tends to keep our attention away from some very important dimensions of God’s revelation. So, this type of revelation really deserves to be treated separately.
Listen to the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter, 1 section 10:
The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.
The Confession states that the supreme judge in all controversies of religion is the Holy Spirit, and that the surest guide to the Holy Spirit’s judgments is Scripture. But the Confession does not simply brush aside these others as useless or invalid. In fact, the Confession assumes the value of all the other sources that it lists. God uses “councils … ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits” to reveal his will to his people, even though their determinations must be subject to Scripture.
We can call these human judgments forms of existential revelation.
The external aspects of existential revelation include such things as human existence, human judgment (both individual and corporate), and human behavior.
We can think of human existence as a form of revelation because human beings are created in the image of God. And because we reflect who he is, we can learn many things about God by looking at people.
In addition, individual and corporate human judgment is a form of existential revelation that is closely related to our being created in God’s image.
In Acts chapter 15, early church leaders met in Jerusalem to render judgment regarding the practices of Gentiles who converted to Christianity. The council, which was attended and supported by apostles such as Peter and Paul, sent a letter explaining its determinations to the various churches then in existence. Their understanding was that God could use their joint deliberations in order to determine the proper course of action for the church.
We have to be clear here: Unlike Scripture, church councils are not infallible. Still, there is a biblical precedent for believing that God uses his corporately gathered people to reveal truth.
God also uses human behavior as an external type of existential revelation. We see this frequently in Scripture when the biblical authors encourage their readers to imitate the behavior of others.
There are also internal types of existential revelation. When we speak of the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we’re referring to a divine gift of understanding that God gives to believers, and even to unbelievers.
Beyond this, the Holy Spirit also provides what has often been called “inward leading.” Inward leading is one of the most common ways in which the Holy Spirit works within individuals to reveal truth about God’s character.
More than any other aspect of nature, human beings reflect God, and this means that we can learn much about God and his will by focusing not on nature in general only, but also by giving special attention to ourselves and to other human beings as the image and the likeness of God.
– Dr. Richard Pratt, Jr., President, Thirdmill
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