Sunday, October 30, 2011

DIVINE MANIFESTATION

My Theology professor, Dr. William Hendricks, told us that Manifestation is, “God coming into time and space to give normative witness to himself and his purpose.” That's Theologian talk for, "God interacts with mankind any way He wants to." Most people see God's revelation to man as simply the Divine being--or an angelic stand-in--appearing to people in their house or maybe in dreams. God is so much more creative than that. God has bombarded the human race with a myriad of revelations. He has used vehicles from every class of thing that exists.
1.  Inanimate objects:  Lilies of the field, the star in the East.
2.  Spiritual beings:      Angels
3.  Theophanies:         Personal appearances
4.  Animals:                 Balaam’s ass
5.  Humans:                 From Adam on
6.  Written language:   Stone tablets, leather and papyrus scrolls
7.  God, the Spirit:       Brooding on the surface of the water, resting on & dwelling in
     believers
8.  INCARNATION: Which is Different from theophany: The Incarnation of God-in-Christ is Written in red, bold, italic, and underlined CAPITOL letters.

The defining characteristics of Divine revelation include the facts that they,
1.  Appear in the Historical records of mankind
2.  In every case they must be correctly Interpreted
3.  They are Holy; Separated, set apart, different from me and you.
4.  Revelation's purpose is always Redemptive: It seeks to establish redemptive
     relationships with men and women.
5.  It is Positively ethical;  moral, rather than “im” or  a-moral
6.  It is Limited: God doesn’t tell us everything we would like to know

One last thing about Divine revelation. Christians believe that Jesus, the Messiah, is, if not the last revelation to be given, certainly is the Highest revelation. Jesus is not "divine", with a lower case "d". He is not god junior-grade. He is not a good, holy man. Christianity proclaimes with gauche bluntness, that Jesus is God Himself. God became one of us to redeem the lost and fallen world.Jesus is the Last and Highest revelation of God, Creator of the world.

Want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus.

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