On Progressive Revelation
In the Holy Scriptures, we find an inexhaustible mine of divine truth.
We could spend a lifetime studying the Bible and still find something new every day.
Many things are hidden from the superficial explorer and from the occasional reader, but beneath the surface of the mine lies golden treasure of divine knowledge, ready to reward those who seek it with eager hearts. The shaft must be dug deeper and yet deeper, and you will keep finding thousands and thousands of gems of truth. The more you do this, the greater will be your interest in Bible reading, the Scriptures will be constantly receiving a new value in your estimation, and the more you will feel like exclaiming: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33)
Therefore, the journey of faith is not a single moment, but a lifelong walk.
No one begins their Christian walk knowing everything in the Bible, or the depths of the infinite God, or even all their own flaws and areas for growth (Psalms 19:12)
If you are already a Christian, you know this by experience. Think back to when you first came to Christ. Have your practices and biblical knowledge remained the same since then? If you have been a diligent student of God’s Word, your answer must be “no.” Throughout your Christian walk until today, have there not been moments when a Scripture suddenly took on new meaning? When a truth you had overlooked became essential? When God pressed upon you a call to obedience in something you had never before considered? You know, then, that there was much more to learn, not just in the beginning, but at every step that followed.
“I have yet many things to say to you,” said Jesus to his disciples, “but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).
“There is a great principle involved in this saying—that revelation is measured by the moral and spiritual capacities of the men who receive it. The light is graduated for the diseased eye. A wise oculist does not flood that eye with full sunshine, but he puts on veils and bandages, and closes the shutters, and lets a stray beam, ever growing as the curve is perfected, fall upon it. So from the beginning until the end of the process of revelation there was a correspondence between men’s capacity to receive the light and the light that was granted; and the faithful use of the less made them capable of receiving the greater, and as soon as they were capable of receiving it, it came.” (MacLaren Expositions of Holy Scripture)
In everything he does, God is patient, and merciful, and just with us (Psalm 145:17).
The Lord does not condemn us for what we do not yet see.
By his merits, Jesus intercedes for us before God, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). God expresses concern and compassion for those who lack understanding: “Should I not have compassion on the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:11)
The immense patience of God was displayed also in the apostle Paul—a man who, before his conversion, had persecuted and killed many Christians.
For a time in the past, Paul did a very cruel work. Thinking he was doing a godly service, and confident that he was right in his assumptions, he persecuted and executed many servants of God. “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus of Nazareth,” he said. “Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many of the saints there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus. I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities.” (Acts 26:9-11)
But when Jesus was revealed to Paul, and he was convinced that he was persecuting God’s messiah (in the person of his saints), he repented, accepted the truth, and changed his ways.
He became a new man and received the truth so fully that neither earth nor hell could shake his faith. For the sake of truth, meekness, and righteousness, he stood ready to follow God’s messiah—even to prison and certain death. The very man who once sought to destroy the truth that came in his time, now was “established in the present truth” (2 Peter 1:12), and boldly proclaimed it across the known world, and turned many from the power of Satan to God.
“I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19)
He said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:12-16)
At the same time, for Paul, his sincerity and past ignorance did not in any way justify his work, or make error truth.
He laid aside everything he came to know as contrary to God’s ways. In repentance, he surrendered to the revelation of Jesus Christ and changed his ways. He was “established in the present truth” (2 Peter 1:12).
But the truth that God sent in the first century, and was accepted by Paul, was never in conflict with sacred Scripture.
On the contrary, it was the fulfillment of what had always been in God’s Word. It was a reprover and corrector of old religious customs and traditions that contradict God’s Word. Christianity was not to be a new faith, but the continuation of the ancient one—the same faith upheld by the holy men of old, though later corrupted and obscured by the errors taught by the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. Paul’s beliefs and teachings were simply what the prophets had written and the truth that came at that time: that man called Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and the long-awaited fulfillment of the prophets’ words.
Naturally, this brought fierce opposition from the very religious establishment Paul had once been part of.
“When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; so they began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.” (Acts 13:45)
They gave false testimony about him before the authorities, saying: “We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him. […] When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: […] My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me. However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous [for eternal life] and the wicked [for the second death].” (Acts 24:5-15)
“And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? […] First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles. At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. ‘You are out of your mind, Paul!’ he shouted. ‘Your great learning is driving you insane.’ ‘I am not insane, most excellent Festus,’ Paul replied. ‘What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.’ Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?’ Paul replied, ‘Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am [a Christian], except for these chains.’” (Acts 26:6-8, 20-29)
Even among those who were actively persecuting him and seeking to destroy his message, there were some people that, upon learning the truth that God had sent, would repent and obey it.
There were many true servants of God who walked according to the light they had received until then and, because of this, “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was so” (Acts 17:11).
Each one of us came to God from different realities.
All of us came with habits and presuppositions that we learned and shaped from our environment and experiences. Some of those habits and presuppositions may be good and correct, while others, unfortunately, are not. And what did you do when you chose to serve God? You abandoned what is wrong. “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former desires you used to conform to in your ignorance, but as the one who called you is holy, you yourselves be holy in all your conduct,” (1Peter 1:14-15)
And throughout your Christian walk until today, you unknowingly held worldly views and wrong habits you did not yet recognize as wrong.
But the important thing is to, once discovered what is true on any matter, choose to lay down what is wrong at the foot of the cross and cling to what is right. For, in God’s eyes, what matters most is not how much we knew at the beginning of our Christian walk or even today, but how faithfully we walk according to the knowledge we have received. As it is written, “God overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
As you studied the Bible, God revealed deeper truths to you and corrected some of your practices and views, calling you to higher standards and a clearer vision of his will.
Thus, “the path of the righteous [is] as a shining light, going and brightening till the day is established” (Proverbs 4:18).
Notice this: even when the righteous one walked in dim light, Scripture still called him righteous. He was considered righteous not only at noon, but also at midmorning and even at dawn. Remnants of night’s darkness lingered, yet faded steadily as the Sun of Righteousness (Christ) shone ever brighter on his path—until that moment when his path will have the full brightness of day, and all darkness will completely vanish away. What matters most is not how much we knew at first, but how faithfully we walk in the light as it shines upon our way.
So, the fact that you had less light in the beginning or yesterday does not mean you were not saved or a true Christian before.
Tomorrow you will know more than today, and you will improve practices you did not yet know were wrong, and this does not mean that right now you are not saved or a true Christian.
Your only duty before God, then and today, was to practice what you already knew you should do. “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:17) “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:17) “Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin” (John 9:41) “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.” (John 15:22)
But we should not turn away from truth in order to claim innocence before God.
This will not work.
The ignorance that God overlooks is not that willful, voluntary ignorance, which is condemned by God. It is not the choice to turn away from light because the light demands change, because it calls for surrender, because it disturbs the comfort of long-held error. The path of the righteous is not stucked at dawn, nor at midmorning, but is “as a shining light, going and brightening” (Proverbs 4:18). God has further light for all honest truth-seekers, for those who desire it and are willing to obey it.
It is the wicked who does not receive light and by transgression close the avenues whereby the light of truth shall come to him.
As the following verse says: “The way of the wicked [is] as darkness, They have not known at what they stumble” (Proverbs 4:19).
Also, we need to be careful not to try to deceive ourselves by claiming ignorance upon something we actually know. “If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not requite man according to his work?” (Proverbs 24:12)
But in light of all these things, when we come across someone who does not yet obey God concerning a point that we already know should be obeyed, we should never hastily think that they are not true servants of God.
In the same way you do not have to think you were never truly converted just because only now you came to know a certain truth, the same is valid to others who are honest before God. Only God and that person know in its full extent what they know and do not know. Leave the matter with God, who knows what we do not know and sees what we do not see, and be patient with their process in the same way God has been patient with yours.
Do you know those faithful servants of the past?
When we read something about their lives, we may find things that they did not practiced or believed that we know should be practiced or believed. However, as you know, this does not mean they were not saved. They were true Christians, faithful servants of God that walked according to all the knowledge they had received.
And it is true, no one likes to be corrected or have their wrongs pointed out; but we need to learn to regard it as a blessing.
“My son, be not despising chastening of the Lord, nor be faint, being reproved by him, for whom the Lord doth love He doth chasten, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth; ‘if chastening ye endure, as to sons God beareth Himself to you, for who is a son whom a father doth not chasten? and if ye are apart from chastening, of which all have become partakers, then bastards are ye, and not sons. Then, indeed, fathers of our flesh we have had, chastising [us], and we were reverencing [them]; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of the spirits, and live? for they, indeed, for a few days, according to what seemed good to them, were chastening, but He for profit, to be partakers of His separation; and all chastening for the present, indeed, doth not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, yet afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those exercised through it — it doth yield.” (Hebrews 12:5-11)
But there must be earnest study and close investigation.
Sharp, clear perceptions of truth will never be the reward of indolence.
“My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom; incline your heart to understanding. For if you cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and he watches over the way of his godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness, justice, and integrity, and every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be delightful to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, to rescue you from the way of evil, from a person who speaks perverse things; from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness;” (Proverbs 2:1-13)
On Prophecies
The Christian faith was founded upon the prophecies.
Despite everything they witnessed, Jesus desired that his disciple’s faith to rest upon the “sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19). Thus, after his resurrection, he appeared to his disciples, and “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Jesus wished the truth to take firm root in their minds, not merely because it was supported by his personal testimony, but because of the unquestionable evidence presented by the symbols and shadows of the typical law, and by the prophecies of the Old Testament.
In a more complete and perfect sense than ever before, they had “found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write” (John 1:45).
Then the uncertainty, the anguish, the despair, gave place to perfect assurance, to unclouded faith.
So, does Christ consider it important to study prophecies? Certainly. He even rebuked the religious leaders of his day for ignoring the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3). He also said that we should know about the abomination of desolation: “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken about by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place” (let the one who reads understand)” (Matthew 24:15). So, he wants his followers to study the book of Daniel. He also pronounced a blessing upon those who study the book of Revelation: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud and blessed are those who hear the words of the prophecy and observe the things written in it, because the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)
None should be discouraged in the study of the prophecies because of their many symbols.
The Bible is its own interpreter, one passage explaining another.
For example, when we come across the symbol of a beast in prophecy, we do not have to assume that it refers to a literal monster that will destroy the world or to a prominent figure in today’s news. Instead, we must look to Scripture for the correct interpretation. The Bible itself provides the explanation: “The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that […]” (Daniel 7:23) When we encounter the symbol of a horn, we do not have to speculate on its meaning. Scripture interprets itself: “ten horns […] are ten kings” (Revelation 17:12).
Because the apocalyptic books frequently reference other biblical books, those who are wise in the biblical knowledge can understand their language.
“The word of God is plain in itself; and if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, which is never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places, so that there can remain no doubt but unto such as obstinately remain ignorant.” (John Knox)
Another key principle is to follow the prophet’s own line of reasoning.
It is risky to extract an isolated portion of text from the middle of a prophetic narrative and try to interpret it apart from its context. It is risky to construct speculative teachings about the future by piecing together disconnected verses from different prophecies. Instead, we need to study the prophecies in their intended order, in the order they were given to us.
This is why this series examines apocalyptic books as complete works, carefully following the author’s reasoning, reading the book in order and verse by verse.
