ACBC Theology Exam 3 - General and Special Revelation

00:00:00.000 | It's our fourth meeting of intermediate biblical counseling, and we're just thrilled that you

00:00:05.440 | have joined us tonight in our study of God's Word, and we're excited to continue our look

00:00:11.820 | at these ACBC exams.

00:00:15.280 | And we are on a webinar format tonight, so if you have any questions about the material

00:00:20.320 | as we go along, feel free to use the chat function or the Q&A function, and we will

00:00:27.200 | be able to address any questions that you might have.

00:00:33.080 | So welcome again, hope you had a great week, and that the Lord is blessing your life and

00:00:38.040 | your ministry.

00:00:39.640 | And once again, it's just a privilege to be a part of what God is doing in your lives

00:00:43.520 | as you train to be biblical counselors, and as you work through these essay exams, we

00:00:49.080 | trust that this will be a very enriching experience for all of you, and that you will be equipped

00:00:54.520 | to minister God's Word to those who are in need of hope and help from the Word of God.

00:01:01.760 | So to open tonight, I'd like to read from Psalm 19, and I'd like to read from the Psalm

00:01:07.640 | in entirety, and this is going to set the foundation for our study tonight.

00:01:13.280 | Psalm 19 is going to be the key text that we will be looking at tonight as it relates

00:01:20.020 | to general revelation and special revelation, and it's also a great Psalm for us to begin

00:01:26.120 | with just to set our hearts and our minds on the study of God's Word.

00:01:30.880 | So let me read from Psalm 19, and if you have your Bibles, go ahead and follow along.

00:01:37.060 | This is a Psalm of David, and he begins in verse 1, saying, "The heavens are telling

00:01:43.560 | of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

00:01:49.940 | Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

00:01:55.620 | There is no speech, nor are there words.

00:01:57.660 | Their voice is not heard.

00:01:59.780 | Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterance is to the end of the world.

00:02:05.580 | In them he has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his

00:02:10.940 | chamber.

00:02:12.400 | God rejoices as a strong man to run his course.

00:02:16.180 | Its rising is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of them,

00:02:21.880 | and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

00:02:25.720 | The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.

00:02:29.600 | The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

00:02:34.560 | The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

00:02:38.540 | The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

00:02:42.440 | The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

00:02:47.080 | The judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether.

00:02:52.120 | They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and

00:02:58.160 | the drippings of the honeycomb.

00:03:00.920 | Moreover by them your servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward.

00:03:06.520 | Who can discern his errors, acquit me of hidden faults.

00:03:11.680 | Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins.

00:03:14.840 | Let them not rule over me, then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great

00:03:20.840 | transgression.

00:03:22.760 | Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O

00:03:29.120 | Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

00:03:32.000 | Now, if you look at this psalm, you see that this is really a psalm that gives testimony

00:03:39.920 | to the power of God's word to transform a person's life.

00:03:45.900 | You have six words used in verses seven to nine to describe the written word of God,

00:03:52.180 | the Holy Scriptures.

00:03:54.240 | They are law, statutes, precepts, commandment, fear, and rules.

00:04:03.520 | One commentator has observed that the synonyms are not to be studied in abstraction, but

00:04:09.480 | give a comprehensive emphasis that all of the words of the Lord are beneficial.

00:04:18.240 | So used together, those six terms in verses seven to nine emphasize the multidimensional

00:04:24.460 | nature of the Holy Scriptures and the truth that the written word of God speaks with divine

00:04:31.560 | authority.

00:04:32.560 | Now, if you'll look at this psalm, you see that the first half of Psalm 19 really focuses

00:04:39.920 | on God's revelation of himself in creation.

00:04:45.040 | Verse one says, "The heavens are declaring of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring

00:04:50.720 | the work of his hands."

00:04:55.500 | This revelation that's found in creation is not subtle.

00:05:00.360 | It's not restrained.

00:05:01.800 | The text doesn't say that the heavens are whispering of the glory of God or that the

00:05:07.720 | heavens are suggesting that possibly a God exists who made all these things.

00:05:14.560 | It says there that the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring

00:05:23.440 | the work of his hands.

00:05:25.160 | So the created order proclaims on a day-to-day basis that there is a God and that God is

00:05:32.140 | indeed powerful.

00:05:35.200 | You see in verse two that this revelation never ceases.

00:05:41.320 | He says, "Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge."

00:05:48.560 | And then in verse four, it says that the revelation that is found in creation goes out to every

00:05:55.560 | man indiscriminately, every person who lives on this earth.

00:06:01.640 | Verse four, "Their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the

00:06:05.760 | end of the world."

00:06:08.260 | So every man who has ever lived in every part of the world has received God's revelation

00:06:17.200 | in creation, and he has received this revelation every day of his life.

00:06:24.720 | Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge.

00:06:30.240 | So verses one to six really focus in on God's revelation in creation.

00:06:35.800 | Now in verse seven, you have what has been called a sudden transition.

00:06:41.980 | There is an abrupt break in thought and the psalmist here transitions very abruptly from

00:06:50.920 | God's revelation in creation to God's revelation in the scripture.

00:06:57.940 | So we go from how God has revealed himself in the created order and the sun, moon, stars,

00:07:04.620 | and planets, and all that lives on the earth, to how God has revealed himself in the written

00:07:13.220 | scriptures.

00:07:14.900 | And the psalmist transitions from the heavens and the expanse to verse seven, "The law of

00:07:23.420 | the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord."

00:07:31.920 | So this psalm is about the revelation of God, it is about God revealing himself in creation

00:07:41.640 | and then God revealing himself in the written scripture.

00:07:47.660 | Now just focus in on, for a moment, verse seven and we'll look at verses seven to nine

00:07:54.380 | for a moment.

00:07:55.380 | Notice the phrase, "of the Lord, of the Lord" repeated six times in verses seven to nine.

00:08:04.000 | And that phrase is emphasizing the personal nature of scripture.

00:08:09.320 | It is God's word, it is the law of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord.

00:08:17.740 | And the psalmist gives testimony to the powerful effects of the written scriptures on a person's

00:08:25.360 | life.

00:08:26.360 | It says that the written scriptures revive the soul, make wise the simple, rejoice the

00:08:33.980 | heart, enlighten the eyes, the scriptures endure forever, and are righteous altogether.

00:08:44.000 | Now I just want to note one thing in this psalm and this has relevance to biblical counseling.

00:08:52.040 | We'll note here that the first time the word "soul" is used in Psalm 19 is in verse seven.

00:09:00.800 | The word "soul" is not used in verses one to six as it relates to God's general revelation

00:09:08.920 | in creation.

00:09:11.200 | God's general revelation in creation does not have the effect of being able to transform

00:09:19.220 | the soul.

00:09:21.180 | The first time we have testimony of the revelation of God having the impact upon a person's life

00:09:29.380 | where that person's soul is revived and transformed is in verse seven when it speaks of the law,

00:09:36.640 | the testimony, the precepts, and the commandment.

00:09:41.080 | Verse seven, "the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul."

00:09:49.100 | Put simply, and we'll get more into this tonight in our handout, but just to open our time

00:09:54.120 | together, we learn from this psalm that the scriptures are God's written revelation to

00:10:01.800 | man that provide soul transformation and the ability to change and transform the souls,

00:10:11.620 | the soul of man.

00:10:13.960 | This is soul care.

00:10:17.480 | The true soul care is being able to minister the scriptures to a person's life.

00:10:27.240 | And so commentator Peter Craigie says that the scripture is the fundamental force restoring

00:10:33.160 | to full vigor and vitality to the flagging spirit of mankind and providing him with the

00:10:40.280 | enduring inner food without which life cannot be fully lived.

00:10:46.840 | We come to the scriptures because our souls are in need of revival.

00:10:55.020 | Our souls are in need of encouragement.

00:10:58.440 | We come to the scriptures with our weary souls, with our distracted souls.

00:11:04.760 | We come to the scriptures with our noisy souls and the scriptures speak into our lives.

00:11:13.720 | And it is the Bible and the Bible alone that has the power to transform the soul.

00:11:20.800 | Biblical counseling is soul care and to be equipped in scripture is to be able to minister

00:11:29.280 | to people's hearts and lives in a way that they can be changed from the inside out.

00:11:33.960 | I want you to keep Psalm 19 in mind as we go through tonight's study on general revelation

00:11:40.400 | and special revelation.

00:11:42.360 | The categories of general revelation versus one to six and then special revelation versus

00:11:49.000 | seven to fourteen are going to be the categories that we're going to look at in some depth

00:11:55.160 | and also reference with some other scriptures in the New Testament.

00:12:00.080 | But these are the basic categories that we're going to be looking at tonight as we look

00:12:03.480 | at theology exam number four.

00:12:06.880 | So let's pray together and we'll dive right in.

00:12:10.160 | And thank you again for joining us tonight and we pray that this will be an encouragement

00:12:13.840 | to you.

00:12:15.400 | So let's pray.

00:12:16.400 | Father, thank you for your word.

00:12:18.560 | We thank you that your word is law, it is precept, it is commandment.

00:12:26.200 | We thank you that it is testimony of who you are and all that you have done for us in redemptive

00:12:33.040 | history.

00:12:34.840 | We thank you for revealing yourself in creation.

00:12:38.240 | We thank you that the heavens declare the glory of God and day to day the heavens pour

00:12:43.800 | forth speech, but we thank you even more that you have revealed yourself to us in the Bible,

00:12:51.080 | in the written scriptures, that it is as we study and understand and hear the word of

00:12:56.360 | God that our hearts and our lives are transformed for time and for eternity.

00:13:03.360 | And so tonight as we look at this essay topic of general revelation versus special revelation,

00:13:09.480 | I pray that you would help us to think clearly.

00:13:12.280 | I pray that you would help us to understand this topic, not only so that our own souls

00:13:18.120 | may rejoice in the greatness of your word, but also that you would help us to cling to

00:13:25.400 | the sufficiency of scripture for counseling ministry and that you would help us to navigate

00:13:31.840 | and to interact with those who might hold to an integrationist view of counseling, that

00:13:38.840 | we would understand the arguments that are being made for such a view and that we would

00:13:45.280 | be able to wisely, with discernment, give a biblical response that the sufficiency of

00:13:52.480 | scripture might be upheld and promoted in our lives and in our churches.

00:13:57.680 | So bless each of our students tonight.

00:13:59.180 | Thank you for them, and we give this time to you in Jesus' name.

00:14:03.980 | Amen.

00:14:04.980 | Amen.

00:14:05.980 | Well, go ahead and take a look at your handout.

00:14:09.200 | We're going to dive into our study tonight.

00:14:10.840 | We're looking at theology exam number four, which is a question on general revelation

00:14:15.640 | and special revelation.

00:14:18.140 | And on page one of your handout, we can read the essay topic together.

00:14:22.840 | The question says this, "Define general revelation and special revelation and describe the nature

00:14:28.300 | of their authority as well as their relationship to one another."

00:14:34.040 | And on page one of your handout, I've suggested some reading for you from the works of theology.

00:14:41.160 | And then I've also included a Dropbox folder in the email that I sent you that contains

00:14:46.720 | a good article by Sam Stevens, who is the ACBC Training Center director, and he has

00:14:53.820 | a good work on general revelation.

00:14:56.080 | I encourage you to read that.

00:14:58.080 | And I've also included an article by John H. Coe, who is an integrationist author and

00:15:07.820 | will interact with this article as we go along tonight.

00:15:12.840 | But if you move to page two of your handout, we want to begin with the general idea of

00:15:19.280 | revelation.

00:15:20.360 | What is the revelation of God?

00:15:23.880 | And Paul Enns writes this, "The word revelation is derived from the Greek word apokalipsis,

00:15:29.400 | which means disclosure or unveiling.

00:15:33.840 | Hence revelation signifies God unveiling himself to mankind.

00:15:39.760 | Revelation may be defined as that act of God whereby he discloses himself or communicates

00:15:45.320 | truth to the mind, whereby he makes manifest to his creatures that which could not be known

00:15:51.720 | in any other way.

00:15:53.800 | The revelation may occur in a single instantaneous act or it may extend over a long period of

00:15:59.320 | time.

00:16:00.680 | And this communication of himself and his truth may be perceived by the human mind

00:16:05.680 | in varying degrees of fullness."

00:16:07.680 | The important emphasis here is that God discloses truth about himself that man would not otherwise

00:16:15.680 | know.

00:16:17.200 | So this is not the idea of man discovering who God is through man's investigation and

00:16:25.800 | man's labors.

00:16:28.180 | This is really the idea of God himself taking the initiative to disclose the truth of who

00:16:33.760 | he is to mankind.

00:16:38.280 | The idea of initiative is really important in this discussion of revelation.

00:16:44.420 | God has taken the initiative to disclose to us who he is.

00:16:50.960 | Henry Thiessen agrees with the statement of Paul Enns.

00:16:54.120 | Thiessen writes this, "God's revelation is that act of God whereby he discloses himself

00:17:00.080 | or communicates truth to the mind, whereby he makes manifest to his creatures that which

00:17:06.240 | could not be known any other way."

00:17:11.600 | So let me just address the practical question tonight, which is simply this, why do I need

00:17:16.760 | to understand this topic if I want to be an ACBC certified biblical counselor?

00:17:23.720 | What does this topic have to do with the ministry of biblical counseling and why do I need to

00:17:30.720 | navigate my way through the issues of general revelation and special revelation?

00:17:38.000 | And the simple answer is this, that ACBC wants to certify biblical counselors who believe

00:17:44.080 | and uphold the sufficiency of Scripture for counseling ministry.

00:17:50.320 | This essay is really asking you to respond to one of the leading arguments of integrationism.

00:17:59.600 | And one of the leading arguments of integrationism is the idea that in order to really help people

00:18:07.000 | with their problems, we need to use both general revelation and special revelation to help

00:18:15.480 | people change.

00:18:18.600 | In essence, what the integrationist would say is that you have general revelation, which

00:18:23.260 | is secular psychology, and then you have special revelation, which is the Scriptures, and you

00:18:31.520 | need to use both general and special revelation to help people change, therefore we must use

00:18:38.280 | both secular psychology and the Bible and combine them into a type of hybrid.

00:18:46.180 | Many integrationists may also say that if you only give people special revelation, that

00:18:53.040 | is, the Bible, and you don't give them general revelation, that is, secular psychology, then

00:19:01.680 | you're really robbing people of the resources that they need to really help people change

00:19:07.760 | because we need to use, the basic argument would say, we need to use both general and

00:19:13.880 | special revelation.

00:19:17.080 | Now I've included in your Dropbox folder this week an article from John H. Coe, who is a

00:19:22.920 | Christian integrationist, and Coe's article argues that we should use both general revelation

00:19:29.760 | and special revelation in counseling ministry, what he calls revelation both above and below

00:19:37.200 | the sun.

00:19:39.320 | And on page two of his article, Coe writes this, and I'll just briefly quote this for

00:19:44.440 | you.

00:19:45.880 | He says that, "Propositional revelation alone is inadequate insofar as it is incapable of

00:19:53.680 | saving a single soul.

00:19:57.800 | The Bible does not intend to supplant the wisdom available from natural revelation,

00:20:04.120 | but only to perfect it, bringing it to its telos or goal in Christ.

00:20:09.560 | Thus the Bible provides the divine interpretation of aspects of history and nature, but alone

00:20:16.460 | it is insufficient."

00:20:20.360 | So very clearly there, John H. Coe is saying that the scriptures alone are insufficient

00:20:28.660 | to really meet people where they are and really help them with their problems.

00:20:34.120 | We must use both general revelation and special revelation, thus we must use both the best

00:20:39.920 | of secular psychology and the best of the Bible and combine them in a hybrid to help

00:20:46.280 | people change.

00:20:49.000 | It's really that central argument for integrationism that ACBC is asking you to respond to in theology

00:20:57.760 | exam number four.

00:21:01.200 | We present a model for counseling at ACBC that holds that we focus and we use special

00:21:09.360 | revelation, the scripture, to help people change.

00:21:14.320 | And we are zeroed in on special revelation, that is the scripture, and our central tenant

00:21:21.320 | is that we don't need secular psychology to help people with the issues of life.

00:21:27.360 | And as we go forth, go on in this study, I hope you'll see how theologically this makes

00:21:34.700 | sense and then how also practically this presents a model where we major on the Bible and we

00:21:41.120 | use the Bible to minister to the issues of life.

00:21:47.120 | So that is why this topic is included in the essay exams.

00:21:52.780 | We're asking you to interact with and respond to a leading argument for integrationism,

00:22:00.800 | and that's why theology exam number four is so important.

00:22:05.740 | So let me just underscore the broader concept of revelation for a moment.

00:22:09.640 | On your handout there, you have Deuteronomy 29, verse 29, which says, "The secret things

00:22:14.800 | belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our

00:22:21.160 | children forever, that we may do all the words of the law."

00:22:27.360 | That is a passage that references the idea of special revelation, the things that are

00:22:33.400 | revealed belong to us.

00:22:37.280 | And the passage also says that the secret things belong to the Lord our God.

00:22:43.440 | Scriptures are sufficient for life and godliness, but the scriptures are not exhaustive, telling

00:22:49.920 | us everything that could possibly be known.

00:22:53.480 | God's knowledge is infinite and his wisdom is infinite.

00:22:57.600 | And as much as he's given us in the scriptures, he has not revealed to us everything that

00:23:04.200 | there is to know.

00:23:07.160 | It's really a staggering thought, and I'll restrain myself for a moment tonight.

00:23:12.280 | I'm going on a rabbit trail there, but it's really a staggering thought to think that

00:23:16.560 | as much as God has revealed to us, that the secret things belong to him.

00:23:23.280 | Matthew 11 also references the concept of revelation.

00:23:26.680 | Verse 25, Jesus says, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden

00:23:31.640 | these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

00:23:37.240 | Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

00:23:41.840 | All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except

00:23:46.160 | the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses

00:23:54.560 | to reveal him."

00:23:57.580 | So under the umbrella of the larger theme of revelation, we have general revelation

00:24:03.440 | and we have special revelation.

00:24:08.160 | Now in your handout, it says there that by general revelation, we are primarily talking

00:24:12.880 | about God's revelation in creation and in conscience.

00:24:17.840 | God's revelation in creation and in conscience.

00:24:21.560 | For the purposes of this class, I'm really going to major on God's revelation in creation.

00:24:28.560 | You can look up God's revelation in conscience in Romans chapter 2, but I'll focus here on

00:24:36.440 | God's revelation in creation.

00:24:40.520 | The basic idea being that God has disclosed certain truths about who he is through the

00:24:48.360 | creation that God has made.

00:24:53.560 | God has disclosed certain truths about who he is through the creation that he has made.

00:25:01.660 | And this revelation is given to the entire world as we read in Psalm 19, and it is general

00:25:09.640 | in nature.

00:25:10.640 | It proclaims to man that God exists, that God is powerful, that God is wise, but it

00:25:18.680 | does not contain specific truths about who God is, such as God is a holy trinity, or

00:25:25.320 | God is merciful, God is faithful.

00:25:28.760 | Those are specific truths that are found in special revelation, the scriptures, but general

00:25:35.100 | revelation proclaims to every man everywhere, certain general truths about who God is.

00:25:42.740 | And then special revelation is God's revelation of himself in the scripture and in his son,

00:25:51.260 | Jesus Christ.

00:25:53.780 | And for the purposes of this class, we'll focus in on God's revelation of himself in

00:25:59.600 | the scriptures, going back to Psalm 19, which is the key text in contrasting general revelation

00:26:08.720 | with special revelation.

00:26:12.480 | If you look at the bottom of your handout on page 3, Psalm 19, starting in verse 1,

00:26:18.560 | as I read at the beginning of class, it said, "The heavens declare the glory of God and

00:26:22.740 | the sky above proclaims his handiwork."

00:26:27.600 | The created order makes a bold, authoritative proclamation to every man everywhere, living

00:26:36.400 | on planet earth, that there is a God and that God is amazing.

00:26:44.660 | General revelation proclaims to every man everywhere that God is powerful, God is glorious,

00:26:53.640 | and that God exists.

00:26:55.700 | Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.

00:27:01.720 | If you look at the next page of your handout, and I think this is page 3, we note that general

00:27:09.020 | revelation is general in content.

00:27:12.780 | It is general in content.

00:27:14.820 | The heavens declare the glory of God.

00:27:18.520 | The term God translates the Hebrew word El, which is the most generic of all names for

00:27:25.460 | God.

00:27:26.460 | So as I mentioned, general revelation does not tell us about God the Father, God the

00:27:30.700 | Son, or God the Holy Spirit.

00:27:33.760 | It does proclaim to us the truth of God's power and God's glory.

00:27:42.780 | General revelation does not tell us about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ

00:27:48.060 | on the cross.

00:27:49.940 | General revelation does not tell us about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit or the doctrine

00:27:54.060 | of the church.

00:27:56.260 | What general revelation does is it proclaims to the world that God exists and God is glorious.

00:28:06.440 | So I love how John Piper put it, that the created order proclaims a sermon that goes

00:28:12.040 | on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the sermon is basically this, God is glorious.

00:28:20.160 | God is glorious.

00:28:22.320 | That refrain is repeated every day, every hour, every month of the year, for as long

00:28:32.080 | as man has existed, general revelation has proclaimed to man that God is glorious.

00:28:42.120 | This is a declaration of the heavens, not a suggestion by the heavens.

00:28:50.120 | There's nothing unclear about God's general revelation.

00:28:53.680 | There's nothing that is wrong with God's revelation.

00:28:57.920 | The question is, what does man do with God's revelation in creation?

00:29:05.480 | And Romans 1 verse 19 tells us what man does with God's general revelation.

00:29:13.320 | Paul says in verse 19, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has

00:29:20.080 | shown it to them."

00:29:21.520 | He's talking about general revelation.

00:29:24.520 | God has shown man who God is through the created order that he has made.

00:29:31.160 | Paul continues, "For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature,

00:29:37.920 | have been," here it is, "they have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world

00:29:45.720 | in the things that have been made."

00:29:47.440 | So they are without excuse.

00:29:51.600 | Now, remember, God's general revelation in creation is clear.

00:29:59.600 | It is loud.

00:30:02.100 | It is continuous.

00:30:05.480 | It is declarative in nature.

00:30:10.380 | It goes out to all the earth.

00:30:13.240 | It goes out to every man everywhere.

00:30:15.960 | The problem is not with God's general revelation.

00:30:20.120 | The problem is what man does with this revelation.

00:30:26.200 | Paul says that man receives this general revelation and he is without excuse, but what he does

00:30:35.760 | with that general revelation is he suppresses the truth in unrighteousness.

00:30:42.800 | The problem is that man is so blinded by his sin that he will take all of this clear revelation

00:30:52.480 | that is given in creation and he will say, basically, "No, no, no, no, no," suppressing

00:31:02.200 | the truth in his heart in unrighteousness, and instead of bowing down to the true and

00:31:08.800 | the living God as revealed in creation, man will exchange the glory of God for an idol

00:31:16.700 | and actually use his intelligence to argue away the existence of God and conclude that

00:31:23.240 | it all came out of a big bang or it all came out of nothing.

00:31:29.480 | The point is this.

00:31:30.520 | No one comes to faith through general revelation.

00:31:36.280 | No one comes to faith through general revelation.

00:31:39.340 | No one is saved by looking at the stars.

00:31:41.720 | No one is saved by looking at the planets.

00:31:44.160 | No one is saved by looking at the moon or by looking at an ocean or a mountaintop.

00:31:52.240 | Men look at this revelation given by God and they suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

00:32:01.800 | Number two on your handout, general revelation is general in audience.

00:32:08.120 | General revelation is general in audience.

00:32:11.000 | Paul Lenz writes that no one is excluded from this revelation of God wherever man peers

00:32:17.140 | at the universe there is orderliness.

00:32:23.540 | Let me skip down to the bottom of your handout on page three.

00:32:27.520 | This is a key point that I really want you to understand and to take to heart and then

00:32:34.140 | also to articulate in your essays.

00:32:37.920 | The key point is this.

00:32:38.960 | If you look at the book of Romans and as you look at how Paul deals with the subject of

00:32:44.800 | general revelation, we learned that general revelation is sufficient to condemn, but it

00:32:54.920 | is not sufficient to save.

00:32:58.560 | General revelation is sufficient to condemn and to leave men without excuse, but it is

00:33:04.080 | not enough to bring man to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

00:33:10.780 | For that, man needs special revelation in the scripture.

00:33:18.060 | You might say, "Well, what about the person who is in a certain country and they don't

00:33:22.920 | have a Bible and no missionary went to them to give them the gospel?

00:33:29.120 | Is that person at fault?"

00:33:32.180 | Romans once would say that that person is without excuse.

00:33:38.640 | They were given revelation from God.

00:33:41.160 | They were given general revelation, but they suppress the truth in unrighteousness and

00:33:46.940 | so they are without excuse.

00:33:50.080 | Now the missionary call of the church of course is to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing

00:33:56.760 | them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and to take the

00:34:00.180 | gospel to the ends of the earth so that man would believe in Christ and be saved.

00:34:07.480 | But the point here is that no man can stand on the judgment day and say that, "Well, God,

00:34:14.240 | you never told me who you were.

00:34:16.480 | God, you never told me about the truths of who you are."

00:34:20.920 | Every man everywhere has received the basic truths of who God is in general revelation.

00:34:30.740 | If you look at page four of your handout, you'll see the broader dynamics at work in

00:34:35.700 | Romans chapter one.

00:34:38.800 | Paul says there in Romans 1 verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against

00:34:45.280 | all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the

00:34:50.040 | truth."

00:34:51.360 | So that's what all men do with general revelation.

00:34:54.280 | They suppress the truth in unrighteousness, then watch the consequences of their rejection

00:35:01.160 | of general revelation.

00:35:03.660 | He begins, remember, that men receive revelation from God in creation.

00:35:11.080 | They are left without excuse.

00:35:13.280 | They suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and then there are consequences to this rejection.

00:35:19.840 | As Paul explains in Romans 1 verse 21, "For although they knew God, they did not honor

00:35:24.760 | him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their

00:35:29.960 | foolish hearts were darkened."

00:35:33.360 | Verse 22 says, "Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the

00:35:37.920 | immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."

00:35:43.800 | And then as you read through the rest of the chapter, verse 24 says, "God gave them up."

00:35:49.800 | Verse 26 says, "God gave them up."

00:35:54.200 | Verse 28 says, "God gave them up."

00:35:58.000 | And eventually you end up in verse 32 where Paul says that men were filled with all manner

00:36:04.360 | of unrighteousness.

00:36:07.280 | And Paul says they not only do acts of unrighteousness, but they gave approval to those who practice

00:36:12.120 | them.

00:36:14.840 | That is a description of what happens to man when man rejects general revelation.

00:36:22.920 | There are serious consequences to rejecting God's revelation of himself in creation.

00:36:32.280 | What happens is that man ends up being given over to greater expressions of his sin and

00:36:41.400 | ends up in verse 32, not only practicing sin, but glorying in his shame and calling light

00:36:50.800 | darkness and darkness light.

00:36:55.840 | And that is all the consequences of rejecting revelation in creation.

00:37:06.920 | So someone's going to say at this point that if the problem is that man rejected general

00:37:10.680 | revelation, then in order to remedy the problem, we need to give man more general revelation.

00:37:21.040 | That would be one approach to solving the issue.

00:37:27.440 | What we need to do in order to reach men's hearts is we need to show them more of the

00:37:32.360 | stars and more of the heavens and more of the planets.

00:37:36.920 | We need to show them more mountaintops, more oceans.

00:37:41.720 | We need to show them more of the intricacies of the animal planets, the animal kingdom.

00:37:49.960 | And if we just show people more general revelation, then that will melt their heart and they will

00:37:54.360 | come to the saving knowledge of the truth.

00:37:59.360 | And scripture would disagree with that idea.

00:38:05.720 | Scripture says that unbelievers have been given all the general revelation that they

00:38:09.720 | need to believe that there is a God and they exchange the truth of God for a lie and they

00:38:18.200 | give themselves over to idolatry.

00:38:22.460 | And you can't remedy man's rejection of general revelation by just giving man more general

00:38:30.280 | revelation.

00:38:33.280 | So you say then, well, what's the remedy then?

00:38:37.400 | And that's where Psalm 19 verse 7 transitions from God's general revelation in creation

00:38:45.280 | to God's special revelation in the scripture.

00:38:50.440 | Our hope lies in special revelation, the power of the scripture.

00:38:57.520 | Psalm 19 verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

00:39:05.160 | Now just a note here, and this should just cause us to glory in the goodness of our God.

00:39:12.880 | When man rejected God's general revelation in creation, God was under no obligation to

00:39:21.720 | give man any further revelation.

00:39:26.900 | I hope you understand that and I hope you understand that this places us in a position

00:39:32.720 | where we ought to be filled with much gratitude and much praise to the goodness of God.

00:39:38.200 | God was under no obligation to give mankind any further revelation when all men everywhere

00:39:46.120 | rejected his general revelation and suppressed the truth and unrighteousness.

00:39:51.060 | He could have stopped right there and said, I've given you all that you need to know and

00:39:55.600 | you've rejected it and so I'm going to give you over to sin and no further revelation

00:40:01.360 | is going to be given.

00:40:05.220 | But the truth is our God is gracious and our God is a God of salvation.

00:40:12.020 | We find that general revelation leads to condemnation, but special revelation, that is the scriptures,

00:40:19.800 | leads to salvation.

00:40:22.880 | And God responded to man's rebellion in suppressing the truth and unrighteousness.

00:40:31.440 | God was gracious and He was kind and He gave us His special revelation in the scriptures,

00:40:38.120 | which revealed to us the glory of the person and work of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

00:40:45.480 | Paul ends, writes that special revelation involves a narrower focus than general revelation

00:40:51.220 | and is restricted to Jesus Christ and the scriptures.

00:40:55.300 | Of course, all that is known of Christ is through the scriptures, therefore it can be

00:40:59.800 | said that special revelation is restricted to the scriptures.

00:41:05.920 | So he's just saying there that, I mean, you could say special revelation centers on the

00:41:11.020 | scriptures and Jesus Christ, but all that we know about Jesus Christ is found in the

00:41:16.480 | scriptures.

00:41:17.480 | So practically speaking, you can say that special revelation is related to God's revelation

00:41:24.800 | in the word of God, the written word of God, the 66 books of the Bible.

00:41:33.280 | So again, we refer to Psalm 19, "The law of the Lord revives the soul.

00:41:38.200 | The testimony of the Lord makes wise the simple.

00:41:41.320 | The precepts of the Lord revive the heart.

00:41:43.560 | The commandment of the Lord enlightens the eyes.

00:41:46.960 | The fear of the Lord endures forever.

00:41:49.100 | The rules of the Lord are righteous altogether."

00:41:55.020 | To counselors in training, I'm going to ask you to look at Psalm 19 verse 7 and ask yourself,

00:42:01.940 | what counseling issue is not addressed by the beneficial effects of the written word

00:42:08.940 | of God in those three verses?

00:42:13.060 | Are you weary and burdened?

00:42:15.620 | The word of God revives your soul.

00:42:19.080 | Are you depressed and discouraged?

00:42:22.300 | The word of God rejoices the heart.

00:42:27.260 | Are you confused with life or have you lost your way?

00:42:30.980 | The word of God will be a lamp unto your feet and a light to your path.

00:42:38.420 | Are you immature?

00:42:39.420 | Are you foolish?

00:42:40.700 | Are you in need of spiritual growth?

00:42:43.180 | The word of God will give you wisdom and spiritual maturity.

00:42:50.760 | There isn't a single counseling issue that is not broadly addressed by the beneficial

00:42:55.860 | effects of God's word in verses 7 to 9 of Psalm 19.

00:43:02.920 | And this is very practical to us because as counselors, we minister to those who are discouraged

00:43:08.320 | and depressed, those who are in need of clarity in terms of life's direction, those who are

00:43:18.040 | downcast with the issues of life, even depressed as a result of sin and suffering, and sometimes

00:43:27.800 | it is more suffering than sin.

00:43:29.920 | Sometimes it's suffering that is caused by sin.

00:43:33.800 | We minister to those who are foolish and who are in need of spiritual maturity, and the

00:43:38.800 | word of God will have all of these beneficial effects in our counselees' lives if we minister

00:43:44.880 | God's word and if we assign good homework that gets our counselees into God's word.

00:43:52.600 | You know here that the scripture is pure, perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true.

00:44:01.760 | The quality of scripture is therefore related to the character of God Himself.

00:44:08.040 | The scripture is perfect because God is perfect.

00:44:12.080 | The scripture is sure because God is faithful.

00:44:16.240 | The scripture is right because God is righteous.

00:44:19.620 | The scripture is pure because God is holy.

00:44:25.480 | And in contrast to God's general revelation in creation, God's special revelation in scripture

00:44:31.960 | has the power to transform the soul.

00:44:38.320 | So we don't really do anything new or novel in biblical counseling.

00:44:45.000 | What do we do in biblical counseling?

00:44:46.400 | We meet with people, we love them well, we listen well, we show compassion.

00:44:55.200 | We weep with those who weep, we rejoice with those who rejoice.

00:45:00.080 | We seek to enter the counselee's world and see life through their eyes.

00:45:07.760 | And then we open the Bible and we read the Bible together.

00:45:13.360 | We ask the counselee to read scripture and then we ask them questions to see if they

00:45:19.360 | have understanding of the word of God.

00:45:23.200 | And then we help them make personal application to their lives and then we assign good homework

00:45:28.760 | that gets them into the word of God for themselves, both daily Bible reading and corporate worship,

00:45:36.080 | the corporate hearing of God's word, Bible memorization, reading good books that get

00:45:42.280 | them into scripture.

00:45:45.160 | And then we meet again and we repeat the process and we watch God work in counselee's lives.

00:45:51.000 | There's nothing fancy about what we do.

00:45:54.320 | There's nothing that's some kind of magic, a secret mystery about what we as biblical

00:46:03.000 | counselors do.

00:46:05.400 | But what we do in all that is we unleash the power of the scripture in our counselees lives.

00:46:11.400 | We get them into the word and we get the word into our counselees.

00:46:17.720 | And as the word begins to do its work, we watch the beneficial effects of the word of

00:46:22.760 | God in our counselees lives, that the word of God revives the soul.

00:46:28.560 | The word of God rejoices the heart.

00:46:31.040 | The word of God makes wise the simple and so forth and so on.

00:46:34.480 | The word of God changes lives and transforms people's hearts and lives.

00:46:42.480 | And this is really based upon our understanding of general revelation and special revelation.

00:46:52.400 | Our approach in biblical counseling is not to get people into more general revelation

00:46:56.720 | because general revelation is sufficient to condemn and to leave men without excuse before

00:47:05.800 | judgment, but not sufficient to convert the soul and to bring men and women to salvation

00:47:13.680 | and sanctification.

00:47:16.480 | To bring men and women to salvation and then to sanctification conformity to Christ likeness,

00:47:22.360 | we must have special revelation, the scripture.

00:47:27.620 | And so this essay is the basis to set the foundation of why we do what we do as biblical

00:47:34.820 | counselors.

00:47:38.140 | So some tips on writing this essay, if you're writing this essay this week or in the weeks

00:47:44.300 | to come, I'd encourage you to just start with defining revelation before you get into the

00:47:53.620 | specific concepts of general revelation and special revelation.

00:47:57.500 | Just define revelation, get that concept down, revelation, the disclosure of God about truths

00:48:04.400 | about himself, where he takes the initiative to tell man who he is.

00:48:13.340 | And secondly, you want to define general revelation.

00:48:18.980 | I'd encourage you to spend some good time here defining the doctrine of general revelation.

00:48:24.900 | Make sure to reference Psalm 19 verses one to six, which focused on general revelation,

00:48:32.740 | and then make sure to reference Romans one, what man does with this general revelation

00:48:39.460 | from God.

00:48:42.580 | And then the question asks you to describe the nature of their authority.

00:48:47.480 | And the basic answer here is that both general revelation and special revelation are equally

00:48:52.660 | authoritative, although they have different effects.

00:48:59.860 | The results of the two types of revelation are different.

00:49:04.660 | General revelation leaves men condemned, while special revelation results in salvation and

00:49:10.140 | sanctification.

00:49:11.140 | But the two types of revelation are equally authoritative.

00:49:15.420 | Now move to page six of your handout, and I'll wrap this up and look at some applications,

00:49:23.780 | and then we'll send you on to have a great week writing this essay.

00:49:29.580 | Number one, application on page six.

00:49:33.140 | Understand how general revelation and special revelation are both similar and distinct.

00:49:37.420 | They're similar in that they both come from God, they are distinct in their content.

00:49:44.860 | Special revelation reveals general truths about who God is.

00:49:49.900 | Special revelation reveals specific truths about who God is, and they are also distinct

00:49:59.020 | in their result or their effect.

00:50:01.760 | This is from the ACBC Standards of Doctrine, which you can look up on the ACBC website.

00:50:08.740 | The standard says this, "Special revelation is God's disclosure of himself to his people

00:50:14.380 | in the pages of scripture.

00:50:17.060 | General revelation is God's disclosure of himself to the entirety of humanity in the

00:50:21.940 | things that have been made.

00:50:25.060 | General revelation and special revelation each come from God, and so are of equivalent

00:50:30.100 | authority."

00:50:31.100 | Now, you would do well to probably quote that standard of doctrine in response to the question.

00:50:39.660 | ACBC has given you the answers to the question right here in their Standards of Doctrine,

00:50:45.900 | where they say, "General revelation and special revelation are of equivalent authority, although

00:50:51.900 | they differ in content.

00:50:54.300 | Special revelation discloses detailed information about the character of God and how to live

00:50:58.780 | all of life in a way that honors him.

00:51:00.900 | General revelation is a disclosure of the beauty and power of God, which leads to judgment.

00:51:07.700 | The subject matter of general revelation is the character of God, and not mere facts about

00:51:11.940 | the created order.

00:51:13.780 | General revelation requires special revelation to be properly understood and applied."

00:51:21.540 | Number two application, "Understand how integrationists are using the doctrine of general revelation,"

00:51:26.820 | as I mentioned earlier in our study.

00:51:30.820 | What they're saying here is that general revelation is equivalent to secular psychology, special

00:51:37.620 | revelation is equivalent to the scripture, so we need to combine both general revelation

00:51:42.580 | and special revelation in helping people change.

00:51:49.740 | Larry Crabb, who is an integrationist, has said this in Effective Biblical Counseling,

00:51:55.140 | "All truth is certainly God's truth.

00:51:57.980 | The doctrine of general revelation provided warrant for going beyond the propositional

00:52:02.220 | revelation of scripture into the secular world of scientific study, expecting to find true

00:52:07.500 | and usable concepts."

00:52:12.140 | So what's the problem here?

00:52:13.540 | And this is going to set up the next essay.

00:52:17.300 | We're going to talk more about this next week as we get into theology exam number five.

00:52:23.940 | But the problem here is that no secular unbeliever can study general revelation apart from the

00:52:33.620 | Holy Spirit and come up with accurate conclusions.

00:52:40.660 | No secular unbeliever accepts the truth of general revelation.

00:52:47.220 | Romans 1, they look at general revelation and they suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

00:52:55.620 | So this idea that we should study general revelation in purely secular terms and then

00:53:00.820 | study the scriptures and come up with a hybrid really has a faulty foundation because no

00:53:07.100 | unbeliever studies general revelation and comes up with the accurate conclusion that

00:53:11.460 | there is a God and He created everything and that He should be worshiped and praised forever

00:53:17.160 | and ever.

00:53:18.660 | So that is a subject we'll look more at next week.

00:53:27.840 | This idea does not account for the secular understanding of general revelation that will

00:53:31.460 | be flawed due to the noetic effects of sin.

00:53:33.780 | We'll talk more about that next week.

00:53:35.860 | It also does not account for the limited nature of general revelation.

00:53:41.300 | General revelation does not reveal specific truths about who man is and how the heart

00:53:46.360 | relates to God.

00:53:51.440 | So let me give you a third application and wrap this up.

00:53:57.240 | Number three, understand that special revelation is the focus of biblical counseling.

00:54:02.880 | So we are ministers of God's special revelation.

00:54:05.400 | We are ministers of the book.

00:54:08.240 | We do book work, we study, we read, we understand the Word of God, and then we teach others

00:54:15.380 | what the Word of God says.

00:54:20.060 | It is God's Word that is sufficient to save and it is God's Word that is sufficient to

00:54:25.400 | sanctify.

00:54:27.280 | We focus in on God's special revelation because the goal of counseling is to change hearts

00:54:31.920 | and lives for God's glory.

00:54:34.520 | So a final thought as we close.

00:54:38.040 | Can I ask you tonight as counselors in training, are you more impressed with God's general

00:54:45.000 | revelation in creation, or are you more impressed with God's special revelation in the scripture?

00:54:57.880 | Are you more impressed by canyons, lakes, oceans, rivers, sun, moon, stars, and planets,

00:55:07.260 | or are you more impressed with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians,

00:55:16.380 | and so forth and so on?

00:55:19.820 | Are you more impressed by the greatness and grandeur of the stars in the skies, or are

00:55:25.100 | you more impressed at the greatness of your salvation in Christ?

00:55:32.060 | And as I tell people in my church, if you're more impressed with general revelation than

00:55:37.900 | you are with special revelation, then you need to spend more time in God's special revelation

00:55:45.260 | in the scriptures, the inexhaustible ocean of truth that's found in God's Word.

00:55:52.860 | Is it any wonder that the psalmist concludes his treatment on general and special revelation

00:55:57.860 | in Psalm 19 by saying, verse 10, "More to be desired are they," that is the scriptures,

00:56:03.960 | "than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

00:56:09.340 | Moreover by them, as your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward."

00:56:14.760 | And then he concludes, watch this real carefully, he concludes with a statement of self-examination.

00:56:27.040 | He says, "Who can discern his errors, declare me innocent from hidden faults, keep back

00:56:32.200 | your servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me, then I

00:56:36.420 | shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

00:56:40.000 | Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O

00:56:44.440 | Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

00:56:47.040 | The psalmist's response to understanding special revelation was not, "Well, that's nice, and

00:56:56.640 | I'll read it so that I understand more."

00:56:59.180 | His response to God's special revelation was, "Lord, I need to be changed.

00:57:05.680 | Lord, change me.

00:57:09.280 | Examine my life according to the truth of your word and help me to live a life that

00:57:14.720 | is acceptable and pleasing to you."

00:57:19.600 | That's the power of God's word.

00:57:21.060 | That's what we want to produce in our counselees.

00:57:23.760 | And if we want to produce that in our counselees, then we ourselves need to be experiencing

00:57:27.680 | that as well.

00:57:29.200 | So I pray that this study will be a blessing to your souls.

00:57:33.200 | I pray that you will write a great essay on the subject of general revelation and special

00:57:39.120 | revelation, and that what this essay will cause you to do is to cling ever more tightly

00:57:45.760 | to the scriptures, to the word of God, in ministering to others through the issues of

00:57:52.400 | life.

00:57:53.400 | What I'm going to do is I'm going to pray and officially close our webinar for tonight.

00:57:58.760 | You're free to go at this point.

00:58:01.660 | If any of you have questions, I'll hang on for a few minutes afterwards, and I'll answer

00:58:06.560 | any questions that you might have.

00:58:08.160 | But otherwise, Lord bless you, and have a wonderful week, and thank you for joining

00:58:13.120 | us tonight.

00:58:14.120 | Let's pray together.

00:58:15.120 | Father, thank you for your word, and we do pray that, Father, your word would change

00:58:21.520 | and transform our own lives first, and then, Lord, we might be servants who can use your

00:58:28.960 | word to minister to others.

ACBC Theology Exam 3 - General and Special Revelation

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