It's our fourth meeting of intermediate biblical counseling, and we're just thrilled that you have joined us tonight in our study of God's Word, and we're excited to continue our look at these ACBC exams. And we are on a webinar format tonight, so if you have any questions about the material as we go along, feel free to use the chat function or the Q&A function, and we will be able to address any questions that you might have.

So welcome again, hope you had a great week, and that the Lord is blessing your life and your ministry. And once again, it's just a privilege to be a part of what God is doing in your lives as you train to be biblical counselors, and as you work through these essay exams, we trust that this will be a very enriching experience for all of you, and that you will be equipped to minister God's Word to those who are in need of hope and help from the Word of God.

So to open tonight, I'd like to read from Psalm 19, and I'd like to read from the Psalm in entirety, and this is going to set the foundation for our study tonight. Psalm 19 is going to be the key text that we will be looking at tonight as it relates to general revelation and special revelation, and it's also a great Psalm for us to begin with just to set our hearts and our minds on the study of God's Word.

So let me read from Psalm 19, and if you have your Bibles, go ahead and follow along. This is a Psalm of David, and he begins in verse 1, saying, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterance is to the end of the world. In them he has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.

God rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover by them your servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors, acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me, then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." Now, if you look at this psalm, you see that this is really a psalm that gives testimony to the power of God's word to transform a person's life.

You have six words used in verses seven to nine to describe the written word of God, the Holy Scriptures. They are law, statutes, precepts, commandment, fear, and rules. One commentator has observed that the synonyms are not to be studied in abstraction, but give a comprehensive emphasis that all of the words of the Lord are beneficial.

So used together, those six terms in verses seven to nine emphasize the multidimensional nature of the Holy Scriptures and the truth that the written word of God speaks with divine authority. Now, if you'll look at this psalm, you see that the first half of Psalm 19 really focuses on God's revelation of himself in creation.

Verse one says, "The heavens are declaring of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands." This revelation that's found in creation is not subtle. It's not restrained. The text doesn't say that the heavens are whispering of the glory of God or that the heavens are suggesting that possibly a God exists who made all these things.

It says there that the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. So the created order proclaims on a day-to-day basis that there is a God and that God is indeed powerful. You see in verse two that this revelation never ceases.

He says, "Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge." And then in verse four, it says that the revelation that is found in creation goes out to every man indiscriminately, every person who lives on this earth. Verse four, "Their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the end of the world." So every man who has ever lived in every part of the world has received God's revelation in creation, and he has received this revelation every day of his life.

Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge. So verses one to six really focus in on God's revelation in creation. Now in verse seven, you have what has been called a sudden transition. There is an abrupt break in thought and the psalmist here transitions very abruptly from God's revelation in creation to God's revelation in the scripture.

So we go from how God has revealed himself in the created order and the sun, moon, stars, and planets, and all that lives on the earth, to how God has revealed himself in the written scriptures. And the psalmist transitions from the heavens and the expanse to verse seven, "The law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord." So this psalm is about the revelation of God, it is about God revealing himself in creation and then God revealing himself in the written scripture.

Now just focus in on, for a moment, verse seven and we'll look at verses seven to nine for a moment. Notice the phrase, "of the Lord, of the Lord" repeated six times in verses seven to nine. And that phrase is emphasizing the personal nature of scripture. It is God's word, it is the law of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord.

And the psalmist gives testimony to the powerful effects of the written scriptures on a person's life. It says that the written scriptures revive the soul, make wise the simple, rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes, the scriptures endure forever, and are righteous altogether. Now I just want to note one thing in this psalm and this has relevance to biblical counseling.

We'll note here that the first time the word "soul" is used in Psalm 19 is in verse seven. The word "soul" is not used in verses one to six as it relates to God's general revelation in creation. God's general revelation in creation does not have the effect of being able to transform the soul.

The first time we have testimony of the revelation of God having the impact upon a person's life where that person's soul is revived and transformed is in verse seven when it speaks of the law, the testimony, the precepts, and the commandment. Verse seven, "the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." Put simply, and we'll get more into this tonight in our handout, but just to open our time together, we learn from this psalm that the scriptures are God's written revelation to man that provide soul transformation and the ability to change and transform the souls, the soul of man.

This is soul care. The true soul care is being able to minister the scriptures to a person's life. And so commentator Peter Craigie says that the scripture is the fundamental force restoring to full vigor and vitality to the flagging spirit of mankind and providing him with the enduring inner food without which life cannot be fully lived.

We come to the scriptures because our souls are in need of revival. Our souls are in need of encouragement. We come to the scriptures with our weary souls, with our distracted souls. We come to the scriptures with our noisy souls and the scriptures speak into our lives. And it is the Bible and the Bible alone that has the power to transform the soul.

Biblical counseling is soul care and to be equipped in scripture is to be able to minister to people's hearts and lives in a way that they can be changed from the inside out. I want you to keep Psalm 19 in mind as we go through tonight's study on general revelation and special revelation.

The categories of general revelation versus one to six and then special revelation versus seven to fourteen are going to be the categories that we're going to look at in some depth and also reference with some other scriptures in the New Testament. But these are the basic categories that we're going to be looking at tonight as we look at theology exam number four.

So let's pray together and we'll dive right in. And thank you again for joining us tonight and we pray that this will be an encouragement to you. So let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We thank you that your word is law, it is precept, it is commandment.

We thank you that it is testimony of who you are and all that you have done for us in redemptive history. We thank you for revealing yourself in creation. We thank you that the heavens declare the glory of God and day to day the heavens pour forth speech, but we thank you even more that you have revealed yourself to us in the Bible, in the written scriptures, that it is as we study and understand and hear the word of God that our hearts and our lives are transformed for time and for eternity.

And so tonight as we look at this essay topic of general revelation versus special revelation, I pray that you would help us to think clearly. I pray that you would help us to understand this topic, not only so that our own souls may rejoice in the greatness of your word, but also that you would help us to cling to the sufficiency of scripture for counseling ministry and that you would help us to navigate and to interact with those who might hold to an integrationist view of counseling, that we would understand the arguments that are being made for such a view and that we would be able to wisely, with discernment, give a biblical response that the sufficiency of scripture might be upheld and promoted in our lives and in our churches.

So bless each of our students tonight. Thank you for them, and we give this time to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, go ahead and take a look at your handout. We're going to dive into our study tonight. We're looking at theology exam number four, which is a question on general revelation and special revelation.

And on page one of your handout, we can read the essay topic together. The question says this, "Define general revelation and special revelation and describe the nature of their authority as well as their relationship to one another." And on page one of your handout, I've suggested some reading for you from the works of theology.

And then I've also included a Dropbox folder in the email that I sent you that contains a good article by Sam Stevens, who is the ACBC Training Center director, and he has a good work on general revelation. I encourage you to read that. And I've also included an article by John H.

Coe, who is an integrationist author and will interact with this article as we go along tonight. But if you move to page two of your handout, we want to begin with the general idea of revelation. What is the revelation of God? And Paul Enns writes this, "The word revelation is derived from the Greek word apokalipsis, which means disclosure or unveiling.

Hence revelation signifies God unveiling himself to mankind. Revelation may be defined as that act of God whereby he discloses himself or communicates truth to the mind, whereby he makes manifest to his creatures that which could not be known in any other way. The revelation may occur in a single instantaneous act or it may extend over a long period of time.

And this communication of himself and his truth may be perceived by the human mind in varying degrees of fullness." The important emphasis here is that God discloses truth about himself that man would not otherwise know. So this is not the idea of man discovering who God is through man's investigation and man's labors.

This is really the idea of God himself taking the initiative to disclose the truth of who he is to mankind. The idea of initiative is really important in this discussion of revelation. God has taken the initiative to disclose to us who he is. Henry Thiessen agrees with the statement of Paul Enns.

Thiessen writes this, "God's revelation is that act of God whereby he discloses himself or communicates truth to the mind, whereby he makes manifest to his creatures that which could not be known any other way." So let me just address the practical question tonight, which is simply this, why do I need to understand this topic if I want to be an ACBC certified biblical counselor?

What does this topic have to do with the ministry of biblical counseling and why do I need to navigate my way through the issues of general revelation and special revelation? And the simple answer is this, that ACBC wants to certify biblical counselors who believe and uphold the sufficiency of Scripture for counseling ministry.

This essay is really asking you to respond to one of the leading arguments of integrationism. And one of the leading arguments of integrationism is the idea that in order to really help people with their problems, we need to use both general revelation and special revelation to help people change.

In essence, what the integrationist would say is that you have general revelation, which is secular psychology, and then you have special revelation, which is the Scriptures, and you need to use both general and special revelation to help people change, therefore we must use both secular psychology and the Bible and combine them into a type of hybrid.

Many integrationists may also say that if you only give people special revelation, that is, the Bible, and you don't give them general revelation, that is, secular psychology, then you're really robbing people of the resources that they need to really help people change because we need to use, the basic argument would say, we need to use both general and special revelation.

Now I've included in your Dropbox folder this week an article from John H. Coe, who is a Christian integrationist, and Coe's article argues that we should use both general revelation and special revelation in counseling ministry, what he calls revelation both above and below the sun. And on page two of his article, Coe writes this, and I'll just briefly quote this for you.

He says that, "Propositional revelation alone is inadequate insofar as it is incapable of saving a single soul. The Bible does not intend to supplant the wisdom available from natural revelation, but only to perfect it, bringing it to its telos or goal in Christ. Thus the Bible provides the divine interpretation of aspects of history and nature, but alone it is insufficient." So very clearly there, John H.

Coe is saying that the scriptures alone are insufficient to really meet people where they are and really help them with their problems. We must use both general revelation and special revelation, thus we must use both the best of secular psychology and the best of the Bible and combine them in a hybrid to help people change.

It's really that central argument for integrationism that ACBC is asking you to respond to in theology exam number four. We present a model for counseling at ACBC that holds that we focus and we use special revelation, the scripture, to help people change. And we are zeroed in on special revelation, that is the scripture, and our central tenant is that we don't need secular psychology to help people with the issues of life.

And as we go forth, go on in this study, I hope you'll see how theologically this makes sense and then how also practically this presents a model where we major on the Bible and we use the Bible to minister to the issues of life. So that is why this topic is included in the essay exams.

We're asking you to interact with and respond to a leading argument for integrationism, and that's why theology exam number four is so important. So let me just underscore the broader concept of revelation for a moment. On your handout there, you have Deuteronomy 29, verse 29, which says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law." That is a passage that references the idea of special revelation, the things that are revealed belong to us.

And the passage also says that the secret things belong to the Lord our God. Scriptures are sufficient for life and godliness, but the scriptures are not exhaustive, telling us everything that could possibly be known. God's knowledge is infinite and his wisdom is infinite. And as much as he's given us in the scriptures, he has not revealed to us everything that there is to know.

It's really a staggering thought, and I'll restrain myself for a moment tonight. I'm going on a rabbit trail there, but it's really a staggering thought to think that as much as God has revealed to us, that the secret things belong to him. Matthew 11 also references the concept of revelation.

Verse 25, Jesus says, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." So under the umbrella of the larger theme of revelation, we have general revelation and we have special revelation.

Now in your handout, it says there that by general revelation, we are primarily talking about God's revelation in creation and in conscience. God's revelation in creation and in conscience. For the purposes of this class, I'm really going to major on God's revelation in creation. You can look up God's revelation in conscience in Romans chapter 2, but I'll focus here on God's revelation in creation.

The basic idea being that God has disclosed certain truths about who he is through the creation that God has made. God has disclosed certain truths about who he is through the creation that he has made. And this revelation is given to the entire world as we read in Psalm 19, and it is general in nature.

It proclaims to man that God exists, that God is powerful, that God is wise, but it does not contain specific truths about who God is, such as God is a holy trinity, or God is merciful, God is faithful. Those are specific truths that are found in special revelation, the scriptures, but general revelation proclaims to every man everywhere, certain general truths about who God is.

And then special revelation is God's revelation of himself in the scripture and in his son, Jesus Christ. And for the purposes of this class, we'll focus in on God's revelation of himself in the scriptures, going back to Psalm 19, which is the key text in contrasting general revelation with special revelation.

If you look at the bottom of your handout on page 3, Psalm 19, starting in verse 1, as I read at the beginning of class, it said, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." The created order makes a bold, authoritative proclamation to every man everywhere, living on planet earth, that there is a God and that God is amazing.

General revelation proclaims to every man everywhere that God is powerful, God is glorious, and that God exists. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. If you look at the next page of your handout, and I think this is page 3, we note that general revelation is general in content.

It is general in content. The heavens declare the glory of God. The term God translates the Hebrew word El, which is the most generic of all names for God. So as I mentioned, general revelation does not tell us about God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit.

It does proclaim to us the truth of God's power and God's glory. General revelation does not tell us about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. General revelation does not tell us about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit or the doctrine of the church. What general revelation does is it proclaims to the world that God exists and God is glorious.

So I love how John Piper put it, that the created order proclaims a sermon that goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the sermon is basically this, God is glorious. God is glorious. That refrain is repeated every day, every hour, every month of the year, for as long as man has existed, general revelation has proclaimed to man that God is glorious.

This is a declaration of the heavens, not a suggestion by the heavens. There's nothing unclear about God's general revelation. There's nothing that is wrong with God's revelation. The question is, what does man do with God's revelation in creation? And Romans 1 verse 19 tells us what man does with God's general revelation.

Paul says in verse 19, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them." He's talking about general revelation. God has shown man who God is through the created order that he has made. Paul continues, "For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been," here it is, "they have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made." So they are without excuse.

Now, remember, God's general revelation in creation is clear. It is loud. It is continuous. It is declarative in nature. It goes out to all the earth. It goes out to every man everywhere. The problem is not with God's general revelation. The problem is what man does with this revelation.

Paul says that man receives this general revelation and he is without excuse, but what he does with that general revelation is he suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. The problem is that man is so blinded by his sin that he will take all of this clear revelation that is given in creation and he will say, basically, "No, no, no, no, no," suppressing the truth in his heart in unrighteousness, and instead of bowing down to the true and the living God as revealed in creation, man will exchange the glory of God for an idol and actually use his intelligence to argue away the existence of God and conclude that it all came out of a big bang or it all came out of nothing.

The point is this. No one comes to faith through general revelation. No one comes to faith through general revelation. No one is saved by looking at the stars. No one is saved by looking at the planets. No one is saved by looking at the moon or by looking at an ocean or a mountaintop.

Men look at this revelation given by God and they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Number two on your handout, general revelation is general in audience. General revelation is general in audience. Paul Lenz writes that no one is excluded from this revelation of God wherever man peers at the universe there is orderliness.

Let me skip down to the bottom of your handout on page three. This is a key point that I really want you to understand and to take to heart and then also to articulate in your essays. The key point is this. If you look at the book of Romans and as you look at how Paul deals with the subject of general revelation, we learned that general revelation is sufficient to condemn, but it is not sufficient to save.

General revelation is sufficient to condemn and to leave men without excuse, but it is not enough to bring man to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. For that, man needs special revelation in the scripture. You might say, "Well, what about the person who is in a certain country and they don't have a Bible and no missionary went to them to give them the gospel?

Is that person at fault?" Romans once would say that that person is without excuse. They were given revelation from God. They were given general revelation, but they suppress the truth in unrighteousness and so they are without excuse. Now the missionary call of the church of course is to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and to take the gospel to the ends of the earth so that man would believe in Christ and be saved.

But the point here is that no man can stand on the judgment day and say that, "Well, God, you never told me who you were. God, you never told me about the truths of who you are." Every man everywhere has received the basic truths of who God is in general revelation.

If you look at page four of your handout, you'll see the broader dynamics at work in Romans chapter one. Paul says there in Romans 1 verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." So that's what all men do with general revelation.

They suppress the truth in unrighteousness, then watch the consequences of their rejection of general revelation. He begins, remember, that men receive revelation from God in creation. They are left without excuse. They suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and then there are consequences to this rejection. As Paul explains in Romans 1 verse 21, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened." Verse 22 says, "Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." And then as you read through the rest of the chapter, verse 24 says, "God gave them up." Verse 26 says, "God gave them up." Verse 28 says, "God gave them up." And eventually you end up in verse 32 where Paul says that men were filled with all manner of unrighteousness.

And Paul says they not only do acts of unrighteousness, but they gave approval to those who practice them. That is a description of what happens to man when man rejects general revelation. There are serious consequences to rejecting God's revelation of himself in creation. What happens is that man ends up being given over to greater expressions of his sin and ends up in verse 32, not only practicing sin, but glorying in his shame and calling light darkness and darkness light.

And that is all the consequences of rejecting revelation in creation. So someone's going to say at this point that if the problem is that man rejected general revelation, then in order to remedy the problem, we need to give man more general revelation. That would be one approach to solving the issue.

What we need to do in order to reach men's hearts is we need to show them more of the stars and more of the heavens and more of the planets. We need to show them more mountaintops, more oceans. We need to show them more of the intricacies of the animal planets, the animal kingdom.

And if we just show people more general revelation, then that will melt their heart and they will come to the saving knowledge of the truth. And scripture would disagree with that idea. Scripture says that unbelievers have been given all the general revelation that they need to believe that there is a God and they exchange the truth of God for a lie and they give themselves over to idolatry.

And you can't remedy man's rejection of general revelation by just giving man more general revelation. So you say then, well, what's the remedy then? And that's where Psalm 19 verse 7 transitions from God's general revelation in creation to God's special revelation in the scripture. Our hope lies in special revelation, the power of the scripture.

Psalm 19 verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. Now just a note here, and this should just cause us to glory in the goodness of our God. When man rejected God's general revelation in creation, God was under no obligation to give man any further revelation.

I hope you understand that and I hope you understand that this places us in a position where we ought to be filled with much gratitude and much praise to the goodness of God. God was under no obligation to give mankind any further revelation when all men everywhere rejected his general revelation and suppressed the truth and unrighteousness.

He could have stopped right there and said, I've given you all that you need to know and you've rejected it and so I'm going to give you over to sin and no further revelation is going to be given. But the truth is our God is gracious and our God is a God of salvation.

We find that general revelation leads to condemnation, but special revelation, that is the scriptures, leads to salvation. And God responded to man's rebellion in suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. God was gracious and He was kind and He gave us His special revelation in the scriptures, which revealed to us the glory of the person and work of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Paul ends, writes that special revelation involves a narrower focus than general revelation and is restricted to Jesus Christ and the scriptures. Of course, all that is known of Christ is through the scriptures, therefore it can be said that special revelation is restricted to the scriptures. So he's just saying there that, I mean, you could say special revelation centers on the scriptures and Jesus Christ, but all that we know about Jesus Christ is found in the scriptures.

So practically speaking, you can say that special revelation is related to God's revelation in the word of God, the written word of God, the 66 books of the Bible. So again, we refer to Psalm 19, "The law of the Lord revives the soul. The testimony of the Lord makes wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord revive the heart. The commandment of the Lord enlightens the eyes. The fear of the Lord endures forever. The rules of the Lord are righteous altogether." To counselors in training, I'm going to ask you to look at Psalm 19 verse 7 and ask yourself, what counseling issue is not addressed by the beneficial effects of the written word of God in those three verses?

Are you weary and burdened? The word of God revives your soul. Are you depressed and discouraged? The word of God rejoices the heart. Are you confused with life or have you lost your way? The word of God will be a lamp unto your feet and a light to your path.

Are you immature? Are you foolish? Are you in need of spiritual growth? The word of God will give you wisdom and spiritual maturity. There isn't a single counseling issue that is not broadly addressed by the beneficial effects of God's word in verses 7 to 9 of Psalm 19. And this is very practical to us because as counselors, we minister to those who are discouraged and depressed, those who are in need of clarity in terms of life's direction, those who are downcast with the issues of life, even depressed as a result of sin and suffering, and sometimes it is more suffering than sin.

Sometimes it's suffering that is caused by sin. We minister to those who are foolish and who are in need of spiritual maturity, and the word of God will have all of these beneficial effects in our counselees' lives if we minister God's word and if we assign good homework that gets our counselees into God's word.

You know here that the scripture is pure, perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true. The quality of scripture is therefore related to the character of God Himself. The scripture is perfect because God is perfect. The scripture is sure because God is faithful. The scripture is right because God is righteous.

The scripture is pure because God is holy. And in contrast to God's general revelation in creation, God's special revelation in scripture has the power to transform the soul. So we don't really do anything new or novel in biblical counseling. What do we do in biblical counseling? We meet with people, we love them well, we listen well, we show compassion.

We weep with those who weep, we rejoice with those who rejoice. We seek to enter the counselee's world and see life through their eyes. And then we open the Bible and we read the Bible together. We ask the counselee to read scripture and then we ask them questions to see if they have understanding of the word of God.

And then we help them make personal application to their lives and then we assign good homework that gets them into the word of God for themselves, both daily Bible reading and corporate worship, the corporate hearing of God's word, Bible memorization, reading good books that get them into scripture. And then we meet again and we repeat the process and we watch God work in counselee's lives.

There's nothing fancy about what we do. There's nothing that's some kind of magic, a secret mystery about what we as biblical counselors do. But what we do in all that is we unleash the power of the scripture in our counselees lives. We get them into the word and we get the word into our counselees.

And as the word begins to do its work, we watch the beneficial effects of the word of God in our counselees lives, that the word of God revives the soul. The word of God rejoices the heart. The word of God makes wise the simple and so forth and so on.

The word of God changes lives and transforms people's hearts and lives. And this is really based upon our understanding of general revelation and special revelation. Our approach in biblical counseling is not to get people into more general revelation because general revelation is sufficient to condemn and to leave men without excuse before judgment, but not sufficient to convert the soul and to bring men and women to salvation and sanctification.

To bring men and women to salvation and then to sanctification conformity to Christ likeness, we must have special revelation, the scripture. And so this essay is the basis to set the foundation of why we do what we do as biblical counselors. So some tips on writing this essay, if you're writing this essay this week or in the weeks to come, I'd encourage you to just start with defining revelation before you get into the specific concepts of general revelation and special revelation.

Just define revelation, get that concept down, revelation, the disclosure of God about truths about himself, where he takes the initiative to tell man who he is. And secondly, you want to define general revelation. I'd encourage you to spend some good time here defining the doctrine of general revelation. Make sure to reference Psalm 19 verses one to six, which focused on general revelation, and then make sure to reference Romans one, what man does with this general revelation from God.

And then the question asks you to describe the nature of their authority. And the basic answer here is that both general revelation and special revelation are equally authoritative, although they have different effects. The results of the two types of revelation are different. General revelation leaves men condemned, while special revelation results in salvation and sanctification.

But the two types of revelation are equally authoritative. Now move to page six of your handout, and I'll wrap this up and look at some applications, and then we'll send you on to have a great week writing this essay. Number one, application on page six. Understand how general revelation and special revelation are both similar and distinct.

They're similar in that they both come from God, they are distinct in their content. Special revelation reveals general truths about who God is. Special revelation reveals specific truths about who God is, and they are also distinct in their result or their effect. This is from the ACBC Standards of Doctrine, which you can look up on the ACBC website.

The standard says this, "Special revelation is God's disclosure of himself to his people in the pages of scripture. General revelation is God's disclosure of himself to the entirety of humanity in the things that have been made. General revelation and special revelation each come from God, and so are of equivalent authority." Now, you would do well to probably quote that standard of doctrine in response to the question.

ACBC has given you the answers to the question right here in their Standards of Doctrine, where they say, "General revelation and special revelation are of equivalent authority, although they differ in content. Special revelation discloses detailed information about the character of God and how to live all of life in a way that honors him.

General revelation is a disclosure of the beauty and power of God, which leads to judgment. The subject matter of general revelation is the character of God, and not mere facts about the created order. General revelation requires special revelation to be properly understood and applied." Number two application, "Understand how integrationists are using the doctrine of general revelation," as I mentioned earlier in our study.

What they're saying here is that general revelation is equivalent to secular psychology, special revelation is equivalent to the scripture, so we need to combine both general revelation and special revelation in helping people change. Larry Crabb, who is an integrationist, has said this in Effective Biblical Counseling, "All truth is certainly God's truth.

The doctrine of general revelation provided warrant for going beyond the propositional revelation of scripture into the secular world of scientific study, expecting to find true and usable concepts." So what's the problem here? And this is going to set up the next essay. We're going to talk more about this next week as we get into theology exam number five.

But the problem here is that no secular unbeliever can study general revelation apart from the Holy Spirit and come up with accurate conclusions. No secular unbeliever accepts the truth of general revelation. Romans 1, they look at general revelation and they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So this idea that we should study general revelation in purely secular terms and then study the scriptures and come up with a hybrid really has a faulty foundation because no unbeliever studies general revelation and comes up with the accurate conclusion that there is a God and He created everything and that He should be worshiped and praised forever and ever.

So that is a subject we'll look more at next week. This idea does not account for the secular understanding of general revelation that will be flawed due to the noetic effects of sin. We'll talk more about that next week. It also does not account for the limited nature of general revelation.

General revelation does not reveal specific truths about who man is and how the heart relates to God. So let me give you a third application and wrap this up. Number three, understand that special revelation is the focus of biblical counseling. So we are ministers of God's special revelation. We are ministers of the book.

We do book work, we study, we read, we understand the Word of God, and then we teach others what the Word of God says. It is God's Word that is sufficient to save and it is God's Word that is sufficient to sanctify. We focus in on God's special revelation because the goal of counseling is to change hearts and lives for God's glory.

So a final thought as we close. Can I ask you tonight as counselors in training, are you more impressed with God's general revelation in creation, or are you more impressed with God's special revelation in the scripture? Are you more impressed by canyons, lakes, oceans, rivers, sun, moon, stars, and planets, or are you more impressed with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and so forth and so on?

Are you more impressed by the greatness and grandeur of the stars in the skies, or are you more impressed at the greatness of your salvation in Christ? And as I tell people in my church, if you're more impressed with general revelation than you are with special revelation, then you need to spend more time in God's special revelation in the scriptures, the inexhaustible ocean of truth that's found in God's Word.

Is it any wonder that the psalmist concludes his treatment on general and special revelation in Psalm 19 by saying, verse 10, "More to be desired are they," that is the scriptures, "than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them, as your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward." And then he concludes, watch this real carefully, he concludes with a statement of self-examination.

He says, "Who can discern his errors, declare me innocent from hidden faults, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." The psalmist's response to understanding special revelation was not, "Well, that's nice, and I'll read it so that I understand more." His response to God's special revelation was, "Lord, I need to be changed.

Lord, change me. Examine my life according to the truth of your word and help me to live a life that is acceptable and pleasing to you." That's the power of God's word. That's what we want to produce in our counselees. And if we want to produce that in our counselees, then we ourselves need to be experiencing that as well.

So I pray that this study will be a blessing to your souls. I pray that you will write a great essay on the subject of general revelation and special revelation, and that what this essay will cause you to do is to cling ever more tightly to the scriptures, to the word of God, in ministering to others through the issues of life.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to pray and officially close our webinar for tonight. You're free to go at this point. If any of you have questions, I'll hang on for a few minutes afterwards, and I'll answer any questions that you might have. But otherwise, Lord bless you, and have a wonderful week, and thank you for joining us tonight.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word, and we do pray that, Father, your word would change and transform our own lives first, and then, Lord, we might be servants who can use your word to minister to others.