In the past we have recorded that God revealed himself and his will through the medium of dreams and visions. He does not do so, commonly, today. We have Gods will and his word recorded for us in the Bible. We also have the ministry of the Holy Spirit in his fullness today.
God has revealed himself by prophets. At sundry times and divers manners God spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets (Hebrews 1:1). The prophets were his spokesmen. They lived under the commission, I have made thee a watchman. ... Therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warnking from me (Ezekiel 3:17). So the word of the Lord would come to them and they would declare it to the people.
God has revealed himself by the Holy Spirit. Thou gavest also they good spirit to instruct them (Nehemiah 9:20). There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the almighty giveth them understanding (Job 23:8). The Bible says of those things which mans eyes have not seen, his ears have not heard and his mind has not conceived, God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. ... Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God (Corinthians 2:10, 12).
God has revealed himself most perfectly in the person and the work of Jesus the Christ and his only begotten son. Note this reading of Hebrews 1:1, 2, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in the past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. Here is how God did it. The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father,) full of grace and truth ... no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (John 14:7, 9). Jesus is the express image of the person of God (Hebrew 1:3).
What God has revealed of himself through nature, dreams, visions, prophets, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ has been recorded in the Bible. The Bible is the one written record of the self-revelation of God.
The reason God has revealed himself, and recorded that revelation in the Bible, is that men might know him and be saved. It can be said of all the Bible, as is said of the Gospel of John, These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (John 20:31).
It is not enough to have a Bible, to read the Bible, to believe the Bible, you must place your faith in him of whom the Bible speaks, Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God.
Kelton F. Richardson has a doctorate in social psychology and has worked with individuals and families experiencing marital problems. A student of the Bible, he lives in Cortez.
