REVELATION
of
natural
religion
as
seen
in
nature,
man,
and
history,
(.d)
But
ultimately
the
credibility
of
Christianity
as
a
revelation
rests
on
the
Person
of
its
Founder,
and
all
evidences
converge
towards
and
centre
in
Him.
Christ
is
Christianity,
and
Christians
believe
primarily
and
fundamentally
in
the
fact
and
trustworthiness
of
Christ.
Herein
lies
the
final
proof
of
the
credibility
of
Christi-anity
as
a
Divine
revelation.
If
it
be
said
that
God
has
made
other
manifestations
of
Himself
in
the
course
of
history,
we
do
not
deny
it.
All
truth,
however
mediated,
must
necessarily
have
come
from
the
primal
Source
of
truth.
The
genuineness
of
Christianity
does
not
necessarily
disprove
the
genuineness
of
other
religions
as
'broken
lights.'
Each
system
claiming
to
be
a
revelation,
whether
partial
or
final,
must
be
tested
by
its
own
evidence,
and
a
decision
made
accordingly.
The
real
criterion
of
all
religions
claiming
to
be
Divine
Is
their
power
to
save.
It
is
not
truth
in
itself,
but
truth
as
exemplified
in
human
life
and
delivering
from
sin,
that
constitutes
the
final
proof
of
a
religion.
Not
the
ideal,
but
the
ideal
practically
realized
in
human
experience,
is
the
supreme
test.
When
this
is
applied,
the
true
relation
of
Christianity
to
other
systems
is
at
once
seen.
6.
Methods
o£
revelation.
—
(a)
The
Christian
revela-tion
is
first
and
foremost
a
revelation
of
life.
Christi-anity
is
primarily
a
religion
of
facts
rather
than
of
truths,
the
doctrines
only
arising
out
of
the
facts.
All
through
the
historic
period
God's
manifestation
has
been
given
to
life.
Whether
we
think
of
the
patriarchs,
kings,
and
prophets
of
the
OT,
or
of
Christ
and
His
Apostles
in
the
NT,
revelation
has
ever
been
connected
with
human
life
and
personality.
(6)
But
mediately
it
has
been
given
in
word,
first
oral
and
then
written.
Both
in
the
OT
and
in
the
NT
we
notice
first
what
God
was
and
did
to
men,
and
afterwards
what
He
said.
We
can
and
must
distinguish
between
the
revelation
and
the
record,
the
former
being
necessarily
prior
to
the
latter,
but
nevertheless
the
revelation
needed
the
record
for
accuracy
and
availability.
At
the
same
time
it
is
essential
to
remember
that
Scripture
is
not
simply
a
record
of
a
revelation,
but
that
the
history
itself
is
a
revelation
of
God.
On
the
one
hand,
the
Bible
is
a
product
of
the
Divine
process
of
self-
manifestation;
and,
on
the
other,
the
Bible
itself
makes
God
known
to
man.
Christianity,
therefore,
like
Judaism
before
it,
is
a
book
religion
(though
It
is
also
much
more),
as
recording
and
conveying
the
Divine
manifestation
to
man.
A
revelation
must
be
embodied
somewhere
to
be
made
available
for
all
generations,
and
of
the
three
possible
media
—
human
reason,
an
ecclesiastical
institution,
and
a
book,
—
the
last-named
is
by
far
the
most
trustworthy
as
a
vehicle
of
trans-mission.
It
matters
not
how
God
reveals
Himself,
so
long
as
we
can
be
sure
of
the
accuracy
of
that
which
is
transmitted.
Christ
is
our
supreme
and
final
authority,
and
our
one
requirement
is
the
purest,
clearest
form
of
His
historic
personal
manifestation.
We
do
not
set
aside
reason
because
it
is
human,
or
an
institution
because
it
is
liable
to
error,
nor
do
we
accept
the
book
merely
as
a
book;
but
we
believe
that
the
two
former
do
not,
and
the
latter
does,
enshrine
for
us
the
record
of
Christ's
revelation
in
its
best
available
form.
7.
Development
of
revelation.
—
Revelation
has
been
mediated
through
history,
and
has
therefore
been
pro-gressive,
(a)
Primitive
revelation
is
the
first
stage.
How
men
first
came
to
conceive
of
God
must
remain
a
matter
of
conjecture.
As
there
is
so
little
known
about
primitive
man,
so
also
there
must
be
about
primitive
religion.
One
thing,
however,
is
quite
clear,
that
the
terms
'savage'
and
'primitive'
are
not
synonymous,
for
the
savage
to-day
often
represents
a
degeneration
from
primitive
man.
All
analogy
favours
the
idea
that
primitive
revelation
was
such
a
manifestation
of
God
when
man
was
created
as
would
be
sufficient
to
main-tain
a
true
relation
with
Him,
that
at
the
Creation
man
REVELATION
had
an
immediate
capacity,
however
immature,
of
entering
into
fellowship
with
God;
and
with
this
re-ligious
endowment
we
may
assume
a
measure
of
Divine
revelation
sufficient
to
enable
man
to
worship
in
an
elementary
way,
and
to
keep
true
to
God.
No
one
is
able
to
prove
this,
but
there
is
no
reason
to
deny
its
possibility
or
probability.
Without
some
such
assump-tion,
all
idea
of
revelation
vanishes,
and
religion
is
resolved
into
merely
human
conceptions
of
God.
Revelation
is
more
than
the
soul's
instinctive
appre-hension
of
God,
for
the
simple
reason
that
the
instinctive
apprehension
itself
has
to
be
accounted
for.
The
difii-culties
urged
by
some
writers
on
the
philosophy
of
religion
against
primitive
revelation
arise
out
of
the
assumption
that
all
revelations
are
mere
natural
proc-esses.
There
is
no
argument
against
primitive
revela-tion
which
is
not
valid
against
all
revelation,
Christianity
included.
The
power
and
possibility
of
man's
self-
development
towards
God
are
inconsistent
with
the
fact
of
sin
and
man's
bent
towards
evil.
(6)
OT
revelation.
However
and
whenever
the
OT
came
into
existence,
we
cannot
help
being
conscious
of
something
in
it
beyond
that
which
is
merely
human
and
historical.
There
is
that
in
the
OT
characters
and
record
which
cannot
be
explained
solely
in
terms
of
historic
continuity.
The
O'T
does
not
merely
represent
an
endeavour
to
obtain
an
ever
worthier
idea
of
God;
it
records
a
true
idea
of
God
impressed
oh
the
people
in
the
course
of
history,
under
a
Divine
direction
which
we
call
a
revelation.
The
OT
conception
of
God
is
so
vastly
different
from
that
which
obtained
in
the
surrounding
nations,
that
unless
we
predicate
something
supernatural,
there
is
no
possibility
of
accounting
tor
so
marked
a
difference
between
people
who
were
in
other
respects
so
very
much
alike.
As
Wellhausen
truly
says,
'
Why
did
not
Chemosh
of
Moab,
for
instance,
develop
into
a
God
of
Righteousness,
and
the
Creator
of
heaven
and
earth?'
It
is
possible
to
give
a
satisfying
answer
to
this
question
only
by
predicating
a
Divine
revelation
in
the
OT.
(e)
The
NT
revelation.
The
historical
revelation
culminated
in
the
manifestation
of
Jesus
Christ.
It
was
given
at
a
particular
time
and
place,
mediated
through
One
Person,
and
authenticated
by
supernatural
credentials.
In
Christ
the
self-dis-closure
of
God
reached
its
climax,
and
the
NT
is
the
permanent
witness
of
the
uniqueness
of
Christianity
in
the
world.
'
God,
who
in
ancient
days
spoke
to
our
forefathers
in
many
distinct
messages
and
by
various
methods
through
the
prophets,
has
at
the
end
of
these
days
spoken
unto
us
through
a
Son'
(He
l',
Weymouth).
And
the
Person
of
Christ
is
utterly
inexplicable
in
terms
of
history,
or
discovery,
and
requires
the
hypoth-esis
of
revelation.
_
This
brief
sketch
of
the
historical
development
of
revela-tion
will
enableua
to
understand
theimportanceof
the
truth
of
the
progressiveneas
of
revelation.
God
taught
men
as
they
were
able
to
bear
it,
leading
them
step
by
step
from
the
dawn
to
the
noonday
of
His
self-disclosure.
While
each
stage
of
the
revelation
was
adequate
for
that
time,
it
was
not
necessarily
adequate
with
reference
to
succeeding
stages.
This
principle
of
progress
enables
us
to
avoid
a
twofold
error:
it
prevents
us
from
undervaluing
the
OT
by
reason
of
the
fuller
light
of
the
NT;
and
it
prevents
us
from
using
the
OT
in
any
of
its
stages
without
guidance
from
the
completer
revelation
of
the
NT.
We
thus
distinguish
care-fully
between
the
dispensational
truth
intended
absolutely
for
immediate
need
at
each
stage,
and
those
permanent
elements
in
the
OT
which
are
of
eternal
validity.
It
is
necessary
to
remember
the
difference
between
what
is
written
for
us
and
to
us.
'
All
Scnpture
was
written
for
our
learning,
but
not
all
was
written
to
us
directly.
If
it
be
said
that
revelation
should
be
universal,
and
not
limited
to
one
time
or
place
or
nation,
the
answer
is
that
the
historical
method
is
m
exact
accordance
with
the
method
of
communi-cating
and
receiving
all
our
knowledge.
It
is
obvious
that
in
the
course
of
history
some
nations
and
men
have
influenced
mankind
more
than
others,
and
this
fact
constitutes
an
analogy,
and
argues
the
possibility
that
a
special
revelation
might
also
be
mediated
through
some
particular
race
and
person.
Further,
by
limiting
revelation
in
this
way,
God
