Revelation of God in Christianity

Christianity is a revealed religion. The claim of Christianity is that it is the only true way for us to learn about and know God. The Bible does not try to prove the existence of God, the Supreme and all-sovereign Being, but it asserts the existence of God. The very first verse in the Bible (Genesis 1:1), it is declared, “In the beginning God.” It continues to declare, “God created the heavens and the world.” God revealed himself to humanity; otherwise, we would not know him. We had to remain satisfied only with our assumptions. Our faith and experience govern us in all that we believe. God reveals to us, and as such we can know him.
God is revealed and known in two primary ways.   He reveals himself through his creation. This is natural or general revelation. This is where man intuitively knows about God. God is also known through his Word, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures. That the Biblical teaching that man is created in God’s image and likeness lies behind this natural revelation of God. Psalm 19 illustrates this truth when it says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork." Day unto day utters his speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them, he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”   This wonderful Psalm continues to sing about God: “The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precept of the LORD is right…” What we clearly learn from Psalm 19 is about God’s natural or general revelation and also of his special revelation, which he does in his holy Word, the Scriptures. This unique psalm speaks of both of God’s revelations.
In his famous Epistle to the Romans, Saint Paul wrote in connection with the utter degeneracy of the people: “Because of what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world his visible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:19-21).
The Bible testifies to the truth that man received from God his direct revelations in the ancient times. Noah, Abraham, Moses and the prophets in different times and situations. The Bible is full of illustrations of both kinds of God's revelations, i.e., general and special: God revealed himself to mankind through his miracles, extraordinary experiences and providence throughout ages.
God is perfectly revealed in and through Jesus Christ. He revealed in his birth, life, ministries, his extraordinary witness to God and his teachings, which are narrated in the Holy Bible. Christ is the incarnation of the eternal and life-giving Word of God for the sin-sick world for its salvation for eternal life. He reconciled the alienated world to God.   To quote some of the relevant illustrations: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1); “Behold , the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call his name ‘Immanuel, which is translated, God with us” (Matthew 1:23); “For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell”; “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 1:19, and Colossians 2:9). God is self-evident truth. He is the sovereign and almighty. Paul wrote in Acts of the Apostle (17:24-26): “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men should seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him live and move and have our being.”
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The writer is a Christian Theology teacher and Church leader