Revelation, ordivine revelation, is the disclosing of some form oftruth orknowledge through communication with adeity (god) or othersupernaturalentity or entities in the view ofreligion andtheology.[1]
Thomas Aquinas believed in two types of individual revelation fromGod,general revelation andspecial revelation. Ingeneral revelation, God reveals himself through his creation, such that at least some truths about God can be learned by theempirical study ofnature,physics,cosmology, etc., to an individual. Special revelation is the knowledge of God and spiritual matters which can be discovered throughsupernatural means, such as scripture or miracles, by individuals.Direct revelation refers to communication from God to someone in particular.[2]
Though one may deduce theexistence of God and some of God's attributes through general revelation, certain specifics may be known only through special revelation. Aquinas believed that special revelation is equivalent to the revelation of God in Jesus. The major theological components of Christianity, such as theTrinity and theIncarnation, are revealed in the teachings of the church and the scriptures and may not otherwise be deduced. The teachings ofMuhammad, the prophet ofIslam, are also of this nature. The holy book ofMuslims, theQuran, is the product of a special revelation from God to Muhammad, which led to the emergence of the last divine religion,Islam. Special revelation and general revelation are complementary rather than contradictory in nature. That is, in understanding a "special revelation", first a "general revelation" provides the conditions, and after that "special revelation" occurs, the subsequent conditions for the occurrence of the "general revelation" also change at will.[3]
According toDumitru Stăniloae,Eastern Orthodox Church’s position on general/special revelation is in stark contrast toProtestant andCatholic theologies that see a clear difference between general and special revelation and tend to argue that the former is not sufficient to salvation. In Orthodox Christianity, he argues, there is no separation between the two and supernatural revelation merely embodies the former in historical persons and actions.[4]
"Continuous revelation" is a term for the theological position that God continues to reveal divine principles or commandments to humanity.[5]
In the 20th century, religiousexistentialists proposed that revelation held no content in and of itself but rather that God inspired people with his presence by coming into contact with them. Revelation is a human response that records how we respond to God.[6]
The philosopherFriedrich Nietzsche wrote of his personal experience of inspiration and his own experience of "the idea of revelation" in his workEcce Homo:[7]
Has any one at the end of the nineteenth century any distinct notion of what poets of a stronger age understood by the word inspiration? If not, I will describe it. If one had the smallest vestige of superstition left in one, it would hardly be possible completely to set aside the idea that one is the mere incarnation, mouthpiece, or medium of an almighty power. The idea of revelation, in the sense that something which profoundly convulses and upsets one becomes suddenly visible and audible with indescribable certainty and accuracy—describes the simple fact. One hears—one does not seek; one takes—one does not ask who gives: a thought suddenly flashes up like lightning, it comes with necessity, without faltering—I have never had any choice in the matter.
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Some religious groups believe a deity has been revealed or spoken to a large group of people or have legends to a similar effect. In theBook of Exodus,Yahweh is said to have givenTen Commandments to theIsraelites atMount Sinai. InChristianity, theBook of Acts describes theDay of Pentecost wherein the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples ofJesus in the form of fire that they began praising in tongues and experienced mass revelation. TheLakota people believePtesáŋwiŋ spoke directly to the people in the establishment of Lakota religious traditions.[8] Some versions of anAztec legend tell ofHuitzilopochtli speaking directly to the Aztec people upon their arrival atAnåhuac.[9] Historically, someemperors, cult leaders, and other figures have also been deified and treated as though their words are themselves revelations.[10][11][12]
Some people hold that God can communicate with people in a way that gives direct,propositional content: This is termedverbal revelation.Orthodox Judaism and some forms of Christianity hold that the first five books ofMoses were dictated by God in such a fashion.[13]Isaiah writes that he received his message through visions, where he would seeYHWH, the God of Israel, speaking to angelic beings that surrounded him. Isaiah would then write down the dialogue exchanged between YHWH and the angels.[14] This form of revelation constitutes the major part of the text of theBook of Isaiah. The same formula of divine revelation is used by other prophets throughout theTanakh, such as Micaiah in1 Kings 22:19–22.[15][16]
One school of thought holds that revelation is non-verbal and non-literal, yet it may have propositional content. People were divinely inspired by God with a message but not in a verbal-like sense.[17]
RabbiAbraham Joshua Heschel wrote, "To convey what the prophets experienced, the Bible could either use terms of descriptions or terms of indication. Any description of the act of revelation in empirical categories would have produced a caricature. That is why all the Bible does is to state that revelation happened; how it happened is something they could only convey in words that are evocative and suggestive."[18]
Members ofAbrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, believe that God exists and can in some way reveal his will to people. Members of those religions distinguish between trueprophets andfalse prophets, and there are documents offering criteria by which to distinguish true from false prophets. The question ofepistemology then arises: how to know?[19]
Some believe that revelation can originate directly from adeity or through an agent such as anangel. One who has experienced such contact with, or communication from, the divine is often called a prophet.The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought suggests that the more proper and wider term for such an encounter would be "mystical", making such a person amystic.[20] All prophets would be mystics, but not all mystics would be prophets.[21]
Revelation from a supernatural source is of lesser importance in some other religious traditions, such asTaoism andConfucianism.[22][23]
The Báb,Bahá'u'lláh and`Abdu'l-Bahá, the central figures of theBahá'í Faith, received thousands of written enquiries, and wrote thousands of responses, hundreds of which amount to whole and proper books, while many are shorter texts, such as letters. In addition, the Bahá'í Faith has large works which were divinely revealed in a very short time, as in a night, or a few days.[24] Additionally, because many of the works were first recorded by anamanuensis,[25] most were submitted for approval and correction and the final text was personally approved by the revelator.
Bahá'u'lláh would occasionally write the words of revelation down himself, but normally the revelation was dictated to his amanuensis, who sometimes recorded it in what has been calledrevelation writing, a shorthand script written with extreme speed owing to the rapidity of the utterance of the words. Afterwards, Bahá'u'lláh revised and approved these drafts. Theserevelation drafts and many othertranscriptions of Bahá'u'lláh's writings, around 15,000 items, some of which are in his own handwriting, are kept in theInternational Bahá'í Archives inHaifa,Israel.[26][27][28]
Many Christians believe in the possibility and even reality ofprivate revelations, messages from God for individuals, which can come in a variety of ways.Montanism is an example inearly Christianity and there are alleged cases today also.[29] However, Christians see as of a much higher level the revelation recorded in thecollection of books known as theBible. They consider those books to have been written by human authors under the inspiration of theHoly Spirit. They regard Jesus as the supreme revelation of God, with the Bible being a revelation in the sense of a witness to him.[30] TheCatechism of the Catholic Church states that "the Christian faith is not a 'religion of the book.' Christianity is the religion of the 'Word of God', a word which is 'not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living".[31]
Geisler and Nix speak ofBiblical inerrancy as meaning that in its original form, the Bible is totally without error and free from all contradiction, including the historical and scientific parts.[32] Coleman speaks ofBiblical infallibility as meaning that the Bible is inerrant on issues of faith and practice but not history or science.[33] TheCatholic Church speaks not about infallibility of Scripture but about its freedom from error, holding "the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture".[34] TheSecond Vatican Council, citing earlier declarations, stated: "Since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation".[35][36] It added: "Since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words."[37] The Reformed Churches believe in the Bible is inerrant in the sense spoken of by Gregory and Nix and "deny that Biblical infallibility and inerrancy are limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes, exclusive of assertions in the fields of history and science".[38] TheWestminster Confession of Faith speaks of "the infallible truth and divine authority" of the Scriptures.[39]
In theNew Testament,Jesus treats theOld Testament as authoritative and says that it "cannot be broken" .[40]2 Timothy 3:16 says: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness".[41] TheSecond Epistle of Peter claims that "no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by theHoly Spirit".[42] It also speaks of Paul's letters as containing some things "hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures".[43]
This letter does not specify "the other Scriptures", and the term "all Scripture" in 2 Timothy does not indicate the writings that were or would be breathed out by God and useful for teaching, since it does not preclude later works, such as theBook of Revelation and theEpistles of John may have been. The Catholic Church recognizes 73 books as inspired and forming the Bible (46 books of theOld Testament and 27 books of theNew Testament). The most common versions of the Bible thatProtestants have today consist of 66 of these books. None of the 66 or 73 books gives a list of revealed books.
The theologian and Christian existentialist philosopherPaul Johannes Tillich (1886–1965), who sought to correlate culture and faith so that "faith need not be unacceptable to contemporary culture and contemporary culture need not be unacceptable to faith", argued that revelation never runs counter to reason (affirmingThomas Aquinas, who considered faith to be eminently rational) and that both poles of the subjective human experience are complementary.[44]
Karl Barth argued that God is the object of God's own self-knowledge, and revelation in the Bible means the self-unveiling to humanity of the God who cannot be discovered by humanity simply through its own efforts. For him, the Bible is notThe Revelation; rather, it points to revelation. Human concepts can never be considered as identical to God's revelation, and Scripture is written in human language, expressing human concepts. It cannot be considered identical with God's revelation. However, God does reveal himself through human language and concepts, and thus Christ is truly presented in scripture and the preaching of the church.[citation needed]
TheCatechism of the Catholic Church of theCatholic Church states:[45]
'Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason.' Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God's revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created 'in the image of God'.
In the historical conditions in which he finds himself, however, man experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone [...]
This is why man stands in need of being enlightened by God's revelation, not only about those things that exceed his understanding, but also 'about those religious and moral truths which of themselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason, so that even in the present condition of the human race, they can be known by all men with ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error'
The Catholic Church also asserts thatJesus Christ is the "fullness and mediator of all Revelations", and that no new divine revelation will come until theSecond Coming.[46]: Paragraph 4 Revelation is seen as the source of anobligation on the part of those who recognize it, namely an obligation to believe or to submit intellectually to "God who reveals".[46]: Paragraph 5
It also believes that God gradually leads the church into a deeper understanding of divine revelation, such as by private revelations, which do not fulfill, complete, substitute, or supersede divine revelation but help one live by divine revelation. The church does not obligate the faithful to believe in, follow, or publish private revelations whether or not they are approved.[47]
TheLatter Day Saint movement teaches that the movement began with a revelation from God, which began a process ofrestoring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. Latter Day Saints also teach that revelation is the foundation of the church established byJesusChrist and that it remains an essential element of his true church today.Continuous revelation provides individual Latter Day Saints with atestimony, described byRichard Bushman as "one of the most potent words in the Mormon lexicon".[48]
Latter Day Saints believe in anopen scriptural canon, and in addition to theBible and theBook of Mormon, have books of scripture containing the revelations of modern-day prophets such as theDoctrine and Covenants and thePearl of Great Price. In addition, many Latter Day Saints believe that ancient prophets in other regions of the world received revelations that resulted in additional scriptures that have been lost and may, one day, be forthcoming.[citation needed] Latter Day Saints also believe that theUnited States Constitution is a divinely inspired document.[49][50]
Members ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sustain thePresident of the Church asprophet, seer, and revelator, the only person on earth who receives revelation to guide the entire church. They also sustain the two counselors in theFirst Presidency, as well as theQuorum of the Twelve Apostles, as prophets, seers, and revelators.[51] They believe that God has followed a pattern of continued revelation to prophets throughout the history of mankind to establish doctrine and maintain its integrity, as well as to guide the church under changing world conditions.[52] When this pattern of revelation was broken, it was because the receivers of revelation had been rejected and often killed. In the meridian[clarification needed] of time, Paul described prophets and apostles in terms of a foundation, with Christ as the cornerstone, which was built to prevent doctrinal shift—"that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine".[53] To maintain that foundation, new apostles were chosen and ordained to replace those lost to death or transgression, as when Matthias was called by revelation to replace Judas (Acts 1:15–26). However, as intensifying persecution led to the imprisonment and martyrdom of the apostles, it eventually became impossible to continue theapostolic succession.[54]
Once the foundation of apostles and prophets was lost, the integrity of Christian doctrine as established by Christ and the apostles began to be compromised by those who continued to develop doctrine despite not being called or authorized to receive revelation for the body of the church. In the absence of revelation, the post-apostolic theologians had no choice but introduced elements of human reasoning, speculation, and personal interpretation of scripture (2 Pet 1:19–20), which over time led to the loss or corruption of various doctrinal truths, as well as to the addition of new man-made doctrines. That naturally led to much disagreement and schism, which over the centuries culminated in the large number of Christian churches on the earth today. Mormons believe that God resumed his pattern of revelation when the world was again ready by calling the Prophet Joseph Smith to restore the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth.[55] Since that time there has been a consistent succession of prophets and apostles, which God has promised will not be broken before the Second Coming of Christ (Dan 2:44).[56]
Each member of the LDS Church is also confirmed a member of the church following baptism and given the "gift of the Holy Ghost" by which each member is encouraged to develop a personal relationship with that divine being and receive personal revelation for their own direction and that of their family.[57] The Latter Day Saint concept of revelation includes the belief that revelation from God is available to all those who earnestly seek it with the intent of doing good. It also teaches that everyone is entitled to personal revelation with respect to his or herstewardship (leadership responsibility). Thus, parents may receive inspiration from God in raising their families, individuals can receive divine inspiration to help them meet personal challenges, church officers may receive revelation for those whom they serve, and so forth.
The important consequence of this is that each person may receive confirmation that particular doctrines taught by a prophet are true, as well as gain divine insight in using those truths for their own benefit and eternal progress. In the church, personal revelation is expected and encouraged, and many converts believe that personal revelation from God was instrumental in their conversion.[58]Joseph F. Smith, the sixth president of the LDS Church, summarized this church's belief concerning revelation by saying, "We believe... in the principle of direct revelation from God to man" (Smith, 362).[59]
Quakers, known formally as the Religious Society of Friends, are generally united by a belief in each human's ability to experiencethe light within or see "that of God in every one."[60] Most Quakers believe incontinuing revelation: God continuously reveals truth directly to individuals.George Fox said, "Christ has come to teach His people Himself."[61] Friends often focus on feeling the presence of God. AsIsaac Penington wrote in 1670, "It is not enough to hear of Christ, or read of Christ, but this is the thing – to feel him to be my root, my life, and my foundation...."[62] Quakers reject the idea ofpriests and believe in thepriesthood of all believers. Some express their concept of God using phrases such as "the inner light", "inward light of Christ", or "Holy Spirit". Quakers first gathered around George Fox in the mid–17th century and belong to a historicallyProtestant Christian set ofdenominations.[63]
With the development ofrationalism,materialism, andatheism during theAge of Enlightenment in Europe beginning about the mid-17th century, the concept of supernatural revelation began to face skepticism. InThe Age of Reason (1794–1809),Thomas Paine developed the theology ofdeism, rejecting the possibility ofmiracles and arguing that a revelation may be considered valid only for the original recipient, with all else beinghearsay.[64]
Śruti, Sanskrit for "that which is heard", refers to the body of most authoritative, ancientreligious texts comprising the central canon ofHinduism.[65] It includes the fourVedas including its four types of embedded texts—theSamhitas, the earlyUpanishads.[66] Śrutis have been variously described as a revelation throughanubhava (direct experience),[67] or of primordial origins realized by ancientRishis.[65] In Hindu tradition, they have been referred to asapauruṣeya (not created by humans).[68] TheŚruti texts themselves assert that they were skillfully created byRishis (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.[69]
Muslims believe thatGod (Arabic:أللهAllah) revealed his final message to all of existence throughMuhammad via the angelGabriel.[70] Muhammad is considered to have been theSeal of the Prophets and the last revelation, theQur'an, is believed by Muslims to be the flawless final revelation of God to humanity, valid until theLast Day. The Qur'an claims to have been revealed word by word and letter by letter.[71]
Muslims hold that the message of Islam is the same as the message preached by all the messengers sent by God to humanity sinceAdam. Muslims believe that Islam is the oldest of the monotheistic religions because it represents both the original and the final revelation of God toAbraham,Moses,David,Jesus, and Muhammad.[72][73] Likewise, Muslims believe that everyprophet received revelation in their lives, as each prophet was sent by God to guide mankind.Jesus is significant in this aspect as he received revelation in a twofold aspect, as Muslims believe he preached theGospel while also having been taught theTorah.[74][75]
According to Islamic traditions, Muhammad began receiving revelations from the age of 40 that were delivered through the angel Gabriel over the last 23 years of his life. The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an,[76] was memorized and recorded by his followers and compiled from dozens ofhafiz as well as other various parchments or hides into a single volume shortly after his death. InMuslim theology, Muhammad is considered equal in importance to all otherprophets of God and to make distinction among the prophets is asin, as the Qur'an itself promulgates equality between God's prophets.[77]
Manyscholars have made the distinction between revelation andinspiration, which according to Muslim theology, all righteous people can receive. Inspiration refers to God inspiring a person to commit some action, as opposed to revelation, which only the prophets received.[78][79] Moses's mother,Jochebed, being inspired to send the infant Moses in a cradle down theNile river is a frequently cited example of inspiration,[80][81][82] as isHagar searching for water for the infantIshmael.[83][84]
The termrevelation is used in two senses in Jewish theology; (1) what in rabbinical language is calledGilluy Shekinah, a manifestation of God by some wondrous act of his which overawes man and impresses him with what he sees, hears, or otherwise perceives of his glorious presence; or (2) a manifestation of his will through oracular words, signs, statutes, or laws.[85][86]
InJudaism, issues of epistemology have been addressed byJewish philosophers such asSaadiah Gaon (882–942) in hisBook of Beliefs and Opinions;Maimonides (1135–1204) in hisGuide for the Perplexed;Samuel Hugo Berman, professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University;Joseph Dov Soloveitchik (1903–1993), talmudic scholar and philosopher;Neil Gillman, professor of philosophy at theJewish Theological Seminary of America, andElliot N. Dorff, professor of philosophy at theAmerican Jewish University.[86]
One of the major trends in modern Jewish philosophy was the attempt to develop a theory of Judaism through existentialism. One of the primary players in this field wasFranz Rosenzweig. His major work,Star of Redemption, expounds a philosophy in which he portrays the relationships between God, humanity and world as they are connected by creation, revelation and redemption.[86]Conservative Jewish philosophersElliot N. Dorff andNeil Gillman take the existentialist philosophy of Rosenzweig as one of their starting points for understandingJewish philosophy. (They come to different conclusions, however.)[86]
Rabbinic Judaism, and contemporaryOrthodox Judaism, hold that theTorah (Pentateuch) extant today is essentially the same one that the whole of the Jewish people received onMount Sinai, from God, upon their Exodus from Egypt.[87] Beliefs that God gave a "Torah of truth" to Moses (and the rest of the people), that Moses was the greatest of the prophets, and that the Law given to Moses will never be changed, are three of theThirteen Principles of Faith of Orthodox Judaism according toMaimonides.[86]
Orthodox Judaism believes that in addition to the written Torah, God also revealed to Moses a set of oral teachings, called theOral Torah. In addition to this revealed law,Jewish law contains decrees and enactments made by prophets, rabbis, and sages over the course of Jewish history.Haredi Judaism tends to regard even rabbinic decrees as being of divine origin or divinely inspired, whileModern Orthodox Judaism tends to regard them as being more potentially subject tohuman error, although due to the Biblical verse "Do not stray from their words" ("Deuteronomy 17:11) it is still accepted as binding law.[86]
Conservative Judaism tends to regard both the Torah and the Oral law as not verbally revealed. The Conservative approach tends to regard the Torah as compiled by redactors in a manner similar to theDocumentary Hypothesis. However, Conservative Jews also regard the authors of the Torah as divinely inspired, and many regard at least portions of it as originating with Moses. Positions can vary from the position ofJoel Roth, followingDavid Weiss HaLivni, that while the Torah originally given to Moses on Mount Sinai became corrupted or lost and had to be recompiled later by redactors, the recompiled Torah is nonetheless regarded as fully Divine and legally authoritative, to the position ofGordon Tucker that the Torah, while Divinely inspired, is a largely human document containing significant elements of human error, and should be regarded as the beginning of an ongoing process which is continuing today.[citation needed] Conservative Judaism regards the Oral Law as divinely inspired, but nonetheless subject to human error.[86]
Reform and Reconstructionist Jews also accept the Documentary Hypothesis for the origin of the Torah, and tend to view all of the Oral law as an entirely human creation.Reform believe that the Torah is not adirect revelation from God, but is a document written by human ancestors, carrying human understanding and experience, and seeking to answer the question: 'What does God require of us?'. They believe that, though it contains many 'core-truths' about God and humanity, it is also time bound. They believe that God's will is revealed through the interaction of humanity and God throughout history, and so, in that sense, Torah is a product of an ongoing revelation.Reconstructionist Judaism denies the notion of revelation entirely.[86]
Although theNevi'im (the books of the Prophets) are considered divine and true, this does not imply that the books of the prophets are always read literally. Jewish tradition has always held that prophets used metaphors and analogies. There exists a wide range of commentaries explaining and elucidating those verses consisting of metaphor.Rabbinic Judaism regards Moses as the greatest of the prophets, and this view is one of theThirteen Principles of Faith of traditional Judaism. Consistent with the view that revelation to Moses was generally clearer than revelation to other prophets, Orthodox views of revelation to prophets other than Moses have included a range of perspectives as to directness. For example,Maimonides inThe Guide for the Perplexed said that accounts of revelation in the Nevi'im were not always as literal as in theTorah and that some prophetic accounts reflect allegories rather than literal commands or predictions.[88]
ConservativeRabbi andphilosopherAbraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972), author of a number of works on prophecy, said that, "Prophetic inspiration must be understoodas an event, not asa process."[89] In his workGod in Search of Man, he discussed the experience of being a prophet. In his bookProphetic Inspiration After the Prophets: Maimonides and Others, Heschel references to continued prophetic inspiration in Jewishrabbinic literature following the destruction of theTemple in Jerusalem and into medieval and even Modern times. He wrote that:[90]
TheGuru Granth Sahib is considered to be a divine revelation by God to theSikh gurus. In various verses of Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh gurus themselves state that they merely speak what the divine teacher (God) commands them to speak.Guru Nanak frequently used to tell his ardent followerMardana "Oh Mardana, play therabaab the Lord's word is descending onto me."[92]
In certain passages of Guru Granth Sahib, it is clearly said the authorship is of divine origin and the gurus are merely the channel through which such revelations came.[92]
Revealed religions havereligious texts which they view as divinely or supernaturally revealed or inspired. For instance,Orthodox Jews,Christians, andMuslims believe that theTorah was received fromGod onbiblical Mount Sinai.[93][94] Most Christians believe that both theOld Testament and theNew Testament wereinspired by God. Muslims believe theQuran was revealed by God toMuhammad word by word through the angelGabriel (Jibril).[95][96] InHinduism, theVedas are consideredapauruṣeya, "not human compositions", and are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are calledśruti, "what is heard". Hindus also consider theBhagavad Gita to contain direct revelation fromKrishna.[97][63]
A revelation communicated by a supernatural entity reported as being present during the event is called avision. Direct conversations between the recipient and the supernatural entity,[98] or physical marks such asstigmata, have been reported. In rare cases, such as that of SaintJuan Diego, physical artifacts accompany the revelation.[99] TheRoman Catholic concept ofinterior locution includes just an inner voice heard by the recipient.[63]
In theAbrahamic religions, the term is used to refer to the process by whichGod reveals knowledge of himself, hiswill, and hisdivine providence to the world of human beings.[100] In secondary usage, revelation refers to the resulting human knowledge about God,prophecy, and otherdivine things. Revelation from a supernatural source plays a less important role in some other religious traditions such asBuddhism,Confucianism andTaoism.[63]
This is the word of the Lord God to you all, and a charge to you all in the presence of the living God; be patterns, be examples in all your countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people and to them: then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you: then to the Lord God you will be a sweet savour, and a blessing.
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