Divine Revelation

Gabriel Garcia
Sacred Doctrine
THEO 205
Instructor: Matthew McWhorter

Divine Revelation

Just as most people choose to have a confidante as a friend, God decided to completely reveal himself to us. Yet, many may ask why God, being all-powerful and almighty as the creator, chose to expose himself to humans—such people who are mere reflections of the majesty and splendor that is our God.The answer to this probe revolves around the fact that God is love, and by exposing himself through divine Revelation, God “wishes to make them [men] capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.” Even though man is able to use reason to discover God’s existence, He chose to reveal Himself to humankind so that a more intimate relationshipcould be created by men faithfully accepting God’s word, for He chose us to be holy. God’s divine Revelation did not occur instantaneously; so through the Church’s unceasing doctrinal lessons, it is now established that Revelation ultimately deals with three interdependent elements—Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium—and it can be classified either in private or publicRevelation.
Sacred Scripture is the first facet of God’s Revelation to humanity. Many people tend to erroneously think that Scripture alone encloses Revelation entirely—this belief is the cornerstone of the sola scriptura heresy, which intends to take Scripture only as the basis of faith. However, according to the Catholic Church, Scripture is to be understood as the word of God found in written form.Scripture is formed by a series of canonical writings written by different men which, once put together, are recognized as the Bible. The Bible is divided in the Old Testament—formed by 46 books—and the New Testament—formed by 27 books. Both the New and the Old Testament are not to be thought as distant, for the New Testament completes the Old, and the Old provides a foundation for the New. That iswhy the Bible must not be thought as a collection of individual books, but as one whole masterpiece. Moreover, although God is the ultimate and true author of Scripture, men participated in the process of writing it; therefore, Sacred Scripture must be understood as the true word of God recorded by humans. One simpler way of understanding the human function in the creation of Scripture is byidentifying that men were instrumental authors of Scripture who were inspired by God and the Holy Spirit. Just as a painter is a painting’s true author, paints and brushes were the instruments used to create it, and that is exactly men’s role in the writing of Scripture.
Moreover, as the Catholic doctrinal teachings state, Sacred Tradition is also a key element of divine Revelation. “Revelation meansGod’s whole speech and action with man; it signifies a reality which scripture makes known but which is not itself simply identical to scripture.” Therefore, Revelation does not only enclose what God inspired men to write, but also Jesus’ teachings and actions with others when He came as the Son of God. In the four Gospels found in Scripture, one can appreciate Jesus’ life when He became man andcame to bring us salvation; but it is Tradition that presents God’s word in the form of Jesus’ attitudes with the apostles and His people. Thus, “Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while Sacred Tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to theirsuccessors in its full purity…” It is the reason why Tradition and Scripture together form what Catholics call the Deposit of Faith. Scripture itself provides a basis for Tradition when Jesus said "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching...