Fifth, the New Testament uses yet another idea to
communicate the notion of God communicating and conversing with His family:
revelation. The Greek word here is apokalupsis. Unfortunately for most of us in the West, we
have a completely mistaken understanding of both the Greek word here and the
English word usually translated from it.
John’s Revelation (the last book in our bibles) is John’s apokalupsis but definitely not John’s
Apocalypse.
Our English word apocalypse has come to mean
disaster, judgement, the end of the world and all kinds of associated
misery. Yet that is only a part of the
story in Revelation. And – more to the
point – it is not the main event but the product
of the main event. The disaster,
judgement, end of the world stuff is the product
of the revealing [manifesting; uncovering; unveiling] of Jesus in all his
glory. That’s the point of John’s
revelation.
With us Westerners, both advents of Jesus
have been completely misconstrued and misunderstood. The first advent of Jesus (his birth or first
coming) is not about Mary and Joseph and the animals and the shepherds and the
wise men (let alone St. Nicolas, trees, gifts, reindeer, food and jingling
bells) but about the fact that God has chosen to live among and with the people
He created as a real living human being, yet capable of averting disaster and
bringing out the best in people. The
second advent of Jesus (his unveiling in all his glory or his second coming) is
not about disaster, judgement, the end of the world and associated misery,
but about his light and life conquering
and ending once and for all the disaster and misery that Satan has visited upon
the people God created.
We build myths around the truth and
completely obscure the truth because it is an “inconvenient truth”. In short, we turn an inconvenient truth into
a convenient lie.
The whole point of what we know as Revelation
(the last book in the bible) is a) it
is all about the unveiling (which is the proper translation of the Greek word apokalupsis) of Jesus in all his glory
as the Eternal Son of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Head of Ecclesia – the
Alpha and the Omega; the beginning and the end; the source and the destiny of
us all. And b) the vision of this
fantastic unveiling was given to Jesus’ beloved disciple/apostle John – by
revelation; he “saw” it in a vision given by the Spirit of God as an event
somewhere in his future.
·
It is
recorded of Jesus in the gospels that all He did and said was first revealed
(unveiled) to Him by His Father; he moved in response to this revelation (this
unveiling) from the Father. John 5:19
says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.” John 8:38 says, “I speak the things which I
have seen with My Father.”
·
In
Matthew 16:17 it is recorded that Simon Peter’s declaration that Jesus was “the
Christ, the Son of the Living God”, came to him by revelation (unveiling) from
the Father.
·
Simeon
saw the baby Jesus; but he had previously received revelation (unveiling) from
God that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. (Luke 2)
·
The
early Christians received revelation (unveiling) from the Holy Spirit to the
effect that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:10)
·
Paul
brought revelation (unveiling) to the believers assembled in the towns where he
went; and those believers had the same responsibility to each other (1 Corinthians
14).
·
Paul had
several revelations (unveilings), some “surprisingly great” (2 Cor. 12).
·
Paul got
the good news of the kingdom of God (and his doctrine) by Holy Spirit
revelation (unveiling) (Galatians 1:12).
·
Paul
moved in response to revelation (unveiling) (Galatians 2:2 - possible reference
to Macedonian call in Acts 16).
·
Paul’s
prayer for believers is that they will receive “the spirit of wisdom and
revelation (unveiling)...” (Ephesians 1:17).
·
The
“Mystery of Christ” has been revealed (unveiled) by the Holy Spirit to Apostles
and Prophets (Ephesians 3:4-5).
I have a question: who are we to say that God cannot say
anything, do anything, reveal (unveil) anything, think anything, write anything
that is not in the 66 or 73 books of our bibles? That’s about the same as the clay pot
complaining to the potter: “why are you making me like this?” God is not invented for us; but we were made
for Him (and by Him).
Cheers,
Kevin.
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