PROGRESSIVE REVELATION

For years, I have taught the dispensational approach to the study of the Scriptures.  In the past few years, I have shared materials from http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/ on that subject, as well as many others.  I am convinced that this approach to Bible study is "rightly dividing the Word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15).  It is clear to most Bible students that God has gradually, over time, revealed His "light" to man. 

For instance, of the seven dispensations, as I see them (Innocence; Conscience; Nations; Israel; Law; Church; and the Kingdom), it was not until about 400 B.C. that the entire Old Testament was completed.  Adam had no Scripture, nor did Noah or Abraham.  It was not until God revealed man's history to Moses, about 1500 B.C., that Scripture existed in written form.  And even then, all man had was the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.  Over the next thousand years, or so, the rest of the Old Testament was revealed, and by around 200 B.C., the Septuagint, the Old Testament written in Greek, was completed.

So, by the time Jesus came as a babe born of the Virgin Mary, the Bible consisted of only the Old Testament.  Following His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Acts 1:9), the New Testament began to take form.  The last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, was finished around A.D. 100.  Today, our Bible contains what God has revealed over a period of about 1600 years. 

Yesterday, I wrote about "The Sermon on the Mount," in which Jesus made it quite clear that He not only knew God's Word, but that His words were greater than the Old Testament Scriptures.  THE WORD was revealing the Word of God to men.  In Matthew Five alone, Jesus corrected the religious leaders six times, using the phrases "you have heard it said," followed by "but I say unto you" (Mt. 5:21-22; 27-28; 31-32; 33-34; 38-39; 43-44)!  Matthew ends the Lord's "sermon," by saying:  "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine:  for He taught them as One having authority, and not as the scribes" (Mt. 7:28-29)!

The Old Testament was God's revelation to man, but unless Jesus interpreted it, man could not comprehend it.  Today, born again believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who opens our understanding of both the Old and the New Testaments.  Jesus said of Him: 

"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.  Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.  He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you" (Jn. 16:12-14).

In other words, man's knowledge of God has grown from a time when there was nothing written, to a time when the writing of God's Word is completed, and now, our understanding of it grows as the Lord patiently teaches us its meaning(s). 

We are still learning! 

I am not sure that even in eternity, we will fully comprehend it!