# Two Kinds of Revelation?



## Philip (Jan 21, 2010)

Can we make a distinction between personal and propositional revelation? Personal revelation in the person and work of Christ and the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and propositional revelation in the form of the written _verbum Dei_.

I see this distinction as being helpful for epistemology for the following reasons:

1) Without the personal witness of the Spirit we could have no knowledge of the Scriptures, nor of Christ.
2) Without the propositional witness of the Scriptures, we would have no knowledge of Christ nor of the Spirit.
3) Without the person and work of Christ, we would not have access to either of the other two.

My concern here is one of how we know the Scriptures to be the _verbum Dei_ and how we know Christ to be the Son of God. Have I just gone off the neo-orthodox deep end here?


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## rbcbob (Jan 21, 2010)

P. F. Pugh said:


> Can we make a distinction between personal and propositional revelation? Personal revelation in the person and work of Christ and the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and propositional revelation in the form of the written _verbum Dei_.
> 
> I see this distinction as being helpful for epistemology for the following reasons:
> 
> ...


 
Not all written communication is propositional. Some is opinion, some question, etc. The revelation (appearing) of Christ among man is a gracious display of the God-man. However apart from inspired propositional revelation (subject/predicate sentences) we would be left to a free-for-all in ascertaining the _meaning_ of His physical revelation.


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## Philip (Jan 21, 2010)

I think we might be able to ascertain some meaning from the narratives of Christ alone, but not nearly as clearly as with the analysis that the propositional revelation gives us.


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## Tim (Jan 22, 2010)

I seem to remember listening to something regarding Calvin's view on this area (help me out, guys, if I can't remember perfectly).

I think there is _proof_ and _persuasion_. A man can be given proof in the form of scriptural propositions (i.e., In the beginning God... from Genesis 1:1). Here we are given the proof of the existence of God (presuppositional issues aside), but the Holy Spirit must persuade a man of this fact (i.e., that he really does believe it).

I haven't read widely enough in this area to know if this lines up with the categories you mention in the OP, but perhaps someone else can expand. Hopefully I am not too far off here.


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