The Radiating Revelation of God through People: 1. Patriarchs

After God's radiating revelation in and through Creation, the next consecutive circle of God’s radiating formative revelation comes through his chosen spokespersons to his covenant people, recorded in the Scriptures. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads (Rev. 4:4 NIV).

After God spoke the world into being, he spoke to and through his chosen spokespersons. This may be the symbolism of the twenty-four elders. The Word of God was first spoken to and then through his chosen spokespersons, bringing clarity to the vague natural revelation of creation. It can be demonstrated that this “special revelation” in history came to and through six primary kinds of “witnesses.” These six formative witnesses were patriarchs, a lawgiver, judges, prophets, wise ones, and apostles. Their testimony was recorded in the written Word of God (the Bible). Each of these types of “preachers” led God’s covenant people by first listening to the content of God’s Word themselves, understanding it, and then declaring it to their contemporary generation in their language, culture, and history.

God first formed and spoke directly to and through the patriarchs. He walked in the garden with Adam (Gen. 3:8). He conversed with Noah and Abraham (Gen. 6:13, 12:1). He treated these men and their families with distinction. He uniquely interacted with them, establishing and defining his covenant with them and their lineage. God initiated, through his active speech (his Word), revealing to and through these consecrated men (and their families) his specific will and character. They were called into covenant with God and then called to be the leading figures of humanity, as mediators between man and God. It can be argued that their primary role was to listen to God’s Word and to help others pay attention to him. Through them, God formed a people for himself.

The Radiating, Revealing Word in Creation

Beginning with creation, God has initiated his formative revelation to the world by speaking his Word. His interaction with the world and his people comes at his command. At creation he spoke his Word into the void and the cosmos leaped into being (Ps. 33:6-9, 2 Pet. 3:5). His Word commands and sustains the natural forces (Ps. 104:7, Ps. 119:89-90, Heb. 1:3). In the very fabric of this created cosmos, his essence is “manifested” (Rom. 1:19 NIV). He first revealed himself through what he has created. It can be argued that, in his "Revelation", John is describing the revealing creation, represented by the wild creature (lion), the domesticated creature (ox), the human creature (man), and the creature of the heavens (eagle). These are seen at the center, around the throne, looking both ways, to the throne and out to the cosmos, worshipping and speaking (paying attention to the center and proclaiming out to the cosmos):

"In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:6-8 NIV)."

Leading God’s People to Pay Attention to God’s Word

Any theological foundation for a framework of understanding the essential primacy of Christian leaders to lead from the centrality of the texts of Christian, Holy Scripture must be founded on and found in the revealed Word. There are many places one could look within God’s written Word to find a framework for this picture of setting proper attention on the radiating centrality of God’s initiating revelation rather than on human initiative. One excellent text to use is the concluding book of the canon of the Bible. The picture of God at the center, radiating his revelation out from that center to the outer edges of the cosmos, can be perceived in the picture John gives in Revelation. Chapters four and five apocalyptically describe the expanding circles of God’s personal, revealing initiative being manifested.

              

It can be argued that John, writing “on the Lord’s day” (Rev. 1:10 NIV), is imagining himself worshipping with members of his seven congregations on Sunday, listening to God’s Word. He reminds them of their common bond and center; the Lord Jesus who is the Word made visible (Rev. 1:7-8). After he turns “to see the voice that was speaking” (Rev. 1:12 NIV), he writes to each of his seven congregations the revealing Word from God, ending each revelation with the charge, “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:29, 3:6, 3:13, 3:22 NIV).            

            

One theory of the pattern of the whole letter of John’s Revelation argues that the seventh revelation introduces the next cycle in the series of revelations. Before the common refrain (“he who has an ear...”) comes at the end of the revelation to the church in Laodicea, John introduces the picture of the “open door” (Rev. 3:20 NIV). Jesus says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne" (Rev. 3:30-21 NIV).

            

The reference to the seven golden lamp stands (Rev. 1:12-13) evokes the intimate and immediate presence of God in the holy place of the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:37-40). It can be argued that John sees his seven congregations as the instruments of light before the great light of the throne of God. John’s little, scattered congregations can be seen, like all members of God’s covenant, worshipping people, as always before the throne of God, receiving his revealing Word.

            

Who can enter into the centre of God’s holy throne, his intimate presence? The answer is: The one who “hears my voice and opens the door” (Rev. 3:20 NIV). How is his voice heard and how is that door opened? John immediately answers this question. The next thing John describes is “a door standing open in heaven” (Rev. 4:1 NIV). God opens that door. He says, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this” (Rev. 4:1 NIV). God initiates the very possibility of a relationship with him. It is an invitation to commune with the very community of God. The triune God (the Spirit, the Word, and the One on the throne) invites John into his presence to experience relationship with him. John writes,

I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it (Rev. 4:1-2 NIV).

This is the regular experience of the community of God’s covenant people who come together to listen to the Word of God “on the Lord’s day.” John goes on to describe the regular experience of relationship with God through worship and God’s revelation. God says, “I will show you what is to happen next” (Rev. 4:2 NIV). John then describes a picture of what happens “next,” every time Christians assemble to pay attention to the radiating Word of God.

            

The Church is centered on the revealing, living God, not on herself or on her individual members. Like concentric circles, God’s revealing Word radiates outward. John sees “a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it” (Rev. 4:2 NIV). This is the central person of God who is on his throne. From this center, God reveals himself to the cosmos that he has created and that he sustains through his Word. He has “the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne” (Rev. 4:3 NIV). Like the gleam of precious jewels, God’s light is refracted out from his encircled center.

The Posture of Listening to God's Word - Part 3

In The Meaning of Revelation, H. Richard Niebuhr points out that by “revelation,” we must mean more than just the “historic Jesus” (Barth) or the egocentric “self” (Descartes). We must mean the centrally radiating reality of a revealing, eternal God. Niebuhr wrote, "When we say revelation we point to something in the historic event more fundamental and more certain than Jesus or than self. Revelation means God, God who discloses himself to us through history as our knower, our author, our judge and our only saviour. “All revelation,” Professor Herrman writes, ‘is the self-revelation of God’ (Der Begriff der offenbarung, 1887)…it is the peculiar activity of God, the unveiling of his hiddenness, his giving of himself in communion.”  

Eugene Peterson writes that two of the greatest enemies of the Christian faith are (and always have been) moralism: “dishonoring the Son” (or legalism) and gnosticism: “dishonoring the Father” (or “spiritualism”). The third enemy that he identified was sectarianism: “dishonoring the Spirit” in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places he writes, “Gnosticism is a virus in the bloodstream of religion and keeps resurfacing every generation or so advertised as brand new, replete with a new brand name. On examination, though, it turns out to be the same old thing but with a new public relations agency”. And later, “moralism works from a base of human ability and arranges life in such a way that my good behavior will guarantee protection from punishment or disaster. Moralism works from strength, not weakness. Moralism uses God (or the revelation of God) in order not to need God any longer. Moral codes are used as stepping stones to independence from God” 

When Susan Wise Bauer wrote her June 16, 1997 Christianity Today review of the two new books on the life of King David by Eugene Peterson (Leap Over A Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians, San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997) and Chuck Swindoll (David: A Man of Passion and Destiny, Waco, TX: Word Books Publishers, 1997), she made note that the major difference between the two books was that Peterson took the story of David seriously as Scriptural narrative, while Swindoll reduced the story (and the Scriptures) to a set of moralisms. She writes, “topology creeps into Swindoll’s stories: David’s life is a series of moral lessons...to flatten story into principle takes away a vital dimension of revelation.”

The Posture of Listening to God's Word - Part 2

God has shown himself to be a God of revelation. This does not mean that he has revealed all knowledge, but merely that he has chosen to initiate the revelation of his nature and his will himself, by initiating revelatory speech. God initiates and his people respond. God speaks; his people listen. As Alister McGrath points out, “Revelation” does not mean merely the transmission of a body of knowledge, but the personal self-disclosure of God within history. God has taken the initiative through a process of self-disclosure, which reaches its climax and fulfillment in the history of Jesus of Nazareth.

God’s self-revelation is his Word. His Word created everything. His Word came to his chosen people, through his chosen leaders. His Word to and through his chosen prophets was recorded and regarded as Scripture. Later, his Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. This Word was witnessed and proclaimed by the apostles. The people of God are the people who come together to listen to the Word of God. God’s Word defines them. It draws God’s people into relationship with him. As Eugene Peterson writes, "The very essence of “word” is personal. It is the means by which what is within one person is shared with another person. Words link spirits...when a word is spoken and heard, it joins speaker and hearer into a whole relationship...The intent of revelation is not to inform us about God but to involve us in God."

The primary role of the Christian leader, then, ought to be to lead people to pay attention to God’s initiating revelatory speech. The leader must position God’s people to a place and posture of receiving God’s Word. Paul Barnett points out that the role of God’s leader is often described as that of a “shepherd” who leads God’s flock (Num. 27:15-18, 2 Sam. 5:1-4, Jer. 3:15, 23:4, Jer. 50:6-7, Eze. 34:23, Zec. 10:2-3, Jn. 21:17, Act. 20:28, 1Pet. 5:2 NIV).

            

God is not in some faraway country, to which leaders must take the flock of the people of God. Rather, he is the radiating center of all existence. God is ever present and ever revealing. The Christian leader’s task is to help people pay attention to God’s self-revelation. This is not a matter of humans initiating searches or opinions about God, but an active leading of God’s people to listen to God’s personally initiated revelation to his people and his Word. A leader does not gather God’s people to listen to his ideas about God, but to listen to God revealing himself.

            

It is essential that leaders begin by being formed themselves by listening to God’s Word through careful exegesis and study, and that they publicly direct their congregations in such a way that the Word is heard regularly and clearly. The act of preaching cannot merely be a lecture of human opinion. It must be more than a talk from a topical series on people’s perceived needs. It surely moves beyond the repetition of introductory evangelism or apologetics. It ought never to be the simplistic reciting of legalistic platitudes that uses God’s Word as merely an encyclopedia of morality. Nor ought it ever be an Ouija board-like use of Scripture for the spiritualistic practice of personal, esoteric experience. The first and most important principle must be the fundamental posture of any leader of God’s people, to see himself, above anything else, as leading God’s people to pay attention to God’s radiating revelation. God’s revelation must be set as the center of attention, rather than all of the competing human centers, which call for attention, both inside and outside the Church.

The Posture of Listening to God’s Word - Part 1

It can be demonstrated that the authentic definition and approach to the content of Christian Spiritual formation for every generation has always been shaped through the public proclamation of the texts of the Holy Scriptures. Preaching can be seen throughout the panorama of the entire story of God’s redemptive history, recorded in the Scriptures, as the greatest work of the shepherds of God’s flock. Authentic Christian preaching, in every generation, has always been the act of God’s representative messenger, paying attention to logos of God’s revealed Word and proclaiming the meaning of that Word to the people in their contemporary context. 

The leaders of Christian communities must give precedence to the text of God’s Word, and defer to it for the authority and context of their messages. They must preach the Word. They must not begin with themselves. They must read the text, exegete it, understand it, and proclaim it to their gathered audience, in their language, history, and culture. They must then apply it to their existential reality.

God wants to form us, reform us and transform us. He formed all that is. He has been reforming a people for himself through all of history. He is transforming individuals to fit them into his reformed humanity. This is a Spiritual formation, and it comes through his revealed Word. 

Guard Against Conforming

The postmodern context offers us many strange and enticing ways to substitute authentic Christian worship for entertaining, exciting, selfishly fulfilling experiences. The Church must guard against conforming to the patterns of this or any era. God does not change, and his mandate for the Church remains the same. Authentic Christian Spiritual formation comes through careful listening to and proclamation of the logos of the Word of God, in the ethos of our contemporary context, with valid pathos. Dr. Stanley Grenz died suddenly in 2005. One of his last interviews contained this answer to a question about his thoughts on the next 25 years of the Church in this postmodern setting. He said,

As I look to the future I am profoundly hopeful – not because of what I believe we will accomplish, but because of the God in whom I believe. Although the problems we face are enormous, we stand under the mandate of Jesus Christ who is the Lord of Creation. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And, we are children of the Creator of the universe. For this reason, I am convinced that just as the gospel has gone forth with power in every era and to every generation, so also the gospel will sound forth in the postmodern context in which we live. And the God who promises to bring creation to its divinely intended goal invites us to participate in the divine program. May we, therefore, empowered by the Spirit, be faithful to the mandate Christ has entrusted to us, to the glory of God! 

One will do well to heed these words as one endeavors to be God’s faithful steward, listening to his logos – exegeting it, believing it, and living it with authentic pathos – and truly exposing it to the genuine ethos of this postmodern generation.