Everything about Continuing Revelation totally explained
Continuous revelation or
continuing revelation is a theological belief or position that
God continues to
reveal divine principles or commandments to humanity. In Christian traditions, it's most commonly associated with
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and with some denominations of
Pentecostal and
Charismatic Christianity, though it's found in some other denominations as well. In the
Bahá'í Faith,
Progressive Revelation is an important concept that's similar to
continuous revelation.
Latter-day Saints
In
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),
continuous revelation is the principle that God or his divine agents still continue to communicate to mankind. This communication can be manifest in many ways: influences of the
Holy Ghost; vision; visitation of divine beings; and others. By such means God guides his followers to
salvation and without such His followers will eventually form their beliefs or practices after a god of their own making. Church founder
Joseph Smith, Jr. used the example of the Lord's revelations to Moses in Deuteronomy to explain the importance and necessity of continuous revelation to guide "those who seek diligently to know [God's] precepts":
» God said, "Thou shalt not kill;", at another time He said, "Thou shalt utterly destroy,." This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted-by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed. Whatever God commands is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire . . . As God has designed our happiness-and the happiness of all His creatures, He never has – He never will – institute an ordinance or give a commandment to His people that isn't calculated in its nature to promote that happiness which He has designed, and which won't end in the greatest amount of good and glory to those who become the recipients of his law and ordinances... for all things shall be made known unto them in [His] own due time, and in the end they'll have joy. (
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 256–7.)
The open
scriptural of the LDS Church is based on the principle of continuous revelation. Its 9th
Article of Faith states:
» We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
Members of the LDS Church anticipate additions to its canon, including the translation of the remaining two-thirds of the
golden plates which was the source of the
Book of Mormon.
Friends (Quakers)
In the
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers),
continuing revelation comes from the
Inner light or the light within. This light has traditionally been identified as the Spirit of Christ or Christ within, although not all Friends associate the Inner Light with Christ. It is understood as the
presence of God which provides illumination and guidance to the individual and through individuals to the group.
Some Friends consider the Bible the ultimate authority, but others consider the Inner Light to be above the Bible. Both groups believe that the Inner Light speaks to people directly and not just through the text of the Bible.
Because Friends believe that revelation is ongoing, they've no set creed or dogmas. However, as early Friends listened to the Inner light and endeavored to live accordingly, a common set of beliefs gradually emerged, which became known as testimonies. (See
Testimonies for a fuller list and description of them.) Although rooted in the immediate experience of the community of Friends, these Testimonies are based on what Friends believe are verified in the Bible, especially as described in the Gospels regarding the life and teachings of Jesus.
The Testimonies are not formal static documents, but rather a shared collection or view of how Quakers relate to God. They can't be taken one at a time, but are interrelated. As a philosophical system, they're coherent, even outside of Christianity.
The list of
testimonies that Quakers follow is also not static. The following is a generally accepted list.
Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians
Pentecostal and
Charismatic Christians generally believe that Christians, especially "Spirit-filled" Christians can receive revelations from God in the form of dreams, visions, and audible or inaudible voices. They also believe that certain individuals are able to transmit revelations from God in the form of prophecy, words of knowledge, and
speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues.
While most Pentecostals and Charismatics believe the Bible to be the ultimate authority and wouldn't say that any new revelation can ever contradict the Bible, they do believe that God continues to speak to people today on extra-biblical topics as well as to interpret and apply the text of the Bible.
Baha'i Faith
Progressive revelation is a core teaching in the
Bahá'í Faith that suggests that religious truth is revealed by God progressively and cyclically over time through a series of divine
Messengers, and that the teachings are tailored to suit the needs of the time and place of their appearance. Thus, the
Bahá'í teachings recognize the divine origin of several world religions as different stages of in the history of
one religion, while believing that the revelation of
Bahá'u'lláh is the most recent (though not the last--that there will never be a last), and therefore the most relevant to modern society. The differences in the revelation brought by the Manifestations of God is stated to be not inherent in the characteristics of the Manifestation of God, but instead attributed to the various worldly, societal and human factors;
these differences are in accordance with the "conditions" and "varying requirements of the age" and the "spiritual capacity" of humanity.
Thus religious truth is seen to be relative to its recipients and not absolute; while the messengers proclaimed eternal moral and spiritual truths that are renewed by each messenger, they also changed their message to reflect the particular spiritual and material evolution of humanity at the time of the appearance of the messenger.
In the Bahá'í view, since humanity's spiritual capacity and receptivity has increased over time, the extant to which these spiritual truths are expounded changes.
[Further Information]
Get more info on 'Continuing Revelation'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://continuous_revelation.totallyexplained.com">Continuous revelation Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
