Lesson 5: Divine Revelation

“The unveiling of God to humanity”

Revelation
It comes from the Latin revelare, which literally means to unveil. Revelation indicated disclosure
that something or someone was previously hidden (veiled) and is now made known and “unveiled.
Revelation underscores the fact that God who did not have any reason to disclose himself, did so
out of love. This loving disclosure indicated a God who wants to establish a relationship with His
people. Relationship is at the heart of revelation. God reaches out to man, and man responds to God
through FAITH.

Revelation Meaning
Revelation is God’s manifestation of himself to us (“pagpakilala”). In the life of faith, the one
who reaches out to us is God, who wants to become our “kakilala”. By being in relation with God, we
come to terms with our true selves, who we are meant to be. Just as what was mentioned by St.
Augustine, “God knows us more than we know ourselves because God is our creator.”

Purpose of Revelation
Fundamentally revelation aims to:
1. To liberate man from everything that oppressed him (to save man from sins) - God’s
revelation to Moses and the Israelites led to their Revelation from slavery in Egypt. The
revelation accomplished by Christ was also a liberative revelation.
2. To enhance the dignity of man - Christ’s revelation brings us a new dignity for He came that we
may have life in abundance. As God’s children, we can genuinely in spirit call God as our Father.
3. To gather all peoples into one family - God’s revelation of Himself to Moses also led to the
Sinai Covenant (the giving of the 10 Commandments to Moses and the Israelites) in which
the descendants of Abrahan became one, indeed the people of God.

Kind of Revelation
1. Natural Revelation - It is a manifestation of a religious truth done by God through creation, seen
and known to man by means of reason alone.
a. Creation
b. Conscience
c. Signs of the Times

Natural Revelation
Natural Revelation is devoted to expounding the evidence plainly visible in the created world that God exists.
God is glorious, beautiful, eternal and infinite; He created all matter and energy by the power of His words. God
holds all knowledge and has perfect wisdom God is not distant as many believe, but He has made Himself known
through His Word (the Bible) and HIs only Son, Jesus Christ.

CREATION CONSCIENCE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

The first way God reveals All persons are conscious of The Church acknowledges,
Himself to us through creation. an element in their nature too, the presence of divine

Man holds a special place in
creation. God creates the whole
world for us, to support us in life
and reveals Himself to us
through HIs hardwork. All
created things bear an imprint of
their Maker so that we can truly
pass from the creature to the
recognition of the glory of the
Creator. In a special way, God
reveals Himself through the
existence of human beings who
are created in God’s image and
likeness.
2. Supernatural Revelation - It is a manifestation of a religious truth done by God through an
action which is not due to created nature.
a. Sacred Tradition
b. Sacred Scripture
c. Magisterium
Supernatural Revelation
SACRED TRADITION
Tradition can be taken either as
a process by which Divine
Revelation, coming from Jesus
Christ through the Apostles, is
communicated and unfolded in
the community of the Church or
as the content of Revelation so
communicated.
Thus, the living Tradition of
the Church is the channel
through which God's revealed Himself as Yahweh, the revealed Himself as Yahweh, the
self-revelation comes to us. Lord, a merciful and gracious Lord, a merciful and gracious
called conscience, their revelation in the events of
awareness of the rightness of human history that occur with
things. such frequency and
universality, that they generate
This is our reason which, within mankind widespread
under the light of God judges ways of thinking.
whether an action is good or
evil. In the depths of his These events with the current
conscience, man detects a law of aspirations they engender are
(Always do good and avoid evil) called the signs of the times the
which he does impose upon Church has always had the task
himself, but holds him in of scrutinizing the signs of the
obedience always summoning times and of interpreting them in
him to love good and avoid evil. the light of the Gospel.
“All of us have conscience but “Despite of the modern age and
not all of us have the same level what is now acceptable to the
of conscience. That’s why our society, the teaching of God,
conscience needs to be poured.” Christ and the Church will always
be the same. Therefore, the
Church has the duty to interpret
the different realities to the signs
of the time whether they are in
accordance with the will of God.”
SACRED SCRIPTURE MAGISTERIUM
The Sacred Scriptures is a The Sacred Scriptures is a
literature of faith written in literature of faith written in
religious languages that presents religious languages that presents
a series of faith expressions, a a series of faith expressions, a
confession of faith in God. As confession of faith in God. As
recorded in this religious book, recorded in this religious book,
God reveals Himself by entering God reveals Himself by entering
into a special covenant into a special covenant
relationship with His people. relationship with His people.
In the Old Testament, God In the Old Testament, God
 God. He made an everlasting
covenant with Noah. Through
Abraham, he gathered together
the scattered humanity into one
family. In Moses, God freed His
people from their slavery in
Egypt. He likewise chose kings,
judges, prophets, priests and
sages to lead and liberate His
people. In the fullness of time,
God revealed Himself to his Son
Jesus Christ in the New
Testament. Christ the incarnate
Son of God is the Father's
perfect revelation. Jesus is
called the Revelation Par
excellence because he is the
perfect revelation of God.
God. He made an everlasting
covenant with Noah. Through
Abraham, he gathered together
the scattered humanity into one
family. In Moses, God freed His
people from their slavery in
Egypt. He likewise chose kings,
judges, prophets, priests and
sages to lead and liberate His
people. In the fullness of time,
God revealed Himself to his Son
Jesus Christ in the New
Testament. Christ the incarnate
Son of God is the Father's
perfect revelation.

3. Christian and Other Religions - The Church does not limit the boundaries of God's Revelation
of Himself and His saving design. She knows that God is the Lord of all the earth and He wills all
men to be saved. Since all of salvation presupposes faith, and faith is man's response to God's
revelation, we must conclude that God has not restricted His revelation to persons who belong
to the Judaeo- Christian tradition, but has revealed (and continues to reveal Himself) in ways we
cannot fathom. THUS WE ACKNOWLEDGE seeds of Word embedded in all cultures and
religions.

4. Public and Private Revelations - Though it is true that private revelations are possible, we
should be slow to give credence to claims that they have in fact happened. Too much credulity is
not a sign of faith, and harms rather than helps the cause of God and true religion. We must
instead of believing easily, test the spirits to see if they are from God. We should submit such
revelations to the judgments and decisions of such authorities.
Public revelation is the deposit of faith and rule of faith and must be lived by all Catholics. Saint
Thomas public revelation ended with the death of Saint John the Apostle. Private revelations
cannot surpass, complete, or perfect public revelation. Aquinas taught that all correct, improve,
fulfill.
Lesson 6:The Sources of Faith

In our homes we can find treasured gifts (object) that we have been keeping until today.
The Church also have things it treasure. We call these DESOSITS OF FAITH.
The Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition as the primary sources of God’s Divine Revelation forms
one single deposit of faith.

What is Divine Revelation?

● The divine self - gift of God. It means that God opens Himself, shows Himself and speaks to the
world voluntarily.

These two primary sources (Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition) come from the same origin (God).
They are the two deposits of faith as foundations of Christian theology buy they have one goal: the
proclamation of revelation in Christ (single deposit of faith).

The Church looks at these primary sources of revelation as the only authentic and complete source for our
knowledge about God.

It is the responsibility of the whole Church, through her teaching (doctrine), her sacraments (worship)
and her ministries (morals), to transmit to every new generation all that God has revealed. These are the
three dimensions of faith.

What is Sacred Scripture?

● The inspired record of how God dealt with His people, and how they responded to, remembered
and interpreted that experience.
● The Sacred Scriptire is also called The Book of the People of God, the Church - It was written
by persons from the people of God, for the people of God, about the experience of the people of
God.

Important Characteristics of Scripture

1. divinely inspired - divine inspiration of the authors of the bible
2. inerrant, or free from error
3. defined by a canon - those who passed the canon were included in the official list of books

Divinely-inspired:
What is divine inspiration?
● A special gift given to the authors of the sacred text.
● A charism, a special grace or gift given by the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of building up the
Christian community.
● God chose human authors who made full use of their human faculties, guided by the Holy Spirit
who enlightened their minds, to put writing what God wanted written.

What are the two basic theories on biblical inspiration?

 1. DICTATION THEORY
● Argues that God spoke to the Biblical writers directly in some manner of spiritual
dictation.
● The Bible's literal sense is overemphasized, leading to a possible fundamentalist
understanding of Biblical inspiration and inerrancy.
2. CONTENT INSPIRATION
● Focus is on the production of content for the Bible.
● The human author participates in the writing of the sacred tet, not just in
transcription.
● The Alexandrian theologian Drigen understood inspiration as a kind of
“illumination” of the biblical author.

Inerrant - free from error:

What is Biblical Inerrancy?
● Often times understood as “freedom from error”.
● It is related to Biblical Inspiration because we say that it is free from error, precisely because the
human author was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore even if the one who wrote was
the human author, it is the Holy Spirit, God himself, who inspired the author to write what God
wanted him to write. Since it is the book of God, the authorship is DIVINE, therefore it is FREE
FROM ERROR.
● Vatican ii, Dei Verbum - “The books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly,
faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings.”

The invitation for Catholics of today is to look at the Bible in a more holistic way, taking into
account the collective message of the sacred text.

"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you're
believing, but yourself." -St. Augustine

Defined by a canon - included in the official list of books:

What do you mean by Biblical Canon?
● The definitive list of books of the Bible that are divinely inspired, and whose content contains the
norms of the faith.
● Catholic Bible: 46 Old Testament Books, 27 New Testament Books
The Early Church used the Old Testament according to the canon of the Septuagint (LXX).

The canonical Christian Bible was formally established by Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem in 350 CE,
confirmed by the Council of Laodicea in 363 CE, and later established by Athanasius of Alexandria in
367 CE. In his Easter letter of 367 CE, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave a list of exactly the same
books as what would become the New Testament canon and he used the word "canonized" in regard to
them.

The African Synod of Hippo, in 393 c, approved the New Testament, as it stands today, together with the
Septuagint books, a decision that was repeated by Councils of Carthage in 397 CE, and 419 ce. These
councils were under the authority of Augustine of Hippo, who regarded the canon as already closed.

A full dogmatic articulation of the canon was made in the Council of Trent of 1546 for Roman
Catholicism.

Canon - from the Greek kanon, which means "measuring rod" or "standard" similar to modern-day
measuring devices like the ruler.

After a lengthy process of development and study, the Council of Trent, after its fourth session in 1546,
determined the number of books of the Old Testament and the books of the New Testament that are
now found in a Catholic Bible.

Criteria for the canon set by the Church:

1. Apostolicity - is the text connected with a known apostle of Christ?
2. Source Community- what is the community from which the text emerged? Ex: The text from
Syria were accepted as part of the canon (Matthew, James and Jude)
3. Coherence with the Essential Gospel Message - is the text consistent with the general
understanding of the Canon of the Bible Christian message? (Jesus is fully divine and fully
human) "All divine Scripture is one book, and this one book is Christ, speaks of Christ and finds
its fulfillment in Christ."-Hugh of St. Victor
4. Liturgical Use - is the text used in liturgy, like the Eucharist? (communal prayers of the Church)

Purpose of the Canon

● It was made to unite all Christians by grounding them under a normative set of text that will be
considered sacred and true.
● It is a reminder that “Christianity is a historical religion; a set of historical accounts of God’s
saving action on behalf of humanity.”

SACRED TRADITION

From the Latin term "tradere" to pass or hand something on

 ● The living heritage, the content that is handed on from one generation of the Church to another
such as doctrines, accounts or customs
● It is through Sacred Tradition that we fully understand the meaning of the Sacred Scripture and its
significance to the Church.
● Example: The articles of the faith in the Apostles Creed The development of the Canon of the
Scriptures The Seven Sacraments
● The actual process of handing on the faith (mode of transmission of said doctrine, accounts or
customs).
● Also known as the how of tradition
● The official organ of tradition is known as the magisterium ( the teaching authority or the
teaching office of the Church.)

Magisterium as Teaching Office

● Magisterium also means the authority of the master (magister) or teacher.
● In the modern church, the term refers both to:
- the unique teaching authority of the bishops,
- the College of Bishops, under the headship of the Bishop of Rome, of the Pope

Infallibility and the Exercise of Magisterial Authority

"I am always with you, until the end of the age" (Matthew 28:30).

This is the fundamental conviction of Catholicism, that through the power of the Spirit, Christ will not
abandon his Church.

Thus, the Church, when united in a true and common consensus about a particular matter, cannot err)
infallible.

Secondary Source of Revelation: HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Every single human being is a person- and through personhood, we experience the world and God.

Persons are embodied spirits. There is unity between our body and soul.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" John 1:14

Christ Himself is the Embodied. We call this mystery of Incarnation

The Incarnation of Christ showcases how the human body, and its experiences, has potential in becoming
an avenue for goodness.

Human Culture
One important source of human experience is the rich resource of human culture. An example of culture
of a believing community is in the practice of popular piety and devotions. (Black Nazarene in Quiapo;
Sinulog in Cebu; etc).
Beauty and the Arts
Standard of beauty - in Christian spirituality, it is Christ's beauty
Human Witness
Withness means bearing testimony to the world poclaiming that Jesus Christ is the liberator of humanity
and God’s creation. All of us are called to be witnesses of Jesus Christ.

SUMMARY
The two sources of the faith (Sacred Scripture and Tradition) are central to the life of faith, and even more
so in the practice of doing theology. One source of the faith cannot be taken to be above one or the other,
lest we fall prey to Sola Scriptura and Traditionalism.