Traditionally, theologians have spoken of God’s revelation primarily in two categories: special revelation and general revelation. In the category of special revelation they have placed rather direct communications from God, such as Scripture, prophecy, dreams and visions. The category of general revelation has included such things as history, the universe, weather, plants, animals and human beings. Simply put, general revelation has been a catchall category to hold everything that is not considered to be special revelation.

While this traditional approach is helpful in some ways, it tends to keep our attention away from some very important dimensions of God’s revelation. So, in this lesson, we will also speak of existential revelation, God’s revelation in persons, revelation that is often grouped with general revelation, but which really deserves to be treated separately.

When we speak of general revelation, we are concerned with the way creation and history tell us true things about God and his moral requirements of us. For example, consider nearly everyone in the history of world has seen the sun and its effects. But consider also that in seeing the sun and its effects, all human beings are thereby obligated to a specific ethical response, which Jesus described in Matthew 5:44-45:

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

The fact that the sun rises on evil people, warms them, and causes their crops to grow, demonstrates that God is patient and kind even toward sinners who hate him. And since all human beings are responsible to imitate God’s character, we are all responsible to love and pray for our enemies.

Special revelation is complex, coming to us in a number of forms. Most of these forms rely on the spoken or written word, but all of them involve God communicating with people in ways that transcend the normal workings of creation. In some cases God appears visibly and speaks audibly to groups or individuals. In other cases he is heard but not seen. At other times he communicates through a mediator such as an angel who appears to his people.

In short, some special revelation is fantastic and obviously supernatural, such as God’s manifest presence with people like Moses. Other special revelation, however, closely resembles normal, natural human life.

Although it has not been common for theologians to speak about “existential revelation,” the idea that God reveals himself in and through persons has been always recognized by the mainstream of Protestant theology as a part of general revelation. For example, listen to the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1, section 10:

The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.

We can call these human judgments forms of existential revelation. None is a simple presentation of history or creation, and none is a direct supernatural communication from God. Instead, each involves God’s revelation through human beings, whether as the joint theological conclusions reached by groups of people, or as the judgments of individuals, or as the inward leading and illumination of the Holy Spirit within believers.

When the Holy Spirit illumines a person’s mind, he gives that person an ability or knowledge that the person previously lacked. As opposed to illumination which is primarily cognitive, inward leading tends to be more emotive and intuitive. It is one of the most common ways in which the Holy Spirit works within individuals to reveal truth about God’s character.