Progressive Revelation

Having finished with 22 “figures of speech” in my June 30 blog entry, now we turn to the concept of “Progressive Revelation.”

Just remember, when it comes to the Bible, it was written in the common style of its day (though it is not a common book). It is spectacularly unfair to simply say the Bible “means what it says.” When someone says that, what they mean is “the Bible means what it says TO ME.” We need to do better than that when it comes to Scripture. We must take in to account all the concepts that we learn in Hermeneutics, particularly those that I’ve been trying to write about intermittently over these last few months. So on to Progressive Revelation…

Progressive Revelation takes into account that God reveals himself and his plans to us throughout time, and that we have never seen all of His plan at one time.

God reveals some of his plans to us, and then later, a little more that builds on what He’s said previously. This can be seen in

“For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

Isa 28:10

You may recall that Adam and Eve were the first people, and then they had kids, but where did Cain (and the rest of Adam and Eve’s kids) get his wife? Well, the answer is they married each other.

You have to take into account Progressive Revelation and realize that there was no prohibition in marrying a close relative until Lev 18. There is only a “conflict” if you think of God’s revelation as complete and static at all points in history.

Also, realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of the OT law, He is the substance of the shadow. God has revealed himself to us, ultimately, in his Son, and all of revelation was progressing up to that point. And even still, we await the final revelation when Jesus returns.

Bottom line, you need to keep in your mind where in redemptive history a passage of scripture is, that can effect how you interpret it.