The Biblical Idea of Revelation | Gustav Friedrich Oehler

The Biblical idea of revelation has its root in the idea of Creation. Revelation is the development of the relation in which God has placed Himself to the world in bringing it into existence. The basis of revelation is laid in the fact that the world was called into existence by the word of God, and was animated by His Spirit. The production of different classes of beings advances teleologically, and reaches its goal only when God has created man in His own image. In this progression the foundation of revelation is laid. For revelation is, in general, God's witness and communication of Himself to the world for the realization of the end of creation, and for the re-establishment of the full communion of man with God. ...

It is only by God's stooping to man in personal testimony to Himself, and by the objective presentation of Himself, that a vital communion is actually established between Him and man. This is the special revelation, which first appears in the form of a covenant between God and a chosen race, and the founding of a kingdom of God among the latter, culminates in the manifestation of God in the flesh, advances from this point to the gathering of a people of God in all nations, and is completed in the making of a new heaven and a new earth (Isa. 65:17, 66:22; Rev. 21:1ff.), where God shall be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

(Gustave Friedrich Oehler, Theology of the Old Testament, revised and translated by George E. Day. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, n.d., pp. 14-15, emphasis mine.)

NOTES:

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The Biblical Idea of Revelation | Gustav Friedrich Oehler