Revelation
Natural & Divine Revelation
Natural Revelation
Observe universe/nature and come to see
God’s Reality
 Something must have made everything
 Psalm 19:1 “The Heaven’s declare the
glory of God”
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Divine Revelation
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1.
2.
God’s communication with us
Direct – Moses
Indirect – the good Samaritan
2 tools of Divine Revelation
Sacred Scripture
Sacred Tradition
Sacred Scripture (SS)
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Written down through the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit
2 Peter 1:19-21 says “Above all you must
understand that no prophecy of Scripture cam
about by the prophet’s own interpretation… but
men spoke from God as they were carried along
by the Holy Spirit.”
2 Timothy 3:16 says “All Scripture is God
breathed.”
Sacred Scripture Continued
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Sacred Scripture is complete – no new additions
OT – preparing for Messiah
NT – life of the Messiah
Since creation of the Bible, no changes to
message
Jesus quoted the OT and said in Luke 16:17, “It
is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than
for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the
law.”
Sacred Tradition (ST)
Traditions and customs passed orally from
12 Apostles to us
 12 Apostles interpretations of the
teachings of Jesus who gave them the
authority to interpret.
 Additions allowed as church changes the
form, not the essence of the practice of
Christianity
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Relationship between SS & ST
ST came first
 SS came out of ST
 SS and ST equal in importance
 Both inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit
 Both support keys of our faith
 Ex. Seven Sacraments, Words of Christ
(SS) and Actions of Christ (ST)
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By What Authority?
As Catholic’s we believe that the Holy
Spirit is guiding the Church to interpret
Christ’s teachings for today
 This teaching authority is called the
Magesterium (Magister is teacher in Latin)
 Example of ST was the process of making
SS
 How were certain books decided to be
included in the Church canon?
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The Making of the Bible
Canon – those books chosen to be in the
Bible
 Apocrypha – considered interesting
history, but not “inspired” Scripture.
 There were 3 guidelines for the making of
the Bible by early Christian leaders
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Three Guidelines
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2.
3.
Agreement with the “rule of faith”
General, long-standing usage among
many churches
Apostolic authorship (led to the exclusion
of post 100 AD writings like the Gospel of
Thomas, The “Da Vinci Code”
What Kind of God is
Revealed in the Bible?
What is God Like?
God is infinite (no limitations) and
Omnipotent (all-powerful)
see Ps 135:5-6
It is impossible for a self sufficient being to
have limitations.
 Why? If such a being had limitations it
would have to rely on someone else.
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God is One/Unique
see Isaiah 45:18 and Deut. 6:4
There is only one uncaused cause.
 It would be impossible to have two
uncaused causes. Why? They would have
to share creation which would be a
limitation.
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God is Spirit
see John 4:24 and Ex. 20:4
Spirit means that there is no matter
(material makeup) to the nature of God
 God’s image cannot be made
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God is Eternal
God always was and always will be. God
is the one being who cannot be. God is.
 This makes reference to the notion of time,
thus eternity means no beginning and no
end.
 Electric cord demo
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God is Omnipresent (immense):
Present everywhere and at all time
see Psalm 139 & 1 Kings 8:27
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God is Spirit and is therefore not limited to
time and space.
God is Holy
see Isaiah 55:8
Holiness is a quality of being absolutely
other than creation.
 God’s goodness and love are unlimited.
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God is Omniscient (all-knowing)
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God knows past, present, and future.
Nothing can happen without God knowing about
it.
God is outside of space and time and yet can
reach into space and time
We call these miracles with Jesus Christ being
the greatest one (see pg. 26 of text which
speaks of God’s transcendence and
immanence).
But then how can God allow evil things to
happen?
Distinction: between God’s
knowledge and will
God knows the choices we will make, but
he doesn’t will (choose) our decisions, we
alone will (choose) our decisions.
 God wants us to make the right choices,
but he will never force us.
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God is Personal
see Jer. 31:3
God is a person (whom) not an it (what).
 A person has an intellect and a will.
 God loves like we love, so much that…
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God is Love (1 John 4:16)
This is God’s greatest attribute
 God’s love is not a passing emotion or
feeling, nor does it allow unrepented
injustice to go unpunished
 God’s love = mercy and justice
 Was demonstrated by Christ
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God is Triune
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The Bible reveals the mystery that God is
three persons in one being.
The Triune God
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
The Trinity
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Church teaches and
believes that there
are three divine
persons in One God
This is a mystery
beyond our
comprehension
Thus, it is not
irrational but
suprarational
The Trinity
Distinction: Person vs. Nature
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Person – who you are.
Nature – what you are.
In the Trinity we have 3 divine whos (persons) in
one what (God)
Thus, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each fully
possess the divine nature, each is fully God
Each person of the Trinity is distinct from each
other, yet each fully has the divine nature
Thus we have 1 God in 3 divine persons
Is the Trinity in the Bible?
You can’t find the word Trinity anywhere
but you can find what would be referred to
as the Trinity in the Bible.
 Worksheet.
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Relationship of Persons in the
Trinity
Jesus Christ is the second person of the
Trinity, the begotten son of the Father
 When we call Jesus the Son of the Father,
we mean that he came from within the
Father, but is not made by the Father, that
is what begotten means
 Thus the Son is Eternal like the Father
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What About the Holy Spirit?
From the perfect love from the Father and
the Son the Holy Spirit proceeds
 The love between the Father and the Son
is so real that it is a person, the Holy Spirit
 Since the love between the Father and
Son has always existed before time, so to,
the Holy Spirit has always existed before
time
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Characteristics of the 3 Persons:
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Father
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Son
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Is the Creator
Is the Saviour or Redeemer
The Son’s whole purpose was to rescue humanity in
the person of Jesus Christ
Holy Spirit
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Is the Sanctifyer
Purpose is to make us holy, more loving, more like
Jesus
St. Patrick