Revelation and Inspiration

Read for This Week’s Study

Heb. 1:1, 2; 2 Tim. 3:15–17; 2 Pet. 1:18–21; Exod. 17:14; Rev. 1:19; Ezek. 4:1–8.

Memory Text: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things he saw” (Revelation 1:1, 2, NKJV).

The apostle John had been part of the inner circle of the Twelve Apostles (Luke 8:51; Matt. 17:1; Matt. 26:36, 37). After Christ’s ascension, he continued his ministry, in Jerusalem. Yet, before the fall of the city (A.D. 70), he moved to Ephesus in order to oversee churches in the Roman province of Asia Minor. During the Christian persecution under the Roman emperor Domitian, the apostle was exiled to Patmos, an island in the Aegean Sea.

On Patmos, John received special prophetic messages that were addressed not only to the seven churches of Asia Minor but also to Christians throughout the ages (Rev. 1:1–3, 9–11). The prophetic message delivery chain, of which John was a part, looked something like this: God the Father, to Jesus Christ, to the angel, to the apostle John, and to the readers and hearers. This is a classic example of the revelation-­inspiration process in which God uses prophets to communicate His messages to humanity.

This week’s lesson specifically examines the multiform revelation-inspiration process, with special focus on the oral, written, and dramatized ways the divine message has been communicated to human beings.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 31.

Supplemental EGW Notes

The word of God, like the character of its divine Author, presents mysteries that can never be fully comprehended by finite beings. The entrance of sin into the world, the incarnation of Christ, regeneration, the resurrection, and many other subjects presented in the Bible, are mysteries too deep for the human mind to explain, or even fully to comprehend. But we have no reason to doubt God’s word because we cannot understand the mysteries of His providence. In the natural world we are constantly surrounded with mysteries that we cannot fathom. The very humblest forms of life present a problem that the wisest of philosophers is powerless to explain. Everywhere are wonders beyond our ken. Should we then be surprised to find that in the spiritual world also there are mysteries that we cannot fathom? The difficulty lies solely in the weakness and narrowness of the human mind. God has given us in the Scriptures sufficient evidence of their divine character, and we are not to doubt His word because we cannot understand all the mysteries of His providence. The apostle Peter says that there are in Scripture “things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest. . . unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:16. The difficulties of Scripture have been urged by skeptics as an argument against the Bible; but so far from this, they constitute a strong evidence of its divine inspiration. If it contained no account of God but that which we could easily comprehend; if His greatness and majesty could be grasped by finite minds, then the Bible would not bear the unmistakable credentials of divine authority. The very grandeur and mystery of the themes presented should inspire faith in it as the word of God. The Bible unfolds truth with a simplicity and a perfect adaptation to the needs and longings of the human heart, that has astonished and charmed the most highly cultivated minds, while it enables the humblest and uncultured to discern the way of salvation. And yet these simply stated truths lay hold upon subjects so elevated, so far-reaching, so infinitely beyond the power of human comprehension, that we can accept them only because God has declared them. Thus the plan of redemption is laid open to us, so that every soul may see the steps he is to take in repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to be saved in God’s appointed way; yet beneath these truths, so easily understood, lie mysteries that are the hiding of His glory—mysteries that overpower the mind in its research, yet inspire the sincere seeker for truth with reverence and faith. The more he searches the Bible, the deeper is his conviction that it is the word of the living God, and human reason bows before the majesty of divine revelation.—Steps to Christ, pp. 106, 107.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.