Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

REVELATION

A symbolic communication from the higher nature to the lower, imparting truths of the invisible universe and the soul. As revelation does not, and cannot, arise from the lower nature, so it is self-evident that the lower or objective mind of man does not compose the revelation, but is merely the receptive vessel into which the Divine message is poured. The evidence for this view of " revealed truth" is over-whelming when appreciated. That evidence is to be found in the universal fact that the sacred scriptures and myths of the world are almost throughout of obscure, miraculous, and nonsensical appearance, and of such a character, taken as a whole, as to make incredible any theory of their mundane rational origin. Their purport, indeed, precludes a human origin, for no mind of man is able to investigate cosmical beginnings, and the nature of that which transcends the lower consciousness.

A thousand instances will be found in this dictionary of the nonsensical appearance of the world-scriptures, and it may be sufficiently obvious that they have been neither invented nor composed by man. The scriptures themselves always assert that they are of Divine origin, and this is a consistent and intelligent view of them. The apparent nonsense is nothing but an indication of their symbolical nature, and an assurance that their diction has never seriously been tampered with. It is plain that their symbology would be ruined if meddling scribes altered the language and introduced interpolations to accord with their own ignorance.

"In the religious history of humanity it is human thought and human speech which are the most distinctive and effective media of the Self-revelation of God; and yet more especially, the thought and speech of the divinely selected and inspired men of revelation. This voice of God to man, through man, has been variously expressed. In the creeds of these different religions, the avatars of Vishnu, the various incarnations of the Buddha, the demigods that descended from the Scandinavian Heimdallr, the prophets and seers of Old-Testament religion, and Jesus and his Apostles in the New Dispensation all have the office of revealing God to man." - G. T. LADD, Phil. Of Religion, Vol. II. pp. 419-20.

"When the future philosophic theologian comes to take in this conception (of many inspired scriptures), he will no longer be satisfied to study the sacred text of his own form of religion. He will study the text of all the higher religions, trying to find the similar import represented through their different legends, and the similar principle expounded in their not greatly differing precepts. Such an attitude of mind will almost infinitely elevate his aims and widen his horizon." - G. L. RAYMOND, Psychology of Inspiration, p. 131.

"The theory of an essentially similar revelation in East and West would harmonise with the conception of Paul He writes that God had never left himself without witness, that man's conscience is the witness of God, and that a mystery' was hid in God from the beginning of the world, which 'eternal purpose was in his time made known as it had in former times not been made known. According to this universalist conception, held by Origen and Augustine, Christian revelation is directly connected with Divine revelations at all times and in all places, with a continuity of Divine influences." - E. DE BUNSEN, Messiah, Angel p. 51.

"No revelation can be adequately given by the address of man to man, whether by writing or orally, even if he be put in possession of the Truth itself. For all such revelation must be made through words: and words are but counters-the coins of intellectual exchange. There is as little resemblance between the silver coin and the bread it purchases, as between the word and the thing it stands for. Lookin g at the coin, the form of the loaf does not suggest itself. Listening to the word, you do not perceive the idea for which it stands, unless you are already in possession of it. . . . He alone believes truth who feels it. He alone has a religion whose soul knows by experience that to serve God and know Him is the richest treasure. And unless Truth come to you, not in word only, but in power besides,- authoritative because true, not true because authoritative—there has been no real revelation made to you from God. . . . God is a Character. To love God is to love His character. This Love is manifested in obedience-Love is the life of which obedience is the form. 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.' . . . To this Love, adoring and obedient, God reveals His truth. Love is the condition without which revelation does not take place. As in the natural, so in the spiritual world :— by compliance with the laws of the universe, we put ourselves in possession of its blessings." - F. W. ROBERTSON, Sermons, 1st Series, pp. 6-12.

Revelation by means of symbols is not authoritative but suggestive. The inner mind already possesses truth, and the truth must be awakened by the symbols. If the mind is preoccupied and antagonistic, the new truth will not be aroused in it.

"Unless I misread the religious tendencies of our time, there is evidenced just now a remarkable return on the part of many people to the desire for a special and definite authoritative divine word of revelation as contrasted with all merely human and naturalistic explanations of things as they are. But Sabatier contends that as we gain in spiritual autonomy and the sense of spiritual freedom, we tend more and more to rely upon the inward light, the presence of God in our own souls, to guide us into truth. Now I repeat that, unless I am greatly mistaken, present-day tendencies to a large extent are not justifying this forecast. I know personally quite a number of highly educated and intelligent men who all say with one voice that if they are to have a religious faith at all it must not be based only upon what they can discover for themselves, but upon an undoubted revelation of God to men, an opening of the door between seen and unseen, between earth and heaven, and the coming through from the higher side to the lower of that which is eternal and divine." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., The Morning Star.

See Also

 AMBAYAVIS
AXE
BAPTISM OF FIRE
DEVELOPMENT
GOSPEL
INSPIRATION
KORAN
MYTHOLOGY
PAPYRUS BOAT
PEN
RAMAYANA
SACRED TEXT
SASTRA
SCRIPTURES, SACRED
SRUTI
UPANISHAD
Veda
WORD OF GOD