A Research on Relationship Between Faith and Revelation

This paper is divided in to three chapters namely; Chapter one looks at Faith and its Meaning emphasizing on what is this thing call faith? And how faith plays a big role in the life of believers. We believers participate by faith in God’s cognitive life to understand him intimately as a mystery, this faith helps us to see ourselves and the world as God does, and to recognize His providence at work in own lives. Chapter two focuses on Revelation which is a communication by God of some truth to human beings by means which are extraordinarily beyond the nature. The last chapter gives us the relationship between faith and revelation of which when faith is motivated by charity, and when the way of life proposed by the object of faith is lived with intensity, believers come to insights that might otherwise have failed to materialize through revelation.

Believers with the right affections who strive to live in accord with the theoretical object proposed by divine revelation will undergo a profound cognitive transformation as they become more and more adept at seeing their lives and the world in general from the perspective of their heavenly Father. Conclusively, whether man uses his presupposed independence to deny God’s existence or reinterpret God’s truth in world religion, man’s absolute dependence upon God still remains. Reality is what scripture reveals it to be.

Chapter One: Faith

Faith and its Meaning

The Holy Scripture, specifically Hebrew Chapter 11:1, the letter clearly gives a very accurate understanding of what Faith is, it says “Faith is a substantial realization of what is hope for and evidence of things not seen. New Testament authors emphasize unremittingly that the key to genuine human flourishing is faith in Jesus Christ as the revealed and revealing Word of God, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). But what is this thing call faith? The question looks simple of course the difficult part of it is how to apply it in our day today lives. There are different ways faith can be understood, on one hand, faith is a complete trust of confidence in someone or something it goes farther to say that it is a strong belief in the doctrines of a religion concerning their convictions not their proof. [1]

Faith and its role in the life of believers

We believers participate by faith in God’s cognitive life to understand him intimately as a mystery, this faith helps us to see ourselves and the world as God does, and to recognize his providence at work in own lives. “The principal object of the habit of faith as is that which has been revealed as true by God precisely insofar as it has been revealed by Him and made known publicly through the Holy Scripture and Church’s teachings” said Thomas Aquinas. This general object of faith Particularly can be divided into statements found in the creed. Through the theological virtue of faith, God revealed the truth and made public through Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church and St. Thomas brought out the preambles a large number of propositions of faith concerning God’s existence, nature, and activity that can be gleaned, he believes, from treating several characteristics of the world as effects and faithfully put their origin in God. [2]

Thus, St. Thomas Aquinas is more optimistic about the reasoning for philosophical inquiry than are other medieval and modern thinkers, who are decidedly less sanguine about the power and range of ‘natural reason’, that is, of reason unaided attributed to belief that is Faith.

Chapter Two: Revelation

Many have narrowly interpreted Revelation focusing obsessively on the end of time, with the result that we have missed the fact that it contains many profound truths and encouragements concerning Christian life and discipleship. Revelation is a communication by God of some truth to human beings by means which are extraordinarily beyond the nature and the truths revealed may be inaccessible to the human mind mysteries, though revealed our minds is incapable of fully penetrating. [3] God’s message is delivered to us still by prophets who alone receive immediate revealed communicated truth. Even though the Bible has an idea of revelation it does not widely discus its ideas.

Etymologically, the term ‘Revelation’ derived from Latin word, ‘Revelare’ with its basic meaning of, “Veil removing,” and according to our religion of Christianity, the idea is an, “inner illumination,” and also divine instructed teachings. Revelation is also on the other hand understood in the creation of the universe and of the spiritual reality which is seen as an act of revelation by God. [4] The revealed prophetic visions are clearly brought to the point known as the written letters to Churches and are naturally pastoral. Primarily, Revelation aimed at bringing courage to believers of all ages that God is active even in the midst of tragedy, suffering, and Satanic domination. All these brought an encouragement to the people of God to have hope in their final reward with certainty and to provide a good space of worshiping and glorifying God despite trials, temptations, and suffering. Thus, God’s revelation was and is made known to the whole creation, basically through the mind of man, this revelation comes to knowledge and have to be interpreted. God has given man the mandate to interpreter the revealed truth, more specifically prophets and prophetess. Therefore, it is essential when Revelation is understood in terms of nature i. e. prophetic and pastoral, this will be relevant to our path of daily pilgrimage through trials, temptations, sufferings etc. of which God protects and is delivering us from evil into the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Chapter Three: Relationship

However, the analogy falls short once we notice that in the case of Christian faith, the believer’s love for the one who reveals the truth is itself a factor that contributes to an increase in understanding. This suggests another analogy that is closer to the mark that of filial friendship, especially when the children in question are young. [5] When faith is motivated (or, to use St. Thomas’s term, ‘formed’) by charity, and when the way of life proposed by the object of faith is lived with intensity, believers come to insights that might otherwise have failed to materialize. In short, believers with the right affections who strive to live in accord with the theoretical object proposed by divine revelation will undergo a profound cognitive transformation as they become more and more adept at seeing their lives and the world in general from the perspective of their heavenly Father. Each of these gifts plays a role in the acquisition and transmission of divine cognition, in the meditative study of revealed truths, and in the believer’s perseverance in the faith. The natural power does not on its own give a deep substantial relevant knowledge except believers understand with principles what is centrally revealed. Still, even though believers cannot have perfect grasp of the mysteries of the faith, they can at least grasp them well enough through revelation to identify and distinguish them intuitively from their contraries, and persevere in their assent to them. In the normal course of events, this deeper understanding comes through participation in the liturgy of the Church and through the sort of study and prayerful reflection on revealed truths that almost all believers are capable of, especially when they have a good teacher. [6] Even though the gift of understanding, which is available to all the faithful, does not of itself guarantee the ability to engage in sophisticated intellectual inquiry into the truths of the faith, it does carry with it a defeasible intuitive ability to sense what is and what is not consonant with divine revelation. The very fact that the gift of understanding is open to all the faithful helps keep in check the gnostic tendency a characteristic temptation for intellectuals to split the faith into two faiths, one for the vulgar and one for the learned, to use Berkeley’s terms.

Conclusion

Everyone is committed to some kind of faith to arrive at hidden base of all of reality. Even so, these faith commitments go far beyond mere intellectual commitment. They touch the very core of our being as part of our spiritual and moral essence. Each of us has motives for holding to the particular view of reality we use to define our lives. God tries our hearts and knows these motives. God is not interested in anyone merely giving mental assent to his existence, rather is after something much more. Truly knowing God “is rather part of a process of God’s thorough making of a person. It is, from our human standpoint, an active commitment to a morally transforming personal relationship. There are those who say that if they could personally witness some sort of miraculous sign they would then be brought into a position where they could believe the Bible. Yet the Bible teaches that even when Christ performed many miracles in the midst of the crowds most people did not believe He was God. “Miraculous events do not impose their interpretation on us. We interpreters must decide on our interpretations of events, and this shows that various background beliefs and motives typically influence our interpretive decisions.

Unlikely that most people who become Christians embrace the Christian faith because they have systematically reasoned about its doctrines in contrast to the beliefs held by others. One thing, however, is sure, no one can ever truly come to Christ without first presupposing His Word. An individual’s confession of Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior (Rom 10:9-13) only comes with the presupposition that both His person and Work are truly what the Bible reveals them to be. Have our notions about God come from human imagination or His revelation? God created man as a finite creature. Man was created to be dependent upon God and His revelation. Man's fall into sin was essentially a rejection of this dependence. 'This, then, is the essence of sin; man's rebellion against recognizing his dependence on God in everything and the assumption of his ability to be independent of God. ' The serpent's temptation in Genesis was for man to be “like God”. It still is. Whether man uses his presupposed independence to deny God’s existence or reinterpret God’s truth in world religion, man’s absolute dependence upon God still remains. Reality is what scripture reveals it to be.