Revelation (General & Special)

The Magic Puzzle [Job]

A friend told me of a magical puzzle; the puzzle, it seems, has an infinite number of pieces and its owner distributes the pieces freely and often, but never all the pieces and never the same pieces to any two people.

What’s so magical about the puzzle? Well, with some effort each man is able to assemble his pieces into a whole picture. Left with only that fact, each man might conclude he has the entire picture; however, only when he discovers that others have formed a whole picture of their pieces, and similarly discovers that the whole is never completely seen in the part, can the man appreciate the puzzle’s magic.

The danger is in focusing on the puzzle and not the owner. You may learn to know the pieces intimately and thus know “of” the owner but, until you know the owner, all the insight into the pieces is just that ... only part of the puzzle.

No man ever has the complete revelation of God, only the part, and only that part God allows him to have.

The God’s revelation is composed of two parts: general and special revelation (some say three parts, adding progressive). General is what God has revealed about Himself to all men through nature, providential control, and conscience. Special is what God reveals through His Son and the Scriptures; available only to those who have had access to these revealed truths as God wills.

There is implied in the word revelation the act of revealing, thus that which is not revealed is not revelation.