001 Revelation

Podcast: Kitchen Table Theology

Podcast Series: The Holy Scriptures

Episode Number: 001

Episode Name: Revelation

Episode Length: 17:02

Episode Download Link: Click here to download episode.

Host: Jeff Cranston

Co Host: Jen Denton

In this episode, Pastor Jeff begins by asking, “If telescopes and microscopes are inadequate tools for observing God, how then do we know Him?”  We know Him because He has revealed Himself to us.  When God reveals to us truth that we would not otherwise know it is called “revelation”. Jeff and Jen explore the topic of the revelation of Scripture. The revelation given in Scripture tells humanity everything that it needs to know about God and His plan.  This is the first episode in the Holy Scriptures series, which also includes inspiriation, inerrancy, infallibility, illumination, and sufficiency.

Topics We Discussed in this Episode

●     [1:55]            God supernaturally reveals Himself to us through the written word. 

●     [6:20]            Revelation is God to us, through His Word. Inspiration is from the authors of the Bible to paper. Illumination is moving from paper to heart.         

●     [8:50]            God used at least eight different forms of communication.

●     [12:53]          Everything we need to know is written from Genesis to Revelation.  

●     [15:10]            The real power of theology is not only in knowing it, but applying it. Increase your intake of God’s revealed written Word to us – the Bible. It’s through His Word that we know and understand who God is, who we are, and His purpose and plan for our lives.

Resources We Mentioned in the Show

●     Jeff referred to Dr. Harold Willmington’s Guide to the Bible in the show today.

Bible Verses We Mentioned in the Show

●     Deuteronomy 29:29, NASB

●     Hebrews 1:1, NASB 

Join the Conversation

We love your feedback! If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review below. If you have any questions or comments on today’s episode, email me at pastorjeff@lowcountrycc.org

Visit my website jeffcranston.com and subscribe to my newsletter.  Join me on Sunday mornings at LowCountry Community Church.

Check in with us on Facebook or Instagram @pastorjeffcranston.

Remember, the real power of theology is not only knowing it, but applying it. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

spk_0:   0:04
Welcome to the kitchen table theology podcast, where Pastor Jeff Cranston, along with our host Jenn Denton, will discuss biblical theology in an understandable way, you'll discover how to apply Biblical truth to your life. Thanks for joining us of the table. Let's get started.

spk_1:   0:21
Hello again, Kitchen table theologians. So glad you joined me. I'm Jeff Cranston, and I really want to thank you for joining us here on kitchen table theology. Let me ask you a question. Do you ever go outside at night simply to look up and gaze at the stars? I do that from time to time because I live in a neighborhood that has gas streetlights instead of electric ones. And it's not because I live that four out in the country. It's just the way it is there. I'm and what I found out. You can see the stars so much better and every time I do it, I did it last night. I stand there, kind of with my mouth hanging open and all while recalling the words of Genesis 1 16 It's almost like an afterthought. He made the stars also, and I just really hope my neighbors don't ever see me. So anyway, for centuries, enquiring minds have been peering into space and gaining knowledge about the universe. And we've set foot on the moon. Believe that was in 1969 and we in the next decade or so will probably be probably be setting foot on Mars. Um, still a lot of things we don't know, nor will we ever know or understand or comprehend, particularly when it comes to a full knowledge of God. You know, semi said telescopes microscopes are inadequate tools for observing God. Well, that's very true. But if that is very true, how then do we know him well? We know him because he has revealed himself to us through his son Jesus and through his word, the Bible. As we begin today's podcast, I am joined, joined by my colleague Gen. Denton, and Jen is going to be a part of this podcast as our as our host. She's been a part of this church for goodness. How many years? 15 years. Jim's a wife and mom of two precious Children, both teenagers or just one teenager, and the other one about to be a teenager but acting like a teenager,

spk_0:   2:32
absolutely in a 60 year old man. Other days,

spk_1:   2:37
Jen's been an educator for a long time. Half in the public school system, half in private Christian school, has her undergraduate degree from Anderson University in Indiana and her masters of education degree from National University in San Diego. And so, Jen, thanks for being a part of this. Welcome to the kitchen table theology podcast.

spk_0:   3:03
Thanks for having me. You know, I am so honored and I'm so excited to be here because I know is we were talking earlier in my experience in education, whether that's education as a whole or specific Christian education. Truth is truth, no matter how you slice it. And it's just a matter of how you're going to get those messages across to people on how that's going to resonate with people individually.

spk_1:   3:27
And that's what we hope happens through this podcast. And if you are listening, um, that's the goal of this is to bring you some information. Some knowledge, but not knowledge for knowledge is sake only. It's knowledge that leads us into a deeper understanding of God and the things of God. So let me share with you a little bit about where we're headed. We're gonna do this kind of in series. We might call them seasons. I don't know. We're kind of feeling our way through this. If you can't tell already, you probably become very apparent. But beginning in this first Siri's beginning with today's podcast, we want to focus on the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. So we'll look at a few areas for each podcast. Revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, illumination and sufficiency. So we'll, we'll walk you through that. But during these next few podcast, feel free to email me a question you might have. Hopefully this one gender, a number of questions for you. And at the end of this initial, Siris on the Bible will dedicate one podcast answering your questions so you can email me at J. Cranston. The letter J C R A N ston at low country cc dot org's, and I'll share that with you again, or Jen will at the end of today's podcaster. Jen, when you think of those words that I just kind of spouted out there, how do you think most Christians react when they hear those terms? Revelation. Inspiration in air, sea infallibility, illumination and sufficiency

spk_0:   5:09
Yeah. I mean, I think it's a really good question because it's not one that people will stop to ask themselves, because I think there is a really big intimidation factor when it comes to theology. And I think that happens at every age, whether you're a child growing up in the church and your somewhat processing those words stay. Even people that have been in the church who are coming to the gospel late in life those could be really intimidating words, as my grandma would say, those highfalutin, those half a Luton church words, and I think with anything that scares us. Our human nature is to have this fight or flight instinct. But the problem when it comes to theology is not. A lot of people want to stick out for the fight, so they just fly away from it and gravitate to what they do know. Gravitate to the simple gravitate Teoh. What feels good And, um so one of the things I'm most excited about in this time that we'll have together here at the kitchen table is that we're hoping to break those things down a little bit, So how would we start off putting some of those big words that you just mentioned into layman's terms.

spk_1:   6:12
Well, let me let it. Let's do this. Let's talk about Let me let me define revelation, inspiration, elimination. Very, very simply revelation. Think about it like this from God to us. Um, we here what God wants written. So revelation is God to us. And that's through his word. The Bible and then inspiration is from the authors of the Bible to paper or in there case. It might have been Piras. It could have been parchment, whatever they wrote it on. So revelation goes from God to us. And inspiration goes from the authors that God shows to putting it on paper. They write down that which God wanted written

spk_0:   6:57
got. So we've got revelation from God demand inspiration for Amanda, paper and illumination from paper toe heart

spk_1:   7:04
elimination from paper, toe heart. And that's where we received the Holy Spirit, the light of that which God has in fact written.

spk_0:   7:15
So let's talk a little bit more specific about that revelation of Scripture. What exactly are we talking about?

spk_1:   7:22
Well, let's say let's just define it this way. So it's God to man. It's God supernaturally revealing himself to us through the written word so super nationally. God revealed himself how, through the written word, and in doing that he communicated truth to us that there's no other way. We would have known that there's no way we were able or capable, I should say of discovering that on our own there's a Bible verse in ah, all the way back in Deuteronomy, which is, Ah, Chapter 29 Verse 29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things revealed, there's that word belonged to us and to our son's forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. So these were secret things belonging to God. But those things were revealed to us and to our Children and generation after generation. So generally understood revelations about God's written communication to us in the Bible. And that very word itself means that an unveiling, a disclosure, um, something previously unknown is no

spk_0:   8:36
gotcha. So how How exactly? God has spoken this to this in the written word, the written word of God, which kind of then presents the natural question. How did he do that?

spk_1:   8:50
Hebrews tells us God after he spoke long. Go to the fathers in the profits, in many portions and in many ways. So there were different ways, various ways. So let's just run through a couple of them really quickly. Ways that God has has revealed himself to us as humanity. He often spoke to us through angels were not too far removed from Christmas and Angels, Angels, angels and angels Currently in right now, as we're recording this, we're studying Oh, our Ah, we're going through a teaching Siris in church here, Low country, community, church on acts. And we see angels all through acts. So angels were all over the place. They spoke to a lot And umm Daniel Zachariah as Mary, the shepherds to fill up to Peter and that way to that those people Also another way God spoke to us is through a loud voice. Um and you can just think of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah, Jeremiah. He spoke to them. The voice they knew was the voice of God is no question about it. And then the for some of us, you know, we recoil at a loud voice and we love the quiet voice, but in a good to know, he spoke to us through a still small voice. Also, Um, probably one of our all time favorites is he spoke through a donkey, which gives me great encouragement every Sunday.

spk_0:   10:31
Definitely a favorite of the Children's Ministry here.

spk_1:   10:36
Hey, spoken to us through nature, My goodness, just you know, you look outside. You see the handiwork of God he speaks Are has spoken through dreams. God used that method on a number of occasions. Toe Jacob to Solomon to Joseph, Mary's husband, the wise man were warned of hair hair. It's evil intentions through a dream. Uh, he's spoken through visions, and that's all over the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. He spoke to us through. I love this a Christoffer Me?

spk_0:   11:11
Oh, that's a big word.

spk_1:   11:12
That's another big word. It's the word Christ and then often, e. And that's a pre Bethlehem appearance of Jesus. And there there's at least 10 times in the Old Testament where we have this, uh, this appearance of Jesus. Um, when you read the term the Angel of the Lord, Maybe back in Genesis, the angel of the Lord wrestled with Jacob theologians all ever since them have known that was that was Christ, um and so that's a really cool thing. I think that we don't study about a lot, and I think we will. In a later podcast, we'll look at some of those christophe unease pre Bethlehem appearances of Jesus.

spk_0:   11:58
We don't study any of this really a lot. I mean, we we mentioned things, you know, as they come up in Scripture, kind of in a narrative form. But I think in a day to day Hey, how is God speaking to you today that we either Maybe we feel embarrassed about the way we feel God is or is not speaking to us. But I think part of that again is that insecurity of, well, he's not talking to me in this specific way, but we miss out on all these other ways that he's speaking to us. So it's good Teoh to just know that it doesn't have to be like many things. It's not always gonna be the way we think it's going to be. So how do you? What do you think people miss out most when it comes to having these revelations from the Lord from the inspired word,

spk_1:   12:43
I think sometimes we look we're not content with God's revealed word. We want him to write it in green ink in the sky. Get just you know, if he would only give me a vision if he'd only give me a dream if he would only speak to me through a donkey if he would if he if he if he only would. And But everything we need is written from Genesis to revelation and where where God gives us guidance and leadership and reveals himself to us, which is through the Bible, there is no need to reveal himself through a vision or a dream. Can he do it? Sure. Does he do it? Absolutely. I think there are times Absolutely. He doesn't up. We know many occasions it's occurring now in the Muslim world, in the Middle East, God is doing a lot of revealing of himself through visions and dreams. I've talked to former Muslims. That's how they met Jesus. Um, but think about it. They had no access to the written word. And so because of his love, if you don't have access to the written word and he wants to reveal himself to you. How's he going to do it? He's going to do it through some other supernatural means. And to answer your question, I think we almost discount the supernatural element of the Bible because we see these other things as being really supernatural when the Bible is one, the most incredible supernatural gifts God will ever give to us.

spk_0:   14:16
And, man, do we take that for granted? I think because we have weird so fortunate where we live right here in Bluffton, South Carolina in the United States in general have just such ease of access to God's word. And we can't say that about our brothers and sisters all over the world. And so it's something we definitely need to feel that prick of conviction about when we we think Well, you're just not talking to me. I got all the answers for you right here. You're just not, you know, reach out, reach out. I want to talk to you.

spk_1:   14:43
And a lot of times Well, you know when people might say that to me out of frustration and rightly so. I mean, I totally understand that I've been there, Um, but I always follow that up. You know what guys? Not I don't know. And God's not doing this or that. And I'll say, you spending time in the word? Well, yes and no. Well, maybe that's why you know, if you want to hear from God, you've got to spend time in his work.

spk_0:   15:10
So as we wrap up today's podcast, let's remember that the real power of theology is not only knowing it but applying it. So I think perhaps the best way we can take this home and apply what we've covered today is to systematically read the Bible, increase your intake of God's revealed written word to us that's found there. It's through his word that we know and understand who got ISS and really who we are and his purpose and plan for our lives. We would love to hear from you. Maybe today's podcast brought up some questions, or maybe multiple questions. And as Pastor Jeff mentioned earlier in a few weeks, we're going to devote a podcast solely to answering your questions. So send em on over email us at J. Cranston again, that's J. Cranston, C r a i n s t o N at low country cc dot org's. Ask a question or tell us what you're listening to and from tell us a little bit about yourself. We would love to hear from you. And also you can go ahead and head on over to iTunes or whatever platform you typically listen to your podcasts on and subscribe. Maybe will even look for that rating or review to come in because you would be so helpful. Because the more ratings and reviews that we get in, the more people we can find to join us here at the kitchen table for kitchen table theology and we can reach out to more and more people. Additionally, you can always head over to Jeff Cranston dot com or low country cc dot org's for show notes on this and other podcast So we'll see you next time when our topic will be the inspiration of the Bible. That's gonna be a great one, and you won't want to miss it.