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Word of the Week: Revelation (doctrine, not book of the Bible)

Last week’s post dealt with an overview of theology. You can find it here if you’d like to look back at it. In these word of the week posts, we are looking at terms, doctrines, and concepts in systematic theology. Today’s word is revelation.

Theology is the study of God and God’s relation to the world. From our definition of theology, the question arises, “How do we know anything about God and God’s relation to the world?”

Answer: we know about God and his relationship to the world through what he has revealed to us.

Revelation means “unveiling, to make known.” The last book of the Bible is titled Revelation, and John’s revelation is God’s unveiling of Jesus Christ in all his glory to the world in salvation and judgment.

When we discuss the doctrine of revelation, we mean something more broad than merely the last book in the Bible. We mean that God to revealed himself to us.

Because humans are finite and God is infinite, if they are to know God, that knowledge must come about by God’s taking the initiative to make himself known.

Millard Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine, 26.

It is important here for readers to understand the necessity of revelation. In today’s experience authority is grounded in rationalism (math), empiricism (science), or personal autonomy (choice/freedom). Without getting into the weeds, the personal autonomy that permeates Western culture can be found in either rationalism or empiricism. In short, grounding truth and authority in any of these frameworks (rationalism, empiricism, personal autonomy) is insufficient. Questions remain unanswered if these are the only places for grounding truth. For centuries, revelation was considered the primary location for absolute truth. That changed philosophically during the Enlightenment era. And while the developments from the Enlightenment through Modernism and Postmodernism have changed how culture views truth and authority, these developments can never change what is true and absolute.

It is for this reason that we need God to reveal himself and what is true to us. When God reveals himself to us, we are able to grasp the core realities of what is and what has value in the world.

With regard to systematic theology, the doctrine of revelation is the starting place. We begin here because anything we know about God, and the world, and us, finds basis in what God has revealed to us.

There are several important truths about the doctrine of revelation that help us understand its value and importance for Christian theology and experience.

  • Revelation is personal. God made us in his image and revealed himself to us so we could know him. Nothing is more important in life than knowing God. How we come to know God occurs through God’s revelation of himself to us.
  • Revelation is cognitive. We can know truths, doctrines, content about God and us because God has revealed them to us. Because God made us rational beings, we can know and understand cognitively and experientially who God is and what he wants us to know.
  • Revelation is progressive. Over time God reveals himself. As seen in Scripture, God discloses more and more of himself as we read the accounts of God and his people. The more complete our picture of revelation, the more clear we are able to be about who God is and who we are.
  • Revelation is not exhaustive. While we can know truly about God, we cannot know fully about God. In other words, we know what God has revealed, but there are aspects of God’s nature and character that he has not fully revealed.
  • Revelation can be divided into two spheres: General and Special. The posts for the next two weeks will define general and special revelation. And many of the posts following those two will dive into aspects of special revelation.

Here is the primary truth we should take away from this post.

God wants us to know him. Think about this: the God who made the world and everything in it wants you to know him. God doesn’t need anything, and yet God revealed himself to sinful humans so that we could know him personally. This is an amazing thought. It is basically for this reason that I write, preach, teach, and share God with others. It should amaze us that God wants us to know him.

Do you know God? If not, comment below, and I’ll do my best to share with you how you can know him?

If you do know God, then remember that your knowledge of him will never be exhaustive. Keep learning, keep reading, and keep seeking God’s revelation so that you can know him better.

Leadership Lessons from Coach Williams’ Retirement Press Conference

I’ve been a UNC Tar Heel basketball fan ever since my family moved from Kentucky to North Carolina in 1985. My dad has always been a sports’ fan. He’s began cheering for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team when he moved to Kentucky for Bible College. When a pastoral calling brought our family back to North Carolina when I was five, we could only watch local sports. So we watched a lot of UNC basketball. I began cheering for UNC with Coach Dean Smith and players like Rick Fox, J. R. Reid, Hubert Davis (current coach at UNC), Donald Williams, George Lynch, Eric Montross, and many others. As a kid, I pulled for UNC because I loved the color of Tar Heel Blue. But over the years, I grew to be a fan of all things Tar Heel athletics.

As UNC fan, I was saddened by Dean Smith’s retirement in 1997, but happy for Coach Gutheridge to get a chance at leading the UNC men’s basketball program. I was a fan through the Matt Doherty years which were difficult. And then with other UNC fans, I was thrilled that native son Roy Williams would be returning to coach UNC, the program where he began his coaching career as an assistant under Dean Smith.

Three national championships later and Coach Roy Williams is one of the greatest coaches in college basketball. Known for his work ethic and straight talk, he’s always been one of my favorite personalities to watch. He cares deeply about winning and has kept the same Carolina Family atmosphere that fans have grown to love. On April 1 of this year, news came out that Roy Williams was going to retire. I thought it was an April fool’s joke.

Later that day I listened to Roy William’s press conference where he detailed his decision process for stepping away from the UNC program. As a Tar Heel fan, I can admit that I had a tear or two listening to Coach Roy comment on stepping down.

You may be reading this and not care a thing about basketball or you may pull for a different team. That’s ok. This post is not an apologetic for UNC basketball. But I do want to highlight three leadership lessons that stood out at Roy William’s retirement press conference.

Leaders don’t make excuses. The last couple of years for UNC basketball have not been typically as successful as previous years. There are many reasons for these struggles: injuries, players leaving for the NBA early, the pandemic, etc. There are also extenuating circumstances like the coming “NIL: Name, Image, Likeness” issues that are about to affect college athletes, programs, and schools. When media gave Coach Williams a chance to place blame on some of these issues, he simply didn’t. Leaders are effective because they don’t make excuses.

Leaders take responsibility. Taking responsibility is a corollary to the previous lesson. Coach Williams could have blamed the environment, players, or the coming changes in college athletics. Instead he said something like this, “I’m not the right man for the job anymore. I just couldn’t get through to the players.” As a fan it was obvious that part of UNC’s problem in the last couple of years was a talent deficiency. But as a leader, Coach Williams would not blame the players. He owned the record, the struggles, and the team. Leaders take responsibility when things go poorly. They look inside first. They self-examine and refuse to blame others.

Leaders give away credit. Coach Williams credited his players, Coach Smith, his assistants, and others who supported him for the program’s success under his leadership. One of the values Coach Smith emphasized for his players was pointing to the person who gave you the assist. It is a way of sharing credit and saying “Thank you.” To be a successful leader means that there are plenty of people in your circle of influence who have helped you to be successful.

These three leadership lessons can help any leader of any organization of any size be more effective with the people they are leading. Before concluding this post, let me offer an observation and a warning.

Here’s the observation.

Coach Williams’ retirement press conference felt more like a funeral, than a recognition of a hall of fame coach retiring from a successful career. As a UNC fan, the press conference was obviously sad. But it felt sadder than it should have. Why? I think that’s partly due to Coach Williams’ approach to life and coaching. Known for his work ethic, Coach Williams obsessively values hard work and effort. He poured his life into his work as he details in his book entitled Hard Work: A Life on and off the Court.

Here’s the warning.

Leaders must be careful not to find their identity in their work or the success of their leadership. After listening to the press conference, it was not difficult to connect the challenges of the past few seasons at UNC with Williams’ self-evaluation. Rather than celebrate what had been, Williams questioned what could have been. I don’t have any insights into Coach Williams’ faith or lack thereof. But Coach Williams’ retirement press conference serves as a warning to leaders. As a follower of Jesus, I cannot find my identity in my work, my level of effort, my success, or my leadership. Jesus followers must find their identity in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Nothing else will satisfy. Leadership success will ebb and flow. Quality work will satisfy only until one is unable to work. If we identify ourselves with our labors, then, when our labors are through, we will have a hard time discovering who we are and what really matters in life.

The Bible teaches us in Romans 12:8 that the one who leads must lead with zeal or diligence. Jesus modeled servant leadership. Paul modeled leadership through a team. And I can tell you that leading a church or organization is hard work. It is part of that labor and work that God created his followers for (see Ephesians 2:10).

But we need to balance this effort and labor of leadership against the truth of the gospel. In the gospel Christ worked for our salvation. In the gospel, Christ led where we could not follow. Only Jesus could be the sacrifice and substitute for our sins. We do not labor in leadership and works in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we labor and work from the salvation we’ve received through Christ. Our identity is bound up in grace, not personal success. Our identity is found in Christ, not in our labors and leadership.

So, let’s learn these lessons well. Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility. Give credit to others. But remember that your identity is in Jesus, not the success or failure of your leadership. And Jesus cannot fail. That is good news for the follower of Christ. When our labors are done and we retire from this earthly life into heaven, we can celebrate. For our hope is not in our success, but it is found in the victory of Christ.