David Capes
As I’m thinking about that whole idea I think it was John Locke, and some other thinkers who introduced ideas about toleration, religious toleration. We should be able to tolerate each other, and that means to put up with. That doesn’t mean to agree. It just means that I’m willing to put up with you, and you should be willing to put up with me in that particular regard. It strikes me then that general revelation is not sufficient on its own. It can only take you so far.
Malcolm Yarnell
That’s right, and I think that’s really the important matter for us as Christians. The conscience lets people know there is God. It lets people know that there is a moral standard that God upholds and that we exist under the judgment for our conscience which either excuses or accuse us. God will hold us accountable on that day for how we have violated his law in our consciences. The conscience general revelation, even the revelation of nature as we often view the skies and the stars.
David Capes
The scriptures themselves speak about the revelation of God in nature
Malcolm Yarnell
Yes, Psalms 8 and 19 for instance, lets us know that nature and even the human being himself or herself, has some knowledge of God. But it cannot save us, and this is why special revelation is necessary. God, in Christ, has revealed himself and the way of salvation, and he has done this because general revelation only has the capability to bring condemnation. To bring justification, to bring salvation before His divine throne, requires him to send his Son, Jesus Christ.
David Capes
So, the Incarnation becomes just a critical part of that.
Malcolm Yarnell
The incarnation is absolutely critical. It is the critical doctrine within Christianity. It is the critical doctrine that sets up the ability for human beings to be saved. We must know that God became flesh. That in Christ, our humanity was taken and perfected by his obedience, and that when he died on the cross, he offered the perfect sacrifice for all human sins. And therefore, when we hear the good news of Jesus Christ, that He has risen from the dead, then we have the opportunity, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, working through the proclamation of the Word, to respond and to be saved in that way.
And so that special revelation of Jesus Christ does what the general revelation of nature and the conscience cannot do. It brings and offers us salvation. Now mind you, the only way people hear of this special revelation is when those who are believers in Jesus Christ, share the Word of God. We have to talk. We have to preach and that’s a responsibility of every human being.
David Capes
We also have to translate the Bible into languages that don’t have it yet or at least find a way to tell the stories. Some cultures are oral cultures. They don’t read to begin with, but we have to figure out a way to take those stories and tell those stories.
Malcolm Yarnell
Absolutely. Along the way, it is incumbent upon us to take the “word of God”, and by the way, for “word of God”, I have drawn from Scripture. Karl Barth did this. Really the greatest theologian of the 20th century, pointed out that “word of God” in Scripture has a three-fold meaning. There is the Incarnate Word of God, who is Jesus Christ.
David Capes
The logos, John’s logos.
Malcolm Yarnell
That’s right. Then there is the proclaimed Word of God, the preached Word of God, of the prophets and the apostles, that points towards Jesus Christ. We might say is the intoned Word of God because we speak it. But then there is also the written or inscripturated Word of God, and we have access to proper preaching today, our preaching about the Incarnate Word can be powerful and made right because of our access to the inscripturated word of God. Now we have to remember that the Incarnate Word of God we worship, but his instruments are the intoned Word of God and the inscripturated.
David Capes
We don’t worship the preacher.
Malcolm Yarnell
No, by no means, we shouldn’t. Please don’t do that.
David Capes
Nor should we set the Scripture itself on a pedestal and worship it. But it points us to the Incarnate One.
Malcolm Yarnell
It points us to the Incarnate. So, we respect the intoned word of the preacher and we respect the inscripturated word of the Holy Bible, but we offer worship to the Incarnate Word.
David Capes
We’re going to be talking a little bit more about other books in this series. This is the book that you’ve talked about today, God: Theology for Every Person. What’s the next piece in this trilogy of books that you’re writing?
Malcolm Yarnell
There are 3 volumes. The first volume is God, the second is Word. It is going to be focused on that three-fold word. In particular, the Incarnate Word, and who he is and what he has done. It’s also going to cover the activity of God with regard to creation, election, providence, the creation of humanity, the fall of humanity, and then the cross of Jesus Christ as the solution to the problem of our sin.
The third volume will be about the Spirit. With regard to this first volume, which has two major parts, God and revelation, it also discusses theological method in hermeneutics. There is another book that David Dockery, the president of Southwestern Seminary, and I wrote together, that was also published this last year, and it’s entitled Special Revelation in Scripture. And it contains what I put in more colloquial terms in this volume, God. This is a basic level theology. In that other volume on special revelation in Scripture, we go into much more detail about the doctrine of special revelation. We touch on general revelation and about what Scripture is and how to receive scripture, how to interpret Scripture.
David Capes
If we don’t already have it here at the Lanier Theological Library, we’re going to get that book. Dr. Malcolm Yarnell, thank you for being with us here today to talk about your book, God: Theology for Every Person and particularly today about revelation.
Malcolm Yarnell
Thank you, Dr Capes for having me here at the Lanier Theological Library.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai