Week 1 - Revelation (p.1-28)

“Theology is just fantastical zoology.”
-Some guy in Bucks County Coffee Co., Princeton.

Contrary to the Bucks County Coffee guy, by "revelation" we mean simply that we're not making this stuff up.

Even in the case of those things which can be investigated by human reason, it was necessary for us to be instructed by divine revelation. The truth concerning God, if left to human reason alone, would have appeared only to a few, and only after a long search, and even then mixed with many errors; yet all of man's well-being, which is in God, depends on knowledge of this truth. Thus, in order that this well-being should become known to men more commonly and more securely, it was necessary that they be instructed by divine revelation.
-Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 1:1

“There is a school of thought – I would estimate that amongst academic theologians at least, it is the dominant school of thought at the moment – which holds that God-language has no objective referent in reality, or at least, if it does, we humans could not possibly know it… But… If God exists at all, if God is an objectively real being, and above all, if God is the personal being which the Bible [and the Church] depicts Him to be, then we are not free to say anything and everything we like about God. In theology, we are constrained by the being and existence of God to speak in a way that is adequate to that Reality.”
-Dr. Bruce McCormack, Princeton Seminary

Several years ago a scientist named Russell Stannard was heading up some research in England that led to the discovery of another sub-atomic particle besides the quark, which was subsequenltly discovered and called "CHARM.”

A woman, upon discovering that he was a successful physicist and a committed Christian, asked him how she could "find God." His response was that the U.K. has put up ten million pounds for two years to do experiments every day with just a 15% chance of finding the new particle. Seek God directly for five minutes a day for the next two years. It won't be nearly as expensive, and your chances of actually finding him will be significantly higher.

-Story told by Diogenes Allen, Princeton Seminary

"If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. . . . anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about."
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity p.145

A Philosophical Tidbit:

Plato’s nihilist nemesis Gorgias (who has many contemporary manifestations) made the following three propositions:
1. Nothing exists.
2. If it exists, it cannot be known.
3. If it can be known, it cannot be communicated.
Plato attacked them by referring to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Through the Mystery of the Trinity the Christian tradition answers Gorgias’ objections even better than did Plato:
1. Nothing exists. Christianity answers that The Father exists and created all things.
2. If it exists, it cannot be known. Christianity answers that The Son reveals the Father.
3. If it can be known, it cannot be communicated. Christianity answers that The
Holy Spirit reveals to us the Son, who in turn reveals the Father.



Michaelangelo's God the Father (He should have known better than to depict the Father, who is beyond human sight... but exceptions I suppose can be made when you're as good as Michaelangelo)



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