What is a Revelation


A discussion on another forum got me interested in this question. Often on this blog when an argument gets into a tight corner about the source of something religious the answer from religious people is, "It was revealed."

In my young years in Sunday School and decades in Methodist and Presbyterian sermons I never "heard" the word "revelation." That is, even though it must have been said many times I wasn't interested enough to pick up its importance in the scheme of things.

There are various places in the Bible where certain ideas or events need to take place. If the writers could not come up with there own version of an event taking place they said it was "revealed." The information or event just showed up out of nowhere. Moses went out of sight and reappeared with the Ten Commandments. Some claim he did not really receive them from God but there were "revealed" to him. Paul claimed he visited with Jesus several times after Jesus was long dead. 

To me these tales and the many others in the Bible can be called hallucinations, things that are sensed but are not real. There is a cousin to hallucinations, delusions. These are beliefs that are not real or correct.  Do other religions and offshoots from Christianity have hallucinations and delusions? You betcha. 

Let's start with real Americans, the Lakota. They believe their god, Ptesanuin, spoke directly to the Lakota people. The Aztecs believed Huitzilopochti, like Ptesanuim, spoke directly to the Aztec people. We all know of kings, dictators, emperor and recent cult leaders who said they had revelations.

I've had several friends in the Bahai faith. Their god spoke to them in a book. I used to have a copy. The current President of the Latter Day Saints, whomever that might be at any moment, is authorized to receive revelations directly from God for the direction of the church. Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism also are blessed with revelations. 

Knowledge about one thing or another is received by believers in visions and dreams. I've heard TV evangelists tell of visits with Jesus in dreams as if that was important enough to share with the public. I've had people in private share dreams of visits with Jesus. 

People in the Bible had revelations. TV evangelist Benny Hinn heard from Jesus in a dream. Both mean exactly the same thing, nothing.

 

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