Progressive Revelation

21st January 2024
"I don't know whether you're aware of the fact that Jesus sees you as not necessarily able to take what he really wants to tell you. Are you aware of the fact that the Bible, in all of its teaching, examples what the theologians now call progressive revelation. And progressive revelation is nothing to do with contradicting some earlier truth and saying it was wrong. It's not correcting things. But it is the fact that God always has the problem with humanity that we humanity can't take in all the things he'd want to tell us."
"One of the things I like in watching a movie is where, whether it be the hero or the heroine or whoever, is put in a position to have to make a difficult decision, put on the spot, and it's always of interest to me about why human beings make the decisions that they do... And that's actually something in movies I like to see where someone comes to a circumstance they didn't expect and have to make either a rash decision or a very brave decision or one that gets them killed. And that's the part of movies that really grip me. And I think that's been a part of me even before I watched many movies at all. And I have a great interest in the human decision mechanism. Some of that also comes about because my involvement in Christian ministry has been, in my younger days, very much about calling people to come to Christ and wanting them to make a decision."
"Even though the Bible teaches us that God is not willing, that any should perish, it goes on to say, but that all should come to repentance, which is to change your verdict, change your mind, to be sorry for your sin. And so there is, introduced by the scriptures themselves, these two elements that need to be held in tension, for both are true. The answer is not to find a way of thinking that chooses one and sticks to it and ignores the other, because both are in the scriptures... An antinomy is right there in the question as to whether God has chosen a sovereign or whether we've been put on the spot that our choice will make a difference."

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