Progressive revelation in its positive sense means that as we mature in Christ, God provides deeper and broader understandings of His unchanging truths. It does not mean that God will provide brand new truths that deny or countermand Scripture.

The phrase, "We now clearly understand...," has no place among the biblically orthodox. The scriptural "contending for the faith once delivered...," or "following the Holy Fathers..," expresses how the orthodox understand themselves. Everything I find in Scripture about its own authority and unchanging nature convinces me that I was taught correctly.

You see, if progressive revelation means that God might suddenly give us a whole new view of things that is different from the traditional, orthodox biblical perspective, then it absolutely erodes our faith. And it opens the door to three very dangerous things.

First, it destroys our faith in Scripture's validity and authority. Since that is the only place where we have the information about Christ (and about Jesus' Bible- our Old Testament), suddenly our ground of faith becomes shifting sand.

Second, God becomes a whimsical, untrustworthy being who, in effect, lies to us. How can I believe anything He tells me if He is going to change His tune tomorrow? But His word says: "I, the LORD do not change." (Malachi 3:6} and "...the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." (Psalm 33:11)

Third, this liberal view of progressive revelation provides an avenue of acceptability in the church for virtually any idea or behavior. Heresies of every kind become possible and it becomes impossible to effectively critique these heresies because who is to say that this person with the "new revelation" has not gotten it directly from God? How can any authority for truth be established? Anyone can claim to have new revelation from the Holy Spirit.

As we have seen in recent years, a loose interpretation of progressive revelation fits well with today's postmodern philosophy of moral relativism: my "revelation" is as good as yours. Since each person has strong motives for wanting their own views to be accepted, of course they promote this view and the relativistic philosophy that supports it. So you can see that this perspective on progressive revelation can quickly devolve into a regressive make-up-your-own-truth morass of "anything goes." There is no limit to what sinful lifestyle or philosophy of life can become acceptable.

That was one of the problems God had with humans prior to Scripture being written down, prior to the Bible canon. Who was to say whether a prophet was really God's man and not just some crazy person or worse, a servant of the devil. The prophet had to make unusual prophesies that could come true in his own life time to prove he was a real prophet. Unfortunately, that meant that many prophets were only proven post-mortem.

We can accept the fact that this way of doing things was necessary in order for God to deal with primitive humanity, but God's plan included a better way of revealing of Himself. After Phase 1 of God's spoken Word through prophecy, Phase 2 was the written Word-the Law, the prophets, and the books of wisdom. People had no excuse for non-obedience when the rules became clear in black and white. Phase 3 was the Word Made Flesh, where Jesus' Incarnation provided a New Covenant (a new deal with humanity) and the Gospel-an accurate and clear interpretation of what the Scriptures really meant. Jesus, and His Gospel is therefore the fulfillment of the Law.

The primary purpose of the Old Testament events, religious ceremonies, and detailed requirements of the law was to prepare humanity for the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Phase 4 is the result of Pentecost. The same Holy Spirit that spoke through the prophets and was in Jesus totally-is now is available to us. God, omnipotent and living in eternity, does not change; the revelation of Himself through the Holy Spirit does not change.

If believers have the Holy Spirit, then why don't all of us agree on things? The answer is very simple-because of "progressive revelation". Not only is humanity gradually progressing in its understandings, each individual Christian should also be growing and maturing in understanding. But we are not all at the same place spiritually. We do not all mature at the same rate or in the same way. An understanding of God or His truth that you may have learned early, I may learn late in life, and vice versa.

That is why I like to examine what Christians in other denominations are saying and try to find a balance. That is why I must rely upon Scripture more than upon my current feelings or my current intellectual understandings or even my personal experiences. All these ways of knowing are more susceptible to error than is Scripture, which is the most reliable foundation for my faith when compared to all other sources of authority.

So my entire point is this: Yes, God does work through progressive revelation- it is the building which is firmly established upon the rock of God's Word. The words of Jesus are the basic necessary foundation, the Epistles are the superstructure, the Old Testament is the basement (a safe place to store treasures from the ancient past and a safe place to go in a storm). The various Christian writings and scientific findings (since the canon was established), and our own personal experiences make up the rest of the furnishings of our house. If "new" theological or moral ideas are not firmly based on Scripture, then they are, at best, just interesting wallpaper to be shortly replaced. At worst, the ideas may be termites attacking the foundation. Because we have limited and imperfect bodies, brains, and sensory equipment-we cannot even rely upon our personal experiences as having more authority than God's Word ("lean not on your own understanding..." ). Those who recognize that the truth of the Bible is timeless and applies to all people at all places and in all times are not fooled by the false teaching that Christ told us that we would be exposed to.

For Christians to say that we know better now, or even that the Holy Spirit has brought a better revelation, is to say that God is not sovereign nor omniscient. Did not God know what we would be dealing with in this age? Of course He did. His scriptures (especially New Testament) are therefore for all time. He foreknew that we would be dealing with these sexual issues. He foreknew that we would be struggling with a culture like that of Noah's time. So He made sure what was revealed to us through the Apostles and other writers of scripture were actually what He wanted. That is how the Holy Spirit works. God will not contradict Himself.

---Dr. Atkinson is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A. in Theology, 1985, PhD in Clinical Psychology, 1987). He has a private practice in clinical psychology and Christian counseling in Atlanta, Georgia.