HOW DOES GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TODAY?
Today God only reveals Himself through Jesus Christ, or through a some other way that points unambiguously and exclusively to Jesus Christ. This name may offend you as it once did me, and as it does many others still. But hold tight, don’t let preconceptions or experiences with hypocritical “Christians” taint your objectivity.
Jesus is revealed to us when we read the Bible, and guided by The Holy Spirit. He can also be revealed verbally by believers who tell us about Jesus, but verbal testimony should always be tested against the scriptures (as should this website).
Prior to Jesus’ birth, and as mentioned earlier, God spoke directly to people or through His prophets who, in turn, spoke to the people. Often signs and wonders accompanied the words of the prophets, but not always. Sometimes the truths spoken were self-evident and did not require miraculous signs, or a fancy show in order for the people to believe.
The last and greatest of the prophets was John The Baptist; he was truly privileged because he got to see with his own eyes what his ancestors only saw in part through prophetic revelation. One day, Jesus came to be baptized by John. John had proven to be trustworthy with the people in both word and deed, so they listened to him. When John saw Jesus approaching he proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (We’ll cover the “Lamb” reference a little later because it is important). So, we have John, a trustworthy prophet who acknowledged Jesus as having come from God. For many people there that day, John’s word alone would have been enough; but it gets better.
After John baptized Jesus, God spoke to Jesus from Heaven audibly in the hearing of the crowd: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” For many years I did not realize how significant those words were. In making this announcement, God effectively announced the delegation of His authority to Jesus, as the Messiah, and as His only representative on Earth. From that point onward, anyone who trusted Jesus, the Son of God, would receive the same eternal life that the ancients did when they heard directly from God the Father, and put their trust in Him.
To remove any ambiguity as to the delegation of authority from the Father to the Son, there was another incident, just before Jesus’ crucifixion, where the Father spoke to some disciples, He said: “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” If the God of the universe tells us to listen to Jesus, then we can safely conclude that not listening to Him will end badly.