Direct revelation is a term used by some Christian churches to express their belief in a communication from

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

to a person by words, impression, visions, dreams, or actual appearance. Direct

revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

is believed to be an open communication between God and man, or the

Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...

and man, without any other exterior (secondary) means. Direct revelation from evil spirits can also occur. Examples of this are seen in God communicating the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai, also known as Jabal Musa (), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is one of several locations claimed to be the Mount Sinai (Bible), biblical Mount Sinai, the place where, according to the sacred scriptures of the thre ...

(Exodus 34:4); or the devil communicating knowledge to Jesus Christ during his temptation in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-12) or the appearance of an

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

Manoah's wife Manoah's wife (also referred to as Samson's mother) is an unnamed figure in the Book of Judges, the wife of Manoah. She is introduced in Judges 13:2 as a barren woman. The angel of the Lord appears to her and tells her she will have a son. She la ...

telling her that she shall bear

Samson SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...

(Judges 13:2). Direct revelation is classified as

special revelation __NOTOC__ Special revelation is a concept in Christian theology that refers to God's revelation as it is made exclusively to his chosen people in his divine Word; spoken or written Scripture, for his glory and their salvation. This is a ''special ...

. Still, the word "direct" has come to make this type of revelation distinct.

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

and

Charismatic Christianity Charismatic Christianity is a form of Christianity that emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit in Christianity, Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts as an everyday part of a believer's life. It has a global presence in the Christian community. Practit ...

have always maintained that God directly speaks today through direct means such as

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...

s, visions, voices, impressions, and signs (or meaningful coincidences). While these Christians have emphasized speaking in tongues or even praying for

healing With physical trauma or disease suffered by an organism, healing involves the repairing of damaged tissue(s), organs and the biological system as a whole and resumption of (normal) functioning. Medicine includes the process by which the cells ...

, for the longest time Charismatics have shied away from expressing the gift of

prophecy In religion, mythology, and fiction, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain di ...

which is the cause of these direct spiritual experiences. The reason for this is that Christian

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

s in history have often come into conflict with the pastors and religious authorities of the church hierarchy. Throughout church history, Christian prophets have usually been

mystics A mystic is a person who practices mysticism, or a reference to a mystery, mystic craft, first hand-experience or the occult. Mystic may also refer to: Arts, entertainment Books and comics * Ms. Mystic, comic book superheroine * ''Mystic'' (c ...

or people that practiced divine

contemplation In a religious context, the practice of contemplation seeks a direct awareness of the Divinity, divine which Transcendence (religion), transcends the intellect, often in accordance with religious practices such as meditation or contemplative pr ...

or soaking prayer. Various Christian groups throughout church history could be labeled "prophetic", because they have welcomed the gift of prophecy in their church meetings and lives: the

Montanists Montanism (), known by its adherents as the New Revelation, was an early Christian movement of the mid-to-late 2nd century, later referred to by the name of its founder, Montanus. Montanism held views about the basic tenets of Christian theo ...

, the

Desert Fathers The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Wadi El Natrun, then known as ''Skete'', in Roman Egypt, beginning around the Christianity in the ante-Nicene period, third century. The ''Sayings of the Dese ...

, various orders of Catholic monasticism such as the

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

and the

Discalced Carmelites The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbreviation, abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times, ), is a Catho ...

, the

Waldensians The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the l ...

, the

Anabaptists Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek : 're-' and 'baptism'; , earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. The term (tra ...

, the Jansenists, the Quietists, the

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

, the French prophets, various people in the

Great Awakening The Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals in American Christian history. Historians and theologians identify three, or sometimes four, waves of increased religious enthusiasm between the early 18th century and the late 20th cent ...

and

Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the late 18th to early 19th century in the United States. It spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching and sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a k ...

, the Irvingites, individuals in the

Holiness movement The Holiness movement is a Christianity, Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent influenced other traditions such as Quakers, Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. Churches aligned with ...

, the early Pentecostal movement, the Latter Rain revival, the

Charismatic movement The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity, with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spiritual gift ...

, the

Jesus movement The Jesus movement was an evangelical Christian movement that began on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and primarily spread throughout North America, Europe, Central America, Australia and New Zealand, befo ...

, the

Vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

; and especially the Kansas City prophets, ''Dukh-i-zhizniki'', the Toronto Blessing movement, and Bethel Church in Redding, California.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded durin ...

(LDS Church) teaches that God restored direct revelation as recently as the nineteenth century by way of

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...

and the First Vision. Since then, direct revelation has been the teaching and practice of the LDS Church. The Latter-day Saints believe that direct revelation is available to all mankind who diligently seek God with sincerity and real intent. "Every devoted, obedient and righteous person on the earth has and does receive revelation from God." According to the LDS Church, there are two basic types of direct revelation, ''public'' and ''personal''. Public revelation refers to the revelation of God’s will to his chosen prophets, seers, and revelators. These revelations are to guide the church, its functions, direction, and doctrinal stance. "These public revelations usually illuminate scriptural passages that are doctrinal rather than those that are descriptive or directive." Personal or private revelations pertain to that person's life. A person can receive personal revelation from God as would God's prophet, but the difference lies in its purpose. This revelation is to edify, enlighten and fill the soul of that person and assist them in their lives, both in a general sense and a religious or spiritual sense. A person can receive private revelation for him/herself or their immediate family, but will not receive this revelation for others outside their family or the church. This revelation is considered an integral part of the life of the faithful. Sometimes personal revelation affects nations or the world but in a more indirect manner. In this sense, God inspires certain people in history to impart knowledge and moral truths. God "enlightens" the ''works'' of certain people that have influence or will have influence upon the world. God enlightened "great religious leaders of the world such as Muhammad, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others. This was to bring whole nations to a higher level of understanding."

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Scripture and general revelation
by Andrew S. Kulikovsky at the Creation Ministries International website - a discussion of the

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

notion of revelation in contrast to the common understanding. {{DEFAULTSORT:Direct Revelation Religious belief and doctrine Christian terminology Revelation Quaker theology

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

See also

Notes

References

External links