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To: Alamo-Girl
As far as the divine revelation kind of knowlege goes, the Puritans divided it up into two possible kinds:

1) Immediate Revelation (meaning no mediator, just God-to-you) and
2) Mediate Revelation (meaning a mediator--the only one acceptable for Protestants being the Bible itself)

Puritan thinkers rejected the idea of immediate revelation, on the basis that with the Bible being complete, there was no logical need for God to speak directly to people--other then through the mediation of His word.

I apprecite their piety, and serious faith, but at the same time I don't want to put restrictions on God which I don't see in the Bible (even to protect the Bible).

I would call the terms myself:

1}Subjective (personal direct knowlege from God) and
2}Objective (that written in scripture, which I know for certain is true)

The subjective, personal leadings must always be subject to the objective standard of God's revelation in scripture.

Similarly too, classical Protestants have divided revelation itself into 2 categories:

I) General revelation: what we can know about God just from observing creation, without scripture (see Romans 1:19,20) and

II) Special revelation: The Bible, both Old and New Testaments (and only how we find out about the good news of Jesus Christ).

Hope this all helps the discussion.

509 posted on 04/09/2005 6:35:20 AM PDT by AnalogReigns
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To: AnalogReigns
Thank you so much for your insight, AnalogReigns! It certainly does help the discussion - and I strongly agree with your view.
514 posted on 04/09/2005 7:27:00 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl (Please donate monthly to Free Republic!)
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