Abstract

The argument of this dissertation is that people recognize and respond to God's voice in Scripture through the gifts of prophecy, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, and discernments of various kinds . Both Calvin and Luther spoke of the need for Scripture's message to take effect in the individual's heart. They recognized this as the work of the Holy Spirit. In this treatise, we acknowledge further that the work of the Spirit is individuated in the charismata; and we can, therefore, specify more exactly what it is that the Spirit does with the words of Scripture to make them subjectively effective. ;Our general theological topic is the doctrine of revelation. After explaining and evaluating the five models of revelation theology predominant in the twentieth century, we treat the philosophical issues emerging from them from the perspective of an epistemological framework of mediation and holism: all knowledge, experience, and meaning are mediated or contextual; and our structure of knowledge is a web of beliefs bounded at its edge by experience. Therefore, we view revelation through the framework of a Christian web of beliefs bounded at its edge by a succession of experiences, especially the charismata. With this understanding, we are ready to deal with Christian experiences of grace as revelation. ;Prophecy brings immediacy to God's communication with believers and corroborates and intensifies the witness of Scripture. Through words of wisdom and knowledge believers typically hear the voice of God through Scripture. Wisdom is directive by giving God's people comprehensive insights into His will; knowledge is instructive in that it deals with particular insights into the commands, promises, warnings, etc. of Scripture. By many acts of communal discernment the early church recognized the writings of Scripture as products of the Spirit's gifts; and through the continual functioning of these gifts the church has been kept vital through hearing the living voice of God. In other words, through the charismata the objective revelation of Scripture has perennially become subjectively effective. God's authority rules through the instrument of Scripture by means of the Holy Spirit individuated through the charismata