The value of revelation (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A): Revision Note

Why does revelation have value to religious believers?

• There are many reasons why both special revelation and general revelation have value for religious believers

The founding of religions

• Revelation has a crucial role to play in the founding of religions:

  • Without the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) revelation from God, there would be no Islam

  • Without God being revealed in Jesus, there would be no Christianity

  • Without St Paul’s conversion to Christianity, the religion may not have survived 

Deeper faith

• Another reason why special revelation has value is that it deepens faith:

  • Experiencing God can make belief stronger and more personal

  • There are many stories of people who believe they have had an experience of God and that it has made a significant impact on their lives

  • For example, St Paul, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), St Bernadette and Nicky Cruz:

    • What they each experienced had great value and significance to them

Connection to God

• For many, personal experience of God has allowed them to feel connected to God:

  • Sensing that God is speaking through scripture or through nature can be impactful

  • Feeling that God is giving them a message has great value for religious believers in their journey through life with God

Religious knowledge

• Revelation can provide knowledge of God for religious believers:

  • Through scripture, nature and direct experiences of God, believers can better understand God’s nature

  • Believers can recognise some of the qualities of God through revelation

  • For example, revelation through nature can help believers to understand the omnipotence of God as the creator

Guidance

• Revelation can help believers by guiding them through moral decisions:

  • Scripture as revelation can offer help and support in times of crisis

  • This guidance could also be through representatives of God on earth (priests, imams, etc.) 

What are the challenges to revelation as an experience of the divine?

• There are also many challenges to revelation being considered an authentic experience of the divine for both believers and non-believers

Interpretation of revelations

• Some people would argue that general revelation is simply based upon an individual’s interpretation of an event:

  • Someone might see a beautiful sunrise or a powerful storm as evidence of God’s existence and personality, but is this interpretation correct? 

  • When an atheist sees a beautiful sunrise or is caught in a powerful storm, they see it as simply part of nature

  • Therefore, this kind of revelation is meaningless to a non-believer

• When reading scripture, a believer chooses to hear God’s words, but are they really God’s words?

  • Some people may see scripture as just a collection of words that have little or no value

  • Atheists may argue that scripture was written by humans and contains no truth

  • Many may read scripture and receive no revelation, and it may have little or no impact on their lives

• Some individuals may have an experience that to them is a revelation, but to others, it may be seen as insignificant or a coincidence:

  • Many would argue that those who claim to have had a revelatory experience may have been searching for it

  • Others may say that there is another explanation than the revelation of the divine

  • Seeing a vision or hearing a voice could be explained in other ways, such as mental illness or epilepsy, or physical issues, such as starvation or dehydration