The notion of “progressive revelation” has received a great deal of bad press, since it is often co-opted by special agendas. A certain reading of it, however, offers the only reasonable way for Christians and Jews to deal with “hard sayings” in both Testaments.
The “holy war” we associate today with militant Islam was practiced no less relentlessly by ancient Israelites. In the days of Samuel and Saul, it often meant destroying an enemy or even an entire people, and to offer the booty as a sacred offering (hérem) to Yahweh, the Lord God. Saul, for example, “defeated the Amalekites…and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.” Subsequently, Samuel corrected Saul’s “disobedience” in sparing Agag, the king of the Amalekites: “and Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal” (1 Sam 15). This religious obligation to perform the “ban” or total destruction of a population, was essentially to avoid “pollution,” which would inevitably occur with peaceful co-existence, the making of covenants, and inter-marriage (Deut 7:1-2; chs. 20, 21).
The Psalms likewise are replete with images of vengeance that leads to death and destruction: “My eye has looked in triumph on my enemies!” (53/54:7); “Let sinners be consumed from the face of the earth, and let the wicked be no more!” (103/104: 35); “O daughter of Babylon…Blessed is he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” (136/137:9).
Jesus’ contemporary, the brilliant Jewish philosopher-theologian Philo of Alexandria, attempted to explain (away) these violent references by interpreting the offending passages allegorically. In the Church we do the same, taking the “enemy” to be an image of demonic powers against which we engage in spiritual warfare as we journey toward the Kingdom of God. This way of dealing with “hard sayings” and harsher deeds in the Old Testament tends, nevertheless, to obscure an inner movement among God’s people, from a more primitive understanding of God’s person and will to one that prepares the people, morally and spiritually, for the coming of Christ, the Messiah. Thus we find a shift in the later, classical prophets, away from notions of retribution and ritual sacrifice and toward an inner, more personal morality that emphasizes the love and faithfulness of the Covenant Lord, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah), together with His call to justice, mercy and self-sacrifice.
This movement comes to completion with the New Testament, in passages such as the “Matthean antitheses,” those reformulations of Hebrew Law and custom signaled by Jesus’ statements, “You have heard it said…but I say to you….” Here Jesus reveals Himself to be the New Moses, the giver of the true, full and perfect Law of the Lord, summed up in the commandment to love.
The expression “progressive revelation” evokes for many people today the Bahá‘i Faith, with its notions of Manifestations of truth through various prophetic Messengers, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed. In this perspective, God reveals Himself progressively and continuously throughout history, most recently in the persons of Báb and Bahá‘u’lláh. Others use the expression to affirm the biblical condemnation of homosexuality (revelation ceases to “progress” with the New Testament), while others use the notion to defend current trends toward acceptance of same-sex relationships, including gay marriage. In these cases, the term has simply been co-opted, to support a particular social or political agenda.
It seems legitimate—and even necessary—to preserve the idea of progressive revelation insofar as it conforms to the teaching of Scripture itself. If Isaiah 1:11 calls for the abolition of ritual sacrifice, and, with the prophecy of Amos, summons Israel rather to acts of mercy and justice, it is because the people have reached a stage of spiritual maturity and commitment to God that henceforth makes such a calling both mandatory and acceptable. St Paul counts on a similar maturation among his audience at the Areopagus, as he issues a call to universal repentance (Acts 17:30, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent…”). The Gospel of John is especially clear about the progressive quality of divine revelation. The prolog (1:17) declares, “the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Yet even here there are limits to what the disciples and others can comprehend of God’s presence and purpose. At the Last Supper, Jesus declares in His “farewell discourse” (Jn 16:12ff): “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth….” This is the ultimate expression of “progressive revelation.” The Word of God has appeared in the person of Jesus. Through His teachings and miraculous signs, He makes known to us the “face” of God the Father (He “exegetes” or “interprets” the Father for us, Jn 1:18). Through His passion and death on the Cross, He fulfills all the conditions necessary for our salvation, serving as a “ransom” for our sins, and descending into the realm of death in order to destroy death’s power.
Nevertheless, the disciples and their followers will grasp the ultimate meaning of those acts, they will be able to receive the revelation in all its fullness, only when they enter into a new and final stage of the “divine economy,” when the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, announces and reveals to them “all the truth” (Jn 16:13). This same theme finds liturgical expression in the Orthodox troparion and kontakion (festal hymns) of the Feast of Christ’s Transfiguration. There we affirm that by the extraordinary theophany on the mountain, Christ revealed His glory to His disciples “as far as they could see or bear it.” This initial revelation would be completed and perfected, finally, with the vision of Christ crucified, then resurrected. At this point they would “come to understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father!”
In a similar vein, the Church’s dogmatic theology also proceeds in stages, as “we are able to bear it,” to grasp the deeper meaning of Christ’s person and His revelation. To take but one example: the roots of Trinitarian theology are found in the initial act of creation, where God brings forth all things by His Word and brings order and beauty out of chaos by His Spirit (Gen 1:1ff). It continues with the plural pronoun of Gen 1:27, “Let us make man…,” then with the manifestation of the three angels by the oaks of Mamre (Gen 18). The prophets will speak of God as Father with His Spirit, while attributing to the Messiah the titles of “Son,” “Mighty God,” Everlasting Father…” (Isa 9). The New Testament authors will allude to Christ’s pre-existence (e.g., Paul in Phil 2:5-11), to His essential union with the Father (Jn 1:1-18), and to the intimate communion and common activity of the Three Persons (e.g., the multitude of “tripartite” formulas, such as 1 Thess 1:1-6 and Eph 4:4-6). This progressive revelation of the Triune God finally reaches its completion with the Spirit-inspired Ecumenical Councils, whose dogmatic affirmations elaborate, in perfect continuity, revelation contained in the Holy Scriptures.
The next time anyone asks how we can reconcile the “hard sayings” of either Testament, whether offensive recitals or provocative teachings, with the image of God as Father—a God of infinite compassion, mercy and love—it is enough to evoke the notion of “progressive revelation.” The great “mystery” of our salvation, laid up from all eternity, has been revealed in the person and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 1:3-10). All truth is embodied by Him and revealed through Him. Yet in our personal experience, from generation to generation, that revelation “takes flesh,” as it were, through the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Truth. It is He who receives from the risen and glorified Lord “all the truth” and, “as we are able to bear it,” makes it known to us and within us, as an inexhaustible fountain of saving grace.