That belief, that direct revelation from God is over, often seems to be at the heart of many of our underlying problems within and outside of the current institutionalized Church.
Otoh, perhaps this is a semantics thing and I am misunderstanding him?
If by 'direct revelation' the author is referring to His miracles while He was in the flesh, then yes, that sort of 'direct revelation' ended on the Cross.
However, and without going too far into the metaphysical, if what Christianity teaches is true, that God lives within us and we within Him, then direct revelation is always possible.
In fact, isn't that the Gift of His Holy Spirit?
More and more, I see the Bible as the handbook of life, a supernatural/spiritual textbook full of situational lesson templates that He uses to teach His children His Ways, Wit and Wisdom here in Schoolhouse Earth for the short time we're here.
It's all there in the handbook, what to do, what not to do and why. Nothing new under the sun/Son.
God reveals stuff to us all the time so it’s impossible to say that all revelation, even direct revelation, has ceased.
If that were the case, then I guess God would not be acitve in the world today.
I think the concern it when someone comes along and states that God told them something, and expect people to take it with the same level or degree of authority as Scripture.
While God has indeed shown someone something that is for them in their personal lives, they simply cannot make it binding on other believers. It does NOT have that same level of authority for all believers.
Whatever is binding for all believers everywhere, God made sure to include in Scripture.
GBA — thank you.
Except of course never forget that the Son makes things new, and He means NEW. The resulting scene is one that “proper religious people” might not even be able to predict. If even the super righteous Job needed a plunge into tragedy and then a rise back to doubled fortunes to get a proper point of view, I don’t think that we can except ourselves either.