Why Does God’s Story Change in the Bible?
by Barrett Wolf
Individual theologies of biblical characters appear to differ dramatically, (Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Jesus, the Gospel writers, Paul, John)…but Christians make major attempts to harmonize and synchronize their thoughts about God, so the Bible seems (or feels) more congruent. They do this by calling it “progressive revelation”.
Progressive revelation is the best explanation of these differences. One problem with the doctrine of progressive revelation is the idea that God’s revelation to human authors is limited to the firm time parameters of approximately 1400 B.C. to 100 A.D.
So, the idea is simply that God intended to communicate through human authors and prophets during a specific time in history; never before and never after. And that is our Bible, a closed canon of authoritative and inspired literature. And since much of it contradicts itself, instead of saying God changed his revelation throughout this time, they simply create a doctrine called “progressive revelation” to explain how God’s message evolved for the better.
This just seems ridiculous on so many levels.