Revealed Truth questions

[patrick1945]

I think I understand the church’s definition of “revealed truth”, but I have a few questions:

1. how and when did this concept first arise?
2. it seems to me that revealed truth continues to evolve (not change). So, are there subtleties in a given truth that are eligible for further explanation or interpretation?
3. A priest once told me that, with respect to revealed truth, it’s all already been revealed. However, aren’t truths such as the Immaculate Conception fairly “new” . I understand that it has a long tradition, but, was it always considered to be part of “revealed truth”?

 

[ynotzap]

I think I understand the church’s definition of “revealed truth”, but I have a few questions:

1. how and when did this concept first arise?
2. it seems to me that revealed truth continues to evolve (not change). So, are there subtleties in a given truth that are eligible for further explanation or interpretation?
3. A priest once told me that, with respect to revealed truth, it’s all already been revealed. However, aren’t truths such as the Immaculate Conception fairly “new” . I understand that it has a long tradition, but, was it always considered to be part of “revealed truth”?

Theologically, revelation is the act by which God manifests Himself primarily in the creation of the universe, which reflects analogically the divine attributes in themselves, this is natural revelation. God has manifested Himself by means of prophets and of Jesus Christ, this is supernatural revelation. These divinely revealed truths were accepted and promulgated by the Apostles approximately 2000 years ago, but according to scripture some of these truths were known since Adam and Eve, the promise of a Redeemer.

There are truths that are implicit in Holy Scripture, that may be made more explicit in time, but the basic message of Salvation remains firm and complete. The Immaculate Conception was made known through a private revelation, and accepted as dogma by the Church ,December 8, l854 Mary was conceived without original sin. The privilege of Mary is implicit in the text of Gen:3:15, where the triumph of the Woman and of her Offspring (Jesus Christ) over Satan is prophesied Mary was also greeted by the angel as “full of grace” which the Church Fathers recognized perfect sanctity. The Church also teaches that Mary was a virgin, before, during and after the birth of Christ, that Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit.

 

[Todd977]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
66 “The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries. (source)

For example, Sacred Scripture, in Luke 1:28, tells us that the Virgin Mary was specially favored by God sometime prior to the angel Gabriel’s visit to announce to her that she would be the mother of Jesus. This is the meaning of the word traditionally translated by the phrase “full of grace,” κεχαριτωμένη. Scripture does not say what this divine favor consisted of nor when Mary received it. Over the course of the centuries, the Christian faith has gradually grasped that the favor she received was her immaculate conception.

 

[patrick1945]

Theologically, revelation is the act by which God manifests Himself primarily in the creation of the universe, which reflects analogically the divine attributes in themselves, this is natural revelation. God has manifested Himself by means of prophets and of Jesus Christ, this is supernatural revelation. These divinely revealed truths were accepted and promulgated by the Apostles approximately 2000 years ago, but according to scripture some of these truths were known since Adam and Eve, the promise of a Redeemer.

There are truths that are implicit in Holy Scripture, that may be made more explicit in time, but the basic message of Salvation remains firm and complete. The Immaculate Conception was made known through a private revelation, and accepted as dogma by the Church ,December 8, l854 Mary was conceived without original sin. The privilege of Mary is implicit in the text of Gen:3:15, where the triumph of the Woman and of her Offspring (Jesus Christ) over Satan is prophesied Mary was also greeted by the angel as “full of grace” which the Church Fathers recognized perfect sanctity. The Church also teaches that Mary was a virgin, before, during and after the birth of Christ, that Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit.

 

[patrick1945]

Thanks for your replies. However, I’m still a bit confused by the question of whether there may be “new” triuhs yet to be revealed. I understand that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception has a long tradition. yet, it’s only fairly recently that it became a dogma.

Doesn’t that suggest that there may be other traditions that may, in the future, become part of “revealed truth”?

 

[John_Martin]

Jesus, himself, not a doctrine or teaching or tradition, is the revelation of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) for our senses to hear and our understanding and will to follow.

He is “fixed” - cannot be different than he was (different than what he is).
Now, it takes time for human understanding to make full sense of everything that the eyes see or that the ears hear. The full consideration of Mary was “taken for granted” by the early church, the middle ages filled in more as fewer people had proximity to faithful witnesses. And today we have this doctrine as it stands.

But Jesus, himself, is the revelation, and he had this woman as his mother, according to the flesh. That one revelation, of Jesus with his Mother, Mary, is our True DOCTRINE (and our Friend), from which we derive our clarifications over time in dogma and doctrine. Since he is One, all doctrine will come from him, and only in the manner he sent it; that is, through his “sent messengers”, the Apostles, whom we know in the persons of the Pope and Bishops. Nothing from “outside the Church” will come in to the Pope and Bishops, in to the Magisterium, from the outside, maintaining to be a new truth. The Pope and the Bishops are sworn to deliver only what was given to them, as faithful messengers of the Official News (Gospel means “Officially Propagated News of a Kingdom”). They are not free to distort or modify the King’s news.