Have you ever encountered a piece of literature or art and thought, That has got to be inspired! Maybe you discovered a poem, were transported into a new state of the heart by a song, gaped at a painting, or jumped off the couch at the climax of a biography.
You encountered power in an ordinary form. You encountered a work produced by an imperfect person, but something about it felt right—the right words at the right time. Dare we say it felt prophetic?
As you have gone about life, have you found that other people have encountered the same sort of magic in certain works? Why is it that when you ask Christians for their favorite book, many of them mention the same ones—Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan, Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis, and Knowing God, by J. I. Packer? What is it about Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, or Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem “God’s Grandeur,” or John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace,” that keeps them on our bookshelves, in our hymnbooks, and alive in our imaginations?
I want to argue that there is a God-ordained, Spirit-empowered, biblically encouraged sort of “secondary revelation,” subservient to Scripture’s “primary and ultimate revelation,” that God brings about through his people, the church, to manifest his love and glory to the world and to our hearts.
Therefore, we are encouraged to make art and music and literature that reflects the truths of Scripture, knowing that God is pleased to work through such means to make himself known.
Primary and Ultimate Revelation
The Bible teaches us clearly that the primary, authoritative, infallible, and inerrant way that God has revealed himself to us is through the Scriptures—the 66 books of the Bible. No work on earth is comparable to them, and they alone are “inspired” by God to the degree that his Holy Spirit takes full responsibility for their authorship (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:20-21).
We must agree with the testimony of the Bible itself—it is an utterly unique work of God and God’s greatest written work by which he makes himself known. Nothing can be added to or taken away from it, and the truthfulness of any lesser revelations must be measured by it (Revelation 22:18-19).
It is in this full and final revelation of God—the Scriptures—that we discover God’s ultimate revelation of himself to us in the person of his Son, Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-2). God has revealed himself to us most clearly in his person through the pages of Scripture which tell us about him, and through the powerful personal revelation administered to our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 1:1-2, Galatians 1:16; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Matthew 11:27).
And so, there are no words that you will find on earth so powerful, necessary, and precious as the words of Scripture, which include the words of our Savior Jesus.
Secondary Revelation
And yet, the Scriptures themselves encourage us to create derivative works that echo their truth. The Bible encourages us to create art, literature, and music grounded in its teaching. Through these works, God intends to reinforce the truths of his Word in our hearts and so, in a lesser but still legitimate sense, also to reveal himself to us through them.
That’s why you will encounter works that are not the Bible but seem to borrow some power from it. And it is why we as Jesus’s followers should not only engage with God’s Word, but with excellent, praiseworthy works like books, songs, paintings, and poetry that echo its truth (Philippians 4:8). Open Scripture and you will hear it whispering, Go, make beautiful things.
Here’s how Scripture encourages us to make derivative works that will creatively manifest the truth of God’s Word to the human heart.
Make New Music
We encounter several times in the Old Testament the phrase, “sing to the Lord a new song” (Psalm 33:3; Psalm 40:3; Psalm 96:1; Psalm 98:1; Psalm 144:9; Psalm 149:1; Isaiah 42:10).
Early in God’s revelation, he encouraged us not just to recite or meditate on the words of Scripture, but also to compose new music!
Psalm 33 encourages us to “Sing to [the LORD] a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts” (Psalm 33:3). “A new song” means a song that had not yet been written.
In the New Testament, we find the same charge:
Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart… (Ephesians 5:18-19 ESV, emphasis added)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16 ESV, emphasis added)
These passages tell us to share these psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with other believers. This includes artistic works beyond what’s provided in Scripture! There is no hymnbook or spiritual songbook in the back of our Bibles—so these works are things God expects his church to create as we reflect on what he has revealed to us in the Bible.
Notice also that these works of song are a means of letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. So, one way that we pay attention to God’s Word, meditate on it, and internalize it is through reflective, creative, derivative works!
God intends us to use our words accurately to highlight the truth of his Words and for us to speak to one another in ways that echo precious biblical truths.
Scripture motivates modern hymnwriters, pats poets on the back, and encourages you to click “play” on your Spotify playlist of biblically based music. It smiles at your paintbrush ready to replicate the glories of God in creation, and shoves you onto the stage to retell stories that reflect its beauty, truth, and goodness. In short, it says, Create!
Herald the Truth of God’s Word
The world’s final age began when Jesus ascended into heaven and sent us the empowering gift of his Holy Spirit. God says about this time:
“And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:17-18 ESV, emphasis added)
Put aside for a moment your assumptions and associations with the term “prophecy”—it’s one of those wild words that means many things to many people and conjures all sorts of discomfort.
The word for prophecy here, according to the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, can mean to reveal future events, but it can also mean to “speak God’s message.”[1]
To proclaim God’s message as it’s relayed to us in Scripture for the benefit of those who will listen is something that the Bible encourages us to desire and pursue (1 Corinthians 14:1, 5). God wants his people to practice using godly words to encourage, build up, and teach one another (1 Corinthians 14:31).
To speak the right word at the right time is a gift that God’s Spirit gives to his people so that God’s people may be built up. God tells us that prophecy, in this sense, is one way that he is pleased to reveal himself to us. Remember, this is only a secondary kind of revelation, and even the Scriptures tell us that we prophesy “in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9). God does not give us revelations equivalent to the Scriptures, but he does tell us to expect that people will speak especially encouraging, insightful words because they are under the Spirit’s influence.
It should not surprise us, then, that there are works of literature, for example, that have power because of the way they clearly convey Scripture to us. God tells us to expect such things. God causes his people to echo his message—be that through story, or song, or through paintbrush or pen.
Why Secondary Revelation Matters for You
So the next time you encounter art, or song, or script that has that special power in it, take note. Think about what it says—how might it be echoing the truths we discover in the Bible? Does it lead you to worship God, who has inspired its author to carry to your heart the glories of his word according to their gifts?
And as you go on your way, think about your own gifts. Do you like to sing, or paint, or write? Do you enjoy music? Theatre or filmmaking or woodworking? How might you use your gifts to echo the truth of God’s Word or carry that truth to another person? Ask God for the gift of prophecy—that he would inspire you, his servant, to use your talents to make his Word and his work known to others (1 Corinthians 14:1).
[1] “προ|φητεύω (φημί) prophesy, reveal the future; speak God’s message; use prophetic insight to make something known (Mt 26.68; Mk 14.65; Lk 22.64),” quoted from New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis.