Compendium Theologiae Dogmaticae Tomus I: De Christo Legato Divino, De Ecclesia Christi, De Fontibus Theologicis

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

79. In giving revelation, God imposes on human beings the duty of receiving it. Therefore he must furnish his revelation and his envoy, who announces it to others, with marks or signs by which people may become certain that divine revelation is truly being proposed to them. For God demands a rational submission. But it is not rational to believe lightly, that is, without prior certainty about the fact of revelation. The marks by which one recognizes whether a doctrine has been revealed by God or not, or whether an envoy has truly been sent by God to announce such a doctrine, are called criteria of revelation, or motives of credibility, because by them the credibility of revealed doctrine is shown.

There are internal criteria when they are drawn from the character of the doctrine itself; there are external criteria when they are drawn from accompanying facts. There are negative criteria when they show only that nothing prevents such a doctrine from being revealed by God; there are positive criteria when they show that the doctrine has in fact been revealed by God.

An irrational or dishonorable doctrine is not divine; if it is good and weighty, it may have been revealed by God. If it is so excellent and unique that nothing similar has ever been conceived by a human being, there is a strong probability and presumption of divine origin. Nevertheless, internal criteria by themselves do not provide perfect certainty about the fact of revelation, because they do not altogether exclude a human origin for such a doctrine.

If the person who says he has received divine revelation and has been sent to preach it is wicked, deceitful, buffoonish, he is not to be regarded as a divine envoy. If he is a good man and conducts himself worthily, he may be a divine envoy. If he stands out for exceptional holiness, the presumption favors him; indeed, the person who says he has been sent by God may be a miracle of the moral order, such as cannot be understood without a special intervention of God. If this occurs, there is certain proof of a divine mission.

Good religious and moral fruits arising from a doctrine show that so good a tree could have been planted by God; exceptionally distinctive fruits that cannot be explained by natural causes are signs of God's immediate intervention.

The most certain external marks, and the only ones sufficient in themselves, are sensible effects produced by God in confirmation of revelation; these effects are divided into miracles and prophecies. We shall therefore treat them specifically. The First Vatican Council says, session 3, chapter 3: «So that the submission of our faith might be in accord with reason, God willed that external proofs of his revelation, namely divine deeds, and especially miracles and prophecies, be joined to the interior helps of the Holy Spirit; for, since they clearly display God's omnipotence and infinite knowledge, they are the most certain signs of divine revelation and are suited to the understanding of all.» And concerning faith, canon 3: «If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore people ought to be moved to faith solely by each person's interior experience or private inspiration, let him be anathema.» Canon 4: «If anyone says that no miracles can occur, and therefore all accounts of them, including those contained in Sacred Scripture, must be dismissed as fables or myths; or that miracles can never be known with certainty, and that the divine origin of the Christian religion cannot rightly be proved by them, let him be anathema.» (Denz. nn. 1790, 1812, 1813.)