Roman Catholicism Vatican II states "no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ." The notion of progressive or continuing revelation is not held by the
Catholic Church, who instead favor the idea of tradition and
development of doctrine. Progressivist and continuationist approaches are condemned, such as is outlined in the 2000 declaration prepared by the
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Private revelation may be recognized by the church, so long as it does not "claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfilment". It cannot, however, be considered part of the
deposit of faith.
Personal versus church-wide revelation The LDS Church distinguishes between personal revelation and revelation directed to all members of the church. Members believe that personal revelation can come to any individual with a righteous desire, for example to direct someone in their search for truth. In contrast, revelation for the entire church only comes to those who have been called by God as
prophets, which in the LDS Church includes the
First Presidency and the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Opposition to continued revelation Church members see the tendency to dismiss the possibility that God could call modern prophets as similar to the attitude of those in the Bible who rejected the prophets and/or apostles of their day; the sense of change in the message of Jesus and the apostles led many to regard them as false prophets. Jesus himself warned against false prophets, teaching that the way to distinguish between a true and a false prophet was "by their fruits"; however, the perceived threat to tradition was often a strong enough deterrent to cause the witnesses of good fruits (such as powerful sermons or miraculous healings) to dismiss them as the work of the devil. After Jesus ordained his apostles, he warned them of the extreme opposition they would encounter for these reasons, telling them, "ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake". Jesus also said, "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets," thus illustrating that opposition will naturally accompany a true prophet if they are doing their job correctly.
Apostasy Sometimes the opposition against God's prophets escalated to the point of violence and martyrdom, which Jesus and the apostles frequently referenced while preaching to their detractors (Matthew 23:31–37, Luke 11:47–51, Acts 7:52, Romans 11:3, 1 Thessalonians 2:15). In this sense, church members acknowledge that revelation has not continued uninterrupted throughout history, being that the killing of God's prophets sometimes resulted in periods without church-wide revelation—which church members refer to as apostasies. Similar to prophets before them, Peter and the apostles also suffered martyrdom at the hands of their persecutors—with the exception of John who was banished to the Isle of Patmos. This view is in contrast to the mainstream Christian view that the apostolic era came to a close because revelation had reached its completion. LDS Church members believe that once the Christian church was no longer led by revelation, its doctrine began to be altered by theologians who took it upon themselves to continue developing doctrine, despite not being called or authorized to receive revelation for the church body. In the absence of revelation, these theologians often resorted to speculation, which coupled with their own interpretations and extrapolations of scripture, inevitably resulted in disagreement and division on many doctrinal points. Ecumenical councils were held in order to settle these differences, yet without prophets called and authorized to reveal God's will on the topics being debated, the attendees could only vote on the theories presented in order to decide which ones would become official doctrine—a practice that served to ostracize as heretics those who did not go along with these decisions, and in some cases led to major
schisms in the church. Church members view this process of doctrinal development as completely foreign to God's established pattern of revealing doctrine through a prophet. They point to history as incontrovertible proof that humans are incapable of agreeing on how to interpret the Bible (2 Peter 1:20), which should act as a strong indicator that God's purpose for the Bible was not to derive doctrine, but rather to support it. When doctrine is not established and maintained through continued revelation, church members see the inevitable result as "philosophies of man, mingled with scripture".
Restoration LDS Church members again point to the Bible to show that after every period of apostasy, God always eventually called another prophet when the time was right. It is in that same spirit that church members claim that once conditions were ready, God again resumed his pattern of revealing his will through prophets by calling Joseph Smith, through whom he restored the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, clearing up the error that had been introduced during the Great Apostasy. Church members believe that since that time, revelation through prophets and apostles has continued unbroken until the present day, God having promised that revelation will not be taken again from the earth before the Second Coming of Christ.
Open scriptural canon The open
scriptural canon of the LDS Church is based on the principle of continuous revelation. Its 9th
Article of Faith states: Members of the LDS Church anticipate additions to its canon, including the translation of the remaining two-thirds of the
golden plates, which was the source of the
Book of Mormon.
Community of Christ The
Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), the second largest Latter Day Saint denomination, regularly canonizes revelation into its
Doctrine and Covenants. Continuing revelation is one of the enduring principles of the church which "define the essence, heart, and soul of our faith community. They describe the personality of our church as expressed throughout the world."
Prophetic people In recent years, the church has begun to redefine the process of revelation from one that comes from the top down with an appointed Prophet providing revelation to the church to one that is more collaborative and bottom up with the people increasingly becoming involved in the revelatory process as a community. This change has included theological and procedural changes including concepts such as faithful disagreement which allows for open debate, dialogue and disagreement within the church body without consequence. One of the most clear explications of the role of a prophetic people in the church was canonised in the church's Doctrine and Covenants on March 29, 2004. ==Islam==