What is the pattern of revelation in Scripture?
Scripture reveals truth progressively; each new stage builds upon prior revelation without canceling it. The Abrahamic covenant led to Messiah; when Israel rejected Him, God revealed grace through Paul to Gentiles, separated from Judaism yet an extension of it. This pattern is progressive revelation.
Les explains that everything in Scripture is progressive revelation. Just as Paul received revelations, that did not cancel everything that had gone before—it builds on it. The Abrahamic covenant brought Israel to the place of the Messiah’s coming, and the Old Testament was fulfilled, not canceled. When Israel rejected the Messiah according to prophecy, God saved Paul and sent him far hence to the Gentiles. Jesus never taught the twelve to go to the Gentiles with the gospel based on His death, burial, and resurrection, because it had not happened yet. Paul’s message is that. Also, the Body of Christ has no earthly headquarters; it is Heaven, though Christianity began from Antioch, not the Church at Jerusalem.