Progressive Revelation
The Concept
Progressive revelation is the concept that God reveals more and more of His plans, and His character as time passes.
Those who are proponents of progressive revelation would say that Moses had more revelation of God than Abraham because Moses came later and God built on the revelation that He had already given Abraham. Likewise, using this theory, Isaiah would have more of the revelation of God than Isaac because Isaiah lives in a later time and God builds upon the revelations that He gave to Isaac.
According to the progressive revelation theory we have "more" of God now than our ancestors had because God reveals Himself by degree, over a period of many generations.
Problems with the Theory
There are a number of problems with this theory.
- This would assume that Adam knew very little about God, or Jesus.
This is erroneous. There is much evidence that Adam knew God and Jesus much more than most pastors/priests do today. He walked with God. He talked with God. He saw Him face to face. Adam and Eve had a great revelation of Jesus. God, the Father revealed Jesus back then saying that his (Adam's) seed would crush the head of the serpent (Satan). And that the serpent (Satan) would strike the heal of the seed (Jesus) - this is a direct revelation of the cross. - This erroneous theory would suggest that Enoch had "less" revelation than Paul, the apostle.
Here is the error: Enoch knew Jesus very well. Enoch wrote much about the "Son of Man". Jesus declared himself to be THE Son of Man that Enoch prophesied. Enoch walked with God so closely that God spared him from death and took him directly to heaven. Enoch's faith was so strong and his relationship with God was so great that he was translated into the next life. Did Paul, the apostle experience a greater revelation than this? - Jesus claimed that He knew Abraham because, "before Abraham was born, I AM" declaring Himself to be God Almighty. But Jesus doesn't know everybody.
Jesus warned us on several occasions that many will be denied access into the kingdom of heaven by Jesus Himself saying "Depart from me. I NEVER knew you".
Jesus was referring to personal, intimate knowledge here. In John chapter 8 when Jesus declared that he knew Abraham, he wasn't talking about informational knowledge. He was talking about personal knowledge.
Knowing this, we can confidently say that Abraham knew Jesus very well.
Without going into much detail here we can conclude that Adam, Enoch, and Abraham had great revelations from God that far surpasses what most people know today.