Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
REVELA'TION. God has revealed himself in the works of creation, Ps 19:2; comp. Rom 1:19-20; Acts 14:17; Acts 17:26-28; in the conscience of man, Rom 2:14-15; comp. John 1:9; Rom 8:9; and in the history of nations and of the world. Acts 14:17; comp. John 1:5, 1 Kgs 16:10. But this triple revelation, though a most precious guidance intellectually and morally, never leaving man wholly without testimony, of God, is, nevertheless,- only an indirect revelation, requiring the interpretation of human reason and liable to its mistakes.
The full revelation of God is found only in his holy word, Ps 119:105; comp. Ps 19:8-9, and in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet 1:19; 2 Tim 3:15-17; Heb 1:1-2; Heb 4:12-13, a direct revelation breaking miraculously through nature and history, and laying hold miraculously in the conscience of man on a new life. This revelation is the foundation of our religion, which is therefore of divine origin and authority. All religions claim to be founded on revelation, but only the Jewish religion of the old covenant and the Christian religion are really revealed by God.
All heathen religions are religions of Nature, the outgrowth of the human mind groping in the dark after the unknown God.