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Claim ID: BIB-IS10
Claim: God Revealed Himself in Creation
Summary: God's purpose in General Revelation is to reveal himself generally, to everyone. God reveals his power and nature externally through the created order. He also reveals his nature internally through our moral consciences. Ultimately, God's purpose in General Revelation is to draw attention to himself, and to create within us a thirst that causes us to yearn for a more complete knowledge of him.
Description: This area of study is commonly referred to as General Revelation where God shows himself generally, to everyone. It is ongoing, sustained disclosure about Himself or His attributes to all people at all times. General revelation is general in its scope (subject matter) and general in its content.
Two ways that General Revelation comes to us. First, we observe the nature of God externally in our world (outside us). Second, we observe the nature of God internally through our conscience (inside us).
God reveals himself to all people at all times through creation. This type of revelation is analogous to a broadcast radio tower. The message is broadcast loud and clear for everyone to hear. All are able to hear and understand the message.
Even where there is no Bible or knowledge of Jesus or any other specifics about God and Christianity, God is showing his glory through creation, so every human can know He is the creator. Nature is a grand theatre and every human being is in the audience. There is no one who does not have access to it. John Calvin (Commentary on the Psalms-Vol. 5) saw the world as God’s theatre where his glory is always on display,
"The whole world is a theatre for the display for the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power."
What can we learn about God from General Revelation? First and foremost, that God IS. He exists. We can learn of his attributes and character: He is creative, orderly, expressive, artistic, powerful, majestic, transcendent (above and beyond us). He is the author of beauty, pattern, structure, growth. He is the giver and creator of life.
The visible world displays the knowledge of a transcendent God. We can know by looking at creation that we have not created it, we are not God.
This claim was originally espoused by the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans.
19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God. (Romans 1:19-20 NLT)
In this passage, Paul is saying that from the created order God's power and nature are abundantly obvious and self-evident. By using logical and empirical methods we can readily observe the power and nature of the transcendent God. This claim is true whether we look through a telescope to observe the heavens or through a microscope to observe the microbial world.
According to Psalm 19,
1The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2Day after day they continue to speak. Night after night they make him known. 3They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4Yet, their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. (Psalm 19:1-4 NLT)
In this passage, the psalmist is declaring that we can observe the magnificence and handiwork of God in his creation.
The message God is broadcasting to all mankind is not audible, it is visual. It is not subject to interpretation as is audible communication.
The notion that God reveals himself in creation is best evidenced by the emergence of religious beliefs among indigenous tribes [ATH-EV71]. Numerous sociological and anthropological studies reveal that most indigenous tribes have well developed religious beliefs derived from nature and human experience.
From nature, they derived religious beliefs that include the existence of a creator-god, spirits and a spiritual realm. From both nature and a God-given moral conscience, they derived religious beliefs that include the existence of evil and systems of morality that govern social conduct. These belief systems are reinforced by rituals that build community and perpetuate their beliefs from one generation to the next.
Religious beliefs among indigenous tribes are surprisingly consistent. Because of this consistency and the consistency with Christian religious beliefs, one can conclude that God's imprint of nature and the human conscience is clearly observable by all peoples. It further demonstrates that God's imprint on the created order was done with intention.
God reveals himself in the human hearts. Genesis declares that we made in God's moral image (Genesis 1:27). Innately, we are designed with a conscience to discern right from wrong.
According the apostle Paul,
14"Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right." (Romans 2:14-15 NLT)
From this passage, we learn the following:
This conscience serves us when we are presented with conflicting truths. These conflicts cause within us an inner sense of moral dissonance. As we rely on our God-given sense of morality, we are able to discern right from wrong. We experience peace when we choose rightly or guilt when we choose wrongly.
This type of discernment is different than "common sense". Common sense is shaped by external influences such as popular opinion and normative, social practices.
This notion of an inner sense of morality is best evidenced by research findings from The Baby Lab at Yale University. Affectionately known as The Baby Lab, Karen Wynn and her team found that infants are able to discern between good and bad at an early age. Through the use of a puppet show, 3-month-old infants select the good puppet 87% of the time, whereas older infants select the good puppet only 80% of the time. Their claim is that the reason morality diminishes over time is because of the infant's need to compromise.
Researcher attribute this moral innateness to the process of natural selection. Through natural select we refine and codify our moral predisposition into DNA. Their claim is that this process is aided by human reinforcement of proper moral conduct.
Christians, however, credit the nature and origin of our moral predisposition to God. We learn from Genesis 1:27 that all human beings are created in the image of God. God's image refers to our spiritual capacity to understand and experience God and his Law. Therefore, this sense of morality is more than biology. It is a spiritual function of the human soul (Hebrews 4:12).
God has left behind markers in creation. These markers are self-disclosing. They are not hidden but readily visible to every human being. These markers ultimately point us to the nature of God, and the nature of evil.
These markers include:
While we live in an age of prosperity, we sense that something is missing in life. God's purpose in General Revelation is to create within us a thirst that causes us to yearn for a more complete knowledge of him.
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