General and Special Revelation, What Does Nature Reveal About God?

Nature can be a good analogy for the spiritual life. In fact, we see many times and in many ways throughout Scripture where it is just that.

Whether it's Jesus using the illustration of birds and flowers to tell us why we ought not worry, or the Psalmist looking at nature and seeing the character of God at work, we can certainly learn a lot from the world around us.

And yet, we see that this world isn't perfect. Tornadoes ravage through towns, tsunamis destroy coastal areas, and earthquakes cause havoc in cities; natural disasters abound.

Meanwhile, man is affected by his sinfulness. Evil runs rampant, and worldviews that dismiss God come to their inevitable conclusions.

There's much that we can learn, but we must view it through the lens of Scripture.

Too much looking at the natural world, and we can begin to worship it, just like Paul warns in Romans 1.

Dependence on man leads to disappointment as man is incredibly unreliable for various reasons.

And so the natural world is a sort of general revelation of God, contrasted with His special revelation through His word.

We can look at creation and know there is a God, but it doesn't tell us His name. We can look at the acts of men and our own conscience and know that this God is moral, just, and will demand justice. But we don't know how He will mete that out, and if He has given us a way of escape, a way of forgiveness.

Those things we can only learn through the Scriptures.

Sadly, too many Christians and professing believers dismiss Scripture. Sure, they say, parts of it may be from God, but the rest is just written by fallible men.

How can we know the difference if that view were correct? Thankfully, it isn't.

That's really a large part of the aim of this endeavor, to help in some small way to shore up that foundation of a Biblical worldview.

The God who created this world, who is working out salvation, and who is bringing things to His desired conclusion, has revealed Himself through His word and in the Person of Jesus Christ.

So as you look at creation, as you see this general revelation of God, understanding that He is real and He is just, you can know that by the work of Jesus, you can be saved from the wrath to come. Repent and believe in Him today.

His word is something you can stand on.