Chapter Three Reading Notes
The Nature of Revelation
General Revelation: God’s communication of himself to all persons at all times and in all places
(i.e. through nature, history, and the inner being of the human person)
- Universal availability (accessible to all persons at all times)
- The content of the message (it is less particularized and detailed than special revelation.
- Concerns:
•The genuineness of the revelation…
Special Revelation: involves God’s particular communications and manifestations of himself to
particular persons at particular times.
The Modes of General Revelation
- Nature
•Scripture supports that God is revealed through creation. (Ps. 19:1, Rom. 1:20)
- History
•“If God is at work in the world and is moving toward certain goals, it should be
possible to detect the trend of his work in events that occur as part of history.” (p.
27)
- The constitution of the human being
•“Some think of God’s general revelation as seen in the physical structure and
mental capacities of humans.”
•It is through their moral and spiritual qualities that God’s character is best
perceived. (i.e. the idea of “oughtness” the feeling that all beings possess of what
they “ought” to do or not do.)
•His general revelation is also found in humanity’s religious nature. An internal
sense of deity.
Bible Passages Dealing with General Revelation:
- Psalm 19:1-4
- Psalm 104
- Romans 1:18-32
- Romans 2:14-16
- Gen. 41:37-39
- Dan. 2:47; 3:26
- Jon. 1:3-16
- Acts 17:22-31
Differing Assessments of the Value of General
Revelation:
- Natural Theology: The idea that it is possible to construct a valid theology apart
form the Bible.
oAt the core of natural theology is the idea that it is possible without a prior
commitment of faith to the beliefs of Christianity, and without relying on any
special authority, such as an institution (the church) or a document (the
Bible), to come to a genuine knowledge of God on the basis of reason alone.
oAssumptions:
■“that God actually has made himself known in nature and
that patterns of meaning are objectively present…”
--- “the world we find about us is basically the world as it came
from the creative hand of God, and as it was intended to be.”
■The integrity of the person perceiving and learning from
the creation.
■That there is a congruity between the human mind and
the creation about us.
oThomas Aquinas is known for his effort to uphold and promote
natural authority.
Thomas Aquinas’ thoughts on Natural Theology:
- Lower realm is the realm of nature ruled by reason and the higher realm of grace is
ruled by faith.
- He contended that he could prove certain beliefs by pure reason: the existence of
God, the immortality of the human soul, and the supernatural origin of the Catholic
Church. Whereas there were truths of revelation (not of reason) in regards to
something like the triune nature of God.
- His arguments for the existence of God :
oThe Cosmological argument – “In the realm of our experience, everything
that we know is caused by something else…There must, therefore, be some
uncaused cause (unmoved mover) or necessary being.” (p. 30) the logical
conclusion then by believers (and other people as well) is God’s existence.
oThe Teleological Argument – “focuses particularly on the phenomenon of
orderliness or apparent purpose in the universe…Some intelligent being
must, therefore, have ordered things in this desirable fashion.”(p. 30) this
being God’s existence.
Other arguments from other thinkers…
oThe Anthropological Argument (Immanuel Kant – Critique of Practical
Reason) – “sees some aspects of human nature as a revelation of God.”
(p. 30)
■“We all possess a moral impulse or a categorical imperative.” That
feeling of “oughtness.”
■The moral order (as contrasted with the natural order) requires the
existence of God.
oThe Ontological Argument (Anselm – Proslogion)
■“God is the greatest of all conceivable beings. Now a being that
does not exist cannot be the greatest of all conceivable beings (for
the nonexistent being of our conceptions would be greater if it had
the attribute of existence). Therefore, by definition, God must
exist.”(p. 31)
■Refutes of this argument: “existence is not an attribute (Kant)…
Such a being may exist – or it may not. In either case its essence is
the same.”
** “Thus the conclusion that there is an objective general revelation, bit that it cannot be used to
construct a natural theology, seems to fit best the full data of Scripture on the subject.” (p. 35)
