“Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” Psalm 8:6*
God is the great revealer. By His very nature, God makes Himself known. The character, extent, and modes of God’s revelation are complicated, so to simplify the topic, theologians categorize God’s revelation to humanity as either special or general.
Overview: The Nature and Purposes of Special and General Revelation
The Bible is special revelation because information was given and inscribed “specially” (or “selectively”) through “holy men of God [who] spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). It also records the special revelation of the Lord Jesus Himself through His words and actions, revealing the Father to us (John 14:7–9). For anyone to be saved today, they must believe in Jesus since “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, KJV). Thus, the Bible’s special revelation is both essential for, and a sufficient guide unto, salvation.
Psalm 19:1–6 and Romans 1:18–25 are key passages stating that God reveals Himself in nature. Creation scientists research the physical, “natural” world that has been “generally” observable to all people since Adam. Anyone could reasonably ask themselves if specific features of the world reveal insights into the character of a very intelligent and powerful being who was its creator. That’s general revelation and why it’s important to creationists.
As detailed in the Romans passage, some important characteristics of general revelation are that it confirms incredible workmanship (v. 20), is undeniably evident by appearance through human experience (v. 19), and is sufficient to make inferences about cause and effect (v. 21). These essential attributes are useful when we talk to other people about Jesus.
First, people see workmanship. Human-engineered workmanship is characterized by multiple parts working together for a purpose and by great attention to detail, impressive fit and finish, and creativity. If God is trying to reveal Himself in a way that humans could understand and lead them to a powerful intuition that natural systems, particularly creatures, were created, then He would engineer creatures with characteristics that we would recognize as workmanship. Thus, we should expect to find a correspondence (in purpose, operation, qualities, assembly, parts, systems, etc.) between creatures and human-engineered things performing similar functions. And we do.1 Living things display workmanship in abundance, thus likely making creatures the principal feature of God’s general revelation in nature.
Second, people don’t need microscopes, telescopes, or any instrument to see workmanship. Anybody can see it using their own senses. People have a powerful predisposition to link features on organisms with engineered design.2 Significantly, it’s that correspondence in features observed between human-engineered entities and creatures that greatly constrains the potential explanations for their origin to a creator. Today, discovering microscopic machines in cells, cosmic fine tuning, and precise natural laws subsequently pile on layers of God’s general revelation.
General Revelation in Regard to Salvation and Biblical Authority
General revelation is hard to miss. Ample characteristics of creation to conclude the reality of the Creator are easily perceived by every people group proceeding from Adam and Eve. Human responses to that intuition range from acceptance to questions, investigations, imaginative speculations, indifference, and even denial. Acknowledging one’s Creator is necessary, but insufficient, for salvation apart from believing in Jesus as revealed in the Bible.
Additionally, general revelation is simply what’s observed. Thus, Christians shouldn’t unquestioningly conflate general revelation with conventional scientists’ opinions, whether correct, critical, or erroneous, nor let scientists’ ever-changing beliefs have higher authority over the normal meaning of the Bible’s words.
General and special revelation are gifts. It’s through them that people—especially Christians—can savor the awe felt from discovering all of Jesus’ wonderful attributes.
References
- This fact also has important biological research implications.
- Bering, J. Creationism Feels Right, but That Doesn’t Make It So. Scientific American. Posted on scientificamerican.com March 19, 2009, accessed March 11, 2017.
Dr. Guliuzza is the president of the Institute for Creation Research.
*KJV
