General And Special Revelation By Richard Dawkins

God’s continuing work can be seen in the incarnation of Christ and his redemptive work. “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God…God created the things we can see and the things we cannot see…everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else and he holds all creation together” (Colossians 1:16, 17). Not only is Jesus the exact representation of God, but he is God himself who worked with the Father in creating the world – the sustainer of everything (Hebrews 1:3). “Because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan” (Ephesians 1:11). This means that, “his will may be disobeyed, but his ultimate purpose cannot be frustrated, for he overrules the disobedience in his creatures in such a way that it sub serves his purpose” (Akin 2014, 235). Here we can clearly see God’s sovereignty and that we can rest in the truth that Jesus is Lord and God is in control. God’s involvement in our lives goes even deeper and shows us that he is personal and wants relationships with his creation. He not only spoke with Old Testament figures such as Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Moses, he held relationships with them through guidance and even discipline (Genesis 1:28, 3:8, 12:1, 26:5; Exodus 11, 19, 20, 33:11). Amos 4:13 says that God reveals His thoughts to man. We often

Firstly, there is a set of Biblical assumptions about the natural world. In Romans 1:20, Paul says that “His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.” (Romans 1:20, ESV) This verse is stating that the world naturally reveals the glory of God. The wonder of creation, from the mountains to the birds in the sky, all point towards the existence of a creator. This is known as natural revelation, which is the idea that

By Faith we believe that God created the Natural World that He is the creator of all things. He is the source of all that live, and spoke the world into existence. The Bible begins with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genisis1:1) In Romans 1:20 (NLT) Paul tells us “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.” God took a blank canvas and used his brush to paint a masterpiece called planet Earth. With us in mind, he painted magnificent sunrises and sunsets, mountains, animals, the stars, moon and the sky. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1 NIV) Sadly man set to out to invalidate creation and to take the glory away from God. Man had become wicked and began to follow after their own desires. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation

1) God is transcendent in that he is above and separate from the universe; He is holy and righteous. God desires us to pursue to know him, which is essentially impossible. We cannot conceivably come to comprehend God or experience Him personally. He is unknown and unknowable.

“In the God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) God existed before all of His creation, therefore He is the sovereign creator. He created all to be good in His perfect wisdom. Though God is invisible, He has several distinct characteristics; compassionate, faithful, infinite, just, wise and all-powerful.

created the heavens and the earth.” This means there was nothing to this world until He created

When humans were in their primal state, before they could even comprehend calculus or geometry, they looked at the trees, bushes and plants and grabbed the fruit from their branches. They then looked to the stars and were fascinated the way we are today. Neanderthals reconciled the fact they could not reach these stars with the theory that they were a fruit for a much more powerful and an encompassing being. The point being humanity has a habit of explaining what we cannot fathom, by creating a construct of something greater than themselves, something omnipotent. The prominent religious books of our time, the new and old testament have struggled to explain what exactly the intangible being known as G-d can do as well as explaining the idea

Firstly, scripture has an essential role in the revelation of the doctrine of God, as it is an important part of one of the two methods by which he reveals himself to us, these two methods are general and special revelation. To begin, general revelation is the way in which God evokes his work and light in the nature of man, so that we may acknowledge his worth, as well as the beauty of his traits. This innate trait to recognize the beauty and order of nature is prearranged, so that no man can be excused for an ignorance of the Lord and his existence. In the word of God, it is affirmed, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). We are told that God has intentionally left a mark on us and the world, leaving a signature on all of his creations, so that we persistently ask questions about our creator and his plausible existence. The Lord deliberately created such a divine and natural order of the world,

Q: Why dose Dawkins say that there is no blueprint in the DNA for the development of organisms?

The word of God brought everything into being: heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and every living thing. In the beginning, God called into existence the heaven and earth. Within six days and he shaped a world of order and beauty.

The existence of God has been in question for as long as mankind has existed and thought logically. Many questions have plagued the human mind in regards to God, and there have been many arguments drawn with the hopes of proving the existence of a supreme being whom we know as God. The “God” question has been presented to every individual at some point in their lives. It is a topic that will bring forth never-ending questions and an equal amount of attempted answers. Many philosophers have formulated different rationales when examining the topic of God, some of which include how the word itself should be defined, what his role is in human existence, whether or not he loves us, and ultimately, if he even exists at all. Mankind cannot

General revelation is an individual's ability to gain knowledge of God through his presence in the world. The knowledge we are able to gain through general revelation is limited. It doesn't bring salvation and tells very little about God's character, but it can bring us knowledge of the existence of God. We are able to gain this knowledge of him because he is a Creator

If one is to write about Christianity and the nature of God, one must have a foundation to rely upon. Both theology and our epistemological queries concerning God must be crafted from a source. Michael Bird in his Evangelical Theology notes that the prolegomena or things we say before saying anything about God must be predicated upon a critical source. This source is God’s Word and is revealed in multiple ways. If one is to conduct a Credo or apologetic stance of his Christian faith, this person ought to explain how God reveals Godself, especially through the Biblical text, but also potentially through creation. God revealing Godself through the God’s Word is also known as Special Revelation; whereas, God revealing God’s personality through creation is known as General Revelation or Natural Theology. First and foremost, there is a significant debate concerning the possibility of Natural Theology. Emil Bruner and Karl Barth famously debated this in the 1930’s as Barth argued that only the Holy Spirit can illuminate the person of God so that God is revealed to humanity. Without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, humanity is too deep in their sin to see God’s handiwork throughout creation. John Calvin, on the other hand, believes that the knowledge of God has been naturally implanted in the minds of humanity. To prevent humanity from pretending that they were never aware of God’s existence, God implants knowledge of God’s divine majesty. Additionally, Calvin believes that

God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He created the expanse of the sky down to the tiniest cell. He created man distinct from the rest of His creation. God created man in his own image and likeness and gave him dominion over the rest of His creation. The Bible affirms this in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” Humans were created in God’s image, yet after the fall occurred, this image was severely distorted. The image of God in us will be completely restored when Jesus comes again for His church. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Throughout church history, theologians have debated what being

The Bible teaches that God reveals Himself by both general and specific means. Creation is the primary method of general revelation. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1a) to all people who can view His divine handiwork. The voice of creation speaks to all men “day unto day” (Psalm 19:2) and “there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:3; Romans 10:18). God sometimes reveals Himself by specific means, such as in physical manifestation (Exodus 3; 19) and