Posted on 02/02/2015 5:38:23 AM PST by Gamecock
Does nature reveal God? This question indicates a concern about a foundational issue to Christianity. The issue is, can God be known outside of the church or a religious environment?
The secularist of today answers this question with the negative. The world of nature is frequently said to be antithetical to a belief in God, presenting us with so many anomalies as to render the existence of God untenable.
Because of these claims either from the corner of the militant atheist or from the queries of the troubled agnostic, many Christians have retreated into a sphere of “religious faith” as the only framework within which God can be known. Here nature is negotiated in order to protect the arena of space.
The nature Psalms of the Old Testament indicate that the majesty of the Creator shines through the creation. God not only reveals Himself clearly in creation, but the revelation gets through. It is perceived by men. The judgment of God is not withheld because men refuse to receive the revelation (Rom. 1:18).
The problem is that not only does God reveal Himself, but that men perceive that revelation and refuse to acknowledge it. Paul says, “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful” (Rom. 1:21, KJV). Here man is said to know God. His sin is that he will not glorify or thank the God he knows exists. Paul contends that God so clearly manifests Himself in creation that all men know He exists. God’s revelation in nature makes honest atheism an intellectual impossibility.
The knowledge of God manifest in nature is by no means comprehensive. Natural revelation will never provide us with redemptive knowledge. It is one thing to know that God exists. It is quite another to have a personal, intimate knowledge of the God who exists.
Coram Deo
Do you have a personal, intimate knowledge of God? Ask God for a new and deeper revelation.
Passages for Further Study
Romans 1:18–20
Check out Reasons to believe, and Hugh Ross for scientific proof of God. His IQ must be about a trillion or more! Way off the charts!
Also fractals found in nature, created by the Hands of God, NOT BY CHANCE OR EVOLUTION!
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/14-amazing-fractals-found-in-nature
Pretty much any honest scientist would have to recognize God from the First Law of Thermodynamics, that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed. It’s called a law of science because it’s always been proven accurate after centuries of scientific experimentation. That begs a huge question then: Where did all the matter/energy in the universe come from, since no law of science allows for the creation of the matter or energy in the universe?
Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
So, right off the bat, the creation of the universe’s matter and energy ex nihilo was a supernatural event that only God could’ve accomplished. No random process could’ve done so.
Atheists that want to refute this need to create matter/energy from nothing and get back with me. So far they only have a few laughable theories that pretty much all violate the First Law. Or their explanations are basically even more supernatural than special creation, since they claim their supernatural events occurred as the result of random processes.
Well, a lot of them look to singularity but then they have to explain where THAT came from and if all the matter of the universe were contained in that small of a point, what precipitated the expansion.
We know that nothing can escape the gravitational force of a black hole, which is just from the amount of matter found in one large star.
And they expect us to believe that the matter of the entire universe could escape the gravitational attraction of THAT?
Something had to precipitate the expansion to overcome that and for that, they have no explanation.
I’m going to step outside of hard science and describe one way I think nature reveals God.
An evolutionist might believe that the changing of the seasons is necessary to promote life. Okay.
However, look at the artistry and the beauty involved in those changes. I have no doubt that God, though He created the world for Himself, also had us in mind; He wanted us to have a pleasant environment in which to live.
It’s winter right now, a season with its own beauty. Bare branches are silhouetted against an austere gray-white sky. When it snows, everything is blanketed in white, and when the thaw comes, it’s like being surrounded in sparkling diamonds as the brilliant winter sun strikes the ice.
Just when we’re so sick of winter we feel like we can’t take it anymore, spring comes, with its explosion of pastel colors-—pale green, pinks, lavenders, yellows, etc. Everything is soft and new.
Then it’s summer. Those young colors ripen into lush green, and the world is teeming with life.
Although some people view fall as a sad time of dying, it isn’t...it’s only a time of life going dormant in preparation for the next spring. And once again, we see a contrasting season with the one preceding it...the greens are gone, replaced with fiery bursts of orange, yellow, red, and burgundy, in all shades.
Don’t you think it takes a lot of “faith” to believe that those gorgeous changes came about by accident? The greatest Artist of all produces an always varied, never boring show of beauty for us and for Him.
The pace is so fast today even for the people who do nothing it is unlikely anyone has time to even think of it, with all of the gadgets and play things that even the poorest of people have.
My folks like many others were raised in fairly decent homes but got caught up in the depression and ended up being very lucky to have a tar paper shack with a wood floor to live in.
Us kids with no where to go and nothing to play with had time to lay out under the moon light and do a little thinking.
All of the kids I knew were aware there was a God even though most of us never knew what a Church was..
bkmk
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