Is Natural Theology Compatible with Biblical Revelation? (part 3)

by Danny Pelichowski

Support for Revealed Theology

God has revealed Himself to humanity through the written Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The Holy Scriptures are the only infallible and inerrant guild revealing what God would have his people believe and how He demands that they should live. God’s special revelation found in Scripture is particular and limited because not everyone has access to the Bible. God has also made Himself known universally yet not specifically through His creation of the world and the human conscience. God’s natural or general revelation through creation is known and seen by all of humanity twenty four hours a day seven days a week.[9] There are many different interpretations of general revelation that exceeds what is found in the Bible and therefore must be rejected. Certain theologians claim that general revelation is every truth outside of the Bible that has been observed by psychologists, biologists, sociologists, and even going so far as including different religions and cults such as Islam or Mormonism.[10] The saying “all truth is god’s truth” is common amongst these theologians who define general revelation in this fashion. The problem with the above definition of general revelation is that it is nowhere found in the Bible. We must now turn to Scripture to define what we mean by general revelation.

According to the apostle Paul “…The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”[11] Paul reveals in this passage that the noetic effects of the fall have left man so completely distorted that he suppresses the natural revelation of God to man found in creation and conscience. Paul goes on to affirm “that which is known about God is evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are with out excuse.”[12] This revelation that men everywhere are suppressing is only sufficient to bring condemnation upon man as opposed to salvation. Every human being knows that there is a powerful divine creator god because as Millard Erickson points out “general revelation is God’s communication of himself to all persons at all times and in all places.”[13] Although they all know that there is a god in their heart of hearts they are suppressing that knowledge of the divine creator because of sin. Robert Morey sharply points out that “after sin entered the world, St. Paul argues in Romans that whatever knowledge man could have obtained from Creation is made void and null by his depravity.”[14]

The natural theologian must deal with the glaring effects of sin upon mankind. If the natural theologian is an evangelical and believes that man is suppressing the truth in nature because of their ungodliness and still proceeds to attempt to prove God from nature and conscience they are ultimately assuming that their natural apologetics apart from the Bible can reverse the noetic effects of the fall and lead people to salvation. Most evangelicals would firmly deny that man can be saved apart from Scripture but the use of natural theology in apologetics (which is a form of evangelism) leads me to believe that either the natural theologian is being deceptive by not claiming what he truly believes or that he is in fact deceived himself and ignorant of the truth in the Bible. Dr. Robert Morey rightly proclaims that the Biblical truth that must be established to all Christians whether they are pastors, evangelists, apologists or laymen is that “a fallen man in a fallen world can never by reason alone find the one true God in nature.”[15] The question must be asked “how then shall man be saved?” The revealed theologian would proclaim Sola Scriptura and preach from the Bible for it is the only means that God has determined to bring dead sinners who are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness to life so that they may see the triune God of Scripture and be saved.[16]
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9. Robert A. Morey Natural Theology: is it Biblical? Excerpts read by author. Disk 4 track 3.
10. In my undergraduate studies at Biola University I primarily heard these definitions of general revelation from my psychology professors and the philosophy department (though they did not include false religions and cults). The Bible and theology professors generally had a much more limited definition from Scripture.
11. Romans 1:18. All Scripture references are form the New American Standard Bible.
12. Romans 1:19-20.
13. Millard J. Erickson Christian Theology. Second edition (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2007). 178
14. Robert A. Morey "Is 'Natural Theology' a form of deism?" In Journal of Biblical Apologetics. Vol. 1 No. 1.
15. Ibid 26
16. See Romans chapter 10