General Revelation (Natural and Moral Revelation)

I want to discuss the next two revelations together because when you put these two together they greatly aid in the answer a very perplexing soteriological question: “What about the people who have never heard?” Whenever I hear a sermon on the gospel that focuses on the universality of the gospel (anyone who wants it can have it by accepting its message – not to be confused with exclusivism and universialism of salvation that states that all people of all worldviews will eventually be saved), they seem to skip over this question. Now I understand this to an extent because the people who have heard do not need to worry about this in a direct way. But this is important to acknowledge and discuss for the sake of the integrity of the gospel. If this is not answered, then we have millions upon millions of people ignored by this central matter in Christianity. Therefore, the natural revelation and the moral revelation (both are known together as general revelation) play an important role in God’s revelation to man.

The once championed atheist, Anthony Flew, stunned the philosophical world when he declared his recent turn to theism. He said he made this move because of the perplexing matter of not having an intelligent being behind such a complex universe. He recognized that there is someone who has to be at beginning of this all. I remember back in high school my friend was studying the first people to inhabit what is now the U.K. and these people apparently worshiped the creator god, who brought everything into existence. These all speak of a few of verses in the book of Psalms:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.” – Psalm 19:1-4 (NKJV)

There is a language that the world speaks to man and which every tongue can understand. This language speaks of purpose, design, beauty, and harmony that need a mind behind it. This is God’s revelation to man through nature. It does not preach the gospel, does not even preach about God’s character; but it does preach that there is a God. How does that justify anything since the gospel is not even known? I will get to that in a minute. First we must understand that there is a natural revelation of God, and that this revelation is enough to assume such the existence of a creator God:

“For since the creation of world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even is eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they know God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” – Romans 1:20-21 (NKJV)

Here we see a difficult thing to grasp. Nature has shown God’s power and His Godhead (Godhead meaning his divine nature and thus greater than man). And many, unlike the above mentioned settlers of the U.K., did not glorify God and be thankful (this understood mostly as giving homage to God for understanding that he created everything and thus your life). Now this still seems harsh considering how many cultures started worshipping cats, elephants, and other natural things instead of making the logical connection that the originator of the world could not be from the system of the world. This is why the above verses mentioned people becoming futile in their thoughts. Man is therefore without excuse or without a defense in light of nature before them. Now again, this will better make sense and more just later. For now, let’s just understand what the natural revelation is, how it works, and what it reveals.

Immanuel Kant said that there were two things that always left him in awe: the starry heavens above and the moral law within. He recognized from mere sight that the starry heavens above are much greater than what he knows on earth. Moreover, he realized that man is naturally born with an idea of right and wrong and he could not grasp how this happens. Kant was a devote churchman his whole life and understood where this moral law came from. But for man who has no revelation from God cannot attribute this moral law to the Christian God. Once they here the gospel they can realize it but there is no connection there until then. The moral revelation is that the natural sense of right and wrong, of conscience is a revelation of God. This is a very indirect revelation however. This revelation does not necessarily make a connection to morality and a higher power, but it does make a connection from morality to judgment:

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” – Romans 2:13-15 (ESV)

I like the Message paraphrase of these verses; they give a clear understanding of what all is implied here:

“Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God. When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman.” – Romans 2:13-15 (The Message)

Here is the implication of the moral law: that when man follows the natural moral law they affirm God because it is not something imposed upon them but something innate within. It is in their very essence to see right and wrong, and while this does not automatically make you think of a higher power it does make you indirectly affirm that God is needed. I believe that someone who follows the law that is written on their heart would love the Christian worldview. It makes perfect sense why we are moral when we learn we made in God’s image. So the moral revelation of God is not necessarily revealing an affirmative belief that God is existent, but it does affirm, by submitting to this moral law within, that there is a God that made you that way. The way you live affirms God’s existence in this case. This is not the place to go into the argument from morality for the existence of God because it does not really matter in this case. The bottom line is that the law that God gave to Moses and the Israelites was based on his very nature and goodness. So when we follow this unaware of the law of Moses we are none the less excused by acknowledging this law as real and innate by the way you live.

Now this does not say much still does it? We still have people not knowing of God, their sinful nature, Jesus’ replacement on the cross, and his resurrection. So how can these people who just see nature and say, “Well no one I know could have made this happen. It must be someone greater than I am,” or follow this moral law that is natural to them get into heaven if they do not recognize their hopeless state?

“Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.” – Romans 2:1-2

Here we find a very important qualifier - God judges according to truth. The word truth here can be better translated as evidence. What this is saying is that God judges according to how much he has given you. As the old parable says, “To whom much is given, from him much will be required.” (Luke 12:48) The people who never had the opportunity to hear of Christ will not be damned for not hearing it, but will be judge by what was given to them through creation and the moral law. Now no one knows exactly what is taken into account and how much weight does a certain revelation hold, but God will not be unjust since he will judge you according to how much he has given you. God is very concerned with the people who will never hear as well:

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples built by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.” – Acts 17:24-27 (ESV)

God is very concerned with every human being and has prepared each persons time and place on earth in history so that they would be able to seek him better. He is a sovereign God who has put care into every individuals place in history so that they might be able grope after him if they chose to. There are many theories that can go into this in detail but the important thing to realize is that God has not neglected anyone but has actually tried his best to draw is free creations to Him. As God said to Abraham, “Shall not the judge of the earth do right?” We trust God to be just, not blindly, but in the light of what he has revealed to us and the justice he has showed in every aspect in our lives and in his relation with man. I have no doubt that everyone who has been judged by God will feel that either they have been fairly judged or God has been to gracious to them. God has reached out to every person who has ever lived through the Scriptures, a Christian, nature, the moral law within, or through divine revelation, which will be discussed next. And people will be judge according to how much evidence or how much has been revealed to them by God. He has put each person in a specific place in history not to neglect them but to draw them to him, and we trust God to be just in his judgments because he was proved himself trustworthy. General revelation (natural and moral revelation) is very real and spoken of in the Scriptures, and it helps us understand God’s call to the lost much more completely.