General revelation, or natural revelation,''Basic Christianity'',

John Stott John Robert Walmsley Stott (27 April 1921 – 27 July 2011) was a British Anglican pastor and theologian who was noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974. I ...

, 1958

Inter-Varsity Press Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) was previously the publishing wing of Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship. It supported the publishing or distribution of well over one million books each year to over 150 countries, including the translati ...

is a concept in

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Ch ...

that refers to God's

revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

as it is 'made to all men everywhere', which is discovered through natural means, such as observations of

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

(the

physical universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and reasoning. Christian theologians use the term to describe the knowledge of God purported to be plainly available to all of humanity. General revelation is usually understood to pertain to outward temporal events that are experienced within the world or the physical universe. The definition may be extended to include human

conscience A conscience is a Cognition, cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's ethics, moral philosophy or value system. Conscience is not an elicited emotion or thought produced by associations based on i ...

or providence (or providential history). According to

Dumitru Stăniloae Dumitru Stăniloae (; – 4 October 1993), also Anglicized as Demetrius Staniloae, was a Romanian Orthodox Christian priest, theologian and professor. He worked for over 45 years on a comprehensive Romanian translation of the Greek Philokali ...

, the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

's position on general and special revelation stands in stark contrast to

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

theology, which marks a clear difference between the two and tends to posit that the former is not sufficient for salvation. In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Stăniloae argues, there is no separation between the two and supernatural revelation merely embodies the former in historical persons and actions.

Characteristics

Christian theologians cite passages of

Scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

to ground the concept of general revelation, for example, Romans 1:20, Psalms 19:1-6 and Matthew 5:45. The following is a non-exhaustive list of fields of knowledge which fall under general revelation. # ''Nature / the physical universe:'' The laws and nature of the physical universe as it transpires are interpreted as displaying God's attributes of existence, knowledge, wisdom, power, order, greatness, supremacy, righteousness and goodness. # ''Philosophy:'' An example would be the philosophical arguments of

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

known as the Five Ways, which may lead one to knowledge of God. # ''History:'' The study of history may reveal an aspect of

divine providence In theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's intervention in the universe. The term ''Divine Providence'' (usually capitalized) is also used as a names of God, title of God. A distinction is usually made between "general prov ...

, which is defined in Webster's 1828 Dictionary as 'proceeding from divine direction or superintendence; as the providential contrivance of things; as a providential escape from danger.' # ''Human conscience:'' God is said to instill the innate ability in all people to discern the difference between right and wrong, to choose and act on that discernment and judgment according to

free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...

and conscience, and to experience guilt when the act or choice is wrong. One of the

arguments for the existence of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the exis ...

is based on moral sense in humans.Dyer, John & Crawford, Tommy; "General Revelation" - basictheology.com
Archive of Basic Theology.com - "General Revelation"
/ref> American

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

theologian B. B. Warfield describes general revelation in relation to

special revelation __NOTOC__ Special revelation is a concept in Christian theology that refers to God's revelation as it is made exclusively to his chosen people in his divine Word; spoken or written Scripture, for his glory and their salvation. This is a ''special ...

; 'There is the revelation which God continuously makes to all men: by it His power and Divinity are made known. And there is the revelation which He makes exclusively to His chosen people: through it His saving grace is made known. Both species or stages of revelation are insisted upon throughout the Scriptures. They are, for example, brought significantly together in such a declaration as we find in : "The heavens declare the glory of God ... their line is gone out through all the earth" (vv. 1, 4); "The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul" (v. 7).' He goes on to posit a close interdependence with special revelation; 'Revelation, therefore, in its double form was the Divine purpose for man from the beginning. ..Without special revelation, general revelation would be for sinful men incomplete and ineffective, and could issue, as in point of fact it has issued wherever it alone has been accessible, only in leaving them without excuse (). Without general revelation, special revelation would lack that basis in the fundamental knowledge of God as the mighty and wise, righteous and good, maker and ruler of all things, apart from which the further revelation of this great God’s interventions in the world for the salvation of sinners could not be either intelligible, credible or operative.' Thus, general revelation can be understood as the everyday experience of life, but is dependent on the interpretation of those experiences as revealing God's involvement in external events or things. General revelation is distinguished from

direct revelation Direct revelation is a term used by some Christian churches to express their belief in a communication from God to a person by words, impression, visions, dreams, or actual appearance. Direct revelation is believed to be an open communication ...

, which involves the direct communication from God to a person, as opposed to the indirect and varied means through which God communicates in general revelation.

Footnotes

References

Olaf Pedersen Olaf Pedersen (8 April 1920 – 3 December 1997) was a Danish historian of science who was "leading authority on astronomy in classical antiquity and the Latin middle ages."Michael Hoskin (October 1998Obituary: Olaf Pedersen Astronomy and Geoph ...

(1992), ''The Book of Nature'', Vatican Observatory Publications , distributed by University of Notre Dame Press.

External links

Scripture and general revelation
by Andrew S. Kulikovsky at the Creation Ministries International website - a discussion of the

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

notion of revelation in contrast to the common understanding. {{DEFAULTSORT:General Revelation Revelation Christian terminology

Characteristics

See also

Footnotes

References

External links