GENERAL REVELATION OF GOD FOUND IN NATURE, HISTORY AND HUMANITY: PART I.

I agree with Millard J. Erickson’s view that the general revelation of God has been found in three areas: nature, history and humanity.1 As for the nature area, God reveals Himself through His creation and its vast variety: what man can see with his eyes, as for example the blue sky with its majestic paintings while sunsets and sunrises are taking place; the stars and moon at nighttime; the flora variety: such as flowers with all its variety of different shapes and colors; the variety of trees bearing all sorts of fruits; the green grass and different plants some bearing various vegetables; the fauna variety, with the different species of beasts, birds, fish and even insects, with its different sizes and colors; and of course His culminating creation the human. All this is visible to the human eye and with his reasoning mind he should give credit to a Majestic Creator, as it says in the following Scripture: “For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20.

History is another way that God reveals Himself. Millard J. Erickson says: “If God is at work in the world and is moving toward certain goals, it should be possible to detect the trend of His work in events that occur as part of history.” 2 Looking throughout history, a person can see how the nations have moved with its leaders: to the perceptive eye, he can only say that certain trends can only have taken place at the direction of a higher power, Someone who is a great Designer and King! And they can only come to the conclusion that He is God! Specially in the 20th century great changes took place that can only be attributed to God: the industrial revolution, the invention of cars, planes, T.V.’s, radios, the cell phones, computers with internet. People can say that it has been the reasoning mind of man which has brought this new technological advances but then that’s where the concept comes that it was God who created humans with its ‘physical structure and mental capacities’ .3 He is the One, who through the Holy Spirit, bestows the gift of knowledge to enlighten his mental capacities. To the unbelievers, these are signs and wonders, in order that they might worship the God of the Bible! He is even shown in the U.S. dollar bill in that is says ‘In God we trust’. So this should bring the unbelieving person, one day, to a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. To the believers these historical trends should show them the wonder of God and how much He loves them. In contemporary times, as they are called to ‘watch and pray’(Matthew 26:41) they should perceive His trends now as well as those of the past in order to take advantage of the opportunities God is giving in order to evangelize the nations noting those that are open and those that are closed to the gospel!

WATCH AND PRAY
“Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
The spirit indeed is willing,
But the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

NOTES
1Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology,(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006),177.
2 Ibid.,179.
3 Ibid.,180.