Creation is Proof

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about truth and the fact that we can know full well that our faith is true. This is not a new or revolutionary idea; this was the general consensus of the church for a very long time. St. Thomas Aquinas is widely known for his advocacy of natural theology, or the idea that we can know God through nature and reason. It was only more recently that the church generally abandoned this view in favor of saying, "We can't know, it's all just blind faith." I don't know for sure, but I personally believe this is because the church wound up being influenced by skeptics who said the same thing.

Aquinas' view that man can, and does, know God through nature wasn't really new when he espoused the idea either. In fact, this idea goes all the way back to the Apostle Paul:

[W]hat can be known about God is plain to [men], because God has shown it to them. 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. (Rom. 1:19, 20 ESV)

In other words, we can be certain of our faith because of the world around us. We can look at trees, rocks, and birds and be reminded of the ultimate Cause of their existence. In fact, R.C. Sproul puts it this way: because his shoes exist, God exists. His argument is that, if there ever was a time when absolutely nothing existed, not even God, there would still be nothing, because nothing cannot create anything. Therefore, if anything exists, then something has to have always existed.

From there there is the argument from design; the world, one could argue, displays far too much intentional design to have been created randomly. We happen to be on a planet that is perfect for supporting our existence. We have water and food, we have the means to replenish all of our essential nutrients so we don't die. These nutrients can be found easily in parts of nature that are not human, such as in fruits and vegetables; in other words, it's almost as if food was made specifically to for us to consume and replenish nutrients with. Nature, for the most part, cooperates with itself; bees taken pollen from flowers and pollinate other plants, and without this process plants would die. Our world is far too orderly for us to reasonably say it was created randomly!

So if this is true, if we can know God through creation, why doesn't everyone know the Gospel? Well, as Aquinas put it, natural revelation, though true, is incomplete and indirect. In the Bible, God reveals everything he wants us to know directly, in clear terms. In nature, however, God reveals himself indirectly, and nature does not tell us of the Gospel. On the other hand, the Bible tells us nothing about photosynthesis. However, natural revelation is still true, and should still cause all people to fall on their faces in worship.

To tie this to the older post about truth, I'll point out that Paul says this clearly and with absolute certainty. In other words, the created order is not merely evidence of God's existence, but proof of it. In fact, he finishes verse 20 with this statement: "They are without excuse." In context, he is talking about the unrighteous and ungodly who refuse to acknowledge God's existence and lordship. But because they have seen the proof in creation and have chosen to ignore it, they have no excuse to do such a thing. There is no reason we should not all worship God every time we step outside and behold creation, or even every time we wake up to a new day.

So if this is all so clear, why doesn't everyone believe? Why doesn't everyone worship God and pray to him and ask for his mercy? Well, this post is getting pretty long, so I'll talk about that in a later post. But for now, remember that faith is based in truth. Whenever you look at nature, whenever you see existence surrounding you, remember that there is a God who created it, and remember that creation is proof.