Two Kinds of Revelation and Knowledge of God

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With "Inner Knowledge of the Creator," we examined how people who claim to have no evidence of God are unrighteously suppressing that knowledge because it is all around them. Also, there is inner knowledge and our consciences. A term for all that is general revelation.

Knowledge of the Creator comes from revelation. There is another kind, called special revelation, where God has made himself known in more direct ways, especially Scripture. We have word pictures to consider, but secularists present their geologic time scale picture to corrupt the divine revelations.

View of Rondout Valley and mountains, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen
When people put on their Darwin or Deep Time spectacles, their view of both general and special revelations is corrupted. They "see" millions of years, evolution through death, and evidence for the divine judgment of the Genesis Flood is degraded to uniformitarianism (slow and gradual processes over many years). People need the guidance of Scripture so they can see where they stand and how to get right with God.
The Bible explains that what we observe daily in creation offers a glimpse of the divine qualities of the One who formed it in intricate detail (Romans 1:19–20). The physical world on its own, without God’s Word to guide our thinking, should spark curiosity over how it came about and why it operates as it does. This is one part of what is called general revelation (table 1), which describes how God communicates to every person on the planet through everyday observations and experiences.

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General revelation, however, leaves important questions unanswered. Why does creation have such marvelous form and function but also possess disease, violence, suffering, and death? What is life’s purpose? Is there existence after death? These kinds of questions can only be answered by the Bible, God’s direct communication to us through Jesus’ life and the words of Scripture. This is called special revelation (table 1), and it is essential for properly interpreting the pictures offered by general revelation.

To read the full article, see "General Revelation, Special Revelation, the Gospel, and Science."