How much does creation tell us about God? Can this knowledge that creation is screaming forth be enough to lead someone unto salvation? The issue of natural theology and seeking to answer these questions have been the source of much debate throughout the centuries amongst many theologians. In reading through John Calvin’s Institutes I came across his dealing with this issue throughout chapter V of book I.
First, Calvin says the following, which I thought was a poignant observation of how the manifestation of God that He gives forth in creation is choked and thwarted by human superstition and ignorance:
“For as rashness and superficiality are joined to ignorance and darkness, scarcely a single person has ever been found who did not fashion for himself an idol or specter in place of God. Surely, just as waters boil up from a vast, full spring, so does an immense crowd of gods flow forth from the human mind, while each one, in wandering about with too much license, wrongly invents this or that about God himself” (1.5.12, pg 65).
Oh how often we see this in the world today, where men invent a god in their minds that serves their own selfish, foolish desires rather than turning to the Scriptures to see how God has revealed Himself.
So did Calvin think that creation could provide salvific knowledge? No, he did not. At the end of this section, he said the following:
“Yet hence it appears that if men were taught only by nature, they would hold to nothing certain or solid or clear-cut, but would be so tied to confused principles as to worship an unknown god [cf. Acts 17:23]” (1.5.12, pg 66).
Oh, how we as Christians must go forth, following the example of Paul in Acts 17 where he appears before the Areopagus, and show people who this “unknown god” is that they are worshiping. What a glorious thing it is that God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, and that we in America have such access to these Scriptures. Let us not take this for granted.
Longing 4 Truth 