During this season of thankfulness, I’m grateful for how God revealed himself to humankind in two ways.
In Christian theology, revelation refers to God’s personal self-disclosure to his creatures. He took the initiative and revealed himself in both general revelation (God’s world) and special revelation (God’s Word).
Through General Revelation The created order makes God’s existence and characteristics known to all people, at all times, in all places. This includes nature (Psalm 19:1–4; Romans 1:18–21), history (Daniel 2:21; Acts 17:26), and the inner human conscience (Genesis 1:26–27; Romans 2:11–16).
This disclosure takes external and internal forms. The external consists of nature and God’s providential ordering of the universe, including history. The internal consists of both the moral law of conscience and an innate consciousness of God.
Through Special Revelation God’s more specific self-disclosure comes through his great redemptive acts, events, and words (John 20:31; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; Hebrews 1:1–4) at special times and places. God first manifested himself through the Israelites, his covenant people (as recorded in the Old Testament).
Special revelation culminated decisively in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—the God-man whose life, death, and resurrection are recorded in the New Testament. Biblically speaking, the divine Logos is the agent of all revelation—the eternal Word and Son who “gives light to every man” (John 1:9). For this, we can all be thankful.
People who doubt religion and the supernatural typically think believers lack skepticism. In the minds of most atheists, Christians cannot sufficiently think through a...
