What Is Natural Theology?

What is Natural Theology? Does the Bible mention something like this?

Natural Theology

I would describe Natural Theology as a study of God through natural revelation, as seen is nature, logic, reasoning and rational thought. Natural Theology is distinctly different from special revelation where the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins and we are made aware of our being separated from God by our sins (Isaiah 59:2) and are brought to repentance and faith and feel compelled to flee to the cross. In Natural Theology, we can look at the creation itself to find reason to believe in God. St. Thomas Aquinas emphasized our ability to comprehend certain truths about God from nature alone. It is not enough of the revelation of God to save us, but it is enough revelation about the existence of God to condemn us.

Creation and the Creator

The Bible is clear in many places that the creation itself proves that there must be a Creator. The psalmist wrote “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” and “Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm19:1-2). The word for “declare” in the Hebrew “caphar” means “to count, recount,” or “relate” so the heavens count or relate to us the glory of God and the word for “proclaim” is “nagad” which means “to be conspicuous” or obvious so in the Hebrew, we can read Psalm 19:1 as “The heavens relate to us the glory of God, and the sky above make conspicuous his handiwork.”

No Excuse

We hear many say that they need proof of God, but the Bible shows that they already have that truth within them…they are only choosing to suppress it. The Apostle Paul writes, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18). The word for “suppress” is a verb and it means “to hold down on” like you would hold down a coil spring. It is a voluntary action so they are not helpless victims who can say they don’t know there is a God. They willingly suppress this knowledge because “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Rom 1:19), it’s just that they don’t want to turn from their sins so they suppress this inward knowledge purposely. In other words, unbelief is a choice of the will and they suppress what is true as Paul writes, “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” (Rom 1:20). It is clear that Paul says they willingly suppress the truth of God, even though they know better, but they have no excuse at all. Clearly, unrepentant sinners “show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them” (Rom 2:15) since even the “Gentiles (the lost), who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law” (Rom 2:14).

Pantheism

Some who believe in Natural Theology or Natural Revelation have gone off the deep end by taking a deistic view of God, sort of like God created the universe, wound it up like a clock, and now sits back and waits for things to happen. That is so contrary to the biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God (Prov 21:1) that is cannot possibly be true. Others see nature and God as being the same thing in essence. It wants to synthesize every human philosophy, scientific fact, history, society and even matter itself with the God Who created it, but God is totally separate from His creation. He is over His creation but God is not the flowers, fauna, mountains or the even clouds. That reduces God into a cause or force or matter when God is a Person and wholly other from us and His creation. When you come down to it, it’s just simply humanism gone bad…and pantheism puts the focus on man and
nature and takes our focus off of God.

Conclusion

Natural Theology or Natural Revelation can never save a person because it isn’t enough to show them their need for a Savior. It is enough to make them have no excuse for the existence of God but not enough to really know God. Christianity is not about a religion but a personal relationship with God. We need God’s Spirit to help us drop the scales off of our eyes to be able to see, since we were once blind (2nd Cor 4:4), and just like dead men and women walking (Eph 2:1). We need to be renewed by the Spirit of God so that we can see our need for the Savior, Jesus Christ (Rom 12:2).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.