Former American Press staff writer Sunny Brown Farley writes "Naked Faith," a look at faith in its natural form: lived out in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people.

Welcome to this world!

Posted May 1, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Filed Under Faith & Religion | 2 Comments

My theology begins with creation. More specifically, it begins with the way in which God reveals Godself to humankind through nature. This is called natural theology and it holds that something of God can be known through nature. I begin here because our first encounter with God is through creation. We are born into a natural world and not a vacuum. We experience this world before we have the capability to grasp deeper levels of revelation, like the special revelation of God through incarnation as Christ Jesus.

I believe the existence of nature begs the question: How did all of this come into being? Throughout the ages, humans have pondered the existence of humanity and nature. Scientists have looked beyond themselves and marveled at the organization of the planets and universe. They have looked within themselves and marveled at the organization within life – from the double-spiraled helix of DNA to the structure of organs in the body. To me, the complexity and organization of the universe and all its parts point to an architect or designer. I would agree with Origen when he said, “I do not understand how so many distinguished people have thought that [the organization of the world] was uncreated, that is to say, that it was not created by God, the creator of the world; or how they thought that its nature or action were the result of chance.”[1]

Daniel L. Migliore in his Faith Seeking Understanding talks about how the Scriptures also indicate that nature points to God. He cites Psalm 19:1, which says: “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.”[2] I would agree with Migliore that “the Bible teaches and experience confirms some revelation of God in the created order, in human conscious and in the lives of people who do not possess Mosaic law and who have not heard the gospel message.”[3]

A few years ago when I lived in New Zealand, a Maori friend of mine told me that the Maori readily accepted Christianity because, even before the first missionaries arrived, the island people had a belief in God. How might one explain this belief except that God revealed Godself to the Maori people through general revelation in nature? I believe that the Maori, and indeed many people of many nations, recognize that nature points to the overwhelming fact that there is a God.

[1] Alister E. McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 183.

[2] Introduction to Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004), 30.

[3] Ibid, 29-30.

Comments

2 Responses to “Welcome to this world!”

Randy on May 16th, 2008 6:05 am

Sunny — I enjoy reading your blog. I thought you might be interested in the following quote from George Washington Carver:
“To me Nature in its varied forms is the little windows through which God permits me to commune with Him, and to see much of His glory, by simply lifting the curtain and looking in. I love to think of Nature as wireless telegraph stations through which God speaks to us every day, every hour, and every moment of our lives.”
sbrown on May 25th, 2008 7:59 am

Very nice! Great to hear from you and I hope all is well in your life. =-)
-Sunny

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