A Conservative
Christian View of
the Environment
The Belgic Confession - 1561A.D.
ARTICLE 2
By What Means God Is Made Known Unto Us
We know Him by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and
government of the universe; which is before our eyes as a most elegant book,
wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters leading us to
see clearly the invisible things of God, even his everlasting power and divinity,
as the apostle Paul says (Romans 1:20). All which things are sufficient to
convince men and leave them without excuse. Second, He makes Himself
more clearly and fully known to us by His holy and divine Word, that is to say,
as far as is necessary for us to know in this life, to His glory and our salvation.
“It is not a mere external revelation of which the apostle is
speaking, but of the evidence of the being and perfections of
God which every man has in the constitution of his own
nature, and in virtue of which he is competent to apprehend
the manifestations of God in his works. . . This knowledge is a
revelation; it is the manifestation of God in his works, and in
the constitution of our nature.”
Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 36.
Romans 1:32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that
those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do
the same but also approve of those who practice them.
“This realization of God’s righteous decrees was not learned but
was implanted in the human soul by God”
Bruce A. Demarest, General Revelation: Historical Views and Contemporary Issues, 231
Romans 2:14-15 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by
nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law,
are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between
themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)
“There never was a nation so barbarous or
inhuman that it did not regulate life by some
form of law. . . . We see clearly from that that
there are certain original conceptions of right
and wrong which are imprinted on the hearts of
men by nature.”
John Calvin, Institutes, I.iii.1.
In addition to an a priori knowledge of God, Paul focuses
on knowledge that man acquires by rational reflection on
the created order.
Romans 1:19-21 because what may be known of God is manifest in
them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify
Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and
their foolish hearts were darkened.
“The knowledge of God must in this context be the knowledge
derived from the manifestation given in the visible creation. It is of
this manifestation the apostle is speaking and it is the manifestation
that is stated in verse 20 to leave men without excuse. Therefore
the cognitive perception elicited from the manifestation of God’s
glory in the visible creation is spoken of as ‘knowing God.’ The
inexcusableness resides in the fact that being in possession of this
knowledge they did not render to God the glory and thanks which
the knowledge they possessed ought to have constrained.”
John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, 41
“But just what does Paul mean when he claims that human beings ‘see’ and
‘understand’ from the creation and history that a powerful God exists? Some think that
Paul is asserting only that people have around them the evidence of God’s existence
and basic qualities; whether people actually perceive it or become personally
conscious of it is not clear. But Paul’s wording suggests more than this. He asserts that
people actually come to ‘understand’ something about God’s existence and nature.”
“How universal is this perception? The flow of Paul’s argument makes any limitation
impossible. Those who perceive the attributes of God in creation must be the same as
those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness and are therefore liable to the wrath
of God. Paul make clear that this includes all people.”
Douglas J.Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 105
But this glory they invested stocks and stones with. As then he which is entrusted with the goods
of the king, and is ordered to spend them upon the king’s glory, if he waste these upon robbers,
and harlots, and witches, and make these splendid out of the king’s stores, he is punished as
having done the kingdom the greatest wrong. Thus they also who after having received the
knowledge of God and of His glory, invested idols therewith, “held the truth in unrighteousness,”
and, at least as far as was in their power, dealt unrighteously by the knowledge, by not using it
upon fitting objects. The knowledge of Himself God placed in men from the beginning. But this
knowledge they invested stocks and stones with, and so dealt unrighteously to the truth, as far at
least as they might. For it abideth unchanged, having its own glory immutable.
Whence was it plain then? did He send them a voice from above? By no means. But what was
able to draw them to Him more than a voice, that He did, by putting before them the Creation, so
that both wise, and unlearned, and Scythian, and barbarian, having through sight learned the
beauty of the things which were seen, might mount up to God. Wherefore he says,
Ver. 20. “For the invisible things of Him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things which are made.”
John Chrysostom, Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans, 351–352.
And he said, in them rather than to them, for the sake of greater emphasis:
for though the Apostle adopts everywhere Hebrew phrases, and ‫ב‬, beth, is
often redundant in that language, yet he seems here to have intended to
indicate a manifestation, by which they might be so closely pressed, that they
could not evade; for every one of us undoubtedly finds it to be engraven on
his own heart.
By saying, that God has made it manifest, he means, that man was created to
be a spectator of this formed world, and that eyes were given him, that he
might, by looking on so beautiful a picture, be led up to the Author himself.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans , 69–70.
Everyone naturally has a general idea that there is a God [...] But someone may
object: "If all people know God, why does Paul say that before the proclamation
of the gospel the Galatians did not know God?" I reply that there is a twofold
knowledge of God [duplex est cognitio Dei], general and particular. All people
have the general knowledge, namely that God exists, that he has created heaven
and earth, that he is righteous, that he punishes the wicked, etc. But people do
not know what God proposes concerning us, what he wants to give and to do, so
that he might deliver us from sin and death, and to save us - which is the proper
and true knowledge of God [propria et vera est cognitio Dei]. Thus it can happen
that someone's face may be familiar to me but I do not really know him,
because I do not know his intentions.
Martin Luther
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/galatians.vii.html Gal 4:8
(from 1535 Lectures on Galatians, in p.99, The Christian Theology Reader ed by A McGrath)
Truly, if such are the good things of time, what will be those of eternity? If such
is the beauty of visible things, what shall we think of invisible things? If the
grandeur of heaven exceeds the measure of human intelligence, what mind
shall be able to trace the nature of the everlasting? If the sun, subject to
corruption, is so beautiful, so grand, so rapid in its movement, so invariable in
its course; if its grandeur is in such perfect harmony with and due proportion to
the universe: if, by the beauty of its nature, it shines like a brilliant eye in the
middle of creation; if finally, one cannot tire of contemplating it, what will be
the beauty of the Sun of Righteousness? If the blind man suffers from not
seeing the material sun, what a deprivation is it for the sinner not to enjoy the
true light! – Basil
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/32016.htm
But in addition to what has been said, follow me whilst I enumerate the meadows, the gardens, the
various tribes of flowers; all sorts of herbs, and their uses; their odours, forms, disposition, yea, but
their very names; the trees which are fruitful, and which are barren; the nature of metals,—and of
animals,—in the sea, or on the land; of those that swim, and those that traverse the air; the
mountains, the forests, the groves; the meadow below, and the meadow above; for there is a
meadow on the earth, and a meadow too in the sky; the various flowers of the stars; the rose below,
and the rainbow above! Would you have me point out also the meadow of birds? Consider the
variegated body of the peacock, surpassing every dye, and the fowls of purple plumage.
Contemplate with me the beauty of the sky; how it has been preserved so long without being
dimmed; and remains as bright and clear as if it had been only fabricated to-day; moreover, the
power of the earth, how its womb has not become effete by bringing forth during so long a time!
Contemplate with me the fountains; how they burst forth and fail not, since the time they were
begotten, to flow forth continually throughout the day and night! Contemplate with me the sea,
receiving so many rivers, yet never exceeding its measure! But how long shall we pursue things
unattainable! It is fit, indeed, that over every one of these which has been spoken of, we should say,
“O Lord, how hast Thou magnified Thy works; in wisdom hast Thou made them all.” – Chrysostom
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers2/NPNF1-09/npnf1-09-60.htm
The Great Master Author has sent forth several volumes; among the rest is one called the
“Book of Revelation,” and another styled the “Volume of Creation.” We have been reading
the Word-volume and expounding it for years, we are now perusing the Work-volume, and
are engrossed in some of its most glowing pages. Our love for the sacred book of letters and
words has not diminished but increased our admiration for the hieroglyphics of the flood
and field. That man perversely mistakes folly for wisdom who persists in undervaluing one
glorious poem by a famous author, in order to show his zeal for a second epic from the
same fertile pen. It is the mark of a feeble mind to despise the wonders of nature because
we prize the treasures of salvation. He who built the lofty skies is as much our Father as he
who hath spoken to us by his own Son, and we should reverently adore HIM who in
creation decketh himself with majesty and excellency, even as in revelation HE arrayeth
himself in glory and beauty….
Modern fanatics who profess to be so absorbed in heavenly things that they are
blind to the most marvelous of Jehovah’s handiwork, should go to school, with
David as the schoolmaster, and learn to “consider the heavens,” and should sit with
Job upon the dunghill of their pride, while the Lord rehearses the thundering
stanzas of creation’s greatness, until they cry with the patriarch, “I have heard of
thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore, I abhor
myself and repent in dust and ashes.” For our part, we feel that what was worth the
Lord’s making, richly deserves the attention of the most cultivated and purified
intellect; and we think it blasphemy against God himself to speak slightingly of his
universe, as if, forsooth, we poor puny mortals were too spiritual to be interested in
that matchless architecture which made the morning stars sing together and caused
the sons of God to shout for joy.
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
http://www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/engl2itl.htm
Dover Beach
BY MATTHEW ARNOLD
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
‘Ignorant’ is the key to understanding the depth of Arnold’s horror
at his discovery of the neutrality of a nature that cannot be
invested with that long list of pastoral comforts. To describe the
forces of nature as ‘ignorant’ is to admit that they do not possess
an intrinsic drive towards the harmony of a heavenly plan. It is as
though we are a species swept along in a struggle together with
the ignorant armies of apes from which we derive. . . That the
natural world can no longer be constructed as a ‘land of dreams’,
but is in fact a bleak battle for survival without divine purpose.
Terry Gifford, Pastoral, 119-120
Changes in the perception of nature accompanied the changes in
religion. Before 1859, religion and science-and art- were pretty much in
harmony with one another. Conservative, liberal, and radical
theologians took solace in the scientific picture of an orderly universe.
For traditional believers, nature pointed to its Creator and to the moral
truths that have their origin in His character.
Then cam Darwin. The Origen of the Species, published in 1859 laid the
groundwork for a worldview that was completely antithetical both to
the biblical cosmology of the Hudson River School and to the Romantic
nature mysticism of the Transcendentalists. Contrary to Humboldt,
Darwin argued that nature is not harmonious but filled with conflict. . .
Darwin’s theory of evolution shattered Humboldt’s orderly cosmos, as
Gould shows, and with it the religious view of nature.
Gene Edward Veith, Painters of Faith: The Spiritual Landscape in the Nineteenth-century America,
128-129
“If only the Geologists would let me alone, I could do
very well, but those dreadful Hammers! I hear the clink
of them at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses.”
– John Ruskin
Nature never taught me that there exists a God of
glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in
other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning
for me. I still do not know where else I could have
found one. I do not see how the “fear” of God could
have ever meant to me anything but the lowest
prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen
certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, 20
To say that we possess no visual image of God, however, is not to say that we are without images. When
we open the Bible, we discover that God presents unseen realities to us through a dazzling array of
images and word pictures. The Lord is pictured as a shepherd, a rock, a tower, a farmer, a mighty king, a
jilted husband, a warrior, a shield, a dwelling place, a banner, a consuming fire, and (most significantly) as
a father. Christ is depicted as a branch, a stone, a mother hen, a lamb, a lion, a road, a builder, a lawyer, a
good shepherd. Sin is envisioned as missing the mark, leaving a path, and stepping across a boundary.
Salvation is described as release from slavery, payment of a debt, adoption as an heir, a judge’s
proclamation, a new birth, and a peace treaty. God is depicted in bodily terms as opening His hand,
putting His feet on a stool, throwing His shoe, inclining His ear, writing with His finger, winning a victory
with His arm, hiding His face, and opening His eyes. He rides on a cloud, casts a shadow, girds Himself,
lays a foundation, changes His vesture, battles the monster Rahab, sings with joy, and walks on the wings
of the wind. These images all open ways of envisioning realities that are otherwise invisible to us.
The categories by which we conceptualize God and eternity, heaven and hell, sin and redemption must be
imagined in order to be understood. In a certain sense, our entire knowledge of God depends upon
images that we encounter within experienced (immanent) reality.
- Kevin Bauder
http://www.centralseminary.edu/resources/nick-of-time/274-the-importance-of-imagination-part-five-imaginingthe-transcendent
The message of this book … is called forth by a condition which has existed in the
Church for some years and is steadily growing worse. I refer to the loss of the concept
of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty
concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly
unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by
little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation
all the more tragic.
The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a
hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of Christian life
has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.
With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and
consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability
to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not
producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit.
A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy