A Biblical Case for Natural Theology
Christians have traditionally affirmed natural law or theology. The Belgic Confession (1561) represents one of the three from of unity for reformed churches and affirms, “We know God by two means”: creation and revelation (Art 2). This confession represents the opinion of a diverse group of Reformers (Richard Hooker, Franciscus Junius, Girolamo Zanchi, Peter Virmigli, Anthony Burgess, Francis Turretin, Petrus van Mastricht, and others).
But some 20th-century theologians have challenged this common notion (pun intended!). Karl Barth wrote his (in)famous response to Emil Brunner in which he said Nein! to natural theology. Elsewhere he wrote: “Christian theology has no use at all for the offer of natural theology, however it may be expressed.” (CD, 1.2 168). In the same century, Cornelius Van Til heavily qualified the prospects of natural theology.
In light of these recent challenges, ought we to affirm natural theology today? And how should we understand natural theology? I believe the answer to the first question is Yes. And the answer to the second question appears in Scripture because Scripture itself affirms the reality of natural theology.
Defining Terms
By natural theology, I mean that humans can discern God’s existence, his moral law, and traces of his providential reign from nature. Unregenerate people, therefore, ought to know God and to will to serve him but do not will to do so because of sin (Rom 1:19–21). Regenerate people ought to know God and to will to serve him and can do so by the Holy Spirit.
Whatever nature teaches, Scripture teaches more clearly and with ultimate authority. And only God’s revelation in Christ can save.
God’s existence
The following biblical arguments for natural theology primarily make sense for believers since they can discern reality rightly (1 Cor 2:15). Yet Scripture affirms that natural people know God although they sadly exchange his glory for idols made in their image (Rom 1:21). These arguments still hold true for them in terms of what they ought to affirm.
Nature makes God’s invisible attributes known (Romans 1:19–20)
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 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.
Nature proclaims God’s glory (Ps 19:1–6)
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
God orders nature so that people should seek him (Acts 17:26–28)
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Each passage cited indicates that God through creation reveals certain truths about himself. First, his invisible attributes are clearly perceived in nature. Second, nature “reveals knowledge” such that through the effects of nature we can know that God is glorious (cf. Ps 94:9). Third, God’s providence (the effects of it) aim to bring people to God.
God’s moral law
God has implanted his moral law into creation by writing it on the tablet of the human heart. The conscience discerns the heart to judge between right and wrong. Beyond this innate knowledge, it is possible to acquire further knowledge about morality through nature since nature comes from God.
God imprinted his moral law on the hearts of humans (Romans 2:14–15)
For when Gentiles, 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. They 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.
A traditional reformed interpretation of this passage involves God’s post-Fall work of inscribing the law on the hearts of fallen people. For this reason, people have the ability to discern right from wrong. Due to sin, however, people sin despite their conscience convicting them of the wrongness of actions. Hence, God’s moral law functions to prove the guilt of humanity (Rom 1:18; Rom 3:19).
Nature teaches us moral lessons (Proverbs 6:6–11)
Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man
Biblical authors sifted through Egyptian wisdom (Proverbs 22:17-24:22)
Proverbs 22:17-24:22 borrows the language and thought of the Instruction of Amenemope, which dates to around or after 1,300 BC (Robert Alter 2019: 3:340, 346). Now, Proverbs does not borrow Amenemope like a direct citation. But the pattern of wisdom, the similarity of language, and overall overlap suggest a close connection.
Likely, this commonality simply means that Solomon and his court had international ties to Egypt. They heard common wisdom and recast it for faithful Israelites in ways appropriate to biblical wisdom. The point here is that Solomon (or his wise men) found it beneficial to discern what is true and good in ANE wisdom literature. They neither adopted it wholesale nor rejected it outright. They recast it into a believing frame.
And if John Ruffle is right, Proverbs overlaps with natural wisdom from various sources. Thus, Proverbs shows how inspired wisdom often overlaps with natural wisdom. The major difference, of course, is that Proverbs lay wisdom out before the Fear of the Lord. But the moral law as Romans 2:14–15 notes has impressed itself on all people so that sometimes natural wisdom gets it right (and at other times, not so much).*
God’s providential reign
God reigns through his providence. We can see his providential hand at work through common grace such as civic authorities, the ability to learn crafts, and the various boundaries that God has embedded into nature.
God appoints governmental authorities who restrain evil according to their natural capacity (Rom 13:1–7)
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Romans 13 not only affirms the reality of God’s moral law since it assumes authorities will enforce goodness and punish evil, but it also demonstrates that God reigns through authorities. They are “servants” and “ministers of God.”
God through nature teaches farmers to farm (Isaiah 28:23–26)
Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.
Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer as the border?
For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.
Through nature, God instructs people in their trades and vocations. There is only one teacher in heaven, and his name is the Lord God. Even the farmer who learns his trade by tilling the soil learns from God. Farming is divine work.
Animal life points to God’s activity (Job 12:7–9)
But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
God has decreed the weather (Job 28:26)
He made a decree for the rain
and a way for the lightning of the thunder
God has decreed barriers of land and sea (Jeremiah 5:22)
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
Creation demonstrates God’s steadfast love (Psalm 33:5–6)
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
God decreed human boundaries and that they should seek him (Acts 17:26–28)
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
God decrees where humanity lives (Deut 32:8). And he has done so so that humans should “seek God” and “perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.” The assumption here is that they do not find him because Paul explains, “Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.” Paul cites affirmatively Epimenides and Aratus to confirm his insight.
That insight is: (1) God gives being to all people, that is, life; and (2) humanity is the offspring of God. In this sense, Acts 17 also proves that nature demonstrates God’s existence. Yet it does so in a measured way. Paul does not say that pagans actually found God but that he is “not far from each of us.”
Reflections
The Bible clearly affirms some sort of natural theology. Nature reveals God, his moral law, and his providential reign. To apply a more formal definition to answer what this natural theology is, we can turn to our theological past. Francis Turretin, for example, defines natural theology in this way: “The orthodox … uniformly teach that there is a natural theology, partly innate (derived from the book of conscience by means of common notions [koinas ennoias]) and partly acquired (drawn from the book of creatures discursively)” (Institutes 1:6).
Common notions embedded in all people provide first principles for reasoning while acquired knowledge furthers this knowledge. So everyone can affirm common notions like an animal cannot be both a horse and a cat at the same time in the same way or like murder is wrong. These innate notions get supplemented through acquired notions, such as learning that abortion too is wrong (because it constitutes unlawful deaths).
None of these things lead to building sacred theology or entering into salvation. Apart from some notable exceptions, Christians have traditionally avoided any hint that natural theology could build into a salvific theology! Scriptural revelation provides clear and salvific revelation. Nature only contains what is already contained in Scripture but with less clarity. Scripture also contains more revelation that nature could ever reveal (e.g., the Trinity).
So Christians must know the limits of philosophical reason. And we must affirm the priority and sufficiency of Scripture. In this regard, Thomas Aquinas is helpful. Aquinas explains how sacred doctrine and natural theology relate:
“Sacred doctrine makes use of these authorities as extrinsic and probable arguments; but properly uses the authority of the canonical Scriptures as an incontrovertible proof, and the authority of the doctor of the Church as one that may properly be used, yet merely as probable. For our faith rests upon the revelation made to the apostles and prophets who wrote the canonical books, and not on the revelations (if any such there are) made to other doctors” (ST, I. Q1. 8.).
For Aquinas, sacred doctrine may only use “the canonical Scriptures as an incontrovertible proof.” Teachers of the church (i.e., theologians) provide probable but fallible proofs. And unbelieving reason only provides “extrinsic and probable arguments.” It is extrinsic because outside of the faith; and probable because it does not rely on sure authority.
Instead, as Aquinas avers, “our faith rests upon the revelation made to the apostles and prophets who wrote the canonical books.” And as Aquinas writes elsewhere, "Only the canonical Scriptures are normative for faith" (Joan. 21, Lect. 6, qtd in Lamb 1966: 19).”
While natural theology can lead to grasping true notions due to innate common notions and the ability to acquire knowledge, it has its limits. These limits also involve the reality of a fallen humanity. Fallen humans can intellectually grasp what they ought to plainly know, but they suppress that same truth in unbelief (Rom 1:19).
Still, this only proves that God exists. Sin and corruption blind humanity because fallen people suppress the truth. In this sense, natural theology does not provide common ground that leads to the Gospel (a concern of Van Til). Natural theology merely affirms what is true about creation: common notions and acquired knowledge exist. And of course, believing reason by the Spirit can discern reality more clearly than unbelieving reason.
Unbelievers may know the fact that God exists. But apart from revelation, it is impossible to know what or who God is. Natural theology involves common notions that can lead to affirming God’s existence, his moral law, and his providence. But only revelation can save. After salvation, sanctified reason can rightly discern how to use natural theology.
The right use of natural theology will always mean that Scripture remains the final and ultimate authority—natural theology remains a probable argument in contrast to Scripture which provides infallible and divine truth.
Besides, nature says nothing that Scripture does not already say and with much more clarity. Or in the words of Petrus van Mastricht, “For whatever natural knowledge has, revealed knowledge provides the same in its entirety, and that much more perfectly” (TPT, 1.2.2., p 2:55).
Conclusions
Nature provides sufficient evidence to know God, morality, and providence exist. It also means that people can acquire practical wisdom and use common notions to discern right from wrong. Everyone affirms the law of non-contradiction (a first principle of reason) and that murder is wrong (a first principle of morality). Everyone can further acquire knowledge of the world and of wisdom, reasoning back to their causes.
Nature cannot, however, perfectly demonstrate these matters because of fallen reason and our fallen desires. Nature cannot tell us what or who God is; only revelation can.
*(Note Norman Whybray and Ruffle pushed back against the borrowing thesis (which I do not argue for in any case)). But J. A. Emerton responded to these concerns in: Emerton, J. A. "The Teaching of Amenemope and Proverbs XXII 17-XXIV 22: Further Reflections on a Long-Standing Problem." Vetus Testamentum 51, no. 4 (2001): 431-65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1585675.))