While most Christians emphasize learning about God via His special revelation (i.e. The Bible), most fail to attribute the study of general revelation (i.e. Creation) as a way to "clearly see" God's "invisible attributes." We overlook this truth so often.
You see, I was robbed. The joy I have now discovered from studying science was stolen from me as a child. The truth was suppressed, clouded, and twisted by the lens of secular materialism. My well-intentioned teachers dryly distributed these lenses to their students. The lenses turned vivid colors to boring shades of gray. They turned my curious mind to mush, for I was told that in reality, the universe has no purpose and there is nothing that exists besides matter, space, and time.
What my teachers and I did not know was this: As scientific knowledge of the world has grown exponentially during the modern era (ironically fueled most often by secular materialists), so has risen clear evidence of an intelligent Creator responsible for the miraculous phenomena we call the universe.
I could spend my entire life pursuing the meaning of how creation speaks clearly of God's invisible attributes. What are those attributes of God we see from nature? "His eternal power and divine nature..." but there's more!
Here's some summarized evidence for characteristics of God we find in creation:
(taken from Strobel's Case for a Creator)
COSMOLOGY: The cause of the universe must be an uncaused, beginning less, timeless, immaterial, personal being endowed with free will and enormous power.
PHYSICS: The creator is intelligent and has continued involvement with his creation since the Big Bang.
ASTRONOMY: The creator was incredibly precise in creating a livable habitat for the creatures he designed. This logically implies his care and concern for them.
BIOCHEMISTRY: Affirms the Creator's activity after the Big Bang also shows that he is incredibly creative.
EVIDENCE FOR CONSCIOUSNESS: Established the creator as rational, helps understand his omnipresence, and even suggests life after death.
In addition, one purpose we can see in all this is that humans have been designed uniquely to be able to explore the world the creator has designed and in turn discover him through it.
Here's the list of the "invisible attributes" of God we clearly see from creation. Scripture is cited with each characteristic to show how both general and special revelation are perfectly consistent:
1) CREATOR
Psalm 102:25 "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands."
2) UNIQUE
Deuteronomy 4:35 "You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other."
3) UNCAUSED AND TIMELESS
Psalm 90:2 "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."
4) IMMATERIAL
John 4:24 "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
5) PERSONAL
Genesis 17:1 "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless."
6) FREEDOM OF WILL
Genesis 1:3 "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light."
7) INTELLIGENT AND RATIONAL
Psalm 104:24 "How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures."
8) ENORMOUSLY POWERFUL
Nahum 1:3 "The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet."
9) CREATIVE
Psalm 139:13-14 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
10) CARING
Psalm 33:5 "The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love."
11) OMNIPRESENT
I Kings 8:27 "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"
12) HAS GIVEN HUMANKIND PURPOSE
Colossians 1:16 "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him."
13) PROVIDES FOR LIFE AFTER DEATH
Isaiah 25:8 "he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken."
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