I would like to use an interesting little phenomenon of light as a springboard illustration for my larger point in this post. I have noticed this aspect of light for many years now, but it just dawned on me recently that it is typical of the sort of things I’m trying to do with these blog posts. Stand in a room with a chandelier or any multi-bulbed lighting fixture and you will notice no individuality in the illumination; it’s just one homogenous glow. The number of bulbs cannot be discerned with your back to them, their quantity only adds to the brightness. But step out of that room, close the door, leaving only a slight crack, and you will see that the light falling on the floor before you is not one, solitary shaft of light but rather divided lines, matching the number of bulbs from which they stream. Somehow, passing through that sliver of space between the door and its frame, causes the light to divide into the number of originating sources. In other words, the light is illuminating in more than one way; it carries information in its beams. I think the phenomenon is called diffraction, and it’s one of the strongest proofs that light is a wave, among other things. Just so, the light of general revelation – what can be known of God in His creation – is all around us, but it is the sharp edges of special revelation – the Bible – that divide that light and allows us to fully see its meanings. Allow me to explain.
Solomon wrote that “of the making of many books there is no end.” (Eccl. 12:12) It is estimated that 2.2 million books are published worldwide each year. To put that into further perspective, if you were to place each new book next to each other as it rolled off the presses, you would be moving at about ninety miles an hour just to keep up with the end of the line. That’s a lot of books! And while everyone would agree that not all books are of equal value, it can surely be understood how those outside our faith would think us rather narrow to find our sole foundation in a single volume of only sixty-six of them. But we are not playing the odds. That book tells us that it is the special revelation from the One who created all things, the only true God. That too is an extremely narrow position when one considers the literal pantheon of rival deities that are held out to us. But again, this is not a numbers game. Regardless of how many options there may be, the only question we must ask is, is one of them true to the exclusion of all others? The sheer abundance of options only adds to the weight of the question. How are we to know?
This question immediately raises another – how clearly has this Creator revealed Himself to His creatures? While at least portions of the Bible have been translated into some 2,711 languages, there are currently 7,106 living languages that we know of. Clearly, the spread of this book, with all the information it contains about our God, has a ways to go! But is this the only way He has revealed Himself and is He only proclaimed within its pages? This brings us to the point of my blog. I reference the passages of Romans 1 and Psalm 19 repeatedly because they are the heartbeat of all I write here. I’m passionate about it because the very character of God is at stake. Is He a good communicator? Does He care to make Himself known? Will any stand before Him on Judgment Day and say, “I didn’t know”? These passages and many more say no. These verses teach us that we are literally inundated with revelation. Creation “pours forth knowledge” (Ps. 19:2). “They are without excuse,” Romans 1:20 tells us because God Himself has “shown it to them.” (v. 19)
Then how can there be such rampant ignorance of God? How can anyone claim to not know Him? Because knowledge is a moral endeavor. “Why is there in the hand of a fool the price of wisdom, since he has no heart for it?” (Prov. 17:16) The knowledge of God is not a problem of the head, but of the heart. It’s an errant will that blinds them, not a lack of evidence. God Himself fills their hands with the price of wisdom, but they squander it on foolishness. We don’t need to convince anyone of the Creator’s existence. Romans 1:18 tells us they know the truth and “suppress it in unrighteousness.” The fear of the Lord is not just the beginning of wisdom (Pro. 9:10), but of knowledge itself! (Pro. 1:7) Then why waste time pointing to all the revelations around us? Why write a blog with example after example of the light of His testimony in the things of creation? Because “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Matt. 5:45) Because God is love and proclaiming the truth to those in the dark is to be like our Father in heaven. Remember, they know the truth and are actively suppressing it. Think how wearying that must be! My goal is to give you more “air” for that balloon of truth they are trying to hold down, in the hopes that by the mercies of God they may give up and bow their knee to their Maker. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Dear reader, dear listener, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” (2 Tim. 2:15) that you might know your God better and recognize His testimony in the general revelation all around us. Then point your neighbor to it, through that narrow gap of Scripture, that they too might see the light divide and understand where all of it comes from.
