God.

Where do you begin a discussion about God? Where does it end? No matter what the topic or where you start, you will never be able to exhaust it as it relates to God because He is infinite in all of His attributes. Pick any attribute of God and you can only exhaust your own limited knowledge of the subject, never the extent of God’s nature. So no matter what is said or written, it is never, really enough. But there is no subject with such depth, with such weight, no subject that more piques the interests the inquisitive, human mind, than the subject of the infinite, omniscient, omnipotent Most, High God that inhabits eternity! That is why I want to talk about God.

The first thing I would point out is that there is no man, woman or child, no nation, country or tribe, no culture, creed or community, no tongue, dialect or speech that cannot know that God exists. The Psalmist plainly said:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1).

Observe that this text doesn’t say that the Bible says that the heavens declare God’s glory (though that is true, as well), it says that the heavens tell us this. When an honest, thoughtful and unbiased mind looks at the heavens, it is compelled to consider that this wondrous universe is the product of design and causation. I urge you to go check out one of the many videos on Youtube regarding the immensity of the universe and ask yourself if it is reasonable to believe that this “just happened.” The fact of the universe compels us to believe in a Creator. One could look inwardly and know the same thing, as well (cf. Psalm139:14). No matter the scale, the arguments from Causation, Design and Morality cannot be successfully denied or refuted. There are logical, formal arguments for these three important ideas, but we’ll leave these to another time.

Next, the inspired Psalmist says:

“Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:2-4).

Every day the heavens declare the glory of God in an unuttered speech that can be understood by every sound, human mind and night after night the knowledge of the glory of God is shown the world over under every starry sky. Every human speech and language understands this powerful declaration and every tribe and community hears and understand this unspoken tongue. These words declaring God’s glory have gone out through all the earth unto the ends of the world. No one can stop their ears to the message and no one can so close his eyes as to not see the glory of God. The sun and the moon and the stars all sing forth the praises of the Almighty (Psalm 148:3,4). Even ancient Pythagoras spoke of the “music of the spheres” and Maltbie D. Babcock captured the idea in his Hymn, This Is My Father’s World.

“This is my Father’s world,
And to my list’ning ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas—
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.”

Again, the Psalmist said:

“In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof “ (Psalm 19:5,6).

The whole universe over, the glory of God is shown. No place escapes this universal declaration of His existence, power and praise.

Now, the apostle Paul added that, that “which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shown it unto them” (Rom. 1:19). The “them” are those who receive the “wrath of God” because they do not obey Him. He says that they are without excuse (v. 20) because God hath shown certain things to them. What things has God shown them and us? “Even His eternal power and Godhead”(Rom. 1:20). Thus, Paul says that we may know these five things from the declaration of the heavens: 1) that there is a God, 2) that God is a Person, 3) that God is eternal, 4) that God is powerful, and 5) that there are certain attributes that make up His character, His Godhead (Godhood).

We can add to this list two other important attributes, namely that 1) Nature is an intentional witness to a Creator and 2) that that Creator is good. Paul said to the Lystrans,“Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). Again, Paul did not say that this was learned from written revelation, though that is also true. Rather, Paul said the rain and fruitful seasons and food and gladness themselves were a witness to the fact that there is a God and He is good. It was intentionally designed to be a witness to Himself.

This in no way should suggest to us that the witness of Nature is all we need to know about God. It only reveals the vaguest of outlines of His Majesty. But it is enough to cause us to seek Him further because He is not far from every one of us (Acts 17:27). It is enough to remove every excuse from every individual attempting to justify their rejection of His existence and sovereignty. No man will be able to raise his fist at God at judgment and justifiably say, “But I didn’t know…” The revelation of God in nature should drive our inquiring minds to come to know this Creator more intimately so that we can understand who we are and what we may become.

This is as good a place as any to stop for the moment in our inquiry into the Divine. But it will be only a momentary pause.

Eric L. Padgett

“O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds, Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. When through the woods, and forest glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur, And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art.”