Creation is Speaking by Joe Gerhart

An Essay on General and Special Revelation

It was a beautiful fall day in October.  I had taken much of the day to travel up to Potter County, and though I knew that evening I was leading prayer meeting, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say during the devotional time.  As the miles passed, a thought came into my mind.  Some may say I was prompted by the Spirit of God, and to that I cannot argue, I too believe God was directing me.  The colors of fall were just starting to bleed through the canopy of green and I knew what God wanted me to share that night.  I pulled over on the side of Wykoff Run Road, and got to work.  I found a little maple tree and began collecting leaves that had just started to turn the most beautiful yellows, oranges and reds.  That night, I handed them to the people gathered in the room and asked them to look at it. Not glance at it. Look at it for several minutes. As we sat quietly and paid attention to something most of us had seen thousands of times before I asked them in their small groups to write down what they noticed; the veins running through it, the variations in color, the texture, the symmetry, the imperfections. All of the little details that disappear when a leaf is merely something beneath our feet.

Then I began asking questions. “What kind of tree did this come from?”  That one was easy. A maple.  “But what kind of maple tree?”  The leaf had revealed something about the tree from which it came. Its shape and veins told them something. Its structure and design gave them enough information to correctly identify its source.  Eventually one of the groups spoke up and correctly identified it was a sugar maple. Then I asked another question. “Where is the tree?”  There were some guesses, educated guesses too.  Some thought I had grabbed it from my tree-stand behind the house, but no one knew for sure. Another question.  “How tall is the tree the leaves came from?” They didn’t know that either, but their guesses ranged from 50-100 feet tall.  I could have kept the line of questions coming:  What did the ground around it look like? Were there other maples nearby? Did its branches stretch over the road? Was it growing in a field, along a stream, or against the edge of the woods?  The leaf could not tell them. And yet they were holding something that had actually come from that tree. That little exercise has stayed with me because I think creation works much the same way.

The world around us tells us something true about the One from whom it came. A sunrise tells us something. So does the intricate wing of a bird, the antlers of a bull elk disappearing into September fog, the stars scattered across a clear winter sky, or even a maple leaf lying alongside an old Pennsylvania road.

Creation is not silent.   “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1) Paul goes even further in Romans, writing that God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been understood from what He has made. There is a name for this in Christian theology: general revelation.

God has left His fingerprints everywhere. We can look at what He has made and perceive something of His creativity, His order, His power, His beauty, His wisdom, and His generosity. The creation bears witness to its Creator. But the maple leaf taught us something else that evening. There are limits to what the leaf can tell us. Those gathered in that room could correctly identify the kind of tree from which it came, but none of them could tell me where that tree stood. They could study the leaf for hours. They could measure it, photograph it, examine its cells beneath a microscope, and catalog every detail. But there were some things they could never know from the leaf alone. Someone had to tell them.  I knew where the tree stood because I had been there. And this is where the analogy becomes far more important than a maple leaf. Creation can tell us that there is a Creator. It can reveal something true about His character. It can awaken wonder in us and cause us to ask questions larger than ourselves. But creation cannot tell us the whole story.  For that, God had to speak. And He has.

The Bible’s claim is not simply that God can be discovered if human beings look hard enough. Its claim is that God has chosen to make Himself known. Creation speaks truly about God, but Scripture repeatedly presents God as the One who goes further—He speaks, acts, reveals His character, gives His name, makes promises, enters history, and ultimately comes to us in the person of His Son.  This is what Christians refer to as special revelation.

God Has Spoken

The movement can be seen almost immediately in Psalm 19. David begins with creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands (Psalm 19:1).” Day after day, creation pours forth speech, testifying that it is not self-made. It bears witness to glory, order, beauty, and power. But halfway through the psalm, something changes. David moves from the heavens to the Word: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul (Psalm 19:7).”  Creation declares and God speaks.  And what God says through His Word is more specific than what can be learned by looking at the heavens. The sky can display His glory, but it cannot tell us His commands. A mountain can reveal His power, but it cannot tell us what righteousness requires. A maple leaf may testify to wisdom and design, but it cannot tell us what God desires from His creatures. For that, God must speak.

Throughout Scripture, God in fact does exactly that. He calls Abraham. He speaks to Moses from the burning bush. He reveals His name. He gives His law. He sends prophets who repeatedly begin their messages with some variation of the words: “Thus says the Lord.” In fact, the whole biblical story is filled with a God who refuses to remain unknown.

Revelation Is Something God Gives

There is an important distinction here. Christianity does not begin with humanity climbing upward toward God. It begins with God revealing Himself downward to humanity. Deuteronomy 29:29 captures this: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” There are things about God we could never discover by investigation. We know them only because He has chosen to reveal them.

That means revelation is ultimately an act of grace, undeserved love. God does not owe us an explanation of Himself; yet He speaks. He tells us who He is. He tells us what He is like and why we exist. He tells us what has gone wrong with the world. And eventually, He tells us what He has done to redeem it.

God’s Revelation Comes to Its Climax in Jesus

The clearest statement of this progression may be found at the beginning of Hebrews 1:1-2: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”  It is imperative that we notice that God spoke first. He spoke through prophets. He spoke in different times and different ways. But then something climactic happened. God sent His Son.

The gospel of John describes it even more dramatically: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).” The God who created the world stepped into the world He created. Special revelation therefore reaches far beyond a collection of divine statements. It is centered on a Person, Jesus Christ. Jesus is not merely someone who tells us about God. He reveals God to us because He is the “image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).” John continues: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son… has made him known (John 1:18).” And in the book of Hebrews, the author says Jesus is, “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3).”

If creation shows us the fingerprints of God, Jesus shows us the Father. That does not mean we comprehend everything about the infinite God, we never will. It does mean, however, that God has given us true knowledge of Himself because He has revealed Himself in His Son.

Creation Cannot Tell Us the Gospel

This may be the most important distinction between general and special revelation. Creation can tell us that there is glory but it cannot tell us about Golgotha. Creation can show us beauty, but it cannot explain the cross. Creation can give us tremendous displays of power, but it cannot display the power of resurrection. Creation can provoke wonder but it cannot announce the forgiveness of sins. The sunrise cannot tell us the name of Jesus.  

Paul makes this especially clear in Romans 10:13 when he writes: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But then he asks a series of questions. How can people call on someone they have not believed in? How can they believe in someone they have not heard about? How can they hear unless someone tells them? And then Paul concludes:  “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17).” That is something no forest, mountain, ocean, or night sky can communicate. They often awaken the question, but they cannot give the answer. They can point beyond themselves, but cannot preach Christ crucified and risen. Saving knowledge requires special revelation.

Scripture Gives Us an Authoritative Witness to God’s Revelation

This is also why Scripture matters so deeply. The Bible is not simply a collection of human attempts to describe spiritual experiences. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed.” And Peter declares in 2 Peter 1:21 that the prophets did not simply invent their message: “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Scripture therefore becomes the authoritative means by which we know what God has revealed. And this matters tremendously whenever we talk about seeing God in creation. Nature tells the truth about its Creator, but because we are not neutral interpreters, we can misunderstand what we see. Two people can look at the same sunset and reach completely different conclusions about what it means. One may see the handiwork of God, while another only sees physics. This is why creation cannot become our Bible. Scripture must interpret creation, rather than creation interpreting Scripture. Bearing Witness can look deeply at creation. It can pay attention, wonder and ask questions. But our conclusions about God must ultimately be tested by what God has actually revealed about Himself.

The Leaf and the Tree

That takes me back to the maple leaf. The people gathered that night at prayer meeting could learn real things about the tree simply by examining its leaf. They could rightly identify it and study its structure. But there were things the leaf could never tell them. Someone who knew the tree had to speak.  Creation is much the same. It tells the truth about its Maker. The heavens really do declare His glory. The created world really does display His power and wisdom. So pay attention. Look closely and let creation awaken wonder. But do not ask creation to tell you what only God can reveal. Creation can tell us there is glory. It is God who tells us His name.  Creation can make us wonder whether Someone is there, but Scripture tells us that Someone has spoken. Creation can show us His fingerprints. Jesus shows us the Father. And ultimately, the good news of Christianity is not simply that human beings have looked at the world and concluded that there must be a God. It is that the God who made the world has made Himself known. And He has spoken most clearly through His Son.