Theme C God 4
- Created by: Sia11
- Created on: 09-10-21 14:32
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- Theme C God: General Revelation
- General Revelation as
a way of understanding the divine
- This is a revelation available to anyone at any
time. The person involved has to interpret their experience as teaching them
something about God.
- For example, reading scripture such as the Bible teaches you that God is loving, The Quran teaches that Allah is the absolute, eternal power.
- Nature also provides general revelations.
- People might feel awe and wonder at God’s power when seeing a storm or watching a sunset or they might deduce from looking at the design, purpose and intricacy in things like the human eye or solar system that only God could have designed and created everything.
- This is a revelation available to anyone at any
time. The person involved has to interpret their experience as teaching them
something about God.
- How general revelation provides the idea of the
divine
- Omnipotent: Scripture teaches about God’s
omnipotence. Nature also shows God’s omnipotence. He has
the power to create everything. He carefully designed things like the human
eye.
- Genesis states “God created the heavens and earth. He said “let there be light” and there was light”
- Surah 112 says “The eternal, the absolute” and teaches that Allah is in control of everything.
- Omniscient: Scripture shows God’s omniscience. Being in a religious building or in
nature is another example of a general revelation which shows that God is
omniscient as people there may feel God is watching over them at all times.
- The Quran teaches that Allah knows everything we do and will judge us for this on Judgement Day.
- The Bible says “before I formed you in the womb I knew you” showing God knows everything even before it happens.
- Personal: Scripture
shows a personal God. Nature also shows a personal God. God is understood by Paley as the
designer who carefully crafts us and our environment.
- The Quran refers to Allah as “the merciful” and “the beneficent” showing his caring characteristics.
- The Bible teaches of a personal God:the incarnation “the word was God” “for God so loved the world he gave his only son.”
- Impersonal: Scripture shows the impersonal, mysterious and
unknowable aspects of God.
- Surah 112 says “there is none like him.”
- The Father of the Trinity creates us and is prayed to by Jesus but is not knowable as Jesus is.
- Nature also shows the impersonal nature of God. The presence of a higher power felt when experiencing a storm, force of nature or beautiful sunset is ‘other’/numinous (Otto)
- Immanent: General revelation teaches of an immanent God. The creation
of new, sacred life, the power and beauty behind a sunset can all be seen as
God within the world.
- The Gospels of Jesus’ life teach how “the word became flesh” and came to earth as the incarnation. Although Jesus ascended to heaven, the Bible teaches how the Holy Spirit is now God present in the world since Pentecost.
- Transcendent: Scripture also shows evidence for God’s
transcendence. Nature also shows God’s transcendence.
To have created the world God must be outside
of it - design argument.
- God is beyond time and space so not limited by our world “the eternal” Surah 112.
- The Lord’s Prayer also says “our Father who art in heaven.” This shows that God is not in our realm.
- Omnipotent: Scripture teaches about God’s
omnipotence. Nature also shows God’s omnipotence. He has
the power to create everything. He carefully designed things like the human
eye.
- The Value of General
Revelation
- Hugely valuable for converting people or strengthening faith.
- Without ways to understand or learn about God people would feel distant and cut off from God.
- Scripture is used to guide religious people’s lives spiritually and morally.
- Nature has been used to logically argue for God’s existence.
- Problems
of different ideas about the divine
- How
can God be personal and impersonal? Immanent and transcendent? It is hard to
understand how he can be both. Though as he is omnipotent he can be.
- For Christians the Trinity explains this but Muslims disagree with the Trinity. If God is an impersonal, transcendent force can we know him? If immanent and personal is he too similar to us to be a divine power?
- How
can God be personal and impersonal? Immanent and transcendent? It is hard to
understand how he can be both. Though as he is omnipotent he can be.
- Alternative
explanations
- Scripture may not reveal truths about God but may be human made: can’t be trusted as truth
- Beauty, design, awe and wonder felt at nature can be explained by natural causes eg evolution theory
- General Revelation as
a way of understanding the divine
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