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Thoughts on Nature as a Witness

In Romans 1:18-20 Paul is telling the residences of Rome that God has and is and will reveal himself in nature.  The plants and animals and things in the sky show God’s eternal power and divine nature.  (Romans 1:20).  In other words, when a person sees a tree or a bird or the stars in the sky, these things are broadcasting the evidence of God’s eternal power and divine nature.  Yet, it seems, people look at a tree and see wood, they look at a bird and they see evolution and they look at the stars and see random chance.  According to Romans, this is because they suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18).  In other words, they know the truth, they see the truth, they realize the truth, the even might understand the truth, but they push the truth down and deny that this truth exists.  Romans 1:20 ends by stating that this evidence has been obvious and clear since the creation of the world, which took exactly six days, such that people who suppress the truth will be without excuse.

The question is this, then, what excuse could they have and when it is offered?  The best answer comes from Romans 1:18.  The wrath of God is being revealed, even now, against ungodliness.  This means that God has viewed the world, judged the world and even now, is punishing the world for surprising the truth.  This excuse that is offered, therefore, is offered to God.  It is offered now and will be offered at the final judgment.  There will be people who stand before Jesus and claim ignorance.  They will say that they have no evidence, have seen nothing to prove God exists and therefore, they would like to be let go.  The response will be straight out of Romans 1:18-20.  All over creation, every part of creation, screams that God exists, that he has eternal power and a divine nature.

Once example of how people seeing God in nature might work is this.  When Europeans came to America long ago, they brought with them missionaries.  When the missionaries contacted natives, most of the natives had taken trees and carved them into totem poles and worshipped them.  A few did not have idols made out of wood, but they worshipped the God in the sky or the master creator or some other name.  In other words, some people see a tree and worship it while others see a tree and worship the unknown creator who created it.  One such tribe in America was found to have made small wooden crosses.  When the missionaries figured out how to communicate with them, they were told that the chief saw this symbol (the cross) in a dream and was told it was the symbol of the creator.

At the end of time, some people will be allowed into heaven, because they did not suppress the truth.  They had faith and it was credited to them as righteousness, even though they were not sure who they had faith in.  Others will come and be judged because they surpassed the truth and worshipped the creation and not the creator.

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