Theological glossary · FaithLogic

General revelation

God's universal self-disclosure to all people through the created world, the ordering of history, and the human conscience — sufficient to leave people 'without excuse' but not to save.

Also 'natural revelation'; contrasted with 'special' (or 'supernatural') revelation — God's specific self-disclosure in history, Scripture, and Christ.

Psalm 19:1–6; Acts 14:15–17; 17:26–28; Romans 1:18–21; 2:14–15; 10:14–18.

Affirmed across the traditions as real and universal. Catholic (Vatican I): God can be known 'with certainty' by reason from creation. Classical Reformed: real but distorted by the noetic effects of sin, needing Scripture as 'spectacles' (Calvin). Barthian: no independent natural knowledge of God — all true knowledge is through Christ.

It communicates that God exists and is powerful, divine, good, and morally authoritative, grounding universal accountability; it contains no gospel, so 'faith comes from hearing … the word of Christ' (Rom 10:17).

How much reliable knowledge fallen reason yields; the validity of 'natural theology' as a method; the bearing on the fate of the unevangelised.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.