When Paul taught before the Areopagus in Acts 17:24ff, he appealed to the inscription, “to the unknown god,” then went on to describe God after saying “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” The Greeks had misinterpreted the sensus divinitatis evidence through natural reason and worshipped a pantheon, but in Paul’s sermon he makes the case for the unknown, true God.

The world has about eight billion people distributed over its surface in remote villages and massive congested cities. Estimates vary but it is believed there are about four thousand recognized religions in the world with Christianity first with 2.5 billion adherents, Islam comes in second with 1.9, and Hinduism in third with 1.1. The existence of an abundance of religions in all parts of the world raises the question, why? What is it about people that causes them to adopt religious views keeping in mind that included in the table of world religions on Britannica Online are agnostics in fourth position and atheists in eighth? Why do individuals find it necessary to affirm or deny the existence of God, creation, an after life, heaven, hell, truth, and many other aspects of religion? An answer is provided in the first paragraph of the summary of essential doctrine compiled in the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1, “Of the Holy Scripture.”

Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing: which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased. (PCA edition)

The “light of nature” in the Westminster Standards refers to one’s innate ability to reason and function as a person made in the image of God, it could also be called natural reason. Without the light of nature, natural reason, one simply could not function in the world. But the light of nature was affected by the fall, therefore it is corrupted by sin, but God in his grace has provided individuals with what John Calvin called the “sense of the divine,” sensus divinitatis, which incorporates knowledge of his existence and creative work, awareness that worship is due him, and a limited but essential factor for an ordered world is a general understanding of right and wrong. Whether one is a genius or faces intellectual challenges, the sensus divinitatis is present but its effectiveness is mitigated by opposition from cultural, political, familial, educational, philosophical, and religious factors. For example, a child raised by dedicated atheists is likely influenced vigorously to suppress the sense of God’s existence, while another child raised in a generically theistic home has a better-defined sense of God and his attributes. However, key to these first few words of the Westminster Confession is that the light of nature testifies to God’s existence.

Confirming the existence of God manifest in the sense of deity are “the works of creation and providence.” The works of creation are the acts of God completed in six literal days with man fashioned male and female in God’s image on the sixth day. Creation is finished, but the end of creation is not the end of God’s involvement with his universe.

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