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Commentary on "Heaven's Means of Communication"
Day 3: Monday, December 29, 2008
This lesson looks at the ways God reveals Himself through nature. The lesson opens with this paragraph: “The Bible tells us that the world that God created was perfect in every way (Gen. 1:31). But Scripture also reveals that sin has altered the natural world (Gen. 3:17, 18). Prior to the Fall, only beautiful or useful plants were found upon the earth. God ‘never made a thorn, a thistle, or a tare. These are Satan’s work, the result of degeneration. ‘ —Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 186. Nevertheless, there is still great beauty in the changing of the leaves in autumn, in a vivid sunset, and in the opening of a rosebud on a sunny morning.”
Facts about creation comprise the next three paragraphs, and the final paragraph states that nature “isn’t enough to reveal the fullness of God’s character.” It cites the predatory practices of cats and killer whales as example that make it “hard to see God’s love reflected”.
In the “Learning Outline” in the Teachers Comments, “The Lesson in Brief” (P. 7), point B under “The Need for Revelation” asks this question: “How has sin limited God’s revelation to us through creation? Our conscience? The Bible and other prophets? His son Jesus?”
Moreover, p. 9-10 of the Teacher’s version of the Bible Study Guide states this: “Nature’s arrangement and beauty powerfully argue for God’s existence. Paul says that God uses the visible things of nature to reveal the invisible things, such as His Godhead and His eternal power. The mind may comprehend these invisible truths through the help of the created works. Despite being warped by sin, the natural world still witnesses to us God’s power and His love. God’s revelation of Himself through His created works is enough to reveal to us what He requires of us, leaving us without any excuse for neglecting duty.”
Problems
The statement by E. G. White in the first paragraph, that God “never made a thorn, a thistle, or a tare. These are Satan’s work, the result of degeneration,’ is not supported in the Bible, In fact, the Bible clarifies that God is the One responsible for cursing the earth and for the fact that it now bears thorns.
Genesis 3:17-18, ESV: “And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.”
Furthermore, Romans 8:20-22 explains that creation has been “subjected to futility” and to the “bondage of decay” by God Himself. The results of sin in nature are not the product of Satan’s wiles; nature’s bondage to decay is by divine fiat as described in this passage: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (ESV).
God cursed the earth when Adam sinned, and God bound creation to the futility of decay. Satan, a creation of God, did not have the authority or power to alter God’s creation. God Himself bound creation to decay and declared that the earth would bring forth thorns. By His own command creation is groaning “in the pains of childbirth”.
Furthermore, the comments and questions in the Bible Study Guide about how sin has “limited God’s revelation to us through creation” are founded on the false premise that Satan is responsible for nature’s decay, a premise that creates false assumptions. Romans 1:18-22 explains that creation as it is now, in a sinful world, reveals God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature.” In fact, verse 20 says these attributes of God “have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
Sin has not limited creation’s witness of God’s eternal power and divine nature. The reason people have failed to see these qualities and recognize God is not because Satan has besmirched creation. Rather, men and women have suppressed the truth (v. 18) which “is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (v. 19). People are “without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” They “became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (v. 21).
It is our own sinful nature, our natural condition as “objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) that has caused humanity to suppress the knowledge of God which has been made plain in creation from the beginning until now. Satan cannot be blamed for nature’s decay, and he cannot be blamed for the fact that humans are born dead in sin and subsequently suppress the knowledge of God that is evident to them. God reveals Himself, but sinful mankind suppresses the truth.
This comment in the Teachers Comments, “God’s revelation of Himself through His created works is enough to reveal to us what He requires of us, leaving us without any excuse for neglecting duty,” warps what the biblical text actually says. Romans 1:20 does not say people who suppress the knowledge of God have no excuse “for neglecting duty.” The text says simply, “So they are without excuse.” The context is clear; they are without excuse for failing to recognize and acknowledge the eternal power and divine nature of God. They are without excuse for submitting themselves to the eternal, sovereign God who has clearly revealed Himself, even in a decay-bound creation for which He takes full responsibility.
Summary
- Satan did not create the thorns, thistles, or tares. God decreed them when He cursed the ground (Genesis 3:17-18). Furthermore, God bound creation to the bondage of decay by His own sovereign fiat (Romans 8:20-22). God, not Satan, is responsible for the curse of death in response to sin and for the effects of His curse on all creation—including Satan.
- God's invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen “since the creation of the world”. The effects of sin have not obscured God’s self-revelation through His creation. Rather, people have suppressed the knowledge of God by their own wickedness. The decay present in nature is not the cause of suppressing the revelation of God. (See Romans 1:18-22).
- Those who suppress the knowledge of God are “without excuse”. They are not guilty for “neglecting duty”, as the Teachers Comments state; rather, they are held responsible for suppressing the very knowledge of God—for refusing to see His own witness of Himself revealed through creation. It is not neglect of “duty” for which humans are guilty; they are guilty for refusing to acknowledge God as He reveals Himself to be (Romans 8:20-21).
Copyright 2008 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised December 27, 2008. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 1
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 1