We’ve concluded our brief study of the meaning of theology and God’s general and special revelation. So today we will look into the other side of the coin, the endowments of man, and we will conclude this series.
God has revealed Himself, but how does humanity come into possession of God’s revelation? God has provided people with two kinds of endowments (i.e., gift, subsidy, award) which people can use to acquire God’s revelation: mental and spiritual.
Mental Endowments
God has given people the ability to reason. And, by reason, I mean a person’s ability to perceive, compare, judge, and organize. Our ability to reason is an essential component of theology. However, the abuse of reason is when people refuse truth when it leads to God.
The person who rejects God’s revelation replaces God with rationalism. Having eliminated God from their reasoning, that person, surrounded by the general and special revelations of God still considers the possibility of God’s existence to be irrational.
Examples of the abuse of reason are:
- Rationalists believe it took 3.5 billion years for life to evolve from chemicals into the complexity of a person. However, they do not believe that a single letter on a single sheet of paper could evolve from chemicals after 3.5 billion years.
- Rationalists deny that theology is a science. Still, they will place their faith in an equation that they accept as proof that dark matter exists despite having never captured, seen, or measured it. Their belief in dark matter has far less scientific evidence than the evidence of God.
Spiritual Endowments
People have an intuitive knowledge of God. We know this because of Romans 1:18-19 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For Christians, there is a spiritual endowment that is not abstract but clear and convincing. We know this because Romans 8:15-17 states, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.“
Conclusion
During this four-part study, we learned that theology is the science of God. We learned that theology is an overarching science that pulls all of the other sciences together, resting upon the Bible.
We learned that God’s general revelation is communicated to all people and is accessible to all people. God’s purpose for general revelation is for supplying the natural needs of people and the persuasion of the souls of people to seek after the one true God.
God’s special revelation is like a treasure which, though given at select times to specific people in special ways, is to be shared with the whole world.
And, today, we learned about the endowments of man. Therefore, God is available to everyone that seeks Truth. That person not only has reason but also the Holy Spirit to guide them to Jesus Christ and salvation in Him.
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
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https://rockexcavationservice.org/2019/07/14/the-wrong-side-of-the-wall/