Romans 1:18 [show] [18]For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (ESV)
– 21 is a key text for a right understanding of epistemology. In it God reveals the truth about unbelieving thought:
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 his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Rom. 1:18-21 [show] [18]For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19]For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20]For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21]For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (ESV)
I recently read an interpretation of this passage which, in my opinion, starts off right-on, but then goes too far:
Of central relevance is the key phrase, “who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Here “suppress” means to hold in restraints, to hold under. The phrase “the truth” (with the article) refers to all that is really true, to the inner essence of things—not simply to truth about God, but to all truth, in every area and in every respect, especially in its essential interrelatedness. The phrase “by unrighteousness” suggests that various forms of unrighteousness are used to enwrap and smother the truth, to push it down, so that people do not come to know the inner essence of things. (Nelson Kloosterman. “A Biblical Case for Natural Law : A Response Essay.” Ordained Servant 16 [2007].)
This verse does not say that unbelievers suppress the truth about “..all that is really true…all truth, in every area and in every respect…” Unbelievers do not suppress the truth that 2+2=4. They do suppress the fact that 2+2=4 inherently and essentially reveals a providential ordering of the universe which the one, true Creator established of nothing and maintains of his own will. The fact that 2+2=4 is true is not separable from the fact that 2+2=4 reveals God. The revelation of a Creator is not the result of a deductive reasoning process that happens after realizing the truth of 2+2=4. There is no “pre-critical” truth and “post-critical” conclusion: 2+2-4 inherently reveals God at the very moment one sees it. The sin of the unbeliever is involves both separating the fact of 2+2=4 from what it reveals about God, then in his embrace of the former while denying the latter. Yes, it truly is somewhat lunatic to embrace a fact and reject it at the same time: the unbelieving mind is truly fractured. He wants the kingdom, but he doesn’t want God in it. The eyes of the believer work the same as the eyes of an unbeliever. The difference is that believers accept and embrace what is clearly revealed.
There is an ethic of seeing.
Excursus: I am intentionally teaching my son to see in a certain way: to see the hand of God in all things.
Recently, we were standing near the edge of a parking lot after sunset, waiting for my wife to finish up in a department store. It was dark, and the sound of frogs and birds and bugs in the neighboring forest was quite loud. He was, shall we say, “concerned” about the situation, this combination of darkness and loud, strange noises. I wanted him to see it (and hear it) differently. “Ethan, do you hear that?” “Yeah.” “Do you know what that sound is? Those are bugs and birds and frogs. Do you know what they’re doing?” He looked into the darkness with wide eyes and said “Yeah” (which he says to all questions he doesn’t quite understand yet). I said, “they’re singing. They’re singing to God, just like you do at night.” He kept looking intently and said “dey singin’ Desus woves me?” “Yep, something like that. And they’re praying – do you know what they’re praying?” “Yeah.” “They’re praying, ‘thank you, God, for this place to sleep; and for feeding us today; and for keeping us safe; and for our families; we love you, God. Good night.” “Yeah.” Ever since then, when he grows ‘concerned’ about the darkness and the night-noises, he now reminds me: “dey singin to God, wight Dada? dey singin Desus woves me.’” “Yes, they are bud. Just like we do. Nothing to be afraid of.” (And yes, that’s really what they’re doing.)
Another time we built a toy fire truck together – a gift from my mom. I said, “Ethan, do you know what that is?” “Issa Fie Twuck.” “That’s right. Do you see what it means?” “Yeah.” “Men built that truck. Do you see that one, small basket at the top of the crane – big enough for only a person or two? Men built this machine, all this engineering and design, they made improvement over improvement, they chose certain materials over others, they made measurements and poured out sweat to build this thing – all to save a single human life. Men saw a problem – lives lost in tragic fires – and a desire welled up within them to somehow right this wrong. They knew they could reach people in danger on the first or second floor. But they wanted to get there faster, so they put it on wheels, and they wanted to reach people all the way up, so they made the ladder super high. All to save a life. This compassion and nobility conspired with their genius to construct a device of amazing precision and even poetic beauty. They did it because we’re all like God: we create, we value life, and we express love for those in danger by rescuing them – even risking our own lives to do so.” Seeing the image of God in man, the creative ingenuity mixed with great compassion – this is how I want him to “see” a simple thing like a fire truck. Even it reveals God.
When you look out the window, are you annoyed at the clouds, or do you think “my town’s gardens and trees must need watering today. Without those gardens and trees, God’s creatures couldn’t eat, and we wouldn’t have air to breathe. Bring on the rain, then. We’ll see a cloudless sky again soon enough.”
(End of excursus.)
Romans 1 [show] Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, [2]which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, [3]concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh [4]and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, [5]through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, [6]including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
[7]To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[8]First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. [9]For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you [10]always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. [11]For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you-- [12]that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. [13]I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. [14]I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. [15]So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
[16]For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [17]For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
[18]For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19]For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20]For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21]For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22]Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23]and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[24]Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25]because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
[26]For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; [27]and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
[28]And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29]They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, [30]slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31]foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. [32]Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (ESV) exposes the fractured, broken, rebellious, and anxious mind of the unbeliever, who is confronted by the inescapable reality that everything without, and everything within, reveals God. Revelation of God is as inescapable as the presence of God: we’re submerged in it, and we are a revelation of God (“made in His image”). The unbeliever attempts to embrace facts like 2+2=4 while rejecting what it essentially reveals: God is, and He is not silent. This does not at all mean that he suppresses mathematics. We can even trust him about mathematics – I’m quite certain that many of my math teachers must have been pagans – enough to grade our exams and show us how to do math better than we do. Where he is completely untrustworthy, however, is when he begins to speak about the meaning of math, the origin of math, the implications of math, etc. Then his lunacy surfaces. But he has no reason to suppress that 2+2=4 – after he has wrongfully separated the fact from its ultimate meaning. All this to say, I think Kloosterman reads something into the text that isn’t there. There is an ethic of seeing, but it’s not quite as extensive as he suggests: there is such a thing as common grace.
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I think you and Kloosterman actually agree. Either that or I am missing how he is saying something different.
You both refer to ‘real truth’ as the unseparated fact that (2+2=4 and reveals God).
I don’t think Kloosterman is saying that (2+2=4) is untrue apart from (and reveals God), it’s just not all the way true. It’s true as far as it goes, but it is an unfinished sentence. The unbeliever refuses to finish the equation where the believer makes an effort to do so.
So there IS a sense in which 2+2=4 is not true. The same sense as if you leave a few pieces out of a jugsaw puzzle. What you have is correct, it’s true, but it’s still “wrong” until you put the last few pieces in.
But I think you are both saying the same. ^_^
I think you have better illustrations though, for sure. ;-)
I think Kloosterman, VanDrunen, and Van Til (and little old I) would all agree that all facts are essentially revelatory. That is, the revelatory aspect is not a different ‘part’ of a fact, but belongs to its inner essence. The unbeliever sees the fact, but wrongfully bifurcates it from what it reveals: he attempts to mute the fact so that he can still ‘use’ the fact. In other words, truth is not composed of parts: the unbeliever’s bifurcation of truth is part of his sinful suppression of truth “in unrighteousness.”
Kloosterman, on the other hand, says the unbeliever even represses the supposedly muted fact of 2+2=4. That’s not true. Unbelievers don’t come up with arguments why 2+2 does not =4, and they don’t refuse to answer ’4′ on the quiz, nor express rebellion by writing ’5′ instead. I think he overshoots Romans 1 [show] Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, [2]which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, [3]concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh [4]and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, [5]through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, [6]including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
:18f, and denies too much for the unbeliever. VanDrunen, Van Til, and Calvin (and anyone else who affirms what we now refer to as common grace) would, I think, disagree with him. This is difficult to navigate while also rejecting Thomas’ nature/grace dualism. Schaeffer himself, an ardent opponent of Thomistic dualism, fell prey to it when he said unbelievers only see the ‘bottom half of the orange’ when they reject its revelatory message of God’s existence. As Bahnsen said, this schizophrenia is “awkward to articulate”. This is also why Van Til would emphasize that the antithesis is in principle, not in practice – that “unbelievers can count, but they cannot account for counting.”
[7]To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[8]First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. [9]For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you [10]always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. [11]For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you-- [12]that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. [13]I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. [14]I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. [15]So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
[16]For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [17]For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
[18]For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19]For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20]For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21]For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22]Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23]and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[24]Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25]because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
[26]For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; [27]and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
[28]And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29]They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, [30]slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31]foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. [32]Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (ESV)
So yes, I agree with Kloosterman that all facts objectively and essentially reveal God. I disagree that Romans 1 [show] Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, [2]which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, [3]concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh [4]and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, [5]through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, [6]including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
:18f teaches that they reject all truth. They drink the water happily, but deny its source with vehemence. They appreciate and use the rain, often in very wise ways, but don’t glorify God for it. Kloosterman’s road leads to a denial of common grace, and I think that is somewhat outside the Reformed tradition, at least as I understand it.
[7]To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[8]First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. [9]For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you [10]always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. [11]For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you-- [12]that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. [13]I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. [14]I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. [15]So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
[16]For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [17]For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
[18]For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19]For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20]For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21]For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22]Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23]and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[24]Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25]because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
[26]For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; [27]and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
[28]And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29]They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, [30]slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31]foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. [32]Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (ESV)
I haven’t read Kloosterman, so I was just going by the quote you gave. :-)