withallyourmind.net

Yesterday, in USA Today, I came across a full page ad headlined, “Beyond the Ultimate”. I was pleased to see that this as contained the brief testimonies of Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, the coaches of the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, respectively. These two teams meet up tomorrow in the Super Bowl. The purpose of the ad is to communicate their faith in Jesus Christ and the message that whatever ultimate goal a person has in this life, achieving that goal is not, in fact, the ultimate. Here’s is the signed joint statement by Dungy and Smith:

On Sunday, one of us will be a world champion. It’s the ultimate goal - but we know that there is more to life than football. Even when you have achieved the ultimate, something better lies beyond.

We’re pro football coaches, but we are also men of faith. A faith that defines who we are. It comforts us in tought times and produces hope in the midst of adversity. It is through our common faith in Jesus Christ that we have individually experienced God’s love and forgiveness.

The ad instructs readers who would love to hear more to visit the Beyond the Ultimate website. The website contains more testimonies and some well-done articles on topics such as the evidence for the existence of God, the person of Jesus Christ, and dealing with tragedy in life. Good luck to both of these coaches. I admire their boldness in proclaiming their faith.

In my last post I wrote briefly of the “two books” doctrine - that is that God has “authored” two books, nature and scripture, by which he has and still does reveal himself to mankind. These two books are sometimes described as two types of revelation, general and specific. What can we learn from each of these two books?

Can a person learn all that is necessary for salvation from the book of nature? Can general revelation tell us enough to bring us into a right relationship with God? Well, scripture seems to teach that we can know certain things about God from nature. From nature we can discover God’s existence. We can view his power, wisdom, and majesty. His righteousness and glory are manifested to all people at all times in all places (general revelation) through his created order. The created order is not necessarily to be understood as only material things, but includes nature, history, and the human conscience. In my last post, I referred to Psalm 19 which asserts at least four things about general revelation, according to theologian Bruce Demarest:

1. Creation shows forth God’s glory, i.e., it manifest’s God’s existence, power, glory, and craftmanship.
2. This revelation from God is uninterrupted and continual.
3. This revelation is “worldless” and not audible.
4. It is worldwide in scope.

In contrast to this general revelation, stands God’s special revelation, or God’s revelation of himself through the Scripture and throught the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In this revealing of himself, God makes himself known personally and propositionally. Paul counselled Timothy:

…and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:15-17 ESV)

Next, a few more thoughts on the two books.