Nature’s Case for God

A Brief Biblical Argument

JOHN M. FRAME

Nature’s Case for God: A Brief Biblical Argument

Copyright 2018 John M. Frame

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225 LexhamPress.com

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (nasb) are from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Print ISBN 9781683591320

Digital ISBN 9781683591337

Lexham Editorial: Elliot Ritzema, Jennifer Edwards, Danielle Thevenaz

Cover Design: Eleazar Ruiz

To the memory of

Francis A. Schaeffer

1912–1984

CONTENTS

Preface

Part One: The Witness of the Created World

1. The Greatness

2. The Oneness

3. The Wisdom

4. The Goodness

5. The Presence

Part Two: The Witness of Human Nature

6. The Seared Conscience

7. The Accusing Conscience

8. The Awakened Conscience

9. The Good Conscience

Epilogue

Appendix on Natural Law: Four Letters

PREFACE

This book may be described as a “natural theology.” That phrase traditionally denotes the attempt to learn about God through revelation outside the Bible. Although natural theology has been an important discipline historically, as in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, its prestige more recently has fallen considerably. When Emil Brunner wrote a rather mild defense of the discipline, Karl Barth answered him with a thundering reply, named simply “NO.”1 Since then, anyone approaching this subject has had to give an argument for its legitimacy. This requirement bears especially on apologists of the presuppositional school of apologetics, the school I am associated with.

Now there are good reasons for objecting to natural theology. Barth’s objections arise out of his unique conception of the christological focus of all revelation,2 but a Protestant who is more traditional and orthodox than him might also reject natural theology. Those who are committed to the Christ of Scripture ask how we can seek to know anything without the aid of Scripture, let alone try to know God without it. That would be like a student who ignores the entire reading list for a course in chemistry and seeks to answer the exam questions out of his own head. Not only does Scripture provide important knowledge about God, but in one sense, Protestant theologians have always said that Scripture is sufficient to tell us what we need to know about him. Hence the Reformation motto sola Scriptura.

It might seem, therefore, that for Protestants, natural theology is a violation of that principle. But in fact, the principle does not forbid us to seek ...