Christian theologians cite passages of
Scripture to ground the concept of general revelation, for example,
Romans 1:20, •
Human conscience: God is said to instill the innate ability in all people to discern the difference between right and wrong, to choose and act on that discernment and judgment according to
free will and conscience, and to experience guilt when the act or choice is wrong. One of the
arguments for the existence of God is based on moral sense in humans. American
Presbyterian theologian
B. B. Warfield describes general revelation in relation to
special revelation; 'There is the revelation which God continuously makes to all men: by it His power and Divinity are made known. And there is the revelation which He makes exclusively to His chosen people: through it His saving grace is made known. Both species or stages of revelation are insisted upon throughout the Scriptures. They are, for example, brought significantly together in such a declaration as we find in : "The heavens declare the glory of God ... their line is gone out through all the earth" (vv. 1, 4); "The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul" (v. 7).' He goes on to posit a close interdependence with special revelation; 'Revelation, therefore, in its double form was the Divine purpose for man from the beginning. [...] Without special revelation, general revelation would be for sinful men incomplete and ineffective, and could issue, as in point of fact it has issued wherever it alone has been accessible, only in leaving them without excuse (). Without general revelation, special revelation would lack that basis in the fundamental knowledge of God as the mighty and wise, righteous and good, maker and ruler of all things, apart from which the further revelation of this great God’s interventions in the world for the salvation of sinners could not be either intelligible, credible or operative.' Thus, general revelation can be understood as the everyday experience of life, but is dependent on the interpretation of those experiences as revealing God's involvement in external events or things. General revelation is distinguished from
direct revelation, which involves the direct communication from God to a person, as opposed to the indirect and varied means through which God communicates in general revelation. ==See also==