3、普遍启示 神的实存人尽皆知GENERAL REVELATION-GOD’SREALITY IS KNOWN TO ALL
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
普遍启示
神的实存人尽皆知
诸天述说神的荣耀；穹苍传扬他的手段。（诗19:1）
神所造的世界并不是一幅屏障，用来遮掩创造主的能力和威严。从自然的次序来看，很明显是有一位大能、威严的创造主存在。保罗在罗马书一章19至20节里就说到这件事；而在使徒行传十七章28节里，他引用一位希腊诗人的话为证，说明人类是神所创造的。
另外，保罗也肯定：这位创造主的良善可由他恩慈的天命中显明出来（徒14:17；罗2:4）；他又肯定：至少有些神圣洁的律法要求，及有关神至终要报应审判的确知（虽然知道了不舒服），已显示在每一个人的良心中（罗2:14-15）。这些明显的证据构成了普遍启示的内容。
普遍启示之得名，因这是每一个活在神所造的世界里的人，就会得到的启示。自有人类历史以来，就是这样。神主动地藉着普遍启示，将自己向所有的人类揭露出来，在这种情形之下，若仍有人不能感谢创造主，并合宜地事奉他，就是亏负了这份知识；人若否认拥有这份知识，则是令人不可置信的事。
神普世性地向人启示自己的能力，他是当受赞美的那一位，他有资格对人的道德行为有一定的要求。正因为我们没有按着已有的启示去事奉神，保罗根据上述这些基础，控述全人类在神面前是有罪恶、罪疚的（罗1:18-3:19）。
如今，除了普遍启示之外，神又加上进一步的启示，告诉我们他自己透过耶稣基督，成了罪人的救赎主。神在历史赐下这个启示，又将之明载于圣经里，给失丧者开了一道救恩的门；这个启示通常叫做特殊或特定启示。
它包括了普遍启示中论及神的所有启示在内，并以清楚的语句说出来；它也教导我们由自然界的次序中，由历史事件里，和由人类的组成里，辨认出这个启示，使我们学会把整个世界看作是一个彰显神荣耀的大舞台，诚如加尔文所说的。
GENERAL
REVELATION
GOD’S
REALITY IS KNOWN TO ALL
The
heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
PSALM 19:1
God’s
world is not a shield hiding the Creator’s power and majesty. From the natural
order it is evident that a mighty and majestic Creator is there. Paul says this
in Romans 1:19-21, and in Acts 17:28 he calls a Greek poet as witness that
humans are divinely created. Paul also affirms that the goodness of this
Creator becomes evident from kindly providences (Acts 14:17; cf. Rom. 2:4), and
that some at least of the demands of his holy law are known to every human
conscience (Rom. 2:14-15), along with the uncomfortable certainty of eventual
retributive judgment (Rom. 1:32). These evident certainties constitute the
content of general revelation.
General
revelation is so called because everyone receives it, just by virtue of being
alive in God’s world. This has been so from the start of human history. God
actively discloses these aspects of himself to all human beings, so that in
every case failure to thank and serve the Creator in righteousness is sin
against knowledge, and denials of having received this knowledge should not be
taken seriously. God’s universal revelation of his power, praiseworthiness, and
moral claim is the basis of Paul’s indictment of the whole human race as sinful
and guilty before God for failing to serve him as we should (Rom. 1:18-3:19).
God
has now supplemented general revelation with the further revelation of himself
as Savior of sinners through Jesus Christ. This revelation, given in history
and embodied in Scripture, and opening the door of salvation to the lost, is
usually called special or specific revelation. It includes explicit verbal
statement of all that general revelation tells us about God, and teaches us to
recognize that revelation in the natural order, in the events of history, and
in the makeup of human beings, so that we learn to see the entire world as, in
Calvin’s phrase, a theatre of the glory of God.
