“The heavens above declare the glory of God.” This begins one of Scripture’s great passages outlining the doctrine of general revelation (Psalm 19:1). To paraphrase theologians, Scripture teaches that nothing in this world is ultimately atheistic or disconnected from God because “the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1).
The doctrine of creation is receiving greater attention within the broader evangelical and Reformed world because of the many ethical issues—and therefore counseling issues—that are related to a disordered and disharmonious relationship between man and his environment. In our modern-day Corinth that preaches absolute sexual libertinism, men and women everywhere are regularly engaging in immoral acts that Scripture describes as “sinning against their own bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Then, think about the questions pastors are fielding concerning alternative reproductive choices, artificial intelligence, chatbots, and social media addiction. Truly, discipling our church members toward a healthy and disciplined relationship with the created world is one of the most pressing issues of our times.
As biblical counselors, we know that Scripture has much to say about life in God’s world. But as we ponder the works of God’s hands (Psalm 8:3), we can consider the question, “Does God have counsel for us within his creation?” As counseling experience regularly reveals, creation’s facts align with God’s blueprint in Scripture for human nature, purpose, and flourishing. Recognizing these truths and their divine origins will give pastors and counselors greater confidence as they apply God’s Word so that the “man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).
Creation: God’s First Word
What is the first “word” spoken by God? Long before Moses penned the first words of the book of Genesis, God spoke his first words in creation ex nihilo in the triumphant declaration: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). Dutch theologian Gordon Spykman observes that creation is God’s first word, and therefore rightly identified as a “Word of God.” He writes, “The creational Word remains God’s first Word for the world.”1 We see evidence of this first creating and sustaining word in places such as Psalm 33:6: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made.” The psalmist breaks forth in praise as he calls to mind how God “sends out his command to the earth, his word runs swiftly” (Psalm 147:15), like a director calling his cast—all creation from the winds, snows, and harvest—to their places before the show of God’s glory begins. In the fullness of time, we learn that the eternal Word, through whom all things were made (John 1:3), has become the incarnate Word (John 1:14), even as he continues to hold the world together by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3).
Today, we do not find written words or letters indiscriminately scattered across various surfaces. The natural home for words and letters is books. For this reason, the Dutch Reformed tradition has confessed for centuries in the Belgic Confession, Article 2, that the “universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God.” John Calvin comments on Psalm 19:4 that the “glory of God is written and imprinted in the heavens, as, in an open volume which all men may read.”2 The book of nature—from its pages displaying the glories of galaxies to the most delicate molecule—is a book Christians read as fuel for praising their Creator (see Psalm 104).
Creation: God’s First Wisdom
What type of book is the book of nature? It is not a dusty, old almanac sitting on a desk, filled with archaic and peculiar facts that most people find irrelevant to their lives. Christians ought to read the book of nature as a book of divine wisdom. God has hidden wisdom for mankind in creation, like gems to be discovered and treasured. This truth logically follows from our doctrine of God. We know that wisdom and power belong to God (Job 12:13). God’s understanding is beyond measure (Psalm 147:5). God works all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11), and none can stay his hand (Daniel 4:35).
If our transcendent God stands behind creation, then Dutch apologist Cornelius Van Til is correct to conclude that creation has order, meaning, and purpose because an infinite, omniscient mind stands behind it all. “The non-Christian,” Van Til argues, “holds that the facts of this universe are surrounded by an ultimate void, that is, by an ultimate irrationality. We, on the contrary, hold that God as absolute light is back of the facts of the universe.”3 Italian Reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli observes that fire is intense, air is pleasant, and the waters that flow, as well as the metals, trees, and the works of artists, are all wonders governed by God. “God often exhorts us in the Psalms to praise him for these works.”4
In 1 Kings 4:33, we see Solomon, after receiving the gift of wisdom from God (1 Kings 3), grow into one of the greatest counselors and natural philosophers of his day, speaking of “trees, beasts, birds, reptiles, and fish.” This desire to know the natural world parallels Solomon’s words in Proverbs 3:19: “The LORD by wisdom founded the earth.” The earth, and all of creation, is full of God’s wisdom and knowledge on glorious display for all God’s creatures to behold.
Creation: God’s Counsel for Man
If creation is God’s first Word, and creation is filled with divine wisdom, should biblical counselors view the book of nature as a book of counsel? Does God offer counsel to mankind in the book of nature? Louis Berkhof’s definition of general revelation points us in the right direction concerning this question: “General revelation is rooted in creation, is addressed to man as man, and more particularly to human reason, and finds its purpose in the realization of the end of his creation, to know God and to enjoy communion with him.”5
Returning to Genesis 1 before the fall, Christians can recognize that God gave man, at his creation, various callings as his image-bearers and representatives on earth. Adam, Eve, and their offspring were to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill, develop, and cultivate the newly created earth (Genesis 1:28). Alongside God’s special revelation in the garden, and God’s wisdom embedded within the creation order, man was furnished with all the knowledge (and counsel) they needed to fulfill this task. In other words, creation is a book of counsel about natural life, including the institutions established within God’s creation, so that man may flourish and fulfill this original calling on this earth. Even after Genesis 3, remnants of this original commission appear in places such as Ecclesiastes 9:9, where the Preacher counsels that a man finds much joy in his labors (industry) and his wife (family) all the days of his life under the sun.
But is this conclusion mere conjecture, or does it read too much into the narrative of creation? Scripture answers in the negative. A forgotten passage that has historically informed a Christian engagement with creation is Isaiah 28:23–29. Here, the prophet Isaiah describes the insights a farmer uncovers about various plants through interaction with God’s creation. He describes how a farmer ought to plow the soil and attend to the needs of different plants and seeds: dill, cumin, wheat, barley, and emmer. But as this often-grueling labor of trial and error unfolds, Isaiah observes that this entire process is the result of divine guidance and assistance, “for he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him” (Isaiah 28:26). Isaiah reflects that this natural wisdom comes from the Lord, and “he is wonderful in counsel” (Isaiah 28:29).
Herman Bavinck reflects that this passage demonstrates a type of “divine teaching.” He comments that this “is a teaching, rather, which is contained and expressed in all the laws of nature, in the character of air and of soil, of time and place, of grain and corn. What the plowman must do is consciously to get to know all those laws of nature, and in this way to learn the lesson which God teaches in them.”6 This important lesson in the school of nature can be applied to other disciplines. If an infinite and rational mind stands behind all creation, then Christians must confess that whatever wisdom and insight concerning their labors in the fields, the laboratory, the academy, as well as basic principles for human flourishing and life among mankind (recreation, relationships, and rest), ultimately have their origin in God.
Conclusion
“Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them!” (Psalm 111:2). The book of nature is a wonderful book that displays God’s knowledge, wisdom, and counsel for man concerning his life within this world. When we study the natural world rightly, it leads to the conclusions recorded for our instruction in Genesis 1 and 2: that man was created in God’s image to live as God’s covenant creature and representative in his world.
At the same time, we must hold another truth in tension. If the book of nature is a book of counsel addressed to man as man, the book of Scripture is a greater book of counsel addressed to man as sinners, and therefore the greater book of counsel for Christians. Nowhere in the created world will man receive those most precious words of counsel contained in Scripture alone, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). For Christians, the book of Scripture illuminating the book of nature is the best approach to tackling the pressing counseling issues of our day. As ethicist Andrew Walker concludes, “When the culture rejects God’s authority over nature like it has, the church must reassert its confidence in God’s creation ordinances.”7
- Gordon J. Spykman, Reformational Theology: A New Paradigm for Doing Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), 87. ↩︎
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of Joshua and the book of Psalms, vol. 1, ed. James Anderson (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2003), 313. ↩︎
- Van Til, An Introduction to Systematic Theology, ed. William Edgar, 2nd ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2007), 61. ↩︎
- Peter Martyr Vermigli, Philosophical Works: On the Relation of Philosophy to Theology, trans. Joseph C. McLelland (Hillsdale, MI: The Davenant Institute, 2025), 226. ↩︎
- Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2020), 37. ↩︎
- Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 2019), 49–50. ↩︎
- Andrew T. Walker, Faithful Reason: Natural Law Ethics for God’s Glory and Our Good (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 38. ↩︎
