Chapter 42—The Revelation of God
[
This article appeared in
The Review and Herald, November 8, 1898
.]
“God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ” (
2 Corinthians 4:6
).
Before the Fall, not a cloud rested upon the minds of our first
parents to obscure their clear perception of the character of God. They
were perfectly conformed to the will of God. For a covering, a beautiful
light, the light of God, surrounded them. The Lord visited the holy
pair, and instructed them through the works of His hands. Nature was
their lesson book. In the Garden of Eden the existence of God was
demonstrated in the objects of nature that surrounded them. Every
tree of the garden spoke to them. The invisible things of God were
clearly seen, being understood by the things which were made, even
His eternal power and Godhead.
But while it is true that God could thus be discerned in nature, this
does not favor the assertion that after the Fall a perfect knowledge
of God was revealed in the natural world to Adam and his posterity.
Nature could convey her lessons to man in his innocence; but trans-
gression brought a blight upon nature, and intervened between nature
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and nature’s God. Had Adam and Eve never disobeyed their Creator,
had they remained in the path of perfect rectitude, they could have
known and understood God. But when they listened to the voice of the
tempter, and sinned against God, the light of the garments of heavenly
innocence departed from them; and in parting with the garments of
innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of God.
The clear and perfect light that had hitherto surrounded them had light-
ened everything they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light,
the posterity of Adam could no longer trace the character of God in
His created works.
The things of nature upon which we look today give us but a faint
conception of Eden’s beauty and glory; yet the natural world, with
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