Board index ‹ Assorted Bible Questions

[Airport]

Just people who come to the general revelation explained in Romans and feel the presence of a god without revelation.

[jimwalton]

I think deism is impossible in the biblical picture of things. The Bible is firm that God is personal and that He is involved in both history and people's lives. Since God is love, He can't be so detached from history and nature. The Bible teaches God's involvement—providential care, not a separatistic deism.

I also think deism is incompatible with the natural world. As Romans mentions, and you referred to it, creation itself communicates (at least gives hints) that God exists: regularity, order, predictability, beauty, glory, purpose, personality, and especially life. God is engaging our minds and senses, so He can't possibly be removed from all engagement, as deists claim. Revelation implies some kind of contact and some kind of connection, rendering deism implausible. The Bible makes no demarcation between science and the Bible, and so deism is a biblically misleading worldview.

Lastly, Romans 1.20 neither states nor implies that people come to God by natural revelation, or that they feel God's presence. It says that nature itself is sufficient to reveal that there is a God. Paul never claims that general revelation is sufficient to save anyone, but he does show that it is sufficient to condemn. The created universe bears witness to the power and divine nature of the Creator, and those who say otherwise are accountable for their rejection of the creation's witness to the Creator.