Jonathan Edwards on Natural / general revelation
Objectively clear and sufficient to leave everyone without excuse; the failure is moral suppression, not insufficient evidence — though it cannot itself save
Is it rational to suppose, that those whose minds are full of spiritual pollution, and under the power of filthy lusts, should have any relish or sense of divine beauty or excellency; or that their minds should be susceptive of that light that is in its own nature so pure and heavenly?
THE POSITION
Creation is real evidence: "the word declares; but the works are the proper evidence of what is declared." What natural men lack is not evidence but a sense of the heart, and Edwards traces that lack to moral pollution rather than to insufficient data. Natural reason keeps a real but bounded province — it can perceive truth, and grace sanctifies rather than bypasses it — but it cannot reach the thing that saves, which is given immediately by the Spirit and not through any means operating by its own force.
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.
8 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
New England pastor, revival theologian and philosopher of the First Great Awakening, dismissed from his Northampton pulpit in 1750 over who may come to the Lord's Table. This entry rests on Freedom of the Will (1754), Original Sin (1758), Religious Affections (1746), An Humble Inquiry (1749), Distinguishing Marks (1741), Some Thoughts on the Revival (1742), An Humble Attempt (1747) and A History of the Work of Redemption, read in the Hickman edition.
Cite this page
"Jonathan Edwards on Natural / general revelation", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/edwards/natural-revelation (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/edwards/natural-revelation).