God is good and loving toward humanity and cares for the souls made by Him. Since by nature He is invisible and incomprehensible, existing beyond every created essence, the human race would otherwise have failed to attain knowledge of Him, because created things are from non-being while He is uncreated. For this reason God ordered creation in this way through His own Word, so that, although He is invisible by nature, people might at least be able to know Him from His works.
For often an artist is known from his works even when he is not seen. They say, for example, of the sculptor Phidias that his works, through their symmetry and the proportion of their parts to one another, make Phidias evident to those who see them even when he is absent. In the same way, from the order of the world one should understand God, its Maker and Creator, even though He is not seen by the eyes of the body. God did not use His invisible nature as a reason to leave Himself completely unknown to human beings—let no one make that an excuse. Rather, as I said before, He ordered creation so that, though He is unseen by nature, He may nevertheless be known from His works.
I do not say this on my own, but from what I learned from men who spoke of God. One of them is Paul, who writes to the Romans: “For His invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that have been made.” And speaking boldly to the Lycaonians he says: “We too are human beings subject to the same things as you, bringing you good news that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. In past generations He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet He did not leave Himself without witness, doing good, giving us rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
For who, seeing the circle of heaven, the course of the sun and moon, and the positions and revolutions of the other stars—moving in opposite and different ways, yet all together preserving the same order amid their differences—would not understand that they do not order themselves, but that there is another, their Maker, who orders them? Or who, seeing the sun rise by day, the moon shine by night, waning and becoming full without variation according to exactly the same number of days, and some of the stars running and changing their courses in various ways while others move without wandering, would not form the thought that there certainly is a Creator who governs them?
God is good and loving toward humanity and cares for the souls made by Him. Since by nature He is invisible and incomprehensible, existing beyond every created essence, the human race would otherwise have failed to attain knowledge of Him, because created things are from non-being while He is uncreated. For this reason God ordered creation in this way through His own Word, so that, although He is invisible by nature, people might at least be able to know Him from His works.
For often an artist is known from his works even when he is not seen.
They say, for example, of the sculptor Phidias that his works, through their symmetry and the proportion of their parts to one another, make Phidias evident to those who see them even when he is absent. In the same way, from the order of the world one should understand God, its Maker and Creator, even though He is not seen by the eyes of the body. God did not use His invisible nature as a reason to leave Himself completely unknown to human beings—let no one make that an excuse. Rather, as I said before, He ordered creation so that, though He is unseen by nature, He may nevertheless be known from His works.
I do not say this on my own, but from what I learned from men who spoke of God. One of them is Paul, who writes to the Romans: “For His invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that have been made.” And speaking boldly to the Lycaonians he says: “We too are human beings subject to the same things as you, bringing you good news that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. In past generations He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet He did not leave Himself without witness, doing good, giving us rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
For who, seeing the circle of heaven, the course of the sun and moon, and the positions and revolutions of the other stars—moving in opposite and different ways, yet all together preserving the same order amid their differences—would not understand that they do not order themselves, but that there is another, their Maker, who orders them? Or who, seeing the sun rise by day, the moon shine by night, waning and becoming full without variation according to exactly the same number of days, and some of the stars running and changing their courses in various ways while others move without wandering, would not form the thought that there certainly is a Creator who governs them?