Some time ago I stumbled across a great article by Randall Zachman, called “Believing Is Seeing: Proclamation and Manifestation in the Reformed Tradition” hosted at the Institute for Reformed Theology. Inevitably, there are some points where I would differ, but that doesn’t diminish the value of digesting this article. Here are a couple of paragraphs from the article:
The works of God we are to contemplate in the universe set forth what Calvin calls the ‘powers’ of God, such as wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and goodness. Since these powers are all good things, expressing in a visible way the invisible nature of God, our contemplation of them should lead to our feeling them within ourselves, and ultimately to our enjoyment of them. ‘For the Lord manifests himself by his powers, the force of which we feel within ourselves and the benefits of which we enjoy’ (Inst. I.v.9). In light of the self-manifestation of God in God’s works, Calvin can say that ‘the most perfect way of seeking God, and the most suitable order, is . . . for us to contemplate him in his works whereby he renders himself near and familiar to us, and in some manner communicates himself’ (Inst. I.v.9). If the understanding of faith related to proclamation emphasizes hearing, reading, and applying the true doctrine drawn from Scripture, the understanding of the knowledge of God related to manifestation emphasizes seeing, contemplating, feeling, and enjoying the powers of God portrayed before our eyes, in the realization that by such means God gently invites and sweetly attracts us to Godself.
The manifestation of God in the universe needs the proclamation of the Word to be fruitful, and the proclamation of Christ crucified needs the manifestation of the glory of Christ to be fruitful. Both manifestation and proclamation lead us to the true knowledge of God, both in creation and in Christ. The loss of manifestation and contemplation in our understanding of the Reformed tradition today has deprived us of an essential element of the knowledge of God according to Calvin and those who followed him, and has led to an unfortunate impoverishment of the life of piety, the experience of worship, and our relationship with the natural world. In what follows, I will show how the self-manifestation of God in the universe is made fruitful by the teaching of God in the Word, and how the proclamation of Christ crucified is made fruitful by the manifestation of God in Christ, who is ‘God manifested in the flesh’ (1 Tim. 3:16).
