The Bible is full of signs given by God to point to his creative power, redeeming love, and providential care. We think of Noah’s bow in the cloud and Cana’s water turned to wine. And, of course, the sign given Bethlehem’s shepherd, a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. The Westminster Confession reminds us that the created order itself is a sign of “the goodness, wisdom, and power of God.” Summer sunsets and crashing waves on a rocky coast.
Our world is still filled with God-given signs, but as signs they only point to a reality. The rainbow and the sunset do not deserve our worship, the God who gave them does.
Echoing Hebrews 1, the Confession reminds us that “at sundry times and in diverse manners” God revealed himself to us. He sometimes gave us signs to reveal his will and his way. Our “signs and wonders” Pentecostal friends notwithstanding, the Confession tells us that these former ways of revelation have now ceased and that we have now been given the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the “whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life.” (WCF 1)
By conviction and confession, then, I am what theologians call a cessationist. It’s not that I am not reminded of God’s love when I see a rainbow in the sky or his love of beauty when I see a summer sunset, it’s just that such things point to a reality greater than themselves. They remind me of stories told and truth revealed in the whole counsel of God. Continue reading