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196 How Are the Christian Scriptures Confirmed by the Peculiar Glory of God?
nature or God’s words in the Bible. By comparing the sight of glory in
nature with the sight of glory in Scripture, we will see how central the
glory of God is in the process of knowing God; we will see that the
supernatural is known through the natural; and we will see that we
are responsible to have this knowledge—both through the world and
through the word.
Well-Grounded Knowledge of Truth for Everyone
But before we focus on this comparison of the world and the word,
let’s clarify further why we are taking this approach—to pursue wellgrounded
confidence in God’s word through a sight of his glory.
In chapters 8–11, I argued that ordinary people with little or no
education can have a well-grounded conviction in the truth of Scripture.
There are strong, compelling, scholarly, historical arguments for
the authenticity of the biblical writings. 1 But most people in the world,
many of whom are preliterate, have little access to such arguments.
They meet the gospel in some limited portion of God’s word or in the
oral transmission of the biblical message. My concern is to show that all
of us, including these people, may come to a well-grounded confidence
in the truth of the gospel, and as the knowledge of Scripture grows, that
same confidence can extend to all of the Bible.
One reason for taking this approach, which I have not mentioned
yet, is that the New Testament teaches that people are accountable to
respond to the gospel with well-grounded belief when it is faithfully
preached in accordance with God’s word. Another reason, which we
have touched on, is that the gospel has in it a self-authenticating light,
or glory, that makes such well-grounded belief possible.
We Will Be Judged for What We Have Access to Knowing
The apostle Paul does not assume that people who never had an opportunity
to hear the gospel are responsible for believing it. Rather,
their judgment will come for other reasons. “All who have sinned without
the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned
under the law will be judged by the law” (Rom. 2:12). The reason, he
1
See chap. 8n1.