KNOWING GOD THROUGH CREATION

KNOWING GOD THROUGH CREATION: The Belgic Confession

Guido de Bres

First published 1560 and revised 1566 and 1619, this "Confession" was used during and since the Reformation as a major teaching document in Protestant churches. A small part of it follows in the translation used in the "Psalter Hymnal" of the Christian Reformed Church.

ARTICLE 1: The Only God

We all believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God -- eternal, incomprehensible, invisible unchangeable, infinite, almighty, completely wise, just and good, and the overflowing source of all good.

ARTICLE 2: The Means By Which We Know God

We know him by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity.

As the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20, `All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse.'

Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for his glory and the salvation of his own.