Overview of Nature and Scripture as Dual Revelations of God

"And God said, 'Let there be light', and there was light." (Genesis 1:3). God's Word is the source of both nature (the physical creation) and the Scripture text. Since they both proceeded from the same origin, they complement one another rather than contradict one another. Where their subject matter overlaps, there will be no final conflict between them when they are both properly interpreted.

Psalm 19 brings together in one place the Biblical affirmation of two books or two revelations from God: "The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament proclaims His handiwork." (v. 1) "The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statues of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple." (v. 7)

"The Holy Bible and the phenomena of nature proceed alike from the Divine Word.... God is known ... by nature in His works, and by doctrine in His revealed Word." Therefore, "in discussions of physical problems we ought to begin not from the authority of scriptural passages, but from sense-experience and necessary demonstrations.... We should not be surprised that the biblical authors speak so little of physical or astronomical matters, since their purpose was religious and immediately related to revealed truths which can never be reached by reason or sense." The Holy Spirit intends to teach us "how one goes to heaven, not how the heavens go."

These quotes from Galileo should not be misconstrued to imply that science should serve as a supporting foundation for Scripture. That is the wrong relationship. "In vain were the authority of Scripture fortified by arguments, or supported by the consent of the Church, or confirmed by any other helps, if unaccompanied by an assurance higher and stronger than human judgment can give."

To Francis Bacon, the attempt to deduce the truths of Christian religion from reason and human arguments was "disparaging things divine by mingling them with things human."