There are two kinds of revelation: natural revelation and special revelation. Natural revelation is what we as human beings can discern about God from what we see in His creation. Special revelation is what God reveals to us through His Holy Word… which as a Christian, I would limit to what is revealed in the Holy Bible. Note however, there are other “voices” which can pretend they are God speaking to us but some from Satan and not God. In our Bible Satan even tried to tempt Jesus Christ. So special revelation here is limited to what comes from God Himself.
Natural Revelation. Nature is all around us. If you take the telescope, you see the vastness of the heavens above. We can see about 6000 stars with our naked eye… but now that we have telescopes and other devices, we know that there are billions of billions of whole galaxies. When we see this, our thoughtful mind asks… How did this come to be? We know that something cannot come from nothing. There must be an explanation of how it came into being. We hear the scientists talk about the Big Bang. But then we ask… but where did the Big Bang come from? Soon we are pressed into the idea that there must be Someone or Something… outside of our universe for the universe cannot create itself.
Then we take the microscope and we look into the micro-world. We find out that what we see is made up of tiny particles… smaller and smaller until we come down to the atom. But then we start to take the atom apart and we find a delicately made electron and proton made in a very complicated design. And the electrons are spinning around the protons etc. We ask. How did this come to be? As we study atomic structure we find it is extremely complicated with many different kinds of atoms that make up the fundamental elements which make up our world. We stand back amazed and say… how did this happen? Surely this did not happen as an accident of nature.
Winning WW1 as it boosted American spirits, and led to celebration that just went on and on. The rise of products and services that could be purchased for pleasure and not necessity, such as alcohol and fancier cars/clothes. And the growth of cities v.s the previously scattered people in the countrysides.
