I. What is being confessed in this article?⤒🔗

After confessing who God is in the previous article, now it expresses how God makes himself known to us in a twofold way.

1. We know him by what he has done and is doing with and in the world. He made it, he sustains it, and he governs it. For that reason creation is, as it were, a wonderful book about God, and the creatures, great and small, are its contents. From this we can read what otherwise would not be seen, namely, his eternal power and his divine majesty (Romans 1:20). This book is so convincing that people have no excuse for their ignorance.
2. He makes Himself known even more clearly and fully through what he has said and still says through his Word. This Word is very special and is called divine. In it he tells us as much as we need for this life to glorify him and to be saved ourselves.

II. How surprising it is that God makes himself known to us?←⤒🔗

1. The first three words of this article are already significant: “We know him.” This is by no means self-evident, for in the previous article it was said that God is eternal, beyond all understanding, and infinite. The well-known Swiss theologian Karl Barth († 1968) has therefore taught that we can never obtain true knowledge of God and that for this reason we really do not know who he is and what he wants. According to Barth we should not try to ‘capture’ God with the human measure of our knowledge.
2. In itself, Barth is right, but he puts the matter wrong. Indeed, we should not try to encapsulate the great God into our human knowledge, as it were. That would show pride. Yet it is true that God makes himself known to us within the measure of our knowledge. He adapts his revelation to our comprehension. Allow me to clarify this with an example. A small child already knows its mother, even if it does not know everything about her and even if this knowledge is particularly childish. Still – the knowledge that this child possesses is absolutely reliable. It knows its mother out of a thousand. And in like manner, the believers can and may know their God.

III.  How God makes himself known through a “most beautiful book”←⤒🔗

1. The first means by which we know God is “the creation, preservation, and government of the universe.”
   When we think of creation, we mainly think of nature, which in its own way proclaims how mighty God is (see Psalm 19:1-7 and Psalm 104 (see the closing line!)).
   In the preservation, God’s omnipotence shows itself in the upkeep of all this creation, in that he “gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry” (Psalm 147:9), and he causes “summer and winter, day and night, not to cease” (Genesis 8:22).
   The government of the world – yes: of the entire universe – implies that God directs all events, even the most terrible ones, with his hand. This is also taught us in the story of Joseph who was led to Egypt (Genesis 50:20; see also Acts 2:23).
2. All this manifold dealing of God with this world makes it “a most beautiful book.” And, of course, a beautiful book meets the highest requirements: it is clear, easy to read, instructive, fascinating and convincing. It cannot be otherwise, for God himself is the author of the book. He sees to it that the words of that book are not arranged in a chaotic jumble, but that they form an intelligible language, a message, a proclamation through which we can see his “eternal power and divine nature.” For these two things are the subject of this marvellous book of which God is both the author and the main actor.

IV. How convincingly God makes himself known to men←⤒🔗

1. The persuasive character of the book of creation is so great that our article focuses its discussion with a word from Paul, namely, that it is sufficient “to convict men, and to leave them without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Men will naturally try to justify themselves for their life without God. Their strongest argument will be that they did not know and could not have known. However, such an argument will be countered by the fact that they had the beautiful book of God's creation right in front of their eyes, which showed God's eternal power and divine nature. That book was sufficient and convincing. Therefore they will no longer have any valid excuse. God pressed them, so to speak, with their noses to that ‘Read & Learn’ book every day. They have seen the stars and the flowers, they have seen the changing of the seasons and so much more, and in spite of all this they have not acknowledged God.
2. It is objected that man without the Bible can never know God from the world around him. That is indeed true. No missionary will ever meet a heathen who has read the book of creation so well that he accurately knows God’s eternal power and divine nature. The written Word of God is absolutely indispensable for that purpose.
   And yet the excuse of the people referred to earlier ("We couldn't have known") does not hold. For the decisive point is not: were they able to read the book of creation? But it comes down to this: God had given them a clear book. And the latter is most certainly the case.
   The fact that they cannot and do not want to read this book is quite another matter. Incidentally, this article does not claim that even the pagans can read God’s eternal power and divinity from this book alone. It does say that they have no excuse. Why not? It is because the book is clear enough of itself, and because their inability to read is their own fault. For God made them in such a way that they could read it. But man has deprived himself of this gift. In this case, his blindness, which prevents him from reading, is his own doing – he stands guilty. With the beautiful book of God’s creation right in front of their eyes, “their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21). Therefore there is no excuse whatsoever, and only blame, as they “do not see fit to acknowledge God” (Romans 1:28).
3. In view of all this, it is true that creation or nature does not reveal to us how God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The book of creation, however beautiful it is, does not teach us to know Christ.
   However, the least that the pagans should have known and acknowledged (God's eternal power and divinity) is denied by them. For that reason alone they are inexcusable.

V. How does God make himself known even more clearly through his Word?←⤒🔗

1. “Second, he makes himself more clearly and fully known to us by his holy and divine Word.” That is his written Word, as it was spoken earlier by the prophets, the apostles, and Christ. In comparison with the first means by which we know God, the latter is said to be clearer and more complete. That is because through this Word God speaks to people in human words that everyone can understand. Psalm 104, for example, speaks more clearly of God's eternal power than the most beautiful flower garden. But moreover this Word makes God more fully known (in other words, is a more complete revelation), because only from it do we learn that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16). That is not something that the most beautiful nature reveals to us.
2. Now, it has been argued that according to Article 2 the two means by which we know God are, so to speak, two books that can be read quite independently from each other. One is the beautiful book of nature and the second that of God’s Word. It is pointed out that the second is only said to make God “more clearly and more fully known” and therefore it merely complements the first book of God’s revelation through nature. Therefore, one could get to know God fairly well from creation or nature alone, if one uses one's mind properly. That is why some speak of the natural knowledge of God. The Roman Catholics believe in that. They concluded at the First Vatican Council (1870) that God may be known with certainty from created things “by the endowment of the human mind with the light of reason."
   But Article 2 certainly does not teach this. Do you need proof? When you ask based on this article who it is that knows God by these two means, then its answer is we. And those are the believers, the same people who confess God in Article 1. The unbelievers do not know God, not by the book of creation or by that of the Bible. We have already seen that they are totally blind to the otherwise beautiful book of nature. But the Word is the indispensable lens that is necessary to recognize God in creation. For the indispensability of the written and preached Word, see 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 and Romans 10:14.
3. Meanwhile, even through these two books, our knowledge of God is never complete. He is far beyond our understanding. But what we do know about him is reliable. It is also sufficient “so far as it is necessary for us in this life, to his glory and our salvation.“ Those are straightforward words. God does not reveal himself to us so that we can satisfy our curiosity. He wants to be honoured by us and he wants to save us. In view of those two objectives he gives us sufficient knowledge of himself.

Points to discuss←↰⤒🔗

1. Try to tell the difference between a believing and an unbelieving lover of nature – for instance, using the content of Psalm 104.
2. Try to discover in Article 2 the argument for a careful management of nature and the environment.
3. What is the specific character of a Christian geography lesson? The same question can be asked about history, math, language, or any other subject. Discuss these questions from the meaning of “the book of nature.”
4. After the Spanish Armada had been destroyed in 1588 by, among other things, heavy storms, the Estates of the province of Zeeland struck a commemorative medal with the inscription: “God’s breath has scattered them.” Could one really be so sure of this?
5. Discuss the Anabaptist view that we can also know God outside of the Bible, i.e., through direct intervention through the Holy Spirit.
6. Give evidence from the Bible that God is not in the least responsible for the origin of paganism. Consider how he gave his revelation to all mankind after the Fall – for example, according to Genesis 3:9-19, and also after the flood, according to Genesis 9:8-9. In this context, discuss the necessity of Christian education.