How did people know about God before the Bible?

The heathen world in its moral history is first described. The heathen darkness which prevails now in idolatry and its attending degradations was preceded by the knowledge of God and produced by turning from God. Man can know God, in and through creation; His eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen in the things that are made. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard" (Psalm 19:1-3). And there was no doubt also a primeval revelation, though unwritten, so that the Gentiles could know God.

Not until the coming into the world of the Son of God could there be the full revelation of the truth, but from earliest times parts of the truth were revealed to men. Adam knew the place that God had given to him in relation to the lower creation, and Cain and Abel had learned that approach to God could only be on the ground of sacrifice. God gave His covenant to Noah in connection with the earth, made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and established His law with Israel through Moses, making Himself known as Almighty to Abraham and the patriarchs, and as Jehovah to Moses and Israel. Abraham’s servant knew the favoured place in which Abraham stood to God, for he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not left destitute my master of His mercy and His truth” (Gen. 24:27). Jacob was also aware of his place of privilege, saying, “O God of my father Abraham…If am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant” (Gen. 32:9-10).

It was of great moment for the Christian Jews to learn (and indeed it is imperfectly understood in Christendom) that, before our Lord came, the knowledge of God though true was vague, comparatively speaking. Yet all the O.T. saints looked away from themselves to Him in the sure hope of the woman's Seed to destroy the enemy. They knew Him as a faithful Creator and Preserver and Saviour, and by sacrifice too. His ways with Adam and Abel, with Enoch and Noah, gave ever-increasing light; though but partial, it was blessed. To Abraham more was vouchsafed, and the name of the Almighty, as a present help in the midst of the race ripening for judgment, was no small thing. Much more became known when through Moses He gave the name of Jehovah the Eternal, as the grand national watchword to Israel His people, the security of their final and everlasting blessing on earth under His government, whatever their changes meanwhile.

And see how simple it is. The only possible means for men to know God is through His making Himself known to men. I admit that for a long time the word of God was not written. For more than two thousand years the word of God was not yet written. Men had no more than the word of God spoken, and that little word uttered in the garden of Eden — supplemented by the promises that came afterwards, as well as by manifestations that God gave from time to time — was quite enough, when God had not added more, for men to live and die and go to heaven upon. Nor is it absolutely necessary that a man should read. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." How many had only "heard" that word, and truly looked for the coming Saviour! A man's whole life is affected by this, not by deep study, but whether he rests entirely on Christ or he is trying to save himself. What a change faith in Christ effects! Receiving Him as the Son of God with my heart, and my conscience bowing to the truth which convicts me, I love Him because He first loved me. Is not this the gospel? And there in germ at least it was in Eden — "the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head." It is the everlasting gospel.

This was a loss which man could to some extent remedy; but there was a loss which no effort of his could supply, the true knowledge of God. Man did not like to retain the knowledge of God; therefore he was given up to the evil resulting from his ignorance. Before the flood there was no direct interposition. God had His witnesses, but confined to the thin line of Abel, Enoch, and Noah which reached to the deluge. Their faith and righteousness was the sole testimony, and there being no public revelation (if we may so say), the power of Satan was not seen in denying it, or opposing it by idolatry. The word in Gen. 4:26, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord," does not necessarily mean that they were righteous; it may simply mean that the idea of God was not wholly lost. For Adam was yet alive. But after that judgment the earth being overflowed with water perished; which would not fail to impress the next generation with the power of God. The religious element of man's nature was developed, and being ignorant of God he became the dupe of Satan, and a worshipper of idols. And idolatry soon became universal.

What a striking witness we have in this book — one of the oldest in the world — to facts which stand out plainly in the New Testament. Here are patriarchal saints, living only a few centuries after the flood, with a knowledge of God according to the primeval revelation of Himself. Men did not develop out of heathenism into the knowledge of God, but the reverse. As Romans 1 says "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God;" and again, "As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over … " However stubborn Job was in his self-righteousness, and his friends were in their thoughts, they did not exclude God from their knowledge. He was very present in their thoughts.

Again, there is what is very remarkable and separate in the Book. It is entirely outside Israel. There was certainly the nucleus of Israel then; Abraham, Isaac and probably Jacob, had been living, and it is clear that this pious Gentile, Job, had profited a good deal from the knowledge of what God had revealed in His dealings not only with those patriarchs, but the traditions of those who had lived before. I say "traditions," because Scripture was not yet written. If there was any Book of Scripture written at this time, it could only, in my opinion, have been, possibly, the Book of Genesis. That was but very little. Only the Book of Genesis is one of the most instructive Books in all the Bible; and it is remarkable for being a kind of seed plot (as it has been compared to before now), where all the germs, all the plants afterwards grew up into, you may say, shrubs or trees, or whatever it might be — there you have them all in their beginning.

In the days of the patriarchs, we may say that there was no revelation of God save that imparted to the individual. God thus made known His mind to Noah, to Abraham, and even to those who were largely ignorant of Him, as Abimelech and Laban (Gen. 20:3, etc.; Gen. 31:24). A dream or vision was often employed, but it was a divine revelation. Eliphaz refers to such a communication, in beautiful language, but not so definitely as Elihu does here (see Job 4:12-21).

God frequently appeared to Abraham, giving him different revelations of His mind and will, making marvellous promises in grace towards him and his promised seed, and revealing Himself, saying, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:1). Isaac and Jacob walked in the light of the revelations that God had made to Abraham, the promises being renewed to them. The patriarchs were separate from other men, and this because they had the knowledge of God according to the revelation that He had been pleased to give of Himself to Abraham.

"Because that, knowing," or, "having known," "God." This is a distinct advance upon nature's witness, being that knowledge of God on man's part, which may be termed traditional. He was thus positively known by men at as late a date as the day of Noah if, indeed, it be not precisely to that memorable post-diluvian morning that reference is here made, when we find Noah and his family all that was left of the human race upon the earth — surrounding their altar as worshippers of the one true God. Thus far at least have we to go back the stream of history ere we come upon the happy time when it could be said that men, as a class, "knew God." In the absence of any later occasion when it was true, this may be the occasion referred to, if, as seems likely, a definite point in history is in the apostle's mind.