Objection #3: Only by faith, and consequently not through nature, does one know that there is a God, which is evident from Hebrews 11:6, “He that cometh to God must believe that He is.”
Answer: This issue of faith can be viewed in various ways. Nature teaches that God is who He is by virtue of the maintenance and government of all things; Scripture teaches that God is who He is in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). In Hebrews 11:1-40 the apostle refers to the latter, whereas in the previously quoted texts from Romans 1:1-32; Romans 2:1-29 he refers to the former. The recognition of the Godhead by faith does not exclude the knowledge of God from the realm of nature; rather, it includes and presupposes it.
Question: Relative to the natural knowledge of God the question must be posed: “Can man be saved by virtue of such knowledge?”
Answer: The Socinians answer this question in the affirmative. The Arminians and some within Roman Catholicism also lean in this direction. We deny this emphatically, however, as is verified by the following:
First, all natural knowledge of God, whatever its measure may be, is cognizant of God's justice in punishing sin (Romans 1:32), but is ignorant of the satisfaction of the justice of God and of the holiness with which one is able to stand in the just judgment of God. Without this satisfaction no one can be saved, as shall be shown comprehensively subsequent to this. Thus, for them God remains a God who will by no means clear the guilty, and who will recompense everyone according to his deeds.
Secondly, there is no salvation except in Christ and there is no other way unto salvation but by faith in Christ. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6); “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); “But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6); “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:36).
It is certain that the knowledge of Christ and faith in Christ are entirely absent in the natural knowledge of God. He is revealed only in the gospel, a revelation to which the heathen are not privy. “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations” (Colossians 1:26). Faith can only be exercised in response to the declaration of the gospel. “so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). It is therefore incontrovertible that the natural knowledge of God cannot bring about salvation for man.
Thirdly, the heathen, one as well as the other, even the wisest and most virtuous among them, are called: (1) fools, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22); (2) blind and dead, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18); (3) atheists, without promise or hope, “... strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμω, atheists, without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Their condition is denominated as, “and the times of this ignorance” (Acts 17:30).
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