Does God Exist?

One of the greatest questions that a person could ever ask is: Does God exist?  Is God real?  And if He is real, how can I be certain?  How can I tell?  If there is a God Who made me and expects something of me, I need to know so I can live my life according to His expectations.  I don’t want to upset the One Who created me.  And, if there is no God and I can live however I want to without any rules or consequences to my actions, I need to know that so I can live however I want to guilt-free.  If there is no God, I want to take all I can in this life because there will be no after-life.  “Grab all you can because you just live once.”

So with that said, I want to take a moment of your time to quickly answer one of the greatest questions that could ever be asked.

I. THE WORLD’S ANSWER TO THE QUESTION

By “world” I mean the unbelieving world . . . those who are not Christians.  Unbelievers have given two basic answers to the question, “Does God exist?”

1. Agnosticism

Agnosticism “denies that anyone could know God even if God  existed.”1 The “A” in Agnosticism means “No” and the “Gnosticism” means “Knowledge.”  An Agnostic, then, is someone who denies that they can have any knowledge of God.  God might exist.  God might not exist.  But, either way, who could tell?  Even if there is a God, the Agnostic argues, it wouldn’t do us much good, because we could never know it.

There are many reasons for this way of thinking.  Some Agnostics believe that the human mind is incapable of fully understanding anything that it cannot touch, see, taste, smell, or feel.  Outside of the physical realm, man can have no definite comprehension of anything.  Therefore, God is unknown because He is definitely outside of the physical realm.  Other Agnostics believe that all knowledge is ultimately based on experience and, since it is impossible to verify an “experience” of God, God must be unknowable.

Other arguments for Agnosticism include 1). the belief that man cannot know something that he does not completely know.  Since man cannot completely know God, then he cannot know God at all.  2). the belief that every piece of information that is passed on to human beings is distorted by human beings.  We cannot really know anything, especially God, because as soon as we begin to think about God, we distort Him with our finite minds and come up with nothing but confusion.2

2. Atheism

Atheism “denies that God exists.”3 The “A” in Atheism means “No” and the “Theism” means “God.”  An Atheist, then, is someone who denies that there is a God.  There is no thinking that “God might exist.”  The “might” is replaced with a “does not.”  God does not exist.  Atheism is Agnosticism on steroids.  People in this camp do not even concede the possibility that there could be a Greater Power.  They flatly deny even the possibility of His existence.

There are many reasons for this way of thinking as well.  Some Atheists believe that evolution and the big bang theory do away with any reason to need a Creator or a God.  If the world started on its own without a God, they argue, why would it need a God to continue on its own?  Other Atheists believe that the existence of evil is conclusive proof that God does not exist.  The answer to the question, “How could a good God allow so much evil to happen?” has never been satisfactorily answered for them.

Other arguments for Atheism include 1). the belief that the material world is all that there is.  Not only can we not knowsomething that we cannot touch, see, taste, smell or feel but we can be absolutely certain that it is not there.  And since God cannot be touched, seen, tasted, smelt, or felt, He is not there.  2). the belief that, if God did exist, He would have made His existence known beyond any reasonable doubt.  The fact that He has not done so proves that He does not exist.4

II. THE BIBLE’S ANSWER TO THE QUESTION

The Bible is not silent on the question, “Does God exist?”  In fact, the Bible is full of answers to this all-important question.

1. God’s Existence is Seen in Creation

The Bible says that God proves His existence in the world that He has made.  In Romans 1:20, the Apostle Paul writes that,

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

The Bible says that creation clearly reveals God’s eternal power and divine nature.  God’s strength and His character are revealed in what His hands have fashioned.  The rotation of the earth, the rising and setting of the sun, the positioning of the planets, the light that comes from the stars in the sky, the ecosystem, the ozone layer, and the human body all prove that God exists.  To look at it another way, the order of creation proves that there is a Creator Who ordered it.  A big bang could not create an organized universe.  Evolution could not create a fully functioning world.  As the famous Astronomer Fred Hoyle put it, the chances that evolution created everything we see are the same chances that “a tornado would sweep through a junkyard and assemble a Boeing 747.”5

To look at this another way, the majesty of creation also proves that there is a God.  Augustine called nature “God’s art” and King David said this about nature in Psalm 19:1-3,

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.

The beauty and order of the universe prove that there was an Artist and a Director Who made it that way.  One way we know that God exists is by looking at His creation.

2. God’s Existence is Seen in the Conscience

The conscience could be defined as

The soul reflecting upon itself.  Conscience is at the heart of what distinguishes the human creature.  People, unlike animals, can contemplate their own actions and make moral self-evaluations.  That is the very function of conscience.6

The conscience is the inner voice in man that makes him feel guilty or justified in his behavior.  And the Bible says that every man has this inner voice working within him.  Some men have learned to quiet it.  Some men have learned to silence it.  But all men have a conscience.  Romans 2:14-15 says that Gentiles (non-Jews) have God’s law written on their hearts and their conscience bears witness against them and defends them.

We have all seen the cartoon of the man with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other telling him what to do.  That is a good illustration of a man’s conscience.  The conscience discourages man when he has done wrong and encourages him when he has done right.  It may not always be accurate in its assessment, but the conscience serves to remind us that we have offended a holy God and that we stand in need of His forgiveness.

The conscience is not infallible.  Nor is it a source of revelation about right and wrong.  Its role is not to teach us moral and ethical ideas, but to hold us accountable to the highest standards of right and wrong . . . When we stand in judgment, every person’s conscience will side with God, the righteous judge.  The worst sin-hardened evildoer will discover before the throne of God that he has a conscience which testifies against him.7

Guilt cannot be explained in an evolutionary worldview but it can be explained in a Biblical one.  The Lord has given every man a conscience as a reminder that He exists.

3. God’s Existence is Seen in What He Has Revealed

“I have read a lot of books but no book has read me like the Bible.”  Everyone who has read the Bible cover-to-cover would have to agree with that statement.  There is something about the Bible that reaches out and grabs us and holds on to our attention.  The reason for this is because the Bible was written to prove God’s existence.  The Scriptures were written by the breath of God (2 Tim 3:16) to show us that God is real and that He expects us to obey Him.  God’s revelation proves his existence.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of the law.”  God has given us His Word to us so that we may observe and obey it.  Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”  The Bible gives us hope because it reveals its author to us.  It makes God known to us.

4. God’s Existence is Seen in Human Life

Romans 1:18-19 says that,

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

One way that God has made Himself known is creation.  But another way is in the basic rules that govern human life.  There are certain “laws” that every human being adheres to that show that there must have been a Creator Who made those laws.  For instance, every person obeys the laws of logic.  If someone tells you that they are a red fire truck, you would not say, “That’s nice.”  You would get them professional help.  Why?  Because they are violating a basic law of logic.  Something cannot be “A” and “Not A” at the same time.8 A human being cannot be a human being and a red fire truck all at once.  And to claim so is to speak nonsense.  Well, where did that law of logic come from and why is everyone born with the faculties needed to grasp it?

In a similar way, every human being is born with some understanding of the laws of morality.  We all know that killing babies is evil and that saving babies is good.  Why do we believe that?  Why do people in Kenya and people in Kentucky adhere to that standard?  They do that because it is a universal law given to us by the Creator of the Universe.  God has given us the laws of logic and the laws of morality to make Himself evident to us.  The Lord has proven His existence in the basic rules that govern human life.

5. God’s Existence is So Basic that it is Assumed

The Bible does not waste any time telling us what it thinks about the existence of God.  The first words of the first chapter of the Bible are “In the beginning, God . . .”  God was there in the beginning.  And He will be there at the end.  His existence is so obvious to the authors of Scripture that they just assume it.  In fact, Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”  Only a fool would doubt the existence of God.

But this does not mean that God has left us without any evidence for His existence outside of the Bible.  God has proven Himself to us in creation, in the conscience, and in the laws of logic and morality.  He has given us a book that is hands-down the greatest book ever written.  So the question you must now ask is, “How am I going to respond to all of this evidence?”  “What am I going to do with God?”  Or, to put it more precisely, “What is God going to do with me?”  The Bible makes it very clear that the only way to respond correctly to God is to humble yourself before Him and admit that you are a sinner in need of salvation.

Listen to your conscience and to the law of morality.  You are not a good person.  You are wicked.  You have lied, coveted, and made idols in your heart against the Lord.  But God has not left you without hope.  Jesus Christ has been crucified and resurrected so that wicked people might be forgiven and free.  If you wouldbelieve in His sacrifice and turn your life over to Him, you can have that forgiveness and freedom.  And you can not only know that God exists, but you can know that you are His friend.

  1. Thomas C. Oden, Systematic Theology, Volume One (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2006) 87. []
  2. These arguments for Agnosticism are borrowed from Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology(Carlisle, Penn.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2003, ed.) 30-32. []
  3. Oden, 87. []
  4. These arguments for Atheism are borrowed from www.argumentsforatheism.com as of 8/7/10. []
  5. Quoted in John Ankerberg & John Weldon’s Darwin’s Leap of Faith (Eugene, Ore.: Harvest House Publishers, 1998) 332. []
  6. John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience (Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson Books, 1994) 36. []
  7. Ibid., 38. []
  8. Louis P. Pojman, Philosophy: The Quest for Truth (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) 40.  This logical principle is called the principle of consistency.  In this book, Pojman describes it negatively as the fallacy of inconsistency. []

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