How Can I Know God Exists?
Dear Roger and Julie,
I have wrestled with questions about God for as long as I can remember. How do I know for sure that He is real?
Sincerely,
Joe
People of all ages have serious questions that cry out for answers. “Why does God seem to answer some people’s prayers and not others?” “If God is all loving and all-powerful, why does He allow so much suffering in the world?” “How could a loving God send anyone to Hell?”
But the one we hear most often is this:
HOW CAN I KNOW THAT A GOD I CAN’T SEE REALLY EXISTS?
“Without faith it is impossible to please God. Those who come to God must believe that he exists. And they must believe that he rewards those who look to Him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV)
“Does God exist?” is an age-old question. Many of us were educated in schools and universities where we were taught that everything in the universe evolved by chance. We were made to feel that to believe in God is to be mentally weak, unintellectual, or not politically correct.
What a shame. We don’t have to check our brains at the school room door. Any reasonable person can easily defend the existence of God.
LET’S TALK ABOUT PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
- The Causal Proof: Creation requires a cause.
Imagine that I am holding a hula hoop and everything in the universe is located inside this circle. Ask the question, Who or what caused all of this to exist?
The answer can lie in only one of two places. The ultimate cause must either be located inside the circle or outside the circle.
If the cause of everything is located inside the circle, then you still must ask, “Where did that cause come from?”
The only rational explanation for all that lies inside the circle is to locate the cause and source outside the circle!
See the universe; there must have been a Creator outside of it who caused it.
Does the Bible have anything to say about this? Take a look at these two verses:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 NIV)
“Jesus is over all creation. All things were created in Him. He created everything in heaven and on earth. He created everything that can be seen and everything that can’t be seen. He created kings, powers, rulers and authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. Before anything was created, he was already there. He holds everything together.” (Colossians 1:15-17 NIV)
Everything has a cause.
- The Teleological Proof: God must exist because every design has a designer.
Look at the intricacies of the universe. The teleological proof answers the question: “Who is responsible for the design, symmetry, and order that we see all around us?”
The teleological proof also challenges the modern argument that life and the created order came into existence by chance.
For centuries, man looked at the complexities, beautiful intricacies and symmetry of the universe and assumed that there was a master designer behind it all.
This view was totally unchallenged until the 1800s. During the Age of Reason, many believed that science could explain everything. God was taken completely out of the equation and the supernatural was explained away in terms of the natural.
Hebrews 11:3 teaches that God created the universe. It had a cause and design: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
Scientists teach that the universe is a random chance collision of floating gases set into motion by a random series of events that produced random amino acids which swirled together to produce a molecule and eventually evolved to us today.
How reasonable is this theory?
No scientist can adequately explain where the gases came from in the first place. Many blush in embarrassment at the mathematical probabilities of a chance collision of gases producing even a single structured molecule … let alone a process as complex as photosynthesis or as breathtaking as an eagle in flight.
Here is our challenge for you. Take the back off your laptop computer, look at the tiny circuits, crystals, switches, and components—then go and sit out under a tree and ask yourself if that laptop computer was designed and assembled by an intelligent being, or if it was the result of a random explosion in a metal factory?
This will give you an appreciation of the teleological argument for the existence of God who alone can account for the order, symmetry, and beauty we see around us every day.
Next time you hold a baby, ask yourself: Is this fantastic, complex being really the result of a cosmic accident?
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above declares His handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1 NIV)
3. The Ontological Proof: The existence of humankind implies the existence of God.
Consider the question: “Why do we find men and women all over the world worshipping a higher being?”
Our very existence points to God. Every culture believes in a higher power; someone or something that is greater than we are. Deep down, we all know that we are created beings … that we come from somewhere.
C.S. Lewis once said that it takes much more faith to be an atheist than to believe in the existence of God. In other words, it is much harder to believe we came from nothing than that we come from something … or Someone.
Does the Bible talk about this?
“So, Paul saw all of the Greek idols and proclaimed “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22-23 ESV)
4. The Anthropological Proof: God must exist because all humankind has a moral code that reflects a moral Creator.
God must exist because a universal moral code is stamped on the hearts of all human beings, transcending culture, race, language, and location. The existence of this moral code demands that humankind was created in the image of a moral God.
If human beings simply evolved from chance collisions from primeval gases, if we are simply grown-up germs, or a recent improvements of apes, how does one account for the fact that around the world we find a moral code of truth over deceit, kindness over violence, loyalty over backstabbing, love over hate, justice over injustice?
Can chance produce a consistent moral code?
Pose the moral code question to an atheist: “What is your theory regarding the moral code of humankind?”
No one has an answer, ever.
“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” (Romans 2:14-15 NIV)
The four classical proofs above are all very reasonable. Thousands of scientists, theologians, and philosophers have written to support each one. In concert with them, we believe that any reasonable person must examine them and conclude that God exists.
But I know that most people don’t come to God out of reason. They come out of experience.
To the four classical proofs, I will add a fifth.
5. The Religious Experience Proof: Millions of people have had a personal experience with God.
God must exist because hundreds of millions of well-adjusted people all over the world claim that they have experienced the love, forgiveness, peace, comfort and presence of God.
This can’t be taken lightly, especially when we consider the similarity of those experiences across the ages. There are also many, many experiences with God recorded in Scripture, from His visual and verbal interaction with Moses at the burning bush to His heart-to-heart conversations with David to Jesus’s time with the disciples.
A loving God has attempted on many occasions to establish contact with every living creature on the face of this earth.
Honest people can all remember an occasion late at night when God came near and said, “Come on, come on, you know that I am real. Stop pretending that I am not, that you don’t need me. Open your mind and your heart and see what I can do with your life.”
Every person here can remember a visit from God sometime in your life journey. The question is, what did you do with it? How did you respond? What action did you take?
Now, put all five arguments (cosmological, teleological, ontological, anthropological, and religious experience) on the scale and watch the scale tip in favor of the existence of God.
People who don’t believe in God have a lot of explaining to do.
That is why, ultimately there are only two religions in the world.
Man saves or God saves. Every world religion other than Christianity comes down to “Man saves by earning God’s favor.”
Christianity is accomplished by God, not God and man. God sent His Son for us. Through His Son, He bestows perfection and righteousness as a good gift … the free gift of eternal life.
You must respond. The biblical requisite for heaven is faith—trust. Transfer your faith from you to the cross.
Well Joe,
We hope that these proofs are very helpful to you as you work through your own beliefs regarding God’s existence and as you discuss your thoughts with others.
Love,
Roger and Julie