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How do we know there is a God?
We think this is one of the most
important questions anyone could ever ask!
There are as many answers to this question as
there are people on this planet. Maybe our answers here aren't the most
powerful or the most eloquent, but maybe we can take our turn at answering this
age-old question.
Every thing we see around us speaks to creation- not some random event.
Could it be merely luck that we live on a planet that is not only so functional
to its inhabitants- but that is a thing of beauty as well?
Two
thousand years ago, a great man- the Apostle Paul- spoke on these things and the
nature of God to a group of Greek Philosophers in Athens, Greece.
Paul had noticed that the people of Athens acknowledge that some higher order
must have made everything, even though they did not grasp how it came to pass.
Trying to please this higher order, they had created hundred of "gods" that they
called Zeuss, Apollos and others. They had created hundreds of temples to
these gods and tried, in vain, to please them all.
 In
speaking to these learned men, this humble apostle said, "God, who made the
world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell
in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He
needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has
made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of
the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of
their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might
grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him
we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:24-28)
We
would urge you to think about the power of these statements.
First, God made the world. Think about it-- does it really make sense that
all of this merely happened? Second, God does not dwell in temples or
churches made by men. God, who made everything, dwells everywhere.
Third, who are we to make out images of God, or of Christ, and to worship them?
Can the created in turn create the creator?
Fourth, God gave life to us, and to every creature on earth. Our very
essence, our souls, are obvious. God gave us life for a purpose, and that
purpose is clearly spelled out in the Bible- in order that we can live with Him
forever. (Isn't that logical, too?) Fifth, Paul reminds them that
men are men, no matter where you go in the world. Japan, Russia, America,
Africa, Australia-- we are all the same blood, the same DNA, the same people.
The Darwinists would teach that humankind is evolving-- but it simply isn't
borne out by the fact that all men share the same common ancestry.
Sixth, Paul reminds them that God has set aside boundaries for men- physical and
spiritual- so that they might stop being self-centered, and start looking for
God instead. Seventh, Paul reminds them that this same God that they have
been trying to understand has never been far from any of us- that it's not God
that has moved away from men, but men that have moved away from God. This
message resonated with many present, and will always resonate!
Finally, Paul reminds them that men and women owe their daily existence, their
every waking hour- to the presence of God.
How did they take his arguments?
The scripture records that the more prominent, being "well-educated" men, simply rejected Paul the
moment he began talking about the major proof that God gave-
His sending His only Son, who died-- and was then raised from the dead!
But not all rejected Paul- in fact, many turned to Christ that day as a result
of what Paul had to say. Just as today, some accepted, and some rejected.
But
we today have these same foundational proofs. God created us to think- to
think about who we are, who HE is, and why He placed us here on earth.
Ask
yourself- what is more logical- a big bang, where matter is created out of
nothing, or a God that created it all, and created us all? If there was
simply a "big bang" where all matter came together, where did that matter come
from?
We
will leave you with one final proof to seriously consider- the twelve men that followed Jesus around
during his three-year ministry on earth, as described in the books of Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. Who were these men, and why did they leave everything
they owned and follow Jesus? They were fishermen, businessmen,
bureaucrats, and otherwise every day people like you and I. In John 6:68,
the Bible records that Jesus asked these twelve men if they wanted to leave Him.
Their answer, after spending three years with Jesus? “Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe
and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”'
Secular history goes on to record that each of
these men, except for Judas (who betrayed Him), and John, who lived into old
age, died a martyr's death. They were beaten, they were stoned, they
were killed-- because they believed what they saw and witnessed first-hand
during the three short years they walked with Christ.
That's fairly strong proof, wouldn't you say?
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