God Is! Series

God Is!

It is not unusual to be challenged today by someone who has either been brought up to disbelieve or has had bad experiences in life. They may ask the Christian to "prove to me there is a God!" Of course, "No one has seen God at any time" (John 1:18). Neither has anyone tasted, touched or smelled Him. Some in the Old Testament heard Him, but none of us has. We cannot isolate God in a test tube or examine Him under a microscope. We must use some other means to show God is.

The greatest evidence of God’s existence is found in His creation. "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). Creation exhibits a design that must be the work of a designer. Most have no trouble understanding that any house, or other structure, had a designer, or architect, who drew up a plan for its construction. In the same way, the world around us displays a design that denies an origin of mere chance. Bert Thompson and Wayne Jackson, in their book A Study Course in Christian Evidences, on page 25, wrote,

Did you realize, for example, that the human body is composed of multiplied trillions of cells? In the nucelus [sic] of each cell, hundreds of thousands of genes are present. Each gene consists of a complex chemical called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA has a complicated code for the mapping out of the entire development of the individual. If the coded instructions of a single human cell were put into English, "they would fill a 1,000 volume encyclopedia" (R. Platt, Reader’s Digest, October, 1962, p. 148).

One writer observed, "For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4). The form and function of all the things God created teaches us there is a God (Job 12:7-10).

The cosmological argument seems to go hand in hand with the argument from design. This argument says the cosmos, including the world in which we live, obviously exists. It goes further to say that nothing comes from nothing. Therefore, there is a prime cause behind the cosmos, or God. The second law of thermodynamics, also known as entropy, says there is an ongoing flow from heat to cold, or what we might describe as a winding down process. Such an obvious process lets us know the universe is not eternal. Something had to be behind its existence.

Man’s moral nature tells us there must be a Moral Governor. People the world over condemned Adolph Hitler’s attempt to destroy the Jews. Why? Because man’s innate "sense of right" told them genocide was wrong. The animals do not display such a sense. Anyone who has ever seen a documentary on any of a number of animals has likely been impressed with their total lack of conscience. They can kill and eat another innocent creature without any pangs of conscience. For that reason, we do not bring an ox who gores a man up on charges of murder. Instead, we place the ox inside a fence and post warnings of the danger. In contrast, a man who kills is considered a criminal and will be tried for murder because he ought to know better. Thompson and Jackson ask, "If one does not acknowledge an eternal Mind with which intrinsic goodness is coexistent, how is ’morality’ to be explained?" (p. 28).

Even in our age of skepticism and doubt, man seems to seek something to worship. Thus, we have what has been termed the new age movement. Individuals pursuing this concept believe in "karma" and "soul mates." Ancient Indians worshiped the "Great Spirit." The men of Athens erected altars to all types of gods, including one inscribed, "To the Unknown God" (Acts 17:22-23). Augustine believed this universal desire of man to worship, which he called "intuition," was clear evidence there is a God. Batsell Barrett Baxter, in his book I Believe Because..., explained this argument for God’s existence by describing a first time visitor to Washington, D. C. seeing the 550’ Washington Monument. He said when they stood before the monument, they would instinctively look up all the way to its top. The same type of instinct causes man to look up to heaven for the Almighty God.

Baxter also explained Anselm’s ontological argument, by first telling his readers that ontology is the branch of philosophy devoted to the nature or existence of God. "Anselm began with a definition, ’God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived!’ Then he argued that man is able to conceive in his mind of the idea that than which there is no greater." He then went on to say he could think of something even greater than "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." What was it? The existence of that being greater than anything which man could conceive. Baxter went on to point to Psalm 14:1, which says, "The fool has said in his heart, ’There is no God.’" Then, Baxter wrote, "In order for the fool to say ’God,’ he had to have a concept of God in his mind. To start out to deny God is a kind of implication that God exists."