What would you say to me if I told you that I do not believe in “words.” More than likely you are thinking, “Are you kidding me? That is foolish. You don’t believe in words? Come on! That is ridiculous!”
Everyone believes that words exist. It would be foolish to pull out a dictionary and to try to prove to the person that makes such a claim that words exist. It is clear that He is, as we examined last month, suppressing a truth that is evident to all. He is a fool. He instead needs to be shown how foolish and contradictory such a claim is. It is self-refuting. You cannot claim that words do not exist without using them. This is what we must show this person to show them how ridiculous a statement this is.
What do we say when someone says they do not believe in God? Do we respond in the same way? Not usually. Usually we respond by trying to give a list of evidences to the truth that God exists, when the Bible says that they already know that God exists. Instead, we should be responding with the same attitude that we would respond with if someone said they didn't believe in words. Just as the person who is suppressing the truth about the existence of words, so to is the one who claims that God does not exist. Remember what God says in Romans 1 (which we looked at last week)? Everyone is without excuse for rejecting the God they know exists. They are foolish for doing so.
YOU CANNOT EVEN MAKE THE ARGUMENT THAT GOD DOES NOT EXISTS UNLESS GOD DOES EXIST, LET ALONE PROVE IT.
This subject will be what we study today. I have titled this sermon, "Proof that God Exists." The proof that I will show this evening is not like the arguments that we would commonly hear people use to prove God exists, such as the Cosmological Argument, The Design Argument, etc. I don't use these arguments, because these arguments for God are not designed to prove the God of the Bible, just that a God exists. Most people that use them even make this point. At the beginning of their lessons on these topics, they usually begin by saying two things:
1. I am not attempting to prove the Biblical God, just that a God exists
2. That we need to begin on neutral ground, assuming first that God does not exist, and then show through their arguments that it is more probable that a God exists
Starting your arguments for the existence for God in this way is just plain unbiblical. We have no Biblical basis to begin any of our arguments in defending the faith on neutral ground. The opposition sure doesn't do this, and we shouldn't either. Remember what Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15? He just doesn't say that we need to be ready to give a defense to those who ask for a reason for the hope that is within us. This is only the second part of the verse. The first part of the verse says that we must sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, and then give a ready defense. Can you tell me how we sanctify Christ as Lord in our arguments when we begin by assuming that He is not Lord? We don't! Just as all of the Apostles and Prophets of old, we need not be ashamed that we have the truth. We must begin with the belief, just as they did, that Jesus is Lord and God, teach the truth, and call men to repentance.
The argument that I am going to show this evening is my favorite because this is what the argument does. It begins with the presupposition that Jesus is Lord and shows the unbeliever that they cannot make sense of one argument that they make unless God does exist. Their argument is self-refuting. You cannot live as though God does not exist no matter how much you believe this to be the case! You must borrow from the Christian worldview to make any arguments against God.
So the proof that God exists that I will be giving tonight: The proof that God exists is that without Him, you cannot know or prove anything! [1]
Saying that God does not exist or even asking for proof that God exists, presupposes the existence of many things that you cannot account for if God does not exist:
• Objective Truth and Morality
• Knowledge
• Reason and Logical Absolutes
• Uniformity/Science
I could do a full sermon on each one of these topics, but for the sake of time I cannot. You can get more information on these topics by going to the "Ultimate Proof" section of my website.
WHAT IS TRUTH WITHOUT GOD?
I am going to make a bold claim: Without God, there is no such thing as truth. You must begin with the God of the Bible who is the Truth (John 14:6), and the source of truth (John 17:17) to have an objective source of truth. All you have are opinions and preferences. Society claims that "truth" is based on the person; it is relative. This is what you have if you don't believe God exists. All you have is truth based on what each person believes. But this is not truth at all! Just because you believe something doesn't mean that it is true. And just because you call something "your truth" doesn't make it truth. Any claim that truth is relativistic and/or subjective is self refuting. Truth is objective and absolute. People may claim that all truth is relative, but you cannot live this way! Even the claim "all truth is relative" is an absolute truth claim. Even the claim "It is my truth that God does not exist" is an absolute truth claim. It is true for all people at all times that to you God does not exist. Every truth claim is an absolute truth claim.
If God didn't exist, truth would not exist either. If we are nothing more than evolved chemical reactions that began as simple chemical reactions that became living and over billions of years became us, you cannot have truth. would be the mere by-product of the chemical reactions in our brains, i.e. “brain fizz.” You do not get truth from chemical reactions. I gave this illustration before: Saying you can get truth from chemical reactions would be like shaking up a bottle of Pepsi on one table and a bottle of Mountain Dew on another table, opening them up, and then deciding which chemical reaction is giving you true fizz and which one is giving you a false fizz. You cannot have truth without God.
Every time someone makes a truth claim, they are presupposing the existence of God. They are borrowing from God to argue against Him.
WHAT IS MORALITY WITHOUT GOD?
This argument ties closely to the argument about truth. Every claim that something is right or wrong; good or evil, is an absolute truth claim, and you must have an absolute Law-Giver to make an absolute truth claim. I make the same claim about morality that I do for truth: without God, there cannot be an objective standard of morality. Morality also would be nothing more than our opinion and preference. Saying murder is wrong if God does not exists, would be on par with saying I don't like chocolate ice cream. You cannot get moral truths from chemical reactions either, just arbitrary and subjective opinions. Many claim that morality evolved and that society can give us an objective basis for morality. My usual response to this is: SAYS WHO? Says you, says other men? For truth or morality to be objective, it cannot be based on the opinions and/or feelings of individuals, and all society is is a collection of individuals. If the opinions of the majority tell us what is moral, that is not objective. The atheist or evolutionist should say what Hitler did was perfectly moral. It was accepted by individuals and by German society as a whole. If morality is chosen by the consensus of society, there is no reason the unbeliever today can condemn Hitler for what he did. He believed the things he did was right. He got the German society to agree with Him.
Only from a theistic worldview can someone observe all that takes place in the world and consider it genuinely evil in any meaningful, objective sense. Any statement declaring some action or activity as “evil” assumes some objective standard by which good and evil can be judged. You must have an absolute standard of morality to base it on. The unbeliever has no basis for even leveling an argument against God, what He does, or what He allows to happen. He must borrow from the perfect, Biblical God of Truth to make any moral arguments
KNOWLEDGE PRESUPPOSES GOD'S EXISTENCE
What is the basis for any claims of knowledge if God does not exist? The Bible says that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov 1:7) and that "in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3). God is the foundation for knowledge. But if God does not exist, what is the basis for knowledge?
Knowledge is commonly defined as "justified, true belief."[2] To know something, you must have a good, logical reason to believe it, and it must be true. Knowledge presupposes truth. If you do not have an objective standard of truth, you cannot have knowledge either. You cannot know anything for certain. Many unbelievers will claim such a thing. I have watched many debates in which unbelievers will claim that they cannot be sure about anything. Everything they claim to know could be wrong (untrue/false). If this is the case, they really don't know these things.
Let’s say that we work together and during our lunch break you asked me, “Jason, what is the speed limit on the road outside?” If I responded, “Well, it is 45mph, but I could be wrong,” do I know this to be the case? No, I do not know the speed limit. If I could be wrong, I do not know it. The unbeliever many times will readily admit that they can be wrong about everything they claim to know. It follows then that they do not know anything, and cannot know anything without an absolute standard of truth and an absolute Lawgiver.
But the truth is: people do know things! I will readily admit this fact. But the truth is, they cannot know anything if God does not exist. The only reason they do know things is because they are made in the image of God, but they are suppressing the truth of His existence.
We serve the all-knowing God of truth that tells us many things that we can know for certain. If you do not begin with this God, you cannot know anything. Knowledge would be impossible.
LOGIC AND REASON PRESUPPOSE GOD
Unbelievers claim to have a monopoly on logic and reason, in spite of their inability to account for such things. If God did not exist, we are nothing more than advanced primates, and our thought process are the product of advanced chemical reactions, we cannot know if we can even trust our reasoning abilities or that we are coming to conclusions that are sound and logical. Darwin made this point: “…with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?”[3] How can we trust our thoughts if our brains are the products of time, chance, and mere natural processes? We can’t. From our last point, to claim that you can know for certain that your ability to reason is functioning properly assumes an absolute standard of truth. It would assume the existence of God.
LAWS OF LOGIC: LAWS OF REASONING
Also, to reason properly, we all assume the existence of the Laws of Logic, which are laws of reasoning. One such example is the "Law of Non-Contradiction." It is illogical to say that my car is in the parking lot and to say my car is not in the parking lot at the same time and in the same way. It is impossible for both contradictory statements to be true. The law of non-contradiction is a simple law that we use on a daily basis without even realizing it. All rational, logical discussion requires the pre-existence of logical absolutes such as the Law of Non-Contradiction. This law is an absolute truth that you cannot have without God. This Law, along with the other Laws of Logic, are absolutes. They are universal. They also are immaterial and unchanging. You cannot account for these laws from a materialistic worldview that believes all things are made of matter and are evolving. You cannot account for immaterial, universal, unchanging laws without God. Reason and the Laws of Logic come from the mind of God. God is immaterial (Spirit-John 4:24), universal (omnipresent and eternal) and is unchanging (Malachi 3:6). Without God, you cannot form rational, reasonable arguments.
When unbelievers try to show us supposed Bible contradictions, they are assuming the Law of Non-Contradiction is an absolute that we all must adhere to. They cannot make this argument from their worldview. They must borrow reason and logic from God to argue against God.
UNIFORMITY AND SCIENCE HAVE NO BASIS WITHOUT GOD
All scientific experiments are based on the belief that the universe is logical and orderly and that it obeys mathematical laws that are consistent over time and space. They assume that all of the laws of mathematics, science, physics, etc. will continue to operate in the future as they did in the past. This is called "uniformity" or "the theory of induction." All scientific theories and experiments begin with this assumption. The question I ask is this: "If God does not exist, on what logical basis do you assume that the future will be like the past?" This assumption does not have a scientific basis. You cannot look into the future to know it will be like the past. Those who claim to be unbelievers have no logical basis for this belief. It is a blind faith assumption.
The majority of the time they appeal to the past as their basis of believing the future will be like the past. If you notice, this answer is ‘begging the question.’ You cannot look into the past to prove that the future will be the same as the past. This is an illogical argument.
For example:
If I based the predictions of my future solely on my past, I can prove this: I am never going to die. I never died in the past, and based on this argument that supposed unbelievers use, I would be perfectly justified in believing I will not die. They may respond by saying I would need justification for such a belief, and guess what, they are right. I would be ‘begging the question’ in assuming I would not die just because I haven’t in the past. I would be illogical in doing so. I just can’t assume it. The same is the case for their claims that the future will be like the past. All appeals to the past and to probabilities already assume their premise that the future will be like the past. They are begging the question. This point was conceded by professed atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell:
“It has been argued that we have reason to know that the future will resemble the past, because what was the future has constantly become the past, and has always been found to resemble the past, so that we really have experience of the future, namely of times which were formerly future, which we may call past futures. But such an argument really begs the very question at issue. We have experience of past futures, but not of future futures, and the question is: Will future futures resemble past futures? This question is not to be answered by an argument, which starts from past futures alone. We have therefore still to seek for some principle which shall enable us to know that the future will follow the same laws as the past” [4].
They borrow uniformity from the Christian worldview. The Christian expects there to be order in the universe because God upholds all things by His power (Hebrews 1:3). He has made the promise that all things will continue as they are until the end when He destroys this universe. Until then, He will keep the laws of science and physics going as they are now. Based on this, we can know that nature will be uniform. The supposed unbeliever cannot make such a claim, they can only assume it by blind faith. They cannot know this, or anything else, for certain. Science can be logically done only because God exists.
So lets review quickly and bring this lesson to a close. Without God, the following five things are impossible to have:
• Objective Truth
• Objective Morality
• Knowledge
• Reason and Logical Absolutes
• Uniformity/Science
I believe that each one of these arguments on their own is sufficient evidence that the supposed unbeliever really does believe that God exists, but they are suppressing this truth. Each one of these arguments on their own prove that God exists, but put together they form what I believe to be, the ultimate proof of the existence of God. The proof that God exists is that without Him, you could not know or prove anything! God's existence is proven by the impossibility of the contrary.
As I stated at the beginning of this lesson, I could have gone much more in depth on each one of these points. Hopefully I have given you enough to whet your appetite and lead you to study these things some more on your own. These arguments show that there is no such thing as a logical argument against God's existence. You must secretly first presuppose the existence of God to make any arguments against Him. To have any of these things I mentioned in this lesson, you MUST borrow them from God.
Paul says in Acts 17:24-25, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things."
There is nothing you have, including your ability to reason and to know things, that has not been given to you by our God! This God is the God of heaven. He created you with a purpose: to seek Him and know Him. He has given you all that you have to lead you to Himself. Man is without excuse for his rejection of God and His commandments.
"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31).
If the supposed unbeliever dies in his rebellious condition, he/she will justly be punished for eternity for their rebellion against the eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing God that they know exists! God sent His Son into this world to be the perfect, atoning sacrifice for the sins and rebellion of man. He is our only hope of forgiveness and escaping the wrath of God, and this has been proven by God by raising Him from the dead!
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Works Cited:
[1] This argument, along with many others on my site, I learned from watching videos and studying the teachings of Greg Bahnsen, Sye TenBruggencate, Doug Wilson, James R. White, Cornelius Van TIl, etc. This argument is for the Christian God alone. I use different forms of it as I have discussions with people of other religions also. Those who believe in a god other then the God of the Bible (Muslims, Hindus, Deists, etc) have many of the same issues discussed here as the professed atheist does. Although this page focuses primarily on the professed atheist, these arguments can be applied to these worldviews that worship false gods.
[2] from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justified_true_belief
[3] quote taken from http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-13230
[4] quote taken from < http://americanvision.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/10-Lesson-10-The-Uniformity-of-Nature.pdf>. Quote is from Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
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