Recently, the Barna Research Group conducted an important poll to get the pulse of inquiring hearts about religion. They asked a cross section of American adults: “If you could ask God any question about your life, what is the single most important question you would want to ask him?” In addition, USA Today conducted a similar poll by asking readers, “If you could get in contact with God directly, and get an immediate reply, what would you ask?” Not surprisingly, the results of these polls yielded very similar results. Many of the questions had to do with suffering, life purpose, life after death, the end of the world, and God’s will. I believe it is a safe assumption that those who are listening to me have questions that fall under these categories. This is why I have chosen to preach this series on “The Seven Wonders of the Faith.”
Many people feel ashamed for having doubts and questions about their faith. They fear that they will be accused of not trusting God enough or being spiritually immature. Often there are people of faith who are eager to criticize those who dare to question God. This is unfortunate, for there is more faith in doubt than most realize. In fact, if you study the lives of great Christians throughout history, you will find that many of them (including biblical writers) went through profound periods of doubting and questioning God and their faith. They came out of their period of searching with a stronger faith and a deeper understanding of God. Honest doubts and questions of faith are not only about finding answers, but also about discovering truth. My prayer is that this sermon series will help you on your journey to discover truth.
We begin this series with the question, “I Wonder if God Exists?”
Is There A God?
The conversation was going well. I respected my new friend’s intellectual prowess. He seemed to be able to speak intelligently on every subject. When we got to the subject of religion, he said quite casually, “I can’t believe in God.” Knowing the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge, I replied, “You mean, you can’t bring yourself to follow him?” “No,” he retorted, “I mean, I really can’t believe that God exists. How can anyone believe in God when the world is as messed up as it is? I could do a better job creating and running a universe.” His words reminded me of the old line by Woody Allen, “If there is a God, he is the ultimate under-achiever.”
As a pastor, many of my conversations with people about God begin in this manner. I will be on a plane or sitting in a waiting room and as soon as people discover that I am “a man of the cloth,” they express their inability to wrap their minds around the existence of God. I take them seriously because many want to believe in God, but they can’t seem to get over their intellectual hurdles. They desire to be convinced that God exists, but their rationale for not believing in God will not relent. Their god is what can be observed and studied.
Of course, not all of the people I speak with about the existence of God are so convinced in one way or the other. Many call themselves agnostics, and, as such, just aren’t sure what they believe. Some waiver back and forth on whether or not God exists. Others believe in God, but they are not sure about the nature of God. Is God loving or hateful? Does God care about the world or has God abandoned us? They study world religions and it just confuses them more. In addition, many of them look to the behavior of those who claim to believe in God and are not impressed with what they find. This is a sobering indictment on the church.
When I speak with Christians about the existence of God, surprisingly, many are not able to articulate reasons why they believe in the existence of a benevolent being who created the universe and is active in the world today. For them, it is an issue of faith, as it should be. However, when they find themselves in conversations with people who have serious doubts about the existence of God many are unable to “to make their defense” (1 Peter 3:15) as to why they believe in the reality of God. Some are left with the same doubts as those who don’t believe. Their faith is challenged.
Most of you who are reading these words probably can identify with one or all of the people above. All of us, at one time or another, have wondered about the existence of God. This is the reason for this chapter. Some want legitimate arguments for the existence of God to help bring them to faith in God. Others desire clear and concise explanations for God’s existence in order to feel prepared when articulating the reason for their beliefs when they are challenged. My prayer is that what follows will satisfy your requests.
Everything Begins With God
People have been wondering about God’s existence since there has been a human being on earth who could reflect on the meaning of life. The question of the reality of God goes to the core of human existence. For most people, what they 2believe about God determines what they believe about their lives and how they should live. In other words, their belief in God determines their behavior. Of course, there will always be folks who are “practical atheists”— they believe in God but they act as if there were no God. However, for many, values and morals have their root in a belief in God. If God exists, life matters. If God doesn’t exist, we are left to our own devices with truth being a relative idea depending upon the whims of culture. Those who believe in God feel that without God there is no morality, no goodness, and no absolute truth, for God is the source of all these things.
The Bible Does Not Prove the Existence of God
The Bible does not set out to prove the existence of God. If we turn to the first page of the Bible we read, “In the beginning ...God” (Genesis 1:1). There is no attempt to convince the reader that God exists. The Bible clearly assumes that there is a God. God simply is. Psalm 14:1 says, “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ ” From a biblical perspective, what is obvious and certain does not need to be proven.
However, many people do not feel that the reality of God is so obvious. To atheists it seems clear that there is not a God, and many are very vocal about it. To agnostics the jury is still out on the whole issue of God, and even if they are convinced that God exists, they are not sure what this divine being is up to. Yet, I believe clear reflection on the arguments for God’s existence brings the obvious to bear.
There are many compelling and convincing arguments for the existence of God. Scholars, philosophers, and theologians have used them within academia for years. Many of these arguments are known within Christian theology as general revelation, which means that they are based on what is generally known and observable. Unfortunately, these arguments for God’s existence typically do not get mentioned within churches. Some religious leaders feel that attempting to explain these arguments will just bring more confusion to the average layperson. I disagree. Those who seek for the reality of God need and deserve the most compelling evidence for God’s existence. What follows is a summary of some of the best arguments for the existence of God.
The Design Argument
One of the most compelling arguments for the existence of God is what is often called “the design argument.” Many people have reasoned out this argument on their own without realizing that it has a name or an official distinction. Set out by philosopher William Paley, this simple argument is also known as “Paley’s Watch.” Basically, the argument goes that if you happened upon a watch, never having seen a watch or heard of one and you broke it open to look at its intricate parts, you would conclude that this watch was made by a watchmaker. In the same way, the world we observe is too complex and too beautiful to have happened by chance. The world must have been created and designed by a divine intelligence.
Many of us have had the experience that Paley reasoned out. We observe a beautiful tree, flower, or mountain, and exclaim, “Only God could have created that!” The psalmist was expressing the design argument when he said, “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well” (Psalm 139:14). Just a glance at the beauty around us and the wonder of our working bodies and we are compelled to conclude that there is a God who is behind everything.
Those who are still not convinced should consider the probability of the world coming together by mere chance. According to what we know from science and biology, the world existing by chance would be as if a tornado had touched down in a junkyard, rearranged all of the parts, and left a fully operational Boeing 747 in its wake. This incomprehensible event wouldn’t have to happen only once, it would have to happen a million times! Such an event is clearly impossible, and so is the creation of the world without a designer.
The First Cause Argument
Another convincing argument for the existence of God is known as the “first cause argument.” It is sometimes referred to as the “cosmological argument.” Most believe this argument began with Saint Thomas Aquinas, who sought to discover the cause for the origin of our world. The first part to this argument states that every event has a cause (nothing comes from nothing). For instance, this pulpit did not just appear out of thin air; it was designed and created by someone. Aquinas believed that if we go back far enough we can find the first event which is the “first cause” for all the subsequent events.
The second part to Aquinas’ argument is that things move because they are moved by something else. The balls on a pool table move because they are struck by other balls. If you trace all movement you will discover an unmoved mover who is independent of all moves and causes. Aquinas argued that the ultimate cause of all events and movements is God.
The Moral Argument
Perhaps the most obvious argument for the existence of God is the “moral argument.” This argument states quite simply that our sense of right and wrong comes from God. For example, we know that trying to save a person from drowning is right and throwing someone incapable of swimming into a lake is wrong. Right and wrong seem to be fundamental; they don’t have to be taught. We know what “ought” to be done. Some call this innate knowledge of right and wrong our conscience. Where does our conscience come from? Our conscience does not originate with us; it comes from God. If there is no God, then human beings decide what is right and wrong and no moral code is fixed. People would behave based upon what feels good or what is right for them, and the world would be in utter chaos. There is a God because God is the only logical source and commander of what is right and wrong.
The Existence of Religion
A less known, but no less important, argument for God’s existence is the reality of religion in our world. A cursory study of history will show that religion has played a vital role in every human culture. Even indigenous tribes who live in the most remote areas of the world have some sort of religion. There seems to be an innate desire for human beings to worship something bigger than themselves. This desire could only come from God. We are designed to be connected to our Creator, so we will naturally express what we’re designed by God to do. Saint Augustine once prayed to God, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” The prominence of religion in our world underscores Augustine’s prayer. There truly is a “God-shaped void in all of us that only God can fill.”
The Significance of Jesus Christ
After reading these arguments, skeptics may be inclined to believe in some sort of “higher power” or divine force. However, these arguments fall short in proving the nature of God. For instance, we may be able to believe that God created the world, but what does it say about this God when there is a natural disaster or when people are born into this world with severe mental and physical disorders? How can we be sure that we are dealing with a benevolent God that so many people believe in? Or what about people who worship many gods or different religions that are in conflict over the nature of God and how God operates in the world? What kind of God are we to believe in? How are we to know what this “higher power” is like?
Enter Jesus Christ. Because we are limited and finite human beings who can never fully understand and know God on our own, we need God to come down to our level and exemplify his nature. This is what God does in Jesus Christ. In Christ, God demonstrates for us what he is like and proves his redeeming love toward us by dying on a cross. The birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ make God’s nature and power real for us in a way that we can understand. More importantly, through Christ we encounter this loving God and are redeemed from sin and given new life.
In most religions, human beings are reaching for God. Only the Christian faith claims that God reaches for us. In Christ, an invisible God penetrates our world and transforms our lives. God’s revelation to us in Jesus Christ is so significant that it is called special revelation. Unlike general revelation, special revelation is God’s particular and deliberate act of revealing his love to us. This is the reason many theologians argue that when talking about God we must begin with Christ, for in Christ we experience the true nature of God.
The Best Argument for God
The best argument for the existence of God is not some philosophical idea or a brilliant conclusion reached by the foremost theologian. The most compelling and convincing argument for God is personal experience. Bruce Shelley reinforces this point when he writes about trying to prove that poetry exists. Shelley mentions that some could argue that poetry is nothing more than black marks on white paper. This argument might be convincing for folks who cannot read or hear. In fact, after examining print under a microscope and analyzing the paper and ink, you would never find anything that could be called poetry. However, those who can read or hear poetry and experience it will insist that poetry exists.
It is the same way with God. We can throw philosophical darts back and forth, arguing about God’s existence. But it is only when we allow ourselves to experience God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ that we truly believe and are changed. The point is that we come to faith in God not head first, but heart first. We may intellectually believe that God exists, but it only makes a difference when we give him our hearts. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah and said, “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all of your heart” (29:13).
A colleague of mine once visited a Sunday school class. The subject was on being “born again.” A national magazine had just done a story on the issue, and the class wanted to discuss it. The teacher of the class that day was a prominent doctor in the community. He said to the class, “Five years ago I didn’t believe in God. I hated the idea of God, and I hated the church. I was a man of reason, of science. I was too smart for that kind of stuff. And I was living the life! I was making a lot of money as a big shot doctor. Then I came home late one night to an empty house. There was a note on the kitchen table from my wife and kids that read, ‘We don’t know you anymore.’ And at that moment I fell backward into a 10,000 fathoms deep pit. For the first time in my life the thing I wanted most I could not have. And I fell back further and further and further. Then something pulled me to reach out. And something grabbed and pulled me up. I got grabbed. I got pulled up. I got saved. I was born again.” Then the doctor looked at the class and asked, “Does God exist? You bet he does. He saved me.”
Do you really want to know if God exists? Give God your heart and ask him to cleanse you of all your sins and put a new spirit within you. Once you experience God’s redeeming love, your question will no longer be, “Does God exist?” but “How did I exist without God in my life?” Amen.
From the Series: The Seven Wonders of the Faith