WHY WE KNOW GOD EXISTS

WHY WE KNOW GOD EXISTS

Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

I would like you to notice just two words in this passage, He is.

“He that cometh to God must believe that He is…”

I want to try to explain to you Why We Believe God Exists.

Certainly, we believe it 

·   Because the Holy Spirit of God has convinced us that He exists.

·   Because the Bible tells us that He exists and

·   Because he had given us faith that He exists

But suppose an atheist asked you why you believe God exists.

Could you give him a reasonable convincing answer?

More importantly, if Satan used that atheist to plant a seed of doubt in your own heart, how would you strengthen “the hope that is in you”?[1]

With the Lord’s help I aim to give you some answers.

Of course, we are to walk by faith, not by sight.

But God has seen fit to give us some evidences of His existence.

I. EVIDENCES FROM NATURE

Romans 1:19-20 (KJV)

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Nature and the creation testify that God is real.

Psalms 19:1(KJV)

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

The world we live in is evidence of God’s existence.

Theology is a science[2] and theologians have scientific names for the evidences found in nature and creation.

A. The cosmological argument for the existence of God

It comes from the Greek term “kosmos,” meaning world.

And it speaks of the fact that our world - “the Kosmos”- the planets and stars, and the immensity of it all requires a cause sufficient for the effect.

Every group of scientists agrees that, 

·   Every effect, 

·   Every substance and 

·   Every occurrence 

must have a cause sufficient to produce the effect.

In other words, there is an explanation for everything.

Nothing happens or exists without a cause.

In the case of our universe, its cause must be infinitely great to be capable of its production.

The cosmological argument tells us that, there has to be a fantastic cause behind the existence of the heavens and earth.

But it tells us nothing of that cause.

·   Whether or not it is personal

·   Whether or not it is intelligent

·   Whether or not it is one cause or many causes

Only that it is a great cause.

So, we must take the evidence one step further to what is called the

B. Teleological argument for the existence of God.

This basically means that order and design require that the cause must have intelligence and purpose.

The teleological argument wipes out the big bang theory.

Our world has order design and purpose behind it.

Take, for instance, the balance of nature – the different cycles of nature that make the world continue.

·   Man breathes oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide.

·   Plants breath in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

We are dependent upon each other.

Everything that exists has a purpose for existing.

If it does not fulfill its purpose the balance of nature is upset.

1. This arrangement in nature tells us that nature’s cause must have enough intelligence to design the arrangement.

A big bang could not have done that.

Sure, an explosion is a cause.

If you had a great mass of substance that exploded, it could explain planets and stars.

But it cannot explain the arrangement of nature because nature has intelligence.

Illustration:

If I put all of the pieces of a watch into a box and began shaking the box do you think the watch would ever accidentally come together?

Of course not.

No purpose or thought is being put into the energy I am using just shaking the box.

Design requires intelligence.

I could probably never put the watch together and get it to work even if I did try because I have no skills in watchmaking.

Design requires not only intelligence but intelligence sufficient to produce the design.

The complexity and intricacy of the balance of nature indicate a cause of tremendous intelligence.

2. This does not take into consideration the complexity of living organisms.

They say that the world’s smallest insect has millions of cells and that an average man had 75 trillion cells in his body.

Each cell is made of nearly 200 trillion protein molecules.

The largest of these protein molecules is the DNA, which exists in every cell and determines not only what function the cell will have in the body as a whole but what the body will be, whether man, monkey dandelion, or whatever.

They say that the total length of just one DNA molecule in just one cell is 6 feet.

And they say if you unwound the DNA molecules in the body of just one person and placed them end-to-end, the string would stretch to the sun and back over 400 times.

But if you bunched them all together, they could fit into a box the size of an ice cube.

And every single DNA cell contains all the information needed to produce a body exactly like the one it is in.

Design like that requires a tremendously intelligent designer.

It is absolutely ludicrous to believe that all this accidentally evolved into such order.

Every area of science would reject the idea that something with order and arrangement could be accomplished without intelligence behind it.

3. The problem that modern science so-called[3] has is that they must try to believe anything before they will believe in God.

So far then, nature has told us that there is a cause with both 

·   Tremendous power and 

·   Tremendous intelligence

But we do not know from this if the cause is personal and if it is just one or many causes.

So, we come to the,

C. Anthropological argument for the existence of God.

This deals with the mental and moral nature of man himself.

The idea here is that it is not possible for a cause to create something the cause itself has not experienced.

The fact that man is mental and moral necessarily demands that the cause also has a mental and moral nature.

1. The mind of man is not material. Therefore, it could not evolve from material things.

Our cause must have had the ability to create the mind.

This requires that the cause itself must have a mind.

2. The fact that we have a sense of right and wrong and an indwelling sense of guilt and judgment proves that our cause has a moral nature an that He is a lawgiver and judge.

If our cause for existence could not impart this conscience of right and wrong, then there is no satisfactory explanation for our moral nature.

The fact that we are mental and moral requires a sufficient cause.

A 

·   Personal

·   Intelligent

·   Powerful

Creator

D. God’s existence is also evidenced by the fact that man inherently believes in a God.

Messages like this one do not develop within a people a belief in God.

They only stir up the belief that is already there.

God is not a taught belief.[4]

That is proven by the fact that there never has been a race of people, no matter how remote, that did not believe in some god.

It is true that most have a perverted belief in God, but everybody does believe in God.

Even atheists have some form of belief in god.

Atheism is merely a rebellion against the belief, not the absence of the belief.

The fact that mankind in every generation, and in every race believes in God implies that the God who exists has placed within us that belief.

These natural evidences teach us there is a God, but they do not teach us

·   Whether He is the original creator or just the designer

·   Whether He has any limitations or not

·   What our relationship to Him is

For these we, must come to my second point, which is

II. EVIDENCES FROM THE BIBLE

Genesis 1:1 (KJV)

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The Bible assumes the existence of God.

There is no need for God to defend His existence in the Bible because His existence is proven in nature.

The Bible, therefore, sets out to answer our unanswered questions about God.

The Bible tells us that God is limitless - infinite- without beginning or ending.

The Bible tells us that He is One God, not many.

The Bible tells us that He is,

·   The original creator, that He is 

·   The very first cause, that He

·Created everything out of nothing

The Bible tells us our relationship to Him,

· That we were created to fellowship with Him

·   That man fell into sin and

·   That in order to restore the fellowship God provided the Lord Jesus Christ as our sacrifice

In the area of Biblical evidences there are some questions that need answers.

·   Where did the Bible come from and why is it still here?

·   How is it that so much of the Bible’s prophecies have been fulfilled exactly?

·   How were the miracles of the prophets of Christ accomplished?

·   Why has Christianity been so influential despite such an obscure beginning?

·   How has mere faith in a man who lived so long ago change so many people spiritually and morally?

These questions cannot be answered unless God does exist in the fashion described in the Bible.

However, all five questions find a completely satisfactory answer if God does exist.

And that brings me to the third and final point, the

III. ARGUMENT OF REASON AND LOGIC

Dr. Bancroft put it this way

“If the key fits all wards of the lock, we know it is the right key!”[5]

Belief in the existence of the God of the Bible answers all of the evidences we have seen today.

·   An all-powerful God is a sufficient Cause to explain the universe.

·   An all-knowing God is a sufficient intelligence to explain the design and complexity of nature.

·   A Holy God is sufficient to explain man’s mental and moral nature.

And the existence of the God of the Bible sufficiently explains

·   The origination and preservation of the Bible

·   How the prophecies of the Bible have been fulfilled

·   How the miracles of the Bible were accomplished

·   Why Christianity has been so influential and

·   Why faith in such a God changes en so completely

Men have developed theories that answer one or two of these arguments without God.

But none that can answer all of the arguments together.

Only the belief in the existence of God satisfactorily answers all of these.

Reason and logic would say that since it works, on all counts, it is correct.

Our God, the God of the Bible, does exist.

Praise God He does.

And the existence of God demands that we act accordingly.

·   It demands we come to Him His way through salvation in Jesus Christ

·   It demands we who believe in Christ obey His commandments and

·   It demands that we seek to relate to Him through prayer and reading of His Word.

Let’s pray

---

[1] 1 Peter 3:15 (KJV)

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

[2] There is, of course, considerable debate whether theology is a true science. What is not debatable is whether theology is considered historically to be a science. The following site offers some of the considerations in the debate. https://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1998/PSCF3-98Peterson.html

[3] 1 Timothy 6:20 (KJV)

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

[4] Modern cultures rather attempt to “unteach” the belief in God.

[5] Emery Bancroft, Christian Theology, pg. 66