HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT GOD EXISTS?

If God is a non-material beings - a spiritual being; if God is invisible; what proof can
you give me that God exists?

One great proof the Christian wants to point to is "God's Word" - the Bible. We have
much evidence to point to in the Scripture for the existence of God. That evidence
includes fulfilled prophecy and miracles. But can we prove the existence of God
outside of the Biblical revelation?

The Word of God itself suggests that we can.

Romans 1:18-21 (ESV) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness
suppress the truth. (19) For what can be known about God is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them. (20) For his invisible attributes, namely, his
eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the
creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without
excuse. (21) For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or
give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish
hearts were darkened.

Paul tells us that even those that had no access to God's Word in written form will be
judged because they have another source of information about God available to them.
That source has been called "The Bible in Nature". It is the message of creation. That
message - of considered - reveals God's "invisible attributes", "his eternal power
and divine nature"; so that, they can be judged for their sin because they are without
excuse.

The Psalmist likewise tells us that the created world reveals the "glory of God" in
such a way that it cannot be missed by the inquiring mind.

Psalms 19:1-6 (ESV) To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare
the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (2) Day to day
pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. (3) There is no speech,
nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. (4) Their voice goes out through
all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for
the sun, (5) which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a
strong man, runs its course with joy. (6) Its rising is from the end of the
heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its
heat.

Christian, I am sure you have been faced with this question from someone seeking the
truth. It's not enough to tell them just to have faith. In Christianity, faith is not blind. We
believe in a God that has revealed Himself in His creation; in history; and in His Word.
Our faith is a rational - reasonable faith.
Let's consider three of the many powerful arguments for the existence of God.

I. THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT FOR GOD'S EXISTENCE.

Isaiah 40:26 (ESV) Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He
who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness
of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.

One day a 6 year old girl was sitting in the classroom. The teacher was going to
explain evolution to the children. The teacher asked a little boy, "Tommy, do you see
the tree outside?"

Tommy: "Yes."

Teacher: "Tommy, do you see the grass outside?"

Tommy: "Yes".

Teacher: "Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky."

Tommy: "OK. (He returned a few minutes later) Yes, I saw the sky."

Teacher: "Did you see God?"

Tommy: "No."

Teacher: "That's my point. We can't see God because he isn't there."

A little girl spoke up and wanted to ask the boy some questions. The teacher agreed
and she asked the boy; "Tommy, do you see the tree outside?"

Tommy: "Yes."

Little girl: "Tommy do you see the grass outside?"

Tommy: "Yessssss." (getting tired of the questions by this time)

Little girl: "Did you see the sky?"

Tommy: "Yessssss."

Little Girl: "Tommy, do you see the teacher?"

Tommy: "Yes."

Little Girl: "Do you see her brain?"

Tommy: "No."

Little Girl: "Does that mean she doesn't have one?"

While the little girl may have gotten punished for suggesting the teacher was brainless,
her logic was impeccable. She correctly pointed out that something invisible can often
be proved to exist by its effects in the world. The teacher could talk, move, and reason
(even if poorly). Though her brain could not be seen, it is evident she possessed one.

In Isaiah 40:26, God's Word is not afraid to ask us to consider the stars and the
vastness of the universe and ask, "Who created these?"

Judeo-Christian religions have always declared that the universe had a beginning. The
verse first words of the book of Genesis are these.

Gen 1:1 (ESV) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

But famous Greek Philosophers such as Aristotle believed the universe always existed.
Until the work of Albert Einstein, those that rejected the Bible most likely believed the
universe had no beginning. But as a result of Einstein, the scientific community has
reluctantly been forced to agree with the Bible that the universe has a beginning. We
may not all agree on when that beginning took place. But it is now almost universally
accepted that the universe had a beginning and it was created from nothing.

How does this fact - the universe had a beginning - provide proof of God's existence?

Let me give you one form of the Cosmological argument for God's existence.

1. Whatever begins to exist must have a cause for its existence.

2. The universe began to exist.

3. Therefore, the universe (time, space, matter, energy) must have a cause for its
existence.

4. The cause of a thing must be greater than that thing caused; i.e. timeless (eternal),
exist outside of space (transcendent), non-material (spirit), and ultimate in power
(omnipotent) and intentional (personal).

5. This is a basic description of God.

In his book, "The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask", Mark Mittelberg tells
the following story.

"My friend Chad Meister, who has his doctorate in philosophy and teaches philosophy
of religion at a graduate level, told me a story about what had happened to him awhile
back at a dinner with his wife and others from the company. The firm was celebrating
the end of tax season and had invited the employees and their spouses for a nice
dinner at a five-star restaurant. Chad happened to sit next to a pilot for a major airline.
As they ate, the conversation eventually came around to spiritual matters, and the pilot
said he didn't believe in God - which is not a very good position to take when you're
having dinner with the likes of Dr. Meister!"
Chad brought up the cosmological evidence .... and the pilot responded, "Yes, but how
do you know it is God who created the universe? Maybe and alien did the creating!"
Chad replied, "Maybe so! But let's keep in mind that our alien, whom we can call Bob,
is timeless (that is outside of time), nonspatial (outside of the spatial dimension),
immaterial (not made up of matter), and does not consist of physical energy, yet was
powerful enough to create the entire universe - all the billions and billions of galaxies,
each of which has billions and billions of stars. In light of that information, you can call
him Bob, but I call him Yahweh! This is the transcendent God beyond space and time
in whom Christians have believed for two thousand years." (chapter 1)

That's one form of the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God.

Now let's consider a very modern version of the argument from design.

III. THE DESIGN ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

Job 38:1-7 (ESV) Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
(2) "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? (3) Dress
for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. (4)
"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have
understanding. (5) Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or
who stretched the line upon it? (6) On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its
cornerstone, (7) when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?

God confronts Job's desire to question His justice by asking Job if he knows the great
intricacies of the creation. If you carefully consider the words of Job 38, you will see
God tells us that His creation demonstrates design, and design demands a designer.

1. Nature exhibits complexity, order, and purpose.

2. These exhibited features cannot be explained by random or accidental

processes, but only as a product of mind.

3. Therefore, there exists a mind that has produced nature.

4. A mind that produces nature is a definition of "God."

5. Therefore, God exists.

A great modern defender of the faith is Dr. William Lane Craig. Dr. Craig notes that in
the last forty years, scientists have discovered that the existence of life in the universe
depends upon a delicate balance of conditions that had to exist at the initial point of
creation. In other words, the universe is extremely "fine-tuned".

The mathematical precision of the recipe of the universe is so precise that the ratio of
one force to another can't be accidental. In order for life to exist constants for the force
of gravity (for example); the amount of entropy; the balance between matter and anti-
matter could not be altered by even a "hair's breadth" or "the life-permitting balance
would be destroyed, and no living organism of any kind could exist."
(www.reasonablefaith.com)

"For example, a change in the strength of the atomic weak force by only one part in
10100 (that's 1 with 100 zeros) would have prevented a life-permitting universe. .... And
it’s not just each constant or quantity that must be exquisitely finely-tuned; their ratios
to one another must be also finely-tuned. So improbability is multiplied by improbability
by improbability until our minds are reeling in incomprehensible numbers."

Now I'm sure I don't understand much of what this fine-tuning really means. But I do
know about formulas. I do know a little about recipes. We can't even imagine how
complicated and precise the recipe for a life-permitting universe is. To suggest that
such complication and precision happened by accident is ridiculous.

In the past, this argument used a "pocket watch" as an example. What if you were
walking along the beach and found a "pocket watch". You open it up and marvel at the
tiny gears and precise connections required to measure time accurately. Would you
suppose that such a device happened by accident? No! Immediately you would ask,
"Who is the watchmaker?"

But today we know something more. We know that even before this amazingly
complex creation (this pocket watch) could exist, the design itself had to be beyond
imagination in its precision. It demonstrates "pre-planning" in a marvelous degree.

It must have had a designer. That designer is God.

We've considered a Cosmological Argument for the existence of God.

We've considered a Design Argument for the existence of God.

Let's consider the Moral Argument for the existence of God.

III. The Moral Argument for the Existence of God.

Exodus 24:12 (ESV) The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain
and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the
commandment, which I have written for their instruction."

The Bible declares that God is the source of objective moral values; some actions are
always and in all cases, "right" or "wrong"; "just" or "unjust", "good" or "evil". Actions
possess a moral quality.

There is a difference between an action being preferable and an action being "right". It
may be preferable for a person to eat dinner rather than to not eat dinner. But whether
you decide to eat or not is a preference. Eating or not eating is not "right" or "wrong".
But to murder someone is "wrong", and to abstain from murderous behavior is "right".
To murder or not to murder is not simply a preference. What gives an action the quality
of "rightness" or "wrongness" rather than simply being a preference?

There is another question about moral values. Are moral values objective (unchanging)
or are they subjective (changeable).

If a government or a society is the source of moral values, then one society may decide
murder is "right", while another society may decide murder is wrong. The Nazi war
criminals placed on trial after World War II argued they were justified in killing 6 million
Jews because their government had told them such murder was "right".

But if there is one ultimate law-giver; if there is a God, then moral values are objective;
they do not change. The judges at the Nuremburg Tribunals after World War II believed
they could judge the Nazi defendants to be murderers because such murder is always
wrong. They believed moral values to be objective.

Don't we all believe that some moral values are objective?

Don't we all believe murder is always wrong in all places at all times?

If moral values are subject to personal or societal opinion how could we judge
someone to be a criminal?

With these points in mind, here’s a simple moral argument for God’s existence:

1. If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

2. Objective moral values and duties do exist.

3. Therefore, God exists.

The great Christian thinker and former skeptic C.S. Lewis found the moral argument so
compelling that it was instrumental in his becoming a Christian. Let me read his
account from his book, "Mere Christianity".

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But
how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless
he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I
called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak,
why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent
reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a
water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of
justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my
argument against God collapsed too - for the argument depended on saying that the
world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies.”

CONCLUSION
Dr. William Lane Craig gives 3 reasons why life would be absurd without immortality
and God.

1. There Would Be No Ultimate Meaning without Immortality and God. If each

individual person passes out of existence when he dies, then what ultimate meaning
can be given to his life? Does it really matter whether he ever existed at all?

2. There Would Be No Ultimate Value Without Immortality and God. If life ends at
the grave, then it makes no difference whether one has lived as a Stalin or as a saint.

3. There Would Be No Ultimate Purpose Without Immortality and God. If death

stands with open arms at the end of life's trail, then what is the goal of life? Is it all for
nothing?

But there is a God. Someone may suggest that none of the arguments given is
conclusive about the existence of God. Even if one were to believe this, taken together,
they are powerful evidence for the existence of God.

Christian! Your faith is rational. It makes sense. It has evidence. It isn't blind faith.

Unbeliever! Do you reject God for sound reasons or because God's ways conflict with
your desires? Is it because of sin?

There is a solution for sin promised in Jesus Christ. (Gospel)