QUESTIONS ABOUT GOD
Chapter 40

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» How Do You Know God Exists? (A/65-66)

 

s there truly a God? How can anyone be sure such a being exists? We believe that questions relating to the existence of God can be intelligently answered. The reason we know God exists is that He has told us so, and He has revealed Himself to us. He has told us all about who He is, what He is like and what His plan is for planet earth. He has revealed these things to mankind through the Bible.

The Bible Tells Us

The Bible has demonstrated itself to be more than a mere book; it is the actual Word of God. The evidence is more than convincing to anyone who will consider its claims honestly.

Because of the boasts the Bible makes for itself, many have tried to destroy it, as related in this statement by Martin Luther:

Mighty potentates have raged against this book and sought to destroy and uproot it -- Alexander the Great and princes of Egypt and Babylon, the monarchs of Persia, of Greece and of Rome, the Emperors Julius and Augustus -- but they prevailed nothing.

They are gone while the book remains, and it will remain forever and ever, perfect and entire, as it was declared at first. Who has thus helped it who has protected it against such mighty forces? No one, surely, but God Himself, who is master of all things.

Even the French skeptic, Rousseau, saw something different in the Scriptures:

I must confess to you that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me; the holiness of the evangelists speaks to my heart and has such striking characters of truth, and is, moreover, so perfectly inimitable, that if it had been the invention of men, the inventors would be greater than the greatest heroes.

The Bible, therefore, gives us sufficient reason to believe that it is the Word of the living God, who does exist and who has revealed Himself to the world.

Jesus Christ Tells Us

Another reason we know God exists is that He has appeared in human flesh. Jesus Christ was God Almighty who became a man. The Bible says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14, RSV), and it states clearly that Jesus came to earth to reveal who God is and what He is all about (John 1:18).

If someone wants to know who God is and what He is like, he needs only to look at Jesus Christ. As Lord Byron said, "If ever man was God or God was man, Jesus Christ was both." 5/81

Instead of man reaching up to find God, God reached down to man, as Casserley explains:

The gospel provides that knowledge of ultimate truth which men have sought through philosophy in vain, inevitably in vain, because it is essential to the very nature of God that He cannot be discovered by searching and probing of human minds, that He can only be known if He first takes the initiative and reveals Himself.

Jesus, in coming back from the dead, established Himself as having the credentials to be God, and it was this fact that demonstrated its truth to the unbelieving world. As Machen says,

The great weapon with which the disciples of Jesus set out to conquer the world was not a mere comprehension of eternal principles; it was a historical message, an account of something that had happened; it was the message, "He is risen!"

Thus we have the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ as two strong arguments for the existence of God. No other religion or philosophy offers anything near those two reasons to demonstrate that God exists.

» Is God Different in the Old and New Testaments?

Another of the frequent accusations against the Bible is that it contains two different concepts of God. The Old Testament allegedly presents only a God of wrath, while the New Testament allegedly depicts only a God of love.

The Old Testament contains stories of God's commanding the destruction of Sodom and the annihilation of the Canaanites, and many other stories of God's judgment and wrath. The accusers claim this demonstrates a primitive, warlike deity in contradistinction to the advanced teachings of Jesus to love one another and to turn the other cheek, as contained in the Sermon on the Mount.

These ideas about God seem to be in direct conflict, but a moment's reflection will show otherwise. Jesus Himself declared that the Old Testament may be summed up by the commandments to love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:37). He also observed that, in the Old Testament, God had continually desired love and mercy rather than sacrifice (Matthew 9:13; 12:7).

This attitude can be seen with statements such as, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked . . . and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezekiel 18:23, RSV). God would not have destroyed certain nations except that He is a God of justice and their evil could not go unchecked or condoned.

In the case of the Amorites, God gave them hundreds of years to repent, yet they did not (Genesis 15:16). Noah preached 120 years to his generation before the great flood (Genesis 6:3).

The proper Old Testament picture is one of a very patient God who gives these people untold opportunities to repent and come into harmony with Him, and only when they continually refuse does He judge and punish them for their evil deeds.

Contrary to some popular belief, the strongest statements of judgment and wrath in the Bible were made by the Lord Jesus Himself. In Matthew 23, for example, He lashed out at the religious leaders of His day, calling them hypocrites and false leaders, and informing them that their destiny was eternal banishment from God's presence.

In Matthew 10:34 (KJV), Jesus says that the purpose of His mission is not to unite but to divide. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." He goes on to say that His Word will cause a father to be against his son, a mother against her daughter, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law (Matthew 10:35).

We find judgment as well as love scattered profusely throughout the New Testament, and love and mercy as well as judgment throughout the Old Testament. God is consistent and unchanging, but different situations call for different emphases. Therefore, when the two testaments are read the way they were intended, they reveal the same holy God who is rich in mercy, but who will not let sin go unpunished.

» Isn't There More Than One Way to God?

People are constantly asking, "What's so special about Jesus? Why is He the only way that someone can know God?"

Along with the problem of the heathen who never hear about Jesus (discussed in the next chapter), there is no question asked more often than this one. We are accused of being narrow-minded because we assert there is no other way to get to God.

The first point to make is that we did not invent the idea of Jesus being the only way. This is not our claim; it is His. We are merely relating His claim, and the claim of the writers of the New Testament.

Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" (John 14:6, NASB); and, "Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins" (John 8:24, NASB).

The apostle Peter echoed these words, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12, KJV).

Paul concurred: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5, KJV). It is therefore the united testimony of the New Testament that no one can know God the Father except through the person of Jesus Christ.

To understand why this is so, we must go back to the beginning. An infinite, personal God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), and He created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26). When He had finished creating, everything was good (Genesis 1:31).

Man and woman were placed in a perfect environment, with all their needs taken care of. They were given only one prohibition; they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest they die (Genesis 2:17).

Unfortunately, they did eat of the tree (Genesis 3), and the relationship between God and man was now broken, as can be seen from Adam and Eve's attempting to hide from God (Genesis 3:8).

However, God promised that He would send a Saviour, or Messiah, who would deliver the entire creation from the bondage of sin (Genesis 3:15). The Old Testament kept repeating the theme that some day this person would come into the world and set mankind free.

God's Word did indeed come true. God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14,29). Jesus eventually died in our place in order that we could enjoy again a right relationship with God. The Bible says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself"; and, "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:19,21, KJV).

Jesus has paved the way! God has done it all, and our responsibility is to accept that fact. We can do nothing to add to the work of Jesus; all of it has been done for us.

If mankind could have reached God any other way, Jesus would not have had to die. His death verifies the fact that there is no other way. Therefore, no other religion or religious leader can bring someone to the knowledge of the one true God.

At this point many people ask, "Why couldn't God just forgive?"

An executive of a large corporation said, "My employees often do something, perhaps break something, and I just forgive them." Then he added, "Are you trying to tell me I can do something that God can't do?"

People fail to realize that wherever there is forgiveness there's also a payment. For example, let's say my daughter breaks a lamp in my home. I'm a loving and forgiving father, so I put her on my lap, and I hug her and I say, "Don't cry, honey. Daddy loves you and forgives you."

Now usually the person I tell that story to says, "Well, that's what God ought to do."

Then I ask the question, "Who pays for the lamp?"

The fact is, I do. There's always a price in forgiveness. Let's say somebody insults you in front of others and later you graciously say, "I forgive you." Who bears the price of the insult? You do.

This is what God has done. God has said, "I forgive you"; but He was willing to pay the price Himself through the cross.

» Is Belief in the Trinity Belief in Three Gods?

One of the most misunderstood ideas in the Bible concerns the teaching about the Trinity. Although Christians say that they believe in one God, they are constantly accused of polytheism (worshipping more than one God).

One God /Three Persons

The Scriptures do not teach that there are three Gods; neither do they teach that God wears three different masks while acting out the drama of history. What the Bible does teach is stated in the doctrine of the Trinity: There is one God who has revealed Himself in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three persons are the one God.

Although this is difficult to comprehend, it is nevertheless what the Bible tells us, and this is the closest the finite mind can come to explaining the infinite mystery of the infinite God.

The Bible teaches that there is one God, and only one God:

Hear, 0 Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4, NASB).

There is one God (1 Timothy 2:5, KJV).

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORI) of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me" (Isaiah 44:6, NASB).

However, even though God is one in His essential being or nature, He is also three persons:

Let us make man in our image (Genesis 1:26, KJV).

God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us (Genesis 3:22, RSV).

God's plural nature is alluded to here, for He could not be talking to angels in these instances, because angels could not and did not help God create. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, not the angels, created all things (John 1:3; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:2).

THE FATHER

In addition to speaking of God as one, and alluding to a plurality of God's being, the Scriptures are quite specific as to naming God in terms of three persons. There is a person whom the Bible calls the Father, and the Father is designated as God the Father (Galatians 1:1).

THE SON

The Bible talks about a person named Jesus, or the Son, or the Word, also called God. "The Word was God" (John 1:1, KJV). Jesus was "also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18, NASB).

THE HOLY SPIRIT

There is a third person mentioned in the Scriptures called the Holy Spirit, and this person - different from the Father and the Son - is also called God ("Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? ... You have not lied to men, but to God" (Acts 5:3,4, RSV).

THE TRINITY

The facts of the biblical teaching are these: There is one God. This one God has a plural nature. This one God is called the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all distinct personalities, all designated God. We are therefore led to the conclusion that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, and that comprises the doctrine of the Trinity.

Dr. John Warwick Montgomery offers an analogy to help us understand this doctrine better:

The doctrine of the Trinity is not "irrational"; what is irrational is to suppress the biblical evidence for trinity in favor of unity, or the evidence for unity in favor of trinity.

Our data must take precedence over our models -or, stating it better, our models must sensitively reflect the full range of data.

A close analogy to the theologian's procedure here lies in the work of the theoretical physicist: Subatomic entities are found, on examination, to possess wave properties (W), particle properties (P), and quantum properties (h).

Though these characteristics are in many respects incompatible (particles don't diffract, waves do, etc.), physicists "explain" or "model" an electron as PWh. They have to do this in order to give proper weight to all the relevant data.

Likewise, the theologian speaks of God as "three in one." Neither the scientist nor the theologian expects you to get a "picture" by way of his model; the purpose of the model is to help you take into account all of the facts, instead of perverting reality through super-imposing an apparent "consistency" on it.

The choice is clear: either the Trinity or a "God" who is only a pale imitation of the Lord of biblical and confessional Christianity.

» Why Does a Good God Allow Evil to Exist?

One of the most haunting questions we face concerns the problem of evil. Why is there evil in the world if there is a God? Why isn't He doing something about it? Many assume that the existence of evil disproves the existence of God.

Sometimes the problem of evil is put to the Christian in the form of a complex question, "If God is good, then He must not be powerful enough to deal with all the evil and injustice in the world since it is still going on. If He is powerful enough to stop wrongdoing then He must be evil since He's not doing anything about it. So which is it? Is He a bad God or a God that's not all powerful?"

Evil Not Created

Even the biblical writers complained about pain and evil: Evils have encompassed me without number (Psalm 40:12, RSV).

Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? (Jeremiah 15:18, RSV).

The whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now (Romans 8:22, RSV).

Thus we readily admit that evil is a problem and we also admit that if God created the world the way it is today He would not be a God of love but rather an evil God.

However, the Scriptures make it plain that God did not create the world in the state in which it is now - evil came as a result of the selfishness of man. The Bible says that God is a God of love and He desired to create a person and eventually a race that would love Him. But genuine love cannot exist unless freely given through free choice and will, and thus man was given the choice to accept God's love or to reject it. This choice made the possibility of evil become very real. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they did not choose what God created, and, by their choice, they brought evil into the world. God is not evil nor did He create evil. Man brought evil upon himself by selfishly choosing his own way apart from God's way.

Because of the fall, the world now is abnormal. Things are not in the state they should be in. Man, as a result of the fall, has been separated from God. Nature is not always kind to man, and the animal world also can be his enemy. There is conflict between man and his fellow man. None of these conditions were true before the fall. Any solution that might be given to the problems mankind faces must take into consideration that the world as it stands now is not normal.

Evil Not Permanent

Although evil is here and it is real, it is also temporary. It eventually will be destroyed. This is the hope the believer has. There is a new world coming in which there will be no more tears or pain because all things will be made new (Revelation 21:5). Paradise lost will be paradise regained. God will right every wrong and put away evil once for all, in His time.

In the meantime, however, Christians have a justification for fighting evil, immorality, and corruption. The world was not designed with evil in mind; God does not desire evil nor does He ever condone it -He hates evil. The Christian is not only to despise evil along with God, but he is also obligated to do something about it. By identifying with Jesus, the believer has a duty to call things wrong that are wrong and to speak out when evil is overtaking good. Natural disasters, crime, and mental retardation should not be accepted as the order of things, because they were never meant to be, and they will not be in God's future kingdom.

Some people, however are still bothered that God even allows evil in the first place. They question His wisdom in giving man a choice in the matter.

Dorothy Sayers put the problem of evil in the proper perspective:

For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is -limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death -[God] had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worth while.

 

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