IS ANYBODY UP THERE

IS ANYBODY UP THERE?

THE QUESTION OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God..." (Psalm 14:1a).

We had been talking at length when the subject of religion came up. As the conversation shifted and I expressed my belief in the God of the Bible, he said to me, "That is good that you have the belief you have. It is good for people to have faith. I do not believe the way you do, but it does not really matter as long as we believe something.

There is only one problem with that sort of relativistic thinking. The problem becomes evident if God really does exist.

A little boy wrote the following letter to God:

Dear Mister God,

What do you think about people who do not believe in you? By the way, someone else wants to know.

A Friend

It is a good question. What does God think of people who do not believe in Him? The Bible does not ever attempt to present evidence for the existence of God. It does not begin in Genesis 1:1 with a five point outline on how we can know that there is a God. Instead the Scriptures assume that God does exist in the same way that any modern book naturally assumes the existence of its author.

When I began writing this article on the subject of God, I did not first try to prove to you that I exist. I did not start with five points on the existence of John Stevenson. I merely assumed my own existence. After all, only a fool would read my article and conclude that I do not really exist.

The same is true of the Bible. It assumes the existence of God. The handful of verses that even mention the concept of atheism deal with it in this manner.

The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God..." (Psalm 14:1a).

This is not to say that such evidence for the existence of God (or of myself) is lacking. We shall look at five lines of evidence.

THE EVIDENCE OF CREATION

This line of evidence deals with the principle of first cause. In theological circles it is called the "Cosmological Argument," taken from the Greek word kosmos, meaning "universe." It is concerned with the origin of the universe. The principle is set forth in Romans 1:20.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20).

The first line of evidence for God's existence is seen in the existence of the universe. You do not have to look in every corner of the world to find evidence for God. Such evidence is not hidden. It is plain for all to see. Paul says that it is clearly seen. The universe is an effect that demands an adequate cause.

Every cause has an effect that in turn becomes the cause of another effect. If we trace this back to the original cause, then we find a cause that has no prior cause.

Effect

Cause

Effect

Cause

Effect

CAUSE

Does there have to be a first cause? Is it possible that there was ever a time when there was nothing? If there was ever a time when nothing existed, then there could be nothing now.

Nothing + Nothing = Nothing

This is basic math. The fact that there is something today indicates that there has always been something.

This brings us to another question. Is it possible that the universe has always been here -- that matter is eternal in nature? Interestingly enough, there have been scientists who have recognized the need for a first cause and, rather than admit the existence of God, they have suggested that the universe has always existed. The atheist Carl Sagan used to say, "The cosmos is all that is and ever was and ever will be."

If this is true, it means that the universe is infinitely old. We are not merely talking about being very old or even about being billions and billions of years old, for there is an infinite gap between anything that is very old and something that is infinitely old. If the universe is infinitely old, then everything that could possibly ever happen in the universe has already happened in the past. History has repeated itself on a planet just like this one an infinite number of times and with infinite variations. Each variation has been repeated in exactly the same way an infinite number of times. This is true of necessity if the universe is indeed infinitely old.

While such a belief staggers the imagination, it still cannot answer the problem of first cause -- it only postpones it indefinitely.

The critic is quick to retort, "But who created the Creator? If there is a God, then where did He come from? Was there another God who existed earlier than God and who created Him?"

The Bible provides the answer to such a question:

"You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. BEFORE ME THERE WAS NO GOD FORMED, and there will be none after Me." (Isaiah 43:10).

God is eternal. He has had no beginning and He will have no end. He has always existed. There has never been a time when He did not exist. The fact that the universe is here points to the fact of His existence.

THE EVIDENCE FROM DESIGN

This line of evidence deals with the order and design of the universe. It is called the "Teleological Argument." The term "teleology" is a compound from of the Greek words teleos ("final") and logos ("word" or "purpose"). It is the argument from design. It carries the Cosmological Argument one step further to point to the order and design of the universe.

Cosmological Argument	Teleological Argument
The fact of the existence of the universe points to a first cause: God	The presence of order and design in the universe points to an intelligent designer: God

The principle of design is illustrated in Psalm 19:1-3.

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Day to day pours forth speech,

And night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words;

Their voice is not heard. (Psalm 19:1-3).

If one footprint in the sand convinced Robinson Crusoe that a person was on his island, then by the same logic we can be convinced that God created the world, for He left countless footprints on its surface.

The astronomer Kepler used to keep a complex model of the solar system in his office. The story is told of how an atheist once came to visit him and, upon seeing the model, inquired who had made it. He replied, "No one made it. It merely came into existence."

"You do not expect me to believe that!" retorted the atheist.

"No," replied Kepler, "But you expect me to believe that our entire solar system came about by chance."

In my younger days, I used to drive a Pontiac Firebird. It was a creation. It had a purpose. Its design showed a function and an order. If I brought in a team of scientists who had never before seen an automobile; showed them all of its features, how the engine operated, how it was designed to carry people comfortably, its various features, and then if I told them that this machine had evolved merely by chance and that it had not been put together by an intelligent designer, what would be their reaction?

I can picture their faces if I were to tell them how this car just happened to come together into its present form by random amino acids joining together by chance after having been struck by a bolt of lightning. Yet there are people today who attempt to tell us that the design and order found in the universe came about by chance.

Look at the human body. Examine the functions of the eyes, the ears, the heart, the lungs and the brain. It contains a reciprocating pump, an automated cooling system, a multi-faceted sensory system and the most diverse and imaginative computer known to man. Did a design like this come about by chance?

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. (Hebrews 3:4).

I live in a house. It has doors and windows and rooms with various functions. It was obviously designed by a being with a certain degree of intelligence. It would be silly for me to believe that it merely came about by chance. So it is also with the world in which we live.

THE EVIDENCE FROM INTUITION

This is known as the Ontological Argument. It looks at the way man is. Studies in anthropology show that man is incurably God-conscious. He has an awareness within himself that God exists.

The concept of God is prevalent in every human culture. It is true that this concept has often been warped by polytheism and idolatry, but the basic idea of the existence of God has been found in every culture.

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. (Romans 1:21-23).

Notice what is said in verse 21: They knew God. Man has a God-consciousness. He inherently knows that God is there. But that is not all. Man has very deliberately turned away from the God who is there to go and to worship a god of his own making.

Man is unique in this area. No one has ever seen a chicken or a dog with a concept of God. No rooster ever built an altar to the Lord. No lion ever asked a blessing on the food he was about to eat. Even a praying mantis does not pray to the Lord.

God has created man in His image and has placed within him the concept of Himself. It is for this reason that men of every culture and nation have demonstrated this same God-concept.

It is also interesting to note how much effort and energy has been expended by atheists and agnostics to deny the existence of God. If there were no reason for man to believe in God, then it is unlikely that there would be so much fuss about it. Man would think about God as much as a caterpillar thinks about the Gettysburg Address.

The truth is that man has to fight the God-consciousness within himself if he is to hold to the position that God does not exist. Atheism takes real effort. This in itself is an evidence for God's existence.

THE EVIDENCE FROM MORALS

Man has a built-in sense of "ought." He feels that he ought to do what is right. He was born with this. He did not say at any time, "I think that I ought to have a sense of ought." It is not something that he has brought upon himself. It is universal to every tribe and people.

This does not mean that every man has a proper concept of right and wrong. Rather it means that every man feels that he really ought to do what is right, whatever that may entail.

In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis points out that people are always coming into conflict over some kind of standard of behavior that they expect the other person to observe. The quarrel might be major ("You stole my wife!") or it might be minor ("You can not sit here, these seats are saved"). In each case, one party is trying to show the other that they are wrong by appealing to this sense of right and wrong.

The remarkable thing is that the other party seldom replies that they don't care about the standard. Instead the argument usually ensues over the interpretation and application of that standard.

If there were no God to establish that there is right and wrong, then it would be illogical to speak of morals. There would be no way to say, "This is right" or "that is wrong." Left in this position, you would have to come to the place where you could talk about what is against society or what society does not like or even what you do not like, but you could no longer talk about what is right or wrong.

If there is no God and an Adolph Hitler is able to convince 51% of the population that we ought to eliminate a race of people, then who is to say that one group is right while another is wrong?

If there is no God and if we are not made in the image of God, then what is the difference between killing a man and killing a cockroach? Does the size become the issue? Or is it intelligence? Does that make it right to kill a moron but wrong to shut off a computer?

All kinds of moral positions are irrational unless you realize that God exists and that He has made man in His image and has equipped him with a sense of right and wrong.

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them (Romans 2:14-15).

Even men who do not believe in God are troubled when they are confronted with evil and cruelty. This is the way that God has made them. They feel that to do right is better than to do wrong. They feel that good is better than evil and that truth is better than untruth. This sense that we ought to do right is still another evidence of the existence of God.

Cosmological Argument	Teleological Argument	Intuitional Argument	Moral Argument
Points to the fact of existence and the need for a first cause	Points to the design of the universe requiring the need of a Designer	Points to the God-concept that is found in mankind in general	Points to man's sense of "ought"

These four lines of evidence all point to God's existence. But they are insufficient to tell us about the character of God. You cannot come to know God through nature or through looking at your own character any more than you can come to know an automobile manufacturer by driving a car that he has produced. You can only come to know God through His word -- the Bible. This is the final apologetic. It is the evidence from the Word of God.

THE EVIDENCE FROM THE WORD OF GOD

This is really the ultimate apologetic in giving evidence to the existence of God. We know that God is there because He has not been silent. He has spoken to man. It is hard to maintain that someone does not exist when he is talking to you. Can you imagine someone saying to you, "Will you please stop talking so that I can tell people how you don not exist!"

Not only has God spoken, but He has put down what He wished to say into a book so that He could communicate to all men in all time. This is the most extraordinary book ever written. It has been translated into more languages than any other book in the world. No other book has ever come close to the Bible in its impact on human history.

1. The Unity of the Bible.

In considering the unity of the Bible as to its message and composition, we must first note the diverse conditions under which it came about.

The Bible was written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
The Bible was written by nearly 40 different human authors.
These human authors wrote over a period of 1500 years: From about 1440 B.C. to A.D. 70.
These human authors came from different strata of society: Kings, priests, prophets, a shepherd, fishermen, a tax collector, a physician, a cup-bearer.
These human authors wrote from different parts of the world: Israel, Egypt, Rome, Babylon, Ephesus, Greece, Syria, Assyria, the island of Patmos.
These men wrote on hundreds of different topics, many of which were highly controversial.

In spite of all of these factors, the Bible is a unified book. It contains no contradictions in any of its teachings.

If I were to take any ten people at random and ask them to write a paper on ten specific subjects, I would likely be guaranteed to have ten conflicting opinions.

When we examine the diverse backgrounds and settings of those who penned the pages of the Scriptures, we are forced to conclude that there was a single guiding force behind this writing.

2. The Indestructibility of the Bible.

No book in history has come under such violent and thorough attack as the Bible. The Old Testament king Manasseh attempted to obliterate the Bible. He succeeded in leading the people in the worship of the false gods of the Canaanites, but he could not destroy the Scriptures. It was after his death that a copy of the Scriptures was found in the Temple and served as the basis for Josiah's revival.

Antiochus Epiphanes, the Seleucid king who reigned in the days of the Maccabees, declared it illegal to own a copy of the Scriptures.

Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah, 55 and burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. 56 The books of the law which they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. 57 Where the book of the covenant was found in the possession of any one, or if any one adhered to the law, the decree of the king condemned him to death. (1 Maccabees 1:54-57, RSV).

The penalty for owning a copy of the Scriptures was death. But Antiochus failed to obliterate the Scriptures and he was ultimately driven from Israel by the Hasmonean Revolt.

In A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered all Bibles to be burned. Within a few years Constantine came to the throne and, not only legalized Christianity, but also ordered 50 copies of the Bible to be hand-written at the expense of the state.

The Synod of Toulouse forbade translations of the Bible into the common language as well as private ownership of copies of the Bible. However Christians continued to work at translating the Bible, even though they often paid with their lives.

The French atheist Voltaire proclaimed that within a hundred years from his death the Bible would be a forgotten relic. A hundred years later, the printing press in his house was being used to print Bibles.

3. The Prophetic Accuracy of the Bible.

One of the greatest evidences that the Bible is the Word of God is in its prophetic accuracy. The Scriptures themselves refer to this type of evidence.

"Present your case," the LORD says. "Bring forward your strong arguments," the King of Jacob says.

Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; as for the former events, declare what they were, that we may consider them, and know their outcome; or announce to us what is coming. 23 Declare the things that are going to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods; indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together. (Isaiah 41:21-23).

God presents this challenge to any who would claim divinity. He calls on any false gods to meet His argument. He presents predictive prophecy as proof of who He is. He will predict the future and it will come to pass with complete accuracy.

There is no other book in the world that contains the sort of prophetic substantiation that we find in the Bible. For example, consider the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. For the sake of brevity, we will mention only a few.

He would be born of a virgin: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14).

He would be a descendant of the Royal House of King David: "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land." (Jeremiah 23:5).

He would be born in Bethlehem: But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. (Micah 5:2).

He would be preceded by a messenger: A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3).

He would teach in Galilee: But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. (Isaiah 9:1-2).

He would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9).

He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver: And I said to them, "If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!" So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13 Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. (Zechariah 11:12-13). Note that the prophecy even goes so far as to specify what would become of the money used for this betrayal.

His hands and His feet would be pierced and lots would be cast for his clothing: For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. (Psalm 22:16-18). And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10a).

He would be buried in a rich man's tomb but would die with the wicked: His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death (Isaiah 53:9a).

He would not remain in the grave: For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol; neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay (Psalm 16:10).

These are only ten prophecies out of an estimated 300 that deal with the coming of the Messiah. The chances of only these ten being fulfilled by any one man are astronomical. The conclusion with which we are left is inescapable. This is the Word of God.

4. The Scientific Accuracy of the Bible.

This is probably one of the biggest areas of attack against the Bible today. It is often argued that the Bible does not agree with science. But I must ask the question, "Which science? Is it the science of Plato and Aristotle? How about the science of the Dark Ages? Is it the science of a hundred years ago? How about the science of twenty years ago?"

Since is always changing. Science is always finding itself in need of a n update. Its errors always stand in need of correction. A science textbook of even ten years of age is completely outdated. It needs to be rewritten.

The Bible is not like science. It has gone for nearly 2000 years without any need for corrections or revisions. It has stood the test of time. It is as accurate today as it was on the day in which it was penned.

That is not to say that men's INTERPRETATION of the Bible have always been correct. There have been erroneous interpretations of the Bible that were contradicted by proper science. When Galileo stood against the church and maintained that the earth revolves around the sun, he was contradicting the church and its interpretation of the Bible, but there was no such contradiction with the Bible itself.

It is of interest to see what the Bible does NOT say. The Bible does not contain any of the false cosmologies that were taught throughout the ancient world.

The people of ancient India believed that the earth was a huge tray supported on the backs of three giant elephants who stood on the shell of a great turtle who swam in a cosmic sea.
The Egyptians taught that the sky was a heavenly Nile along which Ra, the sun god, sailed each day.
The Babylonians described a disk-shaped earth surrounded by a moat of sea. Beyond the sea, the inverted bowl of the sky held its borders.

In contrast to such views of the "modern science" of that day and age, what does the Bible say about the nature of the earth?

It is He who sits above the vault of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain

And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (Isaiah 40:22).

Other translations have translated this same passage a bit more literally:

KJV	It is he that sitteth upon the circle* of the earth*
NIV	He sits enthroned above the circle* of the earth*
RSV	It is he who sits above the circle* of the earth*

But that is not all. Not only do we see the Scriptures presenting the concept of the circularity of the earth, but Job adds an additional aspect.

He stretches out the north over empty space,

And hangs the earth on nothing. (Job 26:7).

The fact that the earth was supported in empty space was taught in the Scriptures at a time when "modern science" taught something completely different.

Thus we find that when scientists, in their endless search for the truth, climb their way up the towering heights of knowledge, they finally reach a pinnacle only to find that theologians have been patiently waiting there for hundreds of years.

5. The Historical Accuracy of the Bible.

The Bible has come under countless attacks as to its historical accuracy. This has been especially the case among archaeologists. Yet the father of modern archaeology, Dr William Albright, although himself an unbeliever, had this to say about the Bible:

The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, certain phases of which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history. (William F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine, 1960).

The Bible has been shown to be historically accurate, even when modern historians have not. For example, the Bible describes a great nation of warriors known as the Hittites (2 Kings 7:6). For hundreds of years, the existence of the Hittites was denied by secular historians and critics of the Bible. It was not until 1906 that Professor Hugo Winckler discovered and translated certain tablets found in modern-day Turkey that historians began to recognize the existence of the great Hittite Empire that ruled Anatolia for nearly a thousand years.

A more recent example is seen in those minimalists who maintained that King David was only a mythological figure with no basis in reality. Beginning in the 1990's, archaeologists began to uncover several different inscriptions referring to the "house of David."

6. The Subjective Evidence of the Bible.

Perhaps the most convincing evidence for the Bible is the way in which it has changed the lives of men as no other book ever has. It may be argued that this sort of evidence is by its very nature subjective. But we have already seen that the Christian has an objective reality to back up and to provide the basis for his subjective experience.

Josh McDowell gives this illustration:

A student comes into the room and says, "Guys, I have a stewed tomato in my right tennis shoe. This tomato has changed my life. It has given me peace and love and joy that I have never experienced before, not only that, but I can now run the 100 yard dash in 10 seconds flat."

It is hard to argue with a student like that if his life backs up what he says, especially if he runs circles around you on the track. (Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, 1972, Pg 339).

Perhaps you have never experienced the work of God in your life. You can. This is the message of the Bible. It is that God sent His Son to the world to die for sins so that we could come to Him

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

This is where Biblical Christianity departs from every major religion in the world. Instead of an outward action, God demands an inward attitude. Good works are not the issue. Church membership is not the issue. Not even sin is the issue. Jesus Christ is the issue.

You are called to come to Jesus Christ today. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life (John 6:47).

_____________________________

About the Author
Return to the Stevenson Bible Study Page
Have a Comment?