DOES HE OR DOESN’T HE EXIST?

By Kyle Idleman

I remember the night, years ago, when I was putting my five-year-old daughter to bed. We finished saying prayers then, as I was leaving, she called out, “Hey, Dad.” I stopped, “Yes, honey?” She asked, “Where did God come from?”

I thought about it for a minute. I wanted to give her something she could feel good about as she fell asleep. I wanted to say it just right. I said, “Go to sleep, we’ll talk about it in the morning.”

Revelation 22 says God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He has always been, and will always be. God is. And God is the Creator. Everything else is created.

The first picture we get of God in the Bible is of God as creator. God chose to make everything there is.

Today, increasingly there are people who insist there is no god. They argue that our world is not the product of intelligent, intentional design by a Creator God, but instead the result of random chance and evolution. On the other hand, there are people, much smarter than me, who make compelling arguments for the existence of God. I want to share a few of these arguments, but only have time to touch on them.

If you want to study deeper, check out a book like, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Norman Geisler.

 

The Cosmological Argument

If you’re an atheist, you believe not in an eternal God, but in an eternal universe that always existed. The problem with this theory is that something cannot come from nothing. The cosmological argument basically says that the universe had to come from something. It couldn’t have created itself. The Bible’s explanation comes in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

The cosmological argument provides a rational reason why there must be a god. It also tells us something about God. It reveals that God has always been, and that He is all-powerful. He can make something out of nothing.

 

The Teleological Argument

The teleological argument says the more complex a design, the more likely a designer. For instance, imagine walking through a forest and finding a book or a wristwatch. Would you assume it just was created by random chance and had somehow evolved? No, you would assume someone intelligent intentionally designed it.

When you look at our world, from the vastness of our universe down to a single cell organism, the complexity of design is overwhelming. For instance, a scientist named Michael Denton wrote a book called Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. In the book he writes about the evidence for intelligent design based on the molecular and cellular levels of nature. His conclusion?

“To commonsense it does indeed appear absurd to propose that chance could have thrown together devices of such complexity and ingenuity that they appear to represent the very epitome of perfection.”

Interestingly, or I would say sadly, despite making an incredible case for intelligent design, he still argues there is no god and admits he has no way to explain the complexity of nature.

I do. It’s exactly what it appears. The more complex a design, the more likely a designer. And the designer is God.

The Bible says, in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.”

The teleological argument also tells us something about God. God has a love of beauty and an amazing attention to detail.

 

The Axiological Argument

Every civilization throughout history has a remarkably similar code of ethics. Where did this common moral code come from? The axiological argument says that there is a moral code written upon human hearts, and that this moral code points to a moral lawgiver. The Bible says in Romans 2 that the Gentiles, who hadn’t been given God’s list of rights and wrongs, when they “do by nature things required by the law … show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts.”

The axiological argument, the moral code instilled in each person, tell us something about God. God is a God of holiness.

There are many other philosophical arguments for God, some of which are so deep I barely understand them (sometime, try the ontological argument for size). All the arguments point to the truth we learn, starting in verse one, and all the way throughout the Bible: God is, and we are because God is.

 

The Big God, Who Cares About Every Small Detail Of My Little Life

God is a creator god. He is so big it was nothing for Him to create the entire universe out of nothing. Yet this big God who created and sustains the universe cares intimately about every detail of our lives. Jesus said God knows the precise number of hairs we each have on our heads (see Matthew 10:30) and we are invited to, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

When I think about it, honestly, it’s dumbfounding. I’m filled with awe and gratitude. I can’t help but echo the words of Psalm 8:3-4:

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

I don’t know the answer to that question. Why does a God so big care about someone so small as me? I don’t know how to answer, but I know the only right response is to live every moment of my life thankful and to seek to know, love and worship this God more and more every day of my life.

How do you respond to our huge God?