God
Is He Real?
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” starting point for evaluating God’s existence? Should we try to prove the Bible, or let it speak for itself?
I used to be a devout Christian, attending church regularly and have even been confirmed. however, since doing exams I have questioned my beliefs resulting in my denouncement of God. My main reason for this is that I cannot find any proof to verify His existance. When I ask people, they always refer me to the Bible as a be all and end all. However, I have no evidence that the Bible is true. As with all documents written a long time ago, you can never be sure who wrote them originally, and the Bible has undergone so many re-writings and translations much meaning has been lost, mis-transcribed. How then can I be sure what it says is true? especially when there are other religions with other holy books proclaiming a different way of things, which they hold as truth with equal fervour. Yes, it is the ‘Word of God’, but how do I know it truly is? basically – discarding the bible, what evidence is there to make claim for our (the christian) God’s existance over any other religious god? —J.C., England
““The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. . .It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”
– C. S. Lewis
Questions to Ask
• My main reason for this is that I cannot find any proof to verify his existance. when I ask people, they always refer me to the Bible as a be all and end all.
What are the names of God
Elohim – God. strong One, divine (Genesis 1:1)
Abba – Daddy, Father (Galatians 4:6)
Adonai – Lord, indicating a Master-to-servant relationship (Exodus 4:10, 13)
El Elyon – Most High, the strongest One (Genesis 14:20)
El Roi – the strong One who sees (Genesis 16:13)
El Shaddai – The Lord Almighty God (Genesis 17:1)
El Olam – Everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28)
Yahweh – The Lord Jehovah
Yahweh Yireh – The Lord will provide (Genesis 22:14)
Yahweh Nissi – The Lord is my banner (Exodus 17:15)
Yahweh Shalom – The Lord of peace (Judges 6:24)
Jehovah Rapha – The Lord who heals you (Exodus 15:26)
Jehovah Jireh – The Lord will provide Genesis 22
Jehovah Raah – The Lord my shepherd
Jehovah Shammah – The Lord is there
Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord our righteousness
Jehovah Sabaoth – The Lord of hosts
Qanna – Jealous
What does the Bible say about it?
Colossians 2:2–4
Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
James 2:19-20
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
Luke 18:27
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
1 Cor 14:33
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
Jeremiah 31:35
Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name:
Job 1:21
And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Daniel 7:14
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Romans 1:18-21
18 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.
Romans 5:6-8
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Isaiah 40:17
All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Psalm 90:1-2
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Deuteronomy 10:17
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
What do people smarter than me believe?
C.S. LEWIS
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.”
John Piper
“If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.”
Henry F. Schaefer
“As finite human beings we should not claim to know God’s will exhaustively. But it is clear that God did not intend to create an enormous machine whose sole purpose is the elimination of human suffering. Suffering is very much a part of God’s plan for our brief sojourn upon this planet.
Why do bad things happen to good people? An often–heard variant: “God would have a lot more friends if He treated the ones He already has better.”
Response: If God rescued from every problem those who are true to Jesus, Christians would not need faith. Their religion would be a great insurance policy, and there would be lines of selfish people ready to sign up.”
John Piper
“My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God’s word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes – many times – my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens – and it happens every day in some measure – I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.”
J. I. Packer
A God whom we could understand exhaustively, and whose revelation of Himself confronted us with no mysteries whatsoever, would be a God in man’s image, and therefore an imaginary God.
Answers in Genisis
https://answersingenesis.org/who-is-god/the-lord-is-a-great-god-and-a-great-king-above-all-gods/
Since you have denounced a belief in God, it is clear you never truly believed His Word nor stood on it as your foundation. This is another example of how when we stop using God’s Word as our foundation and then use man’s autonomous reasoning as a foundation, we crumble, spiritually.
That’s because it is the “be all and end all.” God reveals Himself to us in His Word, and we must accept His words by faith or reject them by having faith instead in man’s fallible ideas. Why will you not accept the Bible as proof of His existence?
But perhaps the best evidence that the Bible is true is that if it were not, the laws of logic and morality—and even our own existence—would not be possible. Without a logical God, who created everything including us in His own image (which is why we are able to use the laws of logic), there is no reason to believe there is any order, causality, or logic in the universe. For example, the physical and chemical laws of nature (Jeremiah 33:25) are orderly and logical. It makes sense that an orderly and logical God would create a universe that displays some of His characteristics (Romans 1:20).
But if the universe were just a random cosmic accident, there is no reason for it to follow certain laws, nor should there be any reason we could understand any of it. There is no way for a naturalist to explain why these laws exist or where they came from. And to just say, “That’s just how it happened” is to take a great leap of blind faith. Thus, both the Christian and the non-Christian must place their faith somewhere as a starting point; we choose to put our faith in God’s revealed, perfect Word.
Additional Q and A
Who made God?
God never needed to be made because He was always there. God exists in a different way from human beings. We exist in a derived, finite, and fragile way, but the Creator exists as eternal, self–sustaining, and necessary, in the sense that there is no possibility of Him ceasing to exist. In philosophy, many errors result from supposing that the conditions and limits of our own finite existence apply to God.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
People want to serve God…usually in an advisory capacity.
If human life is in fact ordered by a beneficent being whose knowledge of our real needs and of the way in which they can be satisfied infinitely exceeds our own, we must expect a priori that his operations will often appear to us far from beneficent and far from wise, and that it will be our highest prudence to give him our confidence in spite of this.
—C.S. Lewis
A god whom we could understand exhaustively, and whose revelation of himself confronted us with no mysteries whatsoever, would be a god in man’s image, and therefore an imaginary god.
— J. I. Packer
Human arrogance tends to believe that if we had been in charge of creation we would have done it better. With a little more care about the details, we would have kept the beauty of sunsets, but eliminated germs like staphylococci. The more we understand the processes of the world, however, the less likely does it seem that this would be possible.
As finite human beings we should not claim to know God’s will exhaustively. But it is clear that God did not intend to create an enormous machine whose sole purpose is the elimination of human suffering. Suffering is very much a part of God’s plan for our brief sojourn upon this planet.
Why do bad things happen to good people? An often–heard variant: “God would have a lot more friends if He treated the ones He already has better.”
Response: If God rescued from every problem those who are true to Jesus, Christians would not need faith. Their religion would be a great insurance policy, and there would be lines of selfish people ready to sign up.
If I can’t see God, why should I believe in Him? How can I know that God exists?
“So if you can’t see something, you don’t believe it exists? Have you ever seen your brain? We believe in many things that we can’t see. Have you ever seen the wind? Have you seen history? We see the effects of the wind, but the wind is invisible. We have records of history, but it is by ‘faith’ we believe that certain historical events happened.
If God knows I am hurting, why doesn’t He help me?
In the middle of agony and pain, it’s hard to see things clearly. It may even be difficult to see God’s love. I think about Job, who went through difficult times. He lost his whole family, virtually everything he owned, and went through sickness.
Look at what Job said during his difficult times:
Job 23:8-9
If I go to the east, God is not there; if I go to the west, I do not see Him. When He is at work in the north, I catch no sight of Him; when He turns to the south, I cannot see Him.
What do you believe?
God created the heavens and the earth. The God who created the universe, cares enough about my needs in a world filled with billions of people, he hears my prayers. Through all of history, from the beginning into eternity, He cares about my needs, and everything I have comes from Him. He has all authority over my life, and knows the number of my days. My family, my money, my home and my stuff belong to Him. He is my father. When I hear the world self-centered I think of it as sin, but when it comes to God, he is self-centered. Everything the exists and has been created came from him.
God cannot sin…God cannot lie…God cannot change His nature.
God cannot deny the demands of His holy character.
God cannot make a square circle, for the notion of a square circle is self–contradictory.
God cannot cease to be God. But all that God wills and promises He can and will do.
Hey everyone,
Here are some questions for you to wrestle with:
Do you know the different names of God and what they mean?
What are God’s attributes?
How can I know that God exists?
Why does God allow sickness?
Why does God allow evil?
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.