Does God exist? Is there any proof?
- Is there objective evidence for the existence of God?
- What does atheism lead to?
- Where did God come from?
- Can we personally know God?
The Bible begins with the statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1: 1). Does God exist? Such a question is not asked, but the existence of God is taken for granted. Psalm 13: 1 says: “The madman said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They have become corrupted, have done vile deeds; there is no one who does good. We see that the Bible indicates that evil thoughts about God - especially denial of the very fact of His existence - lead to immorality. In reality, this is what happens: if there is no God, there is no Creator, Lawgiver, then there is no moral law, and all of us, by chance, float somewhere unknown. When, in the days of the judges, the people of Israel forgot their Creator and no one led them to believe in God, “everyone did what seemed to him just” (Judges 21:25) - and chaos reigned.
The same is happening today. Countries where people worshiped and recognized God, God in Christ reconciled the world to himself”(2 Corinthians 5:19), once lived with confidence in the future and prospered. But as soon as they turned away from the Lord, their prosperity sank into oblivion. “Righteousness exalts the people, but iniquity is the dishonor of the nations.” - Proverbs 14:34.
When a people turn away from God and live as if He does not exist, all aspects of their life become infected with sin. What is the result? Corruption, lies, slander, undisguised licentiousness, violence, abortion, theft, treason, drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling, greed … security in order to somehow solve the problems hanging over them. Against the background of all this, it seems that the first chapter of Romans is addressed directly to the modern world:
Madmen - This biblical word refers to many high-ranking officials and educators in the former great Christian powers. These people claim wisdom. However, denying the existence of God and His participation in their lives made them "fools." The rejection of faith in God is facilitated by the widespread spread of belief in evolution: everything arose as a result of natural processes, and there is no God. Proponents of this point of view agree that “intelligent design” is visible in nature, but deny the necessity of the existence of an intelligent Creator. It turns out that the creation created itself! Such views, neglecting the obvious evidence of the existence of God (Romans 1: 19-20), lead to atheism (atheism) and secular humanism (a person himself, without God, chooses his life path).
This is the way of thinking that thrives in universities and power structures today. The greatest atrocities in the world were committed by those who built their philosophy and morality on the basis of the theory of evolution: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot … This is what the atheist and evolutionist Sir Arthur Keith wrote about Hitler:
This atheistic way of thinking has brought unbearable suffering and cost the lives of many millions of people. Atheism kills, because if there is no God, then there is no law - everything is allowed! It is atheists who make every effort to legalize abortion, euthanasia, drug use, prostitution, pornography, and sexual promiscuity. The result is grief, suffering and death. Atheism is a philosophy of death. Today atheists like to talk about the atrocities of the so-called "Christians" (most often they recall the Crusades and Northern Ireland.
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But if people did evil in the name of Christ, then they acted contrary to their own moral laws (do not kill, love your enemy). Stalin, for example, acted in accordance with his morality: being an atheist (after reading Darwin's works), he did not have an objective basis for any moral norms. Keith believed that Hitler was also a staunch follower of evolutionary philosophy. Christianity teaches: God is love, love one another, love your enemies. This is love of self-sacrifice. That is why Christians are the first to come to the aid of the sick, help orphans, take care of the old, feed the hungry, educate the poor, and fight slavery and exploitation of children. The evolutionary logic of atheism asserts that "love" is nothing more than a desire to increase the chances of our genes being preserved in our descendants. There is no room for empathy in the "struggle for the survival of the fittest". The death camps arose out of Hitler's desire for the "Aryan race" to win in the "preservation of favorable races in the struggle for life" (this is the full name of Darwin's Origin of Species). But atheism is not only destructive, it is also logically flawed - because, as we will now see, this world has a Creator.
Does God Exist - Bible Testimonies
The Bible not only affirms the existence of God, but itself serves as an indication of His existence, for the emergence of this most wonderful of books can only be explained by divine inspiration. Here is evidence of her divine inspiration.
Does God Exist - The Amazing Integrity of the Bible
Despite the fact that the Bible was created by more than 40 authors, people of various occupations and professions, and this happened over sixteen centuries, all its parts, from beginning to end, correspond to each other. The narratives of the first and last biblical books - the “lost paradise” of Genesis and the “found paradise” of the book of Revelation of John the Theologian - are completely consistent with each other. This is strong evidence of their divine origin (compare Genesis 1-3 and Revelation 21-22).
Does God Exist - The Amazing Preservation of the Bible
The Bible has survived all political and religious persecution. In A. D. 303. Roman emperor Diocletian ordered to burn all biblical lists, hoping in this way to get rid of the hated book. As a sign of his "victory", he erected a column on the ashes. But twenty-five years later, the new emperor Constantine ordered that 50 copies of the Bible be copied at the expense of the government!
In the 18th century, the famous French atheist Voltaire predicted that in a hundred years, not a single Bible would remain on Earth. What an irony - just half a century after his death, the Geneva Bible Society was printing Scripture in Voltaire's house, on his old printing press. Today no other book has been translated into more languages than the Bible.
Does God Exist - Historical Accuracy of the Bible
According to renowned Hebraic archaeologist Nelson Gluick, "The historical accuracy of the Bible is truly incredible, especially given the archaeological evidence to support it." William F. Albright, who has received worldwide recognition as one of the most prominent archaeologists, wrote: “The extreme skepticism about the Bible, proclaimed by the most significant historical schools of the 18th and 19th centuries, is gradually becoming obsolete. One discovery after another confirmed the accuracy of numerous biblical details and led to the recognition of the value of Scripture as a historical source."
Sir William Ramsay, one of the greatest archaeologists of all time, was educated in the mid-19th century in the spirit of German historical skepticism and therefore did not believe in the historical accuracy of the texts of the New Testament. However, Ramsey's own archaeological research convinced Ramsey of the groundlessness of such distrust, and his attitude towards Scripture changed radically. "Luke is a historian of the highest class … his name should be placed on a par with the most famous historians," he said about the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Holy Apostles. Many archaeological finds confirm the authenticity of the biblical account. Although skeptics have repeatedly questioned the veracity of Scripture due to the lack of independent evidence (allowing for a logical fallacy),new archaeological research has confirmed the accuracy of the biblical texts every time
Here are just a few examples: The earth is round (Isaiah 40:22); it is suspended in space “on nothing” (Job 26: 7); the stars cannot be counted (Genesis 15: 5); there is a water cycle in nature; the presence of sea currents; living beings reproduce according to their kind; many revelations in the field of medicine, hygiene, nutrition, physiology (in particular, the importance of blood in the body - for example, Leviticus 17:11); the first and second principles of thermodynamics (Isaiah 51: 6), etc.
The Bible states that God alone can correctly predict events. The Lord says: “The former things I have declared long ago; it came out of my mouth, and I announced it and suddenly did it, and everything came true … and announced to you long before it came, and showed you that you would not say: “My idol has done this, and my image and my sculpture commanded it to be”” (Isaiah 48: 3,5).
It is futile to try to find true prophecies in the sacred books of other religions. The Bible contains many accurate prophecies. Josh McDowell points to 61 prophecies about Christ. Many of them, for example, the place, time and circumstances of Jesus' birth, His death and burial, did not depend on His (human) will. MacDowell also conducted a detailed analysis of 12 prophecies about the fate of the cities of Tire, Sidon, Samaria, Gaza, Ascalon, Moab, Petra, Edom, Memphis, Nineveh, Babylon, Chorazin-Bethsaida-Capernaum and Jerusalem.
He showed that these prophecies were recorded before the events predicted in them occurred (and not after the fact). The probability of so many random coincidences is zero. Only those who are deliberately unwilling to know the truth (2 Peter 3: 5) can deny the inspiration of these prophecies.
Does God Exist - The Bible's Civilizing Influence
The Bible's message ennobled many "barbaric" nations. It formed the basis of English law, the American Bill of Rights, the constitutions of the great democratic powers - Great Britain, the United States, and then many other democracies. Scripture has inspired the work of outstanding writers and poets (Shakespeare, Milton, Scott, Coleridge, Kipling …), great artists (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt …) and composers (Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Brahms …).
The gradual departure from the biblical worldview in the West was accompanied by the decline of art. The Bible continues to change the life of human society today. Her liberating message today delivers the pagan tribes in the Philippines from the primal fears, and the former cannibals of Papua New Guinea and Fiji live in peace and quiet today.
Does God Exist - Absolute Integrity of the Bible
Someone said, "A man could not write a Bible even if he wanted to, and he would not want to even if he could." After all, the Bible does not give honor to man, but to God. She portrays people as sinful, as they are - without embellishment. Against the background of their sinfulness and unfaithfulness, God's faithfulness and holiness shine brightly. Even the "heroes of faith" (Hebrews 11) had their sins: Noah (Genesis 9: 20-24), Moses (Numbers 20: 7-12), David (2 Kings 11), and Elijah (1 Kings 19), and the apostle Peter (Matthew 26:74). On the other hand, the Bible mentions the positive qualities of people who were enemies of God's people: Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2), Darius the Mede (Daniel 6), Julia (Acts 27: 1-3). This clearly shows that Scripture embodies non-human opinions.
Does God Exist - The Bible Changes Human Lives
One day in San Francisco, a man invited Dr. Harry Ironside to join the discussion "Agnosticism versus Christianity." He agreed, but on one condition: the agnostic first presents evidence that agnosticism is worth defending. He invited his opponent to bring with him a man - a former drunkard or criminal, and a woman who was engaged in prostitution in the past, and to prove that it was the philosophy of agnosticism that saved these people from complete degradation. Dr. Ironside himself promised to involve in the discussion a hundred people, men and women, who were saved thanks to the gospel, which the agnostic ridiculed. After that, the skeptic refused to discuss. The Bible's message saves lives mutilated by sin that separates us from our Holy Creator. Agnosticism and atheism, like other godless philosophies, on the contrary, are destructive.
Does God Exist - Other Testimonies
The general tendency of all things to decline and destruction shows that our universe is not eternal; she had a beginning. Someone "started and tuned" it. This is fully consistent with the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1: 1). The changes taking place with living things demonstrate that all living things could not arise as a result of random evolutionary processes. Evolution from molecule to person involves the creation of new information, new complex genetic programs. But mutations and natural selection only lead to information loss.
The fossil record does not contain the supposed transitional forms from one species of organism to another. This is a strong evidence that living things did not develop spontaneously over long ages. The evidence of the relatively "young" age of the Universe also contradicts belief in its origin and gradual development over billions of years.
The emergence of the world and life are incredible events, and therefore materialists in vain try to explain them with the notorious "billions of years".
A breakthrough in molecular biology showed that objects such as, say, the blood coagulation system, the bacterial flagellum, and the ATP synthase "motor" could not arise through random gradual changes. The information that determines the complex organization of living beings is not in molecules (as, for example, in a crystal), but is brought in from the outside. All this is impossible without an Intelligent Creator, whose wisdom is infinitely superior to ours.
In the folklore of hundreds of tribes and peoples from all over the world, there are legends, for example, about the Flood, which correspond to the biblical chronicle. And linguistic and biological evidence testifies to the close relationship of all "races."
Does God exist - a myth about atheism and science
Many believe today that science has denied the existence of God. Atheists in every possible way strive to confirm this point of view, declaring that their worldview is "scientific". But by doing this they simply impose on us a new definition of science, in which there is no place for God. In fact, the flowering of science began only when the biblical view of the Creation of the world took root in Europe and the influence of the Reformation increased. The preconditions for the scientific approach to the study of the world - for example, that the created world is real, consistent, comprehensible and accessible to research - are based on the Bible. Even unbelieving historians of science, like Lauren Eisley, admit this. Consequently, almost all areas of science were founded or fundamentally developed by scientists who believed in the biblical chronicle of the Creation of the world and the Flood. Many scholars still believe the Bible today.
Does God exist - is it science?
Science has given the world many wonders: a man's flight to the moon, cheap food, modern medicines, electricity, computers, etc. All of these advances involve conducting experiments, drawing conclusions from them, and new experiments to test those findings. Thus, conclusions are closely related to experiments, and often in this system there is almost no room for speculative conclusions. Such science is called experimental, and many of its achievements are for the benefit of humanity.
However, there is another type of science - dealing with the past. It is called historical science. When it comes to clarifying the circumstances of the past, the sciences are limited in their means, since we cannot experiment with past events - history cannot be turned back. Experiments carried out in the present, but related to events in the past, are often very limited, so the conclusions from them involve a lot of guesswork. The more time has passed since the moment of the event being investigated, the longer the chain of these guesses, and the more influence on the conclusion outside scientific factors, such as the religiosity (or atheism) of the researcher. Thus, what is commonly considered a "science" of the past often turns out to be just a reflection of the worldview of scientists.
The conflicts between "science" and "religion" occur precisely in historical science, not in experimental one. Unfortunately, the authority gained by the achievements of experimental science leads many to the erroneous opinion that the guesses and speculative constructions of historical science should also be unconditionally trusted. In historical science, it is mainly not evidence of the present that is discussed, but assumptions about the past. Scientists who trust the statements in the Bible (which calls itself the Word of God) are likely to come to very different conclusions from atheistic scientists. At the heart of many of the inconsistencies and discrepancies in the science of history is the willful denial of the Word of God (2 Peter 3: 3-7).
Does God exist - who created God?
Often atheists ask Christians the question: “If God created the Universe, who then created God Himself?…” (Many people completely sincerely break their heads over this). But the Bible indicates that God has no beginning (He is eternal). What is applicable to the Universe does not apply to its Creator. Therefore, the question: "Who created God?" - lies outside the bounds of logic (like, for example, the question: "Who is the bachelor married to?"). The more sophisticated debater will ask, “But if the universe needs a cause, why doesn't God need it? And if God should have no reason, why should the universe have one? " The following conclusion will help us to give an answer:
- Everything that has a beginning had a reason
- The universe has a beginning
- Hence the universe had a reason
The words in bold are important here. The universe must have a cause because, as will be shown below, it had a beginning. God, unlike the Universe, had no beginning and therefore does not need a reason.
In addition, Einstein's general theory of relativity, confirmed experimentally, testifies to the connection between time and matter and space. Consequently, time itself had to start its course simultaneously with matter and space at the beginning of the Universe. God is, by definition, the Creator of the universe, including time. Therefore, He is not limited within the framework of the temporal dimension created by Him and did not have a beginning in time - which means that He does not need a reason either.
In contrast, there is strong evidence that the universe had a beginning. This can be deduced from the fundamental laws of physics - the beginnings of thermodynamics.
- 1st beginning: the total amount of mass and energy in the universe is constant.
- 2nd beginning: the amount of energy suitable for doing work in the Universe decreases, that is, the entropy tends to a maximum.
If the total amount of mass and energy is limited, and the amount of energy suitable for doing work decreases, then it follows that the Universe cannot exist forever: otherwise it would have already exhausted all the available energy and would have come to the so-called "heat death ". All radioactive atoms would disintegrate, all parts of the Universe would reach the same temperature, and further work would be impossible. Therefore, the following conclusion seems to be the most reasonable: the universe was created with a large amount of usable energy, and now this energy is being depleted. But what if our argumentative opponent admits that the universe had a beginning, but at the same time believes that it does not need a reason? However, everything that had a beginning also has a cause; it is self-evident,and deep down, no one would argue with that. Without the indestructible law of cause-and-effect relationships, there would be no science, no history, no legal law in the world. The universe also cannot be its own cause - nothing can create itself, since that presupposes existence before existence, which is a logical absurdity.
Does God Exist - Conclusions
- It can be argued that the universe (including time) had a beginning.
- It is unreasonable to assume that something can start for no reason.
- Thus, the universe had a cause, as the book of Genesis (1: 1) and the letter to Romans (1:20) teaches.
- God, as the Creator of time, is outside it. Therefore, He has no beginning, exists forever, and does not need a cause.
Both the biblical evidence, and the incredible complexity of organizing information in living organisms, and the emergence of the universe - all suggest that belief in the omnipotent and omniscient biblical Creator God not only makes sense, but is the only viable explanation of this world.
Does God exist? Christians know God
The Christian does not doubt the existence of God. The Bible teaches: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Because you did not receive the spirit of slavery in order to live in fear again, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry: "Abba, Father!" The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God”(Romans 8: 14-16). This means that Christians have a personal relationship with God. The one who realized his sinfulness in the eyes of Almighty God and repented, he receives God's forgiveness, which became possible thanks to the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. All genuine Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit, recognize themselves as “children of God,” and know they have eternal life (1 John 5:13).
Does God exist? Here's the Good News
Creation Ministries International seeks to glorify and honor the Creator God, and to assert the truth that the Bible describes the true story of the origin of the world and man. Part of this story is the bad news of Adam's violation of God's command. This brought death, suffering and separation from God into the world. These results are known to everyone. All descendants of Adam are afflicted with sin from the moment of conception (Psalm 50: 7) and share in Adam's disobedience (sin). They can no longer be in the presence of the Holy God and are doomed to be separated from Him. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that all “will be punished, eternal destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1: 9). But there is good news: God did not remain indifferent to our trouble. “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).
Jesus Christ, the Creator, being sinless, took upon Himself the blame for the sins of all mankind and their consequences - death and separation from God. He died on the cross, but on the third day he was resurrected, conquering death. And now everyone who sincerely believes in Him, repents of their sins and relies not on themselves, but on Christ, can return to God and remain in eternal communion with their Creator. “He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Wonderful is our Savior, and wonderful is salvation in Christ, our Creator!