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What evidence is there that God exists?
“An atheist cannot find God for the same reason a criminal cannot find a policeman,
they are not willing to look for him.”
A student at Western Illinois University stepped out from the crowd and asked, “What evidence do you have that God exists?” I responded, “There have been numerous books written to give evidence of God’s existence but none of them can give you absolute positive proof of God’s existence. I cannot prove to you that my wife loves me, or that the sun is going to come up tomorrow morning, but I can point you to some evidence that indicates that there is sufficient reason for believing such statements.”
“I have evidence of my wife’s love in that for the past twenty five years she has not poisoned me when she has cooked a meal. Based on the evidence that she has not poisoned me for the past 25 years, I do not worry about eating her cooking. Also based on her record that she has not stabbed me in the back when I sleep next to her every night, I do not lay awake at night worrying about my safety sleeping next to her.
The evidence is that she has demonstrated over the past 25 years that she is committed to me and she really does want what is best for me.
“I cannot prove to you that the sun is going to come up tomorrow but the overwhelming evidence is that tomorrow when I wake up the sun will also rise to meet me. Therefore I do not worry about such things.”
There is another even more compelling reason to believe in the existence of the God of the Bible. We find this information through the study of Information Science.
For matters of reasoning, let assume I give you a sheet of paper with B A T on it. What do you think you have on the paper?
Many will respond that you have the word “Bat” on the paper. But that is not accurate. All anyone can know, at first, is that you have some lines and globs of ink on the page that take a certain form. Unless you have someone to tell you what these lines and globs of ink represent (the code) you are left in the dark. An Australian Aborigine would look at the page and be completely clueless about the message.
Now let’s assume that you have the letters S T A R on the page and I tell you that they are English letters. Now what do you have? This time you are fairly certain of what you have and you answer quickly, “Oh, that is easy, you have the word Star.” Now I expose your prejudice and answer, “No, you do not have the word star. At the present you only have the letters S T A R. What could you have on this page?”
Some brighter student replies, “Rats!” To which I say, “You might possibly be correct.” Another student quickly speaks up, “Arts.” Again my response, “You may be correct.” Now another student, even more brilliant than the others, “How can you ever know what the message means even if you have the evidence?” To which I reply, “Now you have asked the right question.”
Unless you have the code (S T A R) and understand that these are English letters, you will never be able to get the message. But even if you have the code, you still cannot understand its meaning (explanation of the Code) unless you have someone to explain and give order to the code.”
This is why everyone in the world has the same evidence as everyone else but they all reach different conclusions about the evidence. Unless you have the person who gave the code, as well as the person to explain the order and meaning of the code, you will never get it right.
When you look at the phrase godisnowhere what do you see? It all depends on how you separate the letters of the code. Some will see God is nowhere! But for those who have the code and its meaning and order explained by the giver and explainer of the code, there will be a completely different conclusion, which is, “God is now here!”
As I was explaining this concept at an open forum with a philosophy professor at Southern Illinois University, a student asked, “Phil, what evidence do you have that there has been a God who has invaded history to give us the proper meaning of the code?”
What a great question! Some of the evidence we have is in the area of fulfilled prophecy. I told the story of a student who had asked the same question several months ago at an open-air dialogue at the University of Illinois. Immediately after he asked the question, an Anti-Israeli demonstration marched right through our open-air dialogue with chants of hatred toward Israel. After the demonstrators left, the students at the dialogue were noticeably shaken. I turned to the student who asked for evidence of God invading history. I asked, “What geographical location on the globe are you thinking of right now?”
He replied, “Israel. But what has that got to do with anything?’
I asked, “Any specific city in Israel?”
“Jerusalem,” but I don’t see your point.”
“Let me explain. You asked for evidence of God invading history. Did you know that the Bible says that God knows every word on your tongue before you speak it? (Psalms 139) He even knew what questions you would ask this afternoon. He knew you would ask a question that needed evidence to support it. Therefore, He even arranged this demonstration to interrupt our dialogue so your attention would be turned to think about Jerusalem.
“Now, why Jerusalem? You see, 2500 years ago God knew you would be in need of evidence of the trustworthiness of the Bible, so He predicted that as we approach the end of history all the nations would be focused on a little insignificant town from 500 B.C. named Jerusalem. A prophet named Zechariah made this prediction,
1 This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: 2 "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. Zech 12:1-3 (NIV)
“The reason you thought of Jerusalem this afternoon is because God knew you would need evidence. He ordered these circumstances so you would have the evidence you need. It is in this area of fulfilled prophecy that we have sufficient evidence to support the integrity of the Scriptures and thereby the Scriptures tell us of our need for Christ. My hope is that you will turn from your sin and trust in Christ so you will be able to escape the coming judgment.”
Certainly this does not answer all your questions about evidence, but my hope is that you will be stirred to study the Scriptures further and investigate their claims. Happy investigating!
Small Group Discussion Questions:
1. What evidence did you have that helped you trust in Christ?
2. Who in your circle of influence needs more evidence? Take a moment and pray that God would order their steps so they too can see the real evidence of God’s working in history.
3. The greatest evidence Jesus gave us was in John 13:34-35. How can you live this out to give evidence to those without Christ?
4. Answers in Genesis produces some excellent videos that provide detailed evidences from the Scripture. They can be ordered from Answersingenesis.org