CLUES TO THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The first verse of the Bible simply presents God as fact. His existence is not in question and His reality is revealed. He is a knowable, personable, God. So how do we know He exits?
God has given us clues, fingerprints all over the world to show us His existence:
1. The Design of the World
The world has order and design. Things fit together in an amazing way. Our universe has a designer label.
If the earth were smaller than it is (or larger), it would not be able to sustain an atmosphere we could breathe. If it were a jot nearer the sun, we would fry—or a little further away, we would freeze. If the earth spun more slowly, if it were tilted at a different angle, if the moon were nearer, if the ozone layer were thinner every one of these would spell disaster for our planet.
Plants produce oxygen, which we need. We produce carbon dioxide, which plants need. Every cell in the human body has the same number of chromosomes apart from those which join together to form a new human being. They have half the number needed and then join with another half to form the right number again.
Is all this a coincidence? Oh, sure, haven’t you heard of a supermarket exploding and accidentally producing a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings?
2. A Desire Within
Within every human heart, there is a desire to worship. There is a hunger, a thirst within. Go anywhere in the world, and people are worshipping something or someone. Pascal, a 17th century philosopher and mathematician, said that inside every person there is a God-shaped vacuum, a sort of hole in the middle of our soul, our being.
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”
Everyone has a desire that only God can meet. He alone fulfils and satisfies. Anything else is a substitute. Man also has a desire for purpose and meaning in life, a reason for living. There is a desire for more than what this world offers. Who put it there? Only God!
3. A Direction Within
Each person has a sense of right and wrong, a divine direction of good and evil, a holy “ought to” within. We feel responsible to do the right thing even though we don’t always do it.
Some call it a Conscience— “The sense of what is right and wrong in one’s conduct or motives impelling one toward right action.”
Everyone has a conscience. Who put it there? God!
4. A Distinct Change
Millions and millions of people who claim to have met God personally in a relationship with Jesus Christ testify that He has changed and rearranged their lives. You cannot argue with a changed life.
There are doctors, bricklayers, lawyers, housewives, secretaries, teachers, custodians, soldiers, mechanics, engineers, and multiple others who give testimony about a salvation event and experience that transformed their lives.
There are senior adults and children and every age in between who have met Jesus. There are people on every continent, in every race, in every language who have been changed by him. Are all these cranks, unintelligent, or gullible people?
No, it is irrefutable. God changes lives, including atheists, agnostics, infidels, skeptics, and those who hate all things God.
Charles Bradlaugh was an outstanding atheist in England. Down in one of the slums of London was a minister by the name of Hugh Price Hughes. All London was aware of miracles of grace accomplished at his mission.
Charles Bradlaugh challenged Mr. Hughes to debate with him the validity of the claims of Christianity. London was greatly interested. What would Mr. Hughes do? He immediately accepted the challenge, and in doing so, added one of his own.
Hughes said, “I propose to you that we each bring some concrete evidences of the validity of our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from the lives of sin and shame by the influence of our teaching. I will bring 100 such men and women, and I challenge you to do the same.
“If you cannot bring 100, Mr. Bradlaugh, to match my 100, I will be satisfied if you will bring 50 men and women who will stand and testify that they have been lifted up from lives of shame by the influence of your teachings. If you cannot bring 50, then bring 20 people who will say, as my 100 will, that they have a great joy in a life of self-respect as a result of your atheistic teachings. If you cannot bring 20, I will be satisfied if you bring 10.
“Nay, Mr. Bradlaugh, I challenge you to bring one, just one man or woman who will make such a testimony regarding the uplifting of your atheistic teachings.”
Again, London was stirred. What would Mr. Bradlaugh do? In answer, Charles Bradlaugh, with great discomfiture and chagrin, publicly withdrew his challenge for the debate.
(Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations)
