Why should I believe in God?
When the Soviet’s first put a man in space, Yuri’ Gagarin circled the earth in his little tin can and looking out the portal window of his
spaceship declared to the world: “I don’t see any God out there”
The Apostle Paul approached the city of Athens where he was amazed to see so many statues and memorial to different kinds of
gods. Gathering a crowd he declared to them this:
Acts 17:22-23
"Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this
inscription on it—'To an Unknown God.' You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about
him.”
Why believe in God? And if there is a God, what difference does it make? And if I am to know this God and Worship Him, who is He
and how can I know Him? These are the kinds of questions that we are going to seek to answer over the next several weeks. I
hope you will approach these messages with an open mind and with an open heart. If these questions are not questions that you
presently wrestle with, someone you love does wrestle with these issues. Listen with a desire to learn how to encourage them in
their search for answers.
Why do men still believe in God? In every culture in every corner of the globe there is this sense that something greater exists in the
universe than what we see, feel and touch. Molecular biologist, Dean Hamer has written a book titled: “The God Gene: How Faith is
Hardwired into our Genes”. In this book he proposes that thee is a gene that is inherited and passed down through humanity that
wires us to believe in God or not believe in God.
The Bible declares in Ecclesiastes 3:11
“God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the
whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.”
Is it possible that God has planted in our beings and awareness, a sense that He exists. And if so, why do some people deny the
existence of God?
In 1930 Clarence Darrow declared: “I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose”. Are the stories about God in
the bible just a bunch of fairy tales? Are Moses, Daniel, and Joseph on a par with Peter Piper and Jack and Jill?
There are about 9 different ways to believe when it comes to the topic of whether or not God really exists:
- I am God. In other words, I am the center of my world and the only thing that matters is my life and what I do with it. The
unfortunate truth about this is that it doesn’t take me very long to discover that there are many things in this life I have absolutely no
control over.
- There is no God. He does not exist. Only the material world exists, and the only thing that matters is what I do with my life
while I have it to live. By virtue of the fact that someone declares that they no all things about this subject, they in fact are declaring
that they are God, the all-knowing one who is at the center of their universe.
- There may be a God, but there is no way to know for sure and it really doesn’t matter anyway. This person chooses to live as if
there is no God and therefore, their lives reflect the same attitude as the first two people mentioned.
- If there is a God, He is not involved in our world. This is the deist belief which many of our founding father’s held to. God was
seen as a clock maker, who makes a clock and then lets it run on its own. At heart, they may believe in a God, but is it the God of
scriptures and does it have any impact in their lives. In effect, they live in a very similar way as the atheist or agnostic.
- There are many gods and they must be appeased. This individual lives a life of service to the spirit world. There is always a
sense of manipulation and control. If I do x, y, z then god a, b, or c will bless me. In effect the polytheist lives a life where they are
god. They pull the strings of their own life, living a life of superstition and manipulation of the spirits.
- God is in everything. In this view God may be seen as a force or energy or as nature itself. In effect the person who holds this
pantheistic view worships creation and tries to live in harmony with nature. Religion is again all about controlling man’s interaction
with nature. The west has moved more and more in the direction of this kind of belief in God.
- There is a god, but he is both evil and good. Many people hold to views of yin and yang, of good and bad karma, and of a god
who created evil and cannot be completely trusted. Some who have been hurt by the ravages of nature and disaster choose to
believe that if there is a god, he is the problem. He can’t be known, loved or trusted.
- There is a God, but I don’t care. There are many who would come themselves Christians or Muslim’s or Jew and they believe
in God’s existence, but it has absolutely no impact on their life. In effect they live the same was as the secular atheist or agnostic.
- There is a God and He desires to interact with His creation. Hebrews 11:6 says “So, you see, it is impossible to please God
without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
How do we come to faith in God? Is it just a God-gene that is put in some people’s DNA, or can a person move from being an
atheist to a believer? Any honest search must begin with questions.
- Why am I here? Where did I come from? Does it matter whether or not I believe? Is there reason to believe?
Albert Einstein once said: “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” Einstein is called the father of the
theory of relativity. But the fact of the matter is that Einstein did not create the theory of relativity. It existed before he was born, and it
exists since he died. He isn’t the creator, just the discoverer of relativity’s existence.
Romans 1:20 says: “From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can
clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”
The problem isn’t whether or not God exists, but are we honest enough to search for real answers. If He exists, can we know this?
And how can we be sure? Science can’t prove God exists. But science can discover evidence which points to a designer. The
universe has design and order. Why?
Perhaps the best way to investigate the existence of God is through the judicial process. When trying to determine if a crime has
been committed, a court does not recreate the crime over and over again in a laboratory. The court studies evidence, and where
there is an abundance of evidence without a reasonable degree of doubt, the court makes a judgment.
Science likes to see, feel and touch things. But not everything that exists can be seen, felt, or touched. Can you see love? What
about hope? Can you smell math or taste anger? We can, however, look at evidences for the existence of God. We can see:
- The design of the universe
- The morality built into the nature of man (why did everyone get so upset about Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation?)
- The spiritual hunger that exists in humanity (no matter how much food or water or clothes or houses I have, I always feel like I
want more, like something is missing in my life.)
- The soul and its response to the arts (Where does music come from? Why do I respond to one song one way and another
song differently? Why can I be brought to tears or laughter when watching a scene in a play or movie? What is it about the human
nature that responds to these stimuli?)
Professor Edwin Carlston, a mathematician of Princeton University has this to say about the universe happening by accident without
a designer:
“The Probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged version of the Dictionary resulting
from an explosion in a printing factory.”
It is interesting to look at how the Bible explains God. It doesn’t! It simply begins with the words: “In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth.” The bible doesn’t’ try to explain God. It says God always was and always will be.
There are some basic facts we cannot deny:
- The Universe exists! Unless you are a lunatic who thinks that everything is just an illusion, you can’t deny that we live on earth.
- The Universe has not always existed! The law of thermodynamics states that things are constantly expending energy and
moving to a state of disorder. That is why you clean your house and a week or two later, you have to clean it again. Our sun will
eventually die. All its energy resources will be used up. The universe did not always exist and one day it will cease existing.
- Something caused the universe to exist. There are two options for us. One option is that the universe created itself as the
matter of the universe exploded out in a big bang. Edwin Hubble discovered something in the 1920’s called a red shift. Using the
light spectrum he indicated that objects further away shifted to the red of the light spectrum. Therefore, he proposed that the
universe is expanding. And if you take this theory as true, then when you reverse the expansion of the universe, it had to start at one
time in a single spot. But this theory does not help us in any way to understand where morality comes from. How did the soul
emerge? The second option is to acknowledge that the universe had to have been designed by a designer. The creator must be
greater than the creation.
The God of the Bible is described in this way:
o He is self-existent. He lives outside the law of cause and effect. He is God simply because He is the only one who always
was, and always will be. That is the very definition of God. He is the “I am”
o He is self-sufficient. He is God because He does not need anything or anyone else to exist. He doesn’t get lonely, or bored,
or in need of creation. He is complete within Himself. Again that is the very definition of the word God.
o He is self-eternal. He is without beginning or end. He lives outside of all boundaries of time and space.
Which do you believe? What makes more sense to you? But realize that God cannot be God if He can be completely understood by
us. IF God were completely explainable by finite minds and hearts, then he would cease to be infinite. Would you worship or follow
a God you could explain and put in a box? The very nature of the creator, the infinite one, is that finite creatures cannot only know a
little bit about this creator. We can only know what He allows us to know. Louis Pascal once wrote that “logic alone can not prove
the existence of God.” We must follow the evidence, and then choose to believe what makes the most sense to our finite minds and
hearts.
But what kind of God do we believe in? Is it the God who doesn’t care, or the God who isn’t involved, or the God who can’t be
trusted, or the God who is both evil and good?
A.W.Tozer once wrote: “What we believe about God is the most important thing about us.”
We all carry about in our minds a picture of what we think God is like. God can be . . .
- Just like dear Old dad. A sort of Santa clause who lets us borrow the keys to the car and go for our joy ride in life.
- A cosmic 9 – 1 – 1. Call him in any crises and he will be there.
- The force. A power to be tapped into to control our environment and those around us.
- The Enforcer. The heavy hand of the law who comes down to set everyone straight.
- The man upstairs. A kindly soul who smiles and looks the other way.
- A religious icon or statue. Cold, impersonal, and mysterious.
Before you decide God doesn’t exists, or before your friends and family shut their minds completely off to God, find out what kind of
God they are rejecting!
We can discover the true God in 3 critical ways:
1. Creation reveals His attributes. (Story of the Geese flying in
formation). Psalm 19:1 “The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.”
2. Scripture reveals God to us. 1 John 1:5 1 “This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is
no darkness in him at all.” (God is also love and spirit.)
3. Jesus reveals the nature of God to us. Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our
ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the
Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he made the universe and everything in it.”
Do you want to get to know God better? Do you want to discover for yourself whether or not God is real? Study nature. Look at the
majesty of creation. Open the scriptures and read with a prayerful, seeking heart. Pray: God if you are real, reveal yourself to me.
Help me to know you. And most importantly study the life of Jesus. There you will discover that God is all knowing, all powerful,
ever present and ready to reveal Himself. You will discover a God who is holy, gracious, loving and good. The promise of scripture
remains the same: Seek me and you will find me. Knock and the door shall be opened.
Ask and you will receive.>>>>>>
When the Soviet’s first put a man in space, Yuri’ Gagarin circled the earth in his little tin can and looking out the portal window of his
spaceship declared to the world: “I don’t see any God out there”
The Apostle Paul approached the city of Athens where he was amazed to see so many statues and memorial to different kinds of
gods. Gathering a crowd he declared to them this:
Acts 17:22-23
"Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this
inscription on it—'To an Unknown God.' You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about
him.”
Why believe in God? And if there is a God, what difference does it make? And if I am to know this God and Worship Him, who is He
and how can I know Him? These are the kinds of questions that we are going to seek to answer over the next several weeks. I
hope you will approach these messages with an open mind and with an open heart. If these questions are not questions that you
presently wrestle with, someone you love does wrestle with these issues. Listen with a desire to learn how to encourage them in
their search for answers.
Why do men still believe in God? In every culture in every corner of the globe there is this sense that something greater exists in the
universe than what we see, feel and touch. Molecular biologist, Dean Hamer has written a book titled: “The God Gene: How Faith is
Hardwired into our Genes”. In this book he proposes that thee is a gene that is inherited and passed down through humanity that
wires us to believe in God or not believe in God.
The Bible declares in Ecclesiastes 3:11
“God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the
whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.”
Is it possible that God has planted in our beings and awareness, a sense that He exists. And if so, why do some people deny the
existence of God?
In 1930 Clarence Darrow declared: “I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose”. Are the stories about God in
the bible just a bunch of fairy tales? Are Moses, Daniel, and Joseph on a par with Peter Piper and Jack and Jill?
There are about 9 different ways to believe when it comes to the topic of whether or not God really exists:
- I am God. In other words, I am the center of my world and the only thing that matters is my life and what I do with it. The
unfortunate truth about this is that it doesn’t take me very long to discover that there are many things in this life I have absolutely no
control over.
- There is no God. He does not exist. Only the material world exists, and the only thing that matters is what I do with my life
while I have it to live. By virtue of the fact that someone declares that they no all things about this subject, they in fact are declaring
that they are God, the all-knowing one who is at the center of their universe.
- There may be a God, but there is no way to know for sure and it really doesn’t matter anyway. This person chooses to live as if
there is no God and therefore, their lives reflect the same attitude as the first two people mentioned.
- If there is a God, He is not involved in our world. This is the deist belief which many of our founding father’s held to. God was
seen as a clock maker, who makes a clock and then lets it run on its own. At heart, they may believe in a God, but is it the God of
scriptures and does it have any impact in their lives. In effect, they live in a very similar way as the atheist or agnostic.
- There are many gods and they must be appeased. This individual lives a life of service to the spirit world. There is always a
sense of manipulation and control. If I do x, y, z then god a, b, or c will bless me. In effect the polytheist lives a life where they are
god. They pull the strings of their own life, living a life of superstition and manipulation of the spirits.
- God is in everything. In this view God may be seen as a force or energy or as nature itself. In effect the person who holds this
pantheistic view worships creation and tries to live in harmony with nature. Religion is again all about controlling man’s interaction
with nature. The west has moved more and more in the direction of this kind of belief in God.
- There is a god, but he is both evil and good. Many people hold to views of yin and yang, of good and bad karma, and of a god
who created evil and cannot be completely trusted. Some who have been hurt by the ravages of nature and disaster choose to
believe that if there is a god, he is the problem. He can’t be known, loved or trusted.
- There is a God, but I don’t care. There are many who would come themselves Christians or Muslim’s or Jew and they believe
in God’s existence, but it has absolutely no impact on their life. In effect they live the same was as the secular atheist or agnostic.
- There is a God and He desires to interact with His creation. Hebrews 11:6 says “So, you see, it is impossible to please God
without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
How do we come to faith in God? Is it just a God-gene that is put in some people’s DNA, or can a person move from being an
atheist to a believer? Any honest search must begin with questions.
- Why am I here? Where did I come from? Does it matter whether or not I believe? Is there reason to believe?
Albert Einstein once said: “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” Einstein is called the father of the
theory of relativity. But the fact of the matter is that Einstein did not create the theory of relativity. It existed before he was born, and it
exists since he died. He isn’t the creator, just the discoverer of relativity’s existence.
Romans 1:20 says: “From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can
clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”
The problem isn’t whether or not God exists, but are we honest enough to search for real answers. If He exists, can we know this?
And how can we be sure? Science can’t prove God exists. But science can discover evidence which points to a designer. The
universe has design and order. Why?
Perhaps the best way to investigate the existence of God is through the judicial process. When trying to determine if a crime has
been committed, a court does not recreate the crime over and over again in a laboratory. The court studies evidence, and where
there is an abundance of evidence without a reasonable degree of doubt, the court makes a judgment.
Science likes to see, feel and touch things. But not everything that exists can be seen, felt, or touched. Can you see love? What
about hope? Can you smell math or taste anger? We can, however, look at evidences for the existence of God. We can see:
- The design of the universe
- The morality built into the nature of man (why did everyone get so upset about Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation?)
- The spiritual hunger that exists in humanity (no matter how much food or water or clothes or houses I have, I always feel like I
want more, like something is missing in my life.)
- The soul and its response to the arts (Where does music come from? Why do I respond to one song one way and another
song differently? Why can I be brought to tears or laughter when watching a scene in a play or movie? What is it about the human
nature that responds to these stimuli?)
Professor Edwin Carlston, a mathematician of Princeton University has this to say about the universe happening by accident without
a designer:
“The Probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged version of the Dictionary resulting
from an explosion in a printing factory.”
It is interesting to look at how the Bible explains God. It doesn’t! It simply begins with the words: “In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth.” The bible doesn’t’ try to explain God. It says God always was and always will be.
There are some basic facts we cannot deny:
- The Universe exists! Unless you are a lunatic who thinks that everything is just an illusion, you can’t deny that we live on earth.
- The Universe has not always existed! The law of thermodynamics states that things are constantly expending energy and
moving to a state of disorder. That is why you clean your house and a week or two later, you have to clean it again. Our sun will
eventually die. All its energy resources will be used up. The universe did not always exist and one day it will cease existing.
- Something caused the universe to exist. There are two options for us. One option is that the universe created itself as the
matter of the universe exploded out in a big bang. Edwin Hubble discovered something in the 1920’s called a red shift. Using the
light spectrum he indicated that objects further away shifted to the red of the light spectrum. Therefore, he proposed that the
universe is expanding. And if you take this theory as true, then when you reverse the expansion of the universe, it had to start at one
time in a single spot. But this theory does not help us in any way to understand where morality comes from. How did the soul
emerge? The second option is to acknowledge that the universe had to have been designed by a designer. The creator must be
greater than the creation.
The God of the Bible is described in this way:
o He is self-existent. He lives outside the law of cause and effect. He is God simply because He is the only one who always
was, and always will be. That is the very definition of God. He is the “I am”
o He is self-sufficient. He is God because He does not need anything or anyone else to exist. He doesn’t get lonely, or bored,
or in need of creation. He is complete within Himself. Again that is the very definition of the word God.
o He is self-eternal. He is without beginning or end. He lives outside of all boundaries of time and space.
Which do you believe? What makes more sense to you? But realize that God cannot be God if He can be completely understood by
us. IF God were completely explainable by finite minds and hearts, then he would cease to be infinite. Would you worship or follow
a God you could explain and put in a box? The very nature of the creator, the infinite one, is that finite creatures cannot only know a
little bit about this creator. We can only know what He allows us to know. Louis Pascal once wrote that “logic alone can not prove
the existence of God.” We must follow the evidence, and then choose to believe what makes the most sense to our finite minds and
hearts.
But what kind of God do we believe in? Is it the God who doesn’t care, or the God who isn’t involved, or the God who can’t be
trusted, or the God who is both evil and good?
A.W.Tozer once wrote: “What we believe about God is the most important thing about us.”
We all carry about in our minds a picture of what we think God is like. God can be . . .
- Just like dear Old dad. A sort of Santa clause who lets us borrow the keys to the car and go for our joy ride in life.
- A cosmic 9 – 1 – 1. Call him in any crises and he will be there.
- The force. A power to be tapped into to control our environment and those around us.
- The Enforcer. The heavy hand of the law who comes down to set everyone straight.
- The man upstairs. A kindly soul who smiles and looks the other way.
- A religious icon or statue. Cold, impersonal, and mysterious.
Before you decide God doesn’t exists, or before your friends and family shut their minds completely off to God, find out what kind of
God they are rejecting!
We can discover the true God in 3 critical ways:
1. Creation reveals His attributes. (Story of the Geese flying in
formation). Psalm 19:1 “The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.”
2. Scripture reveals God to us. 1 John 1:5 1 “This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is
no darkness in him at all.” (God is also love and spirit.)
3. Jesus reveals the nature of God to us. Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our
ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the
Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he made the universe and everything in it.”
Do you want to get to know God better? Do you want to discover for yourself whether or not God is real? Study nature. Look at the
majesty of creation. Open the scriptures and read with a prayerful, seeking heart. Pray: God if you are real, reveal yourself to me.
Help me to know you. And most importantly study the life of Jesus. There you will discover that God is all knowing, all powerful,
ever present and ready to reveal Himself. You will discover a God who is holy, gracious, loving and good. The promise of scripture
remains the same: Seek me and you will find me. Knock and the door shall be opened.
Ask and you will receive.>>>>>>
 |
Salvation
Now
Now