God’s Existence Introduction

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declairng the work of His hands.” Psalm 19:1

“That which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” -Romans 1:19-20

In the next several posts, I hope to make a strong case for the existence of the Christian God. I have found the reasons for belief in God to be tremendously helpful in my own journey. It has been significant for me to know (and not just have blind faith) that God is really there. It is completely life changing to realize that God has made His existence and His nature known to humanity. Some might disagree and say that God’s existence cannot be proven. However, as I will demonstrate, the existence of God is clearly the best explanation of our human knowledge and experience. Furthermore, I have found it extremely helpful in my search for Truth to find that the Christian God has made Himself known apart from Scripture. In other words, we can know that God is real apart from any religious faith or scriptures. Although God’s existence and attributes can be understood from what He has made without appeal to Scripture of any kind, a more intimate and specific knowledge of God is only accessible in the Holy Bible. As I progress, I may at times use the Bible as history or to simply show that it advocates an idea. However, I will do my best not to use the Bible as the Bible per se- in order to avoid circular argumentation, at this point.

The concept of circular argumentation and appeals to ultimate authority are another discussion. Although I advocate the Bible as the ultimate authority for understanding God, His created reality, and our response to both; and although I realize that every appeal to ultimate authority is unavoidably circular, I will initially refrain from appealing to the Bible in a sort of “it says it-so you must believe it” fashion. I would first like to demonstrate that the God who we claim has revealed Himself in the Bible, actually exists. Then at some point later, I will show that the Living God indeed communicated to His people through the Holy Bible. First things first- Lets turn to the existence of the Living God!…

Since the beginning of human experience, men and women have marveled at the existence and complexity of the universe around them. According to the great philosopher Aristotle, “it is owing to their wonder that men…first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters, e.g…about the origin of the universe.”

The universe’s existence and the resulting question of its origin caused the German mathematician and philospher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, to ask, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” In answering this question, he postulated the existence of a metaphysically necesary Being who carries within Himself the sufficient reason for His own existence and the sufficient reason for the existence of the world.

The existence of this necessary Being of philosophy, which Leibniz calls “God,” is the same Being assumed by the writiers of the Biblical texts quoted above.  The above passages reveal that Christianity, in line with other theistic religios, considers God’s existence to be evident from observation and experience of the world. If it is true, as these men claim, that God’s existence in reality can be deduced from reflection on the world, then the significance of this is beyond description.

The next post will continue this brief introduction.