DEVOTIONAL

 

Each person must weigh the evidence. 

 

 

Recently, we’ve seen a resurgence of attacks on God and religion—by people such as Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), and Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great).

 

As Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we must admit right off that we cannot put God into a test tube and prove His existence by scientific methods. God is beyond proof. Our ability to understand God depends on the extent of His self-disclosure.

 

Among other ways, God reveals Himself to us (1) in creation (Gen. 1:1), (2) through the natural world (Ps. 19:1), (3) in our sense of morality and the innate longing for the divine, and (4) through Jesus Christ, the apex of God’s self-disclosure (John 1:14; Heb. 1:1-3). God makes no apology for who He is. While God allows us room to doubt His existence, He also provides us with sufficient evidences to believe, so that we are without excuse (Rom. 1:19, 20).

 

Allow me to share a few reasons why I believe in God: 

 

Think for a moment of the beginning of life. God claims direct responsibility for creating the heavens and earth (Gen.1:1-3; Isa. 45:12, 18). He claims to have put in place the foundations of the earth and marked off its dimensions (Job 38:3-5). He claims to have created the living creatures of the sea, the birds of the air, all land animals (Gen. 1:20-22), and, finally, human beings as well (Gen. 1:27; Ps. 139:14). By faith, we accept the divine origin of life, based on the Bible’s testimony of God as Creator and Sustainer of the universe (Heb. 11:1).

 

People at all times and in every place on earth have some sense of morality.  The law of God is embedded in their conscience.
Many today, however, choose to believe otherwise. On September 10, 2008, thousands of scientists from 80 countries gathered at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) facility in Switzerland to switch on the world’s most powerful particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The experiment was intended to prove the big bang theory of creation and indirectly refute the biblical teaching of divine origin. But the outcome was not as scientists had expected; and contrary to what some had feared, there was no explosion, no black hole swallowing up parts of the region, nor did the world come to an end.

 

For me, the biblical Creation account stands unrefuted. 

 

2. Evidences from the natural world 

The earth has more than 11 million species of animal life, including human life; 300,000 species of flowering plants; 20,000 species of birds; and 5,000 reptiles. The planet itself is a fascinating example of extreme complexity: it must be just the right size and its angular velocity must be precise to ensure that seasons and land water ratios are in balance. The slightest interference to this complex cosmic function of things would mean life or death for all living organisms.

 

What are the chances that all this complexity just happened? Remote! There must have been some intelligence behind all this. And for me, that says GOD.

 

The testimony of the natural world, while wordless, is eloquent (see Ps. 19:1). However warped and corrupted by sin (Acts 17:27), we may still see in the natural world an exhibition of God (Rom. 1:19, 20). 

People at all times and in every place on earth have some sense of morality—even in the most isolated and culturally distinct places. The law of God is embedded in our conscience (Rom. 2:11-16). Everyone knows, “instinctively,” that it is wrong to murder another human being. Where did this moral sense come from? From God, I believe. He is the basis of all morality.

 

Like morality, the belief in the existence of a spiritual world and of a supreme being (or beings) is also a universal phenomenon. People everywhere show some form of devotion or worship. Some worship the “Unknown God,” as Paul told the people in Athens (Acts 17:22, 23). This innate instinct is, I believe, a direct consequence of God having “set eternity in the hearts of men” (Eccl. 3:11, NIV). We are incurably religious (cf. Acts 17:26, 27).

 

About this the famous French mathematician-philosopher-physicist Blaise Pascal is attributed to have written: “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus” (Pensees). 

 

4. The testimony of Jesus 

Even though the natural world and human life point us toward God, they are insufficient to help us know God fully. The pinnacle of God’s revelation comes to us through Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-3).

 

More than three hundred references in the Old Testament alone establish Christ’s credentials as Messiah. Jesus is the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:1; John 7:42). He was to be called Lord (Ps. 110:1; Luke 2:11), Son of God (Ps. 2:7; 1 Chron. 17:11-14; Matt. 3:17; 16:16; Mark 9:7), and Immanuel—“God with us” (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23). His betrayal, by a friend, was predicted (Ps. 41:9; cf. Matt. 10:4)—for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12; cf. Matt. 26:15). He was to be forsaken by His disciples (Zech. 13:7; Mark 14:50) and crucified among thieves (Isa. 53:12; Matt. 27:38). And on the third day He was to be raised from the dead (Matt. 16:21; 17:9, 22, 23; 20:18, 19).

 

His life, death, and resurrection are well accepted facts of history. But what makes Jesus Christ unique and distinct from all the other religious leaders—including Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius—was His claim to be God (John 5:17, 18; 8:58; 10:30-33).

 

What we believe about Jesus Christ literally means life or death for us (John 3:36). 

 

What Options Do We Have? 

Three options lie before us: Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or He was God.¹ If Jesus deliberately lied about His deity, then He was not only a hypocrite, He was evil. If Jesus sincerely believed that He was God when He was not, then He was a lunatic. But if His claims are true—that He was the Son of God—then we reject Him at our peril.

 

In the end it comes down to faith, which should not be strange for any of us. Every time we fly, for example, we exercise some measure of faith, faith in people and machines with which we are not personally familiar. Our heavenly journey is more secure than any airline flight could be. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

 

For me, the providential evidences of God and Jesus are sufficient to warrant a total commitment on my part. And to believe in God and in Jesus Christ whom God has sent, is life—life eternal!²