The Fundamental Blog

It usually goes like this… You argue the obviousness of the existence of God to a person who wants you to prove your point, and they claim that since you have no reasonable, tangible proof; Christianity is merely a blind leap of faith into the realm of what we want to believe. The Christian is almost always required to prove God to a person who can not disprove Him. As much as we would like to turn the tables and require that the non-theist prove their argument, we need to understand the logical basis for our faith and be able to put forth a compelling explanation that God does, in fact, exist. This is the field of Christian Apologetics.

Apologetics is NOT apologizing for our faith, it is the defense of the reasoning that we can call upon to validate our beliefs beyond a simple, “wanting them to be.” Yes, there does come a point where we must decide to take the leap of faith, but it is not a leap into the darkness, it is a step into the light! The information that I am about to give you may sound as though it is trying to quantify God, it is not. It is, however, a little trickier to follow than some of my other articles so I pray that God gives me the words to convey the ideas as we come to them, that all who read this might come away better able to understand the factual basis of the faith we all hold so dear.

The points I am going to share with you come from, “Christian Apologetics,” by Dr. Norman Geisler. I have tried to simplify them where possible and make them easier to understand but this is from a theology text. The other thing I want to point out is that this discourse will not go so far as to include the compelling evidence for Christ as our Saviour beyond the implicit facts that say God is trustworthy and we can believe the Bible because God says it’s so. Making the case that Christ Jesus is the only source of our salvation is for another article. That said, let’s see if we can prove God…

To begin… 1) - Some things undeniably exist. Even in the argument that we may be nothing more than the result of someone’s dream state, the dreamer has endowed us, (the dreamed), with the ability to be aware of the realities of that dream state. We are aware of our existence and can not deny that we exist in it. The contention that we can deny our own existence is self-defeating because in order to deny that we exist, we must exist to make the denial. While we can not deny our own existence, we need to understand that we do not necessarily need to exist. 2) - It is possible that we could have never existed in the first place. The world existed before we were born and will continue to exist after most of us are dead and long gone. The existence of existence, in no way depends on our being a part of it.

3) - Whatever has the possibility of non-existence must have been caused to exist by another. Since it is possible that we could not have existed, and since it is undeniable that we do exist; we must realize that we were caused to exist by another. Self-causation is impossible because in order to have caused our own existence we would have had to exist prior to that causation. The possibility that we not exist leaves only the conclusion that we were caused to exist my something outside of ourselves.

4) - There can not be an infinite regression of causation. That is to say, if everything has a cause, there must be a first cause, and that first cause must be without causation. If everything came from something else, where did the very first, “something else,” come from? There has to be an origin for all created things, but only for created things. Only a necessary, uncaused being needs no causation.

5) - Since we are not necessary beings, (it is possible that we never existed), then we must have been caused to exist, and since self causation and an infinite regression of causes are not possible, a first un-caused cause must necessarily exist, there is no other option. 6) - This uncaused, first cause must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and without limitation to be able to do, absolutely anything that is possible to do. We get there by understanding that not even an uncaused, first cause can create an impossibility and since we have some amount of the qualities of knowledge, power etc…, though limited, our cause-er must have these qualities to draw upon, and must have these qualities in perfect, infinite, limitlessness.

7) - This infinitely, perfect being is appropriately called God. By calling this being God, we are simply saying, (at this point), that this uncaused, first cause; this perfect being, is worthy of praise, worship and the ultimate commitment possible from the creation that it has caused to exist. At this point we are ready to conclude that… 8 - God exists. Now the problem of what this God is like is before us. All the major world religions claim to acknowledge the one true God but they have differences of doctrine concerning the true nature of God. Is it possible to rightly conclude that there may be more than one God? Consider this…

God can only be ONE God. Assume, for the moment, that multiple gods were possible; what differentiates one of these gods from another? A difference, right? OK, if God were not in possession of every attribute that existed, then this god would be lacking in some respect and would therefore fail the test of God-ship, right? If a difference exists between gods then one is lacking something that the other is not and that lacking god could not be God. This leaves only one God. Likewise, if no difference existed, then they would be the same, again; one God. So since we have reached the point where we can say that only one God exists, the remaining thing to discover is what the nature of this one God is.

We have already reached the point where we have accomplished what we set out to do, establish that God exists, so to go the next steps is only icing on the cake. All the world religion’s Holy books describe the nature of God but none do a better job than the Christian Scriptures. Some faiths only account for some of God’s qualities but not the Bible. The Bible pronounces God to be all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present, loving, merciful, vengeful, wrathful, and that besides the Lord our God, there is no other god. Christian theology describes the Holy nature of God more accurately than anything else, and to a degree that surpasses all other attempts. We are left with our last two points; 9) - God is identical to the God described in the Christian Bible, and 10) - The God described in the Bible exists.

As I stated earlier, this discussion only goes part of the way to where salvation is found. Our saving grace can only be found through faith is Jesus Christ as God’s only begotten Son, sent to take away the sins of the world. The understanding that God exists must come first though, how can a person be saved unless he first believes in God? Once that hurdle is met and overcome, then the things that God says can be received. Before a person can believe that they need salvation, that salvation comes in Christ alone, that salvation is the gift of God’s grace because we are all sinners and worthy of death, before any of the essential Christian doctrines can be espoused, the foundation of the existence of God must be laid.

I share this with you so that we might have a better base on which to build our testimonies for Christ, not so that we can win arguments, nobody is ever saved by losing an argument. It is important that we be able to, “… be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1Peter 3:15. KJV. We know, that in regard to the existence of God, that even the demons believe and tremble, so to come as far as this writing goes is merely to bring a person to the waters edge and point to the blessedness on the other side. Do not allow this to be our stopping point. Christ is the only boat that can safely carry a soul across Jordon to the Pilgrim’s celestial kingdom on the other side. To bring the lost to the water’s edge is a good start but to proclaim Christ that they may cross over one day, that’s the testimony which rings complete and is certainly…

All for the Glory of Christ