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All
that is is all. I wrote the above in 1983 for inclusion in the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation (JASA), and it was published that year. Both the editorial panel of JASA, along with its readership, was composed of the nation's brightest mathematicians, chemists, physicists and socio-psychological-theological Christians. What I wrote was not refuted, because it logically proves the existence of God. Or, at least it satisfies the need to know that there was a supreme power that at one time did promote the origination of what we know today as creation of 'the something'. I bring up this topic - and frankly, I wish I didn't have to - because when push comes to shove, at one time or another the Christian disciple will be called out by the unbeliever to prove the existence of God to the unbeliever's satisfaction. This can end up being a losing battle, and in most instances, is. Recently, I attended the Apple Festival in Hendersonville, NC, and amidst the large crowd of people taking in the street fair event, there stood a fellow holding a large placard that promoted biblical passages. As I passed him, the fellow was in a heated argument with another man who demanded proof that God exists. From what I overheard, try as he did, the advocate for God could not satisfactorily explain to his antagonist that God, in fact, exists. As could be expected, the dialog between the two men devolved into an argument. The Gospels tell us that many times Jesus got into arguments with the Pharisees over Scriptural issues, so arguing is not a bad thing. Frequently, though, such modern day arguments are not of a scholastic nature but bottom out to verbal exchanges of arrogance, non-logic, mean-spiritedness and vituperation. In 1966, Time Magazine ran a cover that asked, "Is God Dead?" The story brought to the forum of mass media the question that has been asked since Friedrich Nietzsche's classic statement, Gott ist tot, God is dead. Even though Nietzsche provided his own answer: "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him." the answer is metaphorical. Nietzsche's words have transformed from the declarative to the interrogative. While many non-believers grudgingly admit that perhaps there was a god who started it all, in view of the chaos that now exists in the world, the non-believers have come to the conclusion that the god responsible for the creation is no longer alive. What else would explain the mess the world finds itself in? While it is true that a disciple of Christ must minister to the Christian community, and doing such will require much time and devotion to duty, there do come those occasions when the disciple must witness to non-believers. Somebody, sometime, somewhere is going to ask the disciple to prove that God exists. Unfortunately, as a refute proof, the disciple cannot call on the Bible for help; as the non-believer gives no credence to the Holy Scriptures and rejects its proofs outright. What is the disciple to do when confronted by the challenge to 'prove' God? For starters, the disciple has to discern whether the person asking the question is sincere, or are they someone arguing for argument's sake? Is the person intelligent, or are they ignorant, or just plain stupid? Always keep in mind that you can never win an argument with a fool, and should you get into such an argument, onlookers will have a difficult time in identifying who is the fool. Then there are those situations where the doubter of God may be on a more sinister mission; that being, to make the disciple of God, him or her self, look foolish in public. The disciple has to quickly discern whether it is a genuine questioner of God that debates with them, or whether the opponent is really an agent of Satan. "One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, 'These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.' She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 'I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.' And it came out that very hour." (Acts 16: 16- 18). Proofs of whether God exists depends on a single premise: does the person listening want to believe? If they do not want to believe, they won't and nothing you say will convince them. If a resolute non-believer is to come to God, it will be God's purposeful doing and not because of your efforts. You may, of course, be part of the process of conversion, but it will be the Christ and the Holy Spirit who will take over and guide you. On the surface, it is impossible to prove that God exists. There is no empiric proof, there is no memorial one can go to and see God in material form. It doesn't exist. "Well what about the Bible?" The Bible is valid only if the disciple is dealing with a person who has an open mind, instead of a person who offers nothing more than mindless rhetoric or outright idiocy. Yes, those supernatural events did happen in Exodus. Who
better to chronicle God working physically in the world than a group
of Hebrew skeptics? Unless, that is, one wishes to brand the entirety
of Judaism as being a cohort of liars. A thoughtful reading of both
Genesis and Exodus reveals to the hardest of disbelievers that the
early Hebrews were brought kicking and screaming into a covenant with
the Living God. If the recounting of the Hebrew adventures was nothing
more than roses and sweetness prose, then we all would be suspicious. But
that was not the case at all. Many of those rescued from Pharaoh's
bondage wanted to return to it when faced with uncertainty as they
wandered about in the desert. And once on their own, a great
majority of Moses' followers didn't trust him, or the God he
represented. Yet, the accounts were recorded because trust or mistrust, belief or disbelief, in their guts the Hebrews knew that
'something' more powerful than themselves was present. They
witnessed and recorded the works of God - the miraculous and the
terrifying. |