The Most Googled Questions About God — Episode 2: Can I Know God Exists?
This question ranks at the top of the list of the most commonly asked questions in internet searches. This episode is a simple approach to this issue. Sometimes we defend the existence of God with technical words and drawn-out reasoning. There is a place for these discussions, but the truth is the average person doesn’t understand those words and needs something more direct.
How would you say God would answer this question? What does God point to as proof that He exists? To see His answer, just read the Bible. It’s not that the Bible spends a lot of time making the case for the existence of God. It’s that the Bible points us to something every person on earth can see. The episode explains how.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: Psalm 19:1-3; Psalm 14:1; Acts 14:15-17; Acts 17:16-31; Romans 1:18-32
- Pillars of the Faith
Listen to more on this subject
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
The Bible is very clear about this because nature is very clear about it. The world shows us that God exists. Everywhere we turn at any time, the works of God’s hand are all around us and within us. David wrote about the creation in Psalm 19 verses 1 through 3. He said in verse 1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” If you want to see the work of God, look up. God made everything you see. The word “heavens” means the space where the sun, the moon and the stars are. What an incredible sight that is.
David was in awe of this vast universe God created. He said in Psalm 8, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8 verses 3 and 4). He said the moon and the stars—all the stars, which cannot be numbered—are the work of God’s fingers. Men and women both use their fingers to do things, to make things. If you’re a woman, you use your fingers to get dressed, to sew, to cook, to write, to use your phone. If you’re a man, you use your fingers to use your tools, to type on a computer, to fix things, get money out of your wallet, to drive. We take our hands for granted don’t we? Well, this passage says God made the moon and all the stars as easily as you use your fingers to do those everyday tasks. And we’re like David. We can’t help but think about the power and glory of God when we see what He made.
Isaiah chapter 40 is another great commentary on Psalm 19 verse 1. Notice what the prophet said about the hand that created all this and how little effort it took. In Isaiah 40 verse 12 the Bible says, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” Notice what He says God did with His hand. He “measured the waters in the hollow of His hand.” Which waters? All the waters—all the water on the face of the earth—the rivers and lakes, the ponds and streams, the seas and oceans. Where did all that water come from? God measured out the right amount of water to put of the earth. He put the exact amount that was best for the earth. He didn’t put too much and flood it. He didn’t put too little and let it dry up. He told Job that He’s the one who says to the waters, “This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!” (Job 38 verse 11). It is estimated that there are 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth. That’s 326 followed by 18 zeros. Most of us have trouble imagining what a thousand gallons of water is. But 326 million trillion gallons? Now how much water can you pick up with your hand? A gallon jug? A five-gallon bucket? And, how much water can you hold in your hand? Not much. You can scoop up just a little water and you’re lucky if you don’t spill most of it. Isaiah said God made all the waters and placed them on earth as easily as you would scoop up a little water in your hand.
The second thing Isaiah said God did with His hand was to “measure heaven with a span.” Heaven here means the vast expanse of space above us. If this means the area the Bible calls the firmament above us where the birds fly and the clouds are, then that is an enormous space. If it means that and the outer regions where the sun, moon and the stars are, then it is immense beyond our comprehension. Either way, God measured it with a span. A span in Bible times was half a cubit. A cubit was the length from the tip of a man’s fingers to his elbow. It was generally about 18 inches or a foot and a half. A span was the length from a man’s outstretched thumb to the end of his little finger. It was generally about 9 inches. When a Hebrew wanted to measure a small space, he would hold out the span of his hand. Now the Bible says that’s how easy it was for God to to hold up His hand and measure the dimensions of this incredibly vast universe.
Then Isaiah said God also “calculated the dust of the earth in a measure” and “weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.” When he says God calculated the dust of the earth, He means that God decided how big to make the land of the earth. He determined how big the earth would be. That’s something to think about as well. God had the power to make it bigger, but He didn’t. He had the power to make it smaller, but He didn’t. God has reasons for what He does and how He does it. God does everything perfectly. Scientists have discovered some of the advantages for the earth being created the way it is—its distance from the sun, its movements, its composition. And it’s great that there are scientists that believe in God. They can point out to us some of these remarkable features of the universe. But they can only see a little. And, you don’t have to be a scientist to understand what Isaiah is saying. Think about all the matter of the earth— the rock, the dirt, and everything made of them. Where did all this “dust” come from? The same place that all that water came from. God made it all out of nothing. That’s what the Bible teaches us in Hebrews 11 verse 3. The fancy Latin phrase is that God created the universe ex nihilo which means out of nothing. SO how much thought and effort did God put into making all this dust? Not much at all. The Bible says he calculated the dust of the earth in a measure. The word “measure” in Hebrew means a third, an it could have been a third of the measurement they called an ephah. It could have been something as small as a handful or a few handfuls, which would fit with everything else He says in this verse. He said God “weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.” When they weighed things in scales back in those days, it wasn’t a huge amount. The scales weren’t like the scales we use today to weigh a car or truck. So the point is the same: Making the massive planet called earth was nothing to God.
And the fascinating part of what Isaiah said about God is that he was talking about the power of God. He didn’t even stress the wisdom behind this divine engineering in this verse. He did that and much more in other verses in this book.
Nature displays the power and glory of God continually, around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. God leaves the door open to know that He is there. He doesn’t leave us in the dark about His existence and only show his power once every ten years. It’s true that God showed His power and glory on special occasions—when He descended on Mount Sinai with fire and smoke in the sight of Moses and the Hebrews or when He parted the Red Sea. But what God does in nature shows God’s power continually. David says, “Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.” This “speech” is the testimony of the creation. It speaks to us not in words we hear but in works God does every day in His creation— by causing the sun to shine, the moon to give light, the birds to fly, the rain to fall and a thousand other wonderful marvels of nature.
Some have said the creation is like a book you can study. And anyone anywhere at any time can read it. If you’re not a Christian and you’re doubting that God exists, look at the creation. If you are a Christian but your faith is growing weak, study this great book. If you’re just tired and need encouragement, do what David did and just look up and stand in awe of the power and glory of God. You don’t have to travel to do this. It’s right in front of you. You don’t have to schedule an appointment with God to see His great works. You don’t have to pay an entrance fee to be able to see the wondrous works of God. They’re free at any time. One of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation Movement said it’s sad that most people walk around in this glorious theater blindfolded. And today it’s just as sad that our eyes are glued to a screen or fixed on road and we don’t take time just to look up.
This incredible display of God is open to anyone anywhere on earth. David said in verse 3, “There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” This is a global manifestation. Some have called it the universal language of creation. No matter what language a person speaks, he can understand this dialect. Even if he doesn’t understand the language you speak, he can understand the voice of nature. Even if he’s never seen a Bible and doesn’t know anything about it, he should know and understand the God made the world. He can know and should know that an idol is not God. He ought to know that God is the all powerful God. Regardless of whether he can read or write, he can see the handwriting of God in what He made.
Sadly, some preachers don’t think nature tells us much about God. I remember hearing a well-known preacher talk about this. He said, “What can you learn about God by staring at the moon?” Actually, you can learn quite a bit. You can see the One who made it must have supreme power. You can know that the One who sustains it has supreme power. You can learn that whoever engineered it must be infinite in knowledge. The light of the moon shines on a regular basis. It’s part of how we measure time. It runs on a monthly schedule. That’s why God put the sun above us to measure days and the moon to measure months. This is how we calculate days, weeks, months and years. Man didn’t invent those measurements of time. He just recognized them. Do you remember what God said about this in the beginning? In Genesis 1the Bible reads, “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1 verses 14 through 18). God created time. But the moon is also beautiful to look at. It is an awesome sight. That tells us the One who created it is a good God who does things for our happiness. Yes, we can know that God does exist when we see the sun, the moon and the stars, and we can know some things about His divine nature. It’s true that the Bible tells us far more about the nature of God. But His creation shows us that He exists and it helps us to understand some basics about His nature.
This evidence is powerful. It is everywhere. It is constant. And one of the mysteries to Christians is how anyone could say there is no God with all this evidence around him. The Bible doesn’t say much about atheism. The bigger problem we see in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament is a belief in other gods. You don’t find many people in the Bible saying there is no God, but you do see them worshiping the wrong gods.
Still, there is one passage that has the infamous words of an atheist. It’s Psalm 14 verse one. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
We call a man or a woman who says there is no God an atheist. Do you know someone like this? Now an atheist is different from a skeptic or an agnostic. An agnostic says no one knows if God exists or if He doesn’t. If he’s a true agnostic, he says an atheist cannot prove what he believes and the theist (that is, someone who believes in God), cannot prove what he believes. The agnostic tries to straddle the fence. But whether he admits it or not, he claims to be right. He claims to know something. He claims to know that no one can know. Now isn’t that a huge contradiction? Isn’t that ridiculous? The atheist, on the other hand, claims to know something too. He claims to know that God does not exist. It’s not just that he doesn’t believe in God. He says God does not exist and cannot exist. I’ve been asked several times whether an atheist really believes that. Is he just saying that or is that really what he believes?
There are people who are so hardened in their heart that they are truly atheistic. The Bible says a man can deceive himself (James 1 verse 22). The Bible also says that a man can abuse his conscience to the point that his conscience doesn’t work anymore. The Bible says that some have “seared their conscience with a hot iron” (First Timothy 4 verse 2). It also says some are “past feeling“ (Ephesians 4 verse 19). That means they were past feeling guilt. They were beyond feeling remorse. But it’s true that there are people who say things they don’t mean or believe. They may be mad at the world and lash out at God. They may be trying to impress their friends. They may think that believing in evolution instead of God gives them more credibility in the academic world.
Unless a man has completely seared his conscience, it is possible for him to change his mind, even on the question of God‘s existence. I’ve seen that happen. In 1991, I went to Russia to teach about God in a Moscow university. The government was in turmoil and this amazing door opened. Many of the students were atheists. I along with others presented the evidences for the existence of God to those students both in and out of the classes we taught. Some of them already believed in God. Others were nice but said they still didn’t believe God exists. You see, Russia had been run by a communist government for over 70 years. Communism says there is no God, no soul, no heaven and no hell. You can read the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels online. They taught that religion is like a drug that blinds and enslaves people. They called for the “abolition of the family.” That’s right. They were not just anti-family. They said one of the goals of communism (or Marxism) is to get rid of the family unit, to do away with father, mother, and children. These young people we taught had been indoctrinated with this nonsense from the time they were old enough to attend school. But the thing we need to remember is that God gives every man free will. Every person can weigh the evidence of God for himself and decide whether he believes it or not. And that’s what I saw with one young man in that university. He was in the lectures we taught. One of the arguments I used was the argument from design. It’s simple. It says where you have design there must be a designer. You start with something a human being has made. I chose to use the example of a watch. I took the idea from a book written long ago by William Paley called Natural Theology. Paley used the illustration of a watch to say that it didn’t just happen. Somebody had to design it. There’s no way that it could keep time the way that it does unless somebody engineered it. And, Paley said you don’t have to see somebody making a watch to know that someone made it. So I used that illustration with some very bright students who were atheists. They listened well, and I could tell they were thinking it through, but it was hard to say, if they were convinced. But when I went back the next year, a young man introduced himself to me. He said he had been the classes I taught the year before. Then he said one of the most surprising things anyone has ever said to me. He said, “You convinced me that God exists.” He came to believe in God and was baptized, and he was a member of a small congregation that we started the year before.
I also remember meeting a man in the United Staes that had a very interesting background. His mother was one of the most notorious and infamous atheists America has ever seen. She literally hated God. She raised this son and another son to hate God. She led the way to remove prayer and Bible readings in public schools. One of the sons grew up to be an atheist and remained one until he died. The other son that I talked with was an atheist for a while, but he became a believer in God, and now, ironically, that son she raised to be an atheist is an advocate for religious freedom in America. It is possible to change. And that goes for the agnostic too. I’ve talked with people who had been skeptics and agnostics but they changed their mind and became believers.
One of the ironies of atheism is that it accuses the Bible of being an immoral book because it has stories about murder, lying, sexual perversion. But if there is no God, then these things are not right or wrong because there can be no real right and wrong without the ultimate, objective standard which God alone can give. In other words, atheists say there is no absolute right and wrong, but they complain that the Bible is absolutely wrong. The other problem with this charge against the Bible is that the Scriptures mention but never endorse evil.
Psalm 14 verses 1 through 3 tells us what goes through the mind of an atheist. It’s not just that he says it out loud. Verse one says that this person says it in his heart. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” There’s something very wrong with a man’s heart when he says that to himself. In order to say that, he must close his eyes to everything he sees. He has to make up ridiculous answers to the simplest questions. He has to ignore his own spirit and his own conscience. The Bible says that God created mankind in His own image, after His own likeness (Genesis 1 verse 26). When a man says there is no God, he goes against the very way that he’s made.
These verses in Psalm 14 also also tell us what happens when people don’t believe in God. They have no real moral guide. They have no objective moral reason for any ethical decision they make. For that reason, atheism encourages immorality. It does not and cannot lift people to a higher moral plane. It causes people to degenerate in their morals. Listen to Psalm 14, and this time notice what starts in the heart of the infidel in verse 1 and what it causes in the lives of people in the words that follow: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.” Christianity cannot make imperfect men sinless. But one thing is certain, if a man doesn’t even believe in God, he has no reason to be moral at all. If God does not exist, then there is no difference between the life of a man and the life of a worm. And if people are taught that they are just animals and that there is no God, it gives them an excuse to behave like animals.
This is one issue Jesus didn’t have to deal with. Nobody asked him, “Does God exist?” Nobody said, “Which God do you believe in?” And nobody ever said to Him, “There is no God.” Jesus taught the Jews who already believed in the true God or at least professed faith in God. So this topic is not one you’ll see in Matthew through John. But when you get to the book of Acts, Paul and others evangelize the Gentile world. The challenge in that culture was idolatry. And even though you don’t see atheists confronting Paul, you do read about Paul teaching idolaters to renounce their gods and follow the God of heaven. How did he reason with them?
In Acts 14 Paul and Barnabas are preaching in the city of Lystra. They healed a crippled man, and that miracle drew the attention of the people. They were superstitious. They believed in the ancient Greek gods. When they saw the crippled man walk, they said that the gods had come down to them in the likeness of men. But Paul told them that he and Barnabas were men just like them. Then he pointed them to the true God. How? In Acts 14 verses 15 through 17, he referred them to the creation. “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” The first thing he said was that God made everything. The second thing he said is that the same God gives us good things like rain and food. This passage shows that even people like these pagans, who knew nothing about the Bible and believed in mythological gods, could see that God must have created all this.
In Acts 17, Paul preached in the city of Athens. This city had been an intellectual and cultural center for five hundred years. It was the birthplace of Western or Greek philosophy and the home of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Later Greek philosophers continued the philosophical speculation, and that activity gave rise to groups like the Stoics and the Epicureans. Both groups believed that pleasure was the highest good in life (although they defined “pleasure” differently). They also shared another belief—that there is no life after death. They were materialists. Epicurus, who founded the Epicurean school of philosophy, said, “Death is nothing to us, for that which is dead is void of sensation.” In other words, if you are dead, your body goes back to the dust and you no longer feel anything because you are dead. “You” do not exist anymore. Epicurus taught that as long as one believes in a God or gods that reward or punish us after this life, then he will live in fear and he can never be truly happy and enjoy life.
The Epicurean and Stoic belief that this life is all we experience eventually comes to the forefront in Paul’s discussion with them. At first Paul talked with them more about idolatry than anything else because in spite of the brilliant minds who had taught there, the city of Athens was full of idols and superstition. “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,’ because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17 verses 16 through 18).
How did Paul deal with these unbelievers? We’re not told that there were atheists in the crowd, but what he said to these philosophers applies to atheists today. When they let him speak at a placed called the Areopagus, the first thing Paul did was to point them to the creation. He said, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” This is one of the most powerful and comprehensive statements in the Bible on how the creation shows the existence and nature of God.
This is the same approach Paul takes by inspiration again in Romans 1. I say “again” by “inspiration” because God is the author of these words. The Holy Spirit gave this teaching. If you’re having doubts that God exists, if someone you know and love has told you he or she doesn’t believe in God anymore, or if you need more confidence that He does exists, here is God Himself talking about how to know. Romans 1 verses 18 and 19 says,“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.” This passage is about the Gentiles who were not under the written law of Moses. But they were under the moral law of God which Romans chapter two says was written on their heart by nature. Notice the words in Romans 1 verses 18 and 19. God’s nature, and specifically His wrath, is “revealed,” made “known,” and “manifest.” God had “shown” Himself to these Gentiles. How?
He explains this in one of the most pointed verses on this subject anywhere in the Bible. Verse 20 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” He says God’s “invisible attributes are clearly seen.” What are those invisible attributes? He tells us—His “eternal power and Godhead.” We can know that the One who made all this is eternal. He had no beginning. Nobody “made” God. He is the Creator of everything else that exists. Most of us have had kids to ask, “If God made us, then who made God?” And if you feel at a loss for words, don’t feel like you’re by yourself. Just tell them no one made God. He has always been God and always will be. They won’t understand what that means, but the thing is, you and I don’t understand it either. There is no way we can comprehend eternity. We know it’s true, but our little minds cannot grasp it. We can see that God is eternal from nature. There must be a First Cause, an Ultimate Designer of all this. Paul said nature shows God’s eternal power. The One who made all this and sustains it must be all-powerful. He must be omnipotent or infinite in power. His creation shows that. And, Paul says we can see His “Godhead” in nature. The word Godhead here does not mean the Trinity. There is no way you can know that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit by observing the creation. The word in the original means divine nature. For one thing, the creation shows that the one who made it must be spirit and not matter.
God Himself says in this verse that anyone should “clearly see” from nature that He exists.
There are other proofs that God exists—the moral argument, the biblical argument, the argument from design (which is part of what we’ve talked about). But the one proof that God uses more than any other in the Bible is His creation.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.