Straightforward

Do you believe that God exists? Millions and even billions of people alive on this earth today do not believe in the true God. They say there is no God. Atheists, agnostics, and evolutionists try to refute the teaching of a Higher Eternal Power.

On the other hand, millions and even billions of people, alive on this earth today do believe in God. They believe that He really does exist. But the question is, can they prove it?

When they are asked that question, many will say: “No, I can’t prove He exists, I simply accept His existence on faith.” Others will answer: “No, I cannot prove He exists, I just know He does. I just feel He does, and I just know He does.” I’ve even heard people say: “Well, about this God thing, just in case, I am going to say He exists.” Is that good enough? Shouldn’t we be able to prove that Almighty God does exist?

If you’ ll go get your Bible and let’s turn together and read a scripture on this particular point, I think you’ll see how important it is. Let’s turn to I Thess. 5:21. And this is what it says:

21 Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.

Prove all things. So we ought to be able to prove that God exists. And we can. We can prove the existence of the Great God.

Today, I want to go into four proofs. There are many more, but today I want to concentrate on four proofs of God’s existence. The first point and first proof I want to take a little time with is this one: Life can only come from life.

The law of biogenesis means: Bio, life, genesis, beginning—life can only come from life—biogenesis. Nothing dead can generate something living. This law then is the law concerning the beginning of life. This law, simply stated, is the absolute law that life comes only from life. That the not–living can never give rise to, or give birth to, or produce the living. Life must come from life.

Look at the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and human beings. Consider the trees, the birds, the fish, horses, cows. Consider human beings. And every form of life, even microscopic life. Every form of life on this earth today must have life given to it. Science cannot and will never be able to create life. You hear all kinds of unfounded sensational claims about how they’ve been able to clone this, and how they’ve been able to generate that. But when you investigate the facts in the case, you will see that a lot of that is just sensationalism. And if they have been able to do something like cloning, they are simply replicating what already exists. But in terms of taking dead matter and creating life from it; they have never been able to do it. And they will never be able to do it. Life cannot come from nothing. That’s the first proof that God exists—the law of biogenesis. Life always comes from something alive.

I want to turn to another scripture over here in Gen. 2:7. Now of course, there is internal proof, which is from the Bible. And there is external proof, which is from the laws of science. You put them together, and you can prove the existence of the Great God. It says here in Genesis 2:7:

7 And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

In other words, here was Adam, he was created, he was laying there, he was inanimate. He was dead, perfectly formed, but dead. What brought him to life? Well, the One who created him—Almighty God. The One who created him, who HAD life. Who has always had life. Who always will have life. He then gave Adam life. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Now the next proof, let’s take time with this one. The next proof we will go into is this: Creation requires a Creator. It requires a Creator. Science has proved that this earth is gradually running down. The earth and the whole universe is like a great giant clock which at one time was wound up. It has been gradually “running down” ever since and is not now, by any process known or observed or measured, being “wound up again”. It is as if man has arrived on the scene in the midst of an orderly universe which is gradually running down. Science has firmly established there has been no past eternity of matter. Matter must have, at one time, come into existence.

Since matter by its very nature has had no past eternity, it had to have been at one time brought into existence. Creation then, the very existence of things, absolutely demands and requires a Creator. That which is made requires a maker. That which is produced, requires a producer.

Matter, it has been firmly established, has been made. It did not “just happen” and has had no past eternity. I’ve talked to many atheists and evolutionists and even agnostics. And we’ve talked about the big bang theory where you have this huge mass of matter all in one big giant heap or ball. And then it begins to build up internal pressures and all kinds of things begin to happen that put pressure on that vast mass of matter until the pressure builds up and it explodes—called “the big bang”. And it explodes and flings this matter throughout the universe. And it begins to float around and it begins to magically assume the shape of an orb. And then it magically goes into orbit etc. And isn’t that a fancy kind of fairy tale? Yes it is.

I’ve asked this question: “Where did the big mass of matter come from? ” And the answer is: “We don’t know. You have to give us that.” In other words, we are not going to try to explain that, but once you give us that big mass of matter, we can then explain how everything evolved. Well, sorry, you’ve got to tell me where that mass of matter came from. And besides that, creation did not come from the “big bang ” process anyway. It was not all in one big ball of matter and then it exploded and then it started to evolve and now we have what we have today. That’s a complete total farce. There is no validity to that theory. Creation absolutely requires a Creator.

I want to turn to another scripture over here in John 1:1. If we’re going to be logical, if we’re going to be consistent, if we’re going to be rational, yes, even if we’re going to be scientific, if we’re going to apply the laws and procedures and processes of scientific research, you cannot escape the fact that creation requires a Creator. If you are going to apply the laws of science to the theory of evolution, you will never be able to nail it down as a law. It’s still just a theory. It’s a hypothesis. It’s just an opinion. Notice here in John 1:1. It says:

1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him—

Now that’s where everything came from. He was the Creator. He made everything. All things were made by Him.

3 — and without him was not anything made that was made.

4 In him was life—

That’s where life comes from. He is the Lifegiver.

4 —And the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not.

Now I know people will say, “Ok, that’s from the Bible, and we can’t prove the Bible is inspired.” Yes, you can prove the Bible is inspired and we will do that another time. And you will see that it’s not just a collection of the writings of men. But it’s the inspired Word of God with the authority of Almighty God backing it up. And we just read right there in his Word that all things were made by the Creator and life was given by Him. So creation requires a Creator.

The third proof we are going to go into today, a very interesting one, and a very compelling one: All laws have a Lawgiver. Isn’t it amazing as you look around in our society and as you look around on our earth and as you look around in the universe—isn’t it amazing how many laws are there? Where did those laws come from?

That’s one of the interesting studies about physics. When you get into the study of physics, you are going to come up against law after law after law. Where did those laws come from? All of the myriad laws of heat and light and energy and motion. The rotation of astro bodies. The laws of gravity. The principle of isostasy. You can look it up in the dictionary. And you will find that it demands every orbital body must gradually assume and maintain a near round shape. How come? How did that evolve? Why did that just happen? And myriad other laws entirely too numerous to mention are admitted to exist. By what law did one star approach another? By what law did heat gradually cool? By what law was there a gravitational pull? By what law was there the existence of the operation of the law of gravity?

Isn’t it just amazing that we have all of these laws and without these laws everything would fly apart. There are so many of them. The law of combustion. The law of aerodynamics. We could talk a great deal about what makes an airplane fly. And there are various components and various principles that have to all come together in order to get lift and make that airplane fly. It’s called the law of aerodynamics. You begin breaking any part of that law while you are taking off and while you are landing or while you are in flight and you are going to be in trouble. You stay within that law, that plane flies. Where did that law come from?

The laws that have been created have put the earth in such intricate delicate and yet tough and incredible balance that it just keeps going right along the way it was intended to do. You can discover some of these incredible laws that are in motion and stand off in awe and realize: this could never have just happened. It’s much more intricately designed that the most expensive computer or watch.

So all laws require a lawgiver. There are spiritual laws and there are physical laws. They had to be created. And then they have to be sustained and kept in motion.

Not only is God the Great Lawgiver, He sustains all of the laws He has created. He keeps every one of them in motion. He maintains them and upholds them. None of His laws can be destroyed or reduced or diminished or redirected. They remain in force, unchangeable and immutable. And they produce consistent and predictable results in the end. Why is this? Why is God not only the Great Lawgiver but He is also the Sustainer of His laws? Because that does away with confusion. And that sets things in order. It keeps things moving properly, the way He, the Great God, wants them to move.

Let’s notice over here in Gen. 1:24-25. a very, very interesting scripture, It says here in Gen. 1:24

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

So in other words, He has set in motion laws. And now He sustains those laws. And that keeps everything within it’s proper place. Dogs remain dogs. Horses continue to be horses. Fish are fish. The line cannot be crossed between species. Now of course, within a particular species you have different varieties, certain variations—different sizes and shapes and colors within a certain species. You have small dogs, large dogs. You have little poodles and great big Labrador Retrievers and a lot of sizes in between. But they’re still dogs. You have different breeds of horses. You have a vast array of variety within the bird species. But when you take a look, those species are sustained and maintained by laws that Jesus Christ upholds.

Horses remain horses. Dogs remain dogs. Birds remain birds. And fish remain fish. You don’t cross the line and have half–and–half: half fish, half snake; half bird, half little dog. It cannot be done.Why? Because there are laws that prevent it from being done and that maintain creation the way God created it. It’s sustained. The laws are sustained by the Great Sustainer. And that’s another aspect of the proof that God exists and that He is the Great Lawgiver.

I want to turn to a couple of scriptures to back this point up. Let’s go over here to Heb. 1:3. Notice what it says here.

3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

Obviously talking about Jesus Christ. And notice what it says here:

3 — and upholding all things by the word of his power,

In other words, sustaining everything including His laws.

One other verse, Col. 1:17:

17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

All things continue. All things are sustained. He is the Great Sustainer of His laws.

I want to turn over here to James 4:12. It says here:

12 There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you that judges another?

One lawgiver. The incredible laws, both physical and spiritual that we see in our society on this earth and in the universe and in creation are here because there is a Great Lawgiver. In His mercy and in His brilliance, a Great Lawgiver who set those laws in motion and sustains those magnificent laws that keep things in order and keep things moving along so well.

The fourth proof that we will go into now, and the last one we’ll have time to, is that design must have a designer. When you look around in the creation today, if you really have an open mind, if you’re really honest, if you’re really going to operate based on facts and truth, you have to admit you see a definite design. You know, you can see design in clothing. You can see design in automobiles. You can see design in houses. Wherever you go, where somebody has built something, developed something, invented something, and then it begins to be produced, it has a particular trade–mark. It has a particular tale–tell sign. It has been designed by someone. And that designer shows up in what he has designed, or she has designed. Well the same thing is true with creation. Design requires a designer.

Which evolved first? The corn or the bee? Did the bee evolve slowly for thousands, millions or billions of years independent of the corn stalks, the flowers and the pollens—from growing things which are its life source? That’s not even rational to think that. Did the flowers, grasses, trees and grains all evolve slowly and gradually over a period of millions or billions of years independent of the little bee, upon whom they must rely for their very continuation of life?

I don’t know if you noticed in the news recently, but there’s been a problem with the honey bees. Some kind of virus has gotten in there and started wiping them out. And there’s great concern about that. Bee keepers and people in agriculture began to explain to the public—and probably a lot of people didn’t even know this—but the food chain, especially one aspect of the food chain would be wiped out if it were not for the honey bee. We have to have the honey bee and the pollination that takes place in order to keep a large part of our food supply growing and supplying our population with food. It is part of that particular process. It’s a vital part of it.

So how did these plants exist for millions of years without the honey bee to pollenate them. And how did the honey bee exist for millions of years without the plants which they have to have in order to live and in order to survive. They had to be created together so that the plants would live and the honey bee would live. These are insurmountable and unanswerable questions to the evolutionists. The old question is: which came first, the chicken or the egg? I know, it might seem like a joke. I know it might seem like something you have heard over and over again. You try to get an evolutionist to answer that question.

Design requires a designer. You have to have someone who designed all of it. A delicate but powerful balance is designed right into creation. The fossil record shows design. It does not show gradual development. There are no missing links. I know about the duckbill platypus. But you know, when one duckbill platypus marries another duckbill platypus, figuratively speaking, they have little duckbill babies. The little babies are duckbill platypuses. That’s what they are. Or platypi, or whatever they are called. In other words, they reproduce themselves. They don’t go off in a different direction and have part of a duckbill over here and part of a platypus over here. There are no missing links.

If you drive along in your community, and you see a vacant lot, and out there laying in the wide open spaces on that vacant lot you see roofing shingles and you see lumber and you see sheetrock, and you see sacks of cement, and you see electrical wiring and plumbing supplies and you see all kinds of building materials. And it’s just all laid out there maybe in a nice neat orderly fashion. You could drive by there for millions of years and that house would not all of a sudden begin to come together, or even gradually begin to come together. And given enough time, out of nothing, well out of those materials—of its own self, it simply designed itself and built itself. And now we have a beautifully designed house from materials that were just laying on that open lot. That’s preposterous.

Cars that are designed have to be built, but they have to be designed first. Airplanes must be designed and then built. No one would try to advance the idea that if you put all the parts out there and leave it alone long enough, a car will design itself and come together and be perfectly built and take you down the road in comfort and safety. That’s a lunatic idea. And yet those same people who would talk about how stupid and dumb and crazy that kind of talk is, will turn around and say,“Well, the human being just simply evolved. It wasn’t created The human body was not designed and created. It simply happened. It just took time. But over a period of time, it gradually evolved out of lower life into higher life.” And therefore, they claim that the theory of evolution still stands.

Now I will say this much: a lot of the scientific community are beginning to see through a lot of this this kind of thinking and a lot of this kind of teaching. And they’re beginning to admit there has to be a Creator. And yet, a lot of them are not seeing through it, or if they’re seeing through it, they won’t admit it. So it’s still being taught in many schools and still being taught in many colleges.

But just like wonderfully designed things that man comes up with that cannot come together on their own, wonderfully designed things that God has designed do not come together on their own. He designed them, and then built them, and that’s how they came together.

Let’s notice what David says about our human bodies and our life over here in Psalms 139:14. He sums it up very well as he is describing this magnificent mind and body that we have.

14 I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows right well.

Absolutely fearfully and wonderfully made. Think about the ear. Think about the eye. Think about the heart and the lungs and the circulatory system. Think about the hands. Think about the mind. It goes on and on and on. It could not possible have evolved. It had to be designed and then put together and built and created.

Those who claim that God does not exist cannot prove that point. It’s interesting. They say, “well, you can’t prove He exists.” Well, I say he can’t prove He doesn’t exist. They can’t prove it. They just accept that theory on faith. We can prove He exists. And we can go into a lot of other proofs. But we’ve gone through some here today.

I want to turn to one other scripture while we’re in this Book of Psalms and just notice what the God of this whole universe says about those who just simply accept on faith the theory that He does not exist—that there is no God. Now He says this in more places than one. But right here in Psalms 14:1, here’s what He says:

1 The fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that does good.

The fool has said in his heart there is no God. In other words, if we can do away with God then we don’t have to obey God and we can kinda do our own thing, and do it our way. But if we admit that there is a God; now we have to make a decision—are we going to obey him or are we going to ignore him. If we obey him, we will be blessed. If we ignore him, we will have problems.

So while the evolutionists cannot prove that God doesn’t exist, those who see the facts, those who use logic and consistency and base their decisions on truth, they CAN prove that God exists. It can be proven without any shadow of a doubt. And then as we prove He exists, we look to Him in faith. And as we look to Him in faith, we enter into a close relationship with Him. We learn to walk with Him. We learn to obey Him. We learn to honor and praise Him. We learn to let our light shine so that others will begin to think about who He is, what He says, what He wants and what He will do.

I want to conclude by turning over here to Job and let’s notice what Job says about this whole question. Now that’s an interesting study right there. Studying the life of Job. He was a brilliant man. He knew a lot about many things. He was an engineer. He understood architecture. He understood physics. He understood the many laws that we are surrounded with in creation. He also had a relationship with God, so he understood about the Great God and about all that we’ve gone through today in terms of the fact that He gives life, the fact that He has created everything. The fact that He sustains everything. The fact that He has designed everything. He understood all of that. And the fact that we are to obey Him and yield to Him and submit to Him and glorify Him. That’s a wonderful thing to do.

So just as Job said what he said here in Job 19, we can say the same thing once we prove God exists, once we have unshakeable proof, we know He exists. Then we combine that with faith, and we combine that with truth. We cannot be moved away from knowing that the Great God does exist. Notice what he says here in Job 19 and Verse 25.

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the later day upon the earth.

We can say the same thing Job said. I KNOW that my Redeemer lives. I can prove it. And that He shall stand at the later day upon the earth.

If you would like to know more about what God has in store for all mankind, ask for our free CD on “Why Were You Born” and “Life’s Great Purpose”. Also ask for our free magazine, Straightorward, and we’ll mail that to you as well. This magazine goes into a wide variety of topics that are very vital to anyone who wants to be a true Christian and to live the abundant life. There’s no charge or subscription price. Just send your request to Enduring Church of God, PO Box 1317, Chandler, Texas 75758. You can also call our toll free number at 1–800–581–1317.

Until next time, this is Charles with the Enduring Church of God.