How Do We Know God Exists? (PRM Version)

INTRODUCTION

The Bible begins with these words:

Genesis 1:1 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

But how do we know that these words are true?

How do we know that God exists?

I spent a lot of time considering how we could maximize our time this afternoon.

I had planned to speak from 1 John 1:12-13 about being born again, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that God wanted me to deal with this question of His existence instead.

So if you will allow me, I want to spend our time tackling that question that so many humans have asked for generations and generations—how do we know God exists?

HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?

EPISTEMOLOGY

But before we can jump to our question for the afternoon, I think we have to back up and ask ourselves, “How do we know what we know, in the first place?”

Some say we know what we know through “Human Reason.”

Some say we know what we know through, “Scientific Data.”

Others say we know what we know by, “Looking Within.”

And then finally, there are those who say we know what we know through “God’s Revelation”

HUMAN REASON

Some people say that reason is the chief source and test of knowledge.

But what a lofty view of the human mind this proves to be!

Can we really leave the defining of ultimate reality to our finite ability to reason and rationalize?

I am 39 years old. When I was 6, you could still smoke on an airplane.

It wasn’t until 23 years ago that smoking on planes was banned all together.

TWENTY-THREE YEARS!

We’ve had SOME idea that 2nd hand smoke can cause cancer since the Nixon Administration!

And yet, many are satisfied to make faulty human reason and rationalization is the arbiter of truth.

The Bible tells us this is futile.

Adam’s fall ushered in the curse of sin and has left the human mind darkened. It’s reason cannot be the sole source of trust in the realm of knowledge.

SCIENTIFIC DATA

Some say we know what we know by what we can observe.

By what we can see, touch, taste, smell and hear...

By what we can measure in a lab or carbon date...

There is nothing wrong with scientific method and empirical data.

They help us to learn about this world that God has indeed made.

But this can only take us so far.

A purely naturalistic mindset will find itself constantly stretched and constantly falling short when it comes to answering massive questions that bear on the human soul.

For example, when we ask natural science to start answering metaphysical questions like “What is the meaning of life?” or “Why do we love?” it begins to look like a little boy wearing his daddy’s coat.

The questions are too big for the lab.

When we ask scientific data to give us answers regarding morality, it ends up looking like a muscle that got stretched too far and finally tore off the bone.

For example, the scientist can create the nuclear bomb, but he has no way to deal with the ethics of using it.

Oppenhemier, anyone?

And if you look throughout history, just as people get hurt when a muscle tears from the bone, humanity is often injured by sciences that cannot operate with any consistent morality.

Furthermore, natural science is always a cat chasing it’s own tail.

The more it discovers, the less it knows.

The more mysteries it uncovers, the more it is exposed for not having all the answers.

LOOKING WITHIN

There are also people who say that every individual should look within in order to know what is true.

Every person has the ability to look within and create their own meaning.

This is the mindset behind the played out, overused, vain and ruinous phrase, “Find your truth.”

Well what happens when my truth tells me that you should no longer exist?

Or what happens when my truth tells me that stealing your property is ethically okay considering my need and my circumstances?

No one actually lives this way. They only live this way when it is convenient for them.

Everyone knows there are objective truths outside of themselves that they are bound to, no matter how much they look within.

GOD REVEALS

As Christian people, we do not find our primary basis for knowledge in human reason or a lab or within.

We find our basis for knowledge in God Himself.

In His words. In His works and what His words tells us about His works.

Therefore, we know what we know based on what God has revealed.

God is a self-revelating God.

He has revealed Himself and we look to His revelation as the foundation of knowledge.

PSALM 19

And there is a passage in the Bible that shows us how God has revealed Himself.

Psalm 19 shows us God’s two books of revelation.

One of them is the natural world.

Psalm 19:1–6 ESV

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

This is what you call general revelation.

God has generally revealed Himself to all of humanity through the natural world that He created.

The evidence of His design is all around us.

This is what the Psalmist is talking about as He speaks about creation declaring the glory of God.

GENERAL REVELATION IS IMMEDIATE

This revelation is immediate.

It is experienced without a mediator.

I will illustrate it this way.

In 2019, my Washington Nationals went to the World Series.

I watched 6 of the 7 games in mediatory fashion.

Meaning, I watched them on the television. I wasn’t there. I was reliant on the mediator of television and broadcasting to get the feed to me so that I could see what was going on.

However, when it comes to Game 3, I watched the game in an immediate fashion.

Our loving church body threw money together and bought me a ticket and I was there in the flesh.

I saw what happened before people on TV at home because there was no delay. People at home were watching with anywhere from a 10-60 second delay, depending on what TV service you have.

General revelation is immediate in the sense that one can go outside and see an Earth and know that it must have a Maker.

Just as we might see a shirt we like and check the tag to see who produced it, operating under the assumption that someone did, we look at nature and we have an immediate awareness that there must be a Creator.

GENERAL REVELATION IS CONTINUOUS

Secondly, general revelation is continuous.

It doesn’t stop. From creation, there is no gap in the record of it.

God’s handiwork in creation is always on display.

Psalm 19:2 ESV

Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

From the zebra’s stripes to the unsettling looking fish with no eyes and giant teeth in the darkest recesses of the ocean;

From the stars you see with your naked eye to the ones that require the highest-powered and most technologically advanced telescopes for viewing;

From the spitting volano to the serene North Carolina beach;

From the domestic house cat to the oak tree he sits under--

God’s creation never stop proclaiming His glorious existence.

GENERAL REVELATION IS UNIVERSAL

Thirdly, general revelation is universal.

This is made clear by Psalm 19:3-4

Psalm 19:3–4 ESV

There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,

Everyone hears this revelation.

This is why there are no Atheistic tribes.

Not one.

No Atheistic peoples.

You have to be taught Atheism. It doesn’t come about on its own.

GENERAL REVELATION IS EFFECTIVE

Additionally, God’s general revelation is effective—meaning He gets His point across.

For what can be known about God is PLAIN to them. (Romans 1:19)

It is known. It is clear. It is revealed.

And why is it plain? Because God has shown it to them. (Romans 1:19)

His attributes, which we will talk about later this week, though they are invisible, they have been clearly perceived.

General revelation does its job. God reveals Himself in His works and His eternal power and His divine nature are distinct and legible. They are obvious.

And it has been this way since the beginning in Genesis 1.

THE CONSCIENCE

We have talked a lot about what we can see in creation.

But we cannot stop there.

God has also revealed Himself to the conscience of every human.

Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

God is an eternal, moral being.

He is perfectly righteous and He determines the standards of rights and wrongs.

And He has made us to be moral beings who are born understanding certain standards of rights and wrongs.

The fact that societies universally outlaw things like murder and theft serve as proof of God’s stamped image on humanity.

This is another example of how God has generally revealed Himself to all people.

THE LIMITATIONS OF GENERAL REVELATION

But with all of that said, God’s general revelation has its limitations.

It shows that God exists, but can someone look at the Grand Canyon and know that they must put their faith in the Lord Jesus to be a Christian?

Can someone look at a leaf and suddenly understand they need to turn away from their sin?

This is where we look to God’s other book where He has revealed Himself—His book of Special Revelation.

Psalm 19 tells us about this book as well:

Psalm 19:7–11 ESV

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

With God’s Word, we have the spoken revelation of the God who created the natural world.