Objection No. 1: God is Not Real
The 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity • Sermon • Submitted
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“I don’t believe God exists. How can anybody know for sure?”
1) Just off hand, what would be your response to this statement and question?
Types of beliefs about God:
1) Belief in the Biblical God (Christians, Jews)
2) Belief in a false God/s (Islam, Mormans, Jehovah Witnesses, Naturalists, polytheists, etc)
3) Atheist
4) Agnostic
What is the issue with the statements “nothing is absolutely true” or “we can never know anything for certain?”
-The answer to the existence of God is all around us. It is in nature, including the way God has created us. Alex McFarland says the following:
“Indeed, God hard-wired us to instinctively recognize basic truths, things that the U.S. Founding Fathers called “self-evident.”
Alex McFarland
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Mankind attempting to deny God or reject the belief of God is not a new problem. The problem with men trying to ignore God has been around since the beginning.
-“But as smart and innovative as they can seem at times, the truth is, atheism has been around since the beginning of human history. Humans have always tried, starting in the Garden of Eden, to push God out of the picture and establish life apart from Him. In all our arrogance, we’ve spent thousands of years trying to rationalize the Creator out of creation’s existence”
Alex McFarland
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
While disobedience to God and the consequences of sin has touched every single aspect of creation. Disbelief in God is strictly a human problem.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
“There are no infidels (atheists) anywhere but on earth. There are none in heaven, and there are none in hell. Atheism is a strange thing.”
Charles Spurgeon
As we begin to think about these things, every single person will have presuppositions. For believers, we all come to life and scriptures with preconceived ideas and beliefs. When it comes to reading the Bible one of our goals should be to set aside our own ideas and trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But there are some benefits and blessings that come with the presuppositions of a believer.
Presuppositions of a Believer
God exists.
The Bible is the truth.
Miracles are possible.
4. God is sovereign
What other presuppositions are beneficial?
Presuppositions of Atheists/agnostic
Rejection of supernatural
Truth only exists in what we experience (5 senses) and can prove
What other presuppositions might non-believers hold?
-”Every atheist carries a spiritual and emotional laundry bad full of reasons not to believe in God. Tragically, few of those reasons solely deal with God Himself. Instead, they’re based on the perception of God, which is usually determined by extraneous factors. Many atheists, for example, have been spiritually abused. After one too many hypocritical Christians did them wrong and judged before loving, they decided that if following God looks like that, why be part of it? Others have fatherhood issues because they were raised by a deadbeat or abusive dad. Whatever the issue, it’s common for atheists to project those problems onto their concept of God (or lack thereof), which simply reinforces their belief that He doesn’t exist.
The atheist seeks to disprove God. But the logical extension of a statement that God does not exist would require a complete knowledge of everything. Atheism doesn’t simply seek to disprove or reject God, but to elevate humans into gods themselves.
5 Proofs God Exists
Every Effect has a cause
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
“Imagine you’re sitting in your living room, enjoying a peaceful afternoon while reading the paper. Suddenly, a baseball flies into the room, shattering your window. Obviously, your first questions wouldn’t be, ‘How did that get here?’ It would be, in a highly bothered tone, ‘Who did this?’ The baseball didn’t just smash through your window for no reason. Some agent acted upon it, causing a ‘disturbance in the force’ that ruined your perfectly good afternoon.”
Alex McFarland
2. Every Creation Has a Creator
“Both creationists and evolutionists agree that life didn’t just suddenly appear; it was made by something (Big Bang) or someone (God).”
Genesis proves that God is responsible for creation
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
These are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
3. Every Design Has a Designer
“The complexity of the earth’s design - from the mesmerizing pattern of nature to the awesome uniqueness of a DNA strand - tells us that this designer is intelligent. The patterns of life are obviously not mindless happenstance.”
Alex McFarland
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
4. Communication Requires a Communicator
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
5. Every Law Has a Lawgiver
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
All cultures across time have held some sort of moral beliefs.
“Among these commonalities are the notions that you shouldn’t murder, steal, sleep with your neighbor’s spouse, and so forth. On the flip side, all cultures esteemed telling the truth, being kind, acting selflessly, and so forth. In every case - from the Phoenicians to the Egyptians to the Greeks to the Romans to twenty-first-century civilization - humans shared a vehement reaction against injustice: theft, looting, rape, murder, pillaging and the like. Meanwhile, they all innately affirmed heroism, altruism, and self-denial.”
Alex Mcfarland
Conclusion:
4 Ways significant ways God shows Himself
General Ways:
Creation- The universe itself isn’t just proof of His existence; it’s a snapshot photo of who He is.
Conscience- The basic moral code that’s innate in all of us shows God’s standards, which reveals His character.
Specific Ways:
i. Scripture- Virtually every page of the Bible paints an up-close and personal portrait of God.
ii. Savior- Jesus Christ came as God in flesh to show us firsthand who God is, unlike anything or anyone else could.