Is God ?
Is God Love ?
How Do We Know That God Is ?
Some
people say that because of all the trouble and pain in the world, they cannot
believe that God exists, or if there is a god, that he, she, or it, must
certainly not be a loving and benign
God who is for all of humanity. (Happily, we have Jesus and know truth).
Others
say that science has never found any
evidence for any kind of spiritual reality, and certainly none for an
all-seeing, all-knowing and loving God who is creator of the entire Universe,
and personally of you, and of me. (We know that they have not seen correctly).Many people seem to be upset that others do
believe in a Creator God who is
loving and good, who designed and created a very beautiful and complete world
for us, who loves us always and sacrificially, and wants us to be with Him and
be in His family, now and forever.
These
ones try to separate us from our beliefs and work hard to get all discussion of
"God" and "Jesus", and especially prayer, excluded
from the public arena and kept right away from children and schools, as though
it were dangerous and likely to damage the hearers.
So sad.
All the arguments put forward by atheists and agnostics are deeply flawed,
their foundations are sand, at best, not rock as they want us to believe. Their
arguments all ignore facts, (truths), which are plain for everyone to see, and
they all contain contradictions; often their arguments depend on two opposite facts
being true simultaneously ..
How Do We Know That God Is?
Apart
from the Bible telling us, how can we be sure that any god exists, and especially our
God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created and sustains the Universe and all that is in it including you and me?
Two quick
answers. Firstly, the very fact that we ask about love and joy and pain and
trouble tells us that we recognise that there is a standard of right and wrong,
of justice and injustice, that life has value and meaning and that we are all
here for a purpose.
Some
would argue that the Universe and all that is in it came out of nothing for no
reason, that it was an accident and all that has happened since, the formation
of the stars, galaxies, planets and life are all a vast series of accidents,
and meaningless.
When we
ask "is there a God?" or "does God exist?" Or even,
"is God?" We are also asking "are our universal human values
foolish and worthless?" And "is there a definitive 'right' and
'wrong'? Is there a plumbline, a standard or measure?" And this question inevitably leads to
"who, where, why or what is that standard setter, who created and holds
the plumbline?"
There is
no place for purpose or value or cruelty or disaster or injustice in a
dog-eat-dog survival-of-the-fittest world of accidental and meaningless
existence; that would be illogical, irrational.
Don't we
all recognise that life is precious, not meaningless and worthless? That each
one of us has value, and it is right
that we should all be able to have hope? When we are sick or injured, even very
badly, why do we strive so hard to stay alive?
So I say,
"yes, God is, He is a caring God who not only created everything in
general, He also created with a plan so detailed that it includes you and me,
and our lives from minute to minute and day to day".
"Are not five sparrows sold
for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows" (Luke 12:6-7, Jesus' words).
Secondly,
we can know God in His Son, Jesus,
who became human "and dwelt among
us" (John 1:14). No serious scholar of ancient history doubts that
Jesus did live when the Bible says, there were a great many who heard His
teaching and saw the miracles He performed, and more than 500 who saw Him after
He rose from the dead after being crucified.
But more
than that, we can know Jesus in person,
and through Him, also know our Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit. Our God is
three Persons, and by Holy Spirit we can, and do, know them in our spirit. The
spiritual world is real. Indeed it is greater
than the physical. God already was,
then the Universe was created on His breath as He spoke. But one day it "will vanish like smoke, the earth will
wear out like a garment" (Isaiah 51:6), later there will be "a new heaven and a new earth"
(Revelation 21:1). Our spirits will continue on, in intimate relationship with
God, regardless of what happens in the physical! We are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14).
Jesus brought the Gospel message to
humanity. By fully believing in Jesus and repenting of our sins, (our rebellion, disobedience and wickedness), we can be
redeemed from our sinners' destiny, bought back, saved eternally; we become “born again”, “a new creation” and a
full child of Father God, just as Jesus is His Son (John 3:7, John 3:16, 2
Corinthians 5:17).
"But you know that he
appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin" (1 John 3:5).
"Beyond all question, the
mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh,
was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the
nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory" (1 Timothy 3:16).
Planet
Earth exists in just the right place in the Universe to be oxygen rich, warm
and watery and safe for us. It appears that, statistically, it is most unlikely
there is another planet with so many perfect qualities.
Variety: When I was growing up our family
had typical New Zealand
Variety is everywhere, different people groups look and sound
different, eat differently and celebrate differently. But, largely, we all have
very similar value systems and we all form up into families regardless of our
nationality, ethnicity, religion or location. I believe God made us like this.
We are "in the image and
likeness" of God (Genesis 1:26) who is the first family (Genesis 1:1-2), we
were created to enjoy the bounty the earth produces (Genesis 1:29, Acts 11:5-9). And to be in relationship with our
Maker (1 John 3:1).
And the
flowers! The sunsets! The singing! The laughter!
Synchronicity and Symbiosis: There are many thousands of
different kinds of animal and bird, sea creature, reptile, insect, lichen,
bacteria and virus, and millions of species of all these kinds. Yet they all
continue to exist and co-exist, season after season and have done for thousands
of years. There is no fossil record,
(or any other kind of record), of any more
complex creature developing (evolving) from a less complex one .. so where did these millions of species come
from? How is it that the synchronicity and symbiosis in the world enables every
life form to live and feed and have babies, yet not to so dominate that all
other life is extinguished (eaten) as would ultimately be inevitable under the
"survival of the fittest" model? We co-exist rather than battle it
out to the finish
Some creatures travel across continents and oceans between their breeding
grounds and their summer feeding grounds. Nobody knows how they navigate or how
the next generation knows where and when to travel, but their species still
survives, and many flourish, regardless the changes we see in the world.
Besides, prominent educators (like Mark Hauser) conclude that there is a quantum gap between human intelligence and that of any other species, far beyond any evolution understanding .. we could not have evolved - the intelligence gap is too great. This leads to the conclusion that it is a Designer and Maker who created and now sustains everything. Synchronicity and Symbiosis;
thank you Jesus!
Sufficiency: We see the horrible situations
caused by wars, natural disasters and international, national and business
leaders' greed and mismanagement, yet surprisingly almost all the millions of
species and billions of people have water every day, enough to eat and some
shelter, and loved ones and family. Many of the most intransigent atheists
admit that there must be a benign intelligence behind all this.
Family: What can I say? Ants, lions,
whales and people of every nationality and culture live in families, always
have and always will. It is natural, and I believe, designed in by our lovely God, from the
beginning. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are eternal, and eternally the first
family
Love: Babies and children who do not
receive love grow into broken people without empathy or compassion. Apart from
such tragedies, love is everywhere, even in the hearts and homes of the most
avid atheist. Yet it is nowhere in science. "God
is love" (1 John 4:16), love is a great gift from Him to us.
More: My spirit assures me that the
spiritual world is real and that its order is assured by an intelligent,
creative and benign being who loves and is compassionate. How can I know this?
All I can tell you is that my "knower" knows. This is not scientific
and I do not know if these thoughts are supported by psychology. Nevertheless,
I know.
There is
so much that we know that science has no coherent
or believable explanation for, has no accounting
for. "Accounting" is an exact craft, if you have something, you can include it, otherwise you must not include it. Many
"scientific" statements include things which have never been proven,
they have hypotheses, informed guesses, but not empirical evidence, therefore
they do not have them. Or they
include previously proposed "proofs" which were thoroughly refuted,
some, decades ago. Many high school and university texts are littered with such
un-truths.
Every
person is acquainted with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and many more qualities. I can also
think of hope, gratitude, empathy, sympathy, morality, loyalty, generosity,
pathos, justice and compassion, (Jesus is famous for showing compassion).
Outside of God's Word I cannot see any beginning
or cause or value for any of these .. But we all know that they do exist and are very precious, and are familiar
to every person and in every culture in the world.
People
(and other creatures) bond and communicate in non-tangible ways. Trish and I have
twins, Peter and Rebecca, our fifth and sixth children. Anyone who has twins in
their family can tell many stories about their ability to communicate remotely
and without words. Our family was inducted into a "twins study" so we
got to hear lots of lovely "twin" stories.
Here is
one I remember: One twin of an identical pair of girls went to live overseas.
These twins were so alike that they did everything together: they wore the same
clothes, played the same sports and music, studied the same subjects. One day,
after they had been apart for some time, the overseas twin wrote to her sister
and sent a picture from a magazine. The letter said that she had seen the
hairstyle and cut out the picture, taken it to her hairdresser "last
Thursday" and now had the new style and liked it very much. To all our
amazement she received a reply from her twin saying that she had done the exact same thing on the exact same day!
A flock
of birds or a school of fish will all change direction at the same time ..
Amazing! Wonderful!
Praise
Jesus for His unfathomable ways. We communicate without knowing how (Romans
11:33).
Pain, Horror And Disaster In The
World
Answering
this question is difficult, we are attempting to explain the coexistence of God
and Evil. Thankfully there are answers, and I am satisfied with them. This is a
very big subject and better minds than mine have been studying it for
centuries. Here are some of my thoughts and conclusions.
When God
created the Universe and Earth and humanity I believe that things were perfect.
Adam and Eve were family, and in close, loving and obedient relationship with
God. Their spiritual and social needs were met, the creation was being cared
for and provided every material thing they needed. They were satisfied and they
were safe.
"Adam and his wife were both
naked, and they felt no shame" (Genesis 2:25).
Then these first humans sinned, they ate of the forbidden fruit even though they had been told, "You will surely die". The serpent was completely out of order when it spoke to Eve who, with Adam, had dominion over all the creation (Genesis 1:26) including the serpent.
Adam and Eve knew that they were created in the "image and likeness" of God (Genesis 1:26), so they already were fully in possession of what the serpent was offering them; that they would "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). Even so, Eve did listen, and Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Sin, pain, trouble and death entered the world.
[God said] "And I will put
enmity between you [serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and
hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel". To the woman
he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful
labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you". To Adam
he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree
about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground
because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of
your life. It will produce thorns and
thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your
food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you
are and to dust you will return" (Genesis 3:15-19).
Not all
snakes are poisonous, but we have a universal fear of snakes, right? Even many
animals fear them. Scripture tells us why.
Childbirth
was made difficult, even painful, (all parents know this to be true), and
tragically, some families have broken and ill-formed babies. Babies and mothers
die in childbirth and this deeply affects us all.
The Earth
is cursed, hence earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, volcanoes, bushfires (many of
which start from lightning and others by malicious people). They all cause pain
and trouble.
These
things come from sin. So do wars and rebellions, robbery and murder, even being
mean to people and speeding in our car.
Adam and
Eve chose to sin. People, us, we choose to sin. Sin is now in the world.
Jesus defeated sin, and death, when He died on the Cross and then rose from the
dead, but the complete application of His victory will not manifest until He
comes again. Meanwhile He is with us, helping, and interceding for us,
constantly (Matthew 28:20, Romans 8:34).
"..
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil"
(1 John 3:8).
God knows
that there is suffering. Like everything else He can make good come from it
(Romans 8:28). My sufferings are small compared with those of many others, but
they help me see God more clearly as a bright light and a source of love and
hope, I empathise with others more deeply and I truly value what Jesus has given
me in my salvation and in my life with Him. Good from pain.
"For
I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
Is God Love?
I believe
that God exists and loves us. He has an infinite number of ways of giving and
showing His love.
I met a
pilot who gave this testimony. He was co-pilot on a Lear Jet carrying mail. As
they drew near to their intended destination they were told that the airport
was too cloud-covered for landings, they were given an alternative airport. As
they drew near to the second airport they received a similar warning and
another alternative airport. So they changed direction again; time was passing
and they had flown far, fuel was getting low. As they made contact with the
third airport they were given the same message again. Their fuel was so low
that they could fly nowhere else, my friend and his captain had no option but
to attempt a landing with whatever navigational aids and visibility were
available. Possibly they would crash but they knew to follow their years of
training and flight experience. Praise Jesus; as they descended and entered the
landing approach the clouds parted and they had enough visibility to land, only
the runway was visible. Their fuel gauges had been showing empty for some
minutes.
Months
later in a different state, my friend recounted this adventure, a woman who was
unknown to the pilot asked when this frightening event had occurred; he was
able to tell her. "Well", she responded, "I was praying with a
group on that afternoon, someone interrupted the meeting to say that Jesus had
given her a picture of an airplane which was lost in the clouds up towards
Canada somewhere, it was running out of fuel and bound to crash. She told us
that the vision was not very likely to be true because the plane was a jet, but
it was a small plane so could not be
a jet - we all prayed anyway". The date and time-of-day were the same;
Lear Jets are small airplanes with jet engines, the vision may have seemed contradictory, but was indeed
accurate. God showed the women the trouble and heard their prayer. Jesus stretched the fuel to last the extra few minutes and made a hole
in the clouds in just the right place and at just the right time. I have hugged
that co-pilot; this is a true story!
Praise
the Lord, how He speaks to us and uses our prayers. Those atheists and
agnostics cannot tell true stories like this .. I do so enjoy Christian
testimonies, they point directly to God and His love.
I wrote
that yesterday .. then this morning Jesus said to me, "get up now, I have
some typing for you, something you forgot to add yesterday". So I did get
up and He carefully dictated what I had not thought of .. Grace and love in
action. Thank you my loving Lord!
Love is
everywhere. What would novelists, journalists, songwriters and scriptwriters
have to write about if it were not? Our Bible, God's Word, is full of love. I
am satisfied that only our lovely God in Heaven has a sound explanation for
love, and He gives it to us in love.
God is love.
Praise
Jesus.
Amen.
Favourite Scriptures
"The fruit of the [Holy]
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things
there is no law"
(Galatians 5:22-23).
"But when the kindness and
love of God our Saviour appeared, he
saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his
mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy
Spirit, whom he poured out on us
generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs
having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7).
"Lift up your eyes to the
heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the
earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my
salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail" (Isaiah 51:6).
"But in keeping with his
promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where
righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13).
"The Amen, the Faithful and
True Witness, the Head of God's creation, says these things .." (Revelation 3:14).
Amen.
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Praise Jesus.
