Milo

1. Jesus Christ is unique as the only begotten Son of God (Psalm 2:7, 11–12; John 1:14; 3:16; Luke 1:35). Jesus is the “one-of-a-kind” Son of God in that He shares the same divine nature as God.

2. Jesus Christ is unique in that He is eternal. He existed from eternity past, He exists in the present, and He will exist for all eternity in the future (John 1:1–3, 14; John 8:58).

3. Jesus Christ is unique in that He is sinless. He never committed a sin and, although fully human, has no sin nature. He is the Holy One of God (Acts 3:14; John 6:69; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5).

4. Jesus Christ is unique because He alone is the One who bore our sins. As our Sin-bearer, He grants us forgiveness and salvation and a right standing with God. No one else could take away our sin (Isaiah 53; Matthew 1:21; John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Corinthians 15:1–3).

5. Jesus Christ is unique because He is the only Way to the Father (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5). There is no other way to salvation. He is the only righteous One, and He exchanged His perfect righteousness for our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).

6. Jesus Christ is unique in that He alone had power over His own death and the ability take back His life again (John 2:19; 10:17–18). Note: His resurrection was not a “spiritual” one, but physical (Luke 24:39). His resurrection from the dead, never to die again, distinguished Him as the unique Son of God (Romans 1:4).

7. Jesus Christ is unique, as seen in the fact that He alone accepted worship as an equal with the Father (John 20:28–29; Philippians 2:6). Indeed, God the Father states that the Son is to be honoured as He is honoured (John 5:23). All others in Scripture, whether Jesus’ disciples or angelic beings, rightly reject that worship (Acts 10:25–26; 14:14–15; Matthew 4:10; Revelation 19:10; 22:9).

8. Jesus Christ is unique in that He has the power to give life to whom He will (John 5:21).

9. Jesus Christ is unique because the Father has committed all judgment to Him (John 5:22). Having lived in this world perfectly, He is the only One qualified to judge the world.

10. Jesus Christ is unique because He was with the Father and directly involved in the creation. It is by the hand of Christ that all things are held together (John 1:1–3; Ephesians 3:9; Hebrews 1:8–10; Colossians 1:17).

11. Jesus Christ is unique in that He will rule the world at the end of this present age (Hebrews 1:8; Isaiah 9:6–7; Daniel 2:35, 44; Revelation 19:11–16).

12. Jesus Christ is unique in that He alone was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:20–23; Luke 1:30–35).

13. Jesus Christ is unique in that He demonstrated the attributes of God. In His ministry, Jesus showed that He had the power to forgive sins and heal the sick (Matthew 9:1–7); to calm the wind and waves (Mark 4:37–41; Psalm 89:8–9); to know people inside and out (Psalm 139; John 1:46–50; 2:23–25); and to raise the dead (John 11; Luke 7:12–15; 8:41–55).

14. Jesus Christ is unique because He fulfilled prophecy. There are a great number of prophecies concerning the Messiah’s birth, life, resurrection, person, and purpose. All were fulfilled by Him and no other (e.g., Isaiah 7:14; 9:6–7; 53; Micah 5:2; Psalm 16:10; 22; Zechariah 11:12–13; 13:7).

It is often asked why is there suffering in the world, if God is all powerful and loving.  Why doesn’t He stop it?  Can He or is He weaker than we think?  Suffering can fall into three simple categories: emotional, mental, and physical suffering.  But, there are a variety of causes for suffering:  morally corrupt (evil) people, disease, earthquakes, floods, famine, etc.

There are different explanations for why God allows suffering, but none of them can satisfy everyone.  Therefore, I will simply list various reasons offered to account for suffering and evil in the world.  

Free will

God has given us freedom of choice. Having this freedom means that we can rebel against God and make choices that are contrary to His desires. Since we can say that evil is anything contrary to God’s perfect and holy will, then anyone who chooses anything contrary to God’s perfection is committing evil. But this is the risk of being able to have freedom of choice.  Evil and suffering are the result of making bad free choices.

But how could this account for natural disasters and sickness that brings suffering?  Biblically, Adam represented not only all of his descendants, but he was also the head of the created order since he was given dominion over the earth.  Therefore, when he fell, sin entered into the world (Rom. 5:12) and with it the effects of being fallen spread to the earth as well as to humanity.

God cannot stop evil and suffering because He is powerless

Of course, this does not stand up to biblical truth.  God allows evil to occur partly for reasons we do know and partly for those we do not.  We know that God uses evil to discipline people (Prov. 3:11) and to teach them (Prov. 15:32). But we cannot know all the reasons that God has for allowing evil and suffering in the world.  It is not logically necessary that since God has not stopped evil and suffering in the world, that He cannot.  God could be using suffering for His divine plan, in order to teach, for discipline, because people are free, etc.  The existence of suffering does not at all mean that God cannot stop all of it.  It means that He simply has chosen not to do so.

How much evil should be stopped?

The question of stopping evil means that if God is to stop evil, then He must stop all evil. This means that the murderer must be stopped along with the thief.  But it also means that thinking evil, which is in rebellion against God, must also be stopped as well; that is, if all evil is to be stopped. Therefore, for God to stop evil and suffering may very well mean that He must remove the ability for people to freely choose what they want to do.  So, if God is going to stop evil, is He required to stop all of it or just some of it?  If only some of it, then the question would still stand.  If He stops all of it, would we be free?

Prevention of further evil

It is possible that human suffering (cancer, disease, etc.) can be a means that God uses to remove the person from further suffering, worse suffering, or future suffering. Of course, this not seem to be a very good option because if God or intending to stop further suffering, why would He use suffering to stop it?  Also, what about floods and earthquakes that cause suffering? How would they fit into God decreasing or stopping suffering except perhaps by people’s deaths which ends suffering?  This is difficult to answer. Though it may be that God might use some suffering to prevent even greater suffering, this explanation cannot answer all issues concerning it.

For the greater plan

 Undoubtedly, God has a plan. Since God knows all things He is not surprised by the presence of evil and sin in the world that brings about suffering.  But if God knows all things from all eternity, then He is perfectly capable of using suffering in the world in His greater plan. The best and simplest example of this is the suffering of Christ at the hands of evil men. It is by Christ’s suffering and death on across that we are able to be redeemed. It was God’s plan from all eternity that Christ die for our sins, yet Christ was crucified by evil people (Acts 4:27-28). This means that God had incorporated into His divine plan the reality of evil and suffering in order to accomplish His will.  Of course, this does not mean that God is the author of evil, but it does mean that God is above it all and can use it to accomplish a greater good.  If this is true on a large-scale, why cannot it also be true on a smaller one in each of our individual lives?

For discipline and instruction

The Bible tells us that God disciplines those whom He loves (Heb. 12:6) and that no true child of God is without discipline and instruction. It is obvious that the results of our rebellion against God brings suffering, and it is also true that we can learn through our suffering that such rebellion is bad. We then could glorify God during and after our suffering by proclaiming the truth of His word that urges us to follow God and His ways.

Sometimes we learn our greatest lessons after having suffered the consequences of our actions — and this is good. If we see that there are consequences through the acts of suffering in this world, it is logical to conclude that there will be suffering in the next as a consequence of our rebellion now. This could easily lead us to conclude that we need to be delivered from our rebellion against God. Of course, Jesus is the answer to this.

It is the result of sin

 Biblically speaking, pain and suffering are the results of sin in the world. Adam, who represented all humanity as well as creation, rebelled against God and brought suffering into the world (Rom. 5:12). Sin is more than simple rebellion and breaking of God’s law. It is permeating throughout all of God’s creation bringing imbalance, famine, earthquakes, disease, etc. This does not mean that God created evil.  Instead, it is God who is allowing evil and suffering to continue for His divine plan.

To serve as a warning

Evil and suffering in the world can serve as a warning against breaking God’s law and then people can see the necessity of following God’s truth. God’s ways are right and good and following them leads to security and safety. The consequences of disobeying God’s word are manifested in suffering. Therefore, suffering in the world easily serves as a demonstration of the need to follow God’s words thereby vindicating what God has said

To make a point

 It is possible that God is simply allowing evil and suffering in the world to prove that rebellion against Him brings pain and suffering. God may be allowing sin to take its natural course in the world so that on the day of judgment God can say “Do you see what rebellion against my words brings?” This may seem overly simplistic but it may prove to be one of the reasons that God allows pain and suffering. After all, did He not make us in His image and give us the freedom to choose? And in our freedom have we not rebelled? Yes, we have. Should God then make us robots or restrict our freedom so much that we have no choices at all? Of course not. But since we are limited in our knowledge and have used our freedom to rebel, God allows us to have what we desire and in the end, our sins will prove that God’s way is the right way.

To serve as a means to bring the Son – Jesus Christ

 The death of the Son is the means by which God has redeemed those who would receive Jesus. This death cannot occur if Jesus were not a man. In order to be a man he had to be born as one. But since Jesus was sinless, death has no power over Him. Therefore, in order to die and in order to redeem us, His death must be at the hands of evil people.  But, without sin, suffering, and evil in the world, Jesus could not have been sent to the cross. So, it could be said that suffering in the world is necessary in order to bring about the cross which in turn demonstrates the great and awesome love of God. Jesus said that the greatest act of love is to lay one’s life down for another (John 15:13). If God is love (1 John 4:8) and love gives (John 3:16), can it be that God must demonstrate the greatest act of love?  If so, it can only be done through suffering in the world.

We don’t know

Biblically speaking, pain and suffering are the results of sin in the world. Adam, who represented all humanity as well as creation, rebelled against God and brought suffering into the world. This sin is more than simple rebellion and breaking of God’s law. It is an offense against a holy God. Sin is permeating throughout all of God’s creation bringing imbalance, famine, earthquakes, disease, etc. This is not God creating things, but it is God who is allowing them to continue for his divine plan.  Ultimately, we can’t know all the reasons why God allows suffering, we just know that He does.

What does the Bible tell us that God has done about evil? It tells us that he sent to his son Jesus to die for our sins and to deliver us from pain and suffering. Ultimately, God is allowing evil in the world for a purpose, otherwise, he would not let it exist. Therefore, we must trust Him that He knows what He is doing.

Some people argue that God is man-made; that is, the concept of God is merely a human fabrication handed down through the generations from those who didn’t know any better. They claim that the idea of a God or gods is simply the way human beings explain things that are too difficult to understand. Some state that belief in the supernatural ignores science and embraces superstition. So, is the idea of God a fantasy based on ignorance and concocted by our forefathers before science proved it to be false?

No, God is not man-made; rather, God made man. Even sceptics’ agree that there is a beginning for every created thing, including man. So, in order for man to have a beginning, there must be a “first cause” that existed before him. Evolutionists argue that the first cause was an impersonal force, a “big bang,” that started the universe. But even that explanation leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The logical response to this line of thinking is, “What caused the Big Bang? What or who put those forces into motion?” No reasonable answer, outside of the Bible, has been offered.

The Bible starts with the fact of God in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God . . . .” When we set aside prejudice, the Bible’s answer seems to be the most logical explanation for that first cause. In the beginning was God. He was not created and therefore needs no first cause. He has always been and always will be, apart from time and space (Psalm 90:2). He introduced Himself to Moses as I AM (Exodus 3:14). The meaning of His name signifies the eternal aspect of His nature. He always was and always will be the Eternal, Self-existent One (Revelation 1:8; 4:8).

A second consideration in the matter of whether or not God is man-made is the nature of God as He has revealed Himself through the pages of His Book. Many attributes of God are not those that human beings would necessarily think to include if they had invented Him. God’s character includes omniscience (Isaiah 46:9–10), omnipotence (2 Samuel 22:3; Psalm 18:2), patience (2 Peter 3:9), and consistency (Malachi 3:6). He is described as loving (Psalm 25:10), faithful (Psalm 31:23), and desirous of having a relationship with us (Jeremiah 29:13; James 4:8). But He is also perfectly just, and that justice requires payment for man’s high treason against his Creator (Zephaniah 3:5; Romans 6:23). Rather than hand down a list of requirements we must meet in order to gain His favor (as all other religions include), the God of the Bible took on human flesh, lived among us, and then allowed the people He created to torture Him to death while He forgave them (Luke 23:34; Philippians 2:5–11). That kind of selfless, sacrificial love is outside human experience and not present in any man-made religion. Grace is a concept exclusive to the God of the Bible.

Man-made gods are usually fashioned in the image of man. The gods of pagan cultures are fraught with flaws, inconsistencies, and human-like weaknesses. They are petty, selfish, cruel, and capricious; in short, they behave as man-made gods would behave, with the same sins and jealousies found in the human heart. In order for God to be man-made, His nature could only extend as far as man’s imagination. The God of the Bible far surpasses our understanding, yet He leaves hints, like a trail of spiritual breadcrumbs, for us to follow as we come to know Him better.

A third point to consider in the matter of whether or not God is man-made is the spiritual quality of the human soul. Every human being is unique and possesses an innate sense of “me.” We have an inborn understanding of the eternal (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and the sense that there is more beyond this world. Genesis 1:27 says that human beings were fashioned in the image of God; Colossians 1:16 says we were created for His purposes and His pleasure. We were created like Him in some ways, but He is not necessarily like us (Numbers 23:19). If God were merely a human fabrication, then many new questions arise: What makes human beings different from animals? Where do humans get the ideas of justice, benevolence, self-sacrifice, and love—abstract qualities not found in the animal kingdom? Such traits, found in every culture in the world, would never have survived the evolutionary process. However, when we see those traits showcased within the character of God Himself, we understand why we possess them.

Another consideration in the matter of whether or not God is man-made is the trustworthiness of the Bible. In order to contend that God does not exist, one must deal with the accuracy of the Book that tells about Him. Within the pages of the Bible, God has revealed Himself to us and given us hundreds of examples of His dealings with man through the centuries. Many who staunchly argue against the reality of God are also blindly ignorant about the Bible. They often claim it is “an ancient book written by a bunch of Jews.” Statements like that demonstrate the flawed foundation upon which they have constructed their arguments. The Bible is a collection of books written by over 40 different authors, over a 1,500-year time span, from three continents, and in three different languages. Yet it weaves together the pieces of a single story like a jigsaw puzzle fits together. The Bible is God’s story of His relentless pursuit to redeem His fallen creation.

Those who believe that the idea of God is man-made must also consider the manner in which the Bible portrays mankind, especially the Jews. If the Jews wrote the Bible to honour themselves, they failed miserably. Even the Lord Himself is clear that He chose the Israelites for His own reasons, not because they were deserving of special treatment (Deuteronomy 7:7). The failures of the Israelite nation are showcased again and again, right up to the crucifixion of the Son of God (Isaiah 65:2; Mark 15:9–15). Humanity is portrayed realistically, complete with sin, rebellion, and punishment. No group or individual is exalted. This raises the obvious question: if man fabricated the idea of God, what was his motive? Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the only hero is God. Rather than pave the way for personal gain, the truths of the Bible lead to self-sacrifice and surrender. Rather than instruct us how to earn God’s favour, the Bible warns us that no one is righteous (Romans 3:10, 23). Throughout history, those proclaiming the Bible’s truths have been martyred, stoned, and driven into hiding (1 Kings 19:10; Acts 7:58; 2 Corinthians 11:25).

If the idea of God is man-made, then there is no God, really, and the biggest question left unanswered relates to the complexity and apparent design of the universe. A single strand of DNA shows such intricate brilliance that random chance cannot come close to explaining it. Beyond that, the billions of perfectly synchronized atoms, molecules, systems, and universes shout to us about a Designer. Removing God from the realm of possible explanations gives rise to many unanswerable questions. No other explanation makes sense. Theories abound, but none can claim definitive scientific evidence for the startling harmonization of the universe’s complexity. Even Charles Darwin had to admit, “To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree” (The Origin of Species, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, 1971, p. 167).

We cannot simply remove the idea of God without replacing that idea with a more reasonable explanation. Questions do not disappear by eliminating the possibility of God. However, when we remove the prejudices and presuppositions that refuse to allow God to be considered, He remains the only logical explanation for this amazing world. Those who have decided that God cannot exist build their worldview around that idea and pretend that their fallible answers fill in the blanks. Denial of God is a strong, almost religious assumption that taints their so-called search for truth. However, those who truly desire to be open-minded and pursue truth wherever it may lead find that the evidence always leads to God.

Yes, the miracles of the Bible are to be taken literally, just as all Scripture is to be taken literally except those portions which are clearly intended to be symbolic. An example of symbolism is Psalm 17:8. We are not literally apples in God’s eye, nor does God literally have wings. But the miracles are not symbolic happenings; they are real events that actually happened. Each of the miracles in the Bible served a purpose and accomplished something that couldn’t be accomplished in any other way.

The earliest and most profound miracle of all was that of creation. God created everything ex nihilo—from nothing—and each succeeding miracle reinforced His incredible power. The book of Exodus is filled with miraculous events God used to bring about His will. The plagues on Egypt, beginning with the water of the Nile being turned to blood (Exodus 7:17) through the death of the firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12:12), were literal events that eventually caused Pharaoh to free the Israelites from bondage. If the plagues did not happen, why did Pharaoh let the people go? And if the plague of the death of the firstborn was not real, then God did not move through Egypt that night killing the firstborn, nor was there any necessity for the Israelites to sprinkle blood on their doorposts. Then the foreshadowing of the shed blood of Jesus on the cross is voided, which puts the crucifixion itself into doubt. Once we begin to doubt the reality of any miracle, we have to discount everything the Bible says came about as a result of the miracle, which puts all of Scripture in doubt.

Among the best-known Old Testament miracles is the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14), during which Pharaoh and much of his army were drowned. If the miracle is symbolic, then how do we know what parts of the rest of the story are literal? Did the Israelites really leave Egypt? Did Pharaoh’s army really follow them, and, if so, how did the Israelites escape? Psalm 78 is one of the many passages where God reminds the Israelites of the miracles He performed in releasing them from the Egyptian bondage. God’s mighty miracles proved to the surrounding nations that the Lord is the one, true God. The pagan idols of wood and stone were capable of no such things. Only the God of miracles deserves worship.

In the New Testament, Jesus performed numerous miracles beginning with His first one at the wedding in Cana where He turned water into wine (John 2:1-10). One of His most spectacular miracles was the raising of Lazarus after he had been dead four days (John 11). All the miracles He did were to prove that He was indeed who He said He was—the Son of God. When He calmed the storm in Matthew 8, even the disciples were astonished: “The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’” (v. 27). If Jesus’ miracles were not real, then the gospel accounts of Jesus’ healings were just nice stories, and those people remained afflicted by diseases, calling into doubt His compassion (Matthew 14:14; 10:34; Mark 1:41). If He didn’t really feed thousands of people with a few loaves and fishes, those people remained hungry and Jesus’ words “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (John 6:26) have no meaning at all. But Jesus did heal, He did create food for thousands, He did turn water into wine, and He did raise Lazarus from the dead. John 2:23 tells us that many believed in Him because of the miracles.

All the miracles had a purpose—to prove that God is like no one else, that He has complete control of creation because He is its source, and to convince us that if He can do all these miraculous things, nothing in our lives is too hard for Him to handle. He wants us to trust Him and know that He can do miracles in our lives as well. If the miracles did not occur, then how can we trust anything the Bible tells us, especially when it tells us eternal life is available through Christ? When we begin to call any part of Scripture into doubt, all of God’s marvellous plan is suspect, and we open the door for the lies and distortions which are Satan’s plan to destroy our faith (1 Peter 5:8). The Bible is to be read and understood literally, including the miracles.

The question of whether there is a conclusive argument for the existence of God has been debated throughout history, with exceedingly intelligent people taking both sides of the dispute. In recent times, arguments against the possibility of God’s existence have taken on a militant spirit that accuses anyone daring to believe in God as being delusional and irrational. Karl Marx asserted that anyone believing in God must have a mental disorder that caused invalid thinking. The psychiatrist Sigmund Freud wrote that a person who believed in a Creator God was delusional and only held their beliefs due to a ‘wish fulfilment’ factor that produced what Freud considered to be their unjustifiable position. The philosopher Frederick Nietzsche bluntly said that faith equates to not wanting to know what is true. The voices of these three figures from history (along with others) are simply now parroted by a new generation of atheists who claim that a belief in God is intellectually unwarranted. 

Is this truly the case? Is belief in God a rationally unacceptable position to hold? Is there a logical and reasonable argument for the existence of God? Outside of referencing the Bible, can a case for the existence of God be made that refutes the positions of both the old and new atheists and gives sufficient warrant for believing in a Creator? The answer is yes it can. Moreover, in demonstrating the validity of an argument for the existence of God, the case for atheism is shown to be intellectually weak. 

To make an argument for the existence of God, we must start by asking the right questions. We begin with the most basic metaphysical question: “Why do we have something rather than nothing at all?” This is the basic question of existence—why are we here; why is the earth here; why is the universe here rather than nothing? Commenting on this point, one theologian has said, “In one sense man does not ask the question about God, his very existence raises the question about God.” 

In considering this question there are four possible answers to why we have something rather than nothing at all: 

1. Reality is an illusion.
2. Reality is/was self-created.
3. Reality is self-existent (eternal).
4. Reality was created by something that is self-existent.

So, which is the most plausible solution? Let’s begin with reality being simply an illusion, which is what several eastern religions believe. This option was ruled out centuries ago by the philosopher Rene Descartes who is famous for the statement, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes, a mathematician, argued that if he is thinking then he must ‘be.’ In other words, “I think, therefore I am not an illusion.” Illusions require something experiencing the illusion, and moreover, you cannot doubt the existence of yourself without proving your existence; it is a self-defeating argument. So, the possibility of reality being an illusion is eliminated.

Next is the option of reality being self-created. When you study philosophy, you learn that there are things called ‘analytically false’ statements, which means they are false by definition. The possibility of reality being self-created is one of those types of statements for the simple reason that something cannot be prior to itself. If you created yourself, then you must have existed prior to you creating yourself, but that simply cannot be. In evolution this is sometimes referred to as ‘spontaneous generation’ —something coming from nothing—a position that few, if any, reasonable people hold to anymore simply because you cannot get something from nothing. Even the atheist David Hume said, “I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a cause.” This being the case, the alternative of reality being self-created is ruled out. 

Now we are left with only two choices—an eternal reality or reality being created by something that is eternal: an eternal universe or an eternal Creator. The 18th century theologian Jonathan Edwards summed up this crossroads:

• Something exists.
• Nothing cannot create something.
• Therefore, a necessary and eternal ‘something’ exists.

Notice that you must go back to an eternal ‘something.’ The atheist who derides the believer in God for believing in an eternal Creator must turn around and embrace an eternal universe; it is the only other door they can choose. But the question now is: where does the evidence lead? Does the evidence point to matter before mind or mind before matter?

To date, all key scientific and philosophical evidence points away from an eternal universe and toward an eternal Creator. From a scientific standpoint, honest scientists admit the universe had a beginning, and whatever has a beginning is not eternal. In other words, whatever has a beginning has a cause, and if the universe had a beginning, it had a cause. The fact that the universe had a beginning is underscored by evidence such as the second law of thermodynamics, the radiation echo of the big bang discovered in the early 1900’s, the fact that the universe is expanding and can be traced back to a singular beginning, and Einstein’s theory of relativity. All prove the universe is not eternal.

Further, the laws that surround causation speak against the universe being the ultimate cause of all we know for this simple fact: an effect must resemble its cause. This being true, no atheist can explain how an impersonal, purposeless, meaningless, and amoral universe accidentally created beings (us) who are full of personality and obsessed with purpose, meaning, and morals. Such a thing, from a causation standpoint, completely refutes the idea of a natural universe birthing everything that exists. So, in the end, the concept of an eternal universe is eliminated. 

Philosopher J. S. Mill (not a Christian) summed up where we have now come to: “It is self-evident that only Mind can create mind.” The only rational and reasonable conclusion is that an eternal Creator is the one who is responsible for reality as we know it. Or to put it in a logical set of statements: 

• Something exists.
• You do not get something from nothing.
• Therefore a necessary and eternal ‘something’ exists.
• The only two options are an eternal universe and an eternal Creator.
• Science and philosophy have disproven the concept of an eternal universe.
• Therefore, an eternal Creator exists.

Former atheist Lee Strobel, who arrived at this end result many years ago, has commented: “Essentially, I realized that to stay an atheist, I would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non-life produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too big for me to take, especially in light of the affirmative case for God’s existence … In other words, in my assessment the Christian worldview accounted for the totality of the evidence much better than the atheistic worldview.”

But the next question we must tackle is this: If an eternal Creator exists (and we have shown that He does), what kind of Creator is He? Can we infer things about Him from what He created? In other words, can we understand the cause by its effects? The answer to this is yes, we can, with the following characteristics being surmised: 

• He must be supernatural in nature (as He created time and space).
• He must be powerful (incredibly). 
• He must be eternal (self-existent).
• He must be omnipresent (He created space and is not limited by it).
• He must be timeless and changeless (He created time). 
• He must be immaterial because He transcends space/physical.
• He must be personal (the impersonal cannot create personality). 
• He must be infinite and singular as you cannot have two infinites. 
• He must be diverse yet have unity as unity and diversity exist in nature.
• He must be intelligent (supremely). Only cognitive being can produce cognitive being. 
• He must be purposeful as He deliberately created everything.
• He must be moral (no moral law can be had without a giver). 
• He must be caring (or no moral laws would have been given).

These things being true, we now ask if any religion in the world describes such a Creator. The answer to this is yes: the God of the Bible fits this profile perfectly. He is supernatural (Genesis 1:1), powerful (Jeremiah 32:17), eternal (Psalm 90:2), omnipresent (Psalm 139:7), timeless/changeless (Malachi 3:6), immaterial (John 5:24), personal (Genesis 3:9), necessary (Colossians 1:17), infinite/singular (Jeremiah 23:24, Deuteronomy 6:4), diverse yet with unity (Matthew 28:19), intelligent (Psalm 147:4-5), purposeful (Jeremiah 29:11), moral (Daniel 9:14), and caring (1 Peter 5:6-7). 

One last subject to address on the matter of God’s existence is the matter of how justifiable the atheist’s position actually is. Since the atheist asserts the believer’s position is unsound, it is only reasonable to turn the question around and aim it squarely back at him. The first thing to understand is that the claim the atheist makes — ‘no god’ which is what ‘atheist’ means—is an untenable position to hold from a philosophical standpoint. As legal scholar and philosopher Mortimer Adler says, “An affirmative existential proposition can be proved, but a negative existential proposition—one that denies the existence of something—cannot be proved.” For example, someone may claim that a red eagle exists and someone else may assert that red eagles do not exist. The former only needs to find a single red eagle to prove his assertion. But the latter must comb the entire universe and literally be in every place at once to ensure they have not missed a red eagle somewhere and at some time, which is impossible to do. Therefore, intellectually honest atheists will admit they cannot prove God does not exist. 

Next, it is important to understand the issue that surrounds the seriousness of truth claims that are made and the amount of evidence required to warrant certain conclusions. For example, if someone puts two containers of lemonade in front of you and says that one may be more tart than the other, since the consequences of getting the more tart drink would not be serious, you would not require a large amount of evidence in order to make your choice. However, if to one cup the host added sweetener but to the other, he introduced rat poison, then you would want to have quite a bit of evidence before you made your choice. 

This is where a person sits when deciding between atheism and belief in God. Since belief in atheism could possibly result in irreparable and eternal consequences, it would seem that the atheist should be mandated to produce weighty and overriding evidence to support their position, but they cannot. Atheism simply cannot meet the test for evidence for the seriousness of the charge it makes. Instead, the atheist and those whom they convince of their position slide into eternity with their fingers crossed and hope they do not find the unpleasant truth that eternity does indeed exist and that such a place is an awfully long time to be wrong. As Mortimer Adler says, “More consequences for life and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from any other basic question.”

So, does belief in God have intellectual warrant? Is there a rational, logical, and reasonable argument for the existence of God? Absolutely. While atheists such as Freud claim that those believing in God have a wish fulfilment desire, perhaps it is Freud and his followers who actually suffer from wish fulfilment: the hope and wish that there is no God, no accountability, and therefore no judgment. But refuting Freud is the God of the Bible who affirms His existence and the fact that a judgment is indeed coming for those who know within themselves the truth that He exists but suppress that truth (Romans 1:20). But for those who respond to the evidence that a Creator does indeed exist, He offers the way of salvation that has been accomplished through His Son, Jesus Christ: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13 NAS).