For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome….  Deuteronomy 10:17

“The problem with you Christians,” commented an atheist, “is that you have monopolized all the holidays.  You have Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, All Saints Day, and what have you.  What we atheists need is a holiday all of our own.”  With a wry smile on his face, the friend countered, “How about April 1?”  Centuries ago, the Psalmist wrote, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Psalm 14:1).  But it could well be translated, “There is no God for me!”  A lot of people who describe themselves as atheists have second thoughts when the going gets tough.

A friend of mine, a commercial pilot, tells how his plane was caught in a ferocious thunderstorm, and the plane was buffeted by the wind and the storm.  Following one stomach-wrenching drop in altitude, the co-pilot, who calls himself an atheist, cried out, “God, help us!”  Having his thoughts on getting through the storm, the pilot, who is a committed believer, didn’t say anything.  But when they had flown through the storm and things were considerably smoother, Don turned to the co-pilot and said, “Hey, back there didn’t I hear you say, `God, help us!’ or something like that?  I didn’t think you believed in God.”  “Well,” replied the co-pilot, “atheism is OK when there is a smooth flight, but it is not so great in a storm.”  So is it with life.

Strange as it may seem to some, when God moved upon men to chronicle the events of Scripture, He never saw the necessity of inspiring them to offer conclusive proofs for His existence.  Nowhere in the 66 books of the Bible will you find conclusive proofs or arguments for His existence; and in the final analysis, nobody can prove God to anybody.  But neither can anyone disprove His existence.

The writers of Scripture assumed His reality as the very fabric of existence, yet there are logical demonstrations of His existence which are far easier to accept than to attempt to deny or disprove them.  Writing the first sentence in the Bible, Moses began saying, “In the beginning God….” or simply, “In beginning God….”  Perhaps the closest thing to a proof-text is the statement found in Hebrews 11:6, saying, “…for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (NKJV).  In the Old Testament God spoke through the prophets, saying, “But if… you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

Occasionally, I will hear someone say, as I did recently, “Well, I searched for God and didn’t find Him.”  When I hear that, I often counter, “But perhaps you searched for Him like a thief looks for a policeman.”  Where do you find God?  In nature?  Not really.  Nature is destructive.  The storm sweeps across the island or through the valley and catches the young in its devastating power.

Perhaps you looked for God in the depths of the human heart, thinking that there is surely something of God’s image in every person.  That is a risky business!  Auschwitz, Buchenwald, along with the prisons which are overflowing, do not much impress me with God’s image in humankind.  Neither am I impressed with the way most treat their neighbors.

If you are really interested in finding God, I suggest that you look for Him in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. He said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).  It’s still true today.

 

Resource reading: John 14:1-14