God Is

Part 2

The Moral Argument

In his book “Mere Christianity”, C. S. Lewis argued that “conscience reveals to us a moral law whose source cannot be found in the natural world, thus pointing to a supernatural Lawgiver.” Mankind has always had a sense of right and wrong. This is why all civilizations create laws which govern moral behavior and choices. It is true that all men draw ethical lines separating what is right and wrong. However, they may draw them in different places. Murder is wrong. But some will say that abortion is not murder, while other say it is.

According to the Law of Cause and Effect the ultimate source of man’s sense of morality must be in itself moral. Only God could explain the moral conscience in man. “Whenever the atheist complains about the existence of evil, he inadvertently admits the existence of God.” If God created man’s sense of right and wrong, He would have also given mankind a standard to guide men in drawing a line between right and wrong.

According to the New Testament, truth is objective (i.e., it originates outside of man, such as, the Word of God). World religions and atheism believe that truth is ultimately attained subjectively (i.e., from within one’s own self). According to the Bible, sin is a violation of God’s Law (I John 3:4). God’s Word therefore is an absolute ethical standard. In it one can learn where the lines of right or wrong are drawn on the pathway of life. When faced with the perplexing issues of our times one can turn to the Bible and find the answers.

Concerning divorce Jesus said, “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery” (Mt. 19:9). What about a solution to the AIDS epidemic? “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). Is homosexuality a morally valid alternate lifestyle? “As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7).

The Biblical answer for the raising rate of teenage pregnancy is “flee fornication”. This ancient Book’s remedy for our prolific crime rate is: “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ec. 8:11). What about juvenile delinquency? “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him” (Pr. 22:15). The Word of God even declares a solution for alcoholism (I Pet. 4:3). For every moral dilemma the Bible contains a relevant solution.

The Ontological Argument

Where did the idea of God come from? Sigmund Freud said it was formed in man’s mind from the idea of his earthly father. The concept of God is merely the product of man’s imagination. Yet, when mere mortals invent gods, they create them in their own image or in that of a creature. Paul wrote, “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:21-23).

Where did the concept of an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, eternal God come from? Did man create a creator or did the Creator reveal Himself to man. Paul also wrote, “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).

The Psalmist wrote,

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.
– Psalm 19:1-4a

The gods created in the minds of men are materialistic, lustful, unloving, controllable and defeatable. The gods of man’s mind are nothing like the God of the Bible. His very belief and knowledge of the true God in all His glory is evidence that God exists and has revealed Himself in nature and the Bible. Can you think or imagine someone or something greater and more powerful or more perfect than God? The ontological argument states “God must exist in order to cause us to have in our minds the concept of a perfect God” (J. D. Thomas).

Why Are There So Many Unbelievers?

With all this information being declared by God’s creation everywhere, in every way to everyone it makes us wonder why some do not believe in God. Surely, “the fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:1). We call these “fools” atheists or agnostics. An atheist is one who believes that God does not exists. While an agnostic is someone who does not know whether God exists. Paul says that man has been given so much information by creation about the Creator “they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20).

Once a college philosophy professor asked a student, “Using everything we have learned this semester, prove that this chair does not exist.” The student responded, “What chair?” Men see and observe what they want to. An atheist cannot find God in the same way that a tax evader cannot find the IRS: they don’t want to find them. The “theory” of evolution is being claimed as fact in some of our public schools. Therefore, young men and young women are being brain washed into repudiating the unmistakable fact: “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1).

Soon people are blind to all the proof of God in all the universe. They are like a family that moved into a home next to the airport. Every fifteen minutes a jumbo jet would shake their little wood fame home to its very foundation as it roared a few dozen yards over their roof. Believe it or not, they soon became blind to the effects and deaf to the sound and went on living there day after day as if the airport with its air traffic did not even exist. Today, man has become equally blind and deaf to the evidence of God’s existence from all of creation.

The Heavens will not always proclaim the Glory of God, one day they will cease. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished” (Is. 51:6). Peter wrote, “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:12). After this, mankind will either experience the existence and glory of God firsthand in Heaven or be eternally separated from God and His glory.

– Daniel R. Vess