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IF GOD EXISTS, WHY DOESN'T HE PROVE IT?

We've probably all heard this question: If God exists, why doesn't He prove it?

Every belief that each and every person has is based on only one of two things: It's either based on proof, or in the absence of proof it's based on a chosen belief. Any chosen belief without proof is a type of "faith". Therefore, I conclude that every belief each of us holds is based either on hard proof or on faith.

Proof is irrefutable evidence of fact, and our belief about it is determined for us by the proof; where proof exists, a choice of belief about it is not required or even possible.

Simply put, if you can see and feel a brick wall, and it hurts when you bang your head on it, you have irrefutable proof that it exists; therefore, you can't choose to believe it doesn't exist, right? Well, you could if you really want to, I guess, but if you run full-speed toward it hoping you'll run right through it, you will likely be convinced otherwise after your very painful collision with it.

Faith, on the other hand, is a choice of belief in the absence of hard, irrefutable proof. Where proof doesn't exist, we must choose what to believe by a decision of faith. And without having hard evidence of proof either way, it is nothing more than an educated guess at best.

For example, when I was taught as a child that the earth revolves around the sun (rather than the opposite), I chose to believe it by faith in our scientists alone (along with my own reasoning). I had to. Only observing it for myself from somewhere in outer space would constitute hard proof for me. Without the irrefutable proof of seeing it for myself, my belief about it is still based purely on my choice of faith in the information I've been given.

Now consider this: God is the genius of all genius! He created us for a reason. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." (Genesis 1:26)  And I'm convinced the reason is that He wants to be loved by us!

Love cannot be instilled, commanded or forced, otherwise it wouldn't be love. For example, if you could make a robot to act lovingly toward you, could it make you truly feel loved? Of course not. Even with this robot walking around telling you, "I love you", you would still not truly feel loved. Love must be the choice of a living entity who has the free will to choose whether to love you or not.

It's the same with God. God wants us to believe in him and love him by free-will choice. If God were to prove his existence to us so that we all had no choice but to believe in him, then it wouldn't be by our own free-will choice. We would be left with no choice but to believe in him. Then we would all be like robots, and robots are incapable of love. He wants us to believe in him and love him by our own decision, or choice, of faith alone.

And this is not news; it's no mystery. God's Word, the Bible, expressly states, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." and "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Once we've been presented with the Gospel of God's existence and who He is, we are then free to choose whether to believe in Him and love Him or not.

We live in an age where the paranormal has become almost normal to us. Psychics, witchcraft, magic, astrology, ghosts, spirit guides, angel sightings, extraterrestrials, seances, premonitions, intuition, Ouija boards, tarot card readings, hauntings, visitations, vampires, werewolves, extra-sensory perception, intuition, astral projection, astrology, numerology, the Harry Potter phenomenon, and Satanism itself; any or all of these carry a certain weight of credibility as supernatural and spiritual phenomena among nearly everyone in our world today.

In such an age when it seems we are not only so willing, but actually so thirsty, to believe in the supernatural and spirit world, why is the concept of a one, true, most high God and Creator so hard to accept for so many?

But the beauty of it is that once you've make a decision of faith to believe in God and have made the choice to surrender to Him as your Lord, then He is free to go ahead and prove himself to you.

It is my experience that once I took a sincere leap of faith to believe in God and trust him whole-heartedly with my life, surrendering myself to Him and trusting Him completely, then and only then did he begin to prove himself to me; and He began to do so immediately and supernaturally!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Outstanding and Amen!

Anonymous said...

I am a little confused by your reasoning. You mention the brick wall and then you use the earth spinning around the world. You have faith that the earth goes around the sun (not the other way around). Not sure I see the difference? If there is proof that the earth goes around the sun, then it is not up to belief or faith anymore since it has been proven, right? So it doesn't matter whether or not you "believe" it is true, it is.

'Splain Lucy!

Terry Scerine said...

Thank you for reading, Lucy, and I'm glad you asked the question! But what hard, irrefutable proof do we have that the earth revolves around the sun, really? Scientist's claims are all we really have. And of course I do believe it, but it's because I have faith in that information.

Like I wrote, the only thing that would be hard proof for me is if I could actually see the earth revolving around the sun from a fixed position somewhere out in space.

Remember, there was a time when scientists claimed they had proof that the earth was flat and everyone believed it for awhile. Did they believe it because they had hard proof, or did they believe it because they had faith in what the scientists were telling them at the time?

There was a time when scientists claimed they had proof that the sun rotated around the earth, and everyone believed that for awhile too. But obviously they only believed it by faith in what the scientists were telling them, because they obviously had no hard proof.

Have you been believing that Pluto is a planet all these years? Me too. Did you believe it by proof? Obviously not, because now they're telling us that Pluto isn't a planet after all.

There's alot we believe out of faith in the information we're given, because we don't really have any hard proof for ourselves.

The only hard, irrefutable proof I have for anything is what I can detect for myself with one or more of my own six senses. As for everything else, I can only believe it by faith in the information I'm given.

So unless you've seen with your own eyes from outer space somewhere that the earth is orbiting the sun, you have no proof. You're just believing by faith in the information you've been given.

Thanks again Lucy!

James Lindquist said...

Very good blog Terry. I also write and love the Lord with all my heart. I have started blogging and have some o learn but I have such a passion to write (believe God mandated that for my life), that it is all I do from the time I get up until the time I go to bed. Nuff bout me.

I agree with you. Who can look at a sunrise, a snow capped mountain, a brook while deer drink there, a new born baby and then in the same breathe, denounce the existence of God. It's beyond me. So I agree with you.

I also agree with you about love. I have taught, like yourself, that without choice, you render love meaningless.

If we don't lead people to Christ, then the enemy will lead them to Satan. Since the beginning of Christianity, the only time when we get in trouble is when we say that Christ is the ONLY WAY to heaven. Now it's the truth but it is when we get in trouble. (I'm not saying that you said that, it is just a blanket statement about Christianity. I've been a believer most of my life.

You can check out my blog at jameslindquistswritng.blogspot.com

GBY brother

Jim