Does God Exist?
If so, why does it seem Christians are always having to "prove" it?
We live in a culture obsessed with evidence. We are, after all, “scientific.”
On more occasions than I can count, I have heard atheists and agnostics claim that they would perhaps believe in God if there was just enough evidence that compelled them to do so. Of course, those same atheists and agnostics will say that even if Jesus came ripping through the clouds riding upon a white horse, they still would not believe, as they would convince themselves they were just hallucinating. But I digress.
It would seem that Christian apologists are constantly having to argue that God does, in fact, exist. But this observation raises an important question: If God does exist, why are we always trying to prove it? Shouldn’t it be plainly evident? I’ll return to this question below but for the moment, I’d like to observe that whether or not God’s existence is plain enough to be known by all, Christian apologists have produced extremely compelling arguments for God’s existence. Nevertheless, the response from the unbeliever remains the same: “Show me the evidence.”
This obsession with the evidence for God’s existence begs the question: Is there not enough evidence?
The Psalmist answers this way: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps 19:1). Similarly, the Apostle Paul explained to the saints in Rome that the invisible God has been “clearly perceived” ever since the creation of the world through the things that have been made. This evidence, Paul goes on to say, is sufficient as to leave people inexcusable before the judgment seat of God. (Rom 1:20).
According to Scripture, evidence is not the problem. All people in all places at all times are surrounded by evidence that points to their Creator. The problem is that in Adam, all people have inherited a sin nature (see Gen 5:3; cf. Rom 5:12) and as a result, they suppress the truth that they know about God in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18).
Helpfully, Scripture records for us a particularly relevant episode to help further explain this point.
In John 9, we read of one of Jesus’s signs in which he healed a man who had been born blind. As the historical account unfolds, we are told that having proclaimed himself to be “the light of the world,” Jesus made some mud, anointed the blind man’s eyes and had him to go wash himself—upon his return, the blind man could now see.
How did Jesus’s opponents respond? Rather than reckon with the plain fact that Jesus had performed a miracle for this man, they “did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight” (9:18). This undue skepticism then led the Jewish leaders to interrogate the man’s parents, asking them if the man who had been healed was actually blind to begin with. In an act of cowardice, the parents deferred the leaders back to their son, who had already told them he was blind and, yet now, could see. As is typical for those lacking the ability to argue their perspective with facts and reason, the Jewish leaders insult the man and “they cast him out” (9:24).
An undeniable miracle had taken place and yet even in light of the plain facts, the Jewish leaders refused to acknowledge reality. How could this happen? A few chapters later, John peels back the theological curtain for his readers to help answer this very question.
In John 12 after Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, just days before his mock trial and crucifixion, John tells us: “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him” (12:37). Accordingly, John explains that this was in fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah had spoken some 700 years prior: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them” (12:40; cf. Isa 6:10).
The underlying issue was not whether there was evidence supporting Jesus’s claims of being the Messiah—he had performed countless miracles in the presence of many witnesses. The issue was the spiritual blindness and hardness of heart of those who, although they saw the miracles, they nevertheless failed to see Jesus for who he truly was.
The Apostle Paul provides us some vocabulary to describe this phenomenon in his letter to the Christians in Rome (which has already been cited above).
While establishing the universal guilt of mankind, Paul explains that all men know God because what can be known about God is “plain to them because God revealed it to them” (Rom 1:19). God has provided a clear, universal, objective witness to himself through creation and his dealings with humanity throughout history, and nevertheless, all men, without exception, suppress the truth that they know about God in unrighteousness (1:18).
Returning to the question I posed above, the reason it seems that Christian apologists are always trying to “prove” God’s existence is not because the evidence is lacking, but because in a spiritually dead state, men cannot see what is plain right before them—“seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matt 13:13). All humans, of all places, and all times have been and will continue to be surrounded by evidence of their Creator. Due to the sinful nature of mankind, the truth that this evidence communicates is buried, so to speak, and exchanged for lies—namely, that we are the gods of our own little realities.
It is not the case that God’s existence may only be known by rational argumentation, but rather his existence and attributes which are plainly revealed all around us has been suppressed and rejected. When Christians provide their rational arguments they are not so much seeking to prove God’s existence as much as they are attempting to demonstrate that belief in God’s existence is, in fact, a rational belief.
I will close with this: Yes, God does exist, and he has provided an undeniable witness of that fact through the created realm. While this is true, men suppress knowledge of their Creator and in its place accept lies (i.e., “there is no God…”). While there are rational “proofs” for believing that God does exist, it requires nothing less than the supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit on the heart of a sinner to accept this reality and to repent of their foolishness (cf Ps 14:1).