How Can We Know God is Real?

By What We See

Firstly, by what we see. Suppose you were walking along a street and you came to a property with overgrown trees and shrubs, long grass, broken concrete paths and a total unkempt wilderness look about it, what would you think? You would think that there is no gardener there, just mindless growth and that no one was caring for that property. If the theory of evolution is true, then that is what this world and universe would be like.

Now suppose you keep walking further down the street and come to another property with a beautiful garden. Here you see nicely mowed lawns, clean edges, trimmed trees and shrubs, flower beds all artistically arranged in a glorious harmony of colour, "That is the work of a master gardener," you say to yourself. You can't see the gardener, you don't know the gardener but you are convinced he exists. Your own intelligence and common sense tells you so. There could not be so much intelligent design without an intelligent designer. As we look out on this world and universe we see the evidence of a great intelligent designer and provider, a great artist, a great creator, a great God.

Now, if one week later, you happen to pass the same property and to your horror you see horrible tire marks digging into part of the lawn, shrubs rudely pulled out, branches from trees look deliberately broken, flowers trampled on and graffiti on the concrete path, you would say, "This is the work of a vandal!" The beauty is still there, the design is still there, the evidence of the work of a master gardener is still there but much has been spoilt by an irresponsible intruder. We can say the same thing about this beautiful world we live in. But we would be foolish to stop believing in the Creator God because of these blemishes, instead we should do some research to find out who the intruder into our beautiful world is.

The only book that gives an adequate answer to these questions is the Bible. Let's see what the Bible says about this wonderful Creator. Psalm 19:1 `The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

The Bible is saying that we are without excuse for not believing in God. The evidence and proof is all around us, from the cradle to the grave, that God is, that God exists. I remember as a boy looking at a sunset and exclaiming, "There is something great!"

"There is something great!" Well there is not only something great but there is someone great, we call Him God.

We All Have a Deep Knowledge of God

Secondly by what we feel. I am talking about a feeling that is deep down in our personalities, planted there by our creator. It is a knowledge of God that only surfaces with some people in a time of crisis. A time when people cry from their hearts, "O God help me!" Sometimes on national TV you will find people, who don't regard themselves as religious, say unashamedly when a little child has gone missing, "We are praying she will be found safe." Nobody laughs at them for saying it because deep down everyone agrees and feels for them. But all this is another evidence for God. This deep knowledge and feeling often conflicts with what we say we believe. You can have the situation where someone has convinced themselves in their intellect that they don't believe in God but they are really deceiving themselves for the feeling in their hearts contradicts it in times of crisis. I once had a conversation with a man who said he didn't believe in God but in that same conversation, a little later, he admitted that he prayed when things went wrong.

Now what I find with most people who say they don't believe in God is that it is not an intellectual problem but an emotional problem. Like the young mother who said to me, "I don't believe in God." I said, "Why don't you believe in God?" "Well," she said, "When I was a little girl I had a puppy and my puppy got sick. I prayed to God that my puppy would get better but it died and I haven't believed in God since then." She was quite serious about it. She had what many people have, an emotional block. For some people it is because some church or church members have done a real or an imagined injustice to them. Or some Christian has deeply hurt them and because of this they allow the emotional hurt block out God. Maybe they are angry with God for not answering their prayer, they may even say it is an intellectual problem but in reality it is emotional.

Now there maybe people who don't believe in God on a purely intellectual level. That would not be because they have used their intellect but rather they have had their intellect brainwashed by so called scientific theory or have come to conclusions from ever developing new scientific data that can change as new discoveries are made. True science cannot possibly leave out God. For science to leave out God is to be, "ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. " I remember a medical man who was involved in research saying to me, "I wish I could believe like you, I envy people who believe like you. I used to believe like you but through my studies I have lost any faith or belief I had." He was a gifted man, a nice man but believing in God had become intellectual confusion. He had immersed himself in the minute study of a small part of the creation and had lost sight of the creator. But even he, I'm sure, in an extreme crisis would find himself, despite himself, crying out, "God help me'"

Just as Psalm 65:2 says, "O You who hear prayer, to you all men will come." In others words it is natural and normal for people to pray, especially in times of trouble.

Our Conscience is Proof

Thirdly, we know God is true by the fact we have a conscience. Conscience is the faculty in us that God has planted as a kind of referee. In sport a referee penalises a team when someone breaks the rules and acknowledges an increase in the score for the team when someone gets a goal. Now, implanted in us there seems to be a basic knowledge of right and wrong. If we do something good our inner referee acknowledges it by making us feel real good. But if we do something wrong; our inner referee blows his whistle and makes us feel real guilty.

Imagine driving in your car when up ahead you see a man lying on the road. Your first thought is to stop and see if you can help him. But you look at your watch you realise you are late for your lunch appointment. You think that maybe someone else will stop and help him and you drive on. You feel guilty, you should have stopped. You feel guilty for the rest of the day and when you put your head on your pillow at night you still feel guilty wondering what happened to the man. You don't sleep very well all because the referee in your heart had blown his whistle and made you feel bad.

But imagine what would have happened if you had stopped. You would have called for an ambulance on your mobile and helped the man the best way you could. The ambulance arrives and the man is lifted inside. Before he drives away the ambulance driver says to you, "You saved that man's life." How would you feel? Why you would feel great. The referee in your heart would tell you that you had scored a goal. That night you would put your head on the pillow saying to yourself, "I saved a man's life today."

Someone might say some people act as if their conscience is dead. You might be able to put your conscience to sleep but you can never kill it. One day it will wake up and you find nothing has changed. So what does all this tell us? It tells us that the God who made us wants us to live right and not wrong. He wants us to be good and do good because that is what He is like. Psalm 119:68 says talking about God, "You are good, and what You do is good."

So far we have sought to establish that there is a creator God who made us and all things. That He has planted a knowledge of Himself in our hearts that comes out particularly in a time of crisis. That He has given us a conscience that is like a referee in our hearts that lets us know when we do good and when we do bad. That God Himself is good. The Bible also has some other interesting things to say about God. For example:

Acts 17:24-28 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being."

Believing in the existence of God is one thing but to seek Him and reach out to Him and find Him is another. God is not just a power or a force, He is a personality, a divine all powerful personality that we can come to know. He is our Creator and He wants a relationship with us. Jeremiah 29:13 speaking about God says, "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." We cannot be half-hearted about seeking God. God wants to know if we mean business. Will you start seeking God today?

If you would like further help or information, or if you made a commitment to the Lord through reading this, please write to us at office@pcf.gen.nz

We'd love you to visit us at PCF on Sundays to learn more about following Jesus.