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God Exists.
Saturday September 7, 2000. Visit an expanded site at FaithFromFacts.com
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I Was Saved By God's Grace
INTRODUCTION. This testimony is about a former atheist. I am a 50 year old lawyer and have been a Christian for 12 years. Most of my life was spent under the delusion that there is no God. Science was on the throne; the resurrection seemed to be a myth.
HOW YOU KNOW and WHAT YOU KNOW. I was taught by several atheists in my major, philosophy. One professor in particular made a passing remark in an epistemology class, [epistemology is the study of how we know things] "Christians believe truth is received from what they call God as a revelation. But, of course, they are wrong."
The comment was significant because it illustrated the most fundamental question which is "how do I know if something is true?" For me the fundamental questions were not, "What does science say or what does the Bible say?"
My professor's comment stuck in my mind for years, because the professor stated some people claimed there was another epistemological method, but it was one never taught in a public university.
What the Bible says is a much easier question; any fair reading gives just one account of a single set of claimed facts:
1) There is a purposeful God who created the world;
2) People are sinful;
3) Jesus is God;
4) Jesus died to take the penalty for our sins;
5) Everyone who trusts their lives to Jesus' free gift and His resurrection will become children of God, born from above, born into eternal life; and
6) God brings judgment on all the rest.
Until I was 38 years old, I understood the first four and the last claimed points. Even though I thought it was foolishness, I knew the Bible made those assertions. But number 5) was something I did not grasp. I had not read the Bible much, it all seemed like nonsense, and I did not understand salvation as a free gift from God. Perhaps I had ears, but could not hear and eyes, but could not see.
A DIM LIGHT. While as an atheist I believed truth was absolute, there was no point in either criticizing Christians or trying to disabuse them of their superstitions. But as a wannabe-philosopher, something kept me reading and studying off and on after college. I took courses on the history of ideas. I subscribed to popular science magazines, and when I had time, I would spend it in either telling or hearing some new thing.
TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A TRUTH. I knew of the debate between nonbelievers and Christians. Much of the debate was the same thing I had heard before in college. However, three interesting characteristics of that debate continued to catch my interest:
First, many Bible attackers tried to discredit the Bible, but they never used honest reasoning or facts. I thought it was odd that people apparently felt they could not attack it head on.
For example, the most common slam is that the Bible was written because people couldn't explain how the world operated. Leaders invented god to answer questions from uneducated sheep herders living in the desert. In contrast, we now have science to answer those questions, and we no longer need the myth of god. Therefore we no longer need the Bible. The logic seems impeccable. Science and evolution are the grease for these ideas in an industrial society.
The second attack is a favorite of many liberals, although not exclusively. In this view, god was invented by nasty leaders to control the masses of sheep herders living in the desert.
What bothered me about both of these attacks was that there is a difference between the questions: "What does the Bible say?" and "Is it true?" As I stated above, what the Bible claims is obvious to an unbiased mind. For example, I did not read about sheep herders puzzling over why things happened in the world or that Bible made the Jews or Christians especially manageable people! Jesus was put to death by the Romans in a way used for criminals. The Jews stoned Stephen to death. Peter was imprisoned and Paul caused riots. James and John were called the sons of thunder. Those aren't the first role models that would spring to mind for mass hypnosis to promote civil tranquility.
Despite the common attacks on the Bible, its ideas are the ones most often counterfeited. Why didn't people use the rules for baseball instead? Every "new truth" has to have a line or two from the Bible. The use of Biblical allusions is epidemic among nonbelievers. If those sheep herders were so backward, why do their writings constitute the largest selling book of all time and why is the Bible rather than the humanist manifestos used by everyone in support of their own "modern," or "enlightened" view of truth? Every goofy religion seems to be the new, secret, previously unknown, or real meaning of what those superstitious desert wanderers thought about.
Third, Christians would try to convince me to believe the Bible by asking a question and then giving the answer from the Bible. They never grasped the point that if I did not accept the Bible as a source of truth, saying, "The Bible says...." has no persuasive effect on the mind.
These were three interesting approaches to the Bible, one from atheists who built straw men interpretations, one from inventors of religion who always infringed on the Bible's patent, and one from Christians who never dealt with the, OK-I-see-what-it-says-now-prove-it-is-true question. But these were secondary issues in my life because I was convinced that there was no God in the first place. I didn't stay awake at night pondering these matters. At least not until I was 35 years old.
A SEARCH. After having a full season of life's experiences, I felt something was missing. I realized the pursuit of learning new things was actually a search to fill something that was empty. [How many times have you heard that before!]
For three years I reread portions of the books I had from college and bought more philosophy books. I even dusted off my copy of the I Ching and all the Eastern religion books I had. Hum, they still missed the target.
I zeroed in on the Western philosophers, but they lacked common sense, something I never noticed when I was 20 years old in college. For example, Descartes said "Cogito, ergo sum"; "I think; therefore, I am." I thought to myself, "Wow, I even paid good money to learn this stuff." Maybe the transition from being a long-haired college student to a slightly balding father explains the wider vision. A more applicable paraphrase of truth would be, "I think, therefore I am not sure."
Anyway, in 1987 at the age of 38 after satisfying myself that I hadn't missed some secret truth along the way, I also concluded that the epistemology of science also came up short. I felt there had to be more truth and more certainty. But I couldn't find either. I gradually formed the thought that the answers were elusive because of where I had been searching, not how deeply.
IS THERE A GOD? The only reasonable course of action was to explore what I had not studied before, the possibility of the existence of God just like the Bible says. [And how many times have you heard that before too!]
Ironically, the analysis of the theory of evolution proved to be my first step to the knowledge of God, here's how it happened: I had accepted the theory of evolution as it was taught: There are gradual changes in animals over millions of years. The accumulated changes make some animals able to eat, defend against predators, and reproduce better in the same environment than animals who lack these changes.
However, after study with an open mind, I concluded that evolutionary theory is incorrect, it does not explain what we see. The facts are that 1) there is no evidence of such changes in animals, and 2) the universe is not old enough to produce the life or its complexity by chance in such a short time.
I became convinced that the king of modern thought, evolution, was not true. Because evolutionary theory is the principal weapon against the Bible, I thought maybe the creator God of the Bible might be real. After I examined this for months, I was convinced that God was the only reasonable explanation of the universe and life.
GOD HAS SIGNS TO MARK THE WAY. I knew no Christians, but began to listen to Christian radio at night.
During this time, I traveled about every month on I-4. In a rural area in front of a white home was a large 6' x 6' white sign with large black letters: "God's Free Gift Eternal Life." I read it every time I passed by. God placed the one point of the plan of salvation I did not know on a big sign for me to read frequently, it was even lettered appropriately for my simple black and white mind.
GOD IS. One day God burst onto my consciousness, a certainty authored by God that He is real. This was not existential mumbo jumbo, "if you think God is real then he is real for you," but a knowledge that God is real outside my heart and mind because His existence is a fact. It is fact number one in the universe. It was quite an enlightenment, just like my atheist professor had said many years ago. "Christians believe truth is received from what they call God as a revelation." Now I knew they were right!
Because there is a purposeful God who created the universe, it was reasonable to conclude that as a free gift, God could send His son into the world, that Jesus' coming was because God loved me even though I was a sinner, and that if I had total absolute faith that Jesus' death and resurrection was for me, He would save me from my sin. The sign along the road might be true too!
BORN AGAIN. I completely emptied myself, repented of my sin, and placed my faith [total trust] in God's free gift. I had faith that Jesus died and was resurrected from the grave. A huge weight lifted away, there was light, peace, and warmth. A big bang of the Holy Spirit engulfed me.
I bought an NIV Bible and remembered from the radio that the Gospel of John is a good place to start. I began to read and I knew it was true. This was a certainty that comes from the Holy Spirit. Then when I got to John chapter 3, I remember I slapped the page and thought, "That's what happened to me, born again!
That is my testimony.
FINAL OBSERVATIONS. Do I think my testimony will affect atheists? I sure hope so! But if you understood my testimony, my experience is that it is only God opens the closed heart.
But my main purpose is to speak to Christians who did NOT spend 37 years in darkness. Too many Christians think that science is antagonistic to faith and that nonbelievers have logic on their side while Christians only have faith.
ATHEISTS ARE NOT LOGICAL. If it weren't for bad logic, atheists would have no logic at all. They use the following logical fallacies:
1. They adopt a metaphysics that denies the possibility of God. Metaphysics is the study of the elemental principles of the world.
Atheists assume a metaphysics that there can be no miracles and that all things continue as they have been from the beginning of creation. They say the universe has always been in existence. Atheists begin at this point. They expect Christians to begin here too. Some Christians may think they must begin here to be "scientific." Don't! [Can you guess why so many Christians' world view is nearly identical to that of their atheist instructors? They accept the wrong assumptions or conclusions of their teachers.]
It is not logical to assume that God does not exist when the question is "Does God exist?" This fallacy is called "begging the question."
You cannot help enlighten an atheist's dead mind if you adopt all of the atheist's nutty assumptions. You are not being subjected to impeccable logic, you are being subjected to a logical sleight of hand. [In a discussion the logical knife cuts both ways, the Christian should not begin the discussion by assuming that the answer can only be, "Yes, God exists."]
2. Atheists adopt an epistemology that says only events observable today or identical to events observable today can be known as truth. This is the classic, "God's existence cannot be scientifically proven. It's just a matter of personal belief. If you believe, then it's true for you, but it is not true as a fact. Science has facts and Christians have faith." This is hogwash. [That's a technical philosophical term!]
For example, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is a well-documented fact, unique to be sure, but strongly supported by eyewitnesses. However, it is not the kind of fact the atheist accepts as knowledge. The resurrection cannot be duplicated in an experiment and it seems contrary to the many deaths in which there is no resurrection.
A summary of the atheists' argument is: "We know millions die each year and no one has been resurrected; Jesus could not have been raised from the dead, it's simple logic." This too is hogwash. Inductive reasoning is an opaque lens to solitary light.
Never think atheists live by fact and you live faith. You do live by faith, but it is a faith grounded in the two most powerful and enduring facts in the universe. God is real. Jesus was resurrected and is alive today, as you read this. You have better facts than the atheist ever will.
Unlike atheists, Christians don't need to assume the answer to win an argument, use facts.
FACTS WERE POWERFUL TO EARLY BELIEVERS. Paul was not a weak, ignorant, desert nomad who needed an intellectual crutch. He built his letters on hard facts. Luke reassured his readers that his Gospel was the product of eyewitness accounts because people back then were interested in facts just like you are today.
Could the Jews and Romans compete with the facts relied upon by the early Christians? Did the Jews and Romans use logic against the Gospel? No, they had to resort to beatings and murder in a futile attempt to defeat the Christians.
Here are 4 questions to discuss with an atheist with a searching mind:
1. Is truth absolute?
2. Is the law of noncontradiction always applicable?
3. Is there doubt in conclusions based on inductive-reasoning?
4. Is epistemology more important than metaphysics in seeking truth?
An atheist who understands why the answer to each question is "Yes" may be able to see beyond epistemological restrictions when you share your personal relationship with the living God.
Our job is to be a witness to what God has done in our lives. No matter what the reaction from those we meet, God is watching over us. He will not forsake us. God's sovereignty is a comfort to Christians, a call to atheists. God's sovereignty is the subject of the following old hymn:
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own.
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How To Seek God
In my situation, the most helpful step was when I began to think without any assumptions. If you start by assuming that facts are only those things capable of being duplicated by humans or that facts are only those things which happen over and over again so that humans can observe them, you have assumed that truth cannot be found where it might be. If you are searching for the truth, you must be capable to pursing it anywhere it leads. If it leads past your assumptions, you will never know the truth if you treat assumptions as the boundaries of fact. When you want to know the truth more than defend assumptions, you have taken the first step. You can know the truth, and it shall set you free.
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The Turn of the Century
The most significant event of the 20th century was the use of knowledge to cloak truth. Society will be directed not by the knowledge it takes into the year 2000, but by the truth it leaves behind.
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GLIMPSES OF GOD -- A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
This is a site I looked at on May 3, 2000. It is a true blessing. Please take the time to visit this beautiful site.
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Theology Links To Some Great Sites
Sheila's Scibbles This is a super site and you will really enjoy it.
Phillip Johnson Page - Access Research Network Best Theology on the Web.
The Divinity of Christ The diety of Christ [Jesus Christ is God] is one of the most important issues. Christianity is being attacked every day by people who incorrectly say that Jesus is not God. Know what the Bible says and you too can know that Jesus is God.
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Encouragemnt
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PAGE INFORMATION
This page is intended to glorify the grace and love of God. This page was updated on September 7, 2000.
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