Praise God that Americans, by a thin majority in the election, rejected cultural Marxism. But the war of ideas will continue to rage on social media and college campuses. The rising generation will continue to encounter the argument that intelligent people reject the Bible in deconversion stories like that of S. A. Joyce, which he entitled, “One Night I Prayed to Know the Truth. The Next Morning I Discovered that I Was an Atheist.” Here are his words:
In the years after leaving the military, I went back to college… I pieced together, bit by bit, a humanistic set of values which turned out to be far more self-consistent and pertinent to the modern world than a petrified Decalogue of biblical taboo. It was becoming clear to me that the universe behaved pretty much as might be expected if God didn’t exist, or at least didn’t care. It gradually dawned upon me that in the grand scheme of things there was in fact no grand scheme…God performed no observable function and had no valid purpose. The question entered my mind, “What is a God without purpose and for which there is no evidence?” “Non-existent,” came the obvious answer (Keller, Making Sense of God)
This episode equips men to guide their families and friends to see that science and logic do NOT undermine belief in God. To the contrary, the evidence for the existence of God is so compelling that it is unreasonable not to believe in God.
As we continue our series on knowing God, we come to his supernatural attributes, i.e. characteristics of the infinite God. But before digging into them, it is important to realize how necessary these characteristics are to explain human life, even though fallen man wants to suppress this truth. Today, best-selling books written by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris promote the idea that science in general, and evolutionary science in particular, have made belief in God obsolete. In The God Delusion, Dawkins argues that you can’t be an intelligent scientific thinker and still hold religious beliefs. It is one or the other. What less enlightened humans couldn’t understand and therefore attributed to some kind of god, we now can explain by science. The Bible’s miracles exhibit the same mythology that all religions have used to explain things they couldn’t understand. But scientists know better.
Though popular, this argument is not based on sound reasoning. Science is, by definition, the study of the material world; it is only equipped to test for causes within the closed system of the physical, natural order. Dawkins assumes but does not prove that all events that take place in the natural order can be explained entirely by other events inside that closed, material system. He is like a mechanic who is trying to fix a car that won’t start. He studies every aspect of the system—the car—for an explanation. But suppose that car was in northern Canada, and it was -40 degrees. The assumption that the internal system of the car explains the car not starting is false. Something outside the system, namely the temperature, explains reality. Science is the investigation of the closed, material universe; it is unable to perceive what is outside the material universe. Dawkin’s hidden premise is that because science can’t see a spiritual cause outside the material world there can’t be one. That is like a Canadian mechanic saying, “there has to be something wrong with the car, itself,” disregarding a cause outside the car’s system. So, science does not at all prove that God doesn’t exist; it just assumes it.
But the biblical response to Dawkins goes much further than pointing out his faulty reasoning in assuming his conclusion. Scientific observation yields weighty evidence that there must be a supernatural being who exists outside of the material order.
THE FAILURE OF SECULAR MATERIALISM TO EXPLAIN LIFE
A. Intelligent design. Here is an experiment to conduct with your child, or grandchild. While sitting in the living room, point to any object in the room and ask him, “Do you think this was MADE by someone or RANDOMLY CAME INTO EXISTENCE BY CHANCE?” In my living room, it would be, “Do you think this piano just happened because it evolved on its own or that someone designed and built it?” Do you think this lamp just accidentally came together because a lightbulb and brass pole just happened to get blown together in a junk yard with some electrical wire, or that someone designed and created this lamp?” We need to help them see that everything about human experience tells us that if we see order anywhere in the world around us, there was an orderer. If they are walking in the woods and see a treehouse, they know that someone built it. If they pick up your cell phone, they know they are looking at something that was intelligently designed. If they walk into the classroom at school and the warm-up activity for that class is written on the board, they know someone wrote those words on the board. The most logical scientific truth of all is that if we see order in this physical world, it is because there is an orderer. NOTHING in life indicates that order results from disorder or random chance. The order of the universe points to a designer.
B. The Big Bang. There is strong scientific evidence that the universe is expanding, which has led most scientists to reason backwards towards a starting point. One Scientist writes, “We have a very solid conclusion that the universe has an origin, the Big Bang. Fifteen billion years ago, the universe began with an unimaginably bright flash of energy from an infinitesimally small point. That implies that before that, there was nothing” (Francis Collins, The Language of God). The concept of self-creation is a logical impossibility. To create you must exist. Self-creation means you existed before you existed, which is a nonsense statement. So, the very fact that the universe had a beginning implies that someone outside of the universe was able to begin it. Science therefore points to a creator.
C. Cosmic Welcome Mat. Science tells us that for organic life to exist, the constants of physics—the speed of light, the gravitational constant, the strength of the weak and strong nuclear forces—must all have values that together fall into an extremely narrow range. The probability of this perfect calibration happening is mathematically zero. Collins observes,
“When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants—the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc. that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by one part in a million million, the universe could not have come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets, or people” (Ibid).
D. The Clue of Love, Beauty, and Meaning. Naturalism says that the physical world of matter and energy is all that exists. But every human who thinks about it realizes that we all sense a spiritual reality behind the material world. There is a reality behind the words, beauty, love, heroism. Those qualities exist beyond mere chemical reactions in our brains. Padgett & Sunshine point out,
Naturalism runs counter to our experience of life. Love, hate, self-consciousness, self-awareness, all of these are just chemical reactions. Good and evil and right and wrong do not exist since they are neither matter nor energy. You can’t even call them cultural preferences since a preference is neither matter not energy….You are nothing more than a robot carrying out the necessary and inevitable results of biology, chemistry, physics, and math. While some people claim they believe this is true, it is extremely doubtful that they really believe it deep down, and it is certain that they do not and cannot live as if it were true (The Image Restored).
E. Moral Obligation. If you were jogging on a path beside a river and someone who was drowning cried for help, what would you do? Almost every human being would immediately try to help. The materialist understanding of life can’t explain why. In fact, Darwin’s survival of the fittest would demand that a human NOT risk drowning to help another. One pastor responding to a couple’s unbelief asked “Is there anything you think is absolutely wrong?" The wife answered, “Male abuse of women.” The pastor responded, “I fully agree because I am a Christian. The Bible says God made all human beings in his image. But why do you see harming women as wrong?” She responded, “Women are human beings and human beings have rights. It’s wrong to trample on someone’s rights.” The pastor asked, "How do you know that?" She smiled realizing she was in a corner. Scientific naturalism has no explanation for why male blobs of protoplasm should not rape female blobs of protoplasm. It can’t account for our moral feelings, let alone the fact that we all believe there are external moral standards by which moral feelings are evaluated.
The above 5 scientific observations about the world we inhabit don’t prove the existence of God. They only prove that it is much more reasonable to believe in a supreme being than not to. Alvin Plantinga illustrates that absolute proof isn’t necessary for humans to act. He imagines a man dealing himself 20 straight hands of 4 aces in poker. As his companions reach for their six-shooters the poker player says, “I know if looks suspicious! But what if there is an infinite succession of universes with an infinite possible distribution of poker hands and there is one universe in which the dealer deals himself 20 straight aces without cheating.” This argument will have no effect on the other players. They couldn’t technically prove he had cheated, but it would be unreasonable to conclude that he hadn’t.
ALL HUMANS SUPPRESS THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD
As we lead someone to faith in Christ or launch our child into the world, it is imperative that he understand that logic supports belief in God but that human nature suppresses that belief. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO BY THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS SUPPRESS THE TRUTH. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. The picture behind the word, suppress is that of holding down a spring. Nature unremittingly leaps out to all humans with arrows pointing to its creator, one who is eternal, i.e. outside the created order, and one who is divine, i.e. one who is God. All are given this knowledge of God. But because our autonomous sinful nature refuses to honor God by surrendering to him as the one to whom we owe obedience, and because we refuse to give thanks to God as the one on whom we depend to sustain life every second—our foolish hearts suppress the truth that he is our creator.
We see this human tendency in the research of Charles Darwin. In 1831, on a voyage to the Galapagos Islands, Darwin observed that the beak shapes of finches varied. His research substantiated that the beaks of an ancestral species had adapted over time to equip the finches to acquire different food sources. He found no scientific evidence to support the idea that finches became crabs—that species morphed into other species, admitting that there was no fossil evidence to support one species evolving into another. Nevertheless, with zero evidence, Darwin extrapolated from his legitimate research on adaptation within a species to the worldview of evolution that denies the creature’s accountability to God. Millions still cling to this theory even though it has been debunked by science.
GOD’S EXISTENCE OUTSIDE OF CREATION—INCOMMUNICABLE ATTRIBUTES
A. Self-existence. When a child asks, “Who made God?” the answer may not be as hard as we think. It is, “God did not need to be made because he has always existed.” The theological word for this self-existence of God is aseity. This characteristic of God is identified by Paul in Acts 17 when he challenged the Athenian Christians: to seek God, saying that he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (vs 27-28). R. C. Sproul in his book, The Character of God, elucidates this attribute:
"To say that God is self-existent simply means that there is no time when God started to exist. He has always been. He is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. Nothing caused God to come into existence. God did not make Himself. He made us. In a word, God is not a creature. He is not dependent. He is not derived. He is not fragile. Rather, God is the Creator. He is independent, self-sufficient, and secure. God, and God alone, has the power of being within Himself. He is who He is. “I AM WHO I AM.” That God is self-existent means that He is unique. He alone is the source of all being. He alone has the power of being. He alone is eternal. He alone is supreme."
This characteristic that he is outside of creation and self-existent is foundational for our security. He is dependent upon no one and no thing. No force exists that can change him. At the same time, his aseity is the source of our humility. If God died, we would instantly perish. We are utterly dependent upon him every second.
B. Omnipresence. One of the Christian’s boldest assertions is that there is a reality that far exceeds the visibility of the physical world. “God is spirit,” said Jesus, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (Jn 4:24). Because God is an infinite spirit, he can be omnipresent. In fact, the universe is replete with his presence. This biblical teaching is far from pantheism, which is disallowed in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The boundary between God and the material universe is a boundary of being. The being of the created world is a lower order of being than the being of God because God’s power of self-existence is lacking in creaturely beings who must be sustained in their existence by God. Scripture affirms “that there exists a higher plane of reality than the plane upon which we live our everyday lives. This other reality is the spiritual realm” (Ibid). God’s omnipresence reminds us that there is much more to life than what we can see with our eyes. One morning when Elishah’s servant stepped outside, he realized he and Elisha were surrounded by an army intent on killing them. Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-17). Those of us who are Star Wars fans may miss the truth that spirit is much more than force. God is a creative, personal, loving, moral being. The spiritual world deals not only with spiritual beings but with the hidden world of the heart. The outworking of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.
C. Omnipotence. In Genesis 17:1 God refers to himself as God ALMIGHTY. When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. Later in this conversation, God tells Abraham that he will bear a son through his ninety-year-old wife, Sarah. As the eternal, infinite God, his power over creation is total. There is no limit to God’s power except himself, when he choses to limit his use of that power. He could have prevented Satan from rebelling as well as the disobedience of Adam and Eve. We do not live in a dualistic universe, caught between two equal warriors, God and Satan who are battling it out for supremacy. Satan is on God’s leash. Humans don’t have the mental horsepower to understand why God allows evil. We are not only told that God is so good that evil cannot exist in his immediate presence but that he is so good that he turns evil into a tool for good. For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28).
One of the most important principles in understanding God’s omnipotence is that he limits the use of his power because of his decision to involve man, his image bearers, in ordering and shaping earth. He has limited his creative power, not delivering an iPhone 16-Pro to Adam in the garden, nor an adult son named Isaac to Sarah. The process of us exercising dominion is God’s ordained way to exercise his creative power and his recreative power. Paul finds it especially important to remind the Ephesian Christians of that process when they pray. He points to the power of the one to whom we pray: who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us (Eph 3:20).
D. Omniscience. Proverbs 15:3 warns, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. The truth that God is all-knowing is a terror to those who do not belong to Jesus. But here are 3 reasons why this attribute is a comfort to those who do.
- God is the God of all knowledge. There is no conflict between Christianity and science. The old faith vs reason division is false. We never need to fear the academic world or of scientific facts. God invented knowledge. It is the accumulation of facts about his creation!
- God knows the future. He is outside of time. He views the timeline of history, past, present, and future. There is nothing in the future that can take him by surprise. When I seek his guidance, he gives it in light of the future. Nothing unforeseen can ruin his perfect plan for my life.
- God knows everything in my closet of shame but still loves me. God has searched and known us, our sitting down, our rising up, and everything in our locked diaries of shame. Yet he is the God of all grace who loves me.
E. Immutability. In Malachi 3:6, God says, I, Yahweh, do not change. There is an inner consistency to God. He undergoes no mutations. He is very different from Allah in Islam who can change his mind upon any whim. But God is internally consistent. Is there anything that God can’t do? Yes. He can’t act against his immutable nature. The same God who has not stepped in to prevent the loss of a loved one, allowing my heart to be crushed, is the one who loved me so much that he gave his only son to die for me. The author of the NT book of James was the half-brother of Jesus. In the first chapter of his letter, James addresses how to handle our everyday trials. I’m sure that he knew exactly how his brother, Jesus, handled trials. James tells us that one of those key principles is to be confident of the immutability of God—his unchanging character. The same God taking his readers through trials was the giver of every good gift they enjoyed. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
God is an unchanging, supernatural, fabulous being.
For Further Prayerful Thought
- What evidence would you martial to support an argument that it is much more reasonable to believe in the existence of God than not to?
- Why do you think it might be important to help our rising young adults understand the biblical teaching that human sinful nature leads man to suppress the truth that creation proves there is a God?
- Look back to God’s supernatural attributes. Which ones most stood out to you? How can knowing these attributes help you delight in the Lord?
