An apologetic letter in reply to a sceptical friend who raised the issue of ‘’I don’t think anyone can be sure about God’s existence’’.

By Staff Blogger Steve Green

Dear Kenny,

Thanks for your letter and your honesty, when you shared  “I don’t think anyone can be sure about God’s existence.”

I can relate to this, there was a time in my life when I had doubts about God’s existence. During this period,  I experienced a series of significant personal setbacks. Things I held dearly, were slipping away from me . When I was at my lowest ebb and in considerable pain, I cried out to God, wondering if anyone would hear my cry.

God heard my cry and responded.  Why on that particular day did God heard my cry ? . CS Lewis says, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (1) . With the chaos and pain in my life, God was able to speak directly to me, certainly that was how it felt.

I felt God say, I should read John 3, a well-known chapter in the Bible, which speaks of having an entirely fresh start in life, once you accept Jesus as your saviour. Jesus says in John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” The words of Jesus became real and alive to me, from that moment on, my belief in God was unshakable.

Whilst my belief is based on my personal experience and relationship with God, I take comfort in the fact the Bible contains no scientifically incorrect statements. There are also numerous examples of the Bible referencing science, thousand of years before man understood the science.

Pleiades

In Job 38:31 , God is talking to Job about his creation and omnipotence, he says: “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades ? Can you loosen Orion’s belt ?.” At the time, this statement would have made little sense. Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters is a gravitationally bound star cluster, which means, the stars of Pleiades move through space together due to their mutual gravitational influence . Galileo Galilei was the first man to view Pleiades using a telescope and commented “the galaxy is nothing else, but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters ” (2). However God knew the stars in Pleiades were held together by gravity  or as God described it at the time “Chains.” 

Unlike Galileo, God knew exactly how many stars are in the sky, as God made a promise to Abraham that his dependents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (3). Orion’s belt is an unbound asterism, a group of stars with no gravitational attraction or as God put it, “loosened Orion’s belt” as the stars freely move apart. God documented this scientific phenomenon in the Bible, thousands of years before Scientist became aware of the same phenomena. I am unable to explain how the Bible documented the movement of Pleiades, thousands of years before humans became aware that Pleiades was a bounded system, without reference to God and his omniscience.

The water cycle is the process by which water is continuously transferred between the surface of the earth and the atmosphere. The Met Office describe the Water Cycle (4) as: The sun warms the water on the surface of the planet; the water then vaporises and rises into the Earth’s atmosphere. The Water vapour will then return to liquid water or some variation (snow, ice, hail, or sleet) and fall to the Earth, where the water will gather in rivers and be transferred back to the sea. I have in very simplistic terms described the Water Cycle, which was first documented by Bernard Palissy in 1580 (5). Yet thousand of years before this, God wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes “All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.” (6), How could the book of Ecclesiastes give a very brief overview of the Water Cycle, thousands of years before Bernard Palissy first documented the process ? I believe that only God had this knowledge at this time.

I find the Scientific discoveries referenced in the Bible fascinating and interesting discussion points; However they may not be the conclusive proof you require. You have doubts about the very existence of God and that can only be addressed by communication between you and God. If you will get down on your knees and pray words to the effect of “God, you know my heart, you know the doubts I have, if you do exist then I want you in my life. God please come and change my heart and lead me on a path where I can learn more about you. The Bible says you are “Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” Lord be gracious and have compassion on me and change my life forever.”

If sincerely prayed, your request will determine the issue. If God does not exist, your prayer is a sincere request to the atmosphere and heard by no one else. However if God does exist, you are about to begin the most wonderful life transforming journey, beyond your wildest expectations. As Jesus comes into your heart, the same promises he made in the Bible chapter John 3, will become available to you. A new start full of hope, a love that changes you and a true purpose in your life.

My friend, take your doubts to God in prayer and let him reassure you, as a loving Father would do with a doubting child.

You will remain in my prayers daily.

Your friend

Steve

Citations

(1) C.S. Lewis, The problem with pain. “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world....No doubt pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. it removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of the rebel soul.”

(2)– Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius 1610.

(3) Genesis 15:5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

(4) Met Office Website - https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/how-weather-works/water-cycle

(5) Bernard Palissy, Discours Admirables (1580).

(6) Ecclesiastes 1:7