WHY I BELIEVE IN GOD

The first book in the Bible, Genesis, begins with these words: “In the beginning God…” Do you believe in God? Why? Or why not? Most people do believe in God. Or, at least, in one form or another. Atheists are in a minority in the world today and throughout history.

I don’t think that I have ever doubted the existence or the reality of God despite not being raised in a religious atmosphere. I was too aware of “the splendor of the whole creation, the beauty of this world, the wonder of life, and the mystery of love.” People were indifferent to God in my childhood days but were not out and out skeptics. One of my high school teachers was offended when I accused him of being an atheist. He preferred calling himself an agnostic – seeking refuge in being non-committal.

The Bible assumes the existence of God. The problem in the ancient world was not atheism but a multiplicity of gods. Genesis is written to demonstrate the work of the one and only God in creation and salvation. But the intellectual culture of the Western world in which we live today does not assume the existence of God. Atheism has become the default faith of many of the academic and media elite. God is seen as unnecessary to their beliefs and their lives.

British philosopher, Roger Scruton, maintains that the culture which prevails today in his country, sees belief in God as a sign of emotional and intellectual immaturity. He maintains that there is “more than one motive underlying the atheist culture of our times, and the desire to escape from the eye of judgment is one of them.” (The Face of God, p.2)  If you feel you that you can behave as you like without any accountability, you won’t want to believe in God.

While many scientists and philosophers reject questions of reason or purpose for the universe as outside the limits of human thinking, the question of “why, to what end, and for what reason, is there a world that contains creatures like us?” still confront us. (ibid. p.7) Science deals with causes. The question ‘why?’ also refers to the ultimate reason of things. This is what gives sense to the life of prayer. “We address God, as we address those we love, not with the ‘why?’ of explanation, but with the ‘why?’ of reason and the ‘why?’ of meaning.” (ibid. p.13)

You cannot argue people into believing in God. You cannot prove the existence of God, although there are many philosophical proofs for its probability. Ultimate questions require faith because there is a limit to rationality. The eternal requires infinite categories.

“Anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Heb 11:6)  However, if you were to ask me why I believed in God I would give you these reasons.

First, I believe in God because of the Human Mind. As a child I loved to read. I collected every copy of Classics Illustrated I could lay my hands on. I even bound them together in one immense volume. I would visit my father’s golfing friend in his lawyer’s office and devour his National Geographic magazines. I received a set of the ten volume Children’s Encyclopedia one Christmas, and poured over all the articles year by year. They had fascinating articles on geology and astronomy, animal life, famous men and women, history, wonder, art, biology, plant life, different countries and cultures, poetry, power, literature, ideas such as space, numbers, faith, eternity, vision, beauty, and the Bible. I still have a set of them and look up articles in them from time to time. They stimulated my thirst for knowledge.

All of us have the ability to think with our minds and imaginations. We have the capacity to connect the dots. We can explain how things work. We can experiment and develop theories. We can find meaning and purpose in life. We can write books about the human condition. We can create artistic designs. We can compose harmony in music. We can enjoy contentment and achievement. Our powers of observation can draw conclusions that satisfy our understanding. “What may be known about God is plain to them. 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.” (Rom 1:19,20)

An essential and important dimension of the human self….is that he can soar in thought beyond the immediate circumstances of his life…Humans are, as far as we know, the only animals that can be transported by a novel or a movie into another world, with its loves and hates, enchantments and terrors, cozy comforts and unnerving suspense. We alone can know, ten years in advance, that the moon will be full on a given day, or sixty years in advance, that we will one day molder in the ground. Only human life can be shaped by an ideal, such as the life of Christ, or an ideology, such as Marxism, or an obsession, like making money….. Because of our imagination – ability and compulsion to survey our lives, to see them for what they’re worth – meaninglessness is the destiny of human consciousness, except in the context of eternity.” (Robert C. Roberts, Spiritual Emotions, pp.51,55)

It is illogical to me to be conscious of all that makes life meaningful without also being conscious of an eternal purpose which is being fulfilled in and through my life and history. That which is so valuable in our lifetime cannot just disappear and be rendered useless in death. There must be some eternal dimension to existence, some creation and salvation, some Creator and Savior. Our consciousness of this life logically requires the eternal perspective who is God.

Second, I believe in God because of Moral Sense. All human societies have standards of right and wrong in order to survive. Most of us recognize the difference between what is just and what is unjust. We are aware of the values of sympathy, fairness, self-control, and duty. We condemn selfishness, cruelty, abuse, and violence. We experience consciousness of sin, shame and guilt. We need forgiveness. The Bible calls this moral sense: conscience – the requirements of God’s law is written on our hearts.

When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. (Rom 2:14-15, The Message)

Yes, some people suppress the truth of their conscience, harden their hearts against God and goodness, and give themselves over to evil.

Peter Hitchens has written, “The Rage Against God: how atheism led me to faith.” In contrast to his brother Christopher Hitchens, he tried atheism as a radical youth but was cured of it through experiencing what communism did to the morality and manners of the Russian people when he was a resident correspondent in Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I grew up in the aftermath of World War II. Living in New Zealand we were aware of the danger of being invaded by the Japanese. We could not comprehend the cruelties that were inflicted on so many people who were interned and made prisoners of war in Malaya, Singapore and, what were then, the Dutch East Indies. (See Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. The riveting saga of Louis Zamperini who endured the horrors of Japanese brutality in POW camps.)  When our soldiers returned from overseas they brought many stories of horrors they had experienced from enemies who did not seem to share the same moral code that we had been raised in as Christians. As a result, my mother would never buy anything made in Japan.

Many people find that the problem of evil in our world, the moral evil of the Holocaust for example, or the senseless suffering of children, makes it impossible for them to believe in God. To the contrary, I find that there is no answer to the problem of evil outside of a belief in the ultimate justice of God and eternal salvation. With God we are all accountable and personally responsible. If there were no evil in this world, and terrible things did not happen, I doubt that everyone would automatically give God credit and believe in him. I believe that our only hope in overcoming evil is in the kingdom of God: So we pray as Jesus taught us: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Third, I believe in God because of the Witness of Revelation. My home was across the street from our church. My parents sent me to Sunday School. Mrs. Moore taught us the stories of the Bible. I possessed an illustrated Bible with pictures of the characters and events of the Bible story. I grew familiar with the parables and miracles of Jesus. The Bible revealed to me the person and work of God.

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb 1:1,2).

As I read the Bible I become aware of the presence and power of God in the world and in my life. The more I read the greater my appetite grew. There was a spiritual hunger that was satisfied by daily meditation on a passage of Scripture. A personal relationship was established with Jesus that sustained me through my adolescence. The Bible became God’s love-letter to me. The witness of Spirit-filled men and women down through the ages revealed to me the reality of God. Jesus Christ was seen to be the light of the world. He revealed to me the glory of God. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word”  (Heb 1:3).

If you want to know God, begin your search with Jesus in the pages of the New Testament and in the story of God’s people, Israel, in the Old Testament. God himself is infinite in his being and altogether beyond our reach and comprehension.  That is why he has taken the initiative to reveal himself in the words of Holy Scripture — for we could never come to know him otherwise.

Fourth, I believe in God because of the Reality of Love. I grew up with an older sister and my parents in a small town with an extended family of cousins, aunts, uncles and two grandmothers, my grandfathers having died before I was born. My great-grandparents had settled there when the town was first established in the 1860’s. I was especially close to my maternal Nana who lived only a few houses away from us, with my mother’s much younger brother and sister. Her home was a haven for me as a child. I was secure and loved in the context of her house. We didn’t live in a house but in a suite of the hotel my parents inherited from my grandparents. As my parents were always busy running the hotel I spent much of my time with the kitchen and dining room staff. The cooks and the waitresses became my surrogate family. They humored me and put me to work preparing the food, washing the dishes, fetching supplies, toasting bread, carrying trays of food to customers. I was made to feel important and valuable. They showed me the attention that I craved.

When I left home the friendships of others meant all the world to me wherever I found myself. I was fortunate to be blessed with friends during college years and when I travelled to England to graduate school. My first Christmas in England found me being adopted by one of the faculty families in Durham, who became lifelong friends, and then a fellow-student and his family in Carlisle. When I moved to London I met my wife, we married and started our own family. Now we have two daughters and four grandchildren, as well as an extended family of siblings-in-law, nephews and nieces whom we love and care for, and who love us and care for us.

We all need to feel loved and valued. The inward feeling of love for another transcends all that passes away in this world. Relationships trump all other considerations in life, more than wealth or worldly success. When you see the beauty of your new born baby, your children and grandchildren, and all your loved ones, you experience love that never ends. Against all odds love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. (See Ted Schroder, Solid Love, an exposition of 1 Corinthians 13.) This feeling of the dignity and worth of others, the wonder and mystery of life, which humbles you and motivates you to do extraordinary and heroic deeds of unselfishness, comes from God.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:7-9).

I do not believe in a generic God, a faceless Higher Power, but in the God of love, who is revealed in Jesus. It is God who gives us the ability to love and be loved, to be valued and treasured, for life to be sacred. Without God we would be devalued, become merely a statistic, one of many biological species to be exploited only for our economic utility. Instead we are beloved of God, destined for greater glory.

Belief in God makes logical sense of life. Belief in God enables me to enjoy the fullness of life. Belief in God holds me morally responsible for my attitudes and actions. Belief in God is revealed in the words of the Bible and the life of Christ. Belief in God is experienced through the power and beauty of love. To believe in God is to know that all things are possible. To know Jesus is to know God.

(Excerpted from DAY BY DAY WITH TED SCHRODER, pp.23-30)