I can only chuckle a silent and sad laugh to myself nowadays when I hear some loud-mouthed self-proclaimed atheist declare that there is no God because he has never seen Him. A couple of times, when I have heard this claim, I have asked the one who said it, “Where have you been looking?” only to have them look at me like they do not understand the question. Both times, when I persisted in asking them the question, they eventually admitted that they weren’t really looking for Him at all, nor had they even attempted to do so.
I suppose there will always be those who make such declarations without ever attempting to find Him, and they will continue to declare God’s non-existence even after you point them to the evidence He has left for us. As long as they don’t want to see Him or find Him, they will not, no matter how hard we try to reason with them and no matter how overwhelming the evidence. There is a reason God’s word speaks of the one who “has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear” (Ezek. 12:2), and a reason why God’s word tells us of the one He calls a fool, who says, ‘There is no God!’ (Psa. 14:1). Anyone who makes such a statement obviously hasn’t thought through his declaration very well, because there are some inherent implications that result from it that he is unable to explain or support.
First, for one to be able to say that there is absolutely no such thing as God because they have not personally witnessed His presence or being would require that they could be in all places of the known creation at the same time to be able to verify that God was not right there at a particular point in time; it is not enough to simply say that you have searched every cubic millimeter of the creation because God could have just been somewhere else the moment you looked where He wasn’t. [As yet, no man has even been able to say he has covered the entirety of the known creation.] If a man was able to be in all places at the same time, that would make him, in essence, God himself, and he would just have defeated his own argument! [If you think about it, making themselves God might accurately describe their true intentions.]
Second, to declare that God does not exist would require either the successful refutation of all claims that the Bible is God’s word, or one would have to just completely ignore it altogether. One cannot simply dismiss the claim of the Bible that it is God’s word; one must prove the claim. After more than 2000 years of its existence, many have made some strong attempts to denigrate it, question its credibility, question its accuracy, and question whether or not the contents have been supplemented or diminished by the hands of men, but despite all these efforts — and despite their claims to have done so - no man has done that yet. When the claims are answered, they will simply resort to the second method: simply ignoring it! It seems strange to me that those who make the loudest noise about “reason” are the ones who refuse to use it or accept it when someone stands to defend the Bible as God’s revealed word, its accuracy, and its purity.
Finally, to deny the existence of God requires denying the physical evidence in Creation that leads us to conclude that there was an intelligent Creator. Again, God’s word tells us the evidence is there (Rom. 1:18-20; Acts 14:15-17); we can either accept what the evidence tells us, or we can concoct an elaborate and ultimately un-provable theory that purports to explain our existence by mere chance and “survival of the fittest”, as man has already done. An honest search for truth would allow all the evidence to be seen and conclusions to be drawn regardless of where it pointed. Some flatly refuse to do that, and only because they start with a premise that there is no God and work diligently to make sure no one ever comes to that conclusion. Honest hearts can see through the propaganda and can believe God’s word without taking a “blind leap” into unsubstantiated evidence that gives us only fanciful theories that regress further and further because there is that one question they cannot answer: “But where did that come from?”
We could go on and on about those who have predetermined they cannot believe in God, but let us now turn to those of you who may not yet believe in God, but who may also be searching to find Him. May I ask: What do you hope to find?
Long ago, one man was speaking to a friend who had suffered great losses and said this about God: “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven–what can you do? Deeper than Sheol–what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea” (Job 11:7-9). In other words, if you ever hope to fully comprehend who God is and the power He has, forget it; it’s beyond our capabilities!
Later, when this troubled man stated his desire to plead his case to God and speak in his own defense, another friend asked, “Teach us what we shall say to Him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness [ignorance] Shall it be told Him that I would speak?” (Job 37:19, 20). He would then conclude, “The Almighty–we cannot find Him” (Job 37:23). At least this man had enough wisdom to know he was nothing in the sight of God. Some men today could learn some important lessons from this man who lived almost 3000 years ago!
What would you say to God if you met Him? Some men, who really do not want to believe in God, would have us believe that the God we believe is mean and cruel because so much evil exists in this world and He is apparently doing nothing to stop it all. “Your God,” they say, “if he’s so powerful and loving, why doesn’t he prevent innocent children from being abused or good people from getting terminal diseases?” Some will go on to boast that they would ask God those questions, if he really did exist and they ever got to meet him face to face.
Supposing God allowed these men to exist longer than the blink of an eye should they ever see Him, I really don’t think that, once they realize He does exist, they will be bold enough to challenge Him and dare ask Him about why He did what He did, or why He didn’t act in the way they thought He should act. This calls to mind the question of a man of God long ago: “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” (Isa. 29:16). Such arrogance supposes that we - the created thing - have a right to question the One who made us!
The reality of such claims is that it is nothing more than hot air - empty words. Those who condemn God for not acting to prevent all sin and evil would cry the loudest if the alternative [a lack of free will] was imposed; those who complain the most about religious people doing the most evil in the world would be the first ones whose heads were on the chopping block when religion and true faith disappeared from this earth and the truly evil ones ruled; and it is highly hypocritical when the ones who argue so loudly about not believing in God because they can’t see Him then turn around and accept without question the supposed ‘evidence’ of certain scientists offer as proof of their pet theories.
If we stand before God, it will not be to question Him; it will be time for us to be answering the questions. We will have to answer questions like, “Why did you never obey Me?” and “Why did you say I did not exist when I gave you all that evidence?” The fact is, we will be the ones called into account for what we have done on this earth (2nd Cor. 5:10).
If you’re looking for God, consider the evidence He has given you. Instead of listening to the ‘experts’ in the scientific field, look at the evidence without bias and you will see that it is completely logical to believe that it all didn’t just “happen” by chance. If you’re looking for God, pick up the book we call the Bible and read through it without bias and without listening to or reading the comments of men who try to explain it in ways that are meant only to uphold preconceived ideas and doctrines that came along long after the Bible was written and complete.
If you are truly looking for God, He can and will be found; just be careful to look in the right places.
Steven Harper