How do we know that God exists?

How would you respond if someone asked you to prove that God exists? Are you confident that you could answer that question? Even more basic than that question is this: are you firmly convinced in your own mind that God exists?

Does God exist? You never saw your great, great, great, great grandfather, but you believe he existed because of what you know about procreation. People who never saw Julius Caesar believe that he existed because there is historical evidence that he existed. Even though we never saw God, we can believe that God exists because there is historical evidence that He exists.One way to prove that anything exists is to let people see it and touch it. Likewise with God, one way for God to prove His existence is to make an appearance and let people see Him and touch Him. God has done this throughout history, and the Bible contains accounts of people interacting with God. Let’s take a look at some of this interaction, starting with Genesis 2.

Gen 2 contains a clear command that Yahweh gave to the man.

Gen. 2:16-17 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Gen 3:6 tells us that the man and woman disobeyed.

Gen. 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then Yahweh came to visit. Notice the words “heard”, “sound”, and “hid” in the following verses. What does the use of these words tell you about the reality of God?

Gen. 3:8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Gen. 3:9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

Gen. 3:10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

The man and woman actually heard God make noise as He walked through the garden. The reality of God’s existence was so real that the man and woman tried to hide. The man and woman had no doubt that God was real because they heard Him and talked with Him.

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Now let’s jump to 1 John. God not only appeared to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God has interacted with humanity many times over the centuries. Many people throughout history have seen God and have seen God prove that He is God. The Apostle John saw and touched God and provided personal testimony of this in 1 John 1. Read these verses and notice the words related to the five senses.

1John 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life —

1John 1:2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —

1John 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Look again at verse 3 and notice the word proclaim.

1John 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also,

Is God real? Adam and Eve heard and saw God. The Apostle John made it clear that He heard, saw, and touched the Son of God and that he is providing eyewitness testimony to us that God is real. So when we face the question of God’s existence, we can start with the fact that God appeared to humanity many times over the centuries, and there are eyewitness accounts of the fact that God exists.

 

“Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.”

 

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