The Existence of God: Does God really exist?
Can you know God?
By David Cox © 2010
Teen Sunday School Classes Volume 1 Number 1
https://www.coxtracts.com/free-teen-sunday-school-classes/sst1-01
We know by his Word that God exists. The statement of his existence is clearly declared within the Scriptures, and if we want to be excessively ridiculous about the matter, of course, we cannot prove a universal negative, that “God does not exist” either. Short of dragging God from wherever he is to appear in front of a person, we cannot make God’s presence for the sake of somebody who won’t obey God anyway. We have to just take God at his Word.
To know him, is to believe that He exists.
Our concept of God must be one that is outside of the human imagination. If God really is independent on the human understanding, then our concept of God is extremely low and limited, but as God himself is a Being far greater than the human being, so we should understand our limitations in trying to understand just what He is, how He is (what His character is), and even understanding that He exists. We have to detach our limited minds from the equation and just believe what God tells us in His Word.
Exod 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
God expresses Himself simply as, “I am who I am” which is an expression of being, which is simply, “I exist.” This phrase in Éxo. 3:14 has a lot to do with the name of God, Jehovah or Yahweh. Novatian said “God has no origin,” and this is precisely what God is, a Being that has always existed, and that has no answer to the question, “Where did God come from?” (Because there is no answer, He didn’t “come” from anywhere). When we speak of “origin,” it is only for created things, and something that was never created but has always existed, the concept of origin simply does not apply. God has always existed. Nor did God create himself. He just exists, and He has always existed.
1Tim 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
God dwells in the light where man can investigate. This is in immortality, He has always lived there, He always lives now, and He will always live. A created being has problems understanding that which is not created. Philosophy and science have tried to define or “discover God”, but neither can resolve the question because it is beyond the human powers of reason or the powers of our investigation to “perceive God.”
Maybe you ask, “What does all this have to do with my life? What impact does this self-existing God have on my life and others?” God’s existence touches our lives in the point that we are His creation (Job 33:4), and we have to respond correctly to God, which is to worship Him and to hold on to Him. Every person struggles with this relationship to this Supreme Being, and this is where we need to focus. The world and our lives have no sense or fixed and secure direction without relating to God in one way or another.
We cannot escape from the presence of God (Psa. 139:8-10) nor can we escape from the control of God, and we greatly depend on God daily to survive. He is our Provider (1Chron 29:14) and Sustainer (Heb. 1:3).
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
God is our Creator (Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning God created …”), and He is who gives us life and existence to us (Eccl 5:15). God is the one who created or caused world to exist, but God is not “caused@ by anyone or anything. God does not just exist, God lives. He is a person, and he has life. He is not just the possessor of life (like us) but He is the originator of life for all.
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
God created everything that exists, on earth, in heaven, and in the celestial realm. God existed before the beginning of all creation, and all things “subsist” or are dependent on God. Because God is our Creator, we have to subject ourselves to Him as our authority (do what he wants), and God must have “the pre-eminence” in our lives. We must focus on Him.
Within our relationship with God, there is the possibility of obeying (piety) or disobeying (rebellion). God has given us the option to choose what we are going to do, and God has also sent a curse for the rebels and a blessing for the obedient ones.
There is also a difference between who God is and what his creation is. Some think that the universe is in some form God Himself (this is pantheism, “God is everything, and everything is God“), but God is different, “separate from,” from His creation. The universe is not a part of God (like his leg or arm).
Ps 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
There is a great difference in denying the existence of God (saying He does not exist) and that God does not really exist. A blind man can deny that there is something called the moon, but although he cannot see it, it does exist in spite of “his experience or perception of it.” Men who deny the existence of God are rebellious to His authority over their lives.
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
The problem is not really coming up with evidence that God exists, but the lack of faith (trust and submission to God). Besides that God exists, God rewards and punishes the basic people in their lives, their rebellion or submission to God.
Read Romans 1: 18-23 and Psalm 19, and write down what witnesses to the existence of God. An agnostic is someone who says we cannot know if he exists. An atheist is someone who says that God simply does not exist.
