Prove It! (Evidence as a Matter of the Heart)

I have heard this statement a thousand times.  Prove that God exists.  It’s just myth, or fairy tale, the Bible cannot be true in light of all our modern methods of criticism.   There are hundreds of other objections.  Is it as simple as just pointing to God and saying “there he is”?  Well, that kind of happened.  And, guess what? people still did not believe.  In fact, I will give you some facts about the Bible and its reliability in later blogs.  Oh, and there is plenty of research to confront every single objection to the reality of the Christian message.  But will that make anyone believe?  I doubt it.

You see a fundamental claim of the Christian faith is that humanity is fallen.  Humanity, left to itself, runs from God and does not seek Him.  Humanity is spiritually dead and blind.  As such, humanity will interpret evidence through a presupposition of disbelief.  There is a key word, presupposition.  Listen to Greg Bahnsen:

Years ago, David Hume noted that the scientists proceed on a scientifically unfounded, yet critically essential belief in the uniformity of observable nature. Yet, he pointed out, there is no reason (beyond psychological habit) for the naturalistic scientist to expect the sun to come up tomorrow. Science as an autonomous self-contained discipline has no honest answer to Hume. But if science, properly conceived, subordinates itself to God’s revelation, then it knows why the sun will come up for it knows that God providentially controls all the operations of his created universe in a regular and dependable fashion.
The scientist must presuppose a regulated universe, and in so doing he presupposes an ordered creation. Every scientist makes certain basic assumptions about reality and knowledge, consciously or otherwise; and these thoughts are religiously motivated: “That which is known of God is plainly seen in them, for God has revealed it to them. For since the creation of the world His unseen attributes, not only His infinite power but also His divine nature, have been perceived, being understood by the things created” (Romans 1:19-20). Dr. Greg Bahnsen 

The point here is that a presupposition is the underlying issue, even when it comes to epistemology, that is the study of how we know.   Facts are stubborn things, one person has said.  I contend that facts are not as stubborn as the person who views them.  Our presuppositions can greatly askew our judgment even when looking at facts.

So when someone says, prove that God exists.  The simple presentation of facts, figures, reasoning, logic, etc., is not enough.  A heart change is in order.  Or as the scripture says, “the eyes of the understanding must be opened” Ephesians 1: 18.  Again the scripture says one must be “born again to see the Kingdom of God” St. John 3:3.

My aim here is to *begin* to supply apologetic information to the believer and skeptic alike.  I fundamentally believe that only the Gospel preached through the quickening power of the Spirit will actually open men’s eyes to the reality of scriptures.  But, having said that, a good defense of the faith is never a bad idea.

So in the next few blogs I will be sharing some good resources that are aimed at defending the faith.