Prove that God is real.

Sincerely,
Just The Facts

Dear Just The Facts,

We could spend pages answering your question. The most difficult part of your question is trying to summarize the thousands of evidences for God’s existence. Please consider the following list as an abridged look at the topic.

Top 5 Reasons There is a God:

1. The world was either created, or it came from nothing. If we are created, then there is a Creator. Consequently, one of the most basic rules of science is that something never comes from nothing (see an explanation of the first law of Thermodynamics here). The energy that exists in our universe had to come from somewhere.
2. Life never comes from non-life. All living things come from other living things. There is no such thing as spontaneous generation. Evolution teaches the opposite. Evolution states that all living creatures descend from one-celled organisms that were randomly created from inorganic material billions of years ago. That is scientifically impossible.
3. Life is complex. Complexity requires design – and consequently a Designer. Blood cells, dragonflies, oak trees, giraffes, etc. are all IMMENSELY complex and intricate things. It doesn’t make sense to say that they were randomly formed – they have far too much design.
4. Humans feel shame. Shame and guilt are uniquely human conditions that make no sense from an evolutionary standpoint. If we evolved to survive, and only to survive, there would be no reason for humans to have ethics. Why would we care about right and wrong unless we were created by a Creator who instilled these beliefs in us?
5. Humans hunger for religion. As a rule, human beings are religious. We crave spiritual knowledge and eternal wisdom. We often seek it in all the wrong places, but the fact still remains that we desire eternal purpose for our lives. A case can be made that there is nothing that we desire that can’t be fulfilled. We hunger; there is food. We thirst; there is water. We want companionship; there is the opposite gender. You are incapable of having a desire that cannot be slaked. This is more of a philosophical argument, but it can be argued that since we all seek God – God must exist.

We can guarantee you that we did not even begin to do the subject of proving God’s existence justice. If you would like to look at the issue in-depth, we recommend going to www.answersingenesis.org to get further scientific evidence for God. We also recommend the books I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Geisler & Turek, Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel and Icons of Evolution by Jonathan Wells. And last but not least, we highly recommend the movie Expelled featuring Ben Stein. All of these resources will provide you with an intimate and compelling argument that God most definitely does exist.

Modern science once taught that the Earth was flat, and the church backed that teaching.  What does the Bible actually say about that?

Sincerely,
Throwing A Curveball

Dear Throwing A Curveball,

It was the Catholic church (not the Lord’s church) that supposedly backed the “flat earth” dogma.  Without getting into too much history, let’s just say that even that isn’t completely accurate.  The Catholic church argued with Galileo over whether or not the Earth was the center of the universe, but pretty much everyone agreed at that point that the Earth was round.  The idea that religious people are ineptly backward when it comes science is a myth propagated by those who would have people believe that only atheists can be logical and scientific.
However, back to your question.  The Bible refers to the “circle of the Earth” in Isa 40:22.  The word used for ‘circle’ is the same Hebrew word for a sphere.  Though the Bible is a book about spiritual things, when it touches on science it is always accurate.

I know I need God in my life, and I want to believe, but I keep getting stuck on things like how God existed before everything, heaven, hell, and eternity.  I can't wrap my mind around those concepts.  I know the Bible is real; it proves itself, but how do I comprehend God when we've never seen miracles, visions, Jesus, etc.?  All today's Christians have is the Bible; is this fair for us today when people back then had all these signs?

Sincerely,
Hard To Believe

Dear Hard To Believe,

Miracles had one very specific purpose – to give evidence that the apostles, prophets, and Jesus were from God.  Paul called miracles “the signs of an apostle” (2 Cor 12:12).  Heb 2:4 states that God bore witness to the apostles and prophets through “signs and wonders”.  Even the enemies of Christ agreed that miracles were a sign of divine approval (Acts 4:16).

Ironically, even though you and I often think that miracles would make more people believe, we know that isn’t true.  During Jesus’ life, He performed more good deeds and miraculous acts than could be written down (Jhn 21:25)… and yet, they crucified Him because they didn’t believe.  Moses parted the Red Sea in front of an entire generation of Israelites who walked through on dry ground… but all of that generation died in the wilderness because they didn’t believe (Heb 3:17-19).  Generations of Jews saw miracles, heard prophecies, and still turned their back on God’s will.

Miracles don’t make people faithful.  It takes an honest and humble heart to turn to God… and miracles or no miracles, that has never changed.  As you said, you know the Bible is real, and it proves itself.  What you do about it is a matter of examining your character, and a miracle wouldn’t change that.

No one can comprehend the totality of God or His invisible greatness, but the evidence is all around (Rom 1:20).  Even the greatest mathematicians can’t wrap their brains around infinity, but we understand the basics of the concept, and that is enough to know that we need to begin preparing for it.

Why is Christianity the right religion?

Sincerely,
Which Way?

Dear Which Way,

The best way to show Christianity is the right religion is to show the uniqueness of the Bible.  If the Bible is from God, then Christianity is right. The writers of the Bible admit that it is their hands that wrote it (Gal 6:11), but they also explain that God’s Spirit guided those hands (Eph 3:3-4). If that is true (and it is!), then the Bible would show signs that it was written by God and not man. Here are some simple reasons that the Bible is unique from every other book:

1. It is 100% scientifically accurate. Isa 40:22 mentions the earth being round. Job 36:27-28 explains the water-vapor cycle. These and other verses mention scientific principles that were not understood until centuries later.
2. It never contradicts itself. Over 40 different writers penned the pages of the Bible. They came from different walks of life and different eras, yet no one has ever found a contradiction from Genesis to Revelation.
3. It has been perfectly preserved throughout history. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint are copies of the Bible written 1,000 years apart, and yet, there is no difference in the text.
4. No book is as widely distributed as the Bible. Written in over 2,500 languages and sold by the billions, the Bible is the most published book on the planet. No other book comes even close.
5. The Bible is accurate in prophecies. The prophecies of Tyre (Eze 26:3-21) and Babylon (Isa 13:19-22, Isa 14:23) give specific, detailed accounts of the fall of those cities. Those prophecies were written many years before the events took place, and yet they came to pass exactly as the Bible foretold.

These are only short answers to the question ‘Why is the Bible unique?’, but they are a good start when discussing the issue with someone. If you want a more detailed answer, I recommend Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell and Has God Spoken? by A.O. Schnabel as great reference material on this topic.

How can we be 100% certain the Bible is real, complete, and unchanged?

Sincerely,
Best Evidence Please

Dear Best Evidence Please,

The best way to show it is to show the uniqueness of the Bible. The writers of the Bible admit that it is their hands that wrote it (Gal 6:11), but they also explain that God’s Spirit guided those hands (Eph 3:3-4). If that is true (and it is!), then the Bible would show signs that it was written by God and not man. Here are some simple reasons that the Bible is unique from every other book:

1. It is 100% scientifically accurate. Isa 40:22 mentions the earth being round. Job 36:27-28 explains the water-vapor cycle. These and other verses mention scientific principles that were not understood until centuries later.
2. It never contradicts itself. Over 40 different writers penned the pages of the Bible. They came from different walks of life and different eras, yet no one has ever found a contradiction from Genesis to Revelation.
3. It has been perfectly preserved throughout history. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint are copies of the Bible written 1,000 years apart, and yet, there is no difference in the text.
4. No book is as widely distributed as the Bible. Written in over 2,500 languages and sold by the billions, the Bible is the most published book on the planet. No other book comes even close.
5. The Bible is accurate in prophecies. The prophecies of Tyre (Eze 26:3-21) and Babylon (Isa 13:19-22, Isa 14:23) give specific, detailed accounts of the fall of those cities. Those prophecies were written many years before the events took place, and yet they came to pass exactly as the Bible foretold.

These are only short answers to the question ‘Why is the Bible unique?’, but they are a good start when discussing the issue with someone. If you want a more detailed answer, I recommend I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Geisler and Turek, Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell and Has God Spoken? by A.O. Schnabel as great reference material on this topic.