Why I Believe in God

God spoke to me during my senior year of high school, and I would never be confident in my own logic and reasoning again. In college, he met with me in a much more dynamic way. From that day on, I would never again doubt His existence, character, or power. It changed me. I was more secure. More free. More giving. More confident. It was not the faith of my parents that convinced me of God's existence, or the testimony of scripture, or the evidence of creation, or the complexities of science. It was the undeniable contact with my creator. It is hard to prove that any of my experiences were genuine. They were, but how could I convince a skeptic? As a child, I remember being stirred in my spirit, like an astronaut staring at something beautiful and overwhelming in space. The feeling would happen at random moments and would draw me into simple worship, even when I was just riding in a car or lying in bed. From the moment of my conversion (age six) I was a fanatic. I read my Bible every night. I made my own tracts and carried those and a box of Bibles through my neighborhood. By third grade, I had the read the Bible from cover to cover three times in three different translations. By the time I graduated high school, I had read it twelve times. But all of that reading, though beneficial for facts and stories, only led to arrogance. I used knowledge like a weapon. I complained. I boasted. I argued. It wasn't until the Holy Spirit actually spoke to me that I realized I was in a relationship with a being that wanted to interact. This is basically what he said to me: You will never be an effective Christian until you learn to love me. As I continued to grow, I struggled with many of the issues I listed on the previous Skeptic Blogs, but more than anything else, I struggled with the challenge that God gave me. How could I love what I could not see or understand? I prayed constantly about it. I refused to sing or talk about God's love until He proved himself. In February of 1995, he answered my prayers in a way that left me trembling and forever changed. Ask me about it sometime. I have had many stories since, many of which will creep into these blogs, but for now, this will have to do. However, I do have one logical argument, though I hate to use it. There are smart people on every side of every argument, making truth seem unreachable. Thank God for the Holy Spirit! But if you don't have much personal experience with God, I can offer you at least one logical assurance. The law of cause and effect demands that something must pre-exist everything in order for anything to exist. Simply stated: nothing comes from nothing. It doesn’t matter how far back you go in the chain of cause and effect, there must be an ultimate cause that has no beginning. We may not understand a creature like that, but we don’t need to understand it. We just need to accept the necessity of it. If logic demands that something eternal exists, whether it is a tiny germ floating on a space crystal, or a conscious alien being, scientists should be looking for that eternal “thing” that started it all. Thankfully, we don’t have to look far. A spirit that claims to match this exact description has been revealing itself to men and women for as long as history has been recorded. Isaiah, a Jewish prophet, claimed to speak for a being that is "the high and lofty one, inhabiting eternity.” When Moses asked for God’s name, he was told, “I am,” which seems to speak of a creature in an eternal present. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” designating a contrast between a time-based creature and an eternal creature (was versus am). There is also quite a bit in scripture talking about how God’s power and character never change, another quality of someone living in an eternal present. God’s ability to speak of future events with exact times and places also suggests his ability to see the future as if it were just sitting there in front of him. God is known to challenge men with statements like, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Decent question. My answer would be: “Uh . . . in Doc Brown’s time mach---” NOTE: This sentence would be cut short by a bolt of lightning. d In the historical record of God working with people (AKA the Bible), we see his creative power in the miraculous. There is a difference between being a manipulator of matter, and a creator of matter. Walking on water, calming storms, causing fish to obey, or healing a human body can all be replicated by any spiritual power. But to turn a boy’s lunch into a meal for 5,000 men requires creative power. To give life to a dead man requires creative power. These powers were on display in Jesus, who claimed to live as an expression of God. I am definitely intrigued by these arguments for the existence of God, but my personal experience with God is what puts everything to rest. Bottom line: I believe in him because I know him. Why do you believe?