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I want to think I am someone who tries to put things in perspective. I am not always successful at it. Many times, I look at things differently than someone else only to find that what the other person has to offer is something I had never thought about or considered before. I can be prideful so sometimes it’s hard to admit this, maybe even harder to come to grips with the fact that what the other person has to offer might prove my way of thinking wrong.
One of the most important topics, if not the most important, we humans can deal with is the existence of God. I am particularly fascinated by a public Christian vs. Atheist debate. I have watched many. I appreciate both sides who are willing to participate in such a debate. Each side brings forth their arguments to prove their side is correct and the other side is wrong. The obvious goal is to “win” the debate. Most of the debates I watch online are typically done in a church setting with a “Christian” friendly audience which gives me even more appreciation for the atheist. There is no official score. No keeping score of “I gotcha moments.” The winner is typically left for the audience to decide who they think won.
One of the things that always comes to my mind as I watch these debates or even ponder the existence of God for myself, is trying to put this whole argument of God or no God in its proper perspective. As a Christian, I am surely confident in the evidence for the God who created me and the God I serve, but if we break it down to the simplest logical perspective, I have to ask the question…What does the Creator really owe to his creation?
Stop for a moment and truly ponder this question. If you created something, do you owe anything to that creation to prove that you created it or that you even exist? Or how about even this: not only must you prove that you exist to your creation, but you also must answer to it why and how you do things the way you do. You must explain to it your rules and they demand that they be satisfied with your answers. To take this to a ridiculous extreme to try and prove a point of common sense, let me give an example of what I mean.
What if you created a robot? You create this robot to clean your home: wash your dishes, mop your floors, vacuum your carpets, dust, clean your bathroom, and make your bed. You even create it to go to the fridge and get yourself a drink if you want it…maybe even make yourself a meal. You get all the circuitry completed correctly and get your remote accurately programmed. Everything looks great and you turn it on. The robot works great. It’s doing what you created it to do, life is good.
Then one day, the robot, out of the blue looks at you and says out of nowhere, “Hey buddy…before I clean one more thing or get you a drink from the fridge…before I do any more things for you to please you, I want you to prove to me you created me…in fact, I want you to prove to me that you even exist, how’s that? Oh, and by the way, explain to me why you do what you do, and your answer better satisfy me.”
What would be your response? A few things come to my mind. I would venture to guess that if it was me, my quick response would be something like…”Are you kidding me? Wait, come again? What did you just say? Um, who do you think you are?”
Now, if you decided to go get a baseball bat and go to town on the robot, turning it into a pile of rubbish would you have the right to do so? The answer is, of course, yes! Why? Well, because you created it. You would have every right to do whatever you want with your creation. Oh, and by the way, you would be righteous in doing so. How so? Well because the creation answers to the creator and surely not the other way around.
As ridiculous as that scenario is, think about how illogical it is for a human (the creation) to shake our fist at God (the Creator) and say, “Before I will believe in you, what you’ve done for me, do what you command, genuinely try to obey your laws, and all that you have laid out for me in this life and for eternity to come, I need you to first prove yourself and your existence to me. Oh, and you better do this to my satisfaction.” Isn’t that, in the simplest argument, straight-out madness on our part? Interchange us with the robot in my example and it should be quite clear.
Now, please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I do believe in having evidence for what we believe in. I do believe that God has given enough evidence to be without excuse to accept or reject Him (Romans 1: 20-21). But what I am saying is, I don’t have to have every answer that proves God’s existence for him to exist. I don’t have to have every answer that proves God to anyone and everyone that wants to pose an “I gotcha question”. When I am posed with a question of God’s existence that I cannot explain or simply do not know the answer to, I am comfortable saying, “That’s a tough question and I don’t have all the answers, nor do I need to elevate my knowledge to the level of all knowledge for God to exist or not exist.” I don’t need to have all the answers proving his existence because He is the Creator, and I am the creation. The truth of God’s existence does not rise or fall on my feebleness in knowing all the answers or needing to be perfect in having all the answers!
When I was raising my kids, I would always remind them of this very fact. I would always say to them, “Hey kids, what does the Creator owe his creation?” and they would roll their eyes because they knew the answer. They would say, “Nothing Dad”. I would then say, “That’s right! But what has God given us?” And they would reply, “Everything through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior” to which I would say, “That’s right!”
The answer to the question, what does the Creator owes his creation is very simple. He truly does owe us NOTHING! However, the great news is, that He doesn’t leave us there. He gives us everything through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
To the Christian, be confident in your faith in God. You do not have to have the answer to every question thrown your way or be afraid of being stumped on a question you can’t answer. You do need to have an answer for what you believe and why (1 Peter 3: 15), but you do not have to have an answer for every single tough question! God is the Creator…we are the creation (by now I sound like a broken record, but it is worth repeating. After all we are prideful so it might take quite a few times for this to sink in). If we had God all figured out and knew every answer to prove God’s existence, what would separate us from our Creator? Can a finite mind (ours) ever truly comprehend an infinite mind (God)? The answer is easily no. Therefore, our ability or lack thereof to answer every tough question on the existence of God has absolutely NO effect on whether God’s existence is true…I will say that one more time…Yours and my ability or lack thereof to answer every tough question has absolutely NO effect on whether God’s existence is true. In other words, the truth of whether God exists or doesn’t exist does not rely on our abilities to prove Him.
To the atheist, I just ask that you give this some thought and please consider it. Is it our pride that is getting so far in our way that we would shake our fists at the One who created us and say, “Unless you can prove yourself to me with every single question I have in a way that my created mind can totally understand your Creator mind, only then will I believe in you”. Do we really have that audacity to think the Creator must answer to us, the creation? Are we not trying to turn ourselves into the creator and turn God into the created to make Him answer to us? I tend to think that is exactly what we try to do when it’s obviously the other way around. I encourage you to sincerely think this through.
The trump card for me, when there is a tough question that I have a hard time getting my head around, is to simply be willing to say and accept the fact that God is God and I am not. God has given me enough evidence with his Word, historical evidence, archeological discoveries, observance of creation all around me, and the Holy Spirit that lives within me to be more than enough where I have no reason to reject him. In fact, I will have no excuse to reject Him. When this life is over, I surely cannot stand before God and say to him, “God, I didn’t accept you into my life because I was stumped on these 3 tough questions that didn’t prove yourself to me…and sufficiently enough to my liking”. That simply is not going to fly. You might just hear, “Are you kidding me? Wait, come again? What did you just say? Who do you think you are?” And then we are left with the consequences of God’s wrath where our pride will be nowhere to be found to be of any assistance. In fact, I assure you that our pride will abandon us in an instant at that point in time and just in time to be absolutely too late for us.
In conclusion, this sobering perspective is not an argument to be used to try and win any debates on God’s existence and it surely doesn’t prove anything. Instead, I hope what it does do, is put our pride in thinking God must prove himself to us in check, leaving us open to the many evidences for God that can be clearly seen.
I hope this finds you well, encourages you, and gives you a perspective that maybe you did not consider before. The ultimate goal is to go find the God who is. There is sufficient evidence for Him and if you search with a genuine heart to know Him, you will find Him! (Matthew 7: 7-8)
Have Character!
J. Noah Russell
HAVE CHARACTER™
