“We must never forget that the first part of the gospel is not ‘Accept Christ as Savior,’ but ‘God is there’”
(Francis Schaeffer in The God Who is There).
The word “gospel” means “good news.” And the fact that God exists is indeed good news, wonderful news, the best of news.(1) If He did not exist, we are all hopelessly lost, without meaning, without hope, inconsequential. In fact, if God does not exist, you may do as you please and so may every other human being on the planet. Sure, sure, some may be dissuaded by force of law… but how often is force of human law present? (And without God, human law will only be force, power and numbers, as there is no such thing as good or evil.) And then there is the atheistic-philosophic idea that since there is no God and life is meaningless, one must make their own meaning. Therefore, the woman who helps old ladies cross the street, if it brings her pleasure or good feeling, validates herself and finds subjective “good.” And the man who pushes old ladies in front of trucks on the street, if it brings him pleasure or good feeling, validates
himself and finds subjective “good.” So be it. (Consider this in a day and age of women and Only Fans or young men randomly sucker punching women on the street.)
No, God’s existence is good news.
I have commented on “In the beginning God...” before, saying, “If we differ on this, we will differ on a thousand things.” Everything flows from what one believes on this foundational level. Other brilliant Christians have dealt with this topic. Francis Schaeffer in The God Who is There, Gregory Koukl in The Story of Reality, C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, etc. If there is no God, nothing makes sense, neither you nor I as individuals exist in any personal way if God doesn’t exist; every thought, feeling, action, etc., are simply electrical and chemical interactions upon materials, giving the impression that they are alive, but are not. Atheist Bertrand Russel stated this as well: “In the visible world, the Milky Way is a tiny fragment. Within this fragment the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and within this speck our planet is a microscopic dot. On this dot, tiny lumps of carbon and water crawl about for a few years until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded.” Atheist Jean-Paul Satre, apparently a very cheerful fellow, wrote, “This world is not the product of intelligence. It meets our gaze as would a crumpled piece of paper…. What is man but a little puddle of water whose freedom is death?”
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
Because something exists, God exists. To use the old philosopher terminology, He is the First Cause or the Prime Mover. He is the Metaphysical Necessity, as Francis Schaeffer wrote, arguing that no atheist (materialist) lives consistent with his or her own worldview. “What we are talking about is the philosophic necessity, in the area of Being and existence, of the fact that God is there. That is what it is all about. He is there…. He exists. There is no other answer” (Francis Schaeffer, in He is There and He is Not Silent). From that truth, the foundational truth of every known thing, flows all reality. If God does not exist, morality is a farce and an illusion. The act of saving a child from harm is equal to the act of harming a child. No congratulation nor condemnation, praise or punishment, would or should follow any action. A serial rapist or a mass murderer, a Billy Graham or Mother Theresa, are all equally the same: epiphenomena, not individuals, not evil people doing evil things or decent people doing decent things. No moral distinctions can be made except what the individual prefers, likes or dislikes.(2) Nothing is good or bad, right or wrong. If the lump of carbon you believe to be you squashes another tiny lump of carbon into pulp, it matters not.
Some atheists can admit this as being the repercussions of their own worldview.
Writer Andrew Klavan tells us about Marquis de Sade: “[De] Sade understood that if there is no God, there can be no ultimate morality. There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. Unlike Freud and other atheists, though, Sade followed... unswerving honesty. Without morality, he said, we are only responsible to our own natures, and nature demands only that we pleasure ourselves in any way we like, the strong at the expense of the weak. Nature, mother to us all, never speaks [of holding back] ... prefer thyself, love thyself, no matter at whose expense, he declared…..” Here, at last, however, was an atheist whose outlook made complete logical sense... from beginning to end. If there is no God, there is no morality. If there is no morality, the search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain are all in all and we should pillage, rape, and murder as we please. None of this pale, milquetoast atheism that says, Lets all do what's good for society; Why should I do what's good for society? What is society to me? None of this elaborate game-theory nonsense where we all benefit by mutual sacrifice and restraint. That only works until no ones looking; then Ill get away with what I can. If there is no God, there is no good, and sadistic pornography is scripture" (Andrew Klavan, pages 204-25 of The Great Good Thing, copyright 2016 by Amalgamated Metaphor).
Yes, without God there is no good or evil. No one should ever even mention it because such things do not exist. One lump of carbon cannot “tell” another lump, one puddle of water cannot tell another puddle of water, to stop something or do something, encourage or discourage the continuation of some action. For the atheist, it would be the equivalent of having expectations that people should always be taller and should not ever sneeze, by penalty of law if necessary. Those who do not comply will be shamed, publicly ostracized, brought into court, put into camps, re-educated, possibly even executed. And, if nations, we shall go to war with them because they are shorter and have not ceased this behavior after repeated U.N. warnings.
“This is all stupidity,” you say. You are correct. If God does not exist, neither do we, we are
electro-chemical-meat-machines doing only what the inputs determine. The atheist never lives
consistently. On one hand they say we are not created, everything evolves, environment and genes are the cause of everything. (There was a book entitled The God Gene, which basically says that certain genes are the cause of an individual’s belief or non-belief in God.) Why would an atheist argue against someone who simply has a different gene than they do? If they do not believe in God, it is in their DNA and environment. If someone else believes in God, it is in their genes and environment. There is no reason for them to continue arguing. The atheist might as well tell the theist that they should eat more veggies or get more sun, in the hopes that such things will bring the theist to the same belief as the atheist.
“Is man determined? Yes!” said atheist Stephen Hawking. “But since we do not know what is determined, he may as well not be.”
“What ails you that you keep on arguing?” (Job 16:3).
Note this plays out when the “secular” or atheist worldview takes over law and justice: If a person riots, rapes, murders, commits an act of terrorism, the godless person asks, “What caused this? Was it poverty, lack of education, growing up without opportunity?” and they often go soft on crime because it is not the fault of the individual; it is the fault of society that these crimes were committed. But they are inconsistent because when a wealthy hedge-fund manager steals everyone’s money, causing others’ lives to crumble, suicides, etc., these same people do not ask, “What caused this? Was it wealth, too much education, growing up with too much opportunity?” No, they demand this person be fully punished. But in their worldview, neither person is guilty because it is only genes and environment that caused these crimes. No, not crimes, events.
Without God nothing can progress. There is better or worse; there is no ideal for the individual, for
society, or for the world. There is no meaning and purpose for which individuals or societies exist. Sure, you can make something up, but it is just playing make-believe. A different person or society will have a different made-up idea and it might be completely opposite. You might want to preserve the planet to preserve your species. Without God there are no rules, no standard, no target, no goal posts.
Imagine a football game where the rules changed moment by moment and goal post could be anywhere at any moment. (This is happening today as people who had acceptable opinions and ideas a decade ago are suddenly anathema now because the goal posts have moved. One must grovel and be penitent to be allowed back in to society.) Imagine a football game where one team must move the ball one hundred miles for a touchdown and the other team only has to move one inch to score. (These things are also happening today.)
Atheist Sigmund Freud wrote, “In the depths of my heart I can’t help being convinced that my dear fellow-men, with a few exceptions, are worthless.”(3)
Atheist Frederick Nietzsche wrote, “Nothing else can be stated as the aim [the purpose] of our existence except the knowledge that it would be better for us not to exist.”
One can see our present world and culture devolving into chaos as the atheist worldview is ascendant. The 2020s are a direct result of godlessness in thought and behavior. And functional atheism amongst people who call themselves Christians, Roman Catholics, and Jews is just as bad. (I highly recommend reading the book Wimpy, Weak, and Woke by John L. Cooper.) The individual determines reality. No behaviors can be judged. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is taboo. Nothing is evil… unless you are Hitler, or that blowhard presidential candidate guy and his idiot followers, or unless you are God. Note also, that the atheist continues to live in cognitive dissonance as they constantly accuse the God of the Bible of being evil and doing evil. Wait, does He or does He not exist? Wait, from where do they get the words and the standards of “good and evil”? (Also note that they rarely are as vehemently hateful towards that Islamic God,
because someone might behead them; Christ-followers do not do that.)
But because God does exist, there is such a thing as goodness, because He is good (Psalm 106:1; Luke 18:19). The lack of godliness and good, is evil. The lack of serving and listening to God is sin and it is evil. One cannot define good, apart from what God has declared good.
Because there is a God, there is such a thing as justice, because He is just (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 98:9). The lack of godliness and adhering to God’s justice is evil and one cause of the spread of evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11). One cannot define what is just an unjust, apart from the measuring rod which God has given.
Because there is a God there is such a thing as love, because He is love (1 John 4:8). The lack of godliness and love is evil (see the Ten Commandments, etc.). One cannot define love, apart from how God defines love.
Because God exists, there is such a thing as truth because He is truth (John 14:6; Hebrews 6:18) and that which is true is that which corresponds to the reality that is God and the reality that He has created. One cannot define one’s own truth as it will run counter to reality and cause endless friction and strife. Welcome to the 2020s.)
God is “The Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:13). He is the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9), “from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). He is the eternal, self-existing One, the “I AM” (Exodus 3:14; see also John 8:58). He is the Creator of all things, both seen and unseen (Colossians 1:6), physical and spiritual, and most importantly, humanity, you and me.
God is a personal God, not part of nature and not some inanimate force. We are personal, persons, not machines, because of God, His power, His overflowing beauty and creative nature, His goodness and love. As the Psalmist wrote, “you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14). He has made us for a reason and He has made us, each individual, personally. We are not only tiny lumps of carbon. We are not puddles of water. We are of value because He has infinite value (Isaiah 40:17) and made us in His image (Genesis 1:27). He created us in His image, our persons and physical bodies should be cared for and protected. God gives life and breath to every human being (Acts 17:25); thus, to take away that life and breath, is the greatest crime (Genesis 9:6).
God, in His power and wisdom, sets the parameters of our days (Job 14:5; Psalm 90:10; Psalm 139:16) and the times and places in which we live (Acts 17:26). He sustains (Hebrews 1:3). And He gives good and varying gifts to every human being (Matthew 5:45; 1 Peter 4:10). Therefore, all we do, should be with gratitude, thankfulness, and with Him in mind (1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Thessalonians 5:13).
Lastly, everyone knows He exists (Romans 1:18-32). There are things we know inherently, like the fact that we exist and the fact that we think, and we do not need the five senses or the scientist or the philosopher to prove this to us. (Ever notice that atheists always sound like jilted lovers? They are always complaining about Someone they say does not exist.) The orderliness, beauty, and majesty of creation is witness to God’s existence as well, His wisdom, His power, His beauty, and His majesty. It is a lie and a charade when people say God does not exist (Psalm 14:1). It is foolish to believe them. (Note that when someone says they KNOW there is no God; they themselves MUST be God because they have exhaustive knowledge of all things.)
Of course, the atheist rages when they hear this or read this. They are in rebellion and have just been confronted with the accusation. The One who knows all things, sees the motives in all human hearts, and judges all things. He judges their pride. He judges their attempt to overthrow Him. And, again, we all see the result of the rebellion against reality, culture, order, unity, beauty, goodness, modesty, purpose, etc., as any system, culture, or nation based upon “neutral” atheism plunges into chaos, un-culture, crime, murder, famine, genocide, etc.(4)
Atheist Bertrand Russell, once again: “The centre of me is always and eternally a terrible pain, a searching for something beyond what the world contains.”
“Where are you going over all those rough paths? Where are you going? .... He Himself is being left out of the account. What are you aiming at, then, by going on and on walking along these difficult and tiring ways? There is no rest to be found where you are looking for it. Seek what you seek, but it is not there where you are seeking. You seek a happy life in the country of death. It is not there. For how can life be
happy, where there is no life” (Augustine, Confessions, Book IV, Chapter 12).
“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
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(1) There are caveats, to be discussed in future essays.
(2) Yeah, yeah, some might say “further the species” and “save the planet” is important, followed by
some reasons, which are subjective without God’s existence. One who dissents can always say, “What do
I care about that?” C.S. Lewis points out the ridiculousness of this in his The Seeing Eye essays; those
who want to do those things and see them as a good, are simply borrowing from the theistic worldview.
(3) Here a Chesterton quote is poignant: “Those thinkers who cannot believe in [God] often assert that the
love of humanity would be in itself sufficient for them; and so, perhaps it would, if they had it” (G.K.
Chesterton, in an essay entitled The Orthodox Barber.)
(4) Very interesting that infamous Atheist Richard Dawkins recently said that although he did not believe
Christianity at all, he preferred to live in a culturally Christian nation because all others would be much
worse.
Steve Drain