“How Do You Know God Exists?”
John 1:14-18
Rev. John Crimmins
Message
given
Let me say up front that for some of you if not for many of you, what I am going to say this morning is going to be about as exciting as a trip to the doctor’s office. The long needle of serious thinking is going to be aimed your way, and you’ll wish you were anywhere else. All I can say is, try to relax. This won’t take but a minute. It’ll all be over soon. It won’t hurt near as bad as you think it will. But to some of you what I am about to say is as vital to you as anything you will hear in the next six months. Because some of you have sons and daughters that in a year or two are going to be living and thinking exactly where we are going this morning, and you are going to be desperately searching for understanding and a response. Some of you are going to receive an invitation from close personal friends or business associates to participate in an evening of alternative spirituality, and you are not going to be prepared for it. Others of you are already wrestling in the depths of your soul with one or the other of the sets of ideas we will touch on this morning.
“How do you know God Exists?” I’ve heard the question over and over again throughout the past twenty-eight years that I have been a believer in Jesus Christ. In a way I always figure I’ve got it coming because I used to pose the same question with incessant anger and insistence to anyone I would meet who laid any claim to religious faith. However, it is equally valid to ask the question from the other side, “How do you know God does not exist?” I know that it is not polite to answer a question with a question (and this is not the only answer I intend to offer from God’s word this morning). Nevertheless it is a valid question. The presumption in certain circles that God does not exist is often no more than that: a presumption. The response that is needed in the face of presumption is bold proclamation. On the other hand if the one asking the question is a convinced agnostic or atheist then another response may be required. In answering a question like, “How do you know God exists?” it is helpful to know where the questioner is coming from in answering the question.
Asking the counter-question, “How do you know God does not exist?”, presents the opportunity to do a little diagnostic work. And in our culture today that is very important because increasingly people are coming from a variety of viewpoints on the issue of God and religion. For instance, is the person an outright atheist? Historically this is extremely unlikely in our culture. Even today some 93% of Americans claim to believe in God. However, among college graduates the picture is somewhat different. A much lower percentage of college graduates believe God exists. A much higher proportion of college graduates are either self-proclaimed atheists or agnostics: persons who deny the existence of God altogether or who deny the possibility of knowing whether there is a God or not. Clearly one of the things this statistic suggests is that atheism and agnosticism are learned behaviors. As we have seen, such people require one response to the question, “How do you know God exists?” Others require yet another response.
A
great many of those who ask questions about the existence of God are really
outraged theists at heart. They see the death toll in
Today’s message focuses on presenting a biblical defense for belief in God and for a belief in the God of the Bible as the God of the universe worthy of your consideration and allegiance. I put it this way deliberately because we are fracturing as a people along generational lines right before our eyes, and we don’t even know it. One generation, baby boomers (people in my age bracket), to the extent that they are concerned about the issue of the existence of God, ask their questions within a generally rational frame of reference and generally with some reference to the history of Western culture and thought as the backdrop to their questions. Younger people who are asking questions are not generally interested in the question of whether there is a God or not, because they have abandoned the anti-supernatural bias of rationalism. They tend to begin with the question, how do I experience the supernatural? How do I best achieve an authentic encounter with that which lies beyond my senses? One generation largely bought the modernist vision of a material universe with no spiritual component. The other generation has rejected that model and embraces supernaturalism with a vengeance. Without some understanding of this phenomenon we could talk all day and never speak to anyone’s felt needs.
The reactions of those under thirty-five or so that have led to this split within our culture have to do with a set of values that has been in place in the American experience for less than a century but which are anticipated in the writings and teachings of the leading minds of both America and Europe throughout the nineteenth century and through the twentieth. The sermon this morning will attempt to look briefly at the changing ideological culture of America and then offer two biblical answers to our question. One answer will be tailored to the concerns of what we will call the modernist and the other to the concerns of what we will call the post-modernist. My hope in both cases will be to offer some ground for renewed consideration of our God and renewed energy to our church in speaking about our God to our neighbors.
I. The
Bonfire of Vanity
“Vanity, vanity!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Eccl. 1:2)
Three thousand years ago the wisest man that ever lived anticipated the end result of what we have come to label “modernism”; a life devoid of meaning and purpose. Such a reality is ultimately hostile to human life. People are fleeing that view of life as they would flee a burning building. This is especially true of young America. The world is on fire. The goal is to escape. All else is secondary. Get out with your life, while life is still to be had. That is the order of the day. For a few minutes let me examine with you how we got to this cultural flash point and then lets look at how we get beyond it.
Chuck
Colson in his book, How Now Shall We
Live? states that there are essentially three world views that dominate
the American landscape and vie for attention. They are traditionalism,
modernism, and post-modernism. Traditionalism is characterized by, “a nostalgic
image of small towns and strong churches.” Some 29 percent of American adults
are considered to be “traditionalists”. Modernism is characterized by
technological progress and material success. Its core ideology (to the extent
there is one) is pragmatism – whatever works. About 47 percent of American
adults would categorize themselves as “modernists”. Post-modernism is the third
view. It is characterized by individuality, spirituality, and an emphasis on
nature. About 25% of American adults consider themselves to be
“post-modernist”. However, it needs to be noted that the population of
“traditionalists” and “modernists” in the sense Colson uses them in his book,
is aging and declining. The population of “post-modernists” on the other hand
is young and increasing. Undoubtedly the two views that have held the most
influence in recent years are “modernism” and “post-modernism”. We want to look
at these two views in particular. One has lit the bonfire that has everyone
fleeing for their lives. The other is the result of the flight.
A. Creating
the Bonfire: The Modern World
What is the view
of our world and our existence in that world that could have left the best and
brightest of our people desperately fleeing for any alternative as one might
flee a burning house? Modernism is used in a variety of contexts and depending
on the context may have vastly different meanings. There have been modernist
movements in the arts, in architecture, in design, in theology and philosophy.
However, for our purposes we are thinking of modernism from a more sociological
point of view as a word to describe late 20th Century American and
western culture. The America of the industrial and post-industrial age. The
values that dominated what some have called, “The American Century”. It is what the Dictionary of
1. Its
ideology or goal – Secularism (Man is the measure of all things)
Charles Darwin
wrote The Origin of the Species
and hoped in the process to put the notion of creation forever behind the mind
of western man. He had divined a mechanism consisting of small changes over
vast stretches of time that he was convinced would explain the origins of life
on planet earth without recourse to the supernatural or the need for creation.
Man would become the ultimate evolutionary animal. Sigmund Freud worked in the
area of human behavior and human thinking to achieve a similar goal. He would
unshackle mankind once and for all from the dread mechanisms of sin and
morality as the vehicles for human behavior and adopt instead a scientific
approach to understanding the mind and the actions the mind generates or justifies.
In place of troubled souls in a guilt ridden society we would become a race of
enlightened people. Man, by more fully understanding himself and his world
would bring in a new golden age of understanding that would approach heaven on
earth or at least Utopia.
2. Core
Constituency – the Individual in the Nation
The core
constituency for this bold new vision of the world is the individual in the
nation. In the Dictionary of
3. Means
to the goal – Rationalism (the scientific method)
The means to
achieve the goal of modernism is rationalism. Particularly rationalism as
practiced in the scientific method: observation, hypothesis, experimentation,
conclusion. Whereas traditional farming methods had stripped the soil and left
it barren, the modern farmer would analyze his methods, research his markets,
rotate his crops and multiply his yields. Farming would become agra-business.
In a similar extension flying would become the aviation industry; the search
for new cures would spawn the pharmaceutical industry, etc. The scientific
method would measure and quantify everything and everyone. In this way mankind
would achieve maximum utilization of resources and experience maximum blessing.
4. Measure
of success – Progress
The modern man
believes in progress. Progress is almost a religion if not god itself. Progress
toward the goal of a utopian state is the ultimate measure of success. Take the
tragedy of human hunger. The modernist sets out to eliminate it by providing
food. He also studies the climactic conditions of an area and the traditional
farming methods. He measures the rainfall and the temperature. He devises new
farming methods. He tears down cultural barriers that may impede progress. The
goal in this case is to eliminate hunger. Progress is the measure of movement
toward the goal. It is not logical to stand in the way of progress.
B. Fleeing
the Bonfire: The Post-Modern World
In the industrial and post-industrial West an entire generation is fleeing from the kind of vision for the world suggested above as rapidly as they can. Why? What is it about modernism or modernity that is so intolerable? As an example try on a quote from French biochemist Jaques Monod. In 1974 he wrote Chance and Necessity. In it he states, “Man must at last wake out of his millenary dream to discover his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, and as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes.” Bertrand Russell, another guru of modernism wrote a century ago, “Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” And every college student who ever took a course in introductory literature was forced to read Camus and Sartre, the leading French existentialists, confronting in every page the kind of despair such a world view forced upon them. With titles like Nausea and No Exit they set the stage for what should have been seen as inevitable. The human spirit cannot, indeed will not, live in such a place. The heart demands hope and the mind insists on a reason to live.
Thus
modernism has created its own disaster, and the victims are fleeing the blaze.
As I suggested earlier, in the face of such despair, in the face of such an
outcome from progress and science and reason, it is not surprising the young
have fled as their teachers had before them. When the house is on fire the
important thing is not where you are going but that you get out. Any exit will
do. Just find one. If it works for you, fine. If it doesn’t try something else.
Just get out before you burn up. The legacy then of modernism is its anti-type.
Post-modernism is not so much a movement in itself but a reaction against. It
is again, the reaction of fleeing for life in the face of imminent death. A
consideration of four corresponding aspects of post-modern life bear this out.
1. Its
ideology or goal – Pluralism and Supernaturalism
Did moderns
cherish secularism as their ideology? Are Darwin and Freud two of the chief
gods in their pantheon? Post-moderns embrace the supernatural. They do this not
by engaging the modernists on the lines of the long history of the dialogue of
philosophy. Rather they deliberately choose to pierce the brass heaven of the
secularists through their own experience. Eastern mysticism, medieval
mysticism, new and ancient pagan rituals and even the occult are all legitimate
sources for experiencing the supernatural in the view of post-modernists.
2. Core
Constituency – Tribe
Did moderns
cherish the rugged individual and the nation – the lonely, solitary hero
against cold and pitiless nature? Post-moderns value the tribe. You can be a
gang member, a member of the debate team, or the football team. You can be a
neo-Nazi, a goth, straight, gay or bi. You can be Afro-American,
Asian-American, Native American, Hispanic or even Anglo. But you will be
defined by your tribe, you will be expected to be loyal to your tribe and it is
always assumed that your thoughts and ideas are valid for you in the context of
your tribe but no further. In order to
escape the impersonal face of “big”, national, mass-efforts post-moderns have
largely sacrificed loyalties beyond the tribe. What long-term effect the
attacks on America last week will have remains to be seen. The good news
however, is that there were a number of initial reports among young adults of
interest in military service and other forms of national endeavor in the wake
of the unwarranted assault upon our nation.
3. Means
to the goal – Romanticism/Irrationalism (Feeling valued over thinking)
Did modernism
value reason above emotion? Feeling now reigns supreme as the acid test of what
is “true”. In an environment where no one ideology holds sway; where truth is
absolutely relative; where right and wrong are virtually interchangeable terms
the only real guide is my own internal compass. How do I feel about what is
happening? Or the decision I/ we just made? If it makes me feel good, my
feelings validate my participation in the group/decision/exercise. If it makes
me feel bad or I don’t feel anything it decreases my commitment and/or causes
me to question my direction. In many ways post-modernism is anarchic and
reminiscent of the days of the judges in which “everyone did that which was
right in his own eyes”.
4. Measure
of success – Tolerance
Did modernism value progress? Even the possibility of progress as a genuine objective possibility is being denied in post-modern circles. All the gains of industrialized society are offset against the environmental costs, the ecological costs, and most of all the subjugation of personal identity to the purposes of such “big” enterprises as mass culture, mass literacy, mass transit, mass media, etc. In its own way George Orwell’s 1984 did as much to light the fuse on post-modernism as anyone could with its paranoid look at a future life filled with faceless individuals subjugated to the military-industrial needs of warring nation states. In place of progress post-modernism offers tolerance. I’m OK. You are OK. Everyone is OK. Everything is OK. Find your tribe. Be loyal to your tribe. Be happy. And above all just be glad to be out of the fire.
In
light of these two competing sets of ideas I want this morning to offer briefly
two answers to our question, “How do you know God exists?” The first answer is
tailored to the concerns of the modernist who embraces secularism and humanism
and denies the existence of God or claims an inability to know whether or not
God exists. The second answer is tailored to the concerns of the post-modernist
and his or her presuppositions.
II. An
Answer to the Modernist (How do you know God
exists?) Acts 17:24-31
The Bible everywhere assumes the existence of God. Therefore it is not possible to simply go the scriptures and obtain an defense for the existence of God that in itself satisfies the issues raised by the modern secularist with a university education saturated in the scientific method and philosophical scepticism. Having said that however, the work of the apostle Paul in Athens as recorded in the book of Acts at Chapter 17 is extremely enlightening and encouraging for Christians and a powerful challenge for modernists.
The
Greeks to whom Paul is speaking were the intellectual elite of their day. In
many ways they are the progenitors of Western thought and culture, especially
in its rational and speculative aspects. They were religious and at first
glance this might seem therefore to be an inappropriate passage from which to
speak to modern sceptics. However, Paul sets forth in his speech on Mars Hill
two essential, empirically verifiable truth claims to which he calls the
Athenians to respond. The first is:
A. Contemplation
of the material universe leads reasonably to God as Creator
One does not have to begin at the intellectual and cultural starting point of Athens to be challenged by the words of the apostle Paul. The challenge he sets them works marvelously in engaging the spirit of modernism and its secular humanist ideology as well. Paul’s first invitation to the Athenians is to empirically reevaluate the origin and existence of the universe. Paul postulates a creator in verse 24, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.” In other words Paul says my message begins with the empirically verifiable claim to design and origin visible in the material universe. Its order, its majesty, its beauty, its immensity all demand a prime mover with a plan.
The business of origin and design is a powerful corrosive against atheistic and agnostic positions. A question that logically precedes any others was posed by the German philosopher Leibniz several centuries ago but is still relevant to the dialogue today. He wrote, “The first question that should rightly be asked is, why is there something instead of nothing?” Dr. William Craig in support says, “Think about that for a moment. Why does anything exist at all, rather than nothing? Why does the universe, or matter, or anything at all exist, instead of just empty space?” In other words, Where did everything come from?
And
the issue of origin is only the beginning. Once the material is in place and
accounted for, what of the evidence of design? Speaking from a statistical
point of view, Professor Edwin Carlston, a biologist at Princeton University
has said, “The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to
the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a
printing factory.” The more we learn about the intricacies of DNA coding the
more appropriate that analogy becomes. The more we explore the mysteries of the
atom on the microscopic level and the more we learn of the galaxies and the
forces of intergalactic gravity on the macro level the more pressing the need
for a satisfactory answer becomes. What the apostle Paul posits on Mars Hill
has been confirmed by learned and honest men in every science and in every age.
The universe and its design demand a creator and designer.
B. The
God who exists has spoken in the past and speaks today
The second great truth claim that Paul sets forth on Mars Hill is that the God who created has not remained silent. He has spoken definitively in space and time through His Son. At first glance this may seem to be the ultimate religious assertion: unprovable; unverifiable. But that is not what Paul says. It would be pointless for him to stand before the leading intellectual body of the day and offer unverifiable religious assertions. For Paul the resurrection was imminently verifiable. Not by the same methodology that would be used to verify design and order and origin in creation but by the standards of judicial evidence. He claims an historical event. He knew his claim could withstand scrutiny. Look at verse 31, “...He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” It is not merely that God has spoken; He has spoken dramatically and definitively in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
In
making such a radical assertion Paul knew he would generate controversy.
Everywhere he had gone he was generating controversy with this message. How
could anyone die and then live again physically? Such a possibility was as far
removed from Greek thought as it is from the mind of the modernist. The great
Greek playwright Aeschylus had said as much in the Oresteia hundreds of years
before. Once human life ceases and goes to the grave it never rises again.
Death was universal and irreversible. Yet the precise claim that Paul makes is
simply that. God has spoken definitively in His Son by raising Him from the
dead. He effectively demands an investigation. In his book, The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
carefully rehearses the claims of Christ for our generation, including the
irrefutable judicial evidence for the resurrection of Christ.
C. God
calls men to a response to the resurrection
In verse 30 Paul puts the claims of God squarely before his Athenian audience, “...but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” The call of God is no less profound in its power today. Let the sceptic investigate the created order. Then let him survey the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Then let him consider the majesty and power of such a being and worship him as God and Lord and Savior. That is the apostolic preaching in all its powerful implications.
III. An
Answer to the Post-modernist (How do you know God?) John
1:15-18
The gospel of John
is peculiarly suited to answering the concerns of seekers. John says in 20:31
that he wrote what he wrote so that, “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Post-modernists are not necessarily seekers but they are much more open to the
possibility of the supernatural than their modernist counterparts. The
challenge with post-modernists is not whether God exists but whether it is
legitimate to claim uniqueness for the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ as his
Son. Further, the typical post-modernist is not seeking so much to be persuaded
by intellect as by feelings, either emotions or intuitions. This is so for the
reasons we have already stated. John’s gospel is also admirably suited for this
purpose as well. For although John writes in logical statements containing
factual propositions, he also stresses relationship with God through Christ and
the possibility of absolutely knowing God in this way. This also is important
because ultimately the post-modernist’s real question is not whether God exists
or can exist (as we have already seen post-modernists are persuaded of the
existence of the supernatural); the real question is how do you know God? John
helps us answer this question for the post-modernist.
A. God
became one of us in space and time
In John 1:14 he writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In the most intimate terms John describes the incarnation. He never uses such a technical term, but that is what he is saying. You may remember the song that came out a few years ago that went something like this, “What if God were one of us? Just a slob like one of us?” John affirms that Jesus was and is one of us. He experienced what we experience. He knew the pain and struggle and heartache and joy and tension of living. He was hungry, got sore feet, was hot in the summer and cold in winter just like us. He became one of us. This makes God accessible. We can know him. John invites us to know him and consider his claims on our lives.
The
idea of accessibility is further emphasized in the phrase, “he made his
dwelling among us.” Older translations render the phrase, “he tabernacled among
us.” John was of course a Jew by background as were all the apostles. The Jews
have an annual religious festival established by Moses called the Feast of
Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths. It was in effect a national camping
experience. For one week each fall the ancient Israelites would camp out and
give thanks to God for the harvest. Each family would build a lean-to in the
fields with their neighbors and celebrate what God was doing in their lives.
This experience had a profound democratic effect. For one week each year the distinctions
of class and office and wealth and position would melt away as rich and poor
alike lived in their lean-to’s and worshiped. John reminds us that Jesus not
only became one of us but that He has now made His dwelling among us. In Jesus,
God is on an extended camping experience with His human family. Far from a cold
consideration of intellectual facts the invitation of God in Christ is to meet
with Him and camp with Him through the cross.
B. He
supplies great blessings to all and more to those who seek him
In verse 16 John says, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John doesn’t limit the kindness and generosity of Jesus only to those who follow Him. He reminds us that Jesus cares for everyone. His kindness to man is shown in what theologians call common grace. God pours the blessings of life and health and ability on everyone. But there are other blessings He reserves only for those who commit their way uniquely to Jesus. Those blessings are contained in what theologians sometimes refer to as saving grace. Through these special blessings Jesus promises us everlasting life with God the Father. He forgives our sins and failures. He gives us assurance of pardon, and He gives his Holy Spirit to live in our hearts.
The
“fullness” of the grace of God available in Jesus is something the apostles
never cease to marvel over. They were powerfully aware of how much they did not
deserve the kindness of the great God of the universe. Although John does not
speak of the cross of Christ directly in these few verses we are considering
today, the cross permeates John’s thinking. How is it possible that so much
grace or blessing comes pouring down to us in Jesus? Because as he writes
elsewhere, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. In the post-modern ideal,
I’m OK and you are OK. The idea of sin definitely runs against the tide. But
relationship with God requires a new direction in life. That new direction
begins with repentance – a turning from sin. In order to experience the
blessings that God offers, I need to accept the forgiveness that he has
provided at the cross.
C. God
is known through relationship with his Son (see also John 14:8 ff.)
In Christ, God invites us to enter into a living relationship with him. In verse 18 John tells us, “No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Apart from Christ, God is hidden. We ought to discern His presence through a consideration of creation. But even rightly done that work leaves many questions. Through Christ we are invited to enter into relationship with God; to know God personally. In the fourteenth chapter of his gospel John records a request from Philip, one of the twelve apostles. He said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Note Jesus’ answer, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” If you want authentic connection with the God of the universe the way is open to you in Jesus Christ. He is God’s son; He is the authentic representation of God. He invites you into relationship with Him by repenting of your sins and trusting in His cross for your forgiveness. He will receive you. You will be able to experience his presence in worship and in prayer and in meditation on His word. Why wait another minute? Come to Christ today.