ASK THE PASTOR

 

Dear Pastor Charles: 

I have a question that concerns me deeply. Whenever I ask my Christian friends this question they always seem to avoid giving me a straight answer. If God created the universe and everything in it, who created God? Doesn’t it make more sense that the universe always existed and everything evolved over millions of years? I would like to believe that there is a God but the evidence just doesn’t seem to add up. Please try to give me an answer.

Sincerely Skeptical.

Dear Sincerely Skeptical: 

I will attempt to answer your question, but may I ask you one first? How did the matter that makes up the universe come in to being? Did it create itself? For me, to believe that matter created itself takes a lot more faith than to believe that the hand of God created the universe. Regardless of how far back you trace the universal beginnings, the question is always before us; how did the first atom come into being? The more logical answer to what we know as reality is intelligent design rather than chance. To my mind, believing in evolution in the sense that intelligent life developed all by itself from a random combination of elements and compounds is like saying that a Boeing 737 airplane formed itself by random chance because certain elements mixed themselves together over millions of years. Nonsense! The airplane was designed by intelligent human beings to fulfill a specific purpose. The Bible plainly states in Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”  Also in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

You see, none of us were around in the beginning. What we know of the origins of the universe has been deduced from fragments of evidence and observation of cause and effects. From these, hypotheses have been drawn and theories formed as to the origin of the universe. Science can only present as absolutes that which it can reproduce in the laboratory. As far as I know, no scientist has yet to produce something from nothing. In theology that is referred to as ex nihilo, or something from nothing. Magicians would like you to believe that the rabbit magically appeared from the hat, and maybe we want to believe that is possible for humans to pull off. Yet, according to the Bible God has done this very thing and He didn’t even need a hat, only the sound of His voice (Read Genesis 1).

God speaks very directly to atheists in Psalm 14:1; “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.” It is obvious to me that you are not a true atheist as you say that you would like to believe in God. I am going to ask you to examine the hard evidence for yourself. Can science really prove the ‘Big Bang Theory’ and the ‘Theory of Evolution’? No. That is why they are called theories. What you are doing when you accept man’s interpretation of existence is in fact an act of faith on your part. In reality, these theories become religion when you truly believe in their accuracy without hard evidence.

You see, it is through faith that we Christians accept that the Bible is the Word of God and that His version of creation is accurate and true. So, I now ask you this question. If you believe in a self-existent, self-creating universe can your belief help you in some way? What benefit is there for you in believing man made theories? Perhaps, at most, you can become self-satisfied in that you are not being hoodwinked by a bunch of religious nuts but I would submit to you that is exactly what is happening when you believe in the religion of evolution and self-creation. If these theories are true, then the Bible is false and if the Bible is false then there is no God. If there is no God, then your life is totally meaningless because you are nothing more than a collection of self-created biological matter. Please forgive me if I seem harsh, but doesn’t it make more sense to exercise your faith to believe in an all-knowing, all-loving God who offers you complete peace and security as well as eternal life with Him in a heaven which He created?

If all these theories are correct and there is no God and my faith was eternally in vain, then as a Christian, I will have still lead a wonderful life of love and peace of mind only to go into eternal nothingness. But what if we Christians are right? What if the Bible is the Word of God and Jesus is “The way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but by me” (John 14:6)? Then my friend, I think that you will have a real big problem on judgment day. God will say to you, “Why didn’t you accept the gift of salvation that I offered to you through the death of my Son on the cross?”  You will be forced to answer, “I didn’t believe in you because I chose to believe in evolution and the self-creation of matter.” God, will then be forced to say, “Even though I love you, my justice demands that because you have rejected me, I must reject you.”

I believe most self proclaimed atheists are either intellectually dishonest or just plain lazy because they find it more convenient to believe what their professors have taught them. Therefore, they outright reject any another alternative because their peers might think they are dumb, or they might have to exercise their brains with some hard, rational thinking apart from peer groups and professors.

I implore you to spend some time reading the Bible for yourself with, at least, the same fervor that you read your text books in high school or college.  If you have difficulty understanding what you are reading, then use your mind and the same scientific principles applied to other accepted theories to gain understanding. I promise that understanding will eventually become wisdom that will change your life for the better. God desires us to earnestly seek Him and He desires for us to use our brains as we do. After all, He created them for us to have reason. I personally believe that to reject the existence of God outright without a fair consideration is the ultimate form of intellectual dishonesty.

So, my Skeptical friend. Please believe your Christian friends when they tell you that God is not only alive and real but that He also wants to have a personal relationship with you. Please give God a chance in your life. What can it hurt?

The simplest and fastest way to gain wisdom is to ask God to reveal Himself to you. Just tell Him what you have told me, that you want to believe in Him. I guarantee that He will come into your life in powerful way. My prayer for you is that in your search for the truth, you will discover the real ‘Truth’ in all His glory.

May God bless and keep you as you ponder possibilities.

Pastor Charles…