Hi! Thanks for stopping by. Have you ever wondered what happens when we die? It’s not a pleasant topic, but it comes for all of us. And it often comes without warning. Whether it’s an untimely car accident, aneurysm, sudden heart attack, or just an accidental slip and fall, the paper is full of obituaries each day for people who hadn’t planned on having their names in the paper that day. But a lot of us choose not to think about their own moment of death. And who can blame them? It’s easy to be overwhelmed by what you see and hear each day. You’ve got atheists claiming there is no God. You’ve got suicide bombers claiming to be religious martyrs to reach their own idea of heaven. You’ve got evolutionists saying it all happened randomly. You have churches that want to save everyone and push their agendas on you. And you have activists for various causes protesting in the streets claiming there is no right and wrong and that we can live any way we want. How does anyone know what to believe? To reach your own conclusion would take a tremendous amount of research, time and soul-searching, and the task seems so daunting and intimidating for most people that they just don’t make the time to see for themselves what makes the most sense. I will tell you up front, I am a Christian. But I also take a very logical approach to life, and I have tested my beliefs inside and out and I can tell you why I believe what I do. I have devoted a tremendous amount of my own research to sort through what is out there, and I have come away with more conviction than ever that there is one logical conclusion. As much as I encourage everyone to do the same thing, I know that most people don’t have the time or won’t make the time. In these pages I have attempted to take the most critical topic you will ever ponder and boil it down to the shortest and simplest truths possible. I hope you will take the time to read through each page slowly and truly focus on each word as you contemplate what makes sense. And when you are done I hope you will tell someone else about what you’ve read.
3 STEPS TO THE TRUTH
A common sense look at life
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype today that everyone accepts human evolution and the Big Bang theories as fact, and in the increasingly popular presumed conclusion that God and the Bible are therefore a myth. If you read the news or watch TV for very long you may even begin to feel like the only believer left. But saying something is true over and over does not make it true. I want you to consider the evidence for yourself. I don’t want my grandkids thinking they came from monkeys, and I don’t want future generations of my family to think I had a tail. But more than anything, I don’t want to see anyone spend eternity in hell because they have heard the lies for so long that they don’t even try to think it through for themselves or to search God’s word for answers.
So I’m appealing to your common sense, and asking you to think for yourself, logically, about the world you see around you, and then ask yourself what makes the most sense to you. And, if you do decide the evidence favors a Creator, what then? There are a lot of different religions out there, so how can you know which one is right? And if the Bible is true, then why has it become so popular for people to attack and dismiss it as myth today? It’s my hope and prayer that this is something you can use when you begin to question or doubt your faith. And I would love nothing more than for this to turn into something you could share with a friend who is lost and has never questioned what the world is telling them today.
So let’s get started with Step 1. Creation would imply that everything has a purpose and things would thus be marked by order. Evolution and the Big Bang on the other hand would imply the lack of order and everything would be marked by randomness since they are built on random events happening in succession. Let’s see which is more evident in the world around us.
Step 1: Take a look around you
I’m going to start with the closest piece of evidence of all – yourself. Your body is comprised of 11 different systems. For starters, we have a circulatory system that constantly pumps blood to and from all parts of the body. If we have a “system breach” like a cut or scrape, it even clots and stops its own leak. And when you lose or donate some your body produces more. On top of that, no matter how advanced the field of medicine has become, we still can’t make our own blood. We have to hold blood drives instead. We have a beating heart, that if you believe in evolution, must have learned to begin beating on its own somehow, that keeps us alive. But it had to start out beating on its first try or that first blob wouldn’t have lived for very long. And for some reason, evolution still hasn’t fixed the problem that for all of us, it stops beating one day.
We have a respiratory system that takes in oxygen and expels carbon dioxide, that again, keeps us alive. Another weakness we haven’t managed to evolve out of. We have a skeletal system designed to not only help us move, but is designed to protect our most important areas, the brain, heart and vital areas. We have muscles, tendons and ligaments attached to those bones, designed to aid us in movement, balance and strength. We come with a protective covering – skin – that also has the ability to heal itself. We have a digestive system that is filled with organs that each have very specific functions in breaking down the foods we eat – into proteins, starches, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins – taking what is useful for our bodies, processing it, distributing it, and discarding what is left as waste. On top of that, we’re given a built-in desire to eat (try to create a desire in the lab – go ahead, I can wait). What two pieces of goo rubbed together in the evolutionary process to cause the feeling of hunger?
We have teeth fit for biting and tearing in front, and teeth for chewing and grinding in the back, right where we need them. Taste buds on the tongue that send signals back and forth to the brain, a little flap called an epiglottis that closes when we swallow so that food goes down the right “pipe” and not into our windpipe where we could choke. Amazing precision and functions for every single part.
I would love to hear the evolutionist theory of how the reproductive system happened. I’ll say this though. Like the beating heart and the breathing lung, it had to have happened on the very first try or else there wouldn’t have been another round. You can cross off the idea of any of those traits developing over millions of years. And why are there only 2 sexes? Not just 1, not 3 or 4, not an infinite number, but 2. Would randomness stop at 2? That’s a very specific number to stop at, that, by the way, does have an explanation in the Bible. And what are the odds that of just the two sexes that evolved, that they would fit together, that one would be created to receive the other and by some magical process produce more evolutionary beings! By the way, if we came from anything other than creation, why don’t we see any other humans developing that way today? Ever since the first human, all the new ones have come from other humans through reproduction, and not from the goo. You don’t see any globs lying around with people standing over it with defibrillators trying to make its heart start beating.
We haven’t even covered the most complex system of all, the nervous system, which contains the brain, spinal cord (both protected by the skeletal structure) and nerves that permeate every inch of our body that allow us to feel pain, pleasure, etc. and transport the signal back to the brain. The nervous system allows us to see, hear, feel, smell and taste. The eye itself and the way it works to process images and send them to the brain to be interpreted is astounding and is something that has never been replicated in the lab. And speaking of the brain, let’s spend a moment on its functions. Decision making, logic, memory, problem solving, creative abilities, feelings, emotions, desires, etc – all stem from the brain, the masterpiece of the human body which to this day is still not fully understood by science.
Now, consider the symmetry and design of the human body. Wouldn’t a random process like evolution mean that we had an arm coming off our back, a foot sticking out of our head, 2 toes here, a couple of fingers hanging there? Where are all those fossils? You don’t find them. You see a system of symmetry and consistency, even in the earliest of fossils. Consider the perfect pairs of everything. 2 legs the same length, 2 arms, 10 toes and fingers, 2 eyes the same color and shape and located on each side of the head, 2 ears, 2 elbow joints, 2 knees, 2 eyebrows, 2 nostrils, 2 lungs, 2 kidneys. And none of them are located randomly.
As a side note, evolutionists are really big on discrediting how we were all made. But they’ve never tried to tackle why we die. If we’ve evolved over millions of years, shouldn’t we get better at living? Why does this randomly created, constantly evolving body still get old and die? The Bible answers this. “It is appointed to man once to die, and after that, the judgment.”
The last thing I’ll say about the human body is to consider the incredible complexities of DNA. A single gram of DNA can store 500,000 CD’s worth of information. Even the best scientists in the world cannot produce a useful version of it. That is with the smartest people in the world actually trying. It would take 50 years to type the entire human genome if someone typed at 60 words per minute. Each DNA strand is 1.8 meters long, but squeezed into a space of 0.09 micrometers! And it has a self-repairing mechanism in each cell. Is it really practical to pretend this happened randomly?
I hope you are beginning to see now why it’s been said that it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in creation. Consider this comparison. My truck has 11 different systems, all with very specific functions. Among them, the fuel system, ignition system, cooling system, electrical system, exhaust system, brake system, transmission system, suspension system. All of them are interwoven, throughout the body of the vehicle, and all were designed for very specific functions. They don’t have near the complexity or self-sustaining functions you find in the human body. And yet I have never, not once, had anyone ask if my truck was created or if it just happened randomly!
Isn’t it ridiculous to think that something with that many systems, with that many specific functions, working together as a complete body of work, could happen without someone designing it? And as ridiculous as that sounds, it pales in comparison to what they do in the next step. Let’s carry the analogy a little further. My truck also came with an instruction manual, and it says my truck was made in Canton, MS. Well, let’s say I don’t believe it. I think it came from two parts of metal rubbing together that touched off a chemical reaction of some kind, resulting in the complete automotive product you see before you today. And since I believe that nonsense, it also makes me declare the rest of the instruction manual to be false. Even though it’s full of helpful and proven information, such as tips to keep things in working order, help for what to do when they don’t, and the proper role of each part. All false now. Would you agree this is not very logical? Yet this parallels exactly what is happening today.
Next, take a look at the environment you see around you each day. The Earth, much like the body, has been designed to be as self-sustaining as possible. Everything on the land is dependent on water to survive, and guess what? The land has its own built-in watering system, with water vapor and clouds forming over the water and moving over land and dropping the water. Animals can’t live without the oxygen from plants, and plants can’t live without the carbon dioxide from animals. Did this happen by accident and coincidence? Incidentally, the “evolution” of both plants and animals would had to have happened at exactly the same time, or else neither would have survived. Wow, we seem to be stacking up quite a few things that had to have happened on the first try, and all of them at the same time.
The animals are so individualized that all of them are able to be classified into a specific genus and species. It seems the concept of evolution would mean that all of these traits were a mixed bag. Has anyone found a part-cat, part-horse fossil? You find COMPLETE order in the plant and animal kingdom. Animals are of 2 sexes, not 1, not an infinite number, but 2. And like humans, their parts go together and when they do, they produce more of their species. You’ll also notice remarkable similarities between the animals and humans. We all have a similar blueprint to life that consists of similar organs, systems, symmetry, and functions. The main difference is that we have been gifted with a conscience that allows us to know – and do – right and wrong.
Plants each reproduce their own particular species through seeds that all grow through the same process, but yet retain their own species’ identity. You don’t find a part-maple, part-cedar tree. There is nothing random in nature, and nothing blended. You find a spectacular system where everything works separately and independently, but that all fit together in perfect order and in dependence on the others. There’s also a hierarchy to the animal kingdom, with man ruling over the animals.
I’ll touch a little bit on the rest of the universe as well. Do you realize how precise our planet is with its rotation on its axis and its orbit around the sun? So precise that man has yet to invent a clock that can keep up with God’s exactness perfectly. And it happens that way year after year after year. The earth also just happens to turn in space, so that it faces the sun (which just happened to land where it did, and then stay there) part of the day and away from the sun part of the day. Genesis says “And the darkness shall be separated from the light”.
In addition to the planetary orbit paths within our solar system, the entire system itself orbits around the Milky Way galaxy. It all looks pretty deliberate to me. Wouldn’t the Big Bang have resulted in randomness in space? And what are the odds that all those stars and planets created by the explosion would all end up being round? The imaginary Big Bang theory doesn’t explain the origin of anything. The materials still had to come from somewhere. All you’ve accomplished is to move the question back one more level.
I hope I’ve gone into enough detail to prove to you that there has to be a Creator. We are completely surrounded with purpose and order everywhere we turn. So what now? With so many religions in the world, and different concepts of God, how would someone know which way to turn? Does that Creator love us? Does he want us to know him? Did he create it all and walk away? This leads us to Step 2.
Step 2: Look into the different belief systems and see which ones stand up to evidence and logic
Let’s look at the major religions observed around the world today and see what it tells us. I think it’s safe to assume that the creator of the universe would not frustrate himself by making himself so hard to find that less than 2% of the world would find him, so let’s cross those off from the beginning. And by the same logic, it doesn’t make sense that he would wait until the 1800’s or 1900’s A.D. to reveal the true way. That takes out quite a few more, like scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses. A quick sidenote on Jehovah’s Witnesses, which actually claims to be a Christian religion: they started in 1872, and have twice tried to predict the ending date of the world and failed, losing over half of their followers each time. So let’s look at the major world religions that are left, and then see what makes the most sense.
Hinduism (followed by about 15% of the world due to the dense populations in India) worships many different gods and teaches reincarnation. They believe each reincarnation offers the opportunity for growth in the four areas they consider important: pleasure, development of wealth, righteousness, and liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. They hold cows and peacocks sacred, due to their belief that various deities travel on them. At one time, their teachings were that the earth was resting on the backs of four male elephants, who were all standing on the back of a turtle. There is no acknowledged founder of Hinduism. They don’t get bogged down in creation and believe there have been many universes before this one and there will be many after. This religious belief system is not rapidly spreading today.
Buddhism began around 600 B.C., and shares several commonalities with Hinduism. Although China and Thailand are considered the hotspots for Buddhism today, it actually began in India. The Buddha was born into a wealthy family, but after being exposed to the poverty and suffering in the world around him, he denied his riches and committed to a life of deprivation. He felt such torment over the pain and suffering in the world that one day he sat under a tree and committed to stay there until he gained understanding, which is believed to have happened on the seventh day.
Buddhists also believe in reincarnation, even from animals. They believe in no beginning and no end, but that if in each succeeding life a person becomes more moral, then they eventually reach a state of euphoria on this earth, called nirvana, or enlightenment. They believe you live life over and over until you live it well enough to reach nirvana, but after 2600 years, only Buddha has ever claimed to have reached it. Buddhists comprise about 7% of the world’s population, and like Hinduism, this religion is primarily confined to one region of the earth.
As noted, these two religions are heavily concentrated in two highly populated countries – India and China. The Bible says the Holy Spirit forbade the disciples from traveling east to spread the gospel message, and that may be part of the reason that the region to this day remains relatively unexposed to Christianity and is home to some unusual beliefs.
So let’s narrow it down a little further. Over 60% of the world is either Christian, Jew, or Muslim. That should be a telling statistic. All three religions believe in the same God of the Bible. That should be significant. From the Creation to Noah to Moses to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all three religions stem from the same history. All three recognize the angels Michael and Gabriel, as well as the prophets. All three are built around the same moral code of right and wrong. All three condone the same types of behavior, condemn the same types of behavior, and all three believe in the Ten Commandments (except Muslims and the Fourth Commandment – they don’t believe that God needs rest and therefore did not rest on the seventh day). The primary difference is in their beliefs about Jesus.
Jewish people, who are the foundation of the Bible, don’t accept Jesus as the Messiah even though he fulfilled so many Old Testament prophecies. They were expecting the prophecies to be fulfilled by a literal earthly king, a military or political leader, to rescue them from foreign rule, and overlooked the possibility of the prophecies pointing to a heavenly king. The big question that poses to me is, if they reject the atonement offering that Jesus provides, then doesn’t that mean they believe they are still under the law of the Old Testament? Shouldn’t they still be offering blood sacrifices to atone for sin? They don’t, and it’s because they have nowhere to offer them. See, the sacrifices could only be offered in the places God commanded. Since the temple was destroyed by the Roman army in 70 A.D. (shortly after Jesus’s crucifixion), no sacrifices have been made. And the reason is because God never specified a new site to them. Doesn’t this point us to Jesus? If sacrifice was still necessary, wouldn’t He have specified a new site to them?
So that leaves us to explore the 2 most predominant religions, Islam and Christianity, practiced by 59% of the planet. We’ll begin with a separate discussion of each, but due to their similarities and intertwinings, we will follow that up with a comparison and contrast.
Islam began approximately 700 years after Christ’s crucifixion. Muslims consider Jesus to be only a prophet and a good man, but not the Son of God and not resurrected. Islam is based on the writings of one man, Muhammad, who received visions while roaming in the desert alone. They believe in one God, Allah, who is the same God of the Bible. Muslims do believe the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, but consider it compromised over the years and that the Quran supercedes it. One Quran verse states “You have nothing unless you follow the Old and New Testaments and that which God has revealed to you”. There are more than a dozen verses in the Quran that mention and support the Bible. Muhammad believed in the Jewish and Christian scriptures and considered them the true Word of God, although he made significant changes in his Quran.
Muslims believe you get to heaven by good works outweighing your bad works. They don’t believe in a personal relationship with a loving God. Muslims do not claim to worship Muhammad, but they face his birthplace Mecca five times each day when they pray. Islam also has the same gaping hole as Judaism. If you believe in the laws of the Old Testament, but do not accept that Jesus’s death served as the final blood sacrifice, then what can you point to that explains why you are no longer offering sacrifices in atonement for sin?
Christianity is based on the Bible, a book that was written over hundreds of years by many different authors, yet that has a flowing theme of mankind’s redemption throughout, full of prophecies that were predicted hundreds of years in advance and then fulfilled, full of stories about miracles, healings, acts of servanthood, that were witnessed by thousands, and full of instructions for how man is to live peacefully and show concern for his fellow man. Christians, like Muslims, also believe there is one true God. They believe that Jesus is their advocate to God and that he gives them the ability to approach the holy God. Muslims equate this to polytheism, the worship of multiple gods, which contradicts their “no God but Allah” creed. Christians believe Jesus is the true Son of God, sent to show us how to live. Christ’s teachings were in full adherence to the Bible. There was nothing in Jesus’s ministry that was contradictory to God’s word, and throughout the gospels, Jesus was completely submissive to the will of his Father. Christians follow his example. It’s all about God and they believe the way to be able to approach Him is through Jesus. Christians believe the Bible’s teaching that Jesus bore the punishment for our sins by serving as the final blood sacrifice. Which by the way, if you think that this is in contradiction to the teachings of the Old Testament, remember that Jesus’s coming was prophesied over and over in the Old Testament, so it all falls completely into place by tying both Testaments together. Christ so changed the world that the very calendar we keep to this day is measured by the years since his earthly ministry. Talk about making an impact. Can any other religion claim that?
Next, we’ll look at some of the major differences between Islam and Christianity. As mentioned above, Muhammad believed in the Bible and references it many times in the Quran. He was known for quoting its scripture. The Bible teaches that God’s word never changes, yet Muhammad changed it, in some cases drastically. In the New Testament, Jesus clearly states, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me”. The Bible teaches us to believe in good works, salvation through the grace of Christ, and in serving others as the gospel is spread. Muslims spread their religion by force. Have you ever heard of a Muslim mission team? Can you imagine the Muslim mission team, offering medical and dental services to third world countries, supplying them with food, clothing, and shelter, and then following up all of that kindness with “OK, now if anyone tells you they disagree with our teachings, you must kill them”. What a tough sale that must be.
Christians spread their religion through good works. The Quran teaches that Islam is to be spread by force and by violence, including death. Yet its followers claim to be the religion of peace. Read the Quran (it’s actually shorter than the New Testament) and you will note that there are many more verses on violence than peace. Or just watch the news or read the newspaper and it will show you all you need to know about peace and Islam. Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hamas, ISIS, Al Shabaab, the list goes on. Now granted, you see the occasional misguided soul who professes to be a Christian imagining God’s voice telling him to commit murder, but those are by far the exception rather than the rule, and amount to nothing compared to the everyday violence of Islam. Judge it based on this. Ask, is it consistent with their teachings? For Christians, not at all. For Islam, it’s the way their own text instructs them.
One of the big questions I have with Islam is this. If we are both striving to live according to the same principles, praying to the same God, worshiping the same God, helping those in need, encouraging others in the faith, exhorting others to walk in wisdom and know right from wrong, then what difference should it make that one believes Jesus is the way to heaven and one believes that good works is the way to heaven? Is it worth murdering someone over? Speaking of which, one of the Muslim beliefs about heaven is that if you murder enough of the right people for the right reasons, you will be greeted with 72 virgins in paradise. This is found in a hadith, kind of a supplement to the Quran. So you have a religion that teaches that adultery is wrong in this life, but that believes when you get to heaven (again, by committing murder), you have sex all day with 72 virgins. Okay.
How do Muslims view Jesus then if they reject him as Messiah? They consider Jesus to be a great prophet, but not the son of God. The truth is, Jesus would have been a terrible prophet. He says over and over he IS God, which would have been taboo for a prophet and considered blasphemy. He would immediately lose all credibility as a prophet if he claimed to be God. It would have been more believable if Islam denied Jesus ever lived than to acknowledge that he lived but only as a prophet.
Islam also rejects the idea of Christ’s resurrection. They teach that Jesus’s body was stolen in the night by the apostles instead of resurrected. That leaves two obvious holes without an explanation. One, there were over 500 eyewitnesses after his resurrection. And two, consider this. Every one of those disciples faced lifelong persecutions, imprisonments, beatings, and death. They faced some of the most terrible deaths imaginable, including stoning, upside down crucifixions, and beheadings. People may be willing to carry out a lie for a little while, but not to the point that it cost them everything, including their life. Don’t you think at least one of them would have broken down, at the least right before they faced these terrible deaths, and confessed the lie to save their own life? Not one of them did. Because they were so transformed and shaken to the core by their time spent with Jesus that they were willing to die in order to keep spreading the good news. Now I appeal to your common sense. Would this be logical if it was all a cover for a lie?
We have established that Islam accepts the Bible as true and it is referenced many times in the Quran. So, since Islam believes the Bible is true, Christians believe the Bible is true, and the Quran contradicts the Bible in many, many ways, the one that makes the most practical sense to follow is the Bible. Of the three religions who stem from the same history, only Christianity matches up with the original teachings and laws without contradicting it, changing it, or adding to it.
God offered grace through Christ because of man’s inability to keep the law. There were many prophecies pointing to Jesus coming and that specified details of his life hundreds of years before they happened. It is not reasonable to believe that God would go back from that to a good works religion when mankind had already proven they were incapable of keeping the law. And he would especially not do that without lots of prophecies to let his people know to expect the change, as He did with the prophecies of Christ. There is only one prophecy concerning Muhammad, and that is from Matthew 24:11. “Many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many”.
A Christian also can take comfort in knowing that even if Islam turns out somehow to be correct in its belief that admission to heaven is possible based on works alone, then a Christian who strives to live by Christ’s teachings is covered either way. Islam doesn’t come with this nice safety net.
Now let’s talk about the Bible a little bit more. The oldest recorded human history dates back to about 6,000 years. This is backed by secular history that spans different cultures as well as by Biblical history. And it matches up exactly with when the Bible says God created man. So what are the chances that, after millions of years of evolving, that the human brain would reach the stage of development that would allow evolved man to begin written communication and recording of history at exactly the same point in time that the Bible says man was created?
The book of Genesis is full of facts that are easy to verify today. There are periods of light separated by periods of darkness. Man has to work to bring forth food as a result of the curse. Women experience pain during childbirth. Man rules over all the animals. These are just a few things that likely did not happen randomly. The Bible also mentions the snake, cursed by God in the garden of Eden, that he would no longer walk but crawl on its belly. To this day, some snakes still have the presence of a hipbone in their skeletal structure, but with no legs attached. Some evolutionists claim that this is because of evolution, not proof of creation. So evolution, which is all about constant improvement and adaptation, led to a creature that at one time could walk, to losing its legs! Maybe de-evolution, but not evolution. And to clarify, there are no other land animals that have lost their legs, and no others that have misplaced hipbones.
Next, consider the historical accounts given in the Bible. All the many rulers, kingdoms, prophets, etc. match up with secular history from the given time periods, and also with archaeological finds that continue today. There are plenty of books out there that go into tremendous detail that attest to the verification of the Bible’s history, so I won’t get carried away with those details here. The Old Testament contained over 100 different prophecies that were predicted in some cases hundreds of years in advance, by many different prophets, that were all fulfilled and written about by other authors in the New Testament. And witnessed by others, both in the Bible and in secular history. So we have no reason to doubt the facts and history as presented in the Bible. So what else is in there to create the level of contempt we are seeing today for the Bible? What did God say in there that was so wrong? Most people would agree with the admonishings that lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, coveting, envy, pride, etc are all bad things that people should avoid. And certainly most would agree there is nothing wrong with the acts of servanthood, healing, charity, miracles, and love for others that Jesus showed during his time with man. So why are people so ready to pretend it’s all a myth and would rather pretend that we came from a blob that formed on an explosion fragment that landed here? That discussion will take us to Step 3.
Step 3: Why do some people ignore the obvious?
I think there are several reasons people don’t want to acknowledge our creator today. One, they can’t come to terms with the fact that despite the advances in science and knowledge, that there are still mysteries out there that we can’t comprehend or explain scientifically. There is a disconnect between the creation account in Genesis and the commonly accepted age of the earth, and a lot of people get hung up on that. But the theory of evolution and the Big bang theory are also woefully inadequate at explaining the disconnect. Carbon dating and radiometric dating both have to assume that the atmospheric conditions and decay rates that we know today have always existed, which becomes a stretch when applied to potentially hundreds of millions of years. I would love to be able to prove one or the other is right, but no one can. Maybe it’s something very simple. Maybe God used the earth for other purposes before he created man. When Genesis says God’s spirit moved upon the face of the deep, maybe it was because he had just flooded the earth in order to create the earth as we know it. He has been known to flood the earth and start over. I know this, though. All the evidence points to man, as we know him in the present, beginning exactly when the Bible says he did.
We have to also consider that, of all the periods in history, the past 100 years have been unbelievable for the amount of new knowledge gained in science and medicine. This is proof that we are only now beginning to figure some things out. Darwin himself admitted to the shortcomings of his theories from the 1800’s but hoped that over time the fossil record would bear them out. It hasn’t. In his book The Origin of Species, he has a chapter called “Difficulties with the Theory”, which includes the following statement among other doubts: “To suppose that the eye, with so many parts all working together, could have formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree”. Even in a time when we knew far less about vision than we do now, he struggled to balance his theories with the evidence staring him in the face. Imagine what Darwin would have done with his own theories if DNA had even been discovered yet, which didn’t take place until 1869.
The Bible tells us that God’s thoughts are higher than ours. He has given us the ability to see and comprehend as much as he wants us to and no more. There will always be questions we can’t prove the answer to that we will have to wonder about until we meet Him face to face. But in the meantime, we live in a world and environment where we are inundated daily with evidence of the Creator.
A second reason I think people don’t believe in God is because of the presence, allowance, and power of evil in this world. Why would God allow that? Realize that he didn’t spare the disciples or even his own son from that evil. One of the biggest questions I will have for God on the day that we meet will be this: why create all the things of this world, seeing that each one was good as described in Genesis, but then almost immediately give control of it over to evil? Even Jesus himself didn’t dispute this fact with Satan when Satan tempted him by offering him control over all the earth in Matthew 4: 8-10 if he would only follow him instead of God. So obviously it was under Satan’s control for him to have the power to offer it. All I can do is speculate, but here is the most logical reason I can offer. What better way to see who is fit for the kingdom of God, than to put them in a world exposed to evil, surrounded by evil, and offer them complete freedom to choose, giving them a Bible for an instruction manual (among other uses), a heart, a conscience, the ability to pray, and a mind with the free will to choose, and then see who follows good and who chooses evil? If all you’re focused on is this life, it doesn’t make sense. But if you approach it with the view of the life to come, it makes perfect sense. It’s hard for us to grasp when this life is all we’ve ever known, but we are told that this life is a twinkling of the eye compared to the life to come. (For more on this, see the reasons for pain and evil in Appendix One.) So God has given us everything we need, and then has chosen not to reveal Himself for a season, perhaps to see which direction we decide to go.
The third reason people don’t want to believe in God is that they are afraid that there are some things that may actually be sins. If you pretend God doesn’t exist, then the rest of what He says in His word is null and void too, and all behavior becomes OK. And the number one area that people today want to hear their behavior is acceptable is in the area of sex and marriage. But I do find it suspect that the Bible could be so right on everything else but not know what it’s talking about on this one subject. So let’s look at the evidence we have today that support the Bible’s teaching. Isn’t it clear that male and female are meant to go together? And isn’t it clear that the improper use of sex has led to our nation’s biggest problems? Let’s look at the consequences of today’s sex culture and see if overall it has been good or bad for civilization.
We could start with all of the various sexually transmitted diseases – an obvious sign that sleeping around is bad. We could talk about unwanted babies born out of wedlock, maybe raised in single parent homes, by grandparents, or even orphanages. Worse still, we could mention the killing of millions of unborn babies, killed because the parents weren’t willing to accept the consequences of having sex outside the Biblical model. Thanks to the violent minority, this may be the most divisive topic of our time. Children that have their worlds shattered and hearts torn apart by divorce due to adultery. Or prisons that are full of all the fatherless children who grew up without instruction in right and wrong (statistically, children who grow up without a father are 20 times more likely to be imprisoned). Single mothers who struggle and/or depend on government checks that will never realize the potential they might otherwise have had. Pornography addictions. Rape and sexual abuse. Drug addicts who grew up without parents to show them love, teach them right and wrong, and are seeking shelter from the pain. The failure to master this one desire has resulted in the near destruction of the Biblical family model and has been Satan’s most effective weapon for destroying our nation. Again, do you really think the Bible could be so right about everything else but wrong on this one? If it weren’t in our best interest, then what purpose would the Bible serve by stating it? What ulterior motive could God possibly have in telling us this? Now imagine for a moment what our country would look like today if NONE of the problems mentioned above existed.
A fourth reason people are quick to dismiss God today may be that we live in the safest and most prosperous country of all time. With all that prosperity, it can be easy to forget God and begin the worship of self. We don’t fear daily rocket attacks or village massacres, and we certainly aren’t starving to death or having to wonder where our next meal will come from. People often don’t look for God until they realize they really need Him.
I can also think of a fifth reason: the Bible prophesied that this time would come. 2 Tim 4:3-4 says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths”. The prophecy books of the Old Testament and Jesus himself in the New Testament state that the end times will be marked by a decline in morals, and by advances in science, knowledge and travel. 2 Corinthians 10:5 warns believers to be ready to cast down the arguments that exalt themselves against God. Colossians 2:8 further warns, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ”. God knew this time would come.
That makes five good reasons the Bible is under attack today. But for all the efforts you see today to take the Bible and God out of the public arena, out of schools, out of politics, out of everything but the church, they can’t change the fact that there is right behavior and there is wrong behavior. In fact, if you didn’t even have a Bible, you could prove without a doubt that certain behaviors are wrong by the evidence of their consequences and effect on society. There is always damage to point to, always a consequence that hurts someone else. Once you have established that, what difference does it make whether the Bible says it or not? It’s still wrong behavior that is not in the best interest of society. Just like with the discussion on sexual sin from earlier, look at the consequences and see for yourself.
I hope I have included enough evidence that we do have a Creator, and that He has given us and revealed to us a true path. I hope that someone who has never even questioned their beginnings or their eternal fate will be able to read this and come away with the same conviction. But before I close, I can’t help but pose this to you, in case I haven’t reached you. Compare the cost of being wrong for both sides. Let’s look at what happens in either case. If the believer dies today, and finds out there is no God and no heaven, then his life is over. He spent his life striving to show love for others, to make wise choices, to live at peace with those around him and treat them with kindness and respect, and in general tried to do what was right. A life well lived, that didn’t hurt anyone. The kind of life that, if everyone aspired to, would cure the world of every one of its problems today. Now suppose the nonbeliever dies today. If he finds God to be real and eternity to be real, an eternity of torment in hell is now waiting for him. The cost of being wrong for the nonbeliever is far greater. If that cost is more than you are willing to pay, then please see Appendix Two once you have finished this.
Let me leave you with one last thought. It also comes from scripture, and it’s the motivating factor behind my writing this. 3 John 1:4 says “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth”. Walk in truth, and lead future generations to the truth. Please pass this on.
APPENDIX ONE
How can we justify God’s existence and goodness in light of the abundance of pain, suffering and evil that is so prevalent in this world?
1. Sometimes God allows pain and suffering to draw us back to Him. God can use trials to help us learn to depend on him and to remain close to him in both good times and bad.
2. Sometimes it may be punishment for sin. God disciplines sin, and since we’re saved by faith and God’s grace, and can’t lose our eternal rewards, then it follows that the punishment has to come in this life. Hebrews 12:6 says whom the Lord loves He chastens. And Proverbs 3:12 says whom the Lord loves, he corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.
3. It may be to teach us something or to develop a virtue in us. Patience, contentment, humility, self-control all come to mind. Romans 5:1-5 says that tribulations produce perseverance, character, and hope. And James 1:2 says to count it all joy, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4. Sometimes it can be for God’s glorification. John 9 tells the story of a blind man, about whom the disciples asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus said, “Neither, but that the works of God should be revealed in him”. In another instance in John 11, Jesus says “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it”.
5. It can be due to the free will of others. We have to have free will for the system to work, and we can be victims of the evil choices made by the free will of others. Every person has to choose to follow good or evil, and unfortunately, many people choose to do evil.
6. Like it or not, the world is under the control of the evil one, and as a result we are subject to it. Even Jesus himself didn’t dispute that when tempted by Satan in Luke 4:5-7. And remember, God didn’t spare the disciples or even his own son from it. If all we are focused on is this life it will never make sense. But if we look at it from God’s point of view and from a heavenly perspective, it can make perfect sense. What better way to see who is fit for the kingdom of God than to see what we do with this life? Did we choose to accept or reject Jesus? Do we choose to follow good or follow evil? He gives us His word for instruction, a conscience to discern good from evil, the ability to pray, his Holy Spirit, and everything we need to point the way. We have to remember that this life is just something we have to endure to reach our end goal.
7. Maybe the best reason I can think of is that suffering in this life keeps us looking forward to heaven. Revelation 21:4 says “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away”. This should drive each one of us every day. No evil, no pain, death or sorrow. No car wrecks, no tornadoes, no shooting rampages, no evil dictators, no war. Hallelujah. We need to see the consequences of sin and evil in order to look forward to a life without it. A cushy life here from beginning to end would cause us to never want to leave it.
The bottom line is this. Even though pain and suffering can cause people to doubt God, it points us to Him more than away from Him. God did create a place without evil. But unfortunately, this is not it. It’s called heaven. And we should live every day of this life in light of the glory to come.
APPENDIX TWO
What are my next steps?
I hope you have spent some time in deep reflection and have come away with the same conclusion and conviction that I have. God has placed within each of us a longing for something more, a world without evil, a life after this one. It is truly the only way that makes sense for anyone that has devoted serious thought to the issue. What should you do next? The great news is that heaven is still open to sinners. The Bible tells us that there is great rejoicing in heaven every time a new believer commits their life to Christ. It is my prayer that you will do just that. In keeping with the spirit of this writing, here is what you can do, in three simple steps.
Step 1: Pray a prayer similar to this one: Dear God, I’m a sinner. Please forgive me for spending so much of my life not caring, for not giving more thought to the battle that takes place each day for my soul. I commit my life to you God. Help me to grow more like Jesus each day of my life. Lord, I enter into this relationship knowing that as an imperfect sinner I will still fall short of your teachings. I commit to repenting of those sins daily, striving to grow each day through prayer and through the study of your Word. I invite Christ into my heart and pray to be led by your Holy Spirit in all that I do. Thank you God for loving me, and for your gifts of mercy and forgiveness. Amen.
Step 2: Visit a growing, Christian church in your area and begin to attend regularly. Speak with a pastor when you have questions or doubts. Church attendance will help you better understand and apply God’s Word to your life. Sunday School lessons and sermons will give you a “deeper dive” into passages that you may not have gotten otherwise. A church family also gives you a circle of encouragement for Christian growth and a support group in times of trials.
Step 3: Commit to pray and to read at least a small passage from your Bible every day. I have always thought it was kind of an empty gesture to hand out Bibles to unbelievers or new believers. Almost like saying, “Here it is. It’s all in here. Now get in there and find it”. The truth is, it takes a tremendous amount of time, devotion, and desire to understand God’s word on your own. It may take years for some parts to really sink in. My advice is to start with the New Testament. It’s shorter and easier to understand than the Old Testament, and to me is the most interesting part of the Bible because it tells the story of Jesus and the model we try to emulate today. Finishing the New Testament then gives you a sense of accomplishment that may spur you on to finish the rest of the Bible. I recommend the Old Testament books of Psalms and Proverbs next. They are easy to apply and very relevant to daily life. Then you can move to some of the more difficult parts of the Bible like the prophecy books and the history books. I can forewarn you though, it can be tough sledding at times. Many people commit to reading through the Bible and start with Genesis. Then they get into Leviticus and Numbers and give up. It is easy to get discouraged with some of those. So focus more on the New Testament at the beginning of your journey and continue to build as you are able. I have found it also helps to pray and ask for understanding both before your reading and after.
