You would have noticed that in the previous series (a few years ago), we assumed God’s existence. We don’t go into detail in establishing His existence. We are Christians already, and we believe He exists. We do not wish to patronise the reader into believing that we can be balanced on this question because we can’t. However, we don’t need to be balanced. The existence of God claims don’t originate with us; we also received them 2nd hand. We heard from this guy, who heard from that guy, who swears this other guy said or saw this (lol😊). So then, what proof would you expect from a 2nd-hand recipient of a claim? How is it not fair for us to go back up the chain and present the claims we also received? We have no choice, we have to use the Scriptures (😄).
So we begin with our first verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). It seems to us that Genesis assumes God’s existence and, in this verse, He brings other things into existence. That is the claim. The rest of the chapter shows us that He can move, think, speak, discuss, plan, organise, and mould things (Gen. 1). This isn’t limited to one writer; even John (1) and Paul (Col. 1) make these positive statements of God’s existence. You don’t have to believe in His existence, but acknowledge that the writers believe He exists. Not only that, but the claims are also much more fantastic. They are that, there’s an ontological disjuncture between God’s existence and the existence of everything else. But are these claims true, gentlemen (probably your thoughts)? In future articles, we will be looking into proving in-text claims, that is, if the claims made were really made and how the audience understood them. Internal proof.
What about external validation? Can we prove the claims with external evidence? You can attempt to, but how fruitful would that be? Consider it this way: all these guys are claiming God exists. This is clear. However, does nature claim that God exists? As a Christian, you’d probably say yes, and a nonbeliever would say no. Let us ask you this as a believer: how did you arrive at the conclusion that nature claims God exists? We’re guessing the scriptures right? Then why not just stick to internal proof? The scriptures? Your desire to use external proof is borne from the scriptures making that claim, but do you know enough of nature to correctly identify the God claims in nature? Some things you need to consider.
Going forward, we will be looking into the source of the God claims. The Scriptures. The things we learn in this series will be invaluable to us going forward.
Fullers' Soap 