Contending for Truth: The True God Exists

Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought (C.S. Lewis).

Change is the condition of life. … But the unchangeableness of God is the negation of all imperfection, it is the negation of all dependence on circumstances, it is the negation of all possibility of decay or exhaustion, it is the negation of all caprice. It is the assurance that His is an underived, self-dependent being, and that with Him is the fountain of light; it is the assurance that, raised above the limits of time and the succession of events … It is the assurance that round all the majesty and the mercy which He has revealed for our adoration and our trust there is the consecration of permanence, that we might have a rock on which to build and never be confounded (Charles Spurgeon).

God is sufficient to account for everything (He’s God after all!). God, as the One who provides the a priori truth conditions for all things, has the ontic (His being or nature) capacity to account for immutable (changeless) universals (laws of logic, fixed mathematical truths, moral law, etc.). Mutable and non-universal entities (humans, the cosmos) are devoid of the sufficient attributes that are required, so they are ontologically undersupplied to account for the laws of logic. These laws are invariant universals and are required for communication and knowledge see previous post on logic here.

At least one of the implications of this for epistemology is this: just as in the theology there must be a principium essendi that grounds our principium congoscendi—that is, just as the existence and character of God ground our knowledge of him, since that knowledge presupposes his existence and character (as given to us in Scripture)—so also in epistemology generally. With respect to knowledge, in general, it must be that the existence and character of God ground our knowledge of him as given to all through all that is made (K. Scott Oliphint: God with Us).

God furnishes all the a priori essentials; the necessary epistemic equipment utilized in all thoughts and achievements. God has the ontic attributes of omniscience, immutability, and omnipotence (He has universal reach) enabling Him to be the ground for the immaterial universal and immutable laws of truth (also termed as the laws of logic and laws of reason) and ethical necessities (moral law) that are utilized in thought and action. Any position that rejects the true God as the epistemic (knowledge) base not only leaves an unnerving fissure, but hopelessly fails. Consequently, whatever evidence one discovers must be discerned and processed with the rational implements that arise from Christian theism and the worldview that streams from the true God.

The Triune God is the primordial requirement for all knowledge, proof, evidence, and logic. He is the a priori verity condition for the intelligibility of reality. The immaterial, transcendent, and immutable God supplies the indispensable pre-environment for the use of immaterial, transcendent, universal, and immutable laws of logic (law of identity: A = A; law of non-contradiction: A~~A). Since atheistic thought rests on mutable matter it cannot furnish the necessary a priori truth conditions for the immutable universal laws of logic; therefore it results in irrational futility because of its internal weakness. Non-theistic worldviews fall into absurdity inasmuch as they are self-contradictory and lead to conclusions that controvert their own primary assumptions. Without God, ultimately, nothing can make sense. (post on Ontology relates to Epistemology here).

In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1 & 14).

God is Always There: Repent and Believe on Christ

I heard the story of a Christian doctor witnessing to his barber. A doctor went to a barber to have his hair and his beard trimmed. He began to discuss mundane matters with the stylist. After discussing several subjects, the topic of God came up. The barber said: “Listen, I don’t believe that God exists.”

“Why?” asked the customer.

“Well, it’s simple; you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. See, if God existed, would there be so many poor and hurting people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t think of loving a God who allows all of these evil things.” The barber finished the haircut and the customer went out of the shop. Once he left the shop he saw a man in the street with long messy hair and shabby beard. So the customer again entered the barber shop and he said to the barber, “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say they don’t exist?” asked the barber. “Well I am here and I’m a barber.”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “They don’t exist because if they did there would be no people with long hair and a beard like that man who walks in the street.”

“Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is that people do not come to me.”

“Exactly” replied the doctor. “And unbelievers do not seek God, yet He is always there.”

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God (John 3:16-21).

Hell is Real: turn to Jesus Christ

You can ignore reality but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality (atheist Ayn Rand).

If you do not trust in Jesus Christ, repent of your sins and turn in faith to Him; trust in Christ’s death and resurrection for the remission of your sins. You will find pardon, peace, love, and acceptance with God.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men (Titus 3:4-8).