Belief in God is rational because God is the premise behind the pointers that sheds light on everything else and makes sense of everything else...

This week we have been asking and answering the question “Is belief in God rational?” In other words, is it reasonable or rational to believe in God? Or is the idea of God irrational?

We discovered that while there is no singular argument that conclusively proves the existence of God, there are many pointers to God. In other words, there are many arguments that provide a persuasive and rational reason for the existence of God. 

We have looked at four different pointers that point to the existence of God. The first pointer is the pointer of existence, which addresses the question “why is there something rather than nothing at all?” God is the one necessary being- God is the uncaused cause of everything that exists. 

The second pointer is the pointer of design, which addresses the question “Why do we fit in this world? Why does the universe fit together and function the way it does?” There seems to be some design to the universe and how we fit into the universe. The pointer of design points to the reality that the design of the universe points to a designer of the universe.

The third pointer, the pointer of our consciences, addresses the question “Why do we insist on making moral judgments?” You see, throughout continents and cultures, throughout human history, humanity has lived with an inherent sense that there is a right and a wrong. And while there are times when humanity has disagreed with what is right and wrong, humanity recognizes that there is a common ground between us when it comes to what is right and wrong, what is just or unjust.  And it is this insistence to make moral judgments that points us a moral judge. Our desire to have a moral law, points us to a Moral Law Giver.

The fourth pointer, the pointer of purpose, addresses the question “Why do we long for meaning?” You see throughout continents and cultures, throughout human history, humanity has lived with a desire to pursue meaning and purpose for life. And most atheists would concede that if there is no God, then there is no objective meaning to life. And because of that reality, humanity would be left to subjectively create their own meaning to life.

However, our desire to create a life of meaning is based on the assumption that something outside of us and our lives that gives meaning to our lives. In addition, our desire to create a life of meaning assumes that there is some objective measure, some standard, for assessing what is really meaningful and worth pursuing and what is not. But this morning, what is that standard? And where did it come from?  Why do we long for purpose and meaning?

Intuitively, we all sense that there is something bigger than this life. Intuitively we sense that there is something beyond this life. Almost every human being inherently recognizes that there is something beyond this earthly existence. Again this is no proof, per se, but the desire to experience something beyond this life points to the existence of something beyond this life, God.

Today, I would like for us to look at a fifth pointer, which is the pointer of history. This pointer addresses the question “Has God revealed Himself in the world?” This serves as the foundation of what those who follow Jesus believe deeply.

As followers of Jesus, we believe that the God who created the universe and history took on flesh and entered into history. We see the writer of Hebrews reveal this reality in a letter that was written and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, beginning in Hebrews 1:1-4:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, ² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. ³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

Here the writer of Hebrews was pointing the readers of his letter to the reality that the God who created history sent His Son Jesus, as God in a bod, into history to reveal Himself to humanity. God sent His Son to enter into history and then demonstrated that Jesus was who He said He was by raising Him from the dead, never to die again in Heaven.

Now it is important to understand that none of these are proofs for God’s existence in the strict scientific sense of the term. And there are many people have made counter arguments to each pointer. However, just because there are no singular proof of God’s existence doesn’t mean that believing that God exists is not rational. In fact, many scientific theories are judged to be true on far less than empirical proof.

You see, the argument for God does not depend on just one argument or experience but is a combination of all of them. The argument for God actually is based on the meaningful and coherent pattern among these various pointers that give perspective and provide meaning to the whole picture. These pointers, placed together make a cumulative case for the reality that belief in God is rational.

This is why belief in God can never be the conclusion of some philosophical argument. You see, God cannot be the conclusion, because God is the premise of the argument. We cannot base our knowledge of God on something more fundamental and basic as God Himself. 

And it is here that we discover the timeless answer to the skeptical question “Is belief in God rational?” And that timeless answer is this: Belief in God is rational because God is the premise behind the pointers that sheds light on everything else and makes sense of everything else.

The timeless reality is that Christianity is rational not because I can prove it, but because if it is true, it sheds light on everything else and makes sense of everything else around me. In addition, Christianity is rational because it makes sense of who we know we truly are. It makes sense of our desire for morality, which we can never live up to. It makes sense of our desire for meaning and purpose.

It makes sense for that feeling of awe and transcendence- that there is something more and beyond this life. And it makes sense of who Jesus is as God who entered into history to reveal Himself and provide an opportunity to be rescued from their selfishness and rebellion.

You see, faith in God is not irrational, but it involves more than just our reason. Faith is a personal thing that involves a relationship that is based on trusting someone. Faith is not just the knowledge that something or someone is true: it is a personal relationship with someone who is true and is trustworthy.  

And here is the thing: We all have beliefs about the world that we have committed to. And we all have established reasons and used reasoning to justify and support what we believe. The problem with such reasoning, however, is that it can take us to almost any conclusion we want to reach.

This is the case because we ask “can I believe it?” when we want to believe something, but “must I believe it?” when we don’t want to believe something. And when it comes to these questions, the answer is almost always yes to the question “can I believe it?”  and almost always no to the question “must I believe it?”.  

And it is this reality that leads us to the fundamental question that every human being must wrestle with. And that question is this: Do you want God to exist? Do you want to know Him? Do you want to worship Him and place Him first in your life? Because if God does exist, then that is what the existence of God logically requires.

And because of the reality of what the existence of God requires of humanity, as the Apostle Paul pointed out earlier, humanity is driven by a desire to suppress the truth about God.  You see the reason why everyone doesn’t believe in God is because we don’t want to believe. We don’t want to believe because our sense of moral obligation that we talked about earlier also reveals the reality that we fail to live up to those moral obligations.

And because of that reality we know that we are guilty before God and need a rescuer to rescue us. And that truth is a hard truth to face.  So instead of facing the truth, we suppress the truth.

You see, the only way that we can face the truth that we are guilty before God and need a rescuer to rescue us is if we believe in the possibility of grace. The possibility that God has acted in history through Jesus in a way that provides us the opportunity for forgiveness and rescue so that we can experience a relationship with God.

And it is this reality that leads us to the next skeptical question that we will look at next week...