God outside of the Bible
(3 minute 49 second read)
Question: Can we defend the existence of God through means outside the Bible?
We as Christians view the Word of God in the highest light (or at least I hope, there’s been some lessening of it going around recently)
If we claim: “God exists, because the Bible says so” - we know it to be true. But not everyone holds the Bible with that authority.
Someone could just as easily say “The Quran is the word of God, and it says there’s only 1 God, and Muhammad is his messenger”
Ok, but why? What’s the evidence to support your claim?
I’ll go deeper into textual evidence at a later time - but you get the idea.
Some like to think philosophically about these questions - and fortunately enough, there’s good reason to believe God exists outside of what the Bible says and what we know to be true.
I’m going to share some of the most common ones apologists will use to defend our Faith so you can be better equipped.
Trivia Question: How old was Joseph when his brothers sold him into slavery? (69, 23, 17, 90)
Apologetics
The Cosmological Argument:
The cosmological argument is rooted in the idea that the universe must have a cause. It's a classical argument that has been developed by various philosophers and theologians over centuries.
Kalam Version: A popular version is the Kalam Cosmological Argument, formulated by William Lane Craig. It consists of a simple idea:
Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
The universe began to exist.
Therefore, the universe has a cause.
Reasoning: This argues that the universe can't have caused itself, and an infinite regress of causes is seen as illogical. (You can’t get something out of nothing) Thus, it concludes there must be an uncaused cause, which would be God in this case.
The Teleological Argument:
Overview: Also known as the “Design argument”, it observes the apparent order and design in the universe.
Fine-Tuning: One aspect focuses on the fine-tuning of physical constants in the universe. The argument is that these constants are so precisely balanced that even a minute alteration would make life impossible.
Complexity in Biology: Another aspect looks at the complexity of biological systems, that they exhibit an intelligent design rather than being products of random chance.
The Moral Argument:
Basis: This argument asserts that objective moral values and duties do exist and can only be grounded in God.
Formulation: It's often presented as follows:
If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
Objective moral values and duties do exist.
Therefore, God exists.
Rationale: The argument is that without a transcendent source, moral values would be subjective and relative.
Critiques: Critics argue for the existence of objective morality independent of a God, or they challenge the notion that objective moral values exist at all. But if that were the case, then people like Adolf Hitler didn’t do anything wrong. It’s all relative anyways, right? You can just as easily go and help someone, as you could steal from them. Doesn’t matter.
The Argument from Experience:
Personal Testimony: This argument is based on the personal experiences of believers, including feelings of God’s presence, answered prayers, and life transformations.
Subjective Evidence: While subjective, these experiences are presented as evidence for God's existence and interaction with the world.
Critiques: Personal experience isn’t always reliable evidence for God’s existence, as similar experiences are reported in different religions and some can have natural explanations.
But we know these experiences as believers - we know what it’s like to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and that is something we can share with others - but some won’t take that as evidence. But some will.
These are just some reasonable arguments that Christian apologists are making. They are often used together as opposed to by themselves.
As a general rule, as a Christian, I try to discover/learn different things from the lens of “What does the Bible say?” but sometimes it alone doesn’t have all of the answers. It has “Thee” answer, fortunately - Jesus. But I think it’s important to know that our Faith in God, Jesus, & the reliability of scripture is substantiated outside of itself.
Thanks for reading!
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Trivia Answer: 17 (Gen 37:2)