Why Believe?

(4 Minute Read plus video. 3Apr2024)

Is belief in God rational?

Is belief in God logical?

The Bible has so many hard-to-believe, even unbelievable, accounts. Why believe them?

For many, the Bible is hard to believe because of some very unusual events. Here are some strange things in the Bible that may be very hard for some to believe.

“Unbelievables” in the Bible

• God created heaven and earth and all life in just six days
  (Genesis 1)
• A talking snake
  (Genesis 3:1-5)
• A global flood destroyed the world except for Noah’s family
  (Genesis 7)
• God confused language at the Tower of Babel to disperse humanity
  (Genesis 11:1-9)
• The Red Sea parted to facilitate the Israelites’ escape from the Egyptian army
  (Exodus 14)
• A talking donkey
  (Numbers 22:21-35)
• The clothes and shoes of the Israelites did not wear out during their 40-year camping trip from Egypt to Canaan
  (Deuteronomy 29:5)
• Iron axe head floated in water
  (2 Kings 6:1-7)
• A great fish swallowed Jonah and regurgitated him alive onto land three days later
  (Jonah 1; 2:10)
• Three men thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s blazing furnace walk around inside the burning flames unharmed while the heat of the furnace kills those who threw them in
  (Daniel 3:8-30)
• Daniel saved from death in the lion’s den
  (Daniel 6)
• God became a man as Jesus of Nazareth
  (Rom 1:1-4; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-20; 2:8-9; Hebrews 1:1-3; 1:8-10)
• Jesus was born of a virgin without the agency of a human male
  (Luke 1:26-35; Matthew 1:18-25)
• Jesus turned plain water into first-class wine at a wedding in Cana
  (John 2:1-11)
• Jesus fed many thousands of people several times starting with only a few fish and loaves
  (Matthew 14:14-21; Mark 6:34-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:1-13; Matthew 15:32-38; Mark 8:1-9)
• Jesus walked on water and helped Peter walk on water
  (Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-51; John 6:16-21)
• Jesus calmed a storm that terrified experienced fishermen, causing them to marvel, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
  (Matthew 8:23-27; Mar 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25)
• Jesus healed lepers
  (Mark 1:40–45; Matthew 8:1–4; Luke 5:12–16; 17:11–19)
• Jesus healed paralytics
  ( Matthew 9:1–8; Mark 2:1–12; Luke 5:17–26)
• Jesus gave eyesight to a man born blind
  (John 9)
• Jesus healed a 38-year-long cripple
  (John 5:1-15)
• Jesus cast many demons out of many people
  (Matthew 4:24; 8:16; 8:28-33; 9:32-33; 12:22-23; 15:22-28; 17:14-18; Mark 1:21-28; 1:32-34; 1:39; 5:1-20; 7:24-30; 9:17-27; 16:9; Luke 4:41; 8:2; 8:26-39; 9:37-42; 11:14; 13:32)
• Jesus raised people from the dead
  (Luke 7:11-16; 8:49-56; John 11:1-45)
• Jesus Himself was raised from the dead
  (Matthew 28:1-15; Mark 16:1-14; Luke 24:1-48; John 20:1-31; Romans 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 15:3-20)
• The spectacular physical return of the glorified God-man from heaven to earth to reign in His visible Kingdom
  (Matthew 24:27-31; Acts 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 11:15)

How can these things possibly be true?

Let’s table that for a moment and ask a more fundamental question.

The Most Important Question

Does God exist?

This is the most important question anyone can ask. It has potentially the most negative repercussions if the answer is wrong, and it has the most positive blessings if the answer is right.

What if God does not exist and you answer the question wrong saying that He does exist? In that case, there are really no significant negative repercussions.

But if God does exist and you answer the question wrong — saying that He does not exist — then there are major negative repercussions, particularly in the afterlife.

If the Great Creator, the God of the Bible, exists, then none of the strange reports listed above from the Bible is a problem. Miracles like these are the prerogative of the Creator. The Great Creator is sovereign over His creation and can do whatever He likes with it — including entering it as the God-man Jesus of Nazareth.

So, does God exist?

I am completely convinced the answer is YES. I think the strongest evidence is the existence of creation itself and its design. Anything that begins to exist must have a cause. Science and the Bible agree that the universe had a beginning. Therefore there was a cause for that beginning.

The questions
Who made all this?
Where did all this come from?
clearly point to a magnificent Creator.

The Apostle Paul said that everyone knows that God exists due to the testimony of creation.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. (Romans 1:18-23)

For a more extensive look at this argument for the existence of God, see my series of blog articles Evidence for God.

My God How Great Thou Art

Here is a YouTube video of the exhilarating song How Great Thou Art sung by George Beverly Shea at age 93 in 2002 at Carnegie Hall in New York. The hymn begins by identifying creation as a reason for praise of God:
Oh Lord, my God
When I, in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art

 
These verses from one of King David’s psalms no doubt inspired the song’s author:
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! . . .
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet. (Psalm 8:1,3-6)

Questions to Ponder

1. Assuming God exists, are any of the strange things listed at the beginning of this article too hard to believe?
2. What pointer to the Great Creator is most convincing to you?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

For Christ and His Kingdom.
Alere Flammam Veritatis.
Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the 21st article in the Why? Series of articles that suggest answers to Why? questions.
Read the prequels in the series:
1. Why Is the Age of the Earth Important?
2. Why Apologetics?
3. Why Do Atheists Care?
4. Why Did Adam Sin?
5. Why Should Adam’s Sin Affect Me?
6. Why Do Leaves Change Color?
7. Why Do I Write the Bible-Science Guy Blog?
8. Why Is Ice Slippery?
9. Why Does Salt Melt Ice?
10. Why the Virus?
11. Why Is Christmas December 25?
12. Why the Week?
13. Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?
14. Why Light?
15. Why Water?
16. Why Oxygen?
17. Why Carbon?
18. Why Nitrogen?
19. Why Leap Year?
20. Why Stars?

Read the sequel:
22. Why ??? coming soon. . .

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 A.D.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

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