Does God exist? This is a critical question for us to answer, for it is a question with potentially eternal consequences. However, it seems that the question that we hear asked more often is a variation of this short query. We are more likely to hear someone ask “Do you believe in God?” There is a significant distinction between the two questions, a distinction that is perhaps more consequential today than ever before as we have gotten away from the notion of absolute truths.
Today, in the spirit of tolerance, we are all free to believe whatever we want to believe. Our beliefs are not absolute truths, but rather our own personal interpretations of events that shape our character. Therefore, if I believe in God, it doesn’t necessarily mean that God exists but rather that I think that He does. I have formed an opinion that God exists, and since we are all entitled to our own opinion, you are welcome to hold a different opinion. Opinions may well influence how we live our lives today, but we don’t tend to think of opinions as having eternal consequences.
However, to ask whether or not God exists is to seek a factual answer – an answer that holds no regard for an opinion. If God exists, then it doesn’t matter if ninety-nine people out of one hundred don’t believe in Him. His existence would be true, a fact, without regard for opinion. Likewise, if God doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t matter if ninety-nine people out of one hundred believe in Him. There are people who desperately want God to exist, and there are people who desperately want there to be no God, yet ultimately what they want has no bearing on whether or not God truly is.
God’s existence is the ultimate absolute truth, and yet the answer does seem to require interpretation of events and information. The Bible speaks to this, when Hebrews 11:1 states “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It takes a measure of faith to believe that God exists, which may seem unfair. After all, the most consequential truth of all time should be so obvious as to leave no doubts. There are mounds of evidence that point directly towards God, yet ultimately, we each have to reach our own conclusions about what that evidence says. The one thing we must not do, however, is to think that we are reaching a conclusion about an opinion. We are reaching a conclusion about a fact.
The way that we phrase a question will determine the way that we seek the answer. When seeking truth, don’t start from a point of seeking opinion. Ask the hard questions, and seek the answers regardless of sentiment. You may just find that the ultimate truth requires less faith to grasp than you had previously imagined.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron