God Is Real

(Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column August 17, 2022)

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18-29) 

Someone recently commented on a service posted to our church’s YouTube channel, “God is imaginary, just a character from a story, like Spider Man…Let go of these…beliefs.” I haven’t engaged with the commenter—it’s not someone I’m familiar with, but I know he’s not the only person out there who thinks that way. 

For Christians, one facet of the Bible is that it does provide us with historical information. We learn about creation, about the exodus and forty years the Israelites spent in the wilderness, about the kings who reigned over Israel and eventually the nations that captured them. We learn about Jesus, the historic person around whom history orients itself. A lot of details in the Bible give us information by which we can track years and decades and centuries going by. The content for the Bible has existed and been held as true for thousands of years—it’s not some new fiction book. 

While people—including some Christians—debate how factual the Bible is, this commenter and those who agree with him likely have issues at an even more foundational level. “Isn’t this whole Christianity or Judeo-Christian thing a fairy tale? Haven’t we or our ancestors just made up this character, ‘God,’ to help us make meaning of life, to make us feel better, to pray to, to comfort us? You’ve never seen him. You have no proof of him.” 

How do I respond? How can you tell someone who questions if God is real or made-up? I and we know God is real by faith! This commentor got that right—it is my belief as a Christian that leads me to claim that God is real. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). When I look at other religious traditions in the world today, outside of Christianity, outside of that which believes in Jesus and relying on the Bible as the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God—it is because of my faith that I identify other religions as false. Whether contemporary or ancient, the gods that people have worshiped around the world besides the Christian God who reveals himself in the Bible aren’t real. 

There is one God. Apart from Jesus the Christ, God has not revealed himself in his essential form. One day we hope to see him and to live intimately with him because of the grace of Christ, if we have believed in him. We can point others to the things revealed in Scripture that God has done—miraculous things—and we can point to miracles and providence and blessings in our own lives that we attribute to God. But as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, if knowing God is real is just about human wisdom, sight, strength, and power—there are people who will not believe in God, who will not share our conclusion that he is real. 

However, Christians, be encouraged! If you have believed God to be real—the God found in the Bible, the God who has been faithful to his people, who sent his Son Jesus as an atonement for our sins and given us life, the God who sustains us each and every day, then continue to believe. He has mercifully gifted you with faith. Hold out hope that he will one day give faith to many who are unbelieving and continue to share the good news with them! Even if you’re mocked or harassed or questioned or doubted, remember it is by faith you know God is real and alive. God works through that which seems foolish and weak to reveal himself to us.