The God Factor

In yesterday's post, I made a statement which I'd like to take up and explain a little. In the post, "Reality Check", I wrote:

"...I came to the conclusion long ago that without God nothing actually makes any sense. All the intricate paradoxes of quantum physics are resolved, at least in my mind, the moment you add God to the equation of physical reality. Without Him, simply put, there can be no reality at all."

I'm fascinated by both philosophy and quantum physics (it takes a lot just to pull me back from chatting ad nauseum on these subjects). But what I particularly want to discuss in this post is a subject which fascinates me even more -- God Himself.

A belief in God is not a luxury. It changes the way a person approaches life. So not only does God need to be added "to the equation of physical reality," as I wrote yesterday, God also needs to be added to the equation of our personal reality. Personally, this is very true for my life. Without God, I really don't know how I would be able to handle the problems I'm facing now (see "The Oncologist's Report"). He is the "rock" on which I've built my life (Psalm 18:2; Matthew 7:24-27), and because of Him I'm able to withstand the onslaught of the "wind and waves" that are pounding against my life right now (if you think this is just a "crutch", then I suggest you read "The Anchor of My Soul"). For me, "The God Factor" is what makes all the difference in my life.

In Isaiah 40:28, the prophet asks:

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth."

The Bible never tries to explain the existence of God. In fact, when God introduced Himself to Moses, he did so with these words: "I am who I am" (Exodus 3:14). God simply is. He doesn't try to explain the finer philosophical points of how He came into existence or provide scientific explanations of how He created the universe. He simply exists, as the ever-present "I am" (see my previous posts on this subject -- "The Ever Present God" and "Jesus Christ - The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever").

But although the Bible never tries to prove God's existence, it does clearly state God's view of those who would deny His existence. Psalm 14:1 tells us:

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'"

The Hebrew word here translated "fool" also denotes "one who is morally deficient". In other words, it is out of a desire to be relieved of moral accountability to God that a person says, "There is no God." If you read what follows Psalm 14:1, you see the consequences of that foolish denial of God's existence. Psalm 14:2-3 goes on to say:

"The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."

The issue of God's existence is not just a theoretical or philosophical exercise. It has profound consequences for the moral foundations of society. According to Mortimer Adler, in Great Ideas Syntopicon:

"More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question."

Paul Little, in his book Know Why You Believe, has this to say:

"There is in human existence no more profound question demanding an answer. 'Is there a God?' is the question that must be answered by every human being, and the answer is far-reaching in its implications for every individual."

Hebrews 11:3 says this:

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."

The expression "by faith" is important, because belief in God is all about faith. By this, I don't mean "blind faith" (i.e. believing in something based on a rejection of logic and evidence). Rather, I mean a faith which is seeing on a different level (for more on this, see my post "Faith Without Wavering"). Faith is not blind; it is an "eyes wide open" experience of trusting the word of someone else about something you yourself don't have direct proof for (note Hebrews 11:1).

Hebrews 11:6 goes on to say:

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

You'll notice that the faith that pleases God involves two elements:

1. Believing that God exists


2. Believing that God responds personally to our seeking Him

Both elements are important. It's not good enough just to believe that God exists (note James 2:19). We must respond personally to that axiomatic belief with a total reorientation of our thinking to include God in the equation of our personal lives.

Regarding God's existence, the Bible is pretty unequivocal. Romans 1:20 says:

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

The Message phrases Romans 1:18-20 in this way:

"But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse."

But this post is not actually about trying to prove or disprove God's existence (if you want to learn more about this, you can download a lesson I wrote on this subject: "Does God Exist?" from the following location: http://www.online-bible-college.com/downloads/es108-02.pdf). No, this post is more about the consequences of believing or disbelieving in God, or more importantly, about the application of one's belief (or disbelief) of God to one's life.

In Romans 1, Paul goes on to say what happens when people reject the axiomatic truth of God's existence and treat themselves as morally independent of His rules of righteousness.

In the New International Version, we find this translation of Romans 1:21-32:

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator -- who is forever praised. Amen.

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

In The Message, we find this colloquial paraphrase of Romans 1:21-32:

"What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

"So God said, in effect, 'If that's what you want, that's what you get.' It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them - the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

"Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either - women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men - all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it - emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

"Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care - worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!"

What an indictment! Yet the downward spiral of moral depravity all starts with how people treat God -- at first rejecting the knowledge of God, which the Bible says is "clearly seen". From there, it spirals into "rampant evil" and the breakdown of society.

But remember, as Hebrews 11:6 points out, it's not just about believing in God; it's about seeking Him. In his address to the Athenian philosophers (the intellectuals of his day), Paul made this declaration in Acts 17:24-27:

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands...From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."

Let's personally respond to this invitation that God has given us. I encourage you to add the God Factor to your life equation, for that's the only way the equation will properly balance. Seek Him with all your heart, for in Jeremiah 29:13-14, God gives this personal promise to you:

"'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the LORD..."

And adding his personal vouchsafe to His Father's promise, Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8:

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

In closing, I will quote from the closing sentence in the book A Beginner's Guide to Reality. Jim Gaggott, himself an atheist (or at least a non-religionist), ends his book with these words:

"The answers are here, but to understand them you must first choose what to believe."

I choose to believe in God. What about you? If you're not yet sure, then may I suggest you read the lesson I wrote for the Online Bible College on proof for God's existence called:

"Does God Exist?"