Is There Really a God?

 

Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. (Isaiah 46:8-11 ESV).

 

Today I will begin looking at some of the questions I have been posed with through the years along with the Scriptural answers that have given me a firm footing in answering each of them. The first of these is: “Is there really a God?” It has been asked many times in this way or another, but the premise is always the same. It is rooted in the doubt of a being somehow greater and better than man. I remember a conversation I had with a professor at a university in Texas where I was first stationed as a Student Minister. During that conversation he said, “No offense, but I think anyone who believes in God has a mental health problem. God has no place in a scientific institution such as a university.”

 

That professor is not alone. An article in a church magazine reported that a group of students who were studying theology at a German university were convinced that “neither God nor the church were of much relevance today.” Even though they were baptized members of Lutheran and Reformed churches, they felt that God had become irrelevant. Lots of others through the years have come to the same conclusion: If there is a God, he is far away and no longer matters.

 

About 2,700 years ago God’s people in Jerusalem and Judah felt the same way. Many of their people had been taken into exile, and it seemed that the Lord had abandoned them. But God told his prophet Isaiah to remind them that he was with them every step of the way. Regardless of what anyone might think, God is real. He is here, and he is at work in our world still today. Some 700 years after Isaiah spoke, God proved his presence through the birth of his Son, the Lord Jesus. He “moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, The Message). Don’t think for a moment that God has become irrelevant. Our God is here! “Remember this and stand firm” (v. 8).