Moving Toward the Right God

05 Apr Moving Toward the Right God

Last week, we looked at the fact that, if we want to find the answers to reality – to “what is” – in dealing with the existence of pain, evil and suffering in the world, we must move toward God, not away from Him, believing in His goodness.

But, before we leave this topic, we must remind ourselves of “which God” we are moving toward, something which, as we saw earlier in this series, is of ultimate importance. It is because of who this God is that we can have confidence in His goodness and move toward Him in the midst of pain. So let’s review how we determine which God is “the right God.”

And, as we review, remember that the intent in this series is not to present an avalanche of information to convince someone who is ignorant or resistant. We are just looking at a lean summary to support a decision that we, as Christians, have already made – a “Cliff Notes”, if you will, of our Christian worldview. (For further, deeper study of some of the information discussed in the series, I’ve been listing additional resources in individual blog posts along the way.)

Moving toward the right God

There are three categories of divinity from which to choose when deciding which God is the creator God:

1. Naturalistic gods of groups such as Native Americans or Amazonian Tribal People or African Shamans, etc.
2. Gods of eastern religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, … which do not make credible claims for all-powerful creator gods
3. The God of Abraham, to whom three religions trace their origin… Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Naturalistic gods and gods of eastern religions have no credible evidence to commend them as a philosophically verifiable creator of the universe. They do not rise above the level of myth.

That leaves the God of Abraham – the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These are the only religions that are tied to history, to things that can be verified.

To determine if we are going to choose the God of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, we need look no further than Jesus.

If Jesus is who He says He is, then Christianity is true, Islam is not true and Judaism is incomplete, because of their conclusion of who Jesus is.

To determine if Jesus is who He says He is, we must look to the resurrection. If the resurrection is true, then it is reasonable to believe that everything Jesus said was true. If the resurrection is not true, then Jesus is either a liar or a lunatic.

Therefore, we culminate our decision about which God to believe in by looking at evidence for the resurrection. Because the resurrection is such an astonishing event, the first impulse is to conclude that believers have to prove the resurrection. However, the resurrection cannot be proved. But, neither can it be disproved. So, we look at evidence to suggest how likely it is that the resurrection happened.

The ground shifts dramatically at that point, and the unbeliever is the one who has a considerable burden if he wants to demonstrate that it did not happen.

Evidence the believer has that the resurrection of Jesus did happen:

First, the news of the resurrection became widely known immediately.

It was not as though the rumor leaked out slowly after a long period of time, so eyewitnesses of the events of the time were still living when the reports began to circulate (1 Corinthians 15:3-6). Awareness of the resurrection is documented in literature as early as the first century. Josephus, an historian writing for Roman Emperor Vespasian, speaks of the resurrection as though it were true. It was not a minor event. It rocked the early Roman world.

Second, alternative explanations for the resurrection are not convincing.

Some people over the years have proposed a number of explanations for the resurrection:

• His disciples stole the body. Impossible. The body was being guarded by elite Roman soldiers at the time who would have paid with their lives if Jesus’ body had been stolen under their watch.
• Jewish leaders stole the body. Inconceivable. Rumors of the resurrection were the very thing the Jewish leaders wanted to avoid. If they had the body when rumors of the resurrection began to surface, they would have paraded the body of Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem and immediately squashed any resurrection rumors.
• They went to the wrong tomb. Unthinkable. Skeptics would have immediately located the right one, as it was known exactly in whose tomb Jesus’ body had been placed (Matthew 27:57-66).

The resurrection is one of the most credible events in ancient history. If we apply the same tests of historical accuracy to the resurrection that we apply to the assassination of Caesar, we conclude it is true.

Third, the resurrection best explains the explosion of the early church.

That the message of the resurrection would have spread throughout the immediate world is too far-fetched to believe, for many reasons, unless it was true. The disciples of Christ all suffered a hard life, and most, a terrible death for their message about Christ. They would not have risked their lives for something they knew wasn’t true. They had seen him crucified. They had seen him verified as dead. They had seen him buried. Why would they then come out of hiding, defy the Jewish leaders, and risk life and limb to proclaim him as the Lord God able to forgive sins and give eternal life? It only makes sense if they had seen the resurrected Lord!

When we look at the evidence without an anti-supernatural presupposition, we conclude that the resurrection is true, and that the God of Christianity is the creator God of the universe. 

Just because a majority of scientists and educators and politicians agree that the world is a result of purely natural events and forces, it does not make them right. As we saw in the early blogs in this series, modern science does not have the answers for the most basic questions of existence.

Conclusion

We cannot reject the God of the Bible when the going gets tough. To do so, as we have been seeing, is to unhinge from reality. Our only hope is to press on toward God through the dissonance. And when we do, the promise of Scripture is that, on the other side of confusion and doubt, we can find truth and confidence. As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). After claiming to be “the truth,” He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free”  (John 8:32). And after making those claims, He rose from the dead.

If you want to be set free, the Creator God of the Bible is the way. Make sure you are moving toward the right God. Look to the resurrection of Jesus.

If you have never placed your faith in Jesus and want more help with that decision, please visit www.peacewithgod.net.

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