Reality Check 101

There are a few things that need to be said at the beginning of this chapter.

Everyone begins life with things they believe to be true, things that to them don’t need proof because they are so logical. I believe the same principle applies when they decide whether or not to take God seriously. For example, to an atheist, the idea of even talking about the possibility of God is nonsense because of what they already believe.

However, because I know God exists, I will begin differently. There are several things I need to get out of the way. As I mentioned before, everyone has built-in beliefs about God. To prove it, choose any random person and ask them. One hundred percent of the time, everyone will have an answer. Even if a person says, I don’t know, or There is no such thing, they still believe something about God. There is no way to avoid having some kind of opinion.

As I go along, we will find a lot of clues God has left us about Himself, and they should be easy to see. Not only that, since God is so much greater than us, it means that we cannot scientifically or logically test for Him or prove Him because of the way our brains work. To be God, He has to be above that. So, we won’t discuss proofs, but instead clues and witnesses.

10 Witnesses

Nature’s First Two Witnesses

• Nature is a great place to look at clues because it shows us some of the most basic things about how creation works. Nature shows us that things come from somewhere, not nowhere. This is important. Life has to start somewhere and come from something. If we could prove that anything, no matter how small, could suddenly appear all by itself from total nothingness, God would become unnecessary in our minds. But nature shows us the truth.

• There is also nothing in this world that does not have a blueprint. Everything has shape, structure, color, smell, and other characteristics that make it a part of the physical world. Everything in existence depends on a design – from DNA to dwarf stars. The fact of the matter is that those kinds of designs never come out of emptiness or a chaotic cloud of stuff.

There is thought and logic behind everything. Without God, nature would have to have a mind of its own and be able to make decisions about itself for itself. It would have to plan the way the world works and design its own systems. When you stop to think about it, the logical conclusion is that there is someone somewhere who is unbelievably powerful and solidly in control.

History’s Next Two Witnesses

Over the years, I have realized that history is also a skilled teacher. It gives us the next two clues about God. One is that there has never been a time when people have not had beliefs about someone divine and more powerful than life or death. Some will say that doesn’t count because ancient people were superstitious. They got their ideas because of things that scared them or because of their fear of death.

• There are other ways to deal with bumps in the night than to make unknown scary things out to be something like a god. There are also a lot of other ways to deal with grief and death, as any secular psychologist will gladly explain. It was much easier for people to look at the things that they couldn’t control and realize there had to be Someone in charge. Historically, there has always been an awareness of someone bigger than us who can give us something more than meaningless disasters and death.

• What people understood about God formed the foundation of entire nations and their legal systems. Israel has been and still is one of the best examples. It is such a powerful witness that whole governments and cultures have developed based upon their understanding of what a divine Person expected from them. If God were not behind all of that, it has been an unthinkably powerful delusion.

The Mind’s Next Three Witnesses

• Another clue about God is a, which came first, the chicken or the egg, situation that fits well with the clue from history. It is the idea that there is a built-in part of the mind that already naturally has an interest in divine things and has an idea about what God is like. What comes first, people growing up with others around them who teach them about God, or the idea being in their minds first as they work it out and put it into use? Either way, those ideas are there, and many people would say they are there because of the way God designed our minds. I think of it this way: because most people see themselves as having a soul, it would be normal for them to think about a God who could be their spiritual connection.

• There is also the matter of the conscience. If you think about it, the conscience is a mystery for scientists and philosophers. We instinctively understand right from wrong and feel it when we cross a moral line. The thing that few people talk about is that there has to be a beginning for that conscience. There has to be a place that it comes from. So, if we have a soul which has a Creator, surely, He has a connection in our minds with what He expects to be right and wrong. That should be a clue for us that God is indeed out there.

• The third part of mind clues has to do with simple common sense. With any evidence, people can look at all the different parts and put it together to find an answer. It is no different when we look at clues about God. We all think through what is around us and piece it together. If one or two of the clues don’t seem very strong, we just back up to look at the bigger picture to see if it helps clear the fog. That’s what I’m talking about when we put the other six witnesses together. If nothing else, putting them together as one big grand picture gives the idea of God some reasonableness and makes the need for Him crystal clear.

That doesn’t mean the evidence is going to convince everyone. There will always be someone who demands direct revelation or some kind of scientific evidence and will not be satisfied with anything less. And of course, others approach the whole subject and say, It’s not possible to begin with, so I’m not interested in any ideas about it. That is their choice, but it does not have to be everyone’s choice. But there is even more beyond all of this. It is a completely different approach that we’ll talk about in the next section.

Special Voices (3 Witnesses)

Everything we have looked at so far points to at least one big conclusion: If God is behind it all, it means He is not just some cosmic mindless spirit. Everything says that He is more than a power or force. He must be someone who has shown Himself to us through His work. It would only be natural for Him to be a communicator who values His creation and would reach out to us.

The last three clues have to do with how God, after doing everything else, reached out to certain people in certain ways at certain times. The idea is that He was taking the initiative to reach into our world so that we could understand Him and even ourselves better. This evidence comes from various sources spanning fifteen hundred years, describing personal experiences. The situation here is the same as with the other clues. Their value is in what we do with what we’re offered.

• The first special clue is that the most logical, most obvious way for God to communicate is to put down in writing what He wants us to know. There is a record that claims to be from God – the Bible. There are a lot of writings in the world that make the same claim, but we will see later in this journey that it has some unique characteristics. For now, just add this clue to the collection.

• People who doubt the previous clues may find the next special clues ridiculous. But, they are a treasure trove of information for sincere searchers. The clues are prophecy and miracles. Add these to the collection for future reference as well.

Prophecy happens when God gives someone information about what He will do in the future. History is full of people who have claimed to do prophecy. Even now, some groups still make claims. There is only one way to figure out who is or is not a prophet: what they say has to come true 100% of the time in every detail. A perfect God never gives out faulty information.

Miracles operate the same way. They have to happen in a way that is impossible in the normal world. Because God always does everything with purpose to show His power (not human power or prestige), a true Divine miracle always focuses on Him, not people. We will look at how the history in the Bible stands out as we get further along.

• The last witness is just simple personal experiences. This is probably the most dangerous of all the clues for being abused or misunderstood. It is easy to understand why. But if a person gives themselves to a relationship with God, it only makes sense that God would provide a deeply personal sense of His presence in their life. It would also only make sense that such a person would be overjoyed to talk to other people about it. That awareness of God and those conversations are just as important as a way for God to show Himself to the world through people.