All people everywhere have a deep, inner sense that God exists, that they are his creatures, and that he is their Creator. Paul says that even Gentile unbelievers “knew God’ but did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (Romans 1:21). He says that wicked unbelievers have “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1:25), implying that they actively or willfully rejected some truth about God’s existence and character that they knew. Paul says that “what can be known about God is plain to them,” and adds that this is “because God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:19).
Scripture recognizes that some people deny this inner sense of God and even deny that God exists. It is ”the fool” who says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalms 14:1 and Psalms 53:1) It is the wicked person who first “curses and renounces the LORD” and then in pride repeatedly thinks “there is no God” (Psalms 10:3 – 4).
In the life of a Christian this inner awareness of God becomes stronger and more distinct. We begin to know God as our loving Father in heaven (Romans 8”15), the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God (Romans 8:16), and we are to come to know Jesus Christ living within our hearts. The intensity of this awareness for a Christian is such that through we have not seen our Lord Jesus Christ, we indeed love him.
In addition to people’s inner awareness of God that bears clear witness to the fact that God exists, clear evidence of his existence is to be seen in Scripture and in nature. Paul says that God’s eternal nature and deity have been “clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). This broad reference to “the things that have been made” suggests that in some sense every created thing give evidence of God’s character. It is man himself, created in the image of God, who most abundantly bears witness to the existence of God.
In addition to the evidence seen in the existence of living human beings, there is further evidence in nature. David tells us of the witness of the heavens: “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalms 19:1 – 2). To look into the sky by day or by night is to see sun, moon and stars, sky and clouds, all continually declaring by their existence and beauty and greatness that a powerful and wise Creator has made them and sustains them in their order.
Don Richardson was a missionary in the 1970’s and 80’s. He was assigned to go to Western Indonesia, New Guinea. The people he was trying to reach had no written language, no records of anything, they lived in the stone ages. They knew nothing of the outside world and their greatest goal in meeting Don was to kill him, cut off his head and eat to eat him. They were a cannibalistic tribe. They were headhunters.
They were so dark, that when Don learned their language and began telling the story of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus, when he would tell them about the betrayal of Judas, they would cheer. Judas was the hero of the story. They felt that turning on someone who trusted you and turning it to your advantage was the greatest good someone can do. They were Godless people.
When he was about to give up he noticed that between other murderous tribes they would give a peace offering so that they would agree not to kill and eat each other. The chief of one tribe would give his son/baby to the chief of the other tribe.
This was called the peace child. The peace child was the offering that would bring reconciliation between the tribes that hated each other. Don used this to explain that Jesus was God’s peace child. The tribe began to convert to Jesus in mass.
Surely you wouldn’t have thought that there was a longing for something outside of them, a headhunting cannibalistic tribe.
For those who are correctly evaluating the evidence, everything in Scripture and everything in nature proves clearly that God exists and that he is the powerful and wise Creator that Scripture describes him to be. When we believe that God exists, we are basing our belief not on some blind hope apart for any evidence, but on an overwhelming amount of reliable evidence from God’s word and God’s work. It is a characteristic of truth faith it is a confidence based on reliable evidence, and faith in the existence of God shares this characteristic.