Everyone has asked this question at least once in life. A good friend of mine asked it on Facebook yesterday. I'm just going to give my opinion and tell my personal experience.
Firstly, are we talking about a God or about the Christian God? Let's take a quick view of the main streams of beliefs:
- Hindus acknowledge multitudes of gods and goddesses.
- Buddhists say there is no deity.
- New Age followers believe they are God.
- Muslims believe in a powerful but unknowable God.
- Christians believe in a God who is loving and approachable.
What makes the Christian God different? Buddha existed, Muhammed existed and Jesus existed but he was the only one who raised from the dead and claimed to be God. Many religions focus on a person's spiritual efforts. With Jesus Christ it's a two-way interaction between you and God. The Christian God is the only one who urges you to have a relationship with him. Many world religions place an individual on their own, striving for spiritual perfection. Buddha, for example, never claimed sinlessness. Muhammad also admitted that he was in need of forgiveness.
Secondly, many of us want strong, even overwhelming reasons to believe in God but God has given us the freedom to believe in him or not. What God wants is for us to know him as our Father, Friend, Comforter, Counselor, Lord - willingly, not under compulsion.
He has given us more than ample reason to believe in him. But he doesn't force us to know him. Even as Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one opens the door, I will come into him" (Revelation 3:20). He enters our lives at our permission. And if we sincerely want to find out if he's there and what he is like, he will allow us to find him and know him.
So, that's it we have to believe by faith, very easy to say right? It's by faith because faith means receiving something, not doing something or even being something. To say, therefore, that our faith saves us means that we do not save ourselves even in slightest measure, but that God saves us. We are all the same for God. There are no better/worse Christians... all you have to do is believe. Isn't that the fairest way?
Even though it's by faith and it's our choice, as I said before, there is a lot of proof of the existence of God. Here are some:
Reasons for the existence of God:
- The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today
- The universe had a start - what caused it?
- The universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it? The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs from the recognition that the universe doesn't have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a universe in which conditions change unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a universe in which things pop in and out of existence.
You probably don't understand everything now, well it's normal, I didn't understand it either a year ago. The answer is in the Bible: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate" (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Now, if you're not tired and want to keep reading I'm going to tell you my story.
I was raised in a Christian family, went to church every Sunday, heard the Gospel again and again... but I never really understood it or payed attention to it. It was just another thing that my parents told me that it was good for me and I didn't want to do. I wanted to go with my friends or sleep more on a Sunday morning. I'm so thankful that they always gave me a lot of freedom regarding religion. I'm sure that if when I became an adult I would have said that I was an atheist they would have been sad but would have accepted it.
Recently, we haven't gone much to church maybe it has to do with my lack of interest on the subject plus our lives got more and more complicated and it has been difficult to find time for it. Thanks to the people I have around me (old friends from church or new friends like P & L - you know who you are hehe) I started to look at religion in a different way. Maybe I was biased by the way that religion is seen in Spain (almost no one goes to church and if you do you're considered a 'weirdo') and afraid of what people might think. These people taught me that you can believe and be a religious person but not necessarily a pious person (I don't know in English but in Spanish pious has negative connotations). I started to show interest in it, I started to listen to Christian Music (I love Chris Tomlin lol),then I listened to sermons... etc. To sum up, I was approaching God. He did it in a way that I almost didn't realize but he was knocking on my door. Now I'm not afraid of saying that I pray everyday, that I feel so good when I listen to Christian music everyday and I want to learn more and more each day from the Bible. It's been a personal experience. That's why I can't give you proof but He changed me. Although I still have doubts and haven't decided yet to get baptised but my strongest desire is that someday I will be certain of my salvation.
Please! Today more than ever ---> COMMENT!!
