In 18th century France, the writer Voltaire despised his religious heritage and believed that common people should not read the Bible. Ironically, after his death, the house he lived in while at Geneva was sold to Colonel Henri Tronchin, who was a lay president of the recently founded Evangelical Society of Geneva and reportedly used part of the house to store Bibles and other religious materials.
While the atheist and the skeptic reject the Bible as the outdated imaginings of uneducated nomadic peoples, the Scriptures serve as a proof for God’s existence. In Romans 1:20, Paul says God’s invisible attributes are seen in the creation. From a logical perspective, if the characteristics of God may be shown from creation, and one of those characteristics is that the God who exists is a personal God, then this God should communicate since communication is essential to personality. The Bible serves as a record of this communication.
Just as Psalm 19:1–6 provided the first reason to believe in God, Psalm 19:7–11 offers the second reason to believe. God has revealed Himself in His Word. David refers to the Word in several terms: law, precepts, commandment, fear, rules, and testimony. This last speaks to the Word itself being a witness of, from, and for God. Since the biblical authors repeatedly claim their message is not their own but is from God, the Bible should demonstrate characteristics in keeping with those that may be discerned about God by looking at the creation.
The Bible speaks of God’s limitless power to create and records how He created all that exists. It records His perfection in knowledge; the wisdom and intricacies of design, evident throughout the creation, reflect these characteristics. From the creation, one may deduce that the God who exists is not limited to a particular time or place. The Scriptures also attest to these characteristics. In short, the revelation of God in the world and the revelation of God in the Word agree in their testimony.
There is a God! Believe He exists. He has revealed Himself in the world and in His Word.
Clay Leonard
