How do you know God exists?

[Paidion]

Re God and proof, since God is invisible and we can't hear him speak audibly , my question is aboutthe quality of the evidence that personally persuades each of us to believe in a God of the universe and a God who loves each of us individually.

Some people I have met claim that they have heard God speak to them audibly. One of these people, I believed. Here is the story:

A man, (I'll call him "Harley") and his brother were raised as atheists. I used to stay with Harley and his wife (a relative of mine) when I worked, as a young man of 19 and 20 in a particular town in North-Western Ontario. They were both fine people whom I liked a lot. I was impressed with their intense love for each other. The wife had been attending a Lutheran church. She knew I was attending a rather fervent Baptist church. After a while, she began attending my church, too. She became a Christian, and continued attending that church, bringing her children to Sunday School. Harley didn't object. He didn't think Sunday School could do his kids any harm. Sometimes Harley used to ask me questions about my beliefs, such as, "Do animals go to heaven, too?"

One day, much later, when I no longer stayed with them, Harley went to a pub with his brother (who was also an atheist, of course). They had just received their beer, when Harley heard a voice which said, "Harley, what are you doing? You shouldn't even be here." Harley looked up at his brother in surprise. "What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything."
"I thought I heard someone say something," Harley replied.

They began to sip their beer. As Harley lifted his eyes, everyone in the pub looked liked skeletons! Then Harley suddenly stood up and said to his brother, "I'm getting out of here!"

"Why? What's wrong?" his brother asked.

"God has spoken to me."

"What? Are you crazy? Well, I'm not going anywhere."

"I am," said Harley, and he got up and walked out.

His brother thought that something had gone wrong mentally with Harley, and so he went out after him to see that he got safely home.

After Harley, told his wife about the experience, she helped him to entrust himself to Christ, and that very night, he did so.

I had heard this account from someone else, but I wanted to hear it directly from Harley himself.

One day, Harley and his wife came to our house for a visit. I asked Harley about the matter, and he told it to me exactly as I had previously heard it. Then I said to him, "That must have been amazing! I have never heard God speak in an audible voice!"

Harley replied, "Don, you didn't need it. But in my case, I would NEVER have become a Christian, if He hadn't done so. Prior to that I had never seen the slightest evidence of His existence. But now!—all I want to do is serve Him!"

[steve7150]

Harley replied, "Don, you didn't need it. But in my case, I would NEVER have become a Christian, if He hadn't done so. Prior to that I had never seen the slightest evidence of His existence. But now!—all I want to do is serve Him!"








Don't mean to change the subject but it is amazing how fast our freewill can change. Harley hears a voice and his life paradigm is changed instantly.

When i became a believer in 2002 i was told about the ECT view of hell and although it didn't make sense i put it aside. Eventually the issue really bothered me and it got to me. One day i was listening to a Christian radio station and a separate voice spoke while the radio show was in progress. In other words it was not like a commercial, it was a voice speaking above the announcers voice on the radio. It said "if you want to know the truth about hell, call a certain number." I called the phone number and the gentlemen put me in touch with a home group in my area. They taught that hell was a place of rehabilitation, and used the same verses and interpretations we discuss here. I asked everyone associated with this group if they ever advertised on the radio and no one was aware of this. I eventually assumed this voice was an angel's voice rather then God but who knows.

[Paidion]

That's amazing Steve! It must have been a supernatural voice!

I am totally convinced that God still miraculously intervenes in the affairs of man!—sometimes. My problem is trying to understand why it is so seldom.

I am 76 years old, and I recall only three occasions in which I was sure that God intervened in a miraculous way in my life. One was a healing of a back problem which a doctor said was serious. The elders anointed me with ol and prayed for me at church. When I returned to the doctor, he said, "I misdiagnosed you. You don't have that condition."

The other two occasions were God's identification of false prophets. I laid forth "a fleece" before the Lord, so to speak. In the first case, I tossed 10 coppers in the air, having first prayed that if a particular man was a true prophet, all 10 coins would turn up heads, and if he was a false prophet, all coins would turn up tails. If there was any other result, I would take it to mean that I shouldn't have used this method to inquire of God.

Well... as it turned out all 10 coins turned up tails. Now of course, this could have been "accidental". There is one chance in 1024, that all coins would turn up tails. But under the circumstances, it seemed to me that it was God identifying the man as a false prophet.

The other occasion also identified a man as a false prophet. But I won't bother describing that case unless someone is particularly interested.

[Ian]

I`m not sure where it falls in Matt`s list but Jesus himself was impressed by the power of prophetic foreknowledge:

"I am telling you now before it happens so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He"
John 13 v 19

A long time ago, in a prayer meeting for missionaries in our church, one of the elders had a word of knowledge about an ugly proclivity in someone in the group, one that would have negative consequences for his future life if he didn`t beat it. He could have had no idea about this. But he made it clear it to me later that he knew that it was I who was the intended recipient of this information. Uncomfortable for me to remember it, but it was and remains one of the surest signs I`ve ever had of God`s existence.

[Paidion]

I am sure there are true prophets and true prophesies. There are such in the church I am with. But there are also false prophets. What was revealed to me was that two of the latter were indeed false.

[backwoodsman]

The other occasion also identified a man as a false prophet. But I won't bother describing that case unless someone is particularly interested.

Please do. It's always interesting, and beneficial, to know how God works in others' lives.

[Singalphile]

My response appears to be a sort of summary of the list that mattrose posted. It's not so sophisticated perhaps but ...

It seems to me that without a Creator/Designer, nothing would mean anything. There would be no actual meaning or truth or reason or morality or foundation for anything. But these things do seem to exist, and so I cannot believe that there is no supernatural Creator.

And the facts of history, my own thinking and experience, and the testimony of others accords with my faith in the God of the prophets of the Bible and in His Son, our Lord Jesus.

I don't have any miraculous experiences or anything, and since I don't remember a time when I wasn't a believer, I don't even have a before-and-after kind of experience, but I still feel like I know that God exists.

[Paidion]

Please do [discuss the other false prophet case]. It's always interesting, and beneficial, to know how God works in others' lives.

Okay, I used attend a Christian summer camp annually, in which two powerful and spirit-filled men of God were the chief speakers. I will refer to these men as A and B. God was present in an intense way, and many of us deeply experienced Him constantly, even when walking around the camp ground. One year B brought in a man who was reputed as a prophet. Events were planned in which this man would lay hands on people and impart God's gifts and ministries to them. I decided to attend one of these meetings, but I thought I heard that "stilll, small voice" of God tell me, "Don, you have received your prophecy. Do not go." By way of explanation of the words "You have received your prophecy", travelling elders or overseers in my circle of fellowship visit the churches from time to time imparting God's gifts and ministries to those whom God's spirit indicates. Recall Paul's words to Timothy: "Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership." (1Tim 4:14 NKJV)

But being somewhat of a skeptic, I wondered whether those words came from God or merely had its origin in my own mind. So I "laid a fleece" before the Lord. I closed my eyes and prayed, "If the next person who passes by is wearing blue jeans and a white top, then that will tell me that this is a false prophet, and I should not go. If it's anything else, then I'll know I shouldn't have asked You about this." As soon as I opened them a woman was passing by me wearing blue jeans and a white top. Well, I still wasn't too sure. After all, this is a pretty common combination of dress. So I prayed again, "If then next person who passes by is wearing white jeans with a blue top, I will know this is a false prophet, and will not go. If it's anything else, then I'll know I shouldn't have asked You about this." I opened my eyes and immediately saw a different woman passing by with white jeans and a blue top! Now I knew this was no accident. So I didn't go to the meeting.

Later on, a fireside meeting was announced for the evening. I attended that meeting, and who should be there and prophesying, but the false prophet! It hadn't been announced that he would be doing this. "Lord, I didn't know," I prayed silently hoping to excuse myself. For I should have turned and left. But I stayed. The guy was "prophesying" over people. I don't know why I'm so slow to believe, but I asked the Lord for yet another indication. J, a friend of mine was at the meeting. I knew J was seeking the experience "the baptism in the Holy Spirit". So I prayed, "If this man is a true prophet, let him prophesy next over J. But if he is a false prophet, let him prophesy over that man over there." And I indicated to the Lord, randomly, a man whom I didn't know. Immediately after my prayer, the "prophet" prophesied over "that man over there" which I indicated to the Lord!

I shared these things with some other brothers, and they thought I should report my experiences to B, but for some reason I was loathe to do so. Was it timidity, or did I still doubt God's revelation? I don't know.

The next morning at a general meeting, the "prophet" prophesied over B, and this prophecy confirmed that the man was indeed a false prophet. He prophesied, "Your name will become a household word in America!" I immediately prayed that B would be protected from pride. Later B separated from A and established a church of his own, with himself as one of the overseers. I wrote to him describing my experiences concerning the false prophet, but he never replied to that letter.

[dseusy]

Steve7150 wrote,

Yes I also need and want God too and that's a good desire. But a desire isn't really evidence is it? Did you ever think about how you know God is present beyond your need for Him?

I agree, desire is not evidence. However, I think we, as subjective beings, may be convinced by what we are looking for- I don't think we can be objective, so true evidence often eludes us. Can subjective beings objectively analyze evidence? I was looking for true love and I found it... was it because factual evidence convinced me or because I found what I wanted to find and chose to be convinced? Either way, I have slowly become more and more convinced as I process thoughts and feelings through my own limited perspective. This evidence has come in so many different avenues (loving people serving me and pointing me to the truth, science, anthropology revealing common social taboos, imperfect multiple eye-witness accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, His disciples living and dying for their faith, improbability of fulfilled prophecy, my conscience, etc.) and God's Spirit may have had more to do with it than any of my external circumstances. I do know His Word played a major role in building my faith... and putting Jesus' teachings into practice gave me a solid foundation (I never have been able to apply all of them faithfully- the foundation is Christ). I know in that I, myself, have been convinced- but I also hope.