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Sometimes critics of faith will argue that God isn’t real because

he can’t be proved. For our part, we would have to agree that

you won’t be able to get out the test tubes and formulas and

prove (or disprove, for that matter) the existence of God. Yet we

wouldn’t be able to prove the love of our friends with scientific

methods either. Some things in life simply can’t be deciphered

that way.

If you were asked to prove the trustworthiness of your best

friend, you would naturally point to things like past experiences,

what he’s said, things she’s done, the promises kept, the history

you’ve had together. If someone would scoff and say, “Come

on, that isn’t proof,” you’d probably shake your head and say,

“Well, it’s enough for me.”

This is the kind of relationship Christianity offers the world. No

doubt, we make a bold claim. We claim God is personal. We

claim God is caring. Frankly, we teach something amazing: that

you can actually have a fully healthy, dynamic relationship with

the Creator of the universe—a relationship built on faith.

So if God is real, why doesn’t he just come down, appear in the sky,

and clear up all this confusion?  Wouldn’t this relationship with God

be stronger without so much uncertainty?

Great question. Admittedly, there are things about the mind of God

that Christians should just humbly admit we don’t know. God’s set

up the universe in a way pleasing and right to him--and that’s good,

because if he had built it upon our wishes, the universe would be a

mess! But Christianity does have at least a couple of answers to this question, so let’s look at them now.

Right off the bat, Christians would contest that God does show himself to us, especially through nature. When God created the world he called it “good.” Just like we can look at a great artist’s work and learn something about the person behind the art, we believe we can look at creation and see evidence of God. When a Christian looks at the trees and animals, the stars and galaxies, or the complexity and beauty of humanity, we see a partial vision of our Creator.

It should also be pointed out that as amazing as creation is, it is fallen, broken, or sick, if you will. Its present state is a dim reflection of its glorious past before the sin of humans sullied the cosmos. Yet even so, the powerful imprint of God upon creation can be seen, and it points us to our Creator.

God Shows Himself to Us

Let’s move on with something a little surprising. You see, as much as Christians talk about how wonderful, loving, and glorious God is, we also teach that not everyone likes God, and many people who might even be “impressed” by God still choose not to follow him.

Regardless of popular opinion, Christians do not believe that if you could just see the glory and majesty of God, you would want to follow him. Frankly, that doesn’t line up with a lot of what we see in the Bible. God doesn’t make us love him. That wouldn’t be love, would it? So just appearing before us and proving that he exists wouldn’t mean all people would choose to follow God. Wow.

The Bible is filled with events in which God made himself known to humans. Amazing events: He appeared as a pillar of smoke and a pillar of fire; he parted bodies of water; he came as a—get this—visible cloud; he healed people miraculously; he toppled city walls; he rained down as fire from heaven; he turned back armies; he poured his Spirit upon people and they spoke holy words. The list goes on and on. Yet if we read the stories, even in the presence of “proof,” again and again people would choose not to have saving faith in God.

Eventually, about two thousand years ago, God did just what we’re wishing for. He came down as a human and lived among us--someone people could see, someone they could touch. God gave us proof; yet he was murdered as a criminal by people who didn’t like him, who were certainly “impressed” by him but chose to reject him. Then the Son of God rose from the dead, proving that he himself was Life! Even that wasn’t enough. We can look at the world and see the same sad, selfish pattern repeating throughout human history.

So even if your body and soul were to stand right before God, you could still choose whether you want to follow him or not. That’s what we call free will. In the end, if we choose to follow him, seen or unseen, we have faith.

God is calling all of us. On Ask God, we even believe God calls us by the questions our hearts ask. If your heart is asking questions of God, we would encourage you to embrace those questions and honestly pursue the answers. Asking questions is a dynamic part of faith. Our faith grows as we honestly look for God’s answers, or as we trust his teachings even as we struggle for answers.

Want to develop a dynamic, real relationship with the Creator of the universe? We believe you can. It starts with your first honest step toward faith.

Life has questions. God has answers. Ask God!