Does God Exist And Where Can I free essay sample

Find Him? Essay, Research Paper God. The fact that you are reading this suggests that you are at least partly unfastened to His being and unfastened to larning more. If so, so this essay is for you. I want you to cognize that God is existent and that God loves you. Does God be and if so where is He # 8211 ; where can He be found? In my experience this is the inquiry that many people are inquiring today. At the same clip many people have come to the point in their lives where they have serious uncertainties about God # 8211 ; or have already denied His being. Of class many have tried to # 8220 ; turn out # 8221 ; God # 8217 ; s being with rational statements. Aquinas, Abelard, Anselm, Pascal, and Paley are a few that have attempted this. These attacks are of limited helpfulness, for though we can near God with our ground and observe Him in nature, He can non be to the full grasped in this manner. More significantly, these logical # 8220 ; proofs # 8221 ; for God # 8217 ; s being miss the point. What is the point? In my experience, most of those who doubt or deny God # 8217 ; s being, do non make so because of steadfastly held philosophical strong beliefs. They do so because of personal letdown with God. Furthermore, I # 8217 ; m proposing that many of those who now perceive themselves as doubting or denying God for philosophical grounds, got where they are because they became personally disillusioned with God sometime in the yesteryear. Personal Disappointment with God What sort of personal letdown? Disappointment like unreciprocated supplication. Many in personal crisis have cried out to God in supplication. They have called out to Him for aid. But the aid they were looking for did non come. Peoples like Frank from the Paralyzed Veterans Association, who phoned me for a contribution. As we talked he began sharing some of his jobs with me over the phone. When I told him I would pray for him, he angrily responded, # 8220 ; Please wear # 8217 ; t. I # 8217 ; ve given up on that guy. # 8221 ; He had prayed many times but neer received the reply he expected. As a consequence he now badly doubts God # 8211 ; His being, His power, His love. Others have been disappointed or hurt by those who represent God. At some point in the yesteryear they were disappointed or hurt by a spiritual leader or member. They were abused in some manner, possibly, or given bad advocate, or snubbed. They were right to anticipate better behaviour from those who represent God. Such bad intervention defeated and ache them ; and it led them to doubt or deny God. They reasoned, # 8220 ; If God allows such as these to function Him, what sort of God is He? Possibly He doesn # 8217 ; t care at all. Possibly He isn # 8217 ; t real. # 8221 ; Still others have been overwhelmed by the immorality and agony of this universe. For many in this group this immorality and agony has touched them personally and frequently. Tragedy has found them. Or they have been cruelly treated by others. The remainder see and hear it all around them. Violence, maltreatment, poorness, disease, and dearth. Natural catastrophes like fire, inundation, air current, and temblor. All things that cheapen and devalue life. These people wonder, # 8220 ; How could an almighty and all-loving God allow such things? # 8221 ; They conclude that it is dubious that such a God exists. Or # 8220 ; If He does, # 8221 ; they say, # 8220 ; I don # 8217 ; t want to cognize Him. # 8221 ; In reexamining these personal scenarios, I # 8217 ; m inquiring skeptics and deniers for soul-searching honestness. I # 8217 ; m inquiring that they be honest and clearheaded about why they now doubt or deny God # 8217 ; s being. In all instances, those who doubt or deny God # 8217 ; s being because of personal letdown do so because God did non execute harmonizing to their outlooks. But I would inquire such people ( possibly you ) : Are you willing to at least see the possibility that your outlooks of God are or were in mistake? You who cried out in supplication with no evident reply. Could it be that God did reply for your good, but non in the manner you expected? Or could it be that the good reply you were looking for didn # 8217 ; t come because there was something else in your life that was non right, that needed to be cleaned up and changed? Or could it be that you are non right with God and you are looking for favours from Him before you are right with Him? You who have been disappointed or hurt by those who represent God, were you truly wounded or was it in perceptual experience merely? If you were genuinely hurt by those stand foring God, they were incorrect to ache you and I am profoundly regretful that you were hurt. But is it right to doubt or deny God because those who represent Him prove themselves evildoers? Could it non be that God is sorrowing over this even more than you? You who have been touched by the immorality and agony of this universe, you are non entirely. All of us at one clip or another have been. But inquiries need to be answered. Did you convey this immorality and enduring upon yourself by misguided determinations that you freely made? If so, is it right to fault God for this, or to doubt or deny Him? Even if the immorality and agony came upon you innocently, is it right to doubt or deny God because of it? Could the evil non hold another cause? Possibly you say, # 8220 ; How could a loving God allow such immorality? # 8221 ; But is it God # 8217 ; s love that is faulty or your apprehension of it? Most faiths justly teach that it was humanity that injected evil into the order of things and that still are shooting it. God did non make or mean evil. We have brought it on ourselves. But yes, it is true: Supreme being does let the immorality in the universe to go on. Is it right to reason from this that hence God is non almighty or all-loving? Could it be that He has chosen to impart His power and love in another and much more fantastic manner? And this God has done ; and He has made this love and power available to all who know where to look! More about this below. Those Who Doubt or Deny God for Philosophical Reasons Now it besides true that there are some who do doubt or deny God # 8217 ; s being because of philosophical grounds. They doubt or deny God because their worldview does non go forth room for a personal God. All those whose worldview is # 8220 ; closed # 8221 ; fall into this class. By # 8220 ; closed # 8221 ; I mean a worldview that views the existence as a closed system, that works harmonizing to unchanging Torahs, allows no outside intercession, and can be perceived merely by ground and the senses. Such a worldview does non let for religious existences or anything marvelous. Into this class travel naturalists, secular humanists, doubters, atheists, and many evolutionists. Yet I am convinced there is something else in the worldview of many # 8220 ; closed universe # 8221 ; advocates that leaves no room for a personal God. I am proposing that this # 8220 ; something else # 8221 ; is a far more revealing ground as to why their worldview doesn # 8217 ; Ts leave room for God. To acknowledge to the being of a personal God is to acknowledge that I must reply to Him, that my life is accountable to Him, and that I must obey Him. To acknowledge that this personal God exists means that I so must turn over the reins of my life to Him. Many people presently refuse to admit the being ( or at least the certainty ) of a personal God because they do non desire such answerability, obeisance, or control! Absolute personal liberty and freedom is their core value. They will non let anyone or anything to occupy this nucleus value. It is this fact that draws many people to the assorted impersonal # 8220 ; Gods # 8221 ; that presently exist. America Online late promoted a new book by Deepak Chopra, # 8220 ; Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents. # 8221 ; This Random House book is a subsequence to an earlier book, â€Å"Seven Spiritual Laws, † that the writer claims brought broad congratulations. Thousands contacted him to thank him. In both books Chopra speaks of â€Å"God† and â€Å"Nature† as all-pervading and really impersonal Torahs in the existence that order things. The secret to life, he claims, is to cognize these Torahs. Notice that in his system, â€Å"God† is non a personal being, but an impersonal set of Torahs. The ground that 1000s are drawn to a book about an impersonal # 8220 ; god # 8221 ; is the same ground that so many who doubt or deny a personal God are drawn to # 8220 ; spiritualty # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; angels. # 8221 ; You don # 8217 ; Ts have to reply to an impersonal God, or an angel, or to spiritualty. One can be helped by them without holding to be accountable or obedient to them. Absolute personal liberty is less threatened by an impersonal God than a personal One. So the existent inquiry is non, # 8220 ; Is the whole impression of God scientifically possible or demonstrable? # 8221 ; I am proposing that the existent inquiry for most people is, # 8220 ; Am I willing to put aside past letdowns and get the better of my fright of losing personal liberty so that I can cognize God? # 8221 ; God is Real # 8211 ; Here is How to Find Him Beloved reader, God is existent and wants you to cognize Him personally. But where do we happen Him? We find God in Jesus Christ. We can cognize that there is a God, and who God is, because the ageless God entered history and introduced Himself personally through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God made seeable. Jesus Christ is the reply to the inquiry, # 8220 ; What is God like? # 8221 ; Jesus Christ is God # 8217 ; s manner of stating, # 8220 ; I am existent. I love you. I am God for you. # 8221 ; Jesus is God # 8217 ; s ultimate disclosure of Himself to humanity. Jesus said about Himself, I am the manner and the truth and the life. No 1 comes to the Father except through me. If you truly cognize me, you would cognize my Father every bit good. From now on, you do cognize him and have seen him. # 8221 ; Philip said, # 8220 ; Lord, show us the Father and that will be plenty for us. # 8221 ; Jesus answered: # 8220 ; Don # 8217 ; t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long clip? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you state, `Show us the Father # 8217 ; ? ( John 14:6-9 ) Not that Jesus is the Father. He revealed Himself to be the Son of God the Father and hence, God Himself. So confidant is the integrity between Father and Son that both are God. To cognize the One is to cognize the Other. Along with the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son are the one God, the holy Trinity. The epistle to the Hebrews declares, In the past God spoke to our sires through the Prophetss at many times and in assorted ways, but in these last yearss he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed inheritor of all things, and through whom he made the existence. The Son is the glow of God # 8217 ; s glorification and the exact representation of his being, prolonging all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for wickednesss, he sat down at the right manus of the Majesty in Eden ( Hebrews 1:1-3 ) . So when we see Jesus we see the bosom of God. Far from being some aloof, freakish, angry Being, the true God is the prototype of goodness, compassion, wisdom, gradualness, power, and forgiveness. This God, the true God, is ask foring, welcoming, and loving. But as said above, He has shown His love and power in a peculiar manner, harmonizing to His wisdom, non ours. God # 8217 ; s unbelievable love is found merely in Jesus Christ who, in the words of the Hebrews # 8217 ; text quoted above, # 8220 ; provided purification for wickednesss, # 8221 ; when He died on a cross. The message of the full New Testament is that Jesus Christ came to be Savior, to decease on the cross for our wickednesss, summed up attractively by Romans 5:8: # 8220 ; But God demonstrates his ain love for us in this: While we were still evildoers, Christ died for us. # 8221 ; Why was this necessary? Our wickedness has separated us from God. We are non right with God our Creator. We urgently need forgiveness. Our universe is evil but so are we. We all stand guilty of offending the ways of our God. But God in His clemency looked upon our predicament. He could hold cast us off forever. But He couldn # 8217 ; t give up on us, for He is godly love. So He sent the really One through whom He had made us in the beginning to salvage us in the terminal, His Son. # 8220 ; God loved the universe this manner, that He gave His lone begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall non die, but have everlasting life. # 8221 ; On the cross Jesus served our sentence, suffered the penalty that we deserved, as our Substitute. He was despised and rejected by work forces, a adult male of sorrows, and familiar with enduring. Like one from whom work forces hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him non. Surely he took up our frailties and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our evildoings, he was crushed for our wickednesss ; the penalty that brought us peace was upon him, and by his lesions we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his ain manner ; and the LORD has laid on him the wickedness of us all ( Isaiah 53:3-6 ) . You may wish that God had purged the planet of wickedness and eliminated all evil and enduring. Just delay, He will! He sent Jesus to forgive our wickednesss, to reconstruct us to His family, and to give us everlasting life in a new Eden and Earth where no wickedness or immorality or agony will of all time brood once more ( Read 2 Peter 3:13 ) . All those who by religion receive Jesus as the lone Savior from wickedness will bask this new Eden and Earth everlastingly! But in this life, in this fallen universe, wickedness still goes to seed as immorality and agony of every sort. But thanks be to God who has given us a manner out through Jesus Christ! A manner out of this fallen universe to a universe that will be in perfect in every manner. And thanks be to God that in the thick of the immorality and agony, He has promised to be with us and to give us the strength and hope that we need to get by ( Matthew 28:20 ; Psalm 50:15 ) . How can you cognize this God, so? In the words of Jesus Christ, # 8220 ; Repent and believe the Gospel # 8221 ; ( Mark 1:15 ) . First repent, acknowledge your wickedness, turn from it. Second believe the Gospel, the good intelligence that through Jesus Christ ( but merely Him ) all our wickednesss are forgiven, and we will populate everlastingly as kids of God. John 1:12: Yet to all who received him [ Jesus ] , to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to go kids of God # 8211 ; kids born non of natural descent, nor of human determination or a hubby # 8217 ; s will, but Borns of God. # 8221 ; Where can you happen Jesus? Where He has promised to be and where His organic structure gathers. There are two topographic points in the New Testament where Jesus Christ promises to be with us for all clip. One is Matthew 18:20: For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. # 8221 ; The other is in Matthew 28:20: # 8220 ; And certainly I am with you ever, to the really terminal of the age. # 8221 ; In both locations Jesus promises to be where those who believe in Him are together, idolizing, doing adherents by baptising and learning. Though God is everyplace, He has promised to be present in a particular manner where Christians gather in the name of Jesus: in a local fold. Furthermore, Christians are repeatedly called the # 8220 ; organic structure of Christ, # 8221 ; in the New Testament ( Romans 12 ; 1 Corinthians 12 ) . Where they are gathered, there Jesus is! There He can be found in His people, His Word, His holy repast. With unfastened weaponries, God is waiting for you to return. May this small essay in some little manner encourage you to come place.