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Copyright 1966
I am indebted to R.E.Harlow for his kind permission to use this
material for Email Bible lessons. Also the publishers. Everyday
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CAN WE KNOW GOD?
IS THERE A GOD?
1. Many people say they do not believe in God.
Some live as if there were no God. Others say maybe there is a God, but
He has not made Himself known to men. We will first of all answer the
question,
"Is there a God?"
When we look at all the things around us, we
ask, "Where did they come from?" How did the trees and mountains and
lakes
and animals and all the other things come to be? They all came to be
through
that Being who is called God. He must have great power. In the Bible
the
word used for God means The Powerful One.
When we look more closely at the things around us, we see
that each one was made for a certain purpose and is part of a great
plan.
Who planned it? Who thought it all out? It must
have been someone very wise. No man is wise enough for that. Only God
could
do it. There must be a God who created or made everything.
2. This all seems very clear. Yet there are
people
who do not believe in God. They say that there is no God. These people
are called atheists. How do they know there is no God? When a man says
there is no God, he is saying that he himself knows everything.
He is also saying that he has been everywhere
in the world. If not, how could he be sure there is no God? God might
be
on a star far away from the earth, or in some other place.
It does not make sense to say there is no God.
To be sure that there is no God you would have to know everything and
be
everywhere at the same time! This means that you yourself would have to
be God! So the Bible calls the atheist a fool. The fool says in his
heart,
"There is no God", Psalm 14.1.
It is therefore much wiser to say, "I do not
know if there is a God or not." A person who says he does not know may
also say that no one can know. I think it is a great honor to know God.
Some people think that evolution proves that
the Bible is not true. Evolution teaches that in the beginning
thousands
of years ago there was only a little bit of something. This gradually
grew
and became a fish, later an animal and finally a man. But where did
that
first little bit of something come from? It must have had a beginning.
Who started it and keeps it going? The answer is, God started the world
and keeps it going.
If you have a watch, you may have looked at the
little wheels inside it. If someone told you there is a man in another
town who makes watches by shaking the different pieces around in a cup,
would you believe him? You know only a very wise person can put all the
many pieces of a watch together so that it will work. They will never
come
together by themselves by just being shaken around in a cup! In the
same
way we cannot believe that this wonderful world just came into being
alone
without God.
CAN WE KNOW GOD?
If there is a God, we can ask four questions about Him.
1. COULD He make Himself known?
The word God means The Powerful One. As men we
can talk to one another. I can tell you what I am thinking. God can do
the same. He would not create beings who can do what He Himself cannot
do. What would be God's mason for creating people if He cannot make
Himself
known to them?
2. SHOULD He make Himself known?
God made man able to know right and wrong. God
Himself knows what is right and what is wrong and He expects man to do
the right and not do the wrong. Therefore He must tell us what IS right
and what is evil. He would certainly not punish men for doing evil
unless
He told us what IS evil.
3. Would God WANT to make Himself known?
We have seen that God CAN reveal Himself if He
wants to. But why would He want to? First of all, so that man would
know
what is good, and secondly, so that many would know and love God. He
created
man so that He could show us His love and righteousness.
4. DID God make Himself known?
If He did, HOW did He do it and WHERE? What is
God like? What does He want me to do? These are very important
questions.
The answer is, God has made Himself known in
the Bible. The Bible tells us that it is the Word of God. There are
also
other books, some old, some new, that say the same thing, but there is
nothing to prove that these other books are really the Word of God.
How can we know that the Bible, and only the
Bible, is the true revelation from God? There are many things which
show
this:
1 ) The oneness of the Bible. This one Book is
really made up of 66 different books. These were written by about 40
men.
Some of them were kings, keepers of sheep, preachers, farmers, or
priests.
They wrote at different times. The last one wrote his book about 1500
years
after the first one. And yet all these 66 books which were written at
different
times by different people tell about one great Person, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
In the Old Testament we read that He would come and that He would be
the
Saviour. In the New Testament we read that He has come and died on the
cross in order to become our Saviour. So we see a wonderful oneness in
the Bible.
2) Old books written hundreds of years
ago show that the Bible is true. In old times people lived in great
cities
which are now just a pile of earth. Today some men's work is to dig in
these old piles. They often find writings and other things which help
to
show that the Bible is true.
You do not have to wait until you understand
everything
in the Bible before you believe it. Some things in it are very
difficult
to understand, but still we can believe what it tells us.
Some people say the Bible is not true because
they have never seen a miracle and do not believe miracles are
possible.
But let me ask you, If there is a God, why cannot He do something that
man cannot do? A great act of God which no man could do is called a
miracle.
God is all-powerful. A book about God should tell of His powerful acts.
Miracles do not show that the Bible is untrue. They show that the Bible
really tells us about God.
3) Another thing which shows that God has
made Himself known in the Bible is fulfilled prophecy. When a man of
God
says that something will happen in the future, his saying is called a
prophecy.
When this saying actually takes place, it is called a fulfilled
prophecy.
Many years before Jesus was born, God's servants wrote in the Bible
that
Christ was coming. They told when and where and how He would be born.
They
told other things as well. In the New Testament we read that these
things
really happened. How could these men know what would happen many years
later? Only God could tell them.
4) The Bible makes you feel that you are
a sinner. In the Old Testament we read God's holy law, so holy that no
man has ever obeyed it completely. In the New Testament we read of the
life of a perfect Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you suppose you can
keep
God's law, think about the perfect life of the Lord Jesus. Thousands
when
they read the Bible see that they themselves are not as perfect as God
wants them to be. They read what God wants them to be like and know
that
God will judge them.
5) If this were the only thing the Bible tells
us, v, would never have any peace or joy. However this is not all. The
Bible tells us also the story of a Saviour. This story is more
wonderful
than anything else ever written in any other book.
Every religion tells men what they should DO.
Only the Bible tells us that everything needed for our salvation has
been
DONE. The Lord Jesus Christ bore God's punishment for our sins.
No man could have thought of such a wonderful
and beautiful plan of salvation. Only God could think it up. This shows
that the Bible came from God.
6) And the message of the Bible really works.
Thousands of people have been completely changed through the gospel of
Christ. Rich and poor, religious people and atheists, many have found
peace
in Christ.
7) Some people do not believe the Bible because
it is so old. They want something new and modern. And yet the very fact
that the Bible is so old shows that it is a very special book. God has
kept it from being destroyed for many hundreds of years. Of course
there
are other books which are very old too. But although men have tried to
destroy the Bible many times, God has kept it for us until now--- it is
His Word.
8 ) And what about today? If the Bible is so
old. and out of-date, if men have really shown that it is full of
mistakes,
you would think that people do not want it any more. Is that true? No.
Each year more Bibles are sold than ever before. Parts of the Bible or
all of it have been translated or written again in 1,200 different
languages.
Probably nine-tenths of all the people in the world can understand one
of these languages. Every year millions of Bibles or parts of Bibles
are
printed and sold.
Yes, the Bible is the most wonderful book in
the world. It is altogether different from any other book. Men could
never
have thought up by themselves the things that are written in it. Truly
it is the Word of God. Truly God makes Himself known in the Bible.
TRUTH IS WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT A THING.
TEST 1 CAN WE KNOW GOD
In the right-hand margin, write "True" or "False" after each of the following statements.
1. God has made Himself known in the Bible.
2. God created all things for a certain purpose.
3. Some people live as if there were no God.
4. You can know God.
5. Psalm 14.1 teaches there is no God.
Type an X by the correct answer.
6. The Word "God" means:
a. The All-knowing One.
b. The Powerful One.
c. The Unending One.
7. God:
a. tells man what is right and wrong.
b. makes man do what is right.
c. makes man do what is wrong.
8. Through the Bible, God:
a. makes you feel that you are a sinner.
b. says you are not a sinner.
c. says you may sin a little bit.
9. God makes Himself known:
a. through all the religions of the world.
b. through education.
c. through the Bible.
10. God wants you to:
a. be more religious.
b. know more about Himself through the Bible.
c. understand everything in the Bible before you believe it.
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