Jeremiah 29:13
Do you want to know 4 simple logical arguments for the existence of God? Just keep reading.
Christian apologetics is the branch of theology which seeks to defend Christianity against objections through the use of evidence, logic, and historical arguments. In this article I will give you 4 classic Christian apologetics arguments that defend the logic for the existence of God.
I will not exhaustively cover each of these 4 arguments. My goal here is to simply make you aware of these apologetics arguments and give you the basics so you can further research these topics yourself.
I call these arguments the 4 C’s of apologetics.
Apologetics Argument 1: Causation
Those who deny the existence of God have a big logical problem. How did everything come into existence? Even if you accept the Big Bang, how did the elements come to exist that exploded into life? What was the cause of this cosmic explosion that accidentally created the ingredients for living organisms?
Science has shown we live in a cause and effect world. Science has also shown that we do not live in an eternal universe. The universe is expanding, which means that at some point there was a start to this expansion. So to say that the universe has always existed is illogical and unscientific.
The reason the existence of God is logical is because our world demands there be a first cause which did not need a cause itself. Our universe logically points to an eternal God who is outside of time and space. Since time and space exist and must have been created, logic demands there must be a Cause somewhere that has always existed and is not dependent upon a cause for its own existence.
God being the cause of everything that exists is not only logical, it is also biblical. The Bible states:
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3)
“. . . as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Romans 4:17)
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)
How was something created out of nothing? That’s the question Christians can easily answer and atheist will never be able to answer. Because of the need for a first cause that did not need a first cause, the existence of God is logical and necessary.
How was something created out of nothing? God created what is visible out of things that are not visible, he calls into existence the things that do not exist, and he alone created the heavens and the earth. He is eternal and was not created and thus the evidence clearly points to him as the First Cause our world needed.
Apologetics Argument 2: Creation
Not only does our world demand a first cause, our world also demands a designer. Our universe not only has the ingredients for life, those ingredients have clearly been used in a finely tuned way. The complexity of creation is a huge problem for those who deny the existence of God.
The fact that Science exists at all suggest our world must be reasonable, logical, and full of laws that can be studied because of their fixed nature. We know that 2 + 2 equal 4, but why do the mathematical principals exist that allow us to know this? Why is our world organized in such a way that scientists can depend on certain laws never breaking?
Without the highly tuned existence we have, the scientists who argue for mindless evolution would not be able to study creation at all. Ironically, scientists argue for luck and randomness as they study a highly tuned world. Romans 1:19-20 explains:
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Without the existence of an eternal God existing before the creation of the universe, our finite world could not exist. Since humans obviously do know that our finite world does exist, they should also know that an infinite God also exists, thus they are without excuse when they deny God’s existence (Romans 1:20).
The more humans know about creation, the more evidence we have for the existence of God. The information we keep finding about things in creation keeping getting more and more complex. The more complex our scientific understanding of the universe becomes, the more logical the existence of a designer of the universe also becomes.
Those who depend on evolution to be their god defy the basic building principals of our world. When you build anything that has order and structure (which our world clearly has), you start with the finished design in mind. In other words, you must build towards something. Evolution defies this basic building law and states what we have is the result of millions of years of life building on itself not really knowing where it was leading to. Life didn’t know what it was building towards, it was just constantly building and evolving over millions of years and now what we see is the result of that constant building. To look at the complexity of a human body and conclude that there was no predetermine design in mind as this structure was build is very illogical.
In short, the intricacy of creation and the mathematical unlikelihood of the ingredients accidentally falling into place to form what exists is beyond logic and all forms of healthy hope. Those who deny the existence of God have no answer for why the universe is so highly tuned, detailed, and ordered. A designed world demands the existence of a Designer.
Apologetics Argument 3: Conscience
Without the existence of God, good and evil is just your opinion. If there is no God there is no logical reason for an absolute moral standard. Those who deny the existence of God only have two choices when it comes to morality. They can agree there is truly right and wrong but they don’t know why. Or they can claim that right and wrong are subjective opinions. It is illogical to claim there is an absolute right and wrong when you simultaneously deny the existence of an unchanging God.
I’m not saying all atheists are immoral (by humans standards). I’m not saying that you can’t do very good things if you don’t believe in God. What I am saying is that “good” and “bad” are ideas that could not exist without God other than in the form of opinions.
So if I asked an atheist if murder was bad, presumably she would say yes. But if I asked her why it is bad, things will get a lot hazier. All arguments which seek to explain morality but which deny the existence of God can have a counter argument equally as valuable. For example, you may say murder is bad not because of God but because it hurts society. But why is hurting society bad? Maybe others think hurting society is good. Lots of people enjoy hurting society. Who can say that your opinion is greater than theirs?
We all know that murder is bad even if we can’t give an air tight logical argument. We know this because God exists and murder defies his character of love and justice. The moral law written across the universe is not a random thing. It’s not as though if the dice rolled the other way murder would have been good. It is bad because God’s character is eternal and therefore our conscience will always know that murder is evil because it is opposite of God’s standard. Romans 2:14-16 explains:
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”
In other words, the fact that people know murder, for example, is wrong, they follow God’s law even though they may never have read the sixth commandment. The world’s basic conscience of right and wrong is not evidence for the world’s goodness but evidence for its evil since we know what is good and bad but do bad anyway (“and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them”).
Without the existence of a moral being presiding over the universe, human conscience is simply human opinion. If an eternal God does not exist than an eternal moral standard does not exist. Since humans do know deep down that an eternal moral standard does exist, they should also know that an eternal God also exists, thus they are without excuse when they deny God’s existence.
Incredible evils are justified when the existence of God is denied because humans are then free to say what is good or bad in their opinion. This is not an inconsequential concept we are talking about here. The holocaust, abortion, genocide, and countless other evils can be directly linked back to the denial of the existence of God which results in the absence of absolute morality in the minds of men. But humans are not free to say what is good or bad and one day we will all be judged by God for the good and bad that we’ve done.
Apologetics Argument 4: Christ
Finally, the person of Jesus Christ demands for the existence of God. When you look at the substantial historical evidence for the existence of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus, and most importantly the resurrection of Jesus, the existence of God is the only plausible explanation.
Of course those who deny the existence of God would laugh or scowl at those statements I just made, but an honest look at the historical evidence makes the deity of Jesus not only possible but logical and likely. Christianity demands for some elements of faith because none of these claims can be proven, but this does not mean there is no evidence. Faith is opposed to sight, not evidence and reasons. So the blind faith atheist claim Christians have is not the biblical faith God wants us to have.
People often confuse the true meaning of “proof” and “evidence.” When something is proven it means there could be no other explanation. There are many other possible explanations for the stories surrounding Christ, but we all need to examine the evidence to determine which one we believe to be more likely. There are many possible explanations for a crime committed where someone was found there holding a smoking gun, but even if you didn’t see the shot this incriminating evidence would make you a fool to deny what really happened. So although there are possible alternative explanations for what Jesus did on earth, you have to decide what is actually likely based upon the evidence.
Additionally, many claim science disproves the miracles and resurrection of Christ because the defy scientific laws. If you enter into this investigation without believing miracles cannot happen, then you have made your determination before looking at the evidence. If God exists miracles are logical. If God does not exist miracles are illogical. Therefore if you come into this investigation at the wrong end of this logical flow, then of course you will think God’s existence is impossible. But your determination of God’s existence should govern your belief in the possibility of miracles rather than your belief in the possibility of miracles governing your belief in the existence of God or not.
This investigation regarding Christ’s resurrection could never be done in the lab. The court room is a far better setting for these matters. In the court room you do not recreate a situation in an experiment to see if such events are possible like you would do in the lab. What you do is examine the historical evidence, most importantly the eye witness accounts. If you are willing to accept eye witness accounts, as any courtroom does, then the miracles and resurrection of Jesus are not without evidence. The resurrection cannot be a question of science. It must be a question of historicity.
Humans certainly lie, and humans certainly die believing lies, but humans don’t die for a lie when they know they are lying. This is exactly the situation we have with the disciples. To claim that they knew they were lying is to say they were willing to die for lie they knew was a lie. Additionally, lies don’t spread with such rapid pace when so many people are forced to lie about what they have seen. The more liars involved, the less likely the lie would be concealed properly. Regarding Christ’s bodily resurrection, it is highly unlikely that so many people would have claimed to have seen him after he died and these lies not be exposed and thus stopping the spread of Christianity. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 states:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
Why does Paul point out that of the 500 who saw Jesus, most of them were still alive when he wrote this letter? Because he expected his readers to verify what he had claimed. The people who wanted to know if this was true could go talk to the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus’ resurrected body.
Lastly, Christians were martyred for the faith during the early days of Christianity, so if there was a rumor going around that the eye witnesses lied about seeing Jesus’ raised body, do you really think these people would still be Christians and be willing die for their faith if they thought it all might be a lie? In other words, since there were so many martyrs in early Christianity, we can conclude that there was no evidence floating around that people were lying about seeing Jesus alive after he was dead. If there was evidence for people lying about seeing Jesus after he died, there could have been those who kept the lie up, but no one would accept the lies of others, know they are lies, and then die for those lies.
For more on the historical evidence and arguments for Christ, I recommend reading Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ.
What Apologetic Arguments Are There for the Existence of God?
As you can see, these four arguments form a logical explanation for believing in the existence of God. The information in this article is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to apologetics arguments. I encourage you to keep studying this topic and look for answers to the questions you have. Answers are out there, you just need to look. You do not need to turn your brain off to believe in God. In fact, I believe you have to turn your brain off not to believe in God.