4. The Creator gave us a consciousness of eternal existence.
The fourth proof of God’s existence is our consciousness of eternal existence. What I mean is this: We do not have the ability to imagine ourselves not existing. We can imagine our death and even our funeral, but in doing so, we are always on the outside looking in on our death or funeral. We can’t imagine not existing forever.
Solomon recognized this and he explained why, “[God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Eccl. 3:11). It was his theological and poetical way to describe the human soul that cannot die. He is basically saying that God made us believe in eternity, because He put eternity in our hearts. Because we are made in God’s image, we cannot help but think in terms of eternity. Since God is eternal, it is logical that humans would have the element of eternity in their souls.
As much as atheists try unsuccessful to shake off the consciousness of God, they also try to shake off the consciousness of eternity, but even they cannot imagine themselves not existing.
It was this truth that helped convinced my father to believe in God. He was a proud atheist. He made fun of my faith in Christ. He scoffed at the notion of eternity. He said to me, “Tommy, when we die, we are dead like a dog. That’s it!”
I countered, “But, Dad, God made it so that you cannot even imagine this. Think about it! Can you imagine yourself not existing?”
He thought for a moment. I remember seeing him grin. He said, “That is something strange, isn’t it, that we cannot imagine ourselves not existing?”
“Dad, the reason for that is that you are an eternal soul made in God’s image. By making you like Him, He made you to think in terms of eternity so you will realize that you will be accountable to Him in the end.”
Eventually, my dad gave up atheism and accepted Christ as his Savior.
Eternal life is at the heart of the seed-plot of the Bible. God put Adam and Eve in the garden and told them that they could live forever if they continued to eat of the tree of life, but that they would die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The plot thickens as the first couple rejects the tree of life in favor of the knowledge of good and evil. They, along with us, were driven from the tree of life. However, God, through the prophets, promised us one day that we would have a chance to eat of the tree of life again.
Even though the human race was driven away from the tree of life, their desire for eternal life has not disappeared. Not only do humans desire to live forever, they cannot imagine anything else.
It is this fourth proof that brings both joy and fear. You see, this world brings both pleasure and pain. Pleasure when we do right and pain when we do wrong. Knowing that we will live forever brings such a desire to make peace with the Creator. We don’t want to have pain forever. Yet, we know that we have failed, and we are also fearful of being judged for this failure. So naturally, humans have a desire to make God happy resulting in a pleasurable eternal existence. It is this desire for eternal joy and peace that leads us to logically reach out to our Creator.
God Must Reveal Himself
At this point, some doubters will say to me, “You said many things that are logical, and that is why I cannot say categorically that there is no God. But I’m an agnostic, because even if there is a God, I doubt we can know this Being.”
I have heard this argument before, but it makes no logical sense. Let me explain.
Why would a Creator go through the trouble of making a huge universe, with billions of galaxies containing billions of stars, so that the proper elements of life can exist on our side of the universe to form life? Then the Creator goes through the extent of putting a God-consciousness in us to make us aware of God’s existence. Then the Being giving us a conscience to feel responsibility to the Creator. Then He puts eternity in our hearts so that we cannot help but believe we will live forever. Considering all this, why would a Creator leave us alone and remain unknowable?
It is clear that since the Creator went through all this, then He intends for us to find Him. Paul said it this way to the intellectual Athenians, “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).
It is, therefore, logical to think that God would provide a way for us to reach Him.
Which Religion?
This is where we come to the subject of religion. Religion is the system by which people try to connect with God and ultimately make peace with Him. It’s that simple.
The trouble is that if humankind starts the system, it is doomed for failure. Instead, God would have to set up the religion for humans to find Him. It is logical that if God established creation, gave us a God-consciousness, a moral conscience, and a consciousness of eternity, that He intends to establish a religion that humans could find Him and be reconciled to Him.
Agnostics would argue that it is impossible to know which, if any religion, is true. However, logic convinces me that God must establish the true religion, otherwise, He failed to provide a pathway for us to reach Him. It’s illogical for the Creator to go through all this extent, only to fail at this point in providing us a pathway to Himself.
There are three possible pathways to the Deity: pantheism, polytheism and monotheism.
Which basic pathway is right? Pantheism sees the universe as God. For this pathway to be true, then the universe would have to be eternal. But we have seen through observable science that the universe is not eternal. It has a beginning and will one day have an end. Thus, pantheism is a false pathway to God.
Polytheism is a belief that multiple gods created the universe. Even though this could be true, the universe is one. In fact, the word “uni-means one.” There is only one universe and the entire universe is subject to the same laws and is connected to the whole. Therefore, it is more likely that only One Being created the one universe.
This means that monotheism would be the proper pathway to God. This helps us in our search since there are only three major religions that are monotheistic: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three could not be true, because they contradict themselves at very important points.
Of the three monotheistic religions, only one teaches that the One God is revealed in Three Persons: Christianity. The other two agree that God is One and is revealed as One Person.
However, as I contemplate the universe, is it possible that the Creator put His fingerprints on the universe so we can know what kind of God He is? The answer is yes. The universe, though it is one, is also three-dimensional.
There are three elements that make up the universe: time, space and matter (energy plus mass). They exist together to form the universe. Not only is the universe made of these three trinitarian elements, each of the elements are made of three:
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