Does God exist?

God & the TrinityIn theological review

The short answer

Yes. Christians do not believe in God as a guess to fill a gap. We believe because the world he made shows his power and nature, and because he has spoken, first through the prophets and then in his Son. The question is not really whether there is evidence, but whether we will treat the evidence as what it is.

The fuller answer

Start with what is in front of everyone. Paul writes that God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, are clearly seen in what he has made, so that people are without excuse. Creation is not proof in the sense of a laboratory test. It is evidence in the sense of a signature: order, beauty, and moral weight that point beyond themselves to a maker.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20 (BSB)

Scripture never actually argues for God's existence as if it were an open question. It opens with it. In the beginning, God. The Bible's claim is that the living God has made himself known: in creation, in conscience, in the history of Israel, and finally in Jesus Christ, who is called the image of the invisible God by the creeds because in him God is seen in person.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 (BSB)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism sums up the Bible's portrait in one line: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. A God like that will not fit inside a test tube. But a world like this one, and a conscience like yours, are exactly what you would expect if he is there.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

What is God like?God is spirit, eternal, unchanging, all powerful, holy, just, good, and true. And he is love. Scripture gives his character in his own words and deeds rather than in our guesses: he is the I AM who always is, the Maker who never tires, and the Father who so loved the world that he gave his Son.What is the Trinity?The Trinity is the Christian confession that there is one God, and that this one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, each fully God, equal in power and glory. The word itself is not in the Bible. The reality is taught everywhere in it, and the church forged the word to protect what the Bible says from being flattened in either direction.Was Jesus a real person?Yes. Whatever a person concludes about his claims, the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth is confirmed by sources outside the Bible, including one that hated his followers. The Roman historian Tacitus records that Christus suffered the death penalty under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius, and the Jewish historian Josephus wrote about him within the same century. The debate worth having is not whether he lived, but who he was.Lesson: The big story of the BibleThe Bible is one story, not sixty-six separate ones. Walk the whole arc once, from creation to new creation, and every book you open will have a place to sit.Lesson: I believe in God, the Father almightyThe Creed opens by naming who God is before it says anything about us. Take the first line apart, word by word, with the Scripture under each word.