DeSoto County Newsroom.com

Southaven,Ms

By: Mike Upchurch

Faith without proof

Noted physicist Steven Hawking passed away this week. In noting his death, State Rep. Briscoe Cain of Texas tweeted that Hawking “now knows the truth about how the Universe was actually made”. In response to that remark liberals and like-minded atheists took to social media, blasting Cain as being insensitive and grilling him for supposedly mocking Hawking.
For the record, Hawking was a self proclaimed Atheist, being quoted as saying “we would know everything God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t. I’m an atheist.”

There are many people far smarter than me who have eulogized Hawking and noted his work, his views, and his atheism, and they can be googled and read. The only comment I will make in noting his passing is this…

Far more than Hawking was convinced there isn’t a God, I am convinced that there is!

It seems the scientists of our day, with supposedly the greatest minds, almost overwhelmingly believe there is no God. They have studied and researched and explored, and almost to a man conclude there cannot be a God.

Really? You explored and researched yet found no evidence? You peered into space and the fabric of time and didn’t see Him, and therefore, He doesn’t exist? You freely admit you don’t yet know all things, and are still learning (even Hawking admitted he was still learning about our vast universe) yet, of all the things you admittedly don’t know, that’s the one thing you’ve already passed judgement on? You’re already convinced that He can’t exist? Case closed?? That’s the one thing you know of for sure out of all you don’t know??? Really???? I’m baffled by that! Totally baffled!

I have never seen the wind. Nor has anyone else. But I believe it exists. Why? Simply because I see the evidence of it. I see leaves moving and trees swaying. I see paper scattered about, being moved along by an invisible, yet constant force. So if Science were to release new findings and proclaim “Wind doesn’t exist”, then it would be laughable. Why? Because we have all seen and felt the evidence of it, and clearly understand there is something there.

So when Science tells me God doesn’t exist, that’s laughable to me as well, because I have seen the evidence of Him and clearly understand He is there.

No I haven’t personally seen Him, but I have believed in Him without question since the start of my journey with Him in 1970, the year I got saved. As a matter of fact, I don’t know of a time in my life that I didn’t believe in Him. But before I got saved I was afraid of Him, and wanted nothing to do with Him, mostly out of fear He would destroy me if I approached Him.

Some 28 years after my being saved, He did come into my bedroom one night though, after weeks of my pleading to see Him. I had felt a call on my life for ministry and I was searching for Him. I was in constant prayer and bible study during those weeks in the late nineties, seeking answers. In truth, I was seeking His face. In my ignorance, I pleaded with Him to reveal Himself. I was lying prostrate on the floor in the dark about 2:30am that morning, praying face down as I often did back in those days of seeking Him. Suddenly the floor creaked behind me and I felt His presence. That unmistakeable electric charge that you feel on your neck and shoulders, along with a gooey kind of loving peace and an awareness you’re not alone! When I realized He was in that dark room with me, I froze! I told Him I wasn’t worthy and I wouldn’t even open my eyes. I felt ashamed for asking Him to come and I felt unclean. Little ol’ nobody nothing me, asking the Lord of the Universe to come to him! Shame on me! So I asked Him to please go and He left. And He hasn’t been back since in His physical form, but still He is always there surrounding me. I believe that with all my heart. And I have from the beginning. I would still emphatically and whole heartedly believe in Him in spite of that night too. Why? Because I did long before that experience. I believe my faith in Him brought me to that experience.

Now for the record I have not obtained a PhD in Science, so I’m certainly not as smart or as learned as Hawking or his peers, but I know this…..they are wrong. I know He is real. Why? It’s called faith! You cannot please Him without it. Read this admonition in Hebrews;

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:6‬ ‭NLT‬

Sadly, I am also not smart enough to convince someone who has no faith that they must indeed have faith. But the truth is they must! They must believe, without a shred of evidence, that He exists. Then, and only then, will He reveal Himself. If you believe, you will then know. That thinking of course is diametrically opposed to the culture we now live in. We demand proof for everything now. “We will believe it when we see it”, we proclaim. We want photos. We want DNA samples. We demand eyewitness accounts, and even then we’re skeptical. And the unbelieving in our communities want proof of God. They want a body. They demand a video of God doing some magic feat. They shout to the sky with clenched fists, “If You’re real, show Yourself!” And of course He doesn’t, so they proclaim “I knew it!”
There isn’t concrete proof of God, so they reject the idea of Him. Yet some of those same people will believe in Bigfoot and in Aliens, yet they won’t believe in God. I am truly amazed by that as well.
You simply will not believe in a loving God who wants to bless you and forgive you, yet you’ll believe in an Alien Race that you fear may be out to destroy you??

This column is not meant to provide you with proof that God exists. It is meant to present you with this simple truth;

You will not find God until you first believe.

It takes faith. Blind faith. You want proof? Then believe; as a child, an innocent child. Perhaps as a child, you once trusted Adults in your life that Santa was real, but of course now you’re much too mature for such nonsense, right? Well you must have that same childlike innocence once again if you’re ever going to discover the Lord, your creator.

You will find Him then. You will know Him then. You will then discover what you’ve been searching for all your life.
He’s very real. But you’ll never know Him until you whisper these words…

“Lord, I believe.”

And that’s the way I see it.

Pastor Mike