Does God Exist?
Our
insistence on the Absolute Existence of God is a bit tongue in cheek. It is impossible for man to know anything
absolutely. Absolute knowledge belongs
to God alone. Nonetheless, how good is
our evidence?
Suppose
that we met today for the first time, shook hands, exchanged names, and walked
away.
The Reality of Identity
What would you know about the reality of my identity? I could have given a false name. We would need some method for testing the
populace for the probability of giving a false name under such
circumstances. Lacking that, let us just
say that the odds are one out of two: I could be lying or I could be telling the
truth. Most likely, the odds are much
better than this, because we commonly believe that most people avoid lying far
more than fifty percent of the time. We
have begun with a very conservative statistic.
However, if in our meeting, I wanted to cash a check or make
a credit card purchase from you. You
would normally require that I produce photographic identification: for example,
a driver’s license. For transactions
that are more serious additional identification would be required: a birth
certificate. Even if such documents were
easily forged and sloppily controlled, the odds of my identity being false
would surely be one in eight or better, still a very conservative estimate.
If I continued in the community for any length of time, my
check cleared the banking system or my credit card paid the debt. You would become more confident in my
identity: at least one in sixteen odds.
With each ensuing transaction, confidence in my credentials would go
up. If I remained in the community for
forty years, conducting thousands of transactions a year, the likelihood of my
identity being false would be too small to calculate practically: it would in
effect become zero. There would be
absolutely no chance of my having a false identity.
Not only would there be absolutely no chance of my having a
false identity, it would no longer matter.
My actions and character would have established my identity within the
community, and it would not matter what people called me. In fact, I may have gathered any number of nick
or pet names. I might be Sure-Shot on
the golf course, Strikes at bowling, Sultan-of-Swat in the baseball league, Trout-Master
while fly-fishing, and Bicycle-Grandpa to my grandson. I would be known by my behavior, rather than
by my credentials. The odds of being
accurately, well known would be one hundred percent.
The Reality of Existence
What would you know about the reality of my existence? I could be a hologram, a “second identity,”
an illusion, or a mirage. Yet, you spoke
with me and shook my hand. Let’s be
conservative and generous. Let’s say
that there is one chance in a thousand that I don’t really exist.
However, a friend comes along; he meets me too, shakes my
hand, and speaks with me. Neither you
nor your friend use hallucinogenic drugs.
Both of you are of sound mind, and you concur that I in fact exist. The odds of your both being wrong at the same
time are now one in one million. As this
existence is confirmed day-by-day with more and more people throughout the
community, the probable reality of my existence would become one hundred
percent at a much faster rate than my identity.
If I were unusual looking, or became famous, it would become
impossible for me to hide my existence or identity. The community would know everything I did and
every place I went at a considerable loss of my personal privacy. Like a movie, music, sport, or TV star, I
could not even hide from the ubiquitous eye of the community. The odds of my existence would be
overwhelming.
The Historic Scenario
Around 1446 BC an escaped murderer, a failure in life, a
person of no reputation except that he used to live in the Egyptian royal
household, until he disgraced himself, is wandering around in the Sinai desert
tending his father-in-law’s flock, when he meets a very unusual Person at mount
Horeb. The man is named Moses.
What we first know of this Person is that He has the unusual
appearance of a fire that burns, yet does not consume. The fire talks, listens, carries on an
intelligent conversation, sees and is seen, and otherwise demonstrates
characteristics normally associated with personality. This Person is finally introduced with the Name,
Am, I Am.
At this point, there is no especial reason to believe that
Moses is not hallucinating, except for the fact that Moses has not hallucinated
previously, generally acts rationally, and knows how to survive in the
desert. Such desert survival usually
requires the ability to distinguish mirage from reality, and otherwise avoid
danger and deception. If Moses were the
sort of person who characteristically allows himself to hallucinate due to hydration,
he would have died in the desert long before now. The fact that Moses is still alive
demonstrates that he has the sort of survival skills that we call street smarts
nowadays. Moses is not a tenderfoot or
greenhorn; consequently, he is not easily deceived.
Moreover, this flaming personage claims to know Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and claims to be their God.
He has comprehensive knowledge of Israelite conditions in Egypt, and
unveils His plan for their deliverance.
In pursuit of this deliverance, He gives explicit instructions, all of
which come to pass. In addition, He
provides Moses with His indisputable credentials in the form of manipulation of
creation. A common inanimate wooden
staff is changed into a living serpent and back again. Then, Moses’ perfectly normal hand is turned
leprous, and whole again.
It is becoming less and less likely that Moses is dealing
with a hallucination, Who has identified Himself with a fraudulent
identity. This would require that Moses
be in some deep dream or trancelike state, and is having a nightmare. There is no evidence of such a nightmare
taking place. Sane people do not act
based on nightmares, let alone have them actually become realities. For the sake of argument, we conclude the
odds that “I Am” is a false identity are less than one in eight; and the odds
of a false existence are less than one in one thousand, from the perspective of
a single observer named Moses.
The Mathematical Necessity
If you don’t agree with these probabilities, pick
probabilities for identity and existence with which you are comfortable. It does not make any difference what
probabilities you assign unless to assign probabilities of one. This is the assumption that Moses is
absolutely, totally deceived in every detail all the time; yet, this is not a
reasonable assumption. Moses most
certainly saw something and met Someone.
If you assume that Moses is absolutely, totally deceived in every
detail; you will eventually need to assume that an entire nation involving
millions of people over hundreds of years was equally deceived. Such mass insanity is extremely unlikely.
However, if you allow any probability for reality of
identity and existence, even if it’s only a chance of one in one hundred, or
even one in one thousand, our proof will still stand. The proof stands because it is exponential,
and even odds of nine hundred ninety-nine out of one thousand vanish to nothing
with the presence of millions and millions of other witnesses over a period of eight
hundred sixty years.
The Ensuing History
In the following months, this Flaming-Smoking reality, named
I Am, meets two and one half million Israelites, Pharaoh and innumerable
Egyptians, fights and defeats these Egyptians, and leads these Israelites in a
march around the Sinai desert for forty years.
He also establishes law and government in a form of worship centered on
the Tabernacle. In this period a
following generation is born, also on the order of several million people. These all witnesses this Flaming-Smoking presence,
which we have elsewhere called the Shekinah Glory. Throughout these forty years, the Glory not
only leads, but feeds, and provides water for this hoard of millions. Shortly after 1406 BC, the death of Moses,
this unusual Glory, named I Am, leads Joshua and the Israelites across the
Jordan River, then He miraculously attacks and demolishes the City of Jericho
without the assistance if Israelite arms.
In due time national existence takes shape under Joshua, a
system of worship is set in order, and the Israelites disperse to occupy the
land on both sides of the Jordan. Even
so, three times a year worshipping adults assembled at the Tabernacle, first at
Shiloh,[1]
and later at Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.
We have no way of making an exact count, but after eight hundred sixty years,
roughly twenty-one or more generations have passed. In a populous, thriving, growing nation, an
overall population in excess of fifty-four million people have witnessed the
Glory three times a year, throughout their lives. Moreover, the High Priest and his staff
witnessed this Presence every day. Even
the division priests, who only served one month every year, beheld the Shekinah
a minimum of thirty days a year, throughout their lives.
The Statistical Conclusion
By any realistic evaluation of the reality of identity and
existence, the I Am is a one hundred percent statistic. You do the math. Especially in the case of the High Priest and
his staff, the denial of the existence of I Am is an absurdity on the order of
claiming that the Sun does not exist.
The evidence for the existence of God in the Shekinah Glory, Whose Name
is I Am, exceeds the evidence for any other person in history.
“But the Lord [is]
in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.”[2]
“The fool has said in his heart, [There is] no God.”[3]
These statements are not so much wishful thinking on the
parts of Habakkuk and David. These are
well-considered conclusions, based on well-established evidence. The existence of God is certain.
Corollary One: The Creation
These texts and statistics concerning the Shekinah Glory do
more than establish certainty of His identity and existence. We noted before that, after a period of time,
a person’s behavior does more to establish identity than any name. This Person repeatedly shows His authority
over Creation. In doing this, He
establishes Himself as an authority, fully qualified to speak about the details
of Creation. Moses was not present at Creation,
and has no authority to speak about it.
However, I Am evidently was present at Creation, and has the only
authority to speak about it. As far as I
Am’s veracity is concerned, we’ll just have to take His word for it, we weren’t
there either. That Moses was chosen for
the honor of recording the facts of Creation through a conversation between
friends is beside the point.
Corollary Two: The Nation
It is a strange fact of history that Israel-Judah are
insignificant twin nations surrounded by enormous, powerful empires. For the most part these empires could have easily
squashed Israel like a bug. Only one
factor fully explains their existence over an eight hundred twenty year period. I Am held them sacrosanct throughout that
period. When the eight hundred twenty
year period came to an end, the prophets did not question the justice of
dissolving Judah. The prophet’s only question
was, “How could God punish Judah with a dirty stick?” God simply deserted Israel-Judah, because
they had already deserted Him; consequently, they perished.
Corollary Three: The Canonicity of Scripture
We usually look at the issue of Canonicity from a human
viewpoint. How did human authorities
decide what books to include in the Bible?
However, from the Shekinah Glory, two things are evident. One, the writing of Scripture, that is its
inspiration, is the result of the conversation between prophets and God: this
conversation defines the meaning of the prophetic office. Two, Moses commands the Levites to place the
master copy of the Scripture beside the Ark in the Most Holy Place: this
official act of laying up Scripture in the Presence of the Glory defines
canonicity. Nothing was accomplished
without Divine supervision.[4] Canonicity is a work of God, rather than an
act of man.
Corollary Four: The Loss of Authority
When the Shekinah Glory abandons Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC,[5]
all authority is taken away from Israel-Judah.
Jewish forces cannot defend the Jerusalem: it is overthrown. They cannot protect the Temple: it is
destroyed. They cannot preserve the
canonical Scripture documents, Ark, or Urim and Thummim: all are lost. When the Jews return from Babylon around 516
BC, they are unable to replace the canonical Scripture documents, Ark, Urim and
Thummim, or even some priests. The
Shekinah Glory will not return for over five hundred ten years. The best they can do is rebuild the city, the
temple, and scratch together a secondhand copy of the Scripture. All this is accomplished by human strength
alone. There is no attendant Presence to
bless their work. The Jews weep over
this reality because they realize that they have forfeited everything of real
importance. They continue to exist under
foreign dominance until everything is finally destroyed in 70 AD.
The Shekinah returns around 4 BC and within a span of
thirty-seven years establishes a new kingdom that will bring forth the fruit of
God’s kingdom. The Shekinah gives
Himself to every member of this new kingdom when the Holy Spirit rests on each
believer, beginning with the day of Pentecost.
This new kingdom is the true Israel of God.
Conclusion
Now apart from faith [it is] impossible to well-please
[Him]: for it is necessary for the
one approaching God to believe that He exists, and he becomes a rewarder[6] to those who seek him out.”[7]
We
have sufficiently demonstrated that God revealed Himself as a person in many
prominent locations, over long time periods, in the presence of millions of
witnesses. We have shown beyond
reasonable doubt that God presented Himself as an historic presence with
sufficient credentials and credibility to be an unquestionable authority on all
matters of Creation and Revelation. We
showed that Moses received his information from conversations with his
Friend. We established that the
pertinent information was recorded in credible historic documents and protected
from harm. QED
An Appendix: The
Shekinah Glory
Shekinah, Ark, Urim, and Thummim
The mode of
appearance of God’s presence [9] is not always clear in
Scripture, but on at least one occasion in the life of Abraham (around 2000 BC)
it is a “smoking furnace, and a burning lamp.”[10] We then see God speak to Moses at the Burning
Bush (around 1446 BC).[11] Next, the Lord led Israel by a pillar of
cloud and fire, as the Israelites cross the Red Sea and enter the deserts of
the Sinai Peninsula.[12]
Eventually, this
pillar settled on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, took up residence in
the Tabernacle, and more specifically was associated with the Ark of the
Covenant. At Sinai the Shekinah is
perceived to be a terrifying apparition;[13] whereas, at the burning
bush it was relatively innocuous. In
spite of this spectacular display, Moses himself is not afraid to approach
God. In this context, the Shekinah gives
the Decalogue to Moses directly and personally.[14]
The presence of God
at the Ark is dramatically, powerfully, and tragically revealed when Aaron’s
sons, Nadab and Abihu are killed for offering profane fire, for God appeared
“in the cloud upon the mercy seat.”[15] The Shekinah and the Ark appear to be doing
the same thing: namely, leading the people of God.[16] [17] When Jericho is defeated, the ark is again in
a place of prominent leadership.[18] Even in defeat, Joshua approaches the Ark,
for it was here that he met the appearance of God.[19]
The story of the
selection of Achan follows,[20] but many details are left
out. The Scripture does not say, but we
expect that, God “took” Achan[21] using the instruments of
the ephod, the breastplate, the holy stones, with the Urim and Thummim.[22] Many authorities see this as a casting of
lots, like holy dice. We think it more
likely that the Shekinah, through the operation of the Urim and Thummim made
the holy stones light up to reveal His will.[23]
When the story continues
the Ark is again among the Israelites.[24] However, they are quickly deceived and act
without prayer.[25] The Ark is referenced when Benjamin commits a
lewd act.[26] The Ark is consulted again in the days of
Samuel when it is brought out to the battle camp during one of Israel’s many
wars with the Philistines, and is captured by them.[27] If we are not yet convinced that the Shekinah
and the Ark are closely associated, we should be now, for Eli’s daughter
immediately cries out, “The Glory is departed from Israel: for the Ark of God
is taken.” Then she dies.[28]
It indeed appears
that the Ark is the sedan chair[29] of God, and its purpose
is pageant like, intended to communicate to all observers that the King of the
Universe is a flaming fire.
Nevertheless, the
Jews are using it in a very superstitious way; they see it as a talisman that
they control, rather than the Living God Who rules them.[30] The Philistines evidently see the Ark in the
same way, as a talisman; but are in for a great surprise when God acts from his
throne to ridicule Dagon, and persecute the Philistines. The Ark is shuttled from one Philistine city
to another, and finally returned to Israel.[31] At last, David brings the Ark to Jerusalem by
a circuitous route, and there it dwells in a temporary tent.[32] Finally, Solomon builds a temple for it.[33] As soon as the Ark is set in the Most Holy
Place, “the Glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.”[34] The Ark remains in the temple[35] until the time of the
Babylonian Captivity (around 586 BC). At
this time, both the Ark and the Shekinah appear to be gone from Israel forever.[36]
The Necessity of Personality in
the Shekinah
We embrace the idea
that these revelations were relational.
“And the Lord spoke to
Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend. And [Moses]
returned to the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not
departed from the tabernacle.”[37]
We recall that Abraham was called the friend of God as well.[38] Moreover, we believe that these warm, loving,
personal relationships continued between the Shekinah and man down through the
centuries. Out of these friendships an
eternal conversation developed.
Sometimes there were dreams or visions.
At times, there were spectacular events to report.[39] Once in awhile, there was dictation. Rarely, God did His Own writing.[40] However, most of the time, the friends simply
enjoyed the conversation, and the human partners to this great conversation
kept diary or logbook records of it.
What the friends wrote, the Shekinah validated, the human partners
witnessed, and Levites laid up the record master in the Holy Place. Out of the complexity of friendship, others
would eventually be drawn into the circle: the circle of God’s warmth, love,
and friendship.[41]
The Return of the Shekinah
The Shekinah Glory reappeared around 4 BC in the Bethlehem
Star,[42]
and later at the Mount of Transfiguration.[43] Then, in Acts, this same Shekinah is seen on
the head of every Christian present,[44]
and afterward at the opening of new Churches everywhere.[45] It is abundantly clear that Jesus is the
Shekinah.[46] It is equally clear that He delegated this
Shekinah to the whole Church, as He prayed that the Father would send the Holy
Spirit. The Father did send the Holy
Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and the Shekinah was publically visible to all
of the many witnesses present in the Temple on Pentecost 33 AD. There can be no question from this that the
Church of Jesus Christ is the rightful Temple of the Shekinah.
The Second Return of the Shekinah
“For as the lightning comes forth from the
east, and blazes openly as far as the west; so also will be the coming of the
Son of Man.”[47]
When
the Lord comes again, no one will miss it for He will blaze blindingly across
the sky. The Shekinah is not invisible.
[1]
Joshua 18:1; 19:51
[2]
Habakkuk 2:20, see also Psalm 11:4
[3]
Psalm 14:1; 53:1
[4]
Deuteronomy 31:24-26; see also 1 Samuel 10:25; 2 Kings 22:8
[5]
Ezekiel 3:15; 26:16; 27:35; 28:19; Daniel 4:19; 8:17-18, 27; 9:3, 7-8; 10:2;
10: 9, 15; 12:8
[6]
A wage-give-away-er, a person that bestows gifts of wages where none are earned
[7]
Hebrews 11:6 our translation
[8]
Hebrews 12:29 our translation
[9]
We are not experts on the Shekinah Glory and
undertake this brief overview only to establish the existence of God, as a
well-known historic person or persons.
We now know Him as Trinity, Who is present completely everywhere in the
universe. However, it is not His
ubiquity, which is in view here, but rather the fact that He revealed Himself
as a person in many prominent locations, over long time periods, in the
presence of millions of witnesses. Our
immediate purpose is to review this extensive Presence and bring it to the
front of our contemporary attention and awareness.
By this excursus, we intend
to demonstrate that there can be no doubt that God presented Himself as an
historic presence with sufficient credentials and credibility to be an
unquestionable authority on all matters of creation and revelation. Moreover, we plan to establish that Moses did
not write on his own authority, but as the secretary of God Himself. Therefore, what Moses wrote about creation
and revelation is not dependent on his necessarily limited human perspective,
as well educated as he was, but depends on his direct access to the infallible
mind of God.
Discussions of the Shekinah are easily located by those
who wish to follow the subject farther: http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Shekhinah;
http://www.gotquestions.org/
shekinah-glory.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_
(religion) ; http://www.biblehistory.com/tabernacle/TAB4The_Shekinah_Glory.htm;
http://www.hope-of-israel.org/
glory.htm; http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13537-shekinah;
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.
php?t=693976; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01721a.htm
[10]
Genesis 15:17
[11]
Exodus 3:2ff
[12]
Exodus 13:21-22: The Shekinah is the Angel of God (Exodus 14:19).
[13]
We are not free to dismiss this apparition as normal volcanic action. It existed before Sinai. It appeared in both large and small
forms. It moved over vast
distances. It spoke and its speech was
heard at the very least by Moses and Joshua.
It occupied Mountain, Tabernacle, Temple, and Ark of the Covenant. It sits on the Mercy Seat.
[14]
Exodus 19:9, 16, 18, 20; 20:18; 24:10-11, 15-18; 33:9-11, 14; 34:29-35;
40:34-38; Numbers 9:15-23; 10:11, 33-36; 12:4-10
[15]
Leviticus 10:1-2; 16:1-2
[16]
Numbers 10:33-36; Joshua 3:3, 6, 8, 11, 13-15, 17; 4:5, 7, 9-11, 16-18
[17]
Joshua also meet with the captain of the Lord’s host, who says things
reminiscent of the burning bush (1 Samuel 4:19-22).
[18]
Joshua 6:4, 6-9, 11-13
[19]
Joshua 7:6, 10 (Though not specifically stated, this verse implies that God
speaks from the Ark.), 12 (Scripture does not record that the Ark went into
battle that day, as at Jericho, and here states that God will not be with them,
because of sin.)
[20]
Joshua 7:14-26
[21]
The record repeats the verb, take, many times, all of them anticipating, if not
specifically stating, that the Lord is the sentence subject, “the Lord takes.”
[22]
Exodus 25:7; 28:4, 6-28, 30 (When the Urim and Thummim are mentioned, the
breastplate is specifically called the breastplate of judgement). We cannot now speak of the Urim and Thummim
with certainty. A reasonable model of
the ephod and breastplate might be reconstructed from the detailed
description. But we possess no such
detailed description of the Urim and Thummim construction. So all pictorial and modeled representations
are without authenticity and fraudulent.
Nor do we know exactly how they are used; only a few obscure references
allow us even to guess at their operation.
What is clear is that God used them to show His will to His people, and
to direct them in the correct decision path.
In much the same way that the Shekinah and Ark directed their movement,
so also the Urim and Thummim directed their judgement. So we conclude that Shekinah, Ark, Urim, and
Thummim must be interactive and interconnected, but we cannot know exactly how.
[23]
Deuteronomy 33:2: Urim means lights.
Thummim means completion, perfection.
The connection to “it is finished” is unmistakable.
[24]
Joshua 8:33
[25]
Joshua 9:14
[26]
Judges 2:27
[27]
1 Samuel 3:3; 4:3-6, 11, 13, 17-19
[28]
1 Samuel 4: 19-22: She is in the pangs of childbirth, in travail, she screams,
she gasps out the words with her dying breaths.
Ichabod is Hebrew and translates, “The glory is departed.”
[29]
Its shape and construction closely resembles an Egyptian regal sedan
chair. Its clear intent is to proclaim
God with a visible symbol. Within the
Greek notion of symbol, the thing symbolized is actually present. This is early iconography; it is sacramental.
[30]
Joshua 1:7; 22:5; 23:6 (Note that the Pentateuch or Torah is already Canonical
by 1406 BC, at the time of Moses’ mysterious death and disappearance.)
[31]
1 Samuel 5:1-4, 7-8, 10-11; 6:1-3, 8, 11
[32]
1 Samuel 6:13, 15, 18-19, 20 (The men of Beth-shemesh understood that looking
into the Ark was equivalent to looking at God), 21; 7:1-2; 14:18; 2 Samuel
6:2-4, 6-7, 9-13, 15-17; 7:2; 11:11; 15:24-25 (Here we see that the Ark and
therefore the Shekinah are closely associated with the King. But David is aware that he has become
unworthy because of his sin and sends the Ark back to Jerusalem until he is
certain of his forgiveness.), 29
[33]
1 Kings 2:26; 3:15; 6:19; 8:1, 3-7, 9, 21
[34]
1 Kings 8:10-11
[35]
Although it evidently made excursions (2 Chronicles 35:3)
[36]
Jeremiah 3:16 (It appears that the Ark is gone, never to return); Ezekiel 10:1
through 11:25 (These verses detail the horrifying even of the departure of
God’s presence from Israel forever: especially 10:4, 18; 11:22-23.): According to 1 Ezra 1:51 the Ark was carried
to Babylon. The departure of the
Shekinah from the Ark makes the destruction of the Ark possible. This seems to be supported by Jeremiah 3:16,
and by Daniel, for Daniel agrees that the golden Temple goblets are in
Babylon. All mention of the return of
the Ark is conspicuously absent until John makes a point of it in Revelation
11:19. Not only are the Ark, Urim and
Thummim absent, but there is no mention of fire or smoke or any other evidence
of the return of the Shekinah. See Ezra
6:15. Do not despair, Christ is our
Shekinah,
[37]
Exodus 33:11 our translation
[38]
Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23
[39]
Exodus 8:1 through 11:10; 12:29-33; 14:21-28 for a few examples
[40]
Exodus 24:12; 31:18; 32:15-16; 34:1, 4, 28-29; Deuteronomy 4:13; 5:22;9:9-11,
15, 17; 10:1-5; Daniel 5:5, 22-28, 30-31; John 8:6
[41]
For 860 years an entire nation clung to the fact that God is a Person or
Persons and whose Presence was actually dwelling in their midst (Jeremiah
14:9).
[42]
Matthew 2:2, 7-10; Luke 2:14 — We note that this is not a limited local event,
but one that extended as far as Persia.
We should not miss the point of comparison between the Fire that led a
nation, and the Star that led Persian astronomers.
[43]
Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2; Luke 9:28; 2 Peter 1:17-19
[44]
Acts 2
[45]
Acts 10:46; 19:6
[46]
What else could an expression like, “He is the effulgence of the [Father's] Glory (Hebrews 1:3),” possibly
mean. See John 1:4-5, 9, 14; 1 John 1:5,
7; 2:8-11
[47]
Matthew 24:27 our translation
[48]
Mark 13:26 our translation
[49]
Luke 21:27 our translation
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