Daniel 11:32

On my last post, Margie shared a verse that directly tied into what I had planned on writing about in this blog.
She shared Daniel 11:32b. It says, ". . . but the people who know their God shall prove themselves strong and do exploits for God." (depending upon what translation you read).

This morning in my Fundamentals of Speech class, the lesson was on arguments and identifying the different types of arguments. After a 45 minutes lecture from the teacher, he began to go around the room and call on people. He would ask, "How do you know God exists?" A response would be given (usually lame at best) and then he would argue back (usually fallacies) and the class had to identify what type of arguement the professor was using.

What really got me thinking was the responses (or lack there of) of many of the students when asked this most basic question. I heard some of the lamest, most ridiculous responses. Several guys just merely stuttered out a 'well creation didn't happen by chance.' Certainly that's true, but to someone who doesn't even believe in the existence of God, I just don't see that argument going very far. Another guy when called on simply sat there. As the professor tried prodding him along, he almost burst into tears! The room sat in silence for about 2 minutes, yet he couldn't think of even ONE reason as to why/how God exists. Seriously!?! How do you call yourself a Christian?

I think I gave Professor Lewis a harder time then he expected, because he reverted to character defamation and just ridiculousness. For example, he said God does not exist because if all of creation is beautiful (stated earlier) then my existence proves God is false (i.e. he called me ugly). All jokes aside though, there shouldn't have been only 1 student in a class of 40 (at a Christian University nonetheless!) who could actually stand up to that question. Certainly there are harder questions then that! As I began to listen to others falter, I begged the question: can you really call yourself born-again if you can't even defend your own faith? Granted, I know the Bible says that to be saved, you have to believe Christ died for your sins. It certainly doesn't say you have to be able to hold a theological discussion on how/why you know God exists (fortunately for many Christians), but shouldn't you be able to?!? It just bothers me that such a high percentage couldn't think of anything to respond with; even just the basic plan of salvation would have worked!!

Anyway, hopefully this has encouraged many of them to dig deeper into what they believe and why. I'm just so thankful for the four years I spent in the IB program at Hampton High. Without that rigorousness in thinking critically (and for yourself) and without my parent's guidance at the dinner table each night that I came home with those types of questions, I probably would have been in the same boat as many of my classmates.

". . . but the people who know their God shall prove themselves strong and do exploits for God."


So, does God exist?