This episode of Clearview Today is brought to you by LaBlue Ultra Pure Water. What I love about LaBlue is they keep it simple. Hydrogen, oxygen, nothing else. They use a patented filtration process to remove any impurities and deliver ultra-pure water that you can trust. And best of all, they'll deliver it right to your office every month, right on time.
So order today online at LeBlue.com. That's L-E-B-L-E-U, and use promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y at checkout for 10% off. It's going to save you money, it's going to keep you hydrated, and support us here at the Clearview Today Show. Thanks for listening. Thanks to LeBlue for sponsoring today's episode.
Now let's jump in. Does God exist? It's the question that's been plaguing mankind ever since the very beginning. But how can we know that God exists? Let's lay the foundation for certainty coming up right now on the Clearby Today Show.
You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show.
We're here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. Dr. Shah, it's a great day to be talking about God. Amen.
Every day is good to talk about. Amen. All right. You know, as Christians, you know what's funny? This is sort of a little aside.
This is not in the run sheet at all, but as Christians, isn't it funny how many days in a row we can go without ever bringing up God's name? Especially working in a church, you would think that all people do is sit around all day and talk about God. But there's so many churches and so many ministries out there who almost never even bring it up. Because we're already doing things for God. Do we have to talk about it?
Right. It's part of everything we're doing. Right. It should just kind of go without saying that all that we do is for God. I'm glad that we did this series.
Well, it's like this: you know, it's like your children: Gavin, Holden, and Carson.
Now Carlson is too young. But Gavin Holden is like we don't we don't mention dad's name. Yeah. We talk about this great house that we have. Great house.
All the toys. Great mommy. Peanut butter jelly. Everything that we have. Amazing, amazing, amazing.
It's like, who'd you get all that stuff from?
Well, mommy. And I'm very. And no one else. And I'm just very, very grateful for mommy and this great life. And we're all in this together.
Uh but who's this guy here? Who hello him? Oh, yeah, yeah, well, of course. Yeah, I mean, that's daddy. He's there.
Yeah. We we all know it's it's all by daddy's by daddy's hand. Yeah, of course. But You know. going back to the point, this mom.
Right, let me tell you how good mom is. We've been talking these past couple of weeks. We're getting to know God. And if this really helped you at all, or even if this is your first time ever tuning into the show, we want to hear from you. Text today, T-O-D-A-Y-252-429-6069, to be part of the Clearview Today family, to know what God is doing, not only in our ministry, but coming up in your life as well.
That's right. Dr. Shaw, people have a lot of opinions about God and they have a lot of different viewpoints about God. And we just walked through several different episodes about God's nature, about God is holy, and God is omnipresent, and God is omnipotent. But we need to lay a foundation for a clearer picture of God's identity, who God is, and what that means for our lives.
Yeah, because all that stuff that we walked through, Dr. Shaw, that could just as equally apply to a fictional character. How do I know that any of this is actually real? That's right. Now, let me just say this: we've had such a great response to our getting to know God series.
So many of you have. Texted us and emailed us and told us how much you appreciated that. And so we felt like: why don't we dig deeper into what is the core of our foundation? What do we believe as Babel-believing Christians. Who are we?
And again, we're back to God. But in this series that we're going to spend some time in for maybe a couple months. We're not just going to talk about God. But we're also going to talk about Sin. We're going to talk about people.
We're going to talk about humanity. Salvation I mean, you name it. We're going to talk about. n times so this is going to be a broad series which will look At some in-depth Truth. That's right.
Core doctrines of our faith. And of course, we're beginning with God. Yeah. I imagine it like a microscope. You've got this slide underneath it, and you can kind of see what's on that slide, but you put those lenses on there, you try to sort of like drill down real close and really examine it.
And then you come back up and you re-aim, and then now we're down here. Yeah. That's what we're doing here, but with God, with theology, what we believe.
Well, you know what Julie Andrews said. We have to start at the very beginning. A very fine place to start. There you go. And it always is.
If you talk about God as in the living, true, triune God. The God of the Bible The definition is this God is the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. He has eternally existed in three persons The father? The sun and the Holy Spirit. These three are co equal.
And R One God. We don't worship three gods. We worship one God in three persons. You say, I don't get it. It logically, mathematically, it does not work.
But we're going to see that it does work. But for right now I'm going to tell you To truly understand who God is. Then you have to be gone. That's a good point. Yeah, that's a great point.
If you really want to understand everything that God is, and everything that God is to you, and all that makes him up. You're gonna have to be God. I saw an illustration once where someone drew this big empty circle and they say, This is God. And they put a little tiny dot and they said, This is you. And then they put another little dot, but it was still pretty tiny.
And it's like, This is everything you're gonna understand about God w even after you get to heaven. Do you think that's accurate? I would say. Go up to the moon. And keep going past the moon.
Leave the galaxy. Go past. you know some other Galaxy far, far away, and then look down to see that little dot.
Okay, maybe there. how much you understand about God can really be contained. It's it's So much more than that. I heard a similar analogy. You imagine you're standing with an empty two-liter bottle on the shores of the ocean.
You're looking out at the vast ocean, far, water, far as the eye can see, waves slapping up on the shore. And you take that empty two-liter bottle and you fill it up with water. And that represents everything that you're going to know about God in your lifetime. And then the ocean is everything that God is.
Now, that falls apart too, because the ocean is finite and God is not. Yeah. Now, imagine the entire. Earth covered in water. Imagine the entire solar system covered.
I mean, it's God is infinitely deeper. And more magnificent than we can ever imagine. God is. Let's begin there. Let's begin there.
We know that God exists. For two reasons. Number one? Our inner sense? And number two, Scripture and nature.
Now, put those two together. I could have separated that and said inner sense, scripture, and then nature, but I put them together. Not for a single moment would I say that there is. Scripture and nature are on the same level? Absolutely not.
People think that Nature is God's scripture. In The ground and the earth, and all. I don't think that's a very accurate way to see that. But in some ways you can still learn about God looking at nature.
Well, if it's two categories, one is internal and one is is external, what exactly do you mean by our inner sense? When we say that we know that God exists by our inner sense, what we're saying is that we all have an innate sense. Sense of the presence of God. Hmm. I don't care how how much you claim to be an atheist?
an agnostic? A Buddhist, by the way, Buddhists don't believe in God, okay?
So don't go to them and say, Pray to God for me. They are chanting and they don't believe in God.
Okay. Back to our point here. That's an aside, just for some of you. That's an aside. We all have an innate presence of Got it.
Now, a sense of the presence of God. Romans chapter 1, verse 20 says. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. even his eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse.
so that they are without excuse. Means you know You say, well, that person right there denies God. I know so and so. Atheist on TV. I mean, he's a scholar.
He's a big-time professor. He's written books and he debates Christians and out there. I don't care what he's saying. Deep within He knows there is a God.
Now, he may have coated it and covered it with a lot of lies and unbeliefs because of a lot of things in his life. Maybe pain and struggle in his life, maybe all the accolades. that he may lose if he says, Oh, wait, I believe there is a God. all of a sudden everything is going to be taken away from him. His book contracts, his television appearances, all the documentaries, and all the praises that are showered on him or her.
All that's going to be gone. It's just like, nah, I'll I'll stick to Not believing in God. I'm going to be the bad boy or the bad girl of the world. And you have to convince me that there is a God. And I'm going to still find ways to poke holes in your argument and see how cool I am.
And all of you please feel sorry for me and pray for me. Yeah, keep doing that. But I love all this. I love it. I'm really intrigued by this.
And I feel like there are some people who are listening that maybe fall into this category of who are kind of repeating that over and over to themselves. There is no God. God doesn't exist. This whole Christianity thing is made up. And so, if at our core, we all have an innate sense of who God is, what would you say to those people who are listening or who are connected to this show who maybe have found themselves in that mindset of repeating themselves, kind of forcing themselves to believe or to deny God's existence?
Well, there there's so many things I can say. One thing I would say is, do you have all knowledge? Do you truly have all knowledge? Have you examined every single scenario from every aspect in every corner in every direction? Do you have all knowledge?
And the answer will be No, of course I don't have all knowledge.
Okay. Then would you agree that there is something out there that you are not aware of. Yes, there's a lot of things out there that I'm not aware of. Great. Do you think that in that something that's out there that you're not aware of there is the knowledge of the living true Triune God?
Could be. Could be. Then What are you? Are you truly an atheist or are you an agnostic? Because if at that point you're saying Well, in that one particular place which I truly have an access to this point, Haven't accessed it at this point, there could be the presence of God, then you have to shift.
Your view from atheist to agnostic. It's really cool. It's easy to sit here and talk about this on a couch, but it's really cool that we were able to see this happen live in person. I was just thinking that we talked about this on the show months and months and months ago. This incident in a pizza shop where we were, and we were talking to a guy, really, really nice guy, really great guy.
And we had this exact same conversation. And it's so funny. He went from atheist to agnostic in about 30 seconds. Yeah. Admitted, self-admitted.
He was like, Yeah, I guess really. I'm not an atheist. I'm. Probably more of an agnostic. I was like, that was wild.
Yeah, because that's a huge leap. Yeah. from saying no, there is none to, well, there could be.
Okay, now we can talk. Let's go explore that little space, or it's a massive space, I would say, where God exists. And let's see if what that space says about God can be verified. and can be authenticated. Then we can say Okay, are you a Christian or not?
What does it take to be a Christian?
Now we can move there. But for you to sit back and say, I don't believe in God.
Well, you must have all knowledge. You don't?
Okay. So in that per that one sliver of space where you you are completely ignorant about. Could God exist? Yeah. Okay.
Then you're not an atheist. You're an agnostic. You don't know. Right. Let's talk about that.
Because the Bible says in Proverbs 14, verse 1 and Proverbs 53, verse 1: the fool has said in his heart, There is no God. You mentioned something like that earlier: that people are able to convince themselves of something they know deep down is true. I think people listening to this show would be like, No, I mean, I don't think that's, but we do it every day. Of course, I've told stories before where I was like, This happened this way, but I want to make the story a little bit funnier, so I'm going to tell it this way. And then the next time I'm like, That got a big laugh, I'm going to embellish it even more.
To this day, I can't remember what really happened. I've done that, yeah, I've done that. But and it's so funny, something as trivial as that. Human beings are so good at convincing at fooling themselves. Oh, yeah, probably do that all the time.
I mean, let's just talk about parents. Parents and children, we're living in a generation where kids blame their parents for some trauma or this and that and the other. And then If they're truly objective and honest, you have to be objective, you have to be honest. Was it really like that? No, there may be, and then you have to go, Yes, it was.
And here are the proofs. I would say nine and a half out of ten times. You are mistaken. You have created a caricature of what happened, or your parent, or something. A caricature.
Caricature means there's a hint of truth in it, but you have exaggerated that. Have you seen caricatures where if you have big lips, they're going to make them drill. If they take watercolors, they will spread them out. If your head is a little, like, you know, mine is like this, they will make it like a soccer ball. Have you ever been at a carnival and had one made of you?
No, I don't want to. I'm afraid next time I'll be afraid to look in the mirror. I had one done. Did you have one done? No, but I've seen them done.
I had one done when I was in high school.
So I'll be like, I don't want to. It was my teeth. It was my teeth. I've got it. It's at my parents' house.
I'll see if I can find it. I actually watched a YouTube interview with a person who is a caricature artist, and they talk about the science of selecting which features to exaggerate how they do it. It's pretty fascinating, but 100% they're not flattering. No, they're not meant to be. You're never supposed to look good in those caricatures, but golly, I'll see if I can find it.
It's at my parents' house out of the one thing. They made my teeth real. Why did you pick the one? I was like, why did you do my elf ears or something? Do my teeth.
No.
So, I mean, all that to say. We can sometimes create these ideas that are not true. Yeah. And then we end up believing them, and they're simply caricature.
So. Psalm ten three says For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. Renounces the Lord, right? The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God.
The wicked in his proud countenance does not see God. God is in none of his thoughts. God is in none of his thoughts. We were just talking about that. What did you just say at the top of the episode?
How often can we go without talking about God a single day? And man, it's crazy because, as much as it is that we sit here on this show and talk about God, I guarantee you there have been mornings, there's many mornings where I wake up and I don't think about him until we get here. Yeah, I don't even think about it. I mean, people say. You know, oh, I've been seeking God.
No, I hope you're truly seeking God. There's a difference between just seeking God and truly seeking God. I heard someone say this way. The reason that an atheist cannot find God is the same reason why a thief cannot find a policeman. I'm trying not to find the policeman.
That's a great point. I'm actively avoiding it. I don't think I've ever sat down and had a conversation with a policeman. Yeah, I bet. I'm going to get in trouble.
I'm just going to be running the opposite direction. Yeah. Don't see him anywhere. It's crazy. Yeah.
So. Only the fool and the wicked. can deny God or they deny God. The Christian or the believer becomes more and more aware of this inner sense of God. The more you walk with God, the more you know that He's real.
The more you see yourself Simply existing by the grace of God. Oh, I'm intelligent. God made me that way. I'm strong. God made me that way.
I'm gifted. God made me that way. I have so many opportunities. And man, look at how I'm gone to college and got education or started a business or I have money or I have people. God gave you, providentially, sovereignly blessed you with.
The best Possible scenario of having a good family, a good home, good education. What part of you can you say? Oh no, you know that? I did it. The sin in my life.
The sin in my life before being disobedient. The guy's exactly. That's all I can claim. Yeah. So I would say The more you grow in the Christian life, and I'm saying grow, not just like I got saved and now I'm just like living for the world.
But the more you grow in the Christian life, the more you become aware of God's presence. Starting with God's goodness in your life. then also God's mercy in your life. Goodness means God gives us what we don't deserve. Mercy is God does not give us what we deserve.
We deserve judgment, we deserve his wrath. But he doesn't give us what we deserve. Provision in our lives. God's plan for our lives, God's presence all around us.
So we become more and more aware. That God is real. And this awareness is much more than a casual awareness of God. I want to make sure we understand that. This awareness is a distinct awareness of his Son, Jesus Christ.
As Christians, it's not just that, oh, I believe in God. No.
As Christians, now if you just like a Christianized person, then you may just believe, oh, yeah, I feel God's presence every day. But the Bible says even the demons believe and shudder. Nothing special about that. But As a Christian, one who has received Jesus as his Savior and as His King. The more you become aware of God, the more you'll become aware of the presence of Jesus Christ.
I think you're 100% right. We've talked about this on the show before, where there's a difference between just mentioning, just dropping God's name out there and then actually talking about his Son, Jesus Christ. You know, even the secular world. And sees the difference, whether for good or for bad. Like when athletes, like, and if an athlete is like, man, I just want to say God's everything.
You're like, okay, that's fine. The secular world even doesn't really have a problem with it. But if an athlete were to say, I just want to thank my personal Savior, Jesus Christ, He died on the cross for me. Christians are like, Okay, there's something different there. And so, also the secular world, they're like, Ah, that's a little too much.
But I guess what I'm saying is they see that there's a difference between just name-dropping God and talking about Christ. Yeah, quite different than saying, Hey, let's thank the Lord Jesus Christ for all that He has done for me.
Okay. Rather than let's just have a moment of silence. Yeah. What is that moment of silence? What does that silence do?
What's happening in that moment? I mean, in the moment of silence, you can be connected to Satan. I mean, what does that mean? Right. That's nothing.
Yeah. What does that awareness of Jesus do for us specifically in our day-to-day life?
Well, Ephesians chapter 3, if I may read that passage, verse 16 says that he would grant you. according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might. Through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. The more I become aware of the presence of Jesus Christ, the more I am strengthened in the inner man through the Holy Spirit. And the more I sense the presence of Jesus, and the more I sense the presence of Jesus, the more I'm strengthened.
It goes round and round.
Okay? It's almost like a circle here. The more I'm becoming aware of his presence, the more I'm strengthened. The more I'm strengthened, the more I become aware of his presence. And I wish I could say that.
Christian life is just a straight, this revolving. You know, circles of Christ and presence and strengthening and spirit and Christ and presence and strength would just keep taking me to newer heights. I wish I could say that. People think that salvation is like one you know, straight upward trajectory.
Sometimes. There are also some dips. Yeah. I have a question. It might sound convoluted.
I'm going to try to make it as plain as I can.
So like for someone listening who Grew up in the church. Christ is the center, and they have no problem with admitting and saying and shaping their lives around the fact that Christ is the center, he's the end goal of that relationship with him. Maybe someone is coming from a different perspective where they didn't grow up Christian, but they do have this desire to discover God, to get to God, and they see Jesus Christ as this auxiliary channel in order to get to Him. Maybe they are willing to do that. Maybe they're trying to bypass Christ to get to God.
Why is that? What is this thing about, I want to get to God, whatever that may be? Even if it means going through or going around his son. Great question, by the way. I think it's because we underestimate.
the power of sin or the presence of sin in our lives. We don't understand how holy God is. You and I cannot. I mean, I wish I could even say million years or trillions of miles away. None of that.
None of those things really do it. You and I cannot get near God. It's not possible. We are not just miles away. We are not just galaxies away.
We're just not. Able to come in the presence of God unless. Unless someone goes between us and gone.
Someone has to Be the mediator. And that's someone. has to be God himself. and that someone was God who became man, two thousand years ago. But don't forget, he was already fully God, fully man, but yet he was incarnated into our realm.
2,000 years ago. Remember, the Bible says Jesus was a lamb slain from the foundations of the world. I mean, what was he slain? I mean, if he was not. Fully man.
He was. But he took on flesh and blood in our realm 2000 years ago.
So what is the point? We are made in his image. We sinned and we fell The image is broken, but it's not eradicated.
Someone has to stand in between us And the real Deal? And help us fix that image. and how does he fix it? He allows us to take his image. Right?
In exchange. That's the exchange that happens. Jesus died in my place. His righteousness for me, my sin upon him, the image is restored. When God sees me, He sees?
It's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Why do we say that? Because that's what's happening.
So, when people say that, it's like, I don't need God. Either they think they are better than they are, or they have a horrible, misguided understanding of the holiness of God. And this is where. The innate sense cannot help us. We have to go to scriptures.
Innate sense tells me like conscience. Oh, I shouldn't hurt people. Oh, I should help that poor person Oh, I I you know, I I should say I'm sorry. That's conscience. Oh, that's too much.
I should not do that because that's going to hurt a lot of people. That's conscience. You need much more than conscience to understand. that I am born dead in trespasses and sins? and I need a Savior, and I cannot save myself.
No one down here can be a representative for me. He himself has to has to step down, take my place, Do but take the penalty of my sins and then the transfer is made and then I can come into the presence of God. Then I can have a relationship with God. Then I can touch God. But how do I touch God?
I touch God. Through the humanity of Jesus. That's deep. Yeah. So someone listening to this I think it's easy for them to say, you silly Christians.
You silly Christians, because all the fate of a person's eternity hinges on them coming to know Jesus Christ. But this innate sense, as you've just admitted, is just not enough. And we don't have time. We've got like five, four minutes left in the show. But, Dr.
Shamin, I think you would agree with that. That innate sense that God exists is not enough for someone to actually truly be saved. With the short time that we have left, can you tell them what is enough? How do we do it?
Well, we have to go to scripture. That's where we find out what the Bible says about God. And what does the Bible say about God?
Well, it says a lot of things about God. It says God made the heavens and the earth. It tells us that we sinned, Adam and Eve sinned. they disobeyed God, and sin came into this world. The Bible also tells us that all the problems we have in this world Starting with brother killing brother and all the rest that followed, the sicknesses that followed, the hate, the anger, the Uh the the Evil in humanity, where's it coming from?
It's coming from that original sin.
Now Jesus came To die in my place, the Bible tells us in John 3:16, for God so loved the world. that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Should not perish. You are destined to perish. But believing in Jesus, keeps you from perishing.
And how do you believe in Jesus? The Bible tells you. Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, you will be saved. Believe in your heart. but confess with your mouth, Means you have to have faith that he died.
For your sins. Confess. I need you to be my Saviour, Jesus. I believe you are God's Son who died in my place.
Now confession is made. You are saved.
Now, salvation is yours.
Now the connection has been made to God.
So Scripture teaches us all that, and there's more, there's more. that we can learn about. God. Yeah. I love that push that the inner sense gives us that there is a God.
There is a reality of a God being out there. But God's word alone is what points us to the fact that we need a savior. That's right. We can't get to him by ourselves. You're never going to be able to look up at the clouds and look up at nature and just come to the sense that you're sinful and that you need a savior and Jesus Christ was that savior.
Only the word of God is going to provide that for you. And the more that we go through this and the more that you guys are tuning in, listening every single day, the more clearly this is going to make sense to you. That's why we call the show Clear View Today. That's our whole goal is to help you see God more clearly. That's right.
And there's several ways that you can help us do that. One is by sharing these episodes with your friends and family. You can do that by subscribing to the show, anywhere podcasting content can be found, clicking that share button and sending it out to people who need these episodes, just like you did today when you found the broadcast. And another is by supporting the show financially. If it's been a blessing in your life, we want it to be a blessing in other people's lives as well.
You can support the show financially by visiting Abadanshob.com forward slash give. And while you're there, make sure you put your email in for our monthly, you know. That goes out. Make sure you join the newsletter list. Or you can also click the description box of this video where it says support the show.
Yes. Thank you to all of our sponsors. Thank you to Mighty Musketine, LaBlue, Ultra Pure Water. Thank you to Watch Say. Thank you to our friends over at the Truth Network and Pray.com.
We love you. Thank you so much for helping us get this message out. And thank you guys for listening. We'll see you next time. That's right.
We love you guys. See you tomorrow on Clear Read Today.
