How Do I Respond to People Who Say God Isn’t Real?

Everywhere I look, it seems like there's always a solid argument against the existence of God or the reliability of the Bible, whether it's logical or scientific.

How can I combat these as a believer? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. We would love to hear from you. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, a major motion picture about Jesus is about to start production. 16 years ago, actor Jim Caviezel portrayed Jesus in the hit film The Passion of the Christ, which was produced and directed by Mel Gibson. Jim recently shared his hopes that the sequel of that movie will become the largest film in cinema history. Jim says he's reviewed a new draft of the script for the movie, which will be titled The Passion of the Christ Resurrection. The first film focused on the final 12 hours of Jesus' life and his crucifixion, while the sequel will depict his resurrection and the events that occurred afterwards. The film is currently slated for a 2022 release date, and Adriel, I recall the original film was rated R because of the violent portrayal of the crucifixion, and that kept a lot of Christians from seeing it, especially kids and teenagers. And I'm doubting the sequel will feature much violence, so hopefully it'll be a movie we could take our kids to.

Yeah, that'll be interesting to hear about, you know, what happens with all that stuff. I would love to see a movie on the Book of Acts. I mean, I just love the Book of Acts, and I think there's so much exciting there. Or how about some of those Old Testament stories? I mean, I know there was that Noah movie a while back, and I didn't even go see it, so maybe even if these movies came out, I wouldn't go see them, but it could be kind of fun. As long as they stick to the biblical narrative and they're accurate, that Noah one really took a major departure.

Yeah, I want the Book of Acts. I want Denzel Washington to play Paul, because I just think that would be cool, and I like Denzel. You got any actor suggestions, Bill? Oh, man.

John Travolta as Stephen? I don't know. Don't have us produce this thing.

No, definitely not. Well, let's get to our first question of the day. Greg posted this on our Instagram account. He says, I find myself struggling with the balance between being dedicated to growing in my faith and recognizing that I can't fix myself. I'm wondering how I can find peace in that tension.

I realize no one ever has the balance perfectly figured out, so I'm also wondering how I can be at peace with the fact that I am still growing. Greg, thank you for that question. You know, I understand what you're saying. I think that the tension that you feel is really outlined all over the place in Scripture. The first passage that comes to mind is what Paul says in Philippians 2, verse 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, there's that dedication piece that you were just talking about, you know, being dedicated to growing in my faith, to following the Lord, to being obedient to the commands of Scripture. And if all we had was that command right there, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, well, I think there would be a lot of cause for anxiety and fear, but listen to what the Apostle Paul says as he continued there. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. You see, I think that's that latter part of the verse is what we have to understand if we're ever going to have peace, because I think, you know, it is easy for us to think, oh, man, this is all in my hands. I have to do this. I have to sanctify myself.

Well, that's actually not the case. Sanctification is the work of God's Spirit. It's the work of God.

Now, we pursue the Lord, we study the Scriptures, we make sure that we're in good churches where we're hearing the Bible proclaimed. But the reality is, Greg, God is the one who is working in you, both to will, transforming your desires, the things that you want, and to do it. It's the work of God's Spirit in you. So as you pursue the Lord and obedience and that dedication to growing in your faith, which we all need to do, know that it is God who is working in you.

And as you realize that, I think that's where the peace and the comfort comes from. It's in being able to say, Lord, I know that true growth, true sanctification only happens by the grace of your Holy Spirit. And we can also rest in the fact that that's God's will for us.

I mean, that's precisely what the Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians. This is the will of God for you, your sanctification. So we know that if it's God's will, and we're pursuing it, we're praying for it, God is going to answer that prayer.

It may not be in the timing or in the way that we hope. Sometimes we just wish that the Lord would take away all our temptations and sinful desires, and He doesn't. He causes us to be dependent upon Him day by day. But you can rest assured, Greg, that the work that God begins in you, He's going to complete.

He's going to continue to work in you. There's another passage that comes to mind here, thinking about God's work in us and the fact that ultimately that growth comes from the Lord and from the Spirit. It's what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3. And in that passage, he's referring in particular to the work of the apostles as they planted churches and as they preach the gospel, but I think it's relevant to what you're talking about as well. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5, What then is Apollos?

What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor, for we are God's fellow workers, and you are God's field, God's building. You see, even the Apostle Paul, as he talks about his ministry and preaching, you know, God called him to do this, and so he did it.

He pursued it, and yet he knew. Ultimately, it's God who blesses. It's God who gives the growth. It's a work of God's Spirit, and I think it's the same for us. We pursue growth in the Christian life by studying scripture, by being in good churches, but God is ultimately the one who gives that growth. And so because that's the case and because God wills for us to be sanctified, you can rest knowing that the work that God began in you, as I already said, he's going to be faithful to complete. Some very reassuring words, Adriel. Thanks for that.

This is Core Christianity. And one of the ways you can submit a question is by going to our website at corechristianity.com slash radio. Look for the little microphone icon on the side of the page there. Click on that and you can record your question just like Jane did. Yes, I want to thank you so much for your show.

I don't know what I would do without it. What my question is today is, is regarding speaking in tongues. I go to a church where there's a lot of people there that speak in tongues. I don't understand it. Sometimes I wonder if they're just trying to speak in tongues.

I don't know. I don't understand it. And because I don't, it makes me feel like I'm not a good Christian, like I'm maybe not a real Christian. I feel like they're better than me and I don't understand why God would give a gift to some like that and make others feel like they're not as good as those who can speak in tongues. And I know God gives different gifts to different people and I don't understand it. I need help with that because it's really affecting me on a daily basis of feeling like only people who can do really special things like that have God's favor and the rest of us just feel left out. Thank you so much.

Wow, Jane. First, I'm so grateful that you reached out to us and let me just say, you do not have to feel like a second-class Christian. You aren't a second-class Christian. All those who believe in Jesus Christ are filled with, have the Holy Spirit. You can't even say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians. And so I'm really sorry that you have been made to feel this way.

Again, let me drive the point home. Just because you don't have a particular spiritual gift doesn't make you inferior to other believers. And frankly, anyone who says all Christians should have a certain gift like the gift of tongues is wrong.

Actually, spiritual gifts aren't the most important thing. Listen to what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 27 and following. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it and God is appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, do all work miracles, do all possess gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you still a more excellent way. And then Paul says this, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have and I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. You see, love is the more excellent way that Paul was referring to there at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 and I want you to note something.

He asked a series of rhetorical questions. Do all work miracles? Do all speak in tongues?

And the answer that he's assuming is no. It isn't the case that every Christian has the same spiritual gift. If that was the reality, then the church would be a mess. Imagine a body that was just a hand or an eye or a foot.

It wouldn't function well. No, the point that Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 12 is that each of us have been gifted in different ways by the Holy Spirit for the common good of the body of Christ. Are all prophets? Do all have gifts of help or administration or tongues?

No, because if they did, the body would be a wreck. And so first, biblically speaking, Jane, not everyone is supposed to have the gift of tongues. Now, I believe that the gift of tongues was primarily given during the apostolic period for two reasons. One, it was a sign that God had reversed the curse of Babel in his church. You remember back in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, you know, the Tower of Babel, the confusion of languages, mankind trying to ascend to God arrogantly, full of pride, and God confused their languages and divided them. Well, on the day of Pentecost, what you had was a reversal of Babel, if you will. It was a sign of the fact that this new era of redemption had dawned on the day of Pentecost.

And so you had people speaking in tongues. And two, I think the gifts like the gift of tongues were a confirmation of the early gospel proclamation. I think this is confirmed in Hebrews chapter two, verses three and four. Listen to what that passage says, How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

It was declared first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. You see, the author of the Hebrews views the early gospel preaching as having been attested to by the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts like the gift of tongues. Now we're in that new age of redemption today, but that doesn't mean we're going to experience the same thing that the apostles or the early church did. Sister, you need to be in a church that's going to emphasize not the apostolic miracles, but the apostolic message. In fact, you know what the goal of those miracles was?

It was to bolster the message. The message of the forgiveness of sins, the message of what God has done for us in Christ to redeem us, to wash us, to make us a part of his family, justified, adopted so that as God's adopted children, we might be filled with the Holy Spirit and love and serve our neighbors. The miracles there in the book of Acts, and as I said, in the ministry of Jesus, they were all about bolstering that gospel message. You need to be in a church that focuses on not the miracles, but the message. Because if we're focused on the miracles apart from the message, or if that's the highlight of my church's ministries, we're just trying to live the miraculous Christian life, we're missing the whole point.

Sister, it sounds to me like you're pretty discerning, and you're able to see something that's maybe an overemphasis on something that shouldn't be emphasized, and a lack of emphasis on what should be emphasized. Brothers and sisters, we need to be in churches that are emphasizing the right thing, and that's the gospel. That's the pure preaching of God's word.

Be in a church where you're being encouraged in that, and where you're growing in your understanding of who God is through the Scriptures, and it's as that happens that you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Thank you for your question. May the Lord bless you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. We have a great offer we'd like to tell you about today, and it has to do with a question that's often asked here on Core Christianity, the assurance of salvation.

Yeah, Bill, it really is amazing to me how frequently we get this question. I mean, it seems like so many Christians are struggling to find assurance, to know, how can I be sure that I'm saved, that I'm going to heaven? And there are a lot of, I think, genuine believers who wrestle under this burden of guilt and fear and lack of assurance, and so that's one of the reasons why I think that this resource is really helpful. It's called Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian, and it's free for you when you sign up for our weekly newsletter. I hope that you'll take advantage of this, especially if you struggle with the assurance question or if you know someone who does, get your hands on this resource. Head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to download Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. Adriel, here's a question that came in through our Instagram account. It's from Matthew, and it's a good one. He says, everywhere I look, it seems like there's always a solid argument against the existence of God or the reliability of the Bible, whether it's logical or scientific. How can I combat these as a believer? Well, there are some great resources that I think can help you defend your faith as you're thinking about some of these questions you hear from skeptics. Maybe it's stuff you're reading online.

Maybe it's a friend of yours who questions the Christian faith and has arguments for why they don't believe it, why you shouldn't believe it. Books that I sometimes will recommend are Greg Kochel's The Story of Reality. I really like that book.

I mean, it's accessible. It's one of those books I think that you can give even to a non-Christian friend, and they'll be able to glean from it. It sort of talks about worldview. It talks about evidences for the resurrection of Jesus.

I mean, that's so important. I mean, if Jesus rose from the dead, we need to embrace this. If he didn't raise from the dead, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, well, then we're wasting our time. But the fact of the matter is there's a lot of good reason to embrace, to believe the resurrection of the dead, and Kochel talks about that in that book, The Story of Reality. Other books that I recommend, Tim Keller has a couple books that are helpful, The Reason for God.

He came out with another one after The Reason of God a little bit more recently called Making Sense of God. Those are helpful resources, Matthew, that you might want to get a hold of that might answer some of the specific questions that you're wrestling through. But I'm going to give you another bit of practical advice. Instead of focusing all of your reading on picking up books about the Bible, reading about these various arguments related to maybe the historicity of the Bible or the manuscript evidence or whatever it is, it's fine. Nothing wrong with that.

That's good. But I would say commit to reading the Bible for yourself. Again, read the other stuff too, but be in the Scriptures because they are the very Word of God, and as God's Word, they are self-authenticating. God's Spirit speaks to us through the pages of the Bible, and that's the main thing that gives us certainty about their truthfulness, the truthfulness of Scripture. Again, I'm not saying there aren't evidences and reasons to hold to the reality of the fact that the Bible is divinely inspired.

Absolutely. I mean, I think of the prophetic testimony. I remember as a newer believer being struck by all of the prophecies related to Jesus the Messiah and how specific they were. You think of Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 or Daniel chapter 9. You have all of these specific prophecies related to Jesus's life, his ministry, his substitutionary death for us.

Prophetic testimony, I think, really testifies to the truthfulness of God's Word, the fact that this really is divinely inspired. In fact, one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible, Isaiah 46, where God says through the prophet Isaiah, I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning.

And from ancient times, things not yet done. God is saying, hey, look, I'm the Lord of heaven and earth, God. And here's how you can know. I declare the end from the beginning.

I can tell you what's going to happen before it does. And he did over and over again in the pages of the scripture. So there are all these things that we can look at.

But again, I would just encourage you and anyone else who's wrestling with these kinds of things. Make sure as you study that you're in the Word. And as you're in the Word, reading scripture, the Spirit of God will use that same scripture, his Word, to illuminate your heart and your mind.

And so there's a lot of other things that we can point to, the archaeological evidence, the historical evidence, the unity of the scriptures, their scope, their purpose. But as we study all those things, let's make sure that we're in the Word and growing in it too. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We hear from people all over the world, and we'd love to hear from you regardless of where you might be listening or checking out our podcast. Our email address is questionsatcorechristianity.com. James wrote to us from Norway, and actually his email was in Norwegian, so our producer Aaron ran it through Google Translate, and we were able to find out what he said. And he says, Where did Paul go to church since he was always moving back and forth so much? Yeah, well, you know, they did just recently. There was an excavation, I think it was near Philippi, where they discovered the church that the Apostle Paul went to. I don't know if you heard about this, Bill. There was this inscription there, the Church of the Apostle Paul, the first Presbyterian church of Philippi. I'm totally joking. That didn't happen. You had me going there for a second.

I mean, it's an interesting question. Paul was always on the move, and when he's not, it's usually because he's in jail. But even there, he's singing hymns and writing letters to the churches. As an apostle, Paul's work centered around going to the various churches and helping to establish them. He was a church planter who would preach, raise up leaders, and then keep moving. Now, when he stayed for a while in a particular area, he'd go to the local congregations there.

It might have been the church in Philippi or the church in the region of Galatia that he was in. But it does seem like, James, as the Apostle Paul is going from place to place, that he wasn't settled in any one particular church for an extremely long period of time, and that was a part of his apostolic ministry. The important thing for Paul, and I think you see this in his letters to Timothy, was he wanted to strengthen and establish the churches. So the fact that he was going from church to church and wasn't settled at one church didn't mean that he had a low view of the church.

It was quite the opposite. He wanted to go from church to church to strengthen and establish those churches to raise up leaders, elders, and deacons. He talks about this in 1 Timothy 3, see it in Titus 1 as well, where these churches have this structure where the Word of God is being faithfully taught, and people are being discipled who are going to be able to continue carrying on that apostolic message. So boy, it must have been a pretty wild thing to be in a local congregation there in Asia Minor or wherever, and to have the Apostle Paul visit your church and stay there for some time and strengthen the church to help you grow in your relationship with the Lord.

But that's exactly what Paul would do, is he would plant churches and then he would go from place to place, strengthening those churches and raising up leaders so that the gospel would continue to advance throughout the whole world. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. I'm Bill Meyer, and our website is corechristianity.com slash radio if you have a question for us.

You can also call us at 833-843-2673 for help getting any one of our offers. That's 833-the-core. You know, I was thinking about it, you're a church planter too, so you're kind of like Paul, Adriel.

No, no, not at all. And that's the crazy thing about Paul is, Paul is planting all of these churches. I've planted one and I'm like, never again, Lord, please. I mean, it really is such a joy to be able to minister, but it is a lot of work too. And so it's one of those things that's like, man, Paul had to be just fueled by the Holy Spirit because the work that he was doing, the work that he was carrying on was pretty significant. So you can tell that he was a man that was filled with the Spirit and had a singular passion for the gospel. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.