The Bible never argues for the existence of God.

It begins instead with a simple, majestic sentence: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). The Bible begins with a declaration, not with an argument.

There is a God who created all things.

If you do not start there, you will miss the central truth of the universe. That's what Proverbs 1:7 means when it says that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Note the two beginnings here:

"In the beginning God."
"The beginning of knowledge."

This leads us in a particular direction:

It is in precisely this sense that the Bible proclaims that those who deny God are "fools" (Psalms 14:1). This stands as a moral judgment, not a statement about IQ or educational attainment. A very smart person can drive off a cliff and be smashed on the rocks. That's the sort of folly the psalmist has in mind. If you leave God out of the calculation, you have missed the central fact of the universe. You are wrong at the very core of life, and therefore life itself will remain a mystery to you.

Did you know that September 30, 2009 was the first-ever International Blasphemy Day? I didn't either until I read about it on Al Mohler's weblog. This "celebration" includes an invitation for people to "blaspheme the Holy Spirit" (see Mark 3:29) by making a video renouncing their Christian beliefs and saying, "I deny the Holy Spirit," thus daring God to punish them. You can find a host of these videos on YouTube where ex-Christians (many of them young people) renounce their faith and invite God to judge them.

There are a number of ways to respond to this, and the least effective would be to get angry. Those of us who believe in God need not be threatened by those who do not believe or by former believers who now are doubters or agnostics or atheists. I do think it is sad to consider young people raised in the church who now find it necessary to publicly renounce a faith that never really took hold.

Consider two simple words. God is. That's the central fact of the universe. Miss that and you can be right about a lot of other things and still be wrong where it matters most. With that in mind, let's think together about five facts relating to God's existence.

You can read the rest of the message online.

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.