Acts 17:1-34

Who Made God?

An old friend of mine sent me a link this week to an article titled: “God didn't make man; man made gods.” I had actually already read it because I had seen that provocative title myself a day or two before. I had to reread it to give my (unbelieving) friend a reply. (Sarcasm alert for the next couple of paragraphs.)

It was a total mess. It spoke of having produced “robust theories, backed by empirical evidence (including "imaging" studies of the brain at work), that support the conclusion that it was humans who created God, not the other way around.” It sounds impressive until you read these incredible breakthroughs. Then you find that they “discovered” things such as: “We are born with a powerful need for attachment.” Who knew, right? Of course this leads to the only logical conclusion which is that because of this newly discovered need we obviously created God to be our stand in Super Parent.

They also “discovered” that we have an innate sense of morality (right and wrong). They didn’t quite explain how this leads to the conclusion that man invented God but they did cite some impressive studies by some men with impressive titles to let us know that this has to be true. (Don’t blame me for that being vague. I’m just reporting the “facts” here.) They neglected to point out that philosophers have argued for centuries that we have an innate sense of morality and have considered it as strong evidence that God does exist, not proof that we invented God. I guess co-directors of the “Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany” tend to draw different conclusion from the greatest thinkers of Western Civilization.

Paul encountered a whole nest of sophisticated thinkers in Athens. He addressed the issue of man making gods. He made the rather basic observation that since belief in God implies that we are His children then it is kind of silly to “make” gods out of gold and silver and stone. Yet, when we actually do get around to “making” a god (or God) we tend to make these kind of rather elementary mistakes.

Then he told them about the real God. When the real God revealed Himself to us He did it as a man; one of us. That makes sense. (At least it makes sense if you don’t start considering other dimensions and eternity and spirit vs matter, but atheists rarely do consider such things.) Then came the capper. God has proved that this revelation was the real one by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. Outrageous! Impossible! Who could imagine such a thing?

Exactly. Who could imagine such a thing? That’s why it must be God.