Before

 

“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. (John 13:19) 

          Having established that it all depends on where we start, what are the reasons to choose either natural scientism or Christian fundamentalism over the other. Both will say of what they cannot explain, “We don’t understand everything, but someday, an explanation may be found/revealed.” Currently, the ultimate answer to the question of proof of each is “Look around. It’s here.” Of course, neither side accepts that answer from the other (and they shouldn’t.)

          Often, those who reject God present the startling similarities between the DNA of this creature and that as proof that they are descended from a common ancestor. The example most often given is that Chimpanzees and humans share 96% of their DNA. Did you know that we also share more than 90% of our DNA with cats? We share almost 90% with mice, and nearly 80% with cows, 62% with fruit flies and about 60% with bananas. That’s proof! Well, it’s proof of something.

          Those same folks seem to have the idea that if there were a god, each living thing would have to be built using a completely individual set of building blocks. This is like a contractor being required to build each structure using materials that are absolutely unique to it. If you use maple to frame a house, no one can ever use maple to frame any other house. This is a straw man argument. It proposes a god who is incapable of developing a system. He must be arbitrary, whimsical, and more than a little silly. Who could possible prefer that to the logic and sanity of “it just happened.”

          The same goes for the scientific naturalists’ claim that God cannot be proven scientifically. I happen to agree with this one, but by definition, then, science should restrict itself to speculating only about those things that can be proven scientifically. Alas, scientists seemed determined to speculate. One can’t prove scientifically that Hitler existed, but history teaches us that he did. Lots of different people have records attesting to his existence.

          So how do we prove God’s existence, to ourselves if not to the world? First, we have documents which are said to describe encounters with God, just as people wrote about Hitler. Secondly, there are prophecies. God said that something would happen, and it did. Higher critics are fond of claiming that the prophecies were written after the events they prophesied, but their evidence for this is insufficient. Part of the reason for this insufficiency is one particular prophesy: that Israel would become a nation again after having not been one, as described in Ezekiel 35-36. Those chapters are included among the Dead Sea Scrolls, meaning that they were written no later than the second century BC. Scholars date Ezekiel to the fifth century BC.

          Even if world leaders wanting to make themselves even more a part of history had decided to do so (and repay one or more Jews for their help in a war) by giving Israel a nation again, there is no explanation for why Ezekiel would have made such a prediction. The combination is evidence that should not be ignored or brushed off.