For God to actually be God he must have created everything and have power over everything. Although this is an easier concept to accept on its own, it becomes more baffling when we consider God’s hand in our own lives. If God is all powerful, does he control everything we do? Tough questions like this one lead some people to think that if God made our minds, and if he determines our experiences, then no one can justly be held accountable for what they believe. At first thought, this seems to logically follow what we know about God so far. However, before we can accept that statement as truth, we should compare it with God’s Word.
If God created our minds, do we have any control over what we believe?
As Christians, we understand that all humans were created in the image of God, and part of this image is our ability to freely reason (Gen. 3:15). We were not created as robots, Reasoning allows us to draw plausible conclusions about the world as we interpret the information presented to us. Although many understand belief in God to be an emotional conquest, emotion cannot be the only tool we used to decide if God exists, and who he is. It’s our responsibility to look at the data and come to the most plausible conclusion (Rom. 1:18-20). Reasoning should guide our beliefs as we survey philosophy, science, history, and personal experience. However, some people claim that after much reasoning, there is not sufficient evidence to believe in God.
If someone feels God hasn’t given good reason to believe in Himself (e.g. if they haven’t had personal spiritual experiences) will he still judge them for not believing in Him?
Romans 1:20 says “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities… have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse”. This one verse makes a very big claim—evidence for God doesn’t need to be a booming voice in the sky. In fact, all people have encountered clear evidence for God’s existence. Some examples of this evidence are a necessary uncaused first cause of the universe, a moral law giver for the moral law, a standard of good to define good and evil, and the incredible fine tuning of the universe. Although these truths don’t necessitate belief in God, they surely give reasonable evidence for such a belief.
Ultimately, the Bible emphasizes everyone’s freedom to choose what they do and what they believe. It can be difficult to understand how an all-powerful God could somehow create humans with true ability to choose and be held accountable. While the exact mechanisms of this are not fully explainable, we can breathe a sigh of relief to know God is far too powerful and complex for our mortal minds to comprehend. Wouldn’t we rather be at a loss for understanding the wondrous ways God operates than have a God whose power is so limited that we can understand everything about Him? While we are all predisposed to certain thought processes, we have the freedom and responsibility to accept or reject all thoughts and beliefs that enter our minds. We are not at the mercy of our beliefs, and we can aim to change them through prayer, meditation, and pursuit of new knowledge. This means that even if we don’t feel a certain belief, we have the responsibility and freedom to act according to what is most plausible.
Written by Abbey Harley