Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 18
August 11, 1966
NUMBER 14, PAGE 2b-3a

God Is Not Dead

Hoyt H. Houchen

In Romans, chapter one, Paul enumerates some pernicious sins of the Gentiles. He describes them as "professing to be wise, they became fools" (vs. 22), and in verse 25 he says of them, "for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever", and then in verse 28, "and even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind."

Indeed it is sad that men will sink so low that God will give them up unto a reprobate mind, but such was the condition of the Gentile world when Paul wrote the Roman letter. When men leave God out of their thinking, they will sink to the very depths of immorality. This is true of individuals and it is true of any nation. A nation that forgets God or that refuses to accept God will degenerate morally. Decency and purity are soon disregarded. A man or a nation that makes himself or itself God is headed for ruin. "Pride goeth before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall." (Prov. 16:18)

The Bible abounds in evidence that God lives. He is the eternal God (Deut. 33:27), and Peter declared Him to be the living God (Matt. 16:16). If He is eternal, He cannot be dead, and if He is not eternal, He cannot give eternal life.

The existence of matter cannot be accounted for without a creator. A young skeptic once said to an elderly lady, "I once believed in God, but now, since studying philosophy and mathematics, I am convinced that God is but an empty word." The elderly lady asked, "Where did this egg come from?" "The hen," he replied. "Then the hen existed before the egg. " The skeptic then replied, "Oh, the egg." "Then the egg existed first", the elderly lady replied. The skeptic finds himself in a dilemma. There had to be a first. We believe that the one who created the first egg or the first hen was the one who created the world.

The idea that biological organisms and matter are accounted for by the evolutionary process is not being taught as a mere theory but as a fact. Evolution eliminates God from the picture and men are reduced to mere animals. When men become like animals, they act like animals - they can kill one another and without any disturbance of mind. Perhaps this accounts for a large part of the crime and degradation that is in the world today.

The evolutionist has never been able to prove that there is or ever has been a transmutation of "kind." The first chapter of Genesis is the account of creation and there God said, "Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, (Emphasis mine, H. H. H.). (Gen. 1:11). The evolutionist cannot account for the origin of matter and he has never been able to prove a crossing of one "kind" to another. The idea that God does not exist has always been prevalent with the evolutionist.

Nature itself testifies as to the existence of a supreme intelligence. In Ps. 19:1 the Psalmist declared: "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his handiwork." The power that is to be found in the universe is staggering. Scientists have learned to split the atom and by doing so they have discovered more power than was ever imagined. What is the source of that power? Then, consider the power of gravitation. If all the men who lived upon the earth during the past 6,000 years were to put their combined strength against the earth, they could perhaps move it about a foot in a thousand years. Yet there is a force that moves the earth at the rate of more than 1,000 miles a minute. This movement is systematic - highly regulated. Without God, how can anyone account for such a force?

The power of God is apparent from the tiniest leaf to the highest mountain. Natural laws are not made by scientists - they only discover them. By understanding something about such laws as gravity and electricity, men are able to put many things into use, but where there is a law, there must be a lawgiver. We believe that the lawgiver is God. (Gen.1:1)

The human body did not happen by chance; it was designed. The watch did not happen by chance; it was designed. Where there is a design there must be a designer. Who is that designer? We believe that He is God. Reason demands that there was a creator with intelligence. Consider the matter of chance. Again we are told that if the twenty-six letters of our alphabet were tossed into the air by chance force, they might fall into their present order of ABC's once in more than five-hundred million, million, million, million, times that they were tossed up and allowed to come down without guidance. The time required for this one chance would require nearly two million, million, million years, allowing less than ten seconds per toss. When we consider the magnitude and the grandeur of the universe and how much more significant it is than the twenty-six letters of our alphabet, how ridiculous it is to suppose that it just happened by chance!

God is alive. He is our Creator and the creator of the world and all that is in it. (Acts 17:24). He has revealed His will to mankind through the Bible, divine truth. (2 Pet. 1:21; Rom.1:16; 2 Tim. 3:16,17). Truly, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." (Ps. 14:1)

-1415 Royalty Street Odessa, Texas