Is there a God? How can we be sure?
I believe this can be intelligently answered. The reason we believe He exists is He told us so and revealed Himself to us.
God is not silent. He has revealed to us who he is, what he's like and what His plans are for Planet Earth. He has revealed these things thru the bible. This is not just a mere book but the very Word of God. The evidence is more than convincing to any that will honesty investigate its claims.
Over the centuries many have tried to destroy this book to no avail. Martin Luther said in the 16th Century,
"Mighty potentates have raged against this book and sought to destroy and uproot it-Alexander the Great and princes of Egypt and Babylon the monarches of Persia, of Greece and of Rome, the Emperors Julius and Augustus-but they prevailed nothing. They are gone while the book remains and it will remain forever and ever, perfect and entire, as it was declared at first. Who has thus helped it-who has protected it against such mighty forces? No one, surely, but God Himself, who is master of all things." 1
The French skeptic Rousseau saw something different in the scriptures.
"I must confess to you that the majesty of the scriptures astonishes me; the holiness of the evangelist speaks to my heart and has such striking characters of truth and is moreover so perfectly imimitable that if it had been the invention of men, the inventiors would be greater than the greatest heroes." 2
Another reason we know that God exists is that He appeared in human flesh. Jesus was God who became a man. "The Word became flesh and lived among us." John 1:14. He also made it clear that He had come to reveal God to all that would listen, and He would show us the way .
If one wanted to know what God was like all he would have to do is look at Jesus. Lord Byron said,
"If ever man was God or God was man, Jesus Christ was both." 3
His coming back from the dead established Himself as having the credentials to be God, and it was this fact that demonstrated truth to the unbelieving world.
So we have the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ as two strong reasons for the existence of God. No other religion or philosophy gives us near the comfort in knowing that there is a loving God who cares and is involved in our everyday life.
1-Fritz Ridenour, Who says G.L. Publications, Regal Books, 1967
2-Encylocopedia of Religious Quotations, Frank Mead, p32
3-Encylocopedia of Religious Quotations, Frank Mead, p81