A Far More Intriguing Question than "What would you do if you found out God doesn't exist?"

Many years ago, a skeptic asked me what I would do if I came face-to-face with something that proved definitively that God does not exist.

I remember telling him that I couldn’t begin to answer that question because, for me, it was like asking what you would do if you found out the sun doesn’t exist. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know it was there, sense that it was shining on me, and delight in its warmth.

The real question is, what would you do if you found out that your faith did not account for the fullness of Truth? Basically, what would you do if you found out your denomination doesn’t hold the complete fullness of faith, and you don’t know that because you only see what you’ve been given. What if you found out there is more.


Would you reject it?


Perhaps you say you’ve already considered that. I beg you to suspend your disbelief for just a moment. Consider the source. You learned at the feet of Protestant parents. You sat with Protestant Sunday school teachers. You read the books by Protestants writers, published by Protestant publishers.


What if there is more? What if you came face-to-face with something that proved definitively that there is more? What if you found out that there is a Church that has been around for over 2000 years and Jesus Christ established it Himself? What would you do then?


That is the question.

A Far More Intriguing Question than "What would you do if you found out God doesn't exist?"

Paradigm Shifts

In 1995, someone asked me what I would do if I suddenly realized that Christianity was a bunch of bunk. I remember laughing as I told him that wasn’t possible, that for me, it was like being told the sun won’t come up in the morning and it never really had in the past, that it was all a figment of my imagination.

He could try to prove that the grass is really purple and there are two ton elephants floating in the sky instead of white fluffy clouds. I would be as likely to believe his little story about an alternate reality as I would his notion that God isn't real and Jesus Christ was just a man. (Although, as C.S. Lewis said, he either was a liar or a lunatic, or he was who he said he was. There is no middle ground in which he can be considered a man like other men.)

A more realistic and prophetic question would have sounded something like this:

What would you do if you suddenly realized the fullness of faith wasn’t found in Protestant theology, but that it had been preserved complete and intact within the Roman Catholic Church?

That is a more realistic question. And it would have been prophetic because that is the exact question that shattered my neat little world just a few years later. Most people never find the answer to that question because they never seek answers beyond the pool of truth into which they were born. One must have a seeker's heart in order to find. One must have a question that needs to be answered in order to find answers.

But what do you do with Truth when it shows up looking completely different from anything you expected?

Do you follow Truth wherever it leads? Or do you walk really fast in the opposite direction?

First, try not to be afraid.

Second, pray. Lift your heart to your God and pray for truth - and peace.

Third, seek. With all that you are, seek. But be ready to find.

Seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you. . . (from Jeremiah 29)

Paradigm Shifts