Good question with crazy answer - yes, there's a God.

Yes He has a cosmic temple. Yes He became a human to satisfy his own demands. Yes He has already begun to recreate the world and will come back to turn this world back into Eden, raising you along with all the dead back to life. Yes He intrudes each sunday uniting us with Himself as He serves us in worship.

How do you know - lots of ways, but mainly from when He became a human. There's intellectual ways of figuring it out: Things exist so there must be a source. They exist in an intricate way so there must be an intelligent creator (like wfnding a watch on the beach, not random). People have a sense of right and wrong (even if they are on the wrong side, they don't like bad things happening to them) so there must be a source of morality or an absolute good one. There's fancy philosophical ways, we have a God-shaped hole in us, and even folks who don't think there's a God can't stop talking about Him, or raging at Him. He invites it.

The main way we know is that He became a human, entered into history, the mud and the blood and the beer. There was a man who claimed to be God. He said that the scriptures were God talking to us, promising to fix the world and fix death. Then He said He'd prove it by doing something that only God can do, coming back from the dead.

He said He'd do it for us, as proof that He will do the same thing for us. And then He did it. And He did in front of people, in public, coming back and showing them. The folks who saw Him do it wrote it down, and they made very good, reliable, historical sources (more reliable than most of history and a good deal of what you see on the news today). And then those people who saw it and wrote it died for it. They were offered a choice: take it back and live, or keep saying it and die - and they picked saying it even when it meant death. Lots of folks will lie, few will do it if it means death and they can stop it.

He can't be just an example of how to live. He claimed to be God, said He would prove it, and did it. He was a liar, a crazy person, or He was who He said. He said He was God, and came here for you, to keep God's own requirements in your place - to live a perfect life for you and to cover you with the penalty He paid for you. He lived every moment for you, perfect in each thought, word, and deed. He went to the cross knowing your name, sacrificing Himself for you, and He shattered death coming back to life with a real body as a pledge that He will bring you back from the grave.

But... What about?

Evil - It's a tough one without an easy answer. Tough to believe with all the evil in the world. On one hand, if there's evil there must be good, and if the evil seems specific and personal (thorns spelling your name) then the good one must be specific and personal too, calling you by name. It goes beyond what we can know. We do know He allowed humans to reject Him and trash the universe, and that's what we did. He gave us a chance to fix it ourselves, and we failed. All along He planned to take care of it Himself, by becoming a human, meeting His own requirements for us in our place, taking the curse onto Himself and crediting us with His rule. Giving us an alien righteousness and His legal status of ruling.

We do know that He hates it, that He hates it some much He took evil upon Himself to end it at great pain and expense to Himself. We create evil in this world, and it's random and awful. He's already fixed it with His life and death, but not yet removed it entirely. That will happen when He returns to recreate the world, return it to Eden. Right now, He leaves the time open, calling you to Himself. He's already won the war, but has not yet returned to reveal His cosmic celebration. He's promised to come back to recreate this world, to give us bodies back when we die and to declare us part of His ruling family. You don't have to do anything. He calls you through word and sacrament, His story and the miniature cosmic temple that he brings to earth in His worship.

There's lots of other things we don't know. If we are a fallen creation, then that's kind of what we would expect. It doesn't mean blinding believing, but that we'd have to know our limits. If He's the source of knowledge, or wisdom itself as a person, then we're on a limb on a tree and we have to be careful not to cut ourselves off and fall down. That's also why the main way He talks about uniting us with Himself is by renewing and recreating our minds.

Any other ways we know there's a God?

This might not be for everyone. But have you ever read a story, or watched a movie, where the Author worked all things out for a character's good - even when the people didn't know it, and maybe even knowing it would have messed up the plot preventing the outcome they needed? How about a story where the main character does something for someone else, when it really costs him. Tale of Two Cities, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars? How about a story where the characters wake up and realize they are characters in a story, then step out of the story and become part of the real world that was hidden around them all the time? The scriptures are a story, where Christ is both the author and the actor.

Food for thought:

"Kirkegaard - ~"I know there's a God because someone's laughing at me."

Gandalf - ~"Not all the forces are evil, the good ones are often hidden."

Luther - ~ "God is opposite of what we think; we only know Him hanging on the cross."

"Lord, I want to believe, help my unbelief."

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