Is There a God? — Dr. James Tim Merritt

Is There a God?

Dr. James Tim Merritt

Wilson University

April 10, 2026

Abstract

This paper examines the question of God’s existence from an apostolic Christian perspective. It argues that belief in God is grounded first in biblical revelation and is further supported by the ordered nature of creation, human moral awareness, and the historical revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The discussion also addresses limitations in atheistic and naturalistic frameworks, particularly their difficulty accounting for the origin of the universe, the intelligibility of reality, and objective moral obligation. In addition, the paper briefly examines how Friedrich Nietzsche and René Descartes have been interpreted within modern thought to emphasize human autonomy and the self as the center of certainty. Such approaches are ultimately inadequate because they begin with the self rather than with divine revelation. The paper concludes that the most complete answer to the question of God is found in Jesus Christ, in whom God has made Himself known and through whom humanity is called to repentance, faith, and obedience.

Keywords: God, apostolic theology, revelation, creation, conscience, Jesus Christ

Is There a God?

The question of whether God exists remains one of the most significant questions in human thought. It shapes how individuals understand existence, morality, truth, suffering, purpose, and eternity. The existence of God is not treated as a speculative idea or a merely philosophical possibility. Rather, it is a foundational truth revealed in Scripture, witnessed in creation, confirmed by conscience, and made fully known in Jesus Christ. Although people arrive at conclusions about God through different intellectual and cultural pathways, the apostolic witness begins with the conviction that God has not left Himself without testimony.

This paper argues that the existence of God is affirmed by biblical revelation, supported by rational reflection, demonstrated through the created order, confirmed by humanity’s moral awareness, and supremely revealed in Jesus Christ. It also contends that philosophical systems centered on human autonomy are unable to provide an adequate account of truth, morality, and ultimate meaning. As a result, the question is not simply whether evidence for God exists, but whether humanity will rightly respond to the revelation God has already given.

Biblical Revelation and the Apostolic Starting Point

The apostolic worldview begins with divine revelation. Scripture does not approach God as a conclusion reached only after philosophical speculation. Instead, it presents God as the foundational reality behind all existence. Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (KJV). The statement is not argumentative in tone; it is declarative. God is portrayed as existing before all things and as the source of all things.

The Psalms likewise affirm that creation bears witness to its Creator. Psalm 19:1 declares, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.” In this view, the created order is not self-explanatory. Its beauty, coherence, and structure testify to divine agency. Romans 1:19–20 further teaches that God has made knowledge of Himself evident through the things that have been made. Paul’s argument suggests that humanity’s problem is not the absence of revelation, but the suppression of truth.

Unbelief is therefore more than an intellectual problem. Scripture often treats it as a moral and spiritual issue as well. Psalm 14:1 states, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” In context, this is not merely an attack on intelligence; it is an exposure of rebellion against divine authority. The biblical witness presents God as known through revelation, yet resisted by the fallen human heart.

The Rational Witness of Creation

Although apostolic faith begins with revelation, it is not irrational. Belief in God is consistent with reason and supported by reflection on the world itself. One major line of argument concerns causation. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe exists, and it cannot be self-creating, because nothing can bring itself into being before it exists. Consequently, the universe points beyond itself to a cause that is not bound by material limitations.

From a biblical standpoint, this reasoning aligns with God’s self-disclosure in Exodus 3:14, where He identifies Himself as “I AM THAT I AM.” God is not contingent, derived, or dependent. He is the eternal source of all contingent reality. A second rational consideration is design. The universe exhibits order, intelligibility, and remarkable regularity. Physical laws are stable enough to be studied, and life demonstrates extraordinary complexity. Jeremiah 10:12 attributes this order to divine wisdom, declaring that God “hath made the earth by his power” and “established the world by his wisdom.”

For this reason, the apostolic tradition does not regard creation as the product of blind accident. The order found in the world suggests purpose, and purpose suggests mind. This conclusion does not replace revelation, but it is harmonious with revelation. The created order provides a rational witness that the world is best understood as the work of an eternal and intelligent Creator.

The Moral Witness of Conscience

Another important line of evidence for God is humanity’s moral awareness. Across cultures, people recognize that some actions are right and others are wrong. Even when moral judgments vary in application, the fact that people speak in terms of obligation, guilt, justice, and accountability remains significant. Human beings do not merely express preferences; they also appeal to standards they believe ought to be honored.

Romans 2:14-15 explains that even those without the written law demonstrate “the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness.” Therefore, conscience is not infallible, but it testifies that human beings are more than material organisms responding to instinct. They are moral creatures created by a moral God.

If reality consists only of matter and motion, then objective moral obligation becomes difficult to explain. Social convention, evolutionary pressure, or personal preference may account for patterns of behavior, but they do not adequately ground the conviction that justice is truly good or that cruelty is truly evil. The persistence of moral awareness fits more coherently within a worldview in which a righteous God has made humanity in His image. In addition, conscience reveals humanity’s need for redemption by exposing guilt and pointing to the reality of sin.

The Inadequacy of Atheism and Naturalism

From an apostolic perspective, atheism and strict naturalism do not adequately explain the deepest features of human existence. They may offer accounts of processes within the natural world, yet they struggle to explain why anything exists at all, why the universe is intelligible, why consciousness arises, or why moral obligation carries such force. Description is not the same as ultimate explanation.

Scripture addresses these questions by rooting reality in God. Colossians 1:16-17 states of Christ, “For by him were all things created… and by him all things consist.” The universe is therefore neither self-originating nor self-sustaining in the ultimate sense. Its existence and coherence depend upon the will and power of God.

The apostolic witness also recognizes that unbelief is not always the result of insufficient evidence. John 3:19 states that “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” This does not imply that every doubter is insincere, but it does indicate that the question of God cannot be reduced to detached speculation. To acknowledge God is also to acknowledge accountability, and fallen humanity often resists that conclusion.

Jesus Christ as the Full Revelation of God

The clearest apostolic answer to the question, “Is there a God?” is found in Jesus Christ. God has revealed Himself not only through nature and conscience, but through the incarnation. First Timothy 3:16 declares, “God was manifest in the flesh.” This affirmation is central to apostolic theology. The invisible God has made Himself known in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus did not merely speak about God from a distance. He revealed God personally. In John 14:9, Jesus told Philip, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Colossians 2:9 likewise states, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Accordingly, the apostolic response is not only that God exists, but that God has made Himself known in Christ.

The resurrection is likewise indispensable. Christian belief does not rest on abstract theism alone, but on the historical claim that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and rose again. The resurrection vindicates His identity and confirms the truth of His claims. In apostolic faith, then, belief in God is anchored not only in logic and revelation generally, but in God’s decisive self-disclosure in redemptive history.

Faith, Experience, and Apostolic Witness

Apostolic Christianity also affirms the experiential reality of God. Faith is not mere intellectual assent. It includes encounter, transformation, and spiritual witness. In the book of Acts, people did not simply adopt the idea that God exists; they experienced His power through repentance, baptism in Jesus’ name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost. The early church lived with the conviction that God was present and active among His people.

Hebrews 11:6 states, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is.” Faith begins with the conviction that God exists, but it does not end there. The verse continues by affirming that God “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” In other words, God is not only real; He is knowable and responsive.

This experiential dimension matters because the question of God is not answered only in formal debate or philosophical inquiry. It is also answered in repentance, prayer, worship, deliverance, and changed lives. Apostolic believers testify that God forgives sin, breaks bondage, restores the broken, and fills people with His Spirit. Such experience does not replace Scripture or reason, but it confirms in lived form what Scripture declares.

Philosophical Challenges and the Problem of Human Autonomy

Modern philosophy has often attempted to ground certainty in the self rather than in divine revelation. In that respect, some modern readings of René Descartes and Friedrich Nietzsche illustrate the challenge. Descartes is frequently associated with a turn toward the thinking self as the starting point for certainty. Dinçergök (2025) described this orientation as treating the self as the foundational ground of certain knowledge. When this framework is severed from the reality of divine revelation, reason is elevated beyond its proper place, and the human subject becomes the measure of truth.

Nietzsche, in a different way, is often read as advancing a radically self-determining vision of human existence. Tongeren (1999) explained Nietzsche’s thought in terms of the will to power as a dynamic that shapes interpretation, value, and human action. When applied within a humanistic framework, this kind of reasoning tends to detach morality and meaning from God and relocate them in the individual will.

From an apostolic perspective, both trajectories are inadequate when they displace God from the center of truth and moral order. Human beings are not self-originating, self-defining, or self-redeeming. They are creatures made by God, accountable to God, and ultimately fulfilled only in relation to God. Once the self becomes ultimate, moral confusion and spiritual disorder inevitably follow.

Conclusion

From an apostolic perspective, the answer to the question “Is there a God?” is yes. God is revealed in Scripture as the eternal Creator, witnessed in creation through order and design, known through conscience by moral awareness, and supremely manifested in Jesus Christ. The case for God is therefore cumulative. Revelation, reason, morality, and redemptive history converge toward the same conclusion.

According to Merritt (2020), there is a wonderful ultimate goal for people: to be connected with the Spirit of the creator, Christ Jesus. When individuals experience the Spirit of Christ, evidenced by glossolalia, they are on a path to full human development and a deeper understanding of God.

On the other hand, those who are not yet formed in the image of Christ may still be in the process of growth, which can mean they are still developing cognitively, socially, and in other important ways. This journey of being shaped by Christ’s Spirit is a beautiful part of becoming truly human. At the same time, apostolic theology presses beyond mere acknowledgement of God’s existence. The greater issue is whether humanity will respond rightly to the God who has made Himself known. Acts 17:27 states that people should “seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.” The God who is real is also near, and the God who created humanity has also made a way to redeem humanity.

The final apostolic answer is therefore both theological and practical. There is a God, He has spoken, He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, and He calls every person to repentance, faith, obedience, and worship. The question is no longer only whether God exists, but whether one will submit to the God who has made Himself known.

References

Dinçergök, B. (2025). Justifying the self in Descartes: A study on doubt, the cogito, and substance. MetaScientia: Journal of the History and Philosophy of Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18061836

Merritt, J. (2020). Redemptive lift: the road to complete human wholeness. Apostolos Press.

Russell, B. (1952). Is there a God? Illustrated, 11, 542–548.

Tongeren, P. V. (1999). Reinterpreting modern culture: An introduction to Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. Purdue University Press.