Studying the Evidence for God's Existence: The Telescope, The Microscope, History, and Ancient Manuscripts

“My father’s life was changed right before my eyes [when he trusted Christ]. It was like someone reached down and switched on a light inside him. He touched alcohol only once after that. He got the drink only as far as his lips and that was it—after forty years of drinking! He didn’t need it any more. Fourteen months later, he died from complications of his alcoholism. But in that fourteen-month period over a hundred people in the area around my tiny hometown committed their lives to Jesus Christ because of the change they saw in the town drunk, my dad.”
–Josh McDowell, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, xxvii.

One of the most powerful evidences for God’s existence is the testimonies of the people around us, whose lives have been changed by the God they claim saved them.

And I know many of us here have those testimonies ourselves, we heard from God, we saw God move, and thus it built our faith.

Our topic for today is exploring the evidences for God’s existence. But really underneath that, it’s about building our trust in God and His word.

We know ultimately that Jesus said, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And Jesus said, my words bring God’s life giving spirit (John 6:63).

But there is another practice that helps build our faith, and Paul made use of this form of teaching when he spoke to the Greeks at the Mars Hill meeting place in the book of Acts. He gave an explanation for the Christian faith, an apologetic, a reasoned explanation. And it was powerful, it led to people getting saved that day.

We also see in the book of Romans, that the evidence that God is real, is all around us.

“18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” -Romans 1:18-20

The evidence of God is so overwhelming when simply viewing the natural world around us and the skies above us.

Unfortunately as Romans 1 says, humanity suppresses that truth. We hide it. We ignore it. We don’t talk about it. But suppose you were walking along a beach, and you discovered letters written in the sand, what would you think? As Professor John Lennox wrote…

"We have only to see a few letters of the alphabet spelling our name in the sand to recognize at once the work of an intelligent agent. How much more likely, then is the existence of an intelligent Creator behind human DNA, the colossal biological database that contains no fewer than 3.5 billion "letters" - the longest "word" yet discovered?" –John Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?, p. 75.

This message today is going to center on Psalm 19, which is a Psalm that celebrates and points to the fact that God is evidenced and glorified through his creation.

And we’re going to explore different evidences for God’s existence based on science and reason, we’re going to explore evidences for the historical Jesus, and we’ll look at manuscript evidence for the biblical documents.

The goal being: To build your faith. In the healing journey, we’ve all suffered, and for some of us, it’s left us with doubts, making us wonder if God is really there. The goal of this message is to arm you with truths that will guard and protect your faith in God.

Psalm 19:1 says, “1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

The heavens are making a statement. They are declaring something, something about the nature of reality itself.

Last Sunday Chelsey and I were sitting on a bench up on a hill that overlooks part of the city. It was about 8 at night, and we had the amazing opportunity to watch the full moon rise above the city.

One need only look up and a question comes to mind: Where did all this come from?

For many years scientists believed that perhaps the universe itself was infinite, that it had always been there. And this would mean there would be no need for a creator.

But, this possibility was quashed by Edwin Hubble who observed the red shift of galaxies in his telescope. There were numerous other observations by scientists like Arvind Borde, Alan Guth, and Alexander Vilenkin that confirmed that our universe has a definite starting point. This is how the big bang theory was developed.

One of the most powerful evidences that God is really real, is the cosmological argument, which says:

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

2. The universe began to exist

3. Therefore the universe must have a cause

This cause can’t be itself, the universe can’t create itself that illogical, therefore it must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, uncaused, and incredibly powerful.

Do you know who fits that description? God.

When you look up at the sky, when you look at photos from the Hubble telescope, or the James Web telescope, it reminds us that there is an incredibly complex universe of stars and galaxies out there. It reminds us that these things haven’t always been there, because they are diminishing in energy, so where did it all come from? What’s the original unmoved mover for the entire universe in which we inhabit? Where did it come from?

Many make the case that the big bang, banged from nothing into something. How can nothing become something? It’s not logical.

The most logical explanation of the existence of our universe, is that God designed it and created it.

When talking to someone who doesn’t believe in God, you can always ask them the question, where do you think the universe came from?

Let’s keep going, verse 2, “Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”

We don’t have to just look at the starting point, to see evidence of God’s handiwork. We can see it throughout the system, not just at it's genesis. I tend to appreciate this evidence for God’s existence even more, because there’s just so much evidence here it’s nearly endless.

You can look into the telescope, and look into the universe again and find what many call examples of the fine tuning of the universe to allow for life.

One of these examples is the gravitation constant, in other words, gravity. That’s the most common, it is tuned to a specific reading that allows for life in our universe, if it was tuned just a little differently, slightly less gravity, slightly more, no life would exist in the universe.

Here is list of twelve of these finely tuned functions of our universe:

Strong nuclear force constant

Weak nuclear force constant

Gravitational force constant

Electromagnetic force constant

Ratio of electromagnetic force constant to gravitational force constant

Ratio of proton to electron mass

Ratio of number of protons to number of electrons

Ratio of proton to electron charge

Expansion rate of the universe

Mass density of the universe

Baryon (proton and neutron) density of the universe

Space energy or dark energy density of the universe

That’s twelve of them, there are actually 140 that we’re aware of.

That’s one angle, through the telescope looking outward at the universe.



A second angle is looking downward through the microscope at DNA. DNA is so incredibly complex, and functions as a code of information within every life form on planet Earth.

It would be like looking at every computer system on our planet and seeing the binary code that was used. Binary is 1s and 0s. That’s it. Of course we know it was designed by humans.

In DNA we find four letters, adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). A coding system, incredibly more complex than our computer systems, written into our own bodies and every life form on Earth, storing untold amounts of information.

The DNA coding system within all life is such a powerful evidence for God’s existence. When we see all this complexity, we have to inevitably assume, that it was designed.

Next, verses 3-4: (Referring to the heavens still…)
“3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”

The evidence around us isn’t actually speaking to us in English saying look God exists, yet, it does speak in another language, the language of logic. If this humming bird exists, who made it? Where did it come from? If that star exists where did it come from?

But there is another language being spoken in the world constantly. Again it’s not necessarily a language like English or French, but it is something we all instinctually understand, everyone everywhere.

It is the language of morals and principles. And here we find another key explanation of God’s existence.

If we find in the world a universal moral law, things that are always right and always wrong, then we can infer certain things about reality. What do we mean by an objective morality? For example, to kill a child is always wrong. Racism is always wrong. Rape is always wrong.

We all know this in our hearts and in our minds, that we live in a moral universe, where there is right and wrong.

If there is an objective moral law, there must be a moral law giver.

If God does not exist, there is no basis for an objective moral law. Anything goes. Nothing is right or wrong. It's all subjective.

Without God all we have is one person or another persons random view point. But we all know instinctually that moral precepts do exist, they are not subjective but object, whenever we say, “hey that’s not fair!” we are affirming our belief in object right and wrong.

The Moral argument for God’s existence goes like this: If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

Objective moral values and duties do exist.

Therefore, God exists.

Otherwise, there’s no basis for objective morals, without a creator to give them.

Next, Psalm 19: 4-6: “In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.”

Just as the sun in the sky is something we don’t even think about each day, but it’s up there, and without it we couldn’t see a thing…Similarly, Jesus Christ, the son of God, the word says, holds the universe together by his mighty power.

Jesus during his earthly ministry was a champion rejoicing to run his course. And so we want to look to that course, because it’s little help to simply prove that God exists. Because it doesn’t prove that it’s actually the God of the bible.

So another form of evidence we have to consider is the historical evidence for Jesus Christ of Nazareth.



Every historian aside from those far on the fringes believe that Jesus of Nazareth existed, lived, was a Jewish rabbi, and was crucified. Anyone who tells you that Jesus never existed knows nothing about history. There are 40 historical sources that cite Jesus of Nazareth in some form or fashion, sources include the Babylonian Talmud, Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Thallus, Phlegon, on and on the list goes. These are non-Christian sources.

The emperor of Rome at the time of Jesus was Augustus, but he is only mentioned by 10 historical sources. Jesus is listed by 40.

So it’s historically irrefutable that Jesus lived, was a Jewish rabbi, and died by crucifixion. But the real question is, did Jesus really rise from the dead? If he did, then Christianity is true. Without a doubt.

We know from history that Jesus’ tomb was found to be empty 3 days after he died. We know that Christianity from that moment, rocketed out in the next three hundred years to become the most important religion in the Roman empire. We know that the 12 disciples of Jesus, all faced martyrdom for their declaration that Jesus was alive. And we know that all of them aside from John who was exiled, gave up their lives without ever changing their minds. Why would they die for a lie? If they were lying that Jesus rose from the grave, wouldn’t they admit it to avoid being killed? But none of them changed their story. They were killed for their testimony that Jesus was alive.

The Apostle Paul is also an astonishing case, a man who went from pursuing and arresting Christians, to becoming a leader of the Christians, because he encountered the risen Jesus. Same with Jesus’ brother James, who went from rejecting his brother’s ministry, to a leader of the church, because he encountered the risen Jesus.

We have clear historical evidence from the testimony of history, from biblical and non-biblical sources that tell us Jesus certainly existed, certainly died by crucifixion, and there is clear evidence that he also rose from the dead.

When I learned all this, through many presentations and books and speakers, I was angry. I was angry because the public education system, the university system, and our entire media driven society had conspired to keep this information away from me. Not because there was some underhanded conspiracy necessarily, but, because we as humans suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because we don’t like where it leads.

Lastly, verse 7, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.” 

We’ve seen how fine tuning and the first cause explanation prove that God is real. We’ve seen how the historical Jesus is a reality, and the evidence indicates that he really did rise from the dead. Lastly we come to the Bible itself.

Can we trust the Bible? Are the documents reliable? Or have they been changed over time? Here we get so many conspiracy theories, they suggest that certain books of the bible were removed by the catholic church, or that the bible was changed over time, or that the bible is based on pagan myths, all sorts of theories that honestly have very little if any evidence.

So let us look briefly at the manuscript evidence for the Bible, and the attestation of the dead sea scrolls.

Manuscript evidence as a discipline is based around different factors, like how many ancient copies we have of historical documents, and how closely they are dated to the time when the events actually took place. Let’s look at some examples of other ancient manuscripts and then compare them to the Bible.

For Tacitus’s annals we have 36 manuscript copies, dated to about 700 years after the events.

For Plato’s Tetralogies, we have 210 manuscript copies, dated to about 1200 years after the events.

For Homer’s Iliad, we have 643 manuscript copies, dated to about 400 years after Homer lived.

For the New Testament of the Bible, 5,800 manuscripts in Greek, and another 19,000 in other languages, some of the manuscripts within 30-60 years of the actual events. For the Old Testament we have about 14,000 in the Hebrew or Aramaic, and about 17,000 if you count other languages (Greek Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta) as well. 

When considering ancient historical documents, there is no other document with as much manuscript evidence, so close to the actual events, as the Bible. It’s not even close. The Bible is an astonishing document, there is no other document like it in history.

But what if the documents were changed? Since we have manuscripts from within 30-60 years of the actual events of Jesus life, it’s unlikely that they’ve been changed. The reason for that is those involved in the events would've still been alive and could verify the events that took place. Paul mentioned this in 1st Corinthians 15 sharing that a crowd of 500 people had seen Jesus risen from the grave, and many were still alive. He even encouraged those in Corinth to interview the witnesses if they wanted. 

We also have the dead sea scrolls. These sat in a cave for two thousand years. And when they were discovered in 1947, we compared them to the old testament we have now, and it matched. Nothing had been changed. 

We have the ancient manuscripts. We have documents that prove the Old Testament wasn’t changed. The new testament is dated within 30-60 years of the events themselves. The case is clear: The bible can be trusted.

In conclusion today, let all these facts fuel your faith. When you’re tempted to doubt, remember yourself that all of these facts cumulatively built together prove that Christianity is true beyond a reasonable doubt.

And we have just barely scratched the surface as well friends, there are numerous other evidences in archaeology, personal testimonies, fulfilled prophecies, and so much more.

How will all of this help in your healing journey? That’s an excellent question. One of the biggest problems we have in the church is unbelief. We don’t really believe God’s word like we should. We are so surrounded by other influences we struggle to see the world from a biblical perspective. But, when we see the evidence for Christianity, it builds our faith. We begin to see the entire world as an expression of God’s presence and power. And when we start to really believe, we start to really trust. And when we believe God’s word, it becomes activated in our lives. And when it becomes activated and we really believe it, it changes us, and we find healing.

Review of Main Points:
1. Humanity has suppressed the truth in unrighteousness - we must search for it

2. The Cosmological Argument - proves the universe needs a creator at the beginning

3. The Fine Tuning Argument - the evidence for God in DNA and the design of the universe is ongoing evidence He is real

4. The Moral Argument - objective morals is proof God exists

5. The Historical Jesus - 40 sources confirm the historical Jesus

6. Manuscript Evidence - thousands of sources confirm the biblical documents

7. All of this leads to Deep Faith - we can intelligently believe that our God is real and His word is true

Dead Sea Scrolls Isaiah copy

Dead Sea Scrolls in the cave