Q: What is the best way to demonstrate belief's credibility?

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7. What are some ways of demonstrating belief’s credibility?

The tradition refers to them as “Way”s of reasoning such that God is the most credible conclusion. Importantly, these ways function to show believers in the God of the Bible that, though belief in the true God is possible only on the basis of God’s revelation and so beyond the limits of reason, belief in the true God is not itself irrational. Thus, these ways of demonstrating belief’s credibility serve to assure believers rather than convert unbelievers.

These ways derive from God’s self-revelation as Being itself in Exodus: “I Am He Who Is.”

That is, “I AM Is-ness.”

These ways include:

The First Mover

Some things have been moved. All things that are moved are moved by a mover. An infinite regress of movers is impossible

Therefore:

There is an Unmoved Mover beyond creation from whom all motion proceeds.

This Mover is what we call God.

The First Cause

Some things are caused.

Everything that is caused is caused by something else.

An infinite regression of causation is impossible.

Therefore:

There must be an Uncaused Cause of all that is caused.

This Cause is what we call God.

Contingency

No things in the universe must necessarily exist; that is, all things are contingent beings.

It is impossible for everything in the universe to be contingent because something cannot come of nothing, and, if traced back, eventually there must have been one thing from which all others have occurred.

Therefore:

There must be a Necessary Being whose existence is not contingent on any other being or beings.

This Necessary Being is whom we call God.

Beauty

In all creatures and objects there is found some degree of beauty.

Something is called beautiful according to its nearness to some principal of beauty.

Therefore:

If an object possesses the property of beauty to a lesser extent, then there exists an entity which possesses the property of beauty to a maximal degree.

Therefore:

This Infinite Beauty we call God.

Telos

All natural bodies in the world act towards ends.

These objects are in themselves unintelligent.

Acting towards an end is characteristic of Intelligence.

Therefore:

There exists an Intelligent Being that guides all natural bodies towards their ends.

This Intelligent Being is whom we call God.

8. What is the best way to demonstrate belief’s credibility?

Testimony.

The true God has made himself known, and revealed his name to be neither Beauty nor First Cause nor even, generically, God.

The true God is Israel’s Lord and Jesus’s Father.

The true God is Israel’s Servant Jesus and the Father’s Son.

The true God is their bond of love, the Spirit.

The true God is Trinity, the God who raised Jesus from the dead having first rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt.

Thus, God is not rightly named as Unmoved Mover, for the true God is a happening—the happening in which and from which all things unfold.

Therefore:

The best way to demonstrate belief’s credibility is to bear witness to how this God happens.

For example, “I know Jesus is alive because I have met him.”

Or, “I know that God exists because last Sunday someone spoke the gospel to me, and it promises what only God can promise.”

“He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.”

— Matthew 28.6

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