Share Your Thoughts: John MacArthur on God's Existence

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I follow C.S. Lewis on Twitter. Yes, you read that correctly. You can follow him here. He (read that tongue and cheek please) tweeted the following quote from Pastor John MacArthur that I found intriguing.

“To the honest and open mind, God is self-evident.” ―John MacArthur

God being self-evident has long fascinated me and I was curious to hear your thoughts.  I will share my thoughts at a later date.

Do you agree with Pastor MacArthur or not?  Why or why not? Please share in the comments!  All views are welcomed as long as they are stated charitably.

Courage and Godspeed,
Chad

Comments

Anonymous said…
I would take John MacArthur's use of "Self-evident" to mean one of two things: 1.) if we are sincerely seeking God then He will make His existence known to us. or 2.) God has revealed Himself through human reason. I take John to mean the former and to that I would say I agree! God certainly will to an honest truth seeker. But, if I may make a statement about the latter notion. I think that God has indeed revealed Himself through human reason but in a generic way. I don't think I could, a priori, determine that God was Jesus Christ. But, I do think that we could determine that God does exist simply by reflecting and asking ourselves about the foundation of reason (i.e. where does reason come from? What is it's ontological foundation) and to that I would want to say that God is the best explanation of such.
May 14, 2015 at 4:16 PM
jdh2010 said…
Romans 1:19 is sufficient to prove God's existence is evident. "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them."
May 14, 2015 at 8:37 PM
Duane Caldwell said…
I agree that the existence of God is self-evident. That is the clear testimony of scripture (Rom 1.20)

The only time God and his existence is not self-evident is when people in an effort to justify their sin and rebellion against God, chose to deny the testimony of their conscience, ignore the testimony of the creation, and deny the evidences God has placed all around us - such as the strong evidence of literally design everywhere: from the universe - to the tiniest cell. (Not to mention the testimony of scripture.) All this in an attempt to deny their sin.

In so doing they deny God; in their desire to live in their sin, they elect to live apart from God. Thus their mind is not truly "open and honest" - they have already made a choice - to deny God and his testimony.

That is why Jesus speaks of "blessed are the poor in spirit" because such have realized they are sinful and empty apart from God. They realize that in trying to hide their sin from God, all they achieve is to hide them-self from God. Whether they realize it or not, they are making the same choice Adam did, electing to hide from God at the recognition of their sin rather than confess to God - which will mean repentance - something they desperately do not want to do.

God is indeed self-evident - and no amount of denial will ever change that obvious fact.
May 14, 2015 at 10:03 PM
Anonymous said…
I don't agree with him that God's existence is self-evident. If that were true, any honest atheist who was made aware of what we mean by "God" would see at once that he exists (so we would have to assume that every atheist was dishonest or else ignorant of the meaning of the word "God", neither of which I can accept in good faith). I believe that God's existence is evident (i.e. can be demonstrated by reason) but not self-evident.
May 31, 2015 at 9:34 AM
Anonymous said…
I think, in view of the way God is defined in Scripture - as the Creator and foundation of all things - then John's comment is right on. We live in buildings, and though we might not think about it, the foundation is "self-evident."
June 8, 2015 at 8:40 AM
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