How Can We Be Sure God Exists?

¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth— ²Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. ³And God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light.

⁶By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. ⁷He gathered the waters of the sea like a heap. He put the deeps in storehouses. ⁸Let all the earth fear Yahweh. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

¹⁸For thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens, he is God, who formed the earth and who made it. He himself established it; he did not create it as emptiness— he formed it for inhabiting. “I am Yahweh and there is none besides me. ¹⁹I have spoken not in secrecy, in a place, a land, of darkness, I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain!’ I, Yahweh, am speaking righteousness, declaring uprightness. ²⁰Assemble and come; draw near together, survivors of the nations! They do not know, those who carry their wooden idols and pray to a god who cannot save.

¹²He is the maker of the earth by his power, who created the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out heaven. ¹³When he utters his voice there is a noise of water in the heavens, and he causes the mist to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he causes the wind to go out from his storehouses. ¹⁴Everyone is stupid, without knowledge, every goldsmith is ashamed by his divine image, for his cast image is an illusion, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁶For people swear by what is greater than themselves, and the oath for confirmation is the end of all dispute for them. ¹⁷In the same way God, because he wanted to show even more to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his resolve, guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸in order that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge may have powerful encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us,

⁴For whatever was written beforehand was written for our instruction, in order that through patient endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. ⁵Now may the God of patient endurance and of encouragement grant you to be in agreement with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, ⁶so that with one mind you may glorify with one mouth the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.