Have you ever had someone say that if you would just show them enough evidence for God’s existence, they would believe? Atheists often say this, but do they really mean it? Well, I’ve found that, in most instances, they don’t.

Why do I say this? Well, what you will often find is that when you give them evidence that confirms there’s an intelligence—a Creator—behind life or the universe, they will claim it’s not evidence at all and just reinterpret it within their secular worldview.

Here’s an example. I have often appealed to the existence of the molecule of heredity, DNA, which makes it obvious life had to have been created by an intelligence and couldn’t have arisen by natural processes. After all, DNA is a complex information and language system. Information and languages cannot arise from matter by natural processes. And yet, when challenged with this example, I find secularists scoff and claim that DNA did arise by natural processes even if they can’t prove it right now.

So, what evidence for God would they be prepared to accept? Well, I’ve sometimes asked atheists the following, and I’ve had quite a number who have responded with something like, “If there’s a God, then why doesn’t he show himself to us? If God did that, then I would believe.”

My answer to that is this, “Well, he did come to earth and showed himself to people, but the majority still rejected him. In fact, they crucified him on a cross.” I explain that the Bible states that God stepped into history in the person of his Son to become a (perfect) man (the God-man). During his time on earth, he showed himself to us and dealt with a problem we all have—sin. He provided the solution to our sin problem by dying in our place and being raised from the dead. And even though there were “many proofs” (Acts 1:3) of his resurrection, most still rejected him.

Remember what Jesus said to Philip in John 14:9, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” Yes, God did show himself to us—and he still speaks to his people every day through his Word!

God’s Word tells us, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Yes, a person is without excuse if they don’t believe.

When I debated Bill Nye “The Science Guy” in 2014, one of the questions that was asked during the Q&A at the end concerned what evidence we would be prepared to accept to show our position was wrong. I answered, “None,” simply because I am committed to my stand on God’s Word as truth. Certainly, models based on my foundation are subject to change, but the foundation itself is not. Bill Nye answered by saying if someone found an out-of-place fossil, he would be prepared to question his evolutionary belief. Well, he wasn’t being truthful, as I had already given such an example in my presentation and he obviously rejected it. In other words, he was just as committed to his foundation that man determines truth as I was committed to my foundation that God’s Word is truth.

At a conference where I talked on Noah’s ark and the flood a few years ago, an atheist said to me, “I don’t care if they find a big boat on Mt. Ararat and drag it down the main street. I will not believe in Noah’s ark.” That reminds me of the scoffers in 2 Peter 3 who “willingly reject” (or deliberately disbelieve) creation and the flood.

And this isn’t a new problem! Think about the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The religious leaders wanted to kill Lazarus to get rid of the evidence (see John 11)!

Now, this doesn’t mean evidence isn’t important—it’s very important to give answers for what we believe as Christians (1 Peter 3:15), but in doing this, we should always be directing people to the Word of God that saves.

We can’t save people ourselves and neither can the evidence! Only God’s Word by God’s Spirit can save.

Romans 10:17 KJV – “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Editor’s Note: Willingly Ignorant?

Bible Prophecy serves as remarkable proof of God’s divinity and the relevance and authority of Scripture. Jesus explained the purpose of revealing events yet to come, saying, “I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe” (John 14:19).

While fulfilled prophecy opens the eyes of many, there are some who adamantly reject this proof of God for their own purposes. Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophesies during his first coming. It was this fulfillment of prophecy that caused and still causes many to come to the saving knowledge of the truth. Despite this, many Jewish leaders refused to recognize Him as their promised Messiah and advocated for Him to be killed.

Likewise, following the Rapture of the church and the commencement of the Tribulation, “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” will see the reality of Biblical Prophecy and be saved for eternity. During this same period of time others will harden themselves further against the Lord and be given strong delusion to believe the deception of the antichrist.

As Ham noted in the above article, many are willfully ignorant in their rejection of the truth:

2 Peter 3:3-7 KJV – “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

So what, then, are Believers to do?

2 Timothy 3:24-26 KJV – “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”