- There are fairies living at the bottom of my garden.
You’re joking! Have you seen them?
No, but I believe they do.
- There’s a flying spaghetti monster orbiting Saturn.
You’re kidding! I’ve read no scientific articles or journals reporting on that.
Well, that doesn’t mean it’s not true …. I believe it is true.
The question of whether one can prove the existence or non-existence of God is one of the most debated and contested topics in the history of philosophy, religion, and science and is still keeping philosophers, theologians and academics very busy, and in business.
During the course of a life-time, I have argued on both sides of the discussion, but in the final analysis, it came down to real-life outcomes in real-life circumstances with real-life people. For me in the first instance, the question of whether God exists or not, hinged on the question of whether he stands behind the multitude of promises he makes to his trusting flock in his unerring, truthful and everlasting WORD, the Bible. I quote an excerpt from Faith: Full Circle:
“The Bible is full of God-given promises, and the vast majority of these promises relate to the lives of real people living here and now on earth. ….. Moreover, most of the promises are of a physical, practical, and worldly nature: do this, and you and your progeny will live a life of abundance (harvests will overflow, land/children/ sheep/goats will multiply greatly); do that, and you will live a joyful life and inherit the earth; do this and that, and you and your progeny will be blessed, will be called sons of God, will see God and will receive the reign of God on earth. If you have faith, you can achieve anything in the name of God: move mountains, walk on water, heal sick people, etc. I looked at all these promises and considered them in terms of the central and unique message of the Bible, and came to the logical conclusion:
If I accept and confess Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour, give my life over to his Biblical guidance, and try my very best to follow in his footsteps, serve him, honour him, pray to and worship him, I will become a better/ happier person, and if I can convince others in my sphere of influence to do the same then my family will become a better/happier family, my community will become a better/happier community, my nation will become a better/ happier nation, and our whole western civilisation will become a better/ happier civilisation and a shining example to the unbelieving and unhappy rest of the world, who do not (yet) share our experience of exquisite joy, wellbeing, compassion, inner peace and lives overflowing with happiness.
I believed this for a long time, tried to convince others of this, and did my bit to contribute to achieving this outcome.
My disillusionment was profound – it did not work!
It did not make me a better/happier person, nor my family, nor my community, nor my country, nor the western world, which built its civilisation on Christian values.
Here’s the thing, though: it worked for me. It always worked for me. But it did not work for so many other much better people than me. During my twenty-five years in the Edleen church congregation, I was intimately involved with the lives and the ups and downs of many congregation members and some Gideon brothers who ran into serious problems, such as financial, health, mental, trauma, etc. I prayed with many of these people, seriously seeking the face of God in the matters that weighed them and their families down (reminding God of his promises, as he challenges us to do in his Word). It was the experience I had with two such family cases in Edleen which shook the foundations of my trust in God to the core.
I would say that these experiences led to the first major turning point in my “faith career”. ….. ”
Faith: Full Circle, Bruwer Swanepoel, 2021
I EVENTUALLY CONCLUDED THAT IF GOD EXISTS, HE CERTAINLY HAS NO INTEREST IN KEEPING HIS PROMISES TO THE CROWN OF HIS CREATION.
“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.”
Shakespeare, King Lear, 4.1.37-38
