The Mouth of the Lord Hath Spoken It

God’s Self-Existence in the Prophets

4 min

When we say that Jehovah is “self-existent,” we are implying that the God of the Bible does not need to prove or explain His existence. In Christian apologetics (the defense of the truth), there are three main streams of thought regarding God’s self-existence.

Evidential Apologetics

This line of reasoning sets out to prove the existence of God to skeptical minds through logical arguments and the evidence that mankind can observe in Creation. Some examples of modern advocates of evidential apologetics are John Warwick Montgomery and Henry Morris. A few lines of argument that are used by evidential apologetics include the geological evidence of Noah’s Flood; the irreducible complexity of DNA; the marvel of the flight of birds and insects; or the archaeological evidence of Biblical events, such as the Exodus, the campaigns of Joshua, or the conquest by Babylon.

Classical Apologetics

This school of thought assumes common ground with unbelieving and secular philosophers. It seeks to prove the existence of God by means of logical arguments. Men, such as Thomas Aquinas and G. K. Chesterton, relied on classical apologetics in explaining and proving the existence of God.

Their arguments supporting God’s existence included four primary ideas. The teleological argument stated that a purposeful design in the universe demands a Divine Designer. The ontological argument asserted that the very notion of God calls for an actual God Who exists. The moral argument declared that objective moral values call for a God Who reveals them. Finally, the cosmological argument explained that the existence of the universe demands the existence of God.

Presuppositional Apologetics

The third type of apologetics is the line of thought that takes the high ground that God exists. It “presupposes” the existence and purpose of God without seeking to prove His existence or the veracity of the Bible. Some advocates of this method include Cornelius Van Til and Greg Bahnsen. These scholars assumed that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God and therefore take the Scripture as the foundation of all truth.

In analyzing these schools of thought, it is important to recognize that our Lord Jesus often used different avenues of teaching with different men. For example, He spoke to Nicodemus in John 3 in a very different way than He spoke to the woman at the well in John 4. There may be times when a skeptical man or woman can be won to the truth by means of evidence or by logical reasoning. Because the Apostle Peter called us to be “ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (I Peter 3:15), we should familiarize ourselves with these apologetics so that we can be able defenders of God’s truth in the face of an unbelieving world.

The Apostle Paul skillfully employed various arguments for God’s existence. In at least one instance, he used several apologetic avenues in his evangelism. When Paul stood on Mars Hill among the Greek philosophers in Athens, he carefully used logical reasoning to bring them to the truth as would a classical apologist. He pointed to the wonder of Creation as would an evidential apologist. But he also took the high ground and assumed the self-existence of God as would a presuppositional apologist, declaring of the Unknown God, “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you” (Acts 17:23).

As we examine the Scriptures, while recognizing that evidence and logic are effective tools for persuading the minds of some scoffers, we find that the presuppositional apologetic is the one that the prophets of the Old Testament, as well as the apostles of the New Testament, used over and over again.

In Genesis 1, God does not set about to prove His Own existence. He simply declares, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). In the land of Egypt, God declared Himself to the children of Israel with the name “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). On Mount Sinai, God authoritatively gave His Law without using any logical arguments, declaring, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2–3).

In the witness of the prophets, the Lord often undergirds His statements, not with evidence nor with logic, but with a self-sufficient statement of the presuppositional authority of His Word: “for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5 and Micah 4:4, emphasis added).

When Jehovah rebuked Israel for their hypocrisy and rebellion in Isaiah 1, the Lord promised destruction if His people did not repent. “But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 1:20, emphasis added).

When the Lord promised to send His Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem His people, He verified His promise not with rational argument nor evidence, but with a statement of His own veracity. Those words of the Almighty were made famous by Handel’s Messiah. “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5, emphasis added).

Upon the repentance of His people, the Lord promised a blessing with these words of assurance: “Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 58:14, emphasis added).

In the Book of Micah, Jehovah spoke of the glorious “last days” of the Messianic Kingdom when “the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains” (Micah 4:1). In that same proclamation, He also gave this promise: “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it” (Micah 4:4, emphasis added).

As God’s children, we can be very grateful that we serve a self-existent God Who has spoken to us by His Own mouth in words that are absolutely reliable forever. May God give us the confidence to affirm and boldly proclaim to our unbelieving friends and family that indeed “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”!

This article is from our Matters of Life & Death teaching series.

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