Does God Exist?

Contents

 

1. Existence of Soul

2. Limit of Science

3. About the Bible

4. God’s Prophecies

5. The Reason of Difficulty to understand the Bible

6. 6,000 Years’ Work

7. The Ruler of this World

8. Soldiers of Heaven

9. The saved

 

There has been much discussion of God’s existence, however a lot of people don’t believe God’s existing, and they raise a question even if God exists why they have to follow only the God in Christianity.

 

At first, let’s think of the existence of soul.

 

1. Existence of Soul

 

People say they don’t believe in soul because they didn’t have any spiritual experiences. However even they didn’t have the experiences they can’t say there is no soul because there are many people who have had the experiences.

 

The easiest way to accept the existence of soul is out-of-body experience. There are so many people who experienced out-of-body in the world.

 

Many people also experienced such an experience in this church (Holy Eden Church). Deaconess Jung attended first this church in 1980, and she heard the word soul first at her first attendance of service. She thought all day what soul was, and when she went to bed at night the thought came to mind again. At very that time she raised up to ceiling, and she saw her body lay down on the floor. She got to know the body was not herself. The being who was seeing the body, that is who had the sense, was herself. That is soul. Body is just shell. When the body is worn-out, we take off it and leave.

 

In another example, Dr. Baek attended this church first in 1986 and had many spiritual experiences from that night through three months, and had two times of out-of-body experience. One night he lay to sleep and felt he left his body, suddenly fluorescent lamp was just in front of his eyes. Then in an instant he raised up on clouds. As he felt fear, he came back to his body.

 

If you search out-of-body or near death experiences, you can see easily many cases. Out of them there are doctors or scientists of various categories. Most of them had not acknowledged soul before the experiences, but they had to acknowledge they could not explain all these just with science.

 

2. Limit of Science

 

Many people say if God is proved scientifically they would believe it. They think God should be the object of research of science. But that couldn’t be. The reason is that the object of research of science can only be what can be detected physically. Soul can not be detected physically. Flesh is simpler and poorer than soul. Soul can see flesh but flesh can not see soul.

 

However people see souls sometimes. At that time what sees the souls is not the fleshly eye. In this case, we say spiritual eyes open. We can not ordinarily see souls because just the spiritual eyes do not open.

 

In the Bible there are many people who saw spirits with opened spiritual eyes. At the time of Elisha the prophet of Israel, the king of Aram the neighbor country of Israel tried to kill the king of Israel but failed because Elisha warned him all the time. Because of that the king of Aram hated Elisha and sent army to capture him. A servant of Elisha woke up in the morning and saw the army of Aram, and afraid of them and told it to him.

 

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-17)

 

The servant was opened his spiritual eyes due to Elisha’s prayer and saw angels safeguarding Elisha. God protects his servants like this. Prophets are those who interact with God. They see spirits and experience spiritually. God sends his angels to them or gives them prophecies in their visions.

 

3. About the Bible

 

Next let’s discuss God’s existence. People say that to say God exists with the Bible is circular logic. They say they can’t approve God with such a logic like God exists so his words are in the Bible, God’s words are in the Bible so God exists.

 

The reason they don’t believe in God in the Bible is that they think the story was made by people. They think to say God exists with the Bible is same to say someone exists because he is in a novel. However what they ignore is that the Bible is not written by only one person.

 

The oldest story of writing book in the Bible is the story of the war with Amalek which God ordered for Moses to write.

 

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." (Exodus 17:14)

 

At Moses’ time, Israelites came out from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, and on the way to Mount Sinai Amalekites came to fight. Moses sent Joshua to fight and Joshua defeated Amalekites. God ordered Moses to write the fact on a book, and said that he would destroy them in the future.

 

What written at last in the Bible is known as the Gospel of John which was written after he wrote the Book of Revelation. That was in 96 around, and it was 1542 years after Moses wrote the story of the war with Amalek in 1446 B.C. The Bible is gathering of books written by more than 40 people, and not written by one in one age.

 

4. God’s Prophecies

 

The difference of the Bible from a novel is that it has prophecies. God called people in his need and let them prophesy. And God fulfills them later. Many of God’s prophecies had been fulfilled already, and some are been fulfilling now, and some will be fulfilled in the future. All of these prophecies are fulfilled according to God’s schedule.

 

One of those which were prophesied and fulfilled is the case that Judah was destroyed by Babylon and dragged as captives and came back in 70 years. The people of Judah worshiped idols and rejected God and did evil, so God could not see those things and wanted to punish them with Babylon if they had not turned from their evil ways. But they ignored God’s warning. Eventually God destroyed Judah later. At that time God said to bring them back in 70 years.

 

This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. (Jeremiah 29:10)

 

At the hour arranged, God helped Cyrus king of Persia to destroy Babylon (refer to Isaiah 44:28-45:14). Then Cyrus let the people of Judah go back to their homeland.

 

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: "'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you--may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.'" (2 Chronicles 36:22-23)

 

It is a historical fact that Persia destroyed Babylon and Cyrus let Jewish people go back. Jeremiah informed God’s prophecy to let them come back in 70 years before Judah was destroyed, and they came back to Jerusalem in 70 years as God said. This is one example which shows God’s giving a prophecy and making it fulfilled.

 

However more important prophecies are not fulfilled in short period like this. Some prophecies need hundreds of years, or two thousand years, or four thousand years. Those things could not be explained if God was not alive.

 

For another example, God called Moses to fulfill the prophecy after about 650 years from the time at which God gave it to Abraham. God prepared Moses 80 years to make him a prophet. After he spent 40 years at court of Egypt and 40 years in desert of Midian, he was called by God.

 

When Abraham received God’s promise of giving him many descendants and letting them live in Canaan, he wanted it guaranteed.

 

But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" (Genesis 15:8)

 

Then God let him know some of his plan.

 

Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." (Genesis 15:13-16)

 

The reason God would give Abraham many descendants is to make a war with them to punish the sin of Amory, that is the sin of Canaan. In due time would God send plagues to Egypt and make Israelites come out, and with them he would make a war to destroy Canaan, and the one who was chosen to do the work was Moses.

 

But Moses rejected to do the work when God gave him the mission.

 

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11)

 

God told him not to worry to go there because he would be with him, and showed him some miracles like changing a staff into a snake. Yet Moses kept himself aloof from going there to say he had never been eloquent, then God burst with anger.

But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." Then the LORD'S anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. (Exodus 4:13-15)

Unavoidably Moses brought out Israelites from Egypt with Aaron his brother. God had been preparing it for hundreds of years and he could not give it up only with Moses’ rejection.

 

5. The Reason of Difficulty to understand the Bible

 

Even God shows some prophetic things in visions, it is not that prophets know of the meaning. An angel showed Daniel many things but he could not understand those and asked the angel to explain. However the angel did not explain.

 

I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, "My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?" He replied, "Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. (Daniel 12:8-9)

 

The angel did not explain because there is a being who should not know those before the time comes. The being is the Devil. God’s aim is to destroy the Devil, and the prophecies in the Bible show the plan, so God can not give those to let the Devil know.

 

Even the Devil can not know of those, then can ordinary people or even theologians know of those with only reading? Not being able to know is natural. Therefore even if reading the Bible, having belief is not easy.

 

Then why did God left prophecies which could not be understandable? The reason is to show that those are God’s work when the person to do the work come out. God has to explain what the person has to do. Therefore he gets to be able to witness biblically what he is doing is God’s work.

 

Likewise, those who were prophesied to do God’s scheduled work are only four. Two of them are John the Baptist and Jesus the son of God coming out two thousand years ago, and the last two are the two olive trees who came out in this age. Please refer to the articles “When will Jesus Come Again?” and “The Two Olive Trees in Zechariah and Revelations” for the explanation of the olive tree.

 

6. 6,000 Years’ Work

 

One of the reason people can’t believe the Bible is that the Bible says the history of humanity is in 6,000 years. Before science was developed people accepted the stories in the Bible as it says, they thought humanity started 6,000 years ago. However nowadays science shows the university started 13.8 billion years ago, and anthropoid 10 million years ago at least, and modern humans 200 thousand years ago.

 

Then why does the Bible say God’s creation was started 6,000 years ago? The age God told the stories in Genesis is thousands years ago from now. Modern science started to be developed from 400 years ago, and the age of the universe is known just in decades.

 

When God told people who lived thousands years ago, the intelligence of humans was limited. Even if God had told the vast universe and time as we know now, they could not understand those. God just told important things, and omitted mid-process in which there were not special things. Thus God connected Adam the first man to Cain lived in 6,000 years ago.

 

After Adam the first man got to live in this world, his descendants had been living in a primitive life, and through the Stone Age and the Bronze Age the intelligence of humans was developed, so God chose Cain and Abel to start his work at that time. Therefore 6,000 years is not the time of the history of humanity but the time God has been working with humans.

 

Lee Young-soo the leader of Holy Eden Church was curious of the lives of people after Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden, so asked God to see those. God showed him the primitive lives of the descendants of Adam in his vision. The people at that time were taller than us as higher than 250cm, and went around in scores to hunt, and then beasts were much bigger than those of nowadays. In the sky were big birds flying, they were so big as to catch people and fly, and their wingspan looked over 8 meters. This story is in his booklet "Visions of God."

 

People think Adam was created in flesh, but the Bible does not say so. Adam lived in the Garden of Eden in which the tree of life was. Jesus said it is the paradise.

 

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9)

 

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Revelations 2:7)

 

Then Paul the apostle had been there two thousand years ago, and he said it was the third heaven.

 

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. (2 Corinthians 12:1-4)

 

Therefore the Garden of Eden in which Adam had lived before he was expelled is in the third heaven, that is the world of God. At that time Adam did not have a fleshly body. After Adam was expelled, God let angels guard the Garden of Eden for Adam not to come in again. (Genesis 3:24) After Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden, he was governed by the Devil, and afterward we live on earth with flesh as his descendants. However humanity was not flesh originally, and when we take off our body we become a spirit and have to go to the spiritual world.

 

7. The Ruler of this World

 

People blame God for a lot of wars and famine and natural disasters in this world. They think if there is God, he has to take the responsibility. But the being ruling this world now is the subordinate of Satan, whose name is “the great prostitute.”

 

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries." (Revelations 17:1-2)

 

This prostitute sits on many waters, and makes kings and the inhabitants of the earth filthy with adultery. The waters, where the prostitute sits, are people of the world.

 

Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. (Revelations 17:15)

 

This prostitute tempted Jesus in the desert.

 

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." (Luke 4:5-7)

 

This devil tempted Jesus three times, and one of those was that if Jesus worshiped him he would give the authority of all the nations. And he said there was another one who give the authority to him. He is Satan.

 

If people die on earth, the prostitute’s subordinates, devils, take the souls to their world, Hades. Therefore at the Last Judgment will the souls of the dead come out from Hades and be judged.

 

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. (Revelations 20:13)

 

Here death means the power of devils who have the authority of death, and Hades indicates their spiritual world. Where is Hades?

 

As said before, Paul said the God’s world he had been was the third heaven, because he met heavens three times on his way to God’s world. The first heaven is the universe which we can see with our eyes, and the second heaven is Hades out of the universe and ruled by the Devil, and third heaven is God’s world out of Hades.

 

However the one who reveals the second heaven is Hades is only Lee Young-soo of Holy Eden Church. Lee had been God’s world with Jesus in 1970 first, and on the way said Jesus “Now we pass Hades” so he got to know Hades is out of the universe. Until then he heard that Hades was under the earth, thus he thought so. Please seehis experience of it in “Visions from God” by Lee Young-soo.

 

Lee saw God first there, God sat on a throne and his upper body was not seen covered with something like flame. Around God were Jesus and four archangels. After Lee had seen God, he was taught what to do during three years by God and Jesus.

 

Lee also had been Hades, the Devil’s world, and saw Satan, the Devil King, and from the incense burner in front of him sound of a ritual for rain came up with the smoke of the incense, and the Devil King commanded the one in charge of the region to go and help. See also his explanation of it in his booklet.

 

The prostitute has the authority over all the nations of the world and peoples. Under her there are gods who rule nations, and gods in charge of each region, and gods governing each religion. They look like independent gods to outward seeming, but in fact all of them are under the prostitute.

 

One case to show that there are guardian gods to rule nations on earth is in Daniel. Daniel prayed to God but was not responded so he was fasting continuously. After three weeks, an angel came to him and explained why he came late.

 

Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come." (Dan.10:12-14)

 

God heard the prayer at the first day of Daniel’s praying and sent the angel. However the angel was resisted by the prince of the Persian kingdom. Can human resist angel? No. Here the prince of the Persian kingdom indicates the guardian god of Persia.

 

8. Soldiers of Heaven

 

People are divided into those who follow God and those are ruled by the prostitute. Even if not knowing by whom they are ruled, when they die, the god ruling them take the soul. Therefore there are two places into which people go after death.

 

Those who were killed because of keeping the word of God and because of receiving the Holy Spirit and testifying Jesus go to the God’s world. They are under the altar in the God’s world.

 

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. (Revelations 6:9)

 

They are soldiers of Heaven. God wants to fight against devils with them. They are called the wife of the Lamb, Jesus, and their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

 

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) (Revelations 19:7-8)

 

Fine linen is military uniform to wear when they will fight against devils. They will dress in it and follow Jesus to go out to the war with devils.

 

The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. (Revelations 19:14)

 

Those who will be soldiers of heaven are 144,000 in all.

 

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. (Revelations 14:1)

 

Usually 144,000 is considered as symbolic for the saved, but it is not for the saved but for the soldiers of heaven. After they will destroy devils, they will drag out those who have been taken by devils and judge them, and as the result of the judgment it will be decided that who will be the people of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. (Revelations 20:4-5)

 

Except the 144,000 soldiers of heaven, all of people are taken by devils and stay at Hades. Therefore after the devils will be destroyed they can come out from Hades, and then they will be judged. After the judgment, the soldiers of heaven will be kings of them forever.

 

No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelations 22:3-5)

Therefore there will be 144,000 kingdoms in heaven.

 

9. The saved

 

Who will go to the Kingdom of Heaven and who will go to the Hell? Before discussing, let’s see the difference between Hell and Hades.

 

Usually people think the Devil rules Hell. Thus Michelangelo painted devils threw people into Hell with trident. However Hell is neither the place where the Devil rules nor the place where devils take people into. Hell will be made by God to punish devils in the future.

In fact, the expression of Hell, which has the concept of pit with flames under the earth, is not in the original Greek Bible. People used “Hell” to translate the word “Gehenna.”

 

“Gehenna” the Greek is the transliteration of “Ge Hinnom” the Hebrew which means the Valley of Hinnom. Israelites burnt their children there to idols. (2 Chronicles 28:3, 33:6). Thus God cursed the place, (Jeremiah 19:6) and used it as the symbol of the place punishing people at the last time. Jesus also told it as the place to punish people with fire. (Matthew 5:22)

 

There is no one who went to Hell until now. After the Devil will be destroyed, he will be thrown into it, and afterward by the judgment, those who did evils will be thrown into it.

What is confused with Hell is Hades. Hades in Greek is translated from “Sheol” the Hebrew, which means pit or grave. As dead body go into grave, the place soul is taken to is Hades. This is expressed as “Hades was following close behind Death.” (Revelations 6:8)

 

Then Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire at the time of Judgment.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. (Revelations 20:14)

After the Devil will be destroyed, all people who were born after the creation will come out from Hades and be judged. At that time Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is what people think as Hell. Thus Hades and Hell are different places.

 

The first ones who thrown into this lake of fire are the beast and his subordinate the false prophet, and later Satan also will be thrown there.

But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. (Revelations 19:20)

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelations 20:10)

Afterwards those who will be not saved in the Last Judgment will be thrown into Hell.

If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelations 20:15)

Let’s see who will be into the lake of fire.

 

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Revelations 21:8)

The cowardly indicate those who deny God when they are persecuted. Others may not need to be explained.

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