The Sunday School Challenge That Changed Everything

August 3, 2026

I grew up going to Sunday school every week. I learned the stories, sang the songs, and knew the basic outline of the Bible. My high school Sunday school class was a sharp group. Together we could articulate the faith pretty well. Then one day the teacher threw us a curve ball. He challenged us to convince him that God really existed. I don’t know if any of our arguments were very good, but he would always shoot them down. At times we got mad. At times we got frustrated. But I came away with a hunger to have the knowledge to make a solid argument for the existence of God.

Years later I still carry that hunger. The Apostle Paul understood the same longing when he wrote in Romans 1:19-20: “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” God has not left us without evidence. His fingerprints are all over the world He made. Here are three clear reasons I believe God exists.

First is the argument is called “The Contingency Argument.” Everything we see in the universe depends on something else for its existence. Stars, planets, people, and even atoms do not have to exist. They are contingent. If everything were contingent, then at some point nothing would have existed at all. From nothing, nothing comes. Therefore, there must be something that exists by necessity, something that does not depend on anything else for its being. That necessary being is what we call God. The universe cannot explain itself. Something outside the universe must explain why anything exists at all. God is that something. God is outside of time, space, and has no material being. Only a being so great that it is not limited by time, space, and matter, can form something out of nothing.

The second is “The Fine-Tuning Argument” Everything about creation is so complex it screams that it exists by design, and could never have formed randomly. The physical constants of the universe, the force of gravity, the strength of the electromagnetic force, the mass of the electron, the complexity of every living cell, and dozens of others extremely complex forces in the universe, are balanced with extraordinary precision. If any of them were altered even slightly, life as we know it could not exist. Stars and planets could not form. This level of fine-tuning is so extreme that pure chance becomes an unreasonable explanation. The most straightforward conclusion is that the universe was designed with purpose. Design points to a Designer. The Bible tells us clearly that the designer is God.

Third is the “The Moral Argument.” Every human culture shares a deep sense that some things are truly right, and others are truly wrong. These are not merely personal preferences or social conventions. We know that cruelty is wrong, and that love, justice, and honesty are good, even when people violate those standards. Objective moral values cannot arise from molecules in motion or some evolutionary survival theory. If there is a real, binding moral law, there must be a Moral Lawgiver. Our sense of right and wrong points beyond ourselves to a personal God who is the source of goodness and love. As the Bible says, “We love because He first loved us” (I John 4:19).

These three arguments do not prove every detail of the Christian faith, but they do show that belief in God is reasonable. They answer the challenge my Sunday school teacher gave us so many years ago. God has not left Himself without a witness. Creation, design, and conscience all point in the same direction.

Which of the three arguments for God’s existence speaks most strongly to you, and why? How has your own understanding of God’s existence grown since you were younger? In what ways do you see God’s “invisible qualities” displayed in creation?

The real question is not whether the evidence is there. The question is whether we will respond to it. This week I invite you to take these truths seriously. Look at the world around you with fresh eyes. Consider the fine-tuning of the universe and the moral law written on your heart. Then ask yourself honestly, “If God exists, what difference should that make in my life? The evidence is clear. The invitation is open. Will you seek the One who made it all and glorify Him with the life He gave you? (To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional. Check out my podcast on YouTube, called “My Faith Journey”).