Life in a world with God is cause for joy, and even when things are broken, a hope for a better future is always in the present. On the other hand, life without God ends in despair. Once God is abandoned, hope is sure to follow.

Atheist philosopher Alex Rosenburg realizes no belief results in meaninglessness. This is evident from his quick answers to basic questions on ultimate reality: “Is there a God? No.” “What is the Nature of Reality? What physics says it is.” “What is the purpose of the universe? There is none.” “What is the meaning of life? Ditto.” “Why am I here? Just dumb luck.”1 How melancholy and infinite sadness! I doubt there is any amount of mindfulness meditation that will whisk away this sort of nihilistic despair! One might try to construct a meaningful existence without God, but the logical extension of atheism is the nihilistic despair put forth by Rosenburg.

Simon Peter is a man who believes in God Yet, the God he believes is neither impersonal nor capricious but active within the universe and intimately involved with the people inside. For Peter, the reality of God makes all the difference in the world. He writes:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1:3-5).2

Peter in an attitude of worship offers up words of praise: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”3 The reason is that God has been working across time to bring salvation to people. It is God who caused Christians to be “born again.” They are given new spiritual life. It is a new spiritual life which comes through Christ resurrection from the dead. This new spiritual life is something God has done. It is finished and complete.4 Yet, Peter still anticipates “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,” which is “kept in heaven.” Salvation is both already and not yet. There believer is born again, yet there is still an inheritance being preserved in heaven for them. Even now Christians experience “God’s power” and they are “being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The Lord is presently preserving them for what is to come. Succinctly put: “Salvation is described with reference to the past (Christians have been given new birth by God’s mercy), to the present (Christians are being shielded by God’s power) and to the future (at the last time will come the final deliverance from evil).”5

It is because God works across time to save people that Peter finds that even in the most perilous times the Christian never suffers in vain. He tells his flock:

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:6-7).

Keep in mind that Peter is writing to Christians in the midst of Nero’s persecution.6 More than just indifferent to Christianity, Caesar wages war against the community of Christ. He is antichrist. Ancient historian Tacitus recalls the kinds of perils Christians faced during that time of persecution:

Nero fastened the guilt [of the Great Fire of Rome] and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace…Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired (Annals xv. 44).7

Peter’s words in vv. 6-7 were meant give comfort to those in the midst of a fiery persecution and to assist them in making sense of what they were experiencing. He wants them to know that “the purpose of earthly trials is to sift out what is genuine in our faith. This in turn will bring praise, glory and honour, both to Jesus and the person who has suffered, on the day when Jesus is revealed.”8 Despite being in the most grievous and troubling circumstances, they could still take joy in the fact that with God on their side, that they will be victorious, and their suffering was never in vain.

Suffering is far from futile. Just as precious metals are put to the fire to remove the impurities, God permits us to suffer as a means of producing in us virtues from which we could never have gained otherwise (cf. Rom. 5:1-5; Jas. 1:2-4). As the saying goes: “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, | and the Lord tests hearts” (Prov. 17:3). Later Peter tells his readers, “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Pet. 5:10). Whatever is broken in times of trouble, God can repair, and He even raises the dead.

Peter’s own flock likewise believed in God and their faith made all the difference in the world. This is acknowledged and affirmed by the apostle:

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Pet. 1:8-9).

These saints never saw Jesus in the flesh, and neither could they for He had already ascended into heaven. Yet, there is love and joy on account of the salvation they received. Each one of them could say, “I know; that I know; that I know.” This is the common experience for the majority of Christian from Pentecost to the present. They know Christ as their Lord and Savior, yet unlike Peter along with many other first century Christians from the greater regions of Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee, they never really met, walked, talked, and dined with the Lord during His earthly ministry, but they believed nonetheless. We too are in the same boat.

They say, “Seeing is believing.” But there are many unseen things we believe. Nitrogen and oxygen (i.e., the gases that comprise most of the air we breathe), bacteria and viruses, even numbers and logic, these are invisible to the naked eye yet we take for granted their existence and these things in their own way affect our daily life. The same is true for the God. All of nature bears the finger prints of a Divine Creator. The irreducible complexity of biological life,9 the suitability of earth to sustain complex biological life and to enable the exploration of the cosmos,10 even the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics11 point to the reality of an Intelligent Designer. The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ vindicates His own divine self-disclosures.12 The reliability of the Bible demonstrates that its divine origin.13 The transformed lives of the followers of Jesus Christ are a testament to the reality of God.14 God is unseen yet never absent. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, “the conviction of things not seen…And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:1, 6).

God enters into the universe He created and involves Himself in the lives of the people living inside. He became a man, dwelt among us, died upon the cross for sinners and rose again on the third day so that whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life (Jn. 1:1-4, 14; 3:16; Col. 1:15-20; Heb. 1:1-4). God has been working across time for the salvation of many, and those who receive salvation are preserved by God for eternity. Peter knows this God. His flock knows this God too. God even makes Himself known to us and our faith in God is a well-placed faith.

God is with us. He is far from aloof. As Blaise Pascal puts it: “[God] has willed to make Himself quite recognisable by those; and thus, willing to appear openly to those who seek Him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Him with all their heart, He so regulates the knowledge of Himself that He has given signs of Himself, visible to those who seek Him, and not to those who seek Him not. There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition” (Pensees 430).15 Those who seek God will find God. If there is no God, then all things become futile. Since there is a God, those who believe possess a hope that all the difference in the world.

— WGN

  1. Alex Rosenburg, The Atheist Guide to Reality (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011), 2.
  2. All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
  3. Peter’s declaration “Blessed be the God…” takes the form of a traditional Jewish berakah or blessing to God (Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993], 1 Pe 1:3).
  4. Elsewhere Peter tells his flock: “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). Again, Peter states, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet. 2:9-10). Peter then presents one aspect of salvation as a finished work. It is something God has done.
  5. David H. Wheaton, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al (LDowners Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1374.
  6. Wheaton, 1370.
  7. As cited in C.K. Barret, The New Testament Background: Selected Documents (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1956, 1987), 15-16.
  8. David H. Wheaton, “1 Peter,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1374.
  9. Cf. Stephen C. Meyer, “Unlocking the DNA Enigma,” Christian Research Journal, 35 ,1 [2012]: https://www.equip.org/article/unlocking-dna-enigma/#christian-books-1 Donald F. Calbreath, “Intelligence or Chance,” Christian Research Journal, 32, 6 [2009]: https://www.equip.org/article/intelligence-or-chance/; William Debski and Sean McDowell, “Objections Overruled: Responding to the Top Ten Objections to Intelligent Design,” Christian Research Journal, 31, 5 [2008]: https://www.equip.org/articles/objection-overruled/
  10. Cf. Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, “Designed for Discovery,” in Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science, ed. William A. Dembski and Michael R. Licona (Grand Rapids: MI, BakerBooks, 2010), 101-103
  11. Cf. William Lane Craig, “God and the ‘Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics,’” Christian Research Journal, 36, 6 [2013]: https://www.equip.org/article/god-and-the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-mathematics/#christian-books-4; Melissa Cain Travis, “A Grand Cosmic Resonance: How the Structure and Comprehensibility of the Universe Reveal a Mindful Maker,” Christian Research Journal, 41, 1 [2018]: https://www.equip.org/article/a-grand-cosmic-resonance/
  12. Cf. Hank Hanegraaff, The Complete Bible Answer Book: Collector’s Edition Revised and Updated (Nashvolle, TN: Thomas Nelson 2008, 2016), 244-251.
  13. Ibid., 140-160.
  14. Bobby Conway, “The Fifth Gospel: The Ultimate Apologetic,” https://www.equip.org/article/fifth-gospel-ultimate-apologetic/
  15. Cited from Blaise Pascal, Pensees. Translated by W.F. Trotter (Overland Park, KS: Digireads.com, 2009), 53
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Published by Warren Nozaki

Hello, my name is Warren Nozaki. I typically blog on topics related to Christian apologetics. Check out what is posted, leave a comment if you like. I work at the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. I also create sonic landscapes on the electric guitar.

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