If tomorrow it were proven with 100% surety that God doesn’t exist and that the Bible is completely false, what would change in your life?

One day as I was reflecting on the various implications of finding that what you believe about something is actually false, I allowed myself to consider the question: “What if I were wrong about the God of the Bible? What if He didn’t exist? What if it were all a lie?” To be clear, I fully believe that the God of the Bible absolutely exists and is exactly Who He says He is and that the Scriptures are 100% trustworthy. This article isn’t intended to cast any doubt on those realities, but it is designed to cast potential doubt on lies we and our families may tell ourselves.

The Importance of the Question

This question is designed to help us identify exactly how much God means to us, exactly how devoted to Him we are, and it can even reveal whether or not we really believe God to be Who He says He is.

God forbid someone close to you were to die tomorrow. However, if that happened, what impact would it have on your life? It would likely affect countless life choices, personal habits, relationships, and maybe even where you live. People have changed jobs, moved out of the country, broken off relationships, reworked their clothing style, gotten tattoos, and even killed themselves after losing a loved one. This happens because loved ones have a far more significant impact on our lives than we realize. 

So, if people make significant life changes when family, friends, and even pets die, if people will revamp their beliefs when they realize their political party has been lying to them, if people will practically morph overnight when one or two of their long held beliefs change, then don’t you think your life would have to change pretty significantly if tomorrow you stopped believing in God?

The Answers to the Question

Here are the general options for answering this question.

Everything Changes

If you believe in God, and absolutely everything in your life is impacted by that belief, and you were to stop believing in Him . . . then everything would have to change.

Obviously, God-centered activities like praying and reading the Bible and assembling with the church and listening to Christian music and evangelizing and counseling and discipling would all stop. There would be no reason to continue doing any of it.

But then there are all the life choices that were motivated by your belief in God. If you exercise any moderation when you eat because you want to please the Lord by not being gluttonous, you no longer have that motivation. Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll automatically start eating like a cow, but the motivation for eating the way you have been must change. So, if you continue to eat the same way, you’ll have to do it for new and/or different reasons— your health or kids or spouse or vanity—but your eating will in fact be impacted if you stopped believing in God. And the same would be true for how you spend my money, the entertainment you consume, the vehicles you drive, the stores you patronize, the habits you have, and the kind of friends and parents you are.

Nothing Changes

Few to none of their daily choices were made with God in mind, and if they prayed or opened a Bible or went to church, it was under duress or in a time of distress. Therefore, very little to anything at all would change if these people stopped believing in God tomorrow. 

Something Changes

For people in this category, the obviously “religious” activities like prayer, Bible reading, Christian music, and church attendance would stop. Quite often a person in this category probably doesn’t have much of a habit of other more significant religious activities like evangelizing and discipling, but they would cease as well.

But all of the “average” daily/practical things they do that they believe aren’t dictated or motivated by God’s Word would stay the same. They’d be doing the same things for the same reasons because God wasn’t really influencing them any way.

Believe it or not, this category is actually the most dangerous. This group represents two extremes. One extreme is an unbeliever whose traditions are more important to her. She may read her Bible, pray, and go to church, and she may even leave a Gospel tract from time to time. But her eating and entertainment and spending and parenting are motivated by any number of things other than glorifying God. In fact, some of it may be motivated by an idea that looks an awful lot like glorifying God but is nothing more nor less than legalistic obligation she believes God wants of her. This individual is an unbeliever who thinks she’s “spiritual enough.” 

On the other side of this middle ground are the genuine Christians who are immature. They’re actually born again, but they’re young in the faith. The milk of the Word is really all they can handle, and there are so many facets of their lives that are untouched by God and His glory. What makes this middle ground so dangerous is that everyone in it passionately believes they’re a Christian whether they are or not. However, before we can talk too much about how to address the spiritual problems this question may reveal, we have to talk about the next point.

How to Know If You’re Answering the Question Accurately

Literally anyone can form the words, “Everything in my life would change if God were proven to not exist.” An atheist possesses the ability to say those words. An actor would be more than happy to receive a paycheck to say those words. A person can even say them and believe them, and yet be personally deceived. Therefore, we must be diligent to make sure we’re answering it honestly. An inaccurate answer could give false confidence.

Our choices must carry more weight than our words.

Patch the Pirate used to say that “Our talk talks, and our walk talks, but our walk talks louder than our talk talks.” What this means is that people can lie, they can say false things whether they know it or not, but our actions rarely lie. A person who says they love the Lord but who rarely—if ever—reads their Bible, prays, or spends time with God’s people is lying to themselves. For example, no one will believe a woman if she says she absolutely loves her boyfriend, but she hates spending time with him, tries to cut phone conversations shorts, ghosts his texts, and doesn’t tell anyone about him. No one would believe she loves him. No one should. So, why do we believe someone who says they love God but who lives with little to no real concern given to Him and His desires? Even still, our choices aren’t the final authority.

Our motivations must carry more weight than our choices.

I can tell you that I love God, and you can see that my entertainment choices are pure and clean. However, if through conversation I reveal to you that the only reason I watch clean movies is I want to impress my in-laws, or I don’t want to get kicked out of my church, or I’m prejudiced against anything I believe to be below me, I’ve revealed that I’m doing it for my own glorify based off my own criteria. That’s called idolatry. But even our perceived motivations aren’t the final authority.

God’s Word must carry more weight than our motivations.

Someone who lives in the darkness of their sin can shout until they’re blue in the face that they’re a child of God, but when I John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not do the truth,” God’s Word has to win. When the Scriptures reveal that someone who is being sanctified will be growing in the Fruits of the Spirit and be following the path laid out in II Peter 1:5-7, we don’t get to contradict that. Let God be true and every man a liar.

If these three principles are accurately weighed against our answers, then we have answered honestly.

What to Do if the Answer isn’t Good

Everything Changes

If everything in your (or your friends or family member’s) life would completely change because there would be no more reason to do it and no more motivation for doing it the way you’re doing it, then you have just revealed something very encouraging. It doesn’t mean you’re perfect. It doesn’t mean you’re better than anyone else. It simply means that by God’s grace, you love the Lord enough that if you could stop believing in Him, absolutely everything in your life would have to change. This is because your faith in Him is real.

Nothing Changes

If nothing in your life would change, that means that God clearly isn’t that important to you. Biblically speaking, you’ve been deluded or deceived and that whatever belief you thought you had was either only a partial belief or simply knowledge and mere mental acquiescence. If you’re in this category it may help you to know how others in this category have responded when they realized they didn’t really believe in God the way they thought. Many end up completely shuffling off religion, deconstruct, and become agnostics or atheists. By God’s grace, though, some of them are convicted and are truly born again.

Something Changes

If only some things in your life would change, you need to give very careful thought to the implications.

This answer reveals immaturity. Some individuals with this answer are truly born again, but they’re immature. Their answer reveals that the areas in which they wouldn’t change are the areas in which they need to better know God, understand Him, and submit to Him. If I were to realize that my hard work wouldn’t change because it’s never been motivated by God and His glory, it would be wise to understand how and why God would have me work. I need to submit this arena of my life to Him, and it’s not good enough that I just so happen to have a good work ethic. It needs to be done for His glory and honor.

However, this answer may also reveal unregeneration. Yes, Christians sin. Our sin is a result of spiritual immaturity that we should want to address. But unbelievers sin just like Christians sin and for the same reasons. The trick is identifying whether the sinner in the mirror is a believer who’s slipped into self-worship or an unbeliever perpetually in their self-worship. If there’re areas in your life that would be completely unchanged, you need to identify if it’s a result of spiritual weakness or spiritual death. 

The key to discovering spiritual counterfeits is the same as discovering counterfeit currency. Don’t spend your time looking at the problem, look at the truth. We need to move past the counterfeit to consider the biblical realities against which we should be comparing the potential counterfeit. In cases like this, we need to get to the root. Do you truly believe in the God of the Bible? I’m not asking what you know about God, if you like the idea of God or philosophically can justify the existence of God. I’m looking for genuine, life-altering belief. If it’s not there, then your lack of change—were you to stop believing in God—is actually just a revelation that you never actually believed in Him in the first place. It’s revealing spiritual death.

Conclusion

Let’s reflect on Matthew 7:15-27. “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits. 21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

True, genuine good fruit that’s a result of spiritual life and empowerment is the right thing done in the right way and for the right reasons. The reason needs to be for God’s glory and pleasure. So, if tomorrow it were proven that God doesn’t exist and that the Bible is completely false, what would change in your life? Reflecting on this question is very valuable as it will definitely reveal areas of spiritual immaturity in your life, but it may also reveal spiritually dead people who are simply deceived.