#STRask - How Do We Know God Isn’t Lying About His Character?

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Questions about how we know God is who he says he is and isn’t lying about his character, how to trust God when it seems like he’s working against us, and how to respond when it feels like God hates you.   How do we know God is who he says he is and isn’t lying about his character? How does a person trust God when it seems like he’s working against us? How should you respond when it feels like God hates you?

You are listening to Amy and Greg from Stan to Reason. And we're going to start today with a question from Maggie. Matthew? Maggie. Maddie. Maggie. Maggie. Sorry, Maggie.

I'm a Christian who asks a lot of questions, and I wanted to know your thoughts on this one. How do we know that God is who he says he is? Or, in other words, isn't lying about his character. Obviously, the Bible says that he is truthful, but how do we know he isn't lying about that? Thank you. I guess the question of his character is truthfulness, right, as opposed to other things? Well, how do we know he is who he says he is? How do we know he isn't lying about his character?

So I guess it would involve all of his character. Yeah. Generally, we trust a person's words based on their actions. We trust a person's words based on their actions. And so over time, it's relational to the trust. Over time, we tend to, as we experience an individual, we form opinions about their trustworthiness because of our interaction with them. Sometimes it's because we can see them respond under certain circumstances

in a noble way that gives us a hint about what they're, their internal character is, other times we see promises that are made or things that are said that we end up discovering later are actually so through a third source. You know, and that's the correspondence idea. Truth is a belief or a statement. It's when a belief or a statement, proposition, whatever, matches the way the world really is. And so sometimes God can say, you know, don't do this because this bad, thing will accrue or happen, eventuate, and then we disregard it, and then down the line,

we learned by our mistakes. We say, oh, God was right all along. So I think it's a, pardon me? Surprise. Surprise. He was right all along. And another thing, too, is that if God is not good, there is no other source of goodness to appeal to. There is no other source of goodness. Because you can't materialize goodness out of thin air. And it isn't, it is a quality of a person. It isn't just a quality that attaches itself to things. Like there's your water bottle, it's kind of a bluish-green type thing. So it's quality of blue-greenness or whatever that's attached to the water bottle.

But that water bottle isn't good. It's useful for you. and when we say, oh, that's a good water bottle because it does what it's supposed to do for you, but we're just speaking of utility there. If we're talking about genuine moral goodness, that comes from someone, that's a quality of a person. And if there is no person that is supremely good,

moral perfection, then I just don't see how one is going to ground or make sense of the notion of goodness at all in the universe. But we know there's goodness in the universe, because there's evil. Because we all know the problem of evil, that there is a problem of evil. Therefore, evil is only possible in contrast to good. It's not a dualism. You've got to have one without the other because you can have total goodness and no evil, just like you can have total light with no darkness. But you can't have darkness without light. You can't have evil

without a goodness from which evil is a departure. Okay, so part of it is, if God's not good, then nothing is good. Nobody is good. Goodness is not real, and therefore evil is not real either. But we know there is evil and good, and there must be a personal grounding for that. And then this other element is an experiential element. like you would with any other person, you learn their goodness or reliability and relationship with them. So, I mean, there's a start.

You probably have a lot more to say about it, but... Well, I would say the good news is that God anticipated this question. And all you have to do is go back through the Bible or go to some online Bible search feature and look up so that you will know. and you will find all the places where God says, I'm going to do this so that you will know that I am this or that. So what we have here is we have thousands of years of history where God didn't just tell us his character. He actually demonstrated it. And you touched on this, Greg.

We can see what God did. And the main thing we see is the cross. and we see that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, which proves that God cares about justice. Because if God didn't care about justice, Jesus wouldn't have needed to pay for our sins. And if he didn't love, then he wouldn't have shown us the grace that he did on the cross.

So we see so much of his character right there, but we see it throughout everything he does with the Israelites. We see his character in the law. We see what he wanted them to do so that they would reflect him. Now, it's kind of hard to believe that this is all some big long con where God has all these laws that demonstrate what love means. He sends Jesus to die for our sins. And at the very end, he says, I'm just kidding. I'm actually evil.

It's ridiculous. It's a ridiculous thought because he's already showed us who he is, what he cares about, and what he's done to get rid of our sin. and to bring us to himself. So we can see all of these things that he has our goodness in mind, that he's gracious, that he forgives. Again, just with the law, you can see, Paul says that all those laws were to teach us how to love.

So we can see what love is in the ways that God had people care for others and do what's right. These are all the things that God cared about. So between all of these things, We can see who he is demonstrated. We don't just have to take his word for it. He could have done everything behind the scenes.

He didn't have to necessarily let us see Jesus paying for our sins or any of those things. But Romans 3 says he displayed him publicly so that we would see that he's just and the justifier. Because he didn't want us to think that he would just pass over the sins previously committed. So everything was done. so that we could see, and we wouldn't have to just wonder if someone got some sort of revelation, oh, this is what God is like. Well, how do we know that? We know because he's shown us. And the intervention in history is really important here.

This is something unique about the God of the Bible, is that he intervenes in the historical context. He shows up, and he does things that other people can see and experience. experience, and I mean, if you think about the Old Testament and the New Testament, the two great, the two great redemptive historical acts in the Old Testament, Exodus, and in the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus. And so we have these great, these are the great ones, all kinds of other ways that God intervened, and sometimes, especially in the Old Testament, he intervened with judgment. And what's curious is you always warn people first, you know. And in fact, there was a general formalized warning, even in the law, Deuteronomy 28 through 30, here's the blessings,

here's the blessings. Better do the good thing, not the bad thing, because you're going to get it if you do the bad thing. And that's what ended up happening. And then he intervenes with all kinds of things that he's going to do. And a lot of the prophets said, here's what's going to happen. You know, it's going to cause your ears to tingle. Watch this.

Why? Because you've done bad. So we have all of these markers, if you will, of God intervening. Now, someone could say, oh, yeah, well, that's all. Old Testament, or that's 2000 or 3,000 or 4,000 years ago, that's all that in the book. Well, God still intervenes today in virtue of what he's done in the past, specifically the resurrection, the cross, death and resurrection of Christ. He now is intervening in human lives.

He's answering prayer. He's changing and transforming lives. And this is a universal experience. That is, I've been in, what, 28 countries, six continents. It's working, doing what I do, and there is this kinship with Christians that you experience regardless of the culture and a transformation that is real that makes a kinship between you and the believer substantive, even if the culture and language are different. Now, I actually think this is unique.

It's not utterly unique because, look, you can get people who are, you know, legionnaires or, you know, Boy Scouts or whatever. They may a group that people belong to, and there's kind of an identity thing going, but it's very much different with Christianity. And I remember when I was on Diary of a CEO and talking with Stephen Bartlett, the host there, that was last year. And he mentioned that he had a friend that became a Christian

and saw a total transformation as life. He was actually quite stunned. But there are people who have transformations, and other experiences, other religions, et cetera. And I acknowledge that was the case, and I also acknowledge that that's evidential in their favor. If there is a transformation, then that counts in their favor, but lots of different opposing viewpoints can give some transformation.

What I think is, and I might have said this, is that the transformation that happens in the lives of Christians is so far above and beyond anything that you see with any common group who are working towards a common purpose, there's another dimension to it that is nothing short of supernatural. And I think that's what set Christianity completely apart from all these other religions. And in one evidence that's actually true in the deep sense. It's funny you bring up Stephen Bartlett because I watched an interview he did with John Lennox.

Yes, that was fairly recently. And at the end of it, he says, says to him that the biggest argument you've made for Christianity is yourself. And he says, all of these Christians I've had on here, they all seem to have what I am looking for. They have this completeness. I can't remember how he described it. Stability. I did see that little clip with John Lennox, because he had mentioned Wes Huff and John. And he said, actually, what he said was the apologist, but that's who he has. When Christians come on, they're people making the case, obviously.

And he's impressed by their stability, I think, was one of the words he used. And a sense of, I don't know what it was like, wholeness or... Yeah, so there is a sense of... They're solid. Yes, there is a sense of wholeness, a sense of healing that happens. And again, this all points towards God's good character. And then one last thing, I think you could do if you want to see God's character. Look at what God judges.

So if he's judging, you know, people who shed innocent blood, people who defraud others, who cheat, who commit adultery, all of these things, he is judging. He's obviously against those things. And so that's another thing you can look at to find his character. Okay, here's a question from Ray. How does a person trust God when it seems he works against us? when we hate our position in the body of Christ? If we work for the Lord, why are some gifted, meaningful work they love and others curse to work? We hate.

The same applies to a spouse, children, and finances. These questions that we've been fielding, these last two shows especially, are so profound, and they are—I appreciate the transparency and the genuess of them. But I think there's a problem here with perspective. Proverbs says, in all labor there is profit. Okay. And there's this thing called, so I'm referring to just one element here. There's this thing called the Protestant work ethic that trades on the idea that part of the creation order was that human beings were made to work.

Be fruitful, multiply, subdue, et cetera. And my take on this is that the devil can't get at God, so he's getting at God's image bearers to make life bad for them. And everything that's in the creation order, whether it's work or male and female or marriage and all of the sex, you know, the two become one flesh, one man with one woman, becoming one flesh for one lifetime, that's marriage. The devil's going after all of that to make people miserable.

So one of the consequences of, I think, of a proper view, a biblical view of work is that work is noble. Now, it may not be that we like everything that we do, because in the fall now, work has added to it toil. And in heaven, you know, in the new creation, we're going to be doing meaningful things. Judging angels, Paul says, to the Corinthians, for example. But there's going to be meaningful things we're doing. We're going to be doing work because we're made for work. Now, it may be that the work that we have to do has more toil than maybe somebody else's work, and now we're mad at God because the work we're doing is toil.

And I think that the antidote for that is to see that work is good, and God distributes the work in the body of Christ, that's like gifting, as he wants, as he sees fit. And there are seasons of our lives where he's given us something, a way of making a living. You know, what was that? there's a TV show about the guy who talks, and I think he's a Christian, actually,

the guy who talks about dirty jobs, all these kind of dirty jobs. I think that's what it's called, right? Yeah, I think it might be called dirty jobs. And part of the point was, these are things that people didn't want to do, but somebody chose to do it because there was a way to make a living, and they found a way to make it really satisfying.

And I think that as a Christian, it changes our perspective on work that we have, or that we might do, and we don't expect toil not to be involved. People say, you know, how can I do what you do? Me, Alan, Tim, we all get these questions. We want to do what you do. Because they have a glorified understanding of it. They don't know how much work and, T-O-I-L, is entailed in developing a craft that's useful to the body of Christ,

whether it's public speaking in front of people, or whether it's any of the spiritual services we provide the church, or just things we help other people with. I think it was either Martin Luther or John Calvin was asked with someone who became a Christian at one of their meetings. And he said, well, now what? The person said, what do I do with my life? And at least the anecdote is that, I think it was John Calvin,

said, well, what do you do for a living? He said, I'm a cobbler, a shoemaker. He said, make great shoes. That was the answer. And I think that's an answer to this issue here. We want to do our work hardly as to the Lord. And it's not if we have the job of taking the trash out. I mean, that's a noble thing.

I have a friend who runs a whole trash business in Wisconsin. You know, it's massive now. He built it from scratch. And I see it's dumpsters everywhere now. and he has made a great living at it, and he works heartily, raising his nine kids and all this other stuff. So he is working as unto the Lord, even though the job from most people's perspective is not glamorous. So I think there may need to be a shift in mind here for Ray about the work that God has given him to do. and to keep in mind, he who is faithful in little will be given more.

This is, everybody starts at the beginning. I have a daughter who doesn't like that idea. She wants to be good at it right away. And I say, honey, everybody starts at the beginning. And this is true with work and labor and stuff like that. So just a couple of thoughts pertaining to that issue. Now, there was a little bit more that he asked about, Ray asked about, can you...

Why are some gifted, meaningful work they love and others curse to work we hate? The same applies to a spouse, children, and finances. Okay, so I don't... Part of my point is that we are not cursed with what we hate. That's... I guess I'm just going to say that is a wrong attitude about it. We are gifted with it by God. There is a curse to all work now in that there's toil, even in the work you and I do.

And so, but that's not a curse to us. That's part of the package of living in a fallen world when you get to do things that are meaningful. And it's not just meaningful because we're advancing the gospel and do what we do. It's meaningful because it is productive labor. Paul said in Philippians, you know, I don't know if I'm going to die here in jail or I'm going to stay on with you. If I die, it's better to be with the Lord. but if I stand with you, it means productive labor for me. But it was labor.

It was labor. Now, he's in the ministry, obviously, but I think this can be expanded to other things. So that's whatever God gives us is an act of his grace. Every perfect gift, every good and perfect gift comes down from heaven from the Father of Lights in whom there's no variation in safety. Everything that God gives us is good. We don't always see the goodness right away.

But if we take it from his hand as good, make the best of it that changes a lot. So what I'm going to do right now, I have another question that's very similar. So I'm going to read this question and then I'm going to give my answer because I think they're so similar. And I just want to include this other question because, you know, Ray asked, how does a person trust God when it seems he works against us? So here's the question from Kyle. I was wondering if you could address the topic of how to respond, when it feels like God hates you.

Speaking as someone with a birth defect reminiscent of the blind man, why does God punish some of us before we're ever born and debilitate our life options thereafter? It seems as if God is just picking winners and losers on a whim. How can we trust God's goodness or his promises when his first act in our lives was to handicap us in one way or another? All right, I'll let you handle that one. So I think these are essentially the same question.

How do you trust God when it feels like he hears? hates you. I mean, that's essentially the question they're both asking here. And the reason that you think God hates you is because of some circumstance you find yourself in or maybe even we're born with. And the first thing I want to say is this, I think this is something everyone eventually has to deal with and come to terms with because no matter what your issues are, everyone is going to have things go wrong in their lives. Some, of course, are harder to deal with than other. others or more central to their lives. But when something goes wrong, I do think the first temptation is to think, even if you're theologically sound, the temptation is to think that God hates you.

That is huge. And this is something I think we really do need to know how to fight because it's not true. And so I'm just going to explain to you what I do to fight that. And because you can't trust your emotions. Your emotions are going to lie to you. That is for sure they will lie to you. So what you need is you need to have something that's outside of you, objective, that you can hang on to, so that you can know what the character of God is, and that's why I'm including these after that, our previous question. And what I think is the best thing to do is to think about the cross. On the cross, we have certain things that we learn that are objectively true about God. And the first thing we learn is that he is sovereign and he's all wise because he promised what would happen on the cross long before the cross

happened and he was able and powerful enough and smart enough and wise enough to move all of history to that moment and accomplish it. So we know God is sovereign. We also know he's powerful, because he raised Jesus from the dead. And if he raised Jesus from the dead, he could certainly do anything to change anything in your life at any moment. But we also know that he's good, and we know that he loved us, or he loves us,

because Jesus died on the cross for us. And that's actually the answer to the problem of evil. God is all-knowing, all good, and all-powerful, and he has proved that to us on the cross. And I think we have to hang on to that because if that is the case, then what we know is that God could change things in our life. But we also know that he would change things in our life if it would be for our good. If he's not doing that, now we know for sure that there is a purpose for it. Because if he didn't spare his own son, he's not going to withhold anything from you.

Right. That would be for your good. But then here's where, here's the second thing you have to know. You have to know what your good is, and you have to know what his goal is for us. And his goal for us is for our good to make us like Christ and for his glory. And he doesn't do one at the expense of the other. Everything is working together to reveal his goodness and his glory and his grace and also to make us like Christ.

So I think we have to have those goals. in mind as we evaluate what's happening in our lives, because his goal is not to make our lives comfortable. And some people do have really difficult things they have to go through. Kyle talked about a disability, and I immediately think of Johnny Erickson Tata. Now, she actually says she would not trade her wheelchair for anything. She's been in a wheelchair for 50 years, and she says that what that did for her in terms of developing her relationship with God is something she would not trade. Now, I don't feel strong enough in myself to say, then God, give me a wheelchair. I mean, that's way too scary for me,

but the truth is she will know him in ways I will never know him because of her disability. So I think whatever difficulty you're going into, you have to have those two goals, God's glory and our good, to make us like Christ, to help us to know him better, all of those things are the most important thing to God, and that's what he's doing with your situation. It's not because he hates you. We know that because he proved that on the cross. It's because he is accomplishing his purposes for you

and for the world and for his glory, all at the same time through your situation. I'm sorry, Amy. We can fight against that, or we can embrace that and trust him, because of the cross. Right, right. There's this great passage in Hebrews 12.

It talks about, now that we're on the inside, not the outside, we are rescued. We belong to him. Christ has given himself for us, Hebrews 8, 9, 10, and the great people of faith

in Hebrews 11, there's actually two groups there. All the people who succeeded, conquered through faith, and then there's this little phrase says, and others, and others. And these are the ones that did not get delivered. Yet, because they did not get delivered

and continued in faith and trust, they will accomplish a greater resurrection. Now, it's hard to make sense of that, but that's what it says. And then in Hebrews 12, it says that God's a good father, and he's going to discipline every child he receives, not like our parents who didn't do,

they did okay, but not perfect. God does it perfectly. And that discipline for the moment is not fun. A little paraphrase, but that's basically what he's saying. It does not seem enjoyable, but sorrowful. But afterwards, after we have been trained by it, yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. And so that's that telos we've been talking about in different ways that brings glory to God and makes us more like Jesus. This is the process. And the writer of Hebrews is acknowledging, hey, this isn't fun. In fact, Hebrews was written to suffering Christians. And so that's part for the course in this life.

I mean, just look at what happens to so many of the prophets. Go read Isaiah and Jeremiah, and you'll read about prophets being killed because they're doing what God asked them to do. So this has always been the case. we cannot judge God's character based on bad things happening to us because he has different goals for us. And so we have to trust that we will know him better and it will be worth it. You have to know that he's worth it in order to embrace this. And so again, we're back to you need to know who he is. You need to look at him. You need to think about him. You need to read the

Bible to see who he is and consciously increase your trust in him and in his character and know, know that he does not hate you. He's already proved that. Greater love has no man than this than he laid down his life for his friend, even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Well, thank you, Maggie and Ray and Kyle. Thank you so much for sending in your questions. And we'd love to hear from you.

and you can send us your question at STR.org or on X with hashtag SDR Ask. This is Amy Hall and Greg Kokel for Stand to Reason.