The
Existence of God
By
Larry Siekawitch
How Do We Know God Exists?
Is there a God? Is Christianity fact or
fiction? Is the universe just a fluke
that came about by chance and will eventually be destroyed? Are we just a compilation of
molecules that just happen to work
together pretty good or are we the design of God made in his image? These questions are the most important
questions in the world. They are more
important than who will win the Super-Bowl this
year. They are even more important than the hospital x-rays that
may show I have cancer. They are more
important because they deal with
eternity. Think of this way. If Christianity is true then we all live for ever - either in heaven or in hell.
We all die but then what? If
Christianity is not true and the atheists are right then all the martyrs who died for their faith are
fools. The answers to these questions
make a world of difference, which is why it makes sense for every individual to examine the
evidence. Below is a case for
Christianity. Examine the evidence with an open mind - your eternal destiny may be at stake. If the
evidence is found wanting then you have
been detained for a small portion of time from the things that really matter to you. If the
evidence is convincing then you must
make a decision, because a fantastic eternal life awaits you. This paper is written for two purposes:
for the skeptic to show him that
Christianity does not expect him to make a blind leap of faith in the dark without reason, and for the
Christian teacher looking for material
to train others in the area of apologetics "The branch of theology dealing with the defense
and proof of Christianity"
(Webster's).
There are three questions that the
non-Christian needs to be confronted
with: Is there a God? Is the Bible trustworthy? Does Jesus' life, death and resurrection prove the
claims of Christianity? If you can show
them that the answer to these three
questions is yes you have broken down the intellectual walls
keeping them from Jesus. This doesn't
mean they will accept Jesus. I remember
talking with a man in college who was a convinced skeptic. After a while in our conversation he admitted
that I had convinced him that there was
a God. After a while longer he admitted that
Christianity made sense and he thought it was true but he went on
to say that he wasn't ready to become a
Christian. When I asked why he was
honest and said that he wasn't ready to give up his life of sin. There are people that don't want to be
confused with the facts. They don't want
to believe. This material may make them uncomfortable but it will not change their minds. But for the
honest seeker that has never seen a good
case for Christianity this material can take away the barriers keeping him or her from
following Jesus. There will always be
the necessary room for faith. God has provided us enough revelation of himself to convince any honest
skeptic but not enough to force a person
that doesn't want to believe against his will. It is faith, but it is faith founded on
fact.
The direction we will be taking is first
to convince the atheist into becoming an
agnostic, then to convince the agnostic that there is a god, then to show him that the Bible is
true, then to show him that Christianity
is true, then finally to answer some of the tough questions that seem to contradict
Christianity (see chart A). Atheist to
Agnostic
First, an atheist is someone that
believes beyond the shadow of a doubt
there is no God. Psalm 53:1 says, "The fool says in his heart there is no God." The Bible calls the
atheist a fool because atheism is
illogical. For a person to say that there is no possible way beyond his limited knowledge of reality that
there might be information revealing
God's existence. We are finite creatures; that
means we have limited amounts of knowledge; we don't know
everything (though some of us appear to
think we do). If there are areas of
knowledge outside our limited range then it is a possibility that outside our limited range there is knowledge
of God's existence. In order for us to
say absolutely that there is no true knowledge of God's existence we would have to have all
knowledge (see chart B). If we had all
knowledge we would have one of the attributes that only God could have therefore we would be
God. So we find ourselves in the strange
predicament of being God and yet denying God's
existence. But if we are limited and therefore are not God we must admit that there is at least the possibility
that there is a God outside of our
knowledge; it might be a likely possibility or it might be a very long-shot possibility but
nonetheless it is a possibility. If we
admit this we cease being a fool (a person who
thinks he is God and yet denies God's existence) and move into the area of agnosticism.
Agnosticism is the belief that we are
unsure whether there is a God or not.
There are two types of agnostics: 1) those who say there may or may not be a God, they just have not
discovered his existence yet if he does
exist, 2) those who say they do not know if there is a God or not and no one can ever know. The
first category is a true agnostic. The
second category is just a disguise for atheism and moves into the category of being a fool. They
are a fool because if there is a God
then surely he is able to reveal himself to us,
therefore there is at least the possibility that someone could know if there is a God or not.
Agnosticism to Theism
Our next step is to convince the
agnostic that there is a God. We are not
now trying to prove the existence of the God of the Bible, just that there is some form of supreme being
responsible for creating the universe.
The Bible claims that God has revealed
himself to every person through what theologians call general revelation (Read Psalm 19; Romans 1:18-23;
Acts 14:17; 17:26-28; Romans 2:4;
2:14-15). General revelation is the revelation of God through his creation and through our
conscience. It is not specific and
detailed but it does show that God exists and it does reveal a few things we can know about this supreme
being. The general revelation is basic
logical deductions from what we can observe and
reason. First we will look at the three options for the universe's existence and then we will look at three
proofs for God's existence.
I. Three options for the existence of
the universe (see chart C): A. The
universe created itself. This is illogical because it would already have to be in existence in order to
create itself and therefore would
already be created so it could not create itself. Star Trek's hypothesis that sometimes the
affect comes before the cause is fun
science fiction but it is not logical.
B. The universe is eternal. This solves the problem of being
created because it never was created.
The problem with this view, which is
held by most atheists as well as most Eastern religions, is that is goes against all scientific discoveries
concerning the universe. To hold this
view is to hold a view without a shred of evidence and with very much convincing evidence to the
contrary. It is definitely a leap of
faith into the dark. The impossibility of an eternal universe is discussed below in detail under
the heading "Does the Bible and
Science Conflict?" Briefly stated the Big Bang theory and the Second Law of Thermodynamics disprove the
theory of an eternal universe.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states,
"The amount of usable energy in the
universe is decreasing due to continuing heat loss. In other words, the universe is running out of
usable fuel; it is slowly dying a heat
death." If the universe is running down there must have been a starting place where maximum
energy was there otherwise it would have
already run out if infinite time is given.
Listen to what Robert Jastrow, internationally known astronomer and founder and director of NASA's Goddard
Institute for Space Studies, has to
say:
For the scientist who has lived by his
faith in the power of reason, the story
ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest
peak; as he pulls himself over the final
rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians
who have been sitting there for centuries. C. An uncaused, eternal, all-powerful being
created the universe out of nothing (see
Genesis 1:1-3).
II. Three arguments for God's
existence:
A. The Cosmological argument. The
cosmological argument is based on the
law of Cause and Effect which all scientific investigation depends on. It says that for every effect there
was a cause. We drop a ball off the
Empire State building and it falls to the ground; what caused it to fall? The affect was caused
by gravity. Everything that ever happens
had a prior cause to it happening. When we trace the causes and affects back to the beginning
we must ask "What caused the first
affect?" We know there was a first affect because we have already determined that the universe
had a beginning. There must be a first
cause and that first cause cannot be contingent (its existence depends on another), must be
eternal and uncaused as well as
all-powerful and personal. The first cause cannot be contingent because if it had a need and depended on
something else for its existence it
could not exist before anything else was created or caused. The first cause must be eternal
otherwise we would have to ask the
question "What caused the first cause?" (which is why it would also have to be uncaused). The first
cause would have to be all-powerful or
at least extremely powerful beyond our wildest
imagination in order to create the vast expanse and intricacy of
the universe. The first cause would also
have to be personal in order to create
personality. The God of the Bible fits all of these:
A. God is self-existent (uncaused) John
5:26
B. God is eternal Deuteronomy 33:27
C. God is independent of anything else
(non-contingent; necessary) Psalm
50:9-13,21; Isaiah 66:1-2.
D. God is all-powerful Jeremiah 32:17; The
term "LORD Almighty is used of God
252 times in the Bible.
E. God is personal Exodus 3:14
B. The Teleological argument. Cicero
said, "If you saw a splendid house,
you surely would not assume that it was built by mice or weasels. A splendid house implies a splendid
architect; and a wonderful world implies
a divine creator." The gist of this argument is that since the universe appears to have
design and purpose there must be an
intelligent designer. The argument can be looked at like this:
1. The universe appears to have design
and purpose.
2. The best explanation for design and
purpose is an intelligent designer.
3. Therefore, the universe is probably
the result of an intelligent
designer.
Clark Pinnock gives one of a multitude
of examples of this argument from
design:
If we saw a scattering of stones on a hillside
spelling out the words, "Welcome to
Canada," we would not suppose that these stones had fallen down the hill and formed the
message by themselves. They could have
done so, but it would be very unlikely. Instead we would conclude that some intelligent agent had
arranged the stones in that pattern so
as to communicate with us. I believe it is reasonable to think that God wants to communicate with us
and does so in part through the wise
ordering of the world, which is a cosmos not a
chaos (60).
Another aspect besides the complexity,
intricacy, and order of the universe is
that the universe appears to have purpose. Not only does the design demand a Designer, but the purposiveness
of the universe demands a Purposer.
First look at the beauty of this world. I agree
with Jean Anouilh who says, "Beauty is a rare miracle that reduces to silence our doubts about God." Donald
Williams says, "Not even the
hardest of hearts can see a blazing sunset over the Pacific without some sense of awe" (150). Let's
consider the human being. Think about
the purpose and beauty in our ability to reason, communicate, have emotions, see colors, taste
foods, laugh and cry. Not only that, we
have the ability to ask the question of our own
existence. Clark Pinnock challenges us to consider the human brain: It consists of about three pounds of grey
matter, and yet no manmade computer of
any size can duplicate the myriad of operations it routinely performs for us every day. Composed
of thirty billion nerve cells, the brain
is a vast, largely unexplored continent - one
of the wonders of the universe. How can a person be expected to believe that an organ of such incredible
complexity and versatility came to exist
by accident as the result of an unintelligent and purely material process? (59).
The only other explanation is chance.
You have heard of the infinite monkey at
the infinite typewriter that given enough time will eventually pound out Shakespeare's Hamlet. One
day the scientist rushes to the typewriter,
pulls out the first page and says, "At
last we are vindicated. To be or not to be that is the gershuveblem4ts. By chance alone there is no
purpose or design and what chance
creates ends up in gersheveblem4ts (Martin). That is why C.A. Chant, Professor of Astrophysics in
Toronto University says that "at
least 90 percent of astronomers have reached the conclusion that the universe is not the result of blind
law, but is regulated by a great
Intelligence" (Grounds 22). Nobel Prize winner and physicist Dr. Robert Millikan declares,
"To me it is unthinkable that a
real atheist could be a scientist" (Grounds 22). The scientists agree; the universe had a
beginning; it could not have appeared
all by itself; and its design and purposiveness rule out chance. So a creator is necessary and it
appears that Romans 1:18-22 is
right:
The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 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 men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave
thanks to him, but their thinking became
futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. This is the argument from design and purpose;
it shows that there is a supreme being
and that this supreme being must be all-knowing and all-wise or at least very smart and very
wise. The God of the Bible is
all-knowing and all-wise (see 1 John 3:20 and Romans 11:33-36). C. The moral argument. In discussing this
argument I am indebted to C.S. Lewis and
C. Stephen Evans. Romans 2:15 says that God has
written his basic laws upon everyone's heart and so we are all without excuse. We all have a conscience
(though it is possible to sear our
conscience 1 Timothy 4:2). The argument can be stated: 1. Unless there is a God, there cannot be
objectively binding moral
obligations.
2. There are objectively binding moral
obligations.
3. Therefore there is a God (Evans 69).
Some reject objectively binding moral
obligations in favor of what is called
"cultural relativism." Cultural relativism is the idea that there are no moral absolutes; all morals
come from our upbringing in the
particular society we grow up in and the
circumstances we live through. What might be right for me may not
be right for you and what might be evil
for you may be good for me. Many point
out the dissimilarities of ethical standards in different cultures to back up this view. In actuality
the amazing thing is the abundant
similarities of basic moral values among all cultures. The most serious problem
with moral relativism is that it nullifies
any possibility for moral progress. If there is no real standard then to say we are better or worse now is
senseless. We cannot condemn those who
promote antisemitism, racism, or infanticide. Besides the vast similarities of
ethics in the various cultures and
besides the fact that cultural relativism does away with any possibility of moral progress, nobody lives
by this idea in day to day practice. To
say you believe something is true and yet all your life is lived as if it were not true is to
deny that you really believe it is true
(except when it is convenient). Evans puts it
this way:
It is extremely difficult to hold
consistently to any form of relativism
or emotivism in practice. It is easy enough to say that there are no real moral obligations; but most
people cannot help believing that, when
they are wronged by someone else, the act is
really wrong. If a person maliciously trips me and then laughs because I have cut my lip, it will seem to me
that the person has wronged me and that
it is a true fact that he has done so. It is no
good to say that the person who tripped me thought the act was right and therefore for him it was right. The act
was wrong, and the person should have
recognized this and regretted the act, even if he felt no such emotion. The person who did the
tripping is likely to say the same thing
when he is tripped (71). All of us have
a conscience. We are compelled to do certain things even though we don't want to, often when it
goes directly against our natural
instincts. We feel we ought to do something or we ought to abstain from something else. There appears
to be a law within us, a sense of ought.
This certainly does not prove the existence of a supreme Being but it does cause us to think.
It is difficult to conceive of morality
and "oughtness" to have evolved from blind chance. None of the other animals have this
peculiar trait. They just act on
instinct. But not man. Could it be that God has placed within us his ideals to protect us and lead
us to himself? This argument reveals
that God is a moral being that cares about morality and justice.
When we view the three arguments above
we see a strong case for the existence
of God. Though we may have not absolutely proved his existence we see that all the evidence is in
favor of his existence. From these
arguments we learn a little about what God is like. The Cosmological argument reveals that he must be
uncaused, eternal, independent,
all-powerful and personal. The Teleological argument reveals that God must be intelligent and wise
and therefore personal (as well as
artistic). The Moral argument shows that he must be a moral Being who cares about justice and
morality. Is that all we can know about
the creator of the universe? How can we know if
Christianity is right? Let's now look at the case for the Christian faith.
Why Should I Trust the Bible?
John Warwick Montgomery tells us a
parable:
A great king (God) had a son (mankind)
who had grown up out of contact with his
father. While journeying in a distant province the son fell seriously ill. The doctor accompanying
him (reason) was incapable of treating
the disease, but the king, learning of his
son's plight, sent instructions (the gospel) for the healing of the boy. However, the king's numerous enemies
also discovered what had happened, and
they likewise sent remedies - purporting to come from the king - which were actually poisonous
(non- Christian religious and
philosophical options). The son's solution to this dilemma was to evaluate the remedies by three tests:
first, what each remedy revealed about
his father (comparison being made with the likeness to the father possessed by the son himself);
second, how accurately each remedy
pictured the nature of the disease; and thirdly, how sound the various curative methods appeared
to be. With the help of the doctor, the
son finally made his decision in terms of the remedy that best satisfied all three tests
(120).
Montgomery proposes three tests. The
first test is "What each remedy
revealed about the son's father. We have already seen that logic strongly argues for the existence of a god
who is personal, powerful, eternal,
wise, and moral. The Bible declares all of these attributes of God.
Montgomery's second test is "How accurate
each remedy pictures the nature of the
disease." Many of the liberal and humanistic religions stress the basic goodness of man's nature.
They say corruption comes from society.
This goes contrary to the facts of history and logic. History reveals that man is not basically
good; he is basically selfish and
sinful. The liberal view is also illogical because society is a bunch of individual people. To
blame the situation of the world on
society is to blame it on people. This is exactly what the Bible teaches: "For all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God"
(Romans 3:23).
Montgomery's third test is "How
sound the various curative methods
appear to be." If God has revealed himself in propositional
form, that revelation would have certain
properties due to his infinite knowledge
and moral perfection:
1. It would be entirely true - his infinite
knowledge would prevent errors and his
truthfulness would keep him from deception.
2. It would be a coherent unity therefore not
self- contradictory.
3. It would contain God's will for man and
provide the motivation to live according
to that will (Shelly 92).
God has revealed himself in the Bible
without error. The Bible itself claims
this inerrancy (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 5:18; etc.). Let's look at some of the proofs for
the Bible's claim to be the infallible
word of God.
The first proof we have testifying to
the reliability of the Bible is the
archaeological evidence. Nelson Glueck, a respected Jewish archaeologist claims: "It may be stated categorically
that no archaeological discovery has
ever controverted a biblical reference"
(Shelly 103). The liberals made wild claims against the Bible a hundred years ago but now they are silent.
This is not true of other religions. The
Mormon claim for inspiration of the Book of Mormon has been categorically condemned by the Smithsonian
Institute because of the fallacies shown
by archaeology; this is not so with the
Bible. A.N. Sherwin-white, a respected classical historian at Oxford says about the book of Acts, "For
Acts the confirmation of historicity is
overwhelming...any attempt to reject its basic
historicity even in matters of detail must now appear absurd" (Shelly 110). A case in point is the
historicity of Jesus. We have several
first century writings from non-Christians (Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, Rabbi Eliezer, and Josephus)
mentioning details about Jesus and his
crucifixion, John the Baptist as well as many other details found in the Gospels. The old
contention that there never was a
historical Jesus is blown away by the evidence.
The next proof is the Bible's uniqueness and
unity. The Bible was written by over 40
authors who came from just about every walk of
life conceivable including fisherman, kings, a butler, priests, and a tax collector. The 66 books of the Bible
were written over a 1500 year span in
three languages on three continents with one theme and no contradictions. C.J. Sharp captures this
miracle well:
If a fragment of stone were found in
Italy, another in Asia Minor, another in
Greece, another in Egypt, and on and on until sixty-six fragments had been found, and if when put together
they fitted perfectly together, making a
perfect statue of Venus de Milo, there
is not an artist or scientist but would arrive immediately at the conclusion that there was originally a
sculptor who conceived and carved the
statue. The very lines and perfections would probably determine which of the great ancient artists
carved the statue. Not only the unity of
the Scriptures, but their lines of perfection,
suggest One far above any human as the real author. That could be
no one but God (Shelly 114).
A third reason why Christians believe
God is the ultimate author of the Bible
is the predictive prophecy in the Bible. This aspect is unique to the world's religions because if
one predicts something will happen and
it does not, they are proven to be phony. The Bible is literally filled with detailed prophecies
that have been fulfilled with 100%
accuracy. I refer the reader to Josh McDowell's
books Evidence That Demands A Verdict and Prophecy: Fact Or
Fiction? for detailed proof of the
prophetic accuracy of the Bible. Here I
would like to list 61 prophecies along with their fulfillment about Jesus (as recorded in Evidence That Demands A
Verdict):
1. Born of the seed of woman - Genesis
3:15 and Galatians 4:4.
2. Born of a virgin - Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew
1:18,24,25.
3. Son of God - Psalms 2:7 and Matthew 3:17.
4. Seed of Abraham - Genesis 22:18 and Matthew
1:1.
5. Son of Isaac - Genesis 21:12 and Luke
3:23-24.
6. Son of Jacob - Numbers 24:17 and Luke
3:23-24.
7. Tribe of Judah - Genesis 49:10 and Luke
3:23-24.
8. Family line of Jesse - Isaiah 11:1 and Luke
3:23-24.
9. House of David - Jeremiah 23:5 and Luke
3:23-24.
10. Born at Bethlehem - Micah 5:2 and Matthew
2:1.
11. Presented with gifts - Psalms 72:10 and
Matthew 2:1,11.
12. Herod kills children - Jeremiah 31:15 and
Matthew 2:16.
13. His pre-existence - Micah 5:2 and
Colossians 1:17.
14.
He shall be called Lord - Psalms 110:1 and Matthew
22:43-45.
15. Shall be Immanuel (God with us) - Isaiah
7:14 and Matthew 1:23.
16. Shall be a prophet - Deuteronomy 18:18 and
Matthew 21:11.
17. Priest - Psalms 110:4 and hebrews 3:1.d
18. Judge - Isaiah 33:22 and John 5:30.
19. king - Psalms 2:6 and Matthew 27:37.
20. Special anointment of Holy Spirit - Isaiah
11:2 and Matthew 3:16,17.
21. His zeal for God - Psalms 69:9 and John
2:15-17.
22. Preceded by messenger - Isaiah 40:3 and
Matthew 3:1,2.
23. Ministry to begin in Galilee - Isaiah 9:1
and Matthew 4:12,13,17.
24. Ministry of miracles - Isaiah 35:5,6 and
Matthew 9:35.
25. Teacher of parables - Psalms 78:2 and
Matthew 13:34.
26. He was to enter the temple - Malachi 3:1
and Matthew 21:12.
27. He was to enter Jerusalem on donkey -
Zechariah 9:9 and Luke 19:35-37.
28. "Stone of stumbling" to Jews -
Psalms 118:22 and 1 Peter 2:7.
29. "Light" to Gentiles - Isaiah
60:3 and Acts 13:47,48.
30. Resurrection - Psalms 16:10 and Acts 2:31.
31. Ascension - Psalms 68:18 and Acts 1:9.
32. Seated at right hand of God - Psalms 110:1
and Hebrews 1:3.
33. Betrayed by a friend - Psalms 41:9 and
Matthew 10:4.
34. Sold for 30 pieces of silver - Zechariah
11:12 and Matthew 26:15.
35. Money to be thrown in God's house -
Zechariah 11:13 and Matthew 27:5.
36. Price given for potter's field - Zechariah
11:13 and Matthew 27:7.
37. Forsaken by his disciples - Zechariah 13:7
and Mark 14:50.
38. Accused by false witnesses - Psalms 35:11
and Matthew 26:59,60.
39. Dumb before accusers - Isaiah 53:7 and
Matthew 27:12.
40. Wounded and bruised Isaiah 53:5 and
Matthew 27:26.
41. Smitten and spit upon - Isaiah 50:6 and
Matthew 26:67.
42. Mocked - Psalms 22:7,8 and Matthew 27:31.
43. Fell under the cross - Psalms 109:24,25
and Luke 23:26.
44. Hands and feet pierced - Psalms 22:16 and
Luke 23:33.
45. Crucified with thieves - Isaiah 53:12 and
Matthew 27:38.
46. Made intercession for his persecutors -
Isaiah 53:12 and Luke 23:34.
47. Rejected by his own people - Isaiah 53:3
and John 7:5,48.
48. Hated without a cause - Psalms 69:4 and
John 15:25.
49. Friends stood afar off - Psalms 38:11 and
Luke 23:49.
50. People shook their heads - Psalm 109:25
and Matthew 27:39.
51. Stared upon - Psalms 22:17 and Luke 23:35.
52. Garments parted and lots cast - Psalms
22:18 and John 19:23,24.
53. To suffer thirst - Psalms 69:21 and John
19:28.
54. Gall and vinegar offered him - Psalms
69:21 and Matthew 27:34.
55. His forsaken cry - psalms 22:1 and Matthew
27:46.
56. Committed himself to God - Psalms 31:5 and
Luke 23:46.
57. Bones not broken - Psalms 34:20 and John
19:33.
58. Heart broken - Psalm 22:14 and John 19:34.
59. His side pierced - Zechariah 12:10 and
John 19:34.
60. Darkness over the land - Amos 8:9 and
Matthew 27:45.
61. Buried in rich man's tomb - Isaiah 53:9
and Matthew 27:57-60.
I admit some of these prophecies are
vague and could have been deliberately
fulfilled but what about the following: 1. Place of birth (Micah 5:2). 2. Date of birth (Daniel
9:25). 3. Manner of birth (Isaiah 7:14).
4. Manner of death (Psalms 22; Isaiah 53). 5.
Piercing in side and crucified (Zechariah 12:10; Psalm 22:16 prophesied before the invention of
crucifixion). 8. Burial (Isaiah
53:9).
The Bible made several prophecies of the
complete destruction of cities. Many of
the cities it said would be rebuilt and several it claimed would never be rebuilt - The Bible is
100% accurate in both categories as
archeology shows. One amazing example is the city of Tyre. Ezekiel 26:3-5,7,12,14 and 16
predict: 1. Nebuchadnezzar will take
the city.
2. Other nations will participate in the
fulfillment.
3. The city is to be made flat like the top of
a rock.
4. It is to become a place for spreading
nets.
5. Its stones and timber are to be laid in the
sea.
6. The old city of Tyre will never be
rebuilt.
History records that Nebuchadnezzar took the
city but the people escaped out to an
island. Later Alexander the Great took the Island off the coast by taking the old cities rubble
and throwing it into the sea making a
land-bridge (this caused the old city to look flat like a rock due to the scraping of the material).
The old city is now a place for
fisherman but no city has been planted there even though there is an excellent water supply to
support a major city.
Another interesting aspect of Biblical
prophecy is the New Testament prophecies
concerning the last days. John, Zechariah and others had prophecies and visions of the future which
they attempted to describe with the
words available to them at that time. The amazing thing is how accurate the prophecies are of
the way the world is today. There was no
way they could have known two thousand years ago what the conditions would be like today. For
example, in Revelation 9:13-19 John
describes an army of two hundred million soldiers that will cross the Euphrates river from the east.
At that time there weren't even two
hundred million people on the earth let alone in one army. Today China boasts of an army of
two hundred million soldiers; China is
east of the Euphrates river. John describes this army as riding on horses with breastplates
and of which out of their mouths came
fire, smoke and sulphur. They had power in their tails and were used to kill a third of mankind. It sounds
like John is describing modern day
warfare with tanks. He called them horses
because that was the only mode of transportation then. John described in Revelation chapter 13 a one
world government which would have a
cashless money system that worked with a mark on each person's hand or forehead. Today we have
scanners in our grocery stores that will
soon do away with the use of money. This will cut down crime considerably and so will be
accepted readily by a world in desperate
need. Right now we use debit cards for these type of transactions but an invisible implant
underneath the skin with our social
security number on a bar code will work better because it is more easily accessible and will do away with
the problem of losing our debit and
credit cards, not to mention the problem of credit card theft that will be done away with by
this new system. Our technology is ready
for this and yet we must ask, "How did John know?" Zechariah 14:12-16 describes a
battle which God will use to judge the
nations (compare with Revelation 19:17-21). He describes the "plague" like this: "Their
flesh will rot while they are still
standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths."
This sounds gory but we can't escape the
similarities to the destruction of people by
nuclear warfare and fallout. How did Zechariah know? There was nothing comparable to this at all in his day.
The most likely explanation is that God,
who can see the future, told him, thus
verifying the Bible.
Allow me to mention one other prophecy.
The existence of the nation of Israel is
phenomenal. Throughout the Bible God said he would bring his people back to their inheritance. Shortly
before the total destruction and exile
of Israel in 70 A.D. Paul wrote how eventually
in the end of time "all Israel would be saved" meaning they
would come to Christ (Romans 11). God is
not finished with Israel. I am not
trying to defend the actions of Israel. I think as a nation they have proven themselves time and time again to
be wicked, but God is not through with
them, "For God's gifts and his call are
irrevocable" (Romans 11:29). Look at the history of Israel. They began from a wandering nomad named Abraham
who never owned a single plot of ground
except his own burial plot. They grew in numbers as slaves in Egypt (somehow not intermixing with
the other races of that land). After
being slaves for 400 years they somehow left Egypt and actually conquered the nations living in
Palestine even though they were not
trained in warfare. Half the nation was destroyed and exiled during the rule of the world empire of
Assyria (722 B.C.). The other half was
destroyed and exiled during the Babylonian rule
(586 B.C.). They returned under the Persian rule somehow not losing their identity during the forced domination
and exile. The Greeks sought to
annihilate their identity by forced integration; anyone who stood in their way was killed. After the
Greeks, the Romans subjugated them and
eventually destroyed the temple and banned all
Jews from their homeland (70 A.D. and following). For the next 1900 years they roamed the earth as nomads under
constant persecution (this was
prophesied in Hosea 3:4-5). The Muslims would kill and disperse their groups. The so-called
Christians would force them to recant
their beliefs or kill them. Their money was constantly being confiscated. All of this led up to the
atrocity of Hitler who exterminated six
million Jews. Anti-semitic prejudice still runs
rampant today. The entire Middle Eastern world wants nothing more
in life than to see the total
annihilation of the Jews. The Six Day War
was an incredible victory for Israel against the entire Arab world because all the odds were against them. How
can we account for Israel's existence?
How can we account for the widespread hatred
toward Israel throughout history unless there is a supernatural
evil controlling their opposition? The
survival of Israel and the fact that
they are back in their homeland after 1900 years should at least cause us to consider the claims of the
Bible.
One last question is "How do we
know the Bible has been kept in tact
over 2000 years of copying?" First the Old Testament. Before
the Dead Sea Scrolls our earliest Hebrew
copy of the OT was the Masoretic text
dating around 800 A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls date around the time of Jesus copied by the Qumran
community, a Jewish sect living around
the Dead Sea. We also have the Septuagint which
is a Greek translation of the OT dating in the second century B.C. When we compare these texts which have an
800-1000 years gap between them we are
amazed that 95% of the texts are identical with only minor variations and a few discrepancies. In
considering the New Testament we have
tens of thousands of manuscripts of the New
Testament in part or in whole dating from 125 A.D. to the late fifteenth century when the printing press was
invented. We also have thousands of
early Christian writings and lexionaries which quote the New Testament. We can actually put the
entire NT together just from the early
Christian quotes. With all of this massive manuscript evidence you would think we would have
massive discrepancies - just the
opposite is true. The manuscripts agree in 98% of the text. Most of the discrepancies are in spelling and word
order. A few words have been changed or
added. There are two major passages that are
disputed but no discrepancy is of any doctrinal significance. Most Bibles include the options as footnotes when there
are discrepancies. How could there be
such accuracy over 1400 years of
copying? Two reasons: The scribes that did the copying had meticulous methods for checking their copies
for errors. 2) The Holy Spirit made sure
we would have an accurate copy of God's word so we would not be deceived. The Mormons, liberals
as well as other cults and false
religions such as Islam that claim the Bible has been tampered with are completely proven false by
historical manuscript evidence. Besides
that their view of God is suspect when they claim his word would not last.
We can trust the Bible because it has
been accurately preserved. We can trust
the Bible because it is proven to be the word of God. In the next section on why we should believe
Christianity is true we will see further
miracles that verify the Bible.
How Do We Know Christianity Is True?
Intro: It all centers around the person
Jesus. Jesus performed miracles and made
claims to be God. This forces us to consider him in one of four ways: He is either Lord, liar,
lunatic or legend. The option of his
being a good teacher alone is not acceptable because of his claims and actions. A good person
doesn't claim to be the only way to
heaven unless he is (John 14:6). A good teacher doesn't claim absolute lordship to the point of
dividing families if necessary unless he
is absolute Lord (Mt 10:34-39). This proposition rules out liberalism and Islam. Let's look at
the possibilities in reverse order:
I. Was Jesus just a legend? Archaeology
disproves this (see above under proofs
for the Bible's inerrancy for specifics)
II. Was Jesus a lunatic? If he claimed
to be God and is not he is a lunatic on
the level of a man who thinks he is a poached egg. But was Jesus crazy? His teachings are recognized
around the world as the most sound and
ethical teachings taught by anyone ever. This
obscure man born in a city of 200 never traveling over 200 miles, never writing anything, and killed as common
criminal has influenced this world more
than any other human ever - does this sound like a lunatic? Few are willing to say he is
crazy.
III. Was Jesus a liar? Remember he
produced the most ethical religion on
earth. Would a liar die for a cause he knew wasn't true? His opponents never questioned whether he
performed miracles or not; they accused
him of being possessed. Would a possessed man do so much good that Jesus did?
IV. The only other alternative is that
Jesus is Lord. If he is Lord then we
must listen to everything he says. We don't have an option to only listen to the parts we like. The
Bible says all other religions are false
and that Jesus is the only way of salvation.
This rules out all other religions. Jesus is Lord and he proved it by his resurrection. Let's look at the
resurrection in more detail:
The Resurrection
The next proof for the supremacy of
Christianity over the other religious
options is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact that a son of a Jewish
carpenter from an obscure town, who
never wrote a book, never traveled farther than a couple hundred miles, had no formal education, and
was killed as a common criminal, changed
the course of history more than any other man in history gives us reason to at least consider
his claims. Frank Morison was an English
journalist who set out to prove the
resurrection of Jesus was a myth. He ended up becoming a Christian and writing the book Who Moved The Stone?
What convinced him I believe can
convince others. Let's look at the evidence.
I believe that the belief of Jesus
raising from the dead is the most
logical explanation for the missing body. We must explain the fact that there was no body in the tomb. Let's
review the possibilities the atheists
have presented: 1) Some have suggested that the body is still in the tomb. This group can be broken
up into two subgroups. One group says
that the disciples went to the wrong tomb. Another group says that the disciples saw an
illusion. If this is true then two
difficulties must be answered. If it was an illusion then it was a pretty big illusion. According to 1
Corinthians 15:6 there were over 500
witnesses of Jesus being alive after he was buried. At the time Paul wrote that, most of them were still
alive and a person could ask them if he
didn't believe Paul. If one claims he saw a
dead man alive you call the men in white jackets. If five claim
they saw a dead man alive you say it's a
joke. If ten claim they saw a dead man
alive you think its a conspiracy. But if over 500 claim they saw a dead man alive you at least go and
check the coffin. This is exactly what
the Jews did. If the body was still there then when the Jewish officials saw all the commotion of
the Christians claiming Jesus rose from
the dead, all they would have to do is say
"No he didn't; here's his body." But they could not do that
because the body was missing. What the
Jewish officials actually did was claim
that the disciples stole the body. This is the second option.
2) The disciples stole the body. The
tomb was guarded by soldiers and was
blocked by a very heavy boulder with a Roman seal placed on it. Let's just assume that the disciples
snuck into the graveyard when the guards
just happened to fall asleep (even though it was a death penalty for a guard to fall asleep on
duty). They very quietly removed the
boulder and stole the body. If this is true then we must deal with the problem of the credibility and
the faithfulness of the disciples. The
disciples turned from cowards to lions after the supposed resurrection. Would that have
happened if they knew it to be a lie?
The disciples are responsible for recording the book with the highest ethical standards known to
mankind which constantly demands
truthfulness and condemns lies; is this possible for wicked liars? I say wicked liars because they
consciously misled people who would
later die for that deception. Would these same disciples be willing to die for what they knew to be a
lie? If they stole the body then when
the Romans demanded them to recant they would have gladly rejected Jesus because they knew he was
still a corpse. But they didn't. They
all went to their horrible deaths claiming that
Jesus rose from the dead and that he changed their lives.
3) Because of the impossibility of the
first two explanations most atheists opt
for the last theory - the swoon theory. This theory states that Jesus did not actually die on the
cross. He only appeared dead. When he
was placed in the cool tomb he was
resuscitated and then appeared to the disciples. We still have the problem of his getting by the guards and
removing the boulder. We must also
assume that the centurion whose entire job in life is to make sure the criminals are dead was wrong in
this case. John would have had to lie
about the incident of the soldier piercing Jesus side after he died, because the account says
that blood and water came out which
pathologists tell us is proof of death. Not only this but we must imagine a weak, half dead Jesus
somehow appeared to the disciples in
strength and glory enough to convince them that he had risen from the dead. This would make Jesus a
liar. I find it amazing that this is the
most popular explanation by the atheists for the missing body.
Let me tell you one other possibility -
Jesus rose from the dead! Unless we have
preconceived biases against the possibility of
miracles (which is stupid because if God exists he can certainly do miracles) we must conclude that the most
logical explanation for the missing body
is that Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus rose from the dead then he is Lord and we better listen
to him when he says, "I am the way
and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
As a side note I would like to mention
one other person who claimed to see the
risen Christ - the Apostle Paul. It is difficult to explain how this man, who at one time zealously
pursued the death of Christians, became
a Christian after seeing the risen Christ and
later died for his faith.
What About Those Who Have Never Heard?
We are not now talking about those who
reject Jesus for another religion; we
are talking about those who never have the opportunity to hear about Jesus. Is God just in condemning
them? There are five considerations that
I think will help us understand this complex and important issue: 1) the revelation of God, 2)
God's knowledge, 3) God's desire, 4)
God's goodness, and 5) the power of the gospel.
The first concept we must consider is
God's revelation - How does God reveal
Himself to humanity? The Bible describes two ways in which God reveals Himself: He reveals Himself
generally to all of His creation through
the creation and through conscience. He also
reveals Himself specifically through His word. These are known as general and special revelations. General
revelation is to all creation in general
and is not very specific. Special revelation is
to select people and is very specific. A survey of some pertinent Bible passages will help make this more
clear.
First of all God reveals Himself
generally to all creation through His
creation. Psalm 19:1-4 says:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his
hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their
words to the ends of the world.
This passage shows that God can be seen
by looking at His creation. When we see
an awesome sunset over the ocean, or when we view a majestic snow-capped mountain the natural
response is "Wow, there is a
God!" When we review the intricacy and design of the universe, its complexity and built-in purpose, we are
confronted by the Great Designer - It
could not be by chance! Our passage declares that the creation continuously proclaims everywhere
that God is alive. From this revelation
we can see that God must be very smart and that He appreciates beauty.
Acts 14:17 says:
Yet he has not left himself without
testimony: He has shown kindness by
giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills
your hearts with joy.
Here we see that God takes care of His
creation - this is what we call the
providence of God; This stretches out to all of creation, as Matthew 5:45 says, "He causes his sun
to rise on the evil and the good, and
sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." God gives us joy, provision, and orders the
events of our life because He cares
about us and because He wants to reveal Himself to us. Acts 17:27 says, "God did this so that men
would seek him and perhaps reach out for
him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." So we see that the question
"Is God fair in judging people that
have never heard of Him" is a mute question because everyone has had some revelation of God. God gave us
this revelation in hopes that we would
seek Him.
The fault lies in us, not in God. Romans
1:18-25 is the classic passage on
general revelation and so deserves to be quoted in its entirety:
The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 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 men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave
thanks to him, but their thinking became
futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made
to look like mortal man and birds and
animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to
sexual impurity for the degrading of
their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served
created things rather than the Creator -
who is forever praised. Amen.
I use to think that people in other
religions were sincerely seeking God,
but according to this passage they are actually rejecting the true God because of their sin. They "exchanged
the truth of God for a lie" even
though "what may be known about God is plain to them." According to this passage they are
"without excuse." Now this
passage does not say everything about God including Christ's death on the cross is revealed to all men, but
something about God is revealed that
should cause people to honestly seek Him and find Him. Jeremiah 29:13 says, "You will seek me
and find me when you seek me with all
your heart." General revelation is limited, but it is enough, especially when we couple God's
revealing Himself in His creation with
God's revealing Himself in our conscience.
God not only speaks to all creation
through creation, He also reveals His
moral standards to all creation through the conscience. Romans 2:14-15 says:
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have
the law, do by nature things required by
the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the
requirements of the law are written on
their hearts, their consciences also bearing
witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.
Everyone has a conscience. The
conscience is not exact and we can
actually sear our consciences through continual disobedience to
what we know is right (1 Timothy 4:2),
but it is a general guide to the
character and requirements of the God whose image we are made in (Genesis 1:27). This image has certainly been
marred by sin but it is still to a
certain degree intact (Genesis 9:6). It is amazing when the different cultures of this world are
studied that the laws are so similar.
Everyone at a certain time in their life receives a conscience - God telling them what is right
and wrong. No one knows at what age this
conscience comes (see Romans 7:9), and some
probably never receive a conscience (i.e. the severely mentally retarded, babies that die). But in general
everyone has a conscience. Not only
that, but everyone goes against their
conscience. A person may not have the Bible but he does have that inner witness that he rejects - he does what
he knows he should not do. For instance,
I am pretty sure everyone lies, and yet who would say it is not wrong to lie? Romans 3:23 says,
"For all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God." We are without excuse.
The revelation that God exists as our
creator, that He is good, and that we
have rebelled against what we know is right is general revelation. This revelation of God should cause
us to humbly seek His mercy. Some may
even find His mercy this way. David Clark
describes this possibility as the "implicit-faith view:
In this approach, people in a culture
that has no contact with Christ or the
Bible see through nature that a God exists and through conscience that they are out of touch with
him. Although they know nothing of
Christ specifically, God prompts them to cast themselves into his hands for safekeeping. They are
saved just as any other people are
saved: through God's gracious action on behalf of those who are moved by God to call on divine mercy
for rescue. They are saved objectively
on the basis of Christ's work of atonement; they are saved subjectively in that God elicits a
faith response to the glimmer of light
in natural revelation. It is true both that it is only through Jesus Christ they are saved and
that they have no conceptual knowledge
about Christ. (Through No Fault Of Their Own?
p.42)
This explains how Old Testament people
could be saved. They responded in faith
depending on God for mercy. Notice that it can
not be any form of salvation by works - the gospel is not
distorted. It does not depend on their
sincerity - it depends on Christ's
payment for their sins and their faith response to God as He has revealed Himself to them in general
revelation. Are there any examples of
this in the Bible or in history? Yes! Melchizedek and Jethro both were true followers of God
without any special revelation that we
know of (Genesis 14:18-20; Exodus 18:1-27). In
history Don Richardson describes several occurrences in his book Eternity In Their Hearts. All of these people
will certainly receive the full gospel
if presented to them (see Cornelius in Acts 10 as an example). The question we must ask however is
"How many actually come to God this
way?" I hope for many, but some are not as hopeful as I am. There is no way to tell. One thing
is for certain: A person's likelihood of
coming to God is raised dramatically when
they hear the gospel. We cannot depend on general revelation alone to reach them - we must bring them the
special revelation of the gospel if we
want to see a large harvest.
The second concept we must consider
concerning the question "What about
those who never hear the gospel?" is the concept of God's knowledge. Chet Cady says, "God knows
all things both actual and possible;
past present, and future; completely, perfectly, simultaneously, and eternally" (The
Attributes of God p.22). Psalm 147:5
says, "Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit." Hebrews
4:13 says, "Nothing in all creation
is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we
must give account." Because God
knows everything - even all possible occurrences (middle knowledge) - He knows who will respond
positively to the gospel. With this
information He can order our lives (to a certain extent without taking away our freedom), so that we
will have the greatest possibility or
likelihood that we will respond positively to the gospel. Acts 17:26-27 says:
From one man he made every nation of
men, that they should inhabit the whole
earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did
this so that men would seek him and
perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
Some people might say "People born
in the United States or Europe have a
better chance of hearing the gospel so that isn't fair." But everyone receives some revelation and God
will make sure that anyone who would
respond positively to the gospel will hear it (see Acts 10 as an example).
The idea that God will make sure that people who would respond positively to the gospel will hear it couples the consideration of God's knowledge with God's desire. 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." God wants everyone to be saved. Ezekiel 18:23 says, "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?" And in verse 32 He says, "For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!" God does not want to have to send anyone to hell. He is holy and just so He will if they refuse to repent and turn to Him, but he wants everyone to come to Him. Some might ask, "Then why doesn't He just save everyone?" God in His sovereign will has decided to give us freedom. He will not force