CASE FOR GOD - NYOBS 65.02

      CASE FOR GOD

LOGIC & REASON for an un-moved Mover

The Age old Question

·         Where did you come from? – From my mother and father.

·         Where did they come from? – From my grandparents.

·         Where did the first man and woman come from? – Pond scum.

·         Where did that come from? – Gasses, Chemicals and Matter.

·         Where did that come from? – Space and planets exploding.

·         Where did they come from? – A single source that was expanding.

·         Where did that come from? – I don’t know. – Perhaps God. – The Unmoved Mover.

·         If there is an Unmoved Mover; can He knowable or is He hidden?

Reasons to NOT Believe

·         Ten reasons to NOT believe in God

1.     There is just no evidence that there is a God; it’s just plain bias, opinions and tradition.

2.     My parents did not believe in God therefore we never went to Church or Sunday School.

3.     God is an invention of the political wealthy elite to suppress the lower working class.

4.     The only reason people go to church, is to rub shoulders so they can make business contacts.

5.     Religion is just a hustle to separate you from your money.

6.     My college professor taught that NATURE accounts for everything in life.

7.     I can’t believe that a cosmic Deity created me just for the purpose of worshipping Him.

8.     Religion is just something that keeps me in a box and makes me feel guilty about my lifestyle

9.     I have a good mind that directs my life; religion just restricts my full potential.

10.   If God really existed, we would not see so much PAIN, SUFFERING and EVIL in this world.

Born an Atheist

·         What if I told you that you were born an ATHEIST; an unbeliever in God?  Well you were. In fact we were all born DEAD to spiritual things.  We do not possess on our own, the ability to seek such things.

·         Things of God are spiritually discerned and to understand them, our dead spirit has to be made alive. (born again)

·         The Spiritual attributes of God are clearly perceived in nature IF we choose to see them; so if no one had ever told us about God, we would still be without excuse. – We are destroyed because we choose to reject His knowledge that is right before our very eyes.

Ephesians 2:1-2 – You are DEAD in your sins
¹ As for you, you were DEAD in your transgressions and sins,
² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (NIV2011)

Romans 1:20 – We are without excuse
²⁰ For his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

(ESV)

Hosea 4:6 - We are destroyed because we rejected knowledge
⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge,

(ESV)

Romans 5:17 – Because of Adam’s sin – We are doomed to die
¹⁷ For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

(ESV)

Colossians 2:13 – God made us who were dead; ALIVE
¹³  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God MADE ALIVE together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. (ESV)

There is No God

·         If there is no God, our life is fundamentally no different from that of a dog.  We both have breath and are made from dust and both of us will return to dust. – If Life ends in the grave and there is no goal or purpose, then it is all pointless. – Man has no advantage over a dog or any other creature on earth.  If God is dead; so is man; there is no immortality.

·         There are no moral standards of right and wrong, there are no principals that govern our behavior, no one that can tell us that what we are doing is right or wrong; good or evil.

·         All things are permitted – Extermination of the Jews; cutting the heads off Christians – Rape, Abortions, Homosexuality, Rioting, Looting, Killing and Destroying property; all are permitted; there is no right or wrong, no good nor evil.

·         There are no restraints; no rewards for goodness, no punishment for evil, you can do just as you wish. - Values just do not exist without God - There is no goal nor purpose; at the end of life’s trail is a grave with outstretched arms; then nothing. - There is no hereafter. -

·         What seems like turmoil to a fly caught in a web is just normal for a spider.  Cancer kills people, doctors kill Cancer.  It’s all just a matter of perspective. – I’M GOOD; YOU’RE GOOD -

·         Man is a freak of nature, a lump of slime that evolved in a silent mindless universe;

a)    A blind product of matter plus time plus pure chance.

b)    A victim of genetic and environmental roulette.

c)    The result of combinations of hereditary osmosis,

·         We are an electro-chemical DNA propagating machine that is controlled by mindless genes. - (Richard Dawkins Atheist)

·         Human beings are NO better than any other animal; all of which have no obligations to each other; we all have the “Herd” Mentality that is just struggling to survive.

·         The Universe is a gigantic Closed Time Machine with gears, pulleys and springs and there is nothing outside of it. – The Big Bang wound it up like a big clock and set it running with the laws of nature never to be touched again.

·         Nothing can happen contrary to the laws of Nature - At the bottom there is no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference. - (Richard Dawkins Atheist)

·         Our life is the result of a chain of accidents which when fully carried out will eventually result in man becoming extinct either by Freezing to death or Burning up.  There is nothing to keep the earth in balance. – Life is just a CRAP SHOOT.

·         Since God does not exist; there is no reward for good, nor is there punishment for evil, there is no immortality, life will just ceases to exist; so EAT, DRINK and be MERRY while you are here, BECAUSE THIS IS ALL THERE IS.

Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 – Man dies; so does a dog – No advantage
¹⁹ For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and MAN HAS NO ADVANTAGE over the beasts, for all is vanity.

 ²⁰ All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.  (ESV)

The Human Predicament- an enigma

·         We have two things going on with THE HUMAN PREDICAMENT.

1.     The misery of man without God is knowing that he is limited to a small space in a vast universe for a brief period of time, a mere passing shadow; a spark of light in the darkness, that reduces to a flicker and then goes out.  - He does not know why he is here and has no purpose and the only “absolute” is a destination of death, the certainty of becoming a non-being forever. – Higher education, hard work, friendships and acts of compassion make NO difference, it is all utterly meaningless. - Without “absolutes” of something other than death and the grave, man’s efforts degenerate into absurdity; the force that coughed him up will swallow him.  – Man is adrift in a boat without a rudder on an endless sea. - It makes no difference if he ever existed or not; IT’S ALL JUST VANITY.

2.     The happiness of man with God is knowing that God created him with purpose and there is life after death for eternity living with God. - Man is capable of knowing God, but has an element of corruption that makes him unworthy to know God. – Man is blessed with REASONING, so that he is capable of KNOWING OF HIS PREDICAMENT and has hope. 

·         Man reasons; how can a good and loving God exist when the world is filled with so much evil and suffering.

a)    The NEGATIVE reaction is that this shows that there is NO God.

b)    The POSITIVE reaction is that innocent suffering perfects one’s character and brings one closer to God.

Ecclesiastes 1:2 – All is vanity
² Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! ALL IS VANITY.

Where did God come from?

·         IF there is a cosmic designer, who designed the designer?

·         The Designer of the Universe is an Un-moved Mover that is un-caused, beginning-less, space-less, timeless, changeless, all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent and PURPOSEFUL. He is an eternal being therefore cannot exist from a cause.

·         Astronauts visiting another planet finding some machinery, would conclude that their find was a product of design even though they did not know who designed it or how it got there. – Through REASON they would not need to be able to explain the designer in order to reach their conclusion. – We can observe creation today and reason its design without explaining how the Creator that designed and made it come to exist.

·         Why does anything exist? – What caused the first un-caused cause? - Matter, time, space, and energy all came into being at the BIG BANG, nothing existed before that. – If you embrace this concept, then you must embrace the “LOGICAL CONCLUSION” also, that nothing happens without a cause, so an-unmoved mover designed it to happen for a purpose.

·         It is possible that an Eternal Cosmic Force; an Un-Moved mover exists and with that possibility, it would exist in some possible world. – If this Force could exist in some possible world, then it could exist in an actual world – If the Un-Moved mover can exist in an actual world then THE UN-MOVED MOVER MUST EXIST.

·         Most philosophers agree that IF IT IS POSSIBLE for God to exist, THEN HE DOES EXIST.

Circular reference

·         As a Christian, I want to prove that there is a God by using the Bible, but to the Atheist the Bible is not proof, it’s only a religious book of what someone else believes to be true.

·         Belief in a God must come from rational REASONING that results in absolutes. – We cannot say that God wrote the Bible and the Bible says that there is a God; that’s just circular reasoning. – That is as meaningless as a square circle or a married bachelor.

·         There are three reasons something exist; it was of a physical necessity or it happened by chance or it was the result of design. – A GOOD ARGUMENT for design is to note the fact that the Universe is very fine-tuned and is kept meticulously in balance.

·         I have noticed when Scientist and thinkers of physics come up with an equation on how things work, they are always “fine tuning” the equations with something they call the “G” factor to take care of the “variations” we have in life. – Without it, life would be rendered impossible.  I call their “G” factor; GOD.

Evidence Vacuum

·          Faith; in order to be Faith must exist in an “Evidential Vacuum”, it must be believed wholly apart from evidence.  – WOW - That’s a hard statement; God made man in His own image and gave him a mind to REASON therefore believing without evidence would be “irrational”.

·          It’s not enough to KNOW that there is a God by the self-authenticating witness of the Holy Spirit, but we must be able to SHOW that there is a God by presenting valid reasonable arguments.  A valid honest question must not be shut down with the words to “Just have faith and Believe”.

·          We are designed to REASON; so we are able to believe in the existence of a God if the circumstances present themselves to us as such.

Let’s REASON together

·         If you do not believe that there CAN be a God, then you will not be able to understand spiritual things. -  Faith prepares a man to REASON which in turn prepares him for understanding which leads to knowledge. – You will reject knowledge unless its foundation is supported by faith.

·         Truths of Faith cannot be demonstrated by REASON alone, but must be supported by conclusions of absolute.

·         Circular Reasoning must be avoided; we can’t only point to the PAST writers of the Bible, but we must also REASON by what is of the PRESENT to make our case.

·         How do we know that the miracles and fulfilled prophecies in the Bible actually took place? Revealed Truths cannot contradict REASON; therefore REASON should be given priority even over matters of Faith. – What is revealed in scripture should not contradict REASON.

·         The God Idea is something that transcends all human thought, reasoning and logic; He is wholly something else. – We have no natural knowledge of God except that which was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. – This personal encounter was INITIATED by God Himself and without it, man cannot take the “Leap of Faith” to believe that there is a God. – NYOBS 48.02 - THE GOD IDEA

Isaiah 1:18 - Come now, let us reason together
¹⁸ Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD

(ESV)

Isaiah 7:9 – If you do not believe, you will not understand
⁹ ... If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.

(NKJV)

God’s Plumbing

·         As a small child, I asked my dad about volcanos and what caused them.  Learning about the fire deep within the earth, I asked why somebody didn’t just put the fire out. – Dad said we needed the fire to be able to exist.

·         He said all our sewerage was carried off by streams down to the sea; and from the sea the water filtered down into the earth where it was drawn in by the fire and turned to steam; purified, it forced its way back up to the mountain tops where it flowed back down in streams for us to use again as pure, clean, cool water. – He called it GOD’S PLUMBING…

·         It’s possible that this all came about by chance in a mindless universe and there is no design or creator at all, although as far as we know this plumbing does not exist anywhere else in the universe.

·         Noah’s Ark was sealed inside and out with reeds and “bitumen”, a TAR substance like pitch; a readily available natural crude petroleum product which BUBBLED UP out of the earth. – It happened for Moses too - Did this Petroleum PIPELINE within the earth happen by design or was it just there by chance? – NYOBS 17.10 - NOAH’S ARK

Genesis 6:14 – Noah’s ark was sealed with Pitch - Tar
¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with PITCH. (ESV)

Exodus 2:3 – Moses’ basket was sealed with Pitch - Tar
³ When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with BITUMEN and PITCH. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. (ESV)

A Little LOGIC

·         Anything that comes to exist must have had a cause. - Anything that is in motion is being moved by something else. - If nothing existed in the beginning and out of nothing came something, there must have been a cause. - There must be a “first cause” for anything that comes to exist.

·         With that said; There must be a mover that is un-moved by anything else. – THE UN-MOVED MOVER – God is an Un-Caused Devine, intelligent, eternal, living being who ordered the primordial chaos into a rational cosmos in order to fulfill HIS PURPOSE.

·         If you found a watch on the ground, you would not think it came there by chance of molecular fusions, but would believe it was created. – As the second hand moves around in the watch, you would conclude that something is making it move, If you opened it up and saw all the gears you would conclude it had design and Purpose; and you would also conclude that the absence of any one of the components in it would cause the watch to cease to have a purpose. – Why would you reason that?

• The Law of Human Nature thinks UNFAIR behavior is just plain wrong.  Why is that? Meaningful moral behavior requires PURPOSE and WILL; where does this Standard of decent behavior and Right and Wrong come from? - There must be some sort of an agreement of what right and wrong is that is beyond ordinary facts.
• If someone stuffs a T-bone steak down his shirt in Walmart and doesn’t pay for it; for some reason we think that it is wrong.  Why is that?
• If God does NOT exist, then moral values do not exist, but moral values do exist, THEREFORE GOD MUST EXIST.
• The Bible says the laws are written on our hearts; accusing us or excusing us.  Ponder that NYOBS 29.02 – CASE FOR CHRISTIANITY
• If there is no God, then the universe has no explanation of its existence. - If there IS an explanation THEN THERE MUST BE A GOD. – Whatever begins to exist has a cause; the universe began to exist, so it had a cause – Nothing can suddenly exist, uncaused out of nothing.– So, it is plausible and reasonable to assume as a TRUTH, the principal that EVERYTHING THAT EXIST HAS A CAUSE.

Romans 2:14 – Atheist do by nature what the law requires; WHY
¹⁴ For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, BY NATURE do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

(ESV)

Rom 2:15 – Laws are written in our hearts – accusing or excusing

¹⁵ in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing (them)

ASV

The Domino Effect

·         The Law or CAUSE and EFFECT is a constant; it does not change.

·         Have you ever stacked a bunch of dominoes in such a way that when you topple the first one over, it hits the next one and the rest “one by one” topple over? 

·         They all have stored energy, but they will STAND MOTIONLESS FOREVER unless the first one is flipped. 

·         We can see the effects of one domino causing another to fall; we get that… But what caused the first one to fall? – It MUST be something on the outside or something external that caused it to fall. – NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A CAUSE.

·         We can say that all the things that make up our universe have always been present, but WHAT flipped the first domino to make our world re-configure? – What caused the matter that is in YOU to re-configure and make you? – For every effect, there is a first cause.

·         At some point there must be something that does not move; there must be an UNMOVED MOVER that starts it all; I CALL IT GOD.

·         If there was nothing and out of nothing came something WITHOUT CAUSE, how could that logically be? – If that can be; then why doesn’t anything and just everything come from nothing?

·         The Universe began to exist, THEREFORE THE UNIVERSE HAD A CAUSE.

Drink the Cool Aid

·         Do you remember Jim Jones and his cult that drank the COOL AID that killed them all? – If there were TWO Cool Aids, one RED and the other BLUE and you were forced to drink one or the other of them; which one would you choose?

1.     The RED Cool Aid will let you LIVE FOREVER in a meaningless NON-PURPOSEFUL UNENDING LIFE, believing whatever you want to believe; not knowing any truth, your mind blinded to reasoning, your senses numb giving you the world view that you desire.

2.     The BLUE Cool Aid will KILL YOU and take you out of the meaningless NON-PURPOSEFUL LIFE and you will CEASE TO EXIST FOREVER. – NYOBS 42.02 – MATRIX: A PARABALE

·         Which one would you chose? – You cannot change your mind. - Live forever a non-purposeful life which makes no difference to anyone including yourself, or Die and cease to exist avoiding all the calamity and problems that life brings for eternity. Both are a curse.- LIFE WITHOUT GOD HAS NO PURPOSE.

History is written by whoever wins the war – RABBIT TRAIL

·         Today in Politics, e-mails are deleted in order TO BRING ABOUT A DIFFERENT PAST.

·         History becomes a series of lies that everyone has agreed upon. - Historical events are no longer available for direct access inspection, so the past cannot be objectively directly established.

·         After the event is gone, historical facts become no more than memories of the mind.

·         We cannot reconstruct the past because we are not neutral observers; we tend to color it

·         Ad hoc in science and philosophy means the addition of extraneous hypotheses to a theory to save it from being falsified.  Ad hoc can also mean makeshift solutions, shifting contexts to create new meanings. – Wikipedia - POLITICS AND  RELIGION CAN BE AD HOC - Selah

No Evidence

·         There has to be a beginning and a first cause; this is the Un-moved Mover; GOD.

·         If you know something, you need to know that you know it by justifying the evidence at hand. – As with a Jury, an indictment is NOT handed down based beyond ALL doubt, but beyond REASONABLE doubt. – IS IT REASONABLE THAT GOD COULD EXIST? -

·         There is General Knowledge of God that is obtained by observing nature and the heavens, these facts speak for themselves.

·         There is Specific Knowledge of God that is given to an individual through the in-filling of the Holy Spirit.

·         Truths of Faith are above reason and cannot be directly proven, but are proven indirectly by indisputable historical facts of prophecies and miracles found in the Bible.

·         Christians believe in God without having any evidence of His existence and this just drives the Atheist crazy; for them there must be REASONING.

·          Through the work of the Holy Spirit we are convicted of our sins and this allows His word to become written on our hearts. – NYOBS 20.19 – HOLY SPIRIT

·          When we receive the Word of God, we are not an abstract disinterested observer, we can only CHOOSE to obey or not obey. – God says blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

2 Corinthians 3:2 – God is written on our hearts
² You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, WRITTEN ON OUR HEARTS, to be known and read by all. (ESV)

John 16:8-11 – The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin

8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;

10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. NIV

John 16:12-13 – The Holy Spirit guides us into all basic truths

12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

13 But when he, the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. NIV

John 20:29 – Blessed are those who believe but have not seen
²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (ESV)

Pascal’s Wager - ETERNITY

·         Name of the Game            Does God Exist - a wager -

·         The Prize – Obtain an infinitely happy life for eternity. 

·         The Stakes – YOUR LIFE.

·         The Odds – 50/50 chance of winning or losing. – Equal chance of gain or loss.

·         Participants -The game is a necessary pragmatic decision for every living person which is "Impossible to Avoid". – EVERYONE MUST WAGER; it’s not optional.

·         RULES – There is INFINITE BLISS or INFINITE LOSS attached to the wager which we are compelled to make.

·         You must choose which God you are entering into a wager with. – Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Hindu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Baltic, Celtic, Irish, Finnic, Germanic, Greek pantheon, Hungarian, Roman, Aztec, Maya, Polynesian, etc. - (What if you choose the wrong God?)

·         You must believe with certainty that the God you choose will honor His side of the Bet.

·         THE WAGER - A decision of whether or not to believe in the existence of God must be made by "CONSIDERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF EACH POSSIBILITY".–

1.     If you bet that God DOES exists, then; if you win, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing, meaning one can gain eternal life if God exists, but if not, one will be no worse off in death than if one had not believed.

2.     If you bet God DOES NOT exist, win or lose, you either gain nothing or lose everything. You are either unavoidably annihilated or just lose the opportunity of eternal happiness.

·         SUMMATION - Betting that God DOES exist… if you win, you win it all. - If you lose, you lose nothing.

·         If the Wager is valid; the inability to believe is not rational, and therefore must be caused by feelings: - This inability, therefore, can be overcome by learning from those who were bound just like you. -  Follow the way by which they began; by acting as they believed, attending Church Services, Repentance before God, following in Baptized, etc. - This will naturally bring your spirit alive, enlarge your FAITH and cause you to believe.

Mark 9:24 - Lord I believe; Help me in my Unbelief
²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,

“I BELIEVE; HELP MY UNBELIEF!” (ESV)

SELAH – Reflecting Back

• If there is no God, then the universe has no explanation of its existence. - If there IS an explanation then THERE MUST BE A GOD

·         We can observe creation today and REASON THAT IT WAS DESIGNED, without explaining how the Creator who designed and made it to come to exist.

• Meaningful moral behavior requires PURPOSE and WILL; where does this Standard of decent behavior and Right and Wrong come from? - If God does NOT exist, then moral values do not exist, but moral values do exist, THEREFORE GOD MUST EXIST.

·          We are designed to REASON; so that we are able to believe in God’s existence as the circumstances present themselves as such to us. - Most philosophers today agree that IF it is possible for God to exist, THEN GOD DOES EXIST.

·         At some point there must be something that does not move; there must be an UNMOVED MOVER that starts it all; I CALL THIS UN-MOVED MOVER; GOD.

I encourage you to obtain for your reference library a copy of

 “REASONABLE FAITH” by William Lane Craig.

In the multitude of counselors,

there is wisdom.

Proverbs 11:14

I am grateful to those that went before me providing concepts, ideas, historical

information, and scripture verses.  Because of them I can stand on their shoulders

and see further that I otherwise ever could have.

                                                                                                                                     

A Commentary; Critical, Experimental and Practical - Eerdmans

Antiquity of the Jews – Flavius Josephus Matthias

Apocrypha – Goodspeed

Baker Commentary on the Bible - Elwell

Bible Almanac; The – Packer-Tenney-White

Bible Commentary – F.B. Meyer

Bible Dictionary – Harper and Row

Dake’s Annotated Bible – Dake

English Standard Version Bible – ESV

Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Frank E. Gaebelein

Illustrated Bible Dictionary – Nelson’s

Illustrated Bible Dictionary; The – Tyndale

Interlinear Greek-English New Testament - Baker

King James Version Bible – KJV

Matthew Henry’s Commentary - Zondervan

Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis

Mysteries of the Bible – Readers Digest

Nave’s Topical Bible - Zondervan

New International Dictionary of the Bible; The – Douglas - Tenney

New International Version Bible (2011) – NIV

NOTE: The “new” NIV has been corrupted and made gender neutral.  AVOID IT.

Reasonable Faith – William Lane Crag

Thru the Bible – J. Vernon McGee

Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament – Mac Donald

Who’s Who in the Bible – Paul D. Gardner

Wycliffe Bible Commentary; The – Pfeiffer & Harrison

Wikipedia –

Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible; The – Tenney