Is There A God?
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· 10 viewsThis message explores the question "Is there a God?" and will suggest answers from several different perspectives
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Introduction: Who believes in God?
Introduction: Who believes in God?
Gallup poll “Most Americans Still Believe in God?” [screenshot of https://news.gallup.com/poll/193271/americans-believe-god.aspx]
I was raised in a Christian home and as far back as I can remember I believed in God. How about you? Have you always believe in God? Do we have any atheists in the room? Do we have any former atheists?
Transition: The story is told of a man who didn’t believe in God and determined to raise his kids that way. One day his little boy said to him, “Dad, does God know we don’t believe in Him?”
Why is that the existence of God is such an issue?
No one can prove the existence of God!
No one can prove the existence of God!
The existence of God can neither be proved nor disproved.
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
We can only accept the existence of God by faith.
We can only accept the existence of God by faith.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
This verse tells us those who earnestly seek God by faith, will be rewarded. Jesus said those who have believed without seeing Him or God, will be blessed!
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
There is evidence for the existence of God.
There is evidence for the existence of God.
There are five types of evidence I want to give you.
1. There is evidence around us that God exists.
1. There is evidence around us that God exists.
This what is called natural revelation that God exists.
SLIDE: Beauty in the ocean
SLIDE: Beautiful flowers
SLIDE Beautiful heavens
Psalm 19:1-4
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 reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
Glory is intrinsic to an item. All around are things that make us pause, wonder, gasp in awe. All this glory is a small part of God’s glory.
2. There is evidence within us that God exists.
2. There is evidence within us that God exists.
BBC has an article on it’s website, “Are we wired to believe in a higher power?” http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3b6hyc
[website graphic]
“Religion – the belief in supernatural beings, including gods and ghosts, angels and demons, souls and spirits – can be found throughout history and in every culture. Evidence for beliefs in an afterlife goes back at least 50,000 to 100,000 years. Every known human culture has creation myths, with the possible exception of the Amazonian Pirahã people, who also lack number words, colour words and social hierarchy.
It's hard to get exact data about the number of believers today, but some polls suggest that up to 84% of the world’s population are members of religious groups or claim that religion is important in their lives. We live in a time of unprecedented access to scientific knowledge, which some see as being at odds with religious belief. So why is religion so pervasive and persistent?
Psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists and even neuroscientists have suggested explanations for our natural predisposition to believe, and for the powerful role religion seems to play in our emotional and social lives.”
SLIDE: Ancient temple. Why is it we aren’t surprised to see something like this?
I found an earlier “article” written by King Solomon that sheds insight into this.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
We know there is more than just us, this life and this world. Some suggest that all there is for us is this life, that when we die we cease to exist. That isn’t what most people think. Solomon says that notion within you that there is more than just this life, which suggests God’s existence, is itself from God.
3. There is evidence from logic that God exists.
3. There is evidence from logic that God exists.
We are going to consider three arguments from logic that God exists. I think they are compelling. They don’t prove God exists. You can’t do that, they give evidence God exists.
A. The teleological argument.
A. The teleological argument.
This is from the “Introduction To Philosophy” an Online Textbook by Philip A Pecorino, Ph.D. Queensborough Community College, CUNY
Paley's Teleological Argument For The Existence Of God
SLIDE: Painting of John Paley
SLIDE: Book cover “Natural Theology or, evidences of the existence and attributes of the deity, collected from the appearances of nature.”
William Paley (July 1743 – 25 May 1805) was an English clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, which made use of the watchmaker analogy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Paley
"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and diety, has been clearly percieved in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Romans1:19-20
I.) The Teleological Argument:
"Teleological" = from the end or purpose exhibited by the universe
The term teleological comes from the Greek words telos and logos. Telos means the goal or end or purpose of a thing while logos means the study of the very nature of a thing. The suffix ology or the study of is also from the noun logos. To understand the logos of a thing means to understand the very why and how of that thing's nature - it is more than just a simple studying of a thing. The teleological argument is an attempt to prove the existence of God that begins with the observation of the purposiveness of nature. The teleological argument moves to the conclusion that there must exist a designer. The inference from design to designer is why the teleological argument is also known as the design argument.
i.) The basic premise, of all teleological arguments for the existence of God, is that the world exhibits an intelligent purpose based on experience from nature such as its order, unity, coherency, design and complexity. Hence, there must be an intelligent designer to account for the observed intelligent purpose and order that we can observe.
ii.) Paley's teleological argument is based on an analogy: Watchmaker is to watch as God is to universe. Just as a watch, with its intelligent design and complex function must have been created by an intelligent maker: a watchmaker, the universe, with all its complexity and greatness, must have been created by an intelligent and powerful creator. Therefore a watchmaker is to watch as God is to universe.
http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter%203%20Religion/Teleological.htm
This is sometimes called the Design argument. Here is a video by Ravi Zacharias Ministry that explains it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCGadbs4NcQ
B. The Cosmological Argument.
B. The Cosmological Argument.
The Simple Cosmological Argument
Everything that exists has a cause of its existence.
The universe exists.
Therefore: The universe has a cause of its existence.
If the universe has a cause of its existence, then that cause is God.
Therefore: God exists.
C. The Design Argument
C. The Design Argument
C. The Moral Argument
C. The Moral Argument
Moral facts have no place in a godless universe. This is sometimes used as a moral argument for the existence of God, as follows:
If God did not exist, then there could not be any moral facts.
There are moral facts.
Therefore God exists.
Ravi Zacharias: How do you arrive at a moral law?
If you say there is such a thing as evil, aren’t you saying there is such a thing as good?
If you say there is such a thing as good, aren’t you saying there is a moral law?
If you say there is a moral law, you must believe there is a moral law giver. The moral law giver is God.
If there is no moral law giver, there is no moral law. If there is no moral law, there is no good. If there is no good, there is no evil.
The problem of evil raises the question of the nature of good. If you raise the question of the nature of good, you have to start wondering, how do you arrive at the reality of good and evil when there is no God. Because of this argument, Richard Dawkins has come to the point where he says we have to deny the reality of evil if our argument against the existence of God is going to stay.
From Lecture at Legonier Ministries on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRRuKDXT7Kg&t=2059s
4. There is evidence from love that God exists.
4. There is evidence from love that God exists.
Where does love come from? It comes from God. God is love.
One could do an extensive study of the topic God’s love in the scriptures and come up with many arguments about how God loves us. But we don’t need to do that. Love is a person. In one conversation Jesus told us everything we need to know about God’s love for us. He told the teacher of Israel, Nicodemus,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
It was love that motivated God to send His eternal Son Jesus to become a person and die on the cross to pay for our sins. Paul tells us how incredible God’s love is.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Romans 5:8-
Romans 5:
It is love that guides what God did for us and what He does for us. Jesus said love would be the characteristic that would set apart His followers from everyone else.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
God wants us to know, experience and share His love. He pours it out on all who believe in Him.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
I want to give you one more type of evidence.
5. There is evidence from experience that God exists.
5. There is evidence from experience that God exists.
The problem with this evidence is that if you haven’t experienced it, you haven’t experienced it!
Those who believe in God and have a personal relationship with Him by faith experience God in different ways.
He speaks to us.
We experience God and feel His presence
We sense His leading.
We know His love.
We desire His grace.
You can’t reject the existence of God because there is no evidence for it. The evidence is sufficient to believe in God. In fact, it’s so compelling that the Bible says we’re responsible for believing in God!
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 people are without excuse.
All that is left is to ask the question, will you believe God exists? If you do, then will you believe that the only way to know Him is through Jesus.
Is it not possible that the strong argument of so many that God doesn’t exist actually an argument for His existence?
Will you believe in God? Will you believe what He says is the way to know Him, through Jesus?
Will you believe in God? Will you believe what He says is the way to know Him, through Jesus?
Believing God exists isn’t a blind leap but it is a leap. A leap called faith based upon all this evidence.
Discussion Questions:
Discussion Questions:
What is one arguments you have heard against the existence of God?
How would you respond to that argument?
If God did not exist, then there could not be any moral facts.
There are moral facts.
Therefore God exists.