If God is real and my eternal destiny depends on believing in Him, why doesn’t he prove Himself to me and to more people? This is not a new question. People have asked this question for centuries. The 17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote regrading this question: "God so regulates the knowledge of Himself that He has given indications of himself, which are visible to those who seek Him and not to those who do not seek Him. There is enough light for those to see what only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition." -Blaise Pascal And more recently, C.S. Lewis answered this question in his book Screwtape Letters. In order to wrap your mind around this quote, it is essential to remember that this is written from the perspective of a demon giving advice to a younger demon: "You might have wondered why the Enemy (God) does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo." -C.S. Lewis (Screwtape Letters) The Bible says that God had already done more than enough to reveal Himself to us, but we choose to reject such knowledge as we are afraid of what the truth might mean for our own lives. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. -John 1:18 If you want to watch a short video on today's topic, see below.
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Many people dismiss the accuracy of the Bible because in its pages we read of miracles. The skeptic thinks, “Miracles aren’t possible; therefore the Bible isn’t true.” The mistake many make is that they think that supernatural events are impossible. As I wrote about several weeks ago, the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God shows that it is reasonable to believe that the supernatural does indeed exist. Why? Because the scientific and philosophical evidence is overwhelming that the material universe is NOT all that there is, and that there must be a spaceless, timeless, immaterial cause of the material universe. And if God exists, then miracles are at least possible. And if miracles are possible, then the miracles we read about in the Bible are also possible. The parting of the Red Sea. The flood. Jesus walking on water. These are all at least possible if God does indeed exist. In the coming weeks I’ll be writing more about why it is reasonable to believe that miracles are not only possible, but actual. And of course the central miracle in the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, it is most certainly intellectually satisfying to follow Jesus. If you want to watch a short video on miracles, see below. I am not a trained philosopher or scientist, but those who are say that one of the most foundational questions is this: Why does anything exist at all? Philosophers speak of contingent existence and necessary existence. Things that exist contingently are things that don’t have to exist. Things that exist necessarily are things that cannot not exist. There are very few things that necessarily exist. Most of the things we are familiar with are things that exist contingently: cars, houses, people, and even the universe itself. It is possible to conceive of any of these things simply not existing. All of these things that exist contingently are caused by something else. So there must be something that exists necessarily (and is uncaused) in order for anything to exist at all. To me, this is strong evidence that God exists. In the Bible we see that God calls himself “I am.” And Jesus repeats this claim, saying “before Abraham was born, I am.” The Gospel of John also opens up with the famous prologue: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. -John 1:1-5 So why does anything exist? Because God exists. If God does not exist, we are hard pressed to explain why anything exists at all. Believing in the existence of God is a very reasonable belief. If you want to watch a short video on the Contingency Argument for the existence of God, you'll find it below. Many people today believe that absolute truth does not exist. If absolute truth does not exist, then certainly Christianity is not true. Jesus made unique claims about himself. For example, he said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) If this is true, it is true for everyone. If it is not true, it is not true for anyone. Truth is also exclusive. 1+2=3. That excludes lots of numbers: every number that is NOT “3”. Part of the problem many people have with Christianity is that it is exclusive; if Christianity is true, then any belief that contradicts Christianity is not true. But truth IS exclusive. The Christian faith is intellectually satisfying because it makes truth claims, and those claims are consistent with reality. If you want to take a look at a short (and humorous) video on truth, see below. I believe that the moral argument is one of the strongest arguments for the existence of God in today’s world. Why? Because part of being human is having an inner sense of right and wrong; it is a universal experience. The moral argument for the existence of God is not that believing in God is necessary in order to be moral. The moral argument is that if God does not exist, there is no objective foundation for morality. As William Lane Craig’s short video explains (if you’d like to watch the short video, you can find it below): “If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist. Here’s why: Without some objective reference point, we have no way of saying if something is really up or down. If there is no God, there is no objective reference point. All we are left with is one person’s viewpoint, which is no more valid than someone else’s viewpoint.” The moral argument for the existence of God is not proof that God exists (let alone the Christian God), but it is more evidence that the Christian worldview is consistent with the reality of our human experience. Because Jesus satisfies the mind and the heart. -Pastor Steve York The Christian faith provides an objective meaning to life, but that is not evidence that the Christian faith is true. There are many false belief systems that provide objective meaning to life as well. But C.S. Lewis notes that the very fact that we long for meaning is evidence that something supernatural does indeed exist. He writes: “If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.” ― C.S. Lewis And Richard Dawkins, the well-known atheist, acknowledges that if atheism is true, life is meaningless. “In a materialist universe, there is at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference.” -Richard Dawkins Part of being human is having a desire for our lives to count for something… to be significant. This longing within us is obviously not in itself evidence that Christianity is true, but it most certainly is one more piece of evidence that the Christian worldview is consistent with our deepest longings. Below is a short, 6-minute YouTube video from William Lane Craig’s ministry on "Is There Meaning to Life?" if you want to take a look. Because Jesus satisfies the mind and the heart. -Pastor Steve York Today I’d like to highlight evidence for the existence of God that we all experience every day: the argument by design. We live and work in buildings that were designed (and built) for a purpose, and we use machines every day as well that were designed (and built) for a purpose. Houses, computers and cars didn’t just randomly form out of naturally occurring materials. We immediately know that architects and factories are responsible for designing and building these things we use every day. Design points to a designer. Such is the case with nature. The more we learn about the world in which we live, the more amazed we should be about how intricately it is made. The Teleological Argument for the existence of God argues that the intricacies of our world point to the existence of a God who created it. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. -Psalm 19:1 Below is a short, 6-minute YouTube video from William Lane Craig’s ministry on The Fine Tuning Argument (which is a modern variant of the teleological argument) if you want to take a look. Because Jesus satisfies the mind and the heart. -Pastor Steve York The Cosmological Argument (The Philosophical Version) One of my favorite arguments for the existence of God is the Cosmological Argument:
Awhile back I posted about the scientific version of this argument; this is the philosophical version. The philosophical version of this argument gives evidence for premise #2 by arguing philosophically that the universe began to exist. The argument is summed up well in William Lane Craig’s video (see below if you’d like to watch it - it is only just over 6 minutes long): “If the universe did not have a beginning, then the number of past events in the history of the universe is infinite... But that’s a problem because the existence of an actually infinite number of past events leads to absurdity - it is a metaphysical impossibility.” -William Lane Craig The philosophical evidence is that the universe (space, time, and matter) is not eternal in the past; it has a beginning. The cause of the universe must therefore be outside of the material universe; it must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, and extremely powerful. Again, sounds like the God of the Bible? Believing in the existence of the God of the Bible is therefore a reasonable belief. In fact, I am convinced that the evidence is overwhelming such that to disbelieve in God is intellectually unreasonable. Both the scientific and the philosophical evidence are in agreement. "Modern science is based on the principle: Give us one free miracle and we'll explain the rest... And the one free miracle is the appearance of all the matter and energy in the universe and the laws that govern it for nothing in an instant." - Terence Mckenna Lastly, below is a short, 6-minute YouTube video from William Lane Craig’s ministry on The Cosmological Argument (the Philosophical version) if you want to take a look. Because Jesus satisfies the mind and the heart. -Pastor Steve York Philosophers and theologians have over the years presented philosophical and scientific evidence for the existence of God. One of my favorites is The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God. The logical argument goes like this:
What is especially important to note is that when we say that “the universe began to exist” we mean the material universe, which includes time, space and matter. Therefore, the cause of the universe is the cause of time, space and matter. The cause must then be outside of time, space and matter. The cause of the universe must be timeless, spaceless, and immaterial. Sounds a lot like the God of the Bible? While the cosmological argument is obviously not a stand-alone argument for the Christian faith being true, it is an important argument showing that it is intellectually satisfying to believe that the God of the Bible does indeed exist. If you want to watch a short video on the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God, here it is below. |
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