Knowing God: 1 - God Is the First Cause

It's all about Who knows you

This series of posts is for a High School Bible class where the goal was to discover God's "Communicable" and "Incommunicable" attributes to better understand His nature and qualities.  In other words, to grow from knowing "about" God to "knowing" God.  

You might have questions about how God could "always be" or how He can be everywhere at once.  What is His real name; there are so many in the Bible (YaHWeH is God the Father's personal name). 

What does He look like in heaven?  Fortunately, we have a photo of Him enjoying some relaxation time in Heaven.  

In all seriousness, we want you to learn about Him so that you can develop a relationship with Him that will change your life - forever.  What you need to realize is knowing and trusting God is the most important thing you can do your entire life. 

Let's start with some questions you might have asked about God at some point in your life:

• Does God even exist at all?  
• Would your life be any different if God actually spoke with you every day like a friend?  
• If you could see Him in person, and be physically close to Him, would you act differently?
• With God out of sight, is He also out of mind?   
• Do you have a relationship with Him, or just know some stuff about Him?   
• Can you care about someone who you aren't sure even exists

So, let's discuss that first question. Some people say God doesn't exist.  If God doesn't exists then there is no point in even talking about "relationships"? 

• To know someone -- first you must know that they exist.
• You have to be convinced someone even exists before you commit to get to know them.
• So, we have to establish the factual basis for God's existence.

Once we've shown it's very likely God exists - that a divine, eternal, self-existent, omniscient, omnipotent Creator – we need to get busy discovering from God's revelation (His Word) what God expects from us.   We need to learn about:

• What God has revealed about Himself
• What God has revealed about us
• What our relationship to God is supposed to look like
• What God's revealed Word tells us to do
• What God desires for us
• What relationship has been offered to us
• What the reason for our hope really is...

...and why it matters.

We will learn the difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God...

So, does God really exist?   

…. and how can we know for sure?

There are actually ways to logically prove God exists!  We will look at four really airtight logical "syllogisms" that by process of deduction conclude God does indeed exist!

• The Cosmological Argument, 
• The Contingency Argument, 
• The Teleological Argument and 
• The Axiological (Moral) Arguments 

While these arguments don't scientifically "prove" God exists, they reveal some striking truths and show that it is "reasonable" to conclude a Divine Creator does in fact exist.

Everyone Knows God Exists

Full disclosure from your teacher.  As an Apologist, I have a bias.  Here is what I have discovered talking to many "die hard" Atheists and Agnostics.

Deep down, everyone knows God exists.

They do.  Some people simply suppress that knowledge.  

Either because they want to live life "their" way and sin

Or they had a bad experience with a Christian that made them hate God.

For others, they are seeking God, but it's just that sometimes they doubt,

Or they have guilt for past sins (or imagined sins!) and want to hide from God. 

Or they doubt that God is the way they were taught in Sunday School, 

For others, they believe God does exist, but He doesn't care about us.

Here is what God says about His existence (ironic that anyone would have to argue that they exist).

Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.  There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world....  HSCB

God went to a lot of trouble to show us that the universe must have been created, and that He is a loving, all-knowing, all-powerful Being.  

Romans 1:18-20 God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.   HSCB

Whoa this is heavy.  

An all-powerful Being expects things from us. And if we don't do them, we will suffer His Wrath....

This is only part of the story.  God also expects us to use our brains.  We were made in His Image with a mind.  We can deduce things logically if we put effort into it.  But most people don't want to think about it because they already know if they acknowledge God, then they must obey Him.

God also gave us brains....

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight.  His praise endures forever.  HSCB

Let's start with a simple logical syllogism that defines our starting point: 

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

1 - Whatever begins to exist has a cause (the laws of nature prove that something cannot come from nothing)

2 - The universe began to exist (big bang cosmology "science" proves this is true)

3 - The universe has a Cause

Here is a nicely done video by "Reasonable Faith" that explains this concept more fully.

Kalam Cosmological Argument - Part 1 

Kalam Cosmological Argument - Part 2 

(see www.reasonablefaith.org for more videos) 

God has given us General Revelation that shows us His infinite power and wisdom. We know that the "Cause" of the universe MUST be:

• Outside of time                            Eternal
• Incorporeal /nonmaterial            Spirit
• Outside of space                         Hyper-dimensional
• Exceedingly Intelligent               Omniscient
• Exceedingly powerful                 Omnipotent
• Loving and Personal                   Giving man a home

For those who deny a Cause of the universe (in the face of massive amounts of scientific evidence for a starting point of the universe), materialists are left with this theorem:

Explanation Without God

Nothing    +     Accident   =    Everything

SINCE the universe has a “Creator" we need to ask:

·       What were we made for?

·       What makes life worthwhile and where do we derive our meaning?

·       Why should life be considered precious (if it isn't an accident)?

·       What does our Creator want from us?

Life is a preview of eternity - what you do here and now is important.   That you recognize Who created you will be the most important decision you make in this life.

>>   Knowing God: 2 - The Failure of Materialism

For more articles related to Christian Apologetics, see:

Why Engage in Apologetics?

Is Something Right Because It's Legal?

Faith or Materialism: Which is More Rational?

The Contingency Argument for the Existence of God

The Design Argument for the Existence of God

The Axiological (Moral) Argument for the Existence of God

The Kalam Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God

The Failure of the Materialist Worldview

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This series was presented as a high school bible study as speaker notes, along with PowerPoint slides, and is suitable for students ages 15 and older.  

Scripture citations are from:  Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) © 2009 Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville TN or New King James Version®. (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson