When your friend, family member, neighbor or co-worker questions the
reliability of the Bible or rejects its truth claim that God is Sovereign and
Eternal, remember this:
- They may call upon scientific "facts"... but the facts seem to change every few years
- Their best "logical" arguments are always flawed
- They rationalize their position or philosophy to justify their immoral lifestyles
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can
understand it? HCSB
Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.” They are corrupt;
they do vile deeds HCSB
When cornered most people admit that they
"don't know if God exists and really don't want to look too hard because
they are afraid they will find Him".
Yet the universe shouts out the majesty and sovereignty and omnipotence
and glory of God.
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. HCSB
We are engaged in a struggle of World Views
Paul explains in Romans 1 that people know God exists, but they suppress that knowledge. God reveals Himself to all mankind through His creation as "General Revelation":- The vastness and power of the universe
- The logical order and intricate balance that denotes design
- Our built-in moral compass that tells us the way things "ought" to be
- Our yearning for meaning and relationship
One side says that we are an accident, living
on a speck of dust in a vast, impersonal, empty universe with no purpose, no
future and no meaning to our existence. The other side tells us we are special, loved, created with a purpose by
an All Wise, All Loving Creator who desires a relationship with us forever.
Why is it more logical to believe the former
than the latter? Let us employ pure logic to deduce what is truth and ultimate reality.
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. HCSB
Principal Rules of Logic
- Law of Non-Contradiction - part of the scientific method, and foundation for all logic. Something cannot both be "true" and "false" at the same time and in the same relationship.
- Law of Causality - for every Effect there must be a Cause.
- Assumption of the Reliability of Sense Perception – while realizing the limitations of our senses, and knowing we can be fooled, ultimately our five senses confirm logical outcomes.
Science assumes and depends upon these self-evident or
"rationally grounded" truths.
We take them for granted and base decisions -- even making legal
judgments based on evidence that follows these rules.
Can Pure Logic Reveal Ultimate Truth?
There are only four ways we can explain
"how we are here"
- Reality is an illusion
- Reality created itself
- Reality has always 'been'
- Reality was created by an intelligent, all Powerful Being that has always 'been'
Let's look at each "explanation"
for reality using the rules of logic and our reasoning skills.
Option 1 - Reality is an Illusion
Some Eastern religions teach reality is an illusion, but
practically speaking they do not “live” according to their beliefs. They ignore the Assumption of the Reliability of Sense Perception when it is convenient. Besides, several
"logical" questions are left unanswered by their explanation:
- Whose illusion is it?
- How can you tell reality is an illusion? Could reality be "real" but appear as an illusion?
- Aren't illusions at their core just deceptions? Who is trying to deceive us then?
- If we are in an illusion, why do we have the illusion that this is all "real"?
This thought system was disproven logically in 1637 by Renee Descartes
- "Cogito ergo Sum" "I am thinking, therefore I exist"
- Thinking about one’s existence proves—in and of itself—that an "I" exists to do the thinking; or, as Descartes explains, "We cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt … ."
- The act of doubting one's own existence proves the reality of one's own existence.
- This proposition became a foundation for all logical thought and the basis for all knowledge (how you "know" you know something, or Epistemology).
Option 2 - Reality Created Itself
David Hume and others philosophers have tried to decouple
cause and effect, and say reality created itself. But that is both bad science, and logically
contradictory. Also, again, it's not
“real” in the sense Mr. Hume believed in cause and effect as he conducted his
daily life.
The “Enlightenment” of the 18th century argued
that the “God Hypothesis” was no longer necessary, and that material things come
into being from “spontaneous generation”.
Yet, while scientists ridicule the idea of spontaneous generation today,
they still hold that the universe exploded from nothing. On a random Tuesday afternoon, "Nothing" exploded and "created" everything.
Nothing + Chance =
Everything
The idea of chance “being” anything is a myth. Chance is simply a method to put boundaries
around what we don't know. After all, if
we were omniscient, we would always know what will happen next without "odds"
or probability.
The flaw here is that
scientists try to apply the Law of Causality to chance, when chance is merely a
way to measure the outcome of forces at work with different possible
outcomes. Chance does not “cause” a
coin to flip. It is only a way to measure what happens when a coin is flipped
(by some other force) over a number of trials.
Chance has no “being” or "power" to affect anything, it is
simply a report of what could happen when other forces interact.
Option 3 - Reality Has Always Been
Until about 30 years ago, this was the standard model of the
universe. Carl Sagan's “The Cosmos”
stated as a fact that “the universe is all there is, ever was, and ever will
be", which is presumptuous at best,
since we have no idea what will be forever in the future. Now, with Big Bang Cosmology, the scientific
community is across the horns of a dilemma.
The universe clearly "began" to exist, and yet scientists don't want to recognize
the "Cause".
Another flaw with the infinitely old universe: entropy as explained by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Essentially this law proves that if the universe were infinitely old, it would be cold and
dead and bereft of structure. If, as the universe appears to now, continue to expand eternally, it would also be infinitely large and infinitely far apart. The only "workaround" is to violate the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy, and conjecture that new matter and energy spontaneously erupts out of "nothing" to explain why we see so much energy, structure and matter.
You cannot argue (as you can for the existence of an eternal
God) that the universe has the “power of being” within itself, as there was a
time when the universe did NOT exist.
All materialist scientists can do is go back to Option 2, which violates
the logical Law of Non-Contradiction.
Option 4 – Reality Has Been Created by a Divine Eternal Being
Has there ever been a time when there was nothing?
If there ever had been such a time, then
there would still be nothing. "Ex Nihilio
Nihil Fit" - the Latin phrase "out of nothing, nothing comes" is an
axiom we all seem to understand. Things
don't just "pop" into existence…or do they?
Assuming an Immaterial uncreated eternal being with omnipotence and omniscience does not violate the logical Law of Non-Contradiction. This Being did not have to create Himself or be created.
Additionally, since the Law of Causality
states that every Effect must have a Cause, it is perfectly logical to have an “Uncaused Cause”. This option is also rationally necessary,
since "something" always had to exist for anything existing now.
Conclusion: Logically, God Must Exist
Using the deductive power of science we can conclude:
- Nature cannot create itself: disproving the idea of pantheism that nature created itself.
- Materialism must be false: matter and energy cannot create themselves (they can convert, but the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy does not allow new matter or energy to be created out of nothing).
- Nature could not have existed eternally based on observations to date and due to entropy (explained by the second law of thermodynamics).
- Nature had to be "created" and by a Cause sufficient in Power and Intellect to create the specified complexity, fine tuning and design observed.
The Bible has rigorously explained this in non-technical terms for thousands of years. Our reality is created by an eternal, omnipotent, omniscient Creator who loves us.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
John 2:1-5. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.
Nehemiah 9:6 You alone are Yahweh. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the heavenly host worships You.
Colossians 1:15-17 For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.
Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to
the earth and the world, from eternity (past) to eternity (future), You are
God.
Psalm 93:2 Your throne has been
established from the beginning; You are from eternity
Psalm 139:13 For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 41:13 Praise
be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and
Amen
Jeremiah 10:10 But Yahweh is the true
God; He is the living God and eternal King
Job 36:26 How great is God—beyond our
understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.
Jude 25: to the only God our Savior be
glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all
ages, now and forevermore!
Job 9:4 God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed Him and come out unharmed?
Job 28:24: For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything
under the heavens.
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the
evil and the good.
Isaiah 42: 5 This is what God, Yahweh, says— who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk on it
Isaiah 46:10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago
what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My
will.
Romans 11:33-36: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who
has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor? Or who has first
given to him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen
For more articles related to Christian Apologetics, see:
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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
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