Transcript I AM” - Add To Your Learning

“I AM”
Showing that God’s exists
and is knowable
Rolan Monje,
BD, DMin
Outline
1. “PROVING” GOD
2. KNOWING GOD
Some slides following taken from Anne Jeffers (UOL) John Oakes (ARS)
Part I
“PROVING” GOD
• There will always be questions about God
• We must meet people where they’re at
and move from there. (That’s what Jesus
did in the gospels.)
• When people say, “Prove to me that God
exists,” the first thing to say is “What kind
of proof do you expect?”
Accepted approaches to ‘proof’
• Tautological proof – something is necessarily
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true, i.e. mathematical certainty (e.g. sum of the
angles of a triangle = 180 deg)
Empirical proof – something is seen to be true
by observation; involves scientific method
Inferential proof – something is inferred to be
true because of the existence of other factors;
relates to scientific theory (in contrast to
scientific method); used to prove the existence
of God
Bible passages?
• The Bible presents no argument for the
existence of God
• His existence is assumed
• Certain aspects of the Biblical text (e.g.
prophecy, claims of Jesus) can be used to
show the divine nature of the Bible.
Basic Arguments for
the Existence of God
• 1. The Cosmological Argument (also
known as the argument from cause;
touched upon in Gen 1)
• 2. The Teleological Argument (more
commonly known as the design argument;
touched upon in Rom 1)
• 3. The Ethical Argument (also known as
the moral argument; touched upon in
Rom1,2)
Sidenote: Influence of culture
• Culture is inescapable
• Men try to convey feelings and convictions
• Expression in ‘God’ in art;
e.g. Michelangelo
– Male figure
– Muscular
– Long white beard
• We have to filter out the influence of
culture.
• Most people will not buy into the idea of
an old, bearded guy in the clouds!
#1 Cosmological Argument
• Is there a universe?
• Can it be empirically proven?
• What are the origins of the cosmos?
• Why does the universe “exist,” instead of
“not exist?”
Facts - cosmology
• Our galaxy, the Milky Way has about 400
billion stars
• There are about 100 billion stars in the
universe
• Every star is separated by vast amounts of
empty space
Some proponents of the
cosmological argument
• Ancient Greek philosophers (e.g. Aristotle
and Plato)
• Christian theologians (e.g. Thomas
Aquinas, Frederick Copleston)
• Jewish theologians (e.g. Maimonides)
• Islamic theologians (e.g. the Kalam
argument presented by, among others, alGhazali).
Aquinas’ Argument: Uncaused
Cause
The argument from the ‘Uncaused Cause’
• Everything has a cause.
• Every cause has a cause.
• This cannot go back forever.
• Therefore there must be an uncaused cause
that isn’t caused.
• The uncaused cause is what people
understand by ‘God’.
Pertinent discussions
• David Hume
• Frederick Copleston
• Bertrand Russell
• In the end, if given a choice between believing
that a physical thing (the universe) has always
existed, or believing that a spiritual thing (God)
has always existed, many will go with God.
Cause theory:
Statue of Liberty ‘causes’
• The material cause – Without the existence of marble we could never
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have a marble statue.
The efficient cause – The marble itself is obviously not the marble
statue. For the statue to come into being it needs to have been carved
out of a block of marble by a person using a hammer and chisel, and a
substantial measure of skill and artistry.
The formal cause – Random hacking at a piece of marble will not
make a statue; therefore we need a further cause. To be the thing that
it is, the statue needs to take the shape that it does, that of a horse or
a man or whatever.
The final cause – The only reason that all the other causes take place
is because a sculptor has set out to make a statue in the first place. All
three of the other causes have been called into operation in order to
realize an intention: the overall reason for the statue’s existence is that
it is the fulfillment of a sculptor’s purposes.
#2 Teleological argument
• Teleios = end, fulfillment
• Mankind tends to think of an end to
everything
• The world everywhere reveals intelligence,
order, harmony, and purpose
• This implies the existence of an intelligent
and purposeful being, adequate to the
design of such a world
William Paley (1700’s)
Imagine that you are walking down a beach and that you
stumble upon a wrist watch. Even if you had never seen a wrist
watch before, it is likely that you would be struck by the fact
that it differs from the other objects in the vicinity: a watch is
obviously a collection of parts that have been cleverly
combined in such a way as to fulfill a particular function,
namely, to indicate the time. You would assume that the watch
is not a natural object, but an artifact, i.e. something made on
purpose by some intelligent agent. Indeed, you are likely to
assume that the watch is the handiwork of a watchmaker who
knew what he was doing when he made the watch. The
assumption at work here is that the order found in the watch
(and other artifacts) does not occur as a result of blind,
accidental forces. On the contrary, it is assumed that order is
always the result of an intelligent designer.
• Paley said that if we all agree that a watch
must have been designed by a
watchmaker then surely an eye (that is
complex beyond our imagination) must
also have been designed.
• An argument from analogy uses inductive logic.
Based on what we observe we can induce a
conclusion. This type of logic can only ever
provide us with evidence that creates a high
likelihood of the conclusion being true. Paley is
really saying that given the complexity of the
natural world it is highly likely that it came into
being because of the intention of a designer
(God).
Pertinent discussions
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David Hume
Charles Darwin
Richard Dawkins
F.R. Tennant
• David Hume also said that at best the argument shows
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that the universe must have been designed. It doesn’t,
though, guarantee that the designer was God.
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution appears to have
shown that the complexity of life can be explained
without the need of a designer.
#3 Ethical argument
• One cannot deny the development of
ethical thinking: Sumer, Egypt, China,
Palestine, Greece, etc.
• Mankind’s recognition of a highest good
and the quest for a moral ideal, demand
an necessitate the existence of a God to
give reality to that ideal.
The problem of evil & suffering
• If belief that God exists is based on our
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observations of the world, we must be willing to
look at everything. We have seen clearly that
the world is incredibly complex. If we keep
looking we will also see without much effort that
it is often incredibly cruel.
Some of history’s most influential philosophers,
for example David Hume, John Stuart Mill and
Bertrand Russell, challenged the traditional idea
of an all-powerful,all-knowing and loving God
because of the problem of evil.
• A theodicy is an attempt to explain why
the existence of evil and suffering doesn’t
necessarily show that God doesn’t exist.
Two types of ‘evil’ or ‘misfortune’
• Philosophers of religion talk about two
particular types of evil:
• Moral evil – caused by human beings
themselves
• Natural evil – caused by the way
things happen in our world.
Discussion points
• Atheists often assume that the reality of
moral and natural evil is one of the most
important pieces of evidence against belief
in God.
• But then, how they can assume that there
is no explanation for such a state of being
in this world? Could the existence of God
answer to those same questions?
Theodicy argument against God
• If God is omnipotent (all-powerful) why doesn’t
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he crush evil and stop suffering?
If God is omniscient (all-knowing) why did he
create a world which he knew would result in
such pain and suffering?
If God is all-loving why does he allow innocent
children to suffer?
Many people assume that if these questions
can’t be answered adequately then the only
reasonable view to hold is that God simply
doesn’t exist.
Discussion points
• Free-will concept in Genesis
• Crucifixion in Gospels, Romans
• After-life concept in Corinthians,
Revelation
• Sovereignty argument in Isaiah, Job
Focus of existence
• Probably the central idea in Christianity is
that humans find meaning and purpose in
a ‘love’ relationship with God and each
other:
• ‘Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength and with all your mind, and
love your neighbor as yourself.
• ‘The faith position is an altogether more positive
and optimistic one than the assertion of
meaninglessness. It maintains that although evil
is a terrible reality it can beovercome and one of
our main tasks as human individuals is to fight
against it.’ -- P Vardy
• ‘Were there no other evidence at all, the thumb
alone would convince me of God’s existence.’ -Sir Isaac Newton
PART II
KNOWING GOD
God is knowable
• This is something very distinct (and
encouraging) about the Christian
Worldview
• The ‘God’ of Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Islam are very nebulous or distant gods
• The God of the Bible is not only knowable,
but also wants to be known
God is about relationships
• Gen 1:26-27 shows from the beginning
that God is about community
• He is a God of fellowship; this nature of
God is intimately connected with the fact
that he is knowable
• God wants to be known  He makes
himself knowable
We can come to know God
• Realizing human frailty and weakness,
God, in his compassion, reaches out to us
as humans
• He reaches out to us in many ways,
mainly through:
– Creation
– The Bible
– His Son
• Jesus is the supreme revelation of the
father (1 John 5:20).
• Although it is not possible to know God
completely, the Bible affords us a practical
knowledge of Him that is sufficient for
fallen humanity to have a relationship with
Him.
God revealed in Scripture
• The Bible reveals God’s essential qualities
through…
1. Appellations
2. Activities
3. Attributes
1. Appellations (names)
• In certain cultures, names carried special
importance. In many Asian societies, a
name is considered to reveal the character
of the bearer, his true nature and identity.
• This concept is well understood in the
Ancient Near East.
• Note how God’s name is to be hallowed in
the Ten Commandments (third
commandment, Ex 20:7).
• David sang praise “to the name of the
Lord” (Ps 7:17).
• For further study: Ps 111:9, Ps 148:13.
Important Divine Names used in
the Old Testament
• Ex 3:14 (interlinear) YHWH
• Original Hebrew text reads right to left; all
consonants
• ‫ ויאמ‬said ‫אלהים‬
Moses,‫ אהיה‬I AM
And God
‫אׁשר‬
‫אל‬
THAT
unto
‫מׁשה‬
‫ אהיה‬I AM
• ,‫אהיה אׁשר אהיה‬
• Transliteration: xhyh xsr xhyh
• With vowels: ehyeh asher ehyeh
• Translation: “I am who I am” or “I will be
what I will be,” indicating God’s steadfast
nature in relationships
• Yhwh appears more than 6,000 times in
the Old Testament. Jesus alluded to this
name of God in John 8:58.
• Note: The true pronunciation of the
tetragrammaton (yhwh) is unknown. The
vocalized “Yahweh” is conjectural. The
Masoretic Jews simply added the vowels
of adonai (Heb meaning “Lord) to the four
consonants.
• Some translations use “Jehovah,” but this
is simply an Americanized rendition.
• Gen 1:1, Ex 20:2 EL/ELOHIM
• These highlight God’s power
• These depict God as the strong and
mighty One (see also Dan 9:4).
• Other Near Eastern Cultures also called
their local gods “El.”
• Ps 148:14, 150:6 YAH
• An abbreviated form of YHWH
• Contained in the word hallelujah, which
means “Praise the Lord.”
2. Activities
• One can learn a lot about a person by
looking at his/her schedule
• What you do tells a lot about who you are
• Bible writers spent considerable amounts
of ink on God’s activities
• God creates (Gen 1, Ps 24)
• God saves and redeems (Deut 5, 2 Cor 5)
• God plans (Isa 46)
• God promises (Dt 15, 2 Pet 3)
• God forgives (Ex 34)
3. Attributes
• The Bible writers use a number of devices
to present God’s attributes
• These attributes are basically personal
traits that God allows us to appreciate
• Examples: omniscient (Job 37:16, Ps
139:1-18), living (Jn 5:26), independent in
will (Eph 1:5), eternal (Ps 90:2, Rev 1:8)
• God’s attributes are not isolated traits.
They stem for his relational nature. E.g.
love (Rom 5:8), compassion (Deut 33:27),
holiness (Ps 99:9).
Closing
• Let us take time to study the arguments
involved
• Let us keep in mind that there is a
purpose for our existence
• Let us praise God for his uniqueness and
his character!
• Let us be excited that we can know our
great and awesome God!