Transcript File - Southside Church of Christ

“Does God Exist?”
Think with me for a
moment: What is the most
important question of
anyone’s life?
• “From where did I come?”
“Where am I going?”
“Who am I?”
• “What is the meaning of
life?”
• Or, “What must I do to be
saved?”
While these are all valid and
important questions, they
are not the most important
question, for one
supersedes them all:
This one question is
paramount because it
makes all the others either
relative or irrelative!
• If God does not exist then
these other questions
are pointless to ask
or answer- it doesn’t
and won’t matter.
• But if God does exist, then
the answers to all
truly important
questions come from
Him, 2Pet.1:3.
Law of the Excluded Middle
• There is a principle in logic called the “Law of
the Excluded Middle.”
Simple stated, it says that a thing either is, or is not- that
there is no middle ground.
So it is with God. He either is or is not, but there is no
middle ground.
But many otherwise logical people cannot seem to really
make up their minds whether or not God truly exists.
They want to believe that He does exist in some ways,
yet do not want to obey Him as God, cf. John 12:42.
Others even become agnostics and say “You can’t really
know whether or not God exists.”
If He does exist, then all have a duty to believe and obey
Him, Heb.11:6. If He does not exist, then nothing else
matters- “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we
die!”
The Nature of the Proof of God’s Existence
• It is not scientific proof.
One cannot demonstrate the existence of God to the
human senses in the same way as you could
prove the existence of the Gulf of Mexico- through
experimentation and observation, Acts 17:24-29
and Isa.40:12-17.
It is Prima Facia Proof:
This is a legal term derived from Latin which
means “….self-evident; legally sufficient to
establish a fact or case unless disproved”
(Websters New Collegiate Dictionary).
Which means, unless it can be disproved,
adequate evidence exists to establish the
presumption of a fact, Rom.1:18-20.
Evidence for God’s Actuality
• The Bible itself makes no formal, concerted
effort to establish God’s reality directly- the
fact of God is merely stated, simply and
powerfully, Gen.1:1.
• But the Bible does manifest God’s existence
very logically through Cause and Effect,
Heb.3:4.
This principle says that where there is an
observable effect, there is or must have been
an adequate cause to have produced it. Things
don’t just happen- something, or someone
causes them to happen.
Here then is the problem:
• The Universe exists. There then must be some
adequate explanation. Three are possible:
1. It is eternal; or
2. It is not eternal, but was self-created from nothing; or
3. It is not eternal, but was created by something anterior and
superior to itself.
•
Is the Universe eternal?
In the early 1970’s, many considered Dr. Robert Jastrow to be the
finest science writer alive. He wrote:
“in science as in the Bible, the World begins with an act of
creation. Only as a result of the most recent discoveries
can we say with a fair degree of confidence that our
Universe has not existed forever; that is began abruptly,
without any apparent cause, in a blinding event that defies
scientific explanation” (Until the Sun Dies, Warner Books,
New York, 1977, p.5)
What does this mean?
• Remember the three are possible for the Universe
1. It is eternal; or
2. It is not eternal, but was self-created from nothing; or
3. It is not eternal, but was created by something anterior and
superior to itself.
•
•
With regard to #1, Dr. Jastrow says the Universe is not
eternal- “it began abuptly, without any apparent cause.”
Other scientists must agree, because any effort to
assign an age to the Universe admits to it having an
origin rather than being eternal.
What does this mean?
• Remember the three are possible for the Universe
1. It is eternal; or
2. It is not eternal, but was self-created from nothing; or
3. It is not eternal, but was created by something anterior and
superior to itself.
•
•
So what about explanation for the Universe #2?
It is absurd to think that something material can
create itself from nothing. “No material thing can
create itself.” (The Evidence for God in an
Expanding Universe; Dr. George E. Davis; p.71)
If material things could create themselves from
nothing, wouldn’t we be able to see the process,
or at least some stage of it, today?
With #1 and #2 scientifically implausible and therefore
disproved, it seems we’re left with explanation #3.
What does this mean?
• Remember the three are possible for the Universe
1. It is eternal; or
2. It is not eternal, but was self-created from nothing; or
3. It is not eternal, but was created by something anterior and
superior to itself.
•
The only viable option is that:
a) Something that existed before the Universe
created it (some eternal uncaused Cause;
b) Something which was superior to the material
Universe created it, for the created cannot be
greater than the Creator; and
c) Something of a different nature created the
Universe, for the finite and material Universe of
matter could neither create nor explain itself.
“God” is the only Effect adequate to have
Caused the Universe!
•
•
Aside from the material creation, physical life itself is
explainable only by the realization of a eternal, nonphysical Life Force (cf. Gen.2:7) which created “life” as
we know it. Why?
The scientific Law of Biogenesis states that: “Life
begets life.” From what other source could
original life have come, based on this law, other
than God?
Atheism is forced to assume that physical life, at some
time or another, was spontaneously generated from
inorganic (non-living) materials. But all the evidence and
logic denies it. Even evolutionists must admit that there
is no scientific evidence to support this notion and that
it does not occur in any known cases!
Conclusions
•
•
One evolutionist estimated the probability for the
chance formation of the smallest, simplest form of a
living organism know as 1 X 10340,000,000 . The entire
Universe is said to only have 1080 electrons! You tell
me: which requires “blind faith”- Atheism or belief in
God?
There are only two options with no middle ground:
1. Life was spontaneously generated by accident from inorganic
substances; or
2. It was purposely created by an eternal force called “God”.
•
•
All plausible evidence indicates life does not, and could
not, begin spontaneously by mere chance.
Thus all evidence forces us to conclude that life
originally created by the eternal force of God!
So,
If God is, we must
worship and obey Him,
Heb.11:6; Luke 6:46.
He is, and we must.
Will you?