United with Christ
Session 3
Over the last couple of sessions, we’ve been talking about being witnesses for Christ, and how that involves learning apologetics, how to defend our faith. 1 Pet. 3:15 is our key verse, because it tells us we’re to always be ready to give an answer or a defense for the hope that is in us, with gentleness and respect. We need to know what we believe and why! We need to understand that the Christian faith isn’t just a romantic or ideal notion without any evidence behind it. No, God has given us clear and solid evidence to be able to know and trust Him.
Apologetics is important to strengthen our own faith and keep us from wavering. It’s also important because it helps us deal with the doubts and questions people out in the world are struggling with.
Over the last two weeks, I’ve been telling you about this great book by Drs. Norm Geisler and Frank Turek, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist.” I really hope you’ll buy the book and study it until you’ve really made the main points your own. This book is to help us in dealing with atheists and skeptics.
Today I want to focus on one of the two most important themes. I want to talk about the existence of God and the reliability of His Word. These two themes are especially important when we’re in conversation with atheists or agnostics, people who are real skeptical about anything spiritual at all. These people are what’s known as materialists or naturalists. They believe the material world is all there is, and only what can be proven scientifically, because it can be seen, heard, felt, tasted, touched, weighed, etc., is real. They think people like us are just naïve and brainwashed, believing in things that can’t be seen or tested, things that are just fables.
Today’s atheists often point out that all people are atheists to a degree. Most of us no longer believe in Baal or Thor, or in Zeus, Apollo, Ra, Osiris or Ahura Mazda, so we’re atheists regarding those gods. Well, the modern atheists say they just take this a step further. They also don’t believe in Jehovah or Yahweh, or in Allah. They’ve just gone the whole way into the modern world, and only believe in science now. Aren’t they so enlightened? Too bad so many of us still cling to this foolish belief in a supernatural god! They hope with time to be able to wipe all religions out, so that we’re all as intelligent as they are!
Well, last week I was saying that most people don’t just disbelieve something. Sure, some atheists do say they just haven’t seen enough evidence for the supernatural and for God, so that’s why they don’t believe. But generally speaking, when people don’t believe in one set of beliefs, it’s really because they do believe in another set of beliefs. They don’t just not believe A. They don’t believe A, because they really do believe B.
What we need to help atheists, agnostics, and other skeptics see, is that they don’t just disbelieve in God. They do believe in something other than God. And there really are only a few possibilities to believe in. Geisler and Turek say there are three major religious worldviews. Theism, Pantheism, and Atheism.
Theism says, “God made all.” Pantheism says, “God is all.” Atheism says, “No god at all.”
Judaism, Christianity, Islam Hinduism & Buddhism Religious humanism
To describe these worldviews, imagine a painting and a painter who created it. In theism, God is the Painter, the painting is what He created, and it’s separate from God Himself. In Pantheism, God actually is the painting! Everything is part of God. In atheism, what looks like a painting was accidental, has always existed, and there is no painter at all.
There’s an illustration on page 23. Theism is like a giant hand holding the world. Pantheism is a hand that’s part of the world. Atheism is nothing but the world!
The reality we must all face is that there is, indeed a universe around us. Hindus and Buddhists say this is an illusion, but even they don’t live like it’s an illusion! Years ago, I talked with a Tibetan monk in Denver. He was protesting the way Red China had taken over his country and treated his people unjustly. After conversing a while and relating with him, I asked why he was protesting this. He explained it to me, but then I turned it on him. I asked, “Doesn’t your religion teach that everything is “maya,” an illusion? If it’s all an illusion, they why are you protesting? Shouldn’t you just embrace what has happened, knowing it’s not real anyway?” Oh, his eyes darted all around! He knew he was caught in the hypocrisy of his own belief system. Hinduism and Buddhism may say life, the universe in general, is an illusion, but they don’t live that way! I told him I agreed with him; it was unjust how the Chinese had treated his country. He should protest! I told him I’d like to pray for him and Tibet, and he let me do that, though I know he really wasn’t in agreement!
But the universe and life, they’re real. The question is, where did everything come from, and what is its purpose? What is our part in it all? Is there any purpose to life? Human beings need answers to these sorts of questions, and the religions of the world, even the religion of atheism (because it is a religion), all try to answer them. The way we answer these questions could be called our worldview, our way of viewing the world and life. Well, which worldview is the most reasonable and makes the most sense out of things as they are? Which ones take more faith to believe, because there isn’t much evidence for them, and which ones are easier to believe because they line up with reality? That’s what this book endeavors to demonstrate.
The other day, I had some guys working in my yard. I got into a conversation with them about this stuff, because their boss was saying he and one of the workers were Catholic, the other was an agnostic. They’d done work for my neighbors too, the husband was a Catholic, his wife a sort of non-practicing Buddhist. Well, the agnostic said, “At least she believes in something, right?” Well, I said, believing in something doesn’t count for much. You have to believe in the truth! And I proceeded to tell them all why Buddhism and Hinduism can’t be right, because they’re pantheistic.
You see, until the early 20th century, most scientists believed the universe was eternal. But a series of discoveries in mathematics, physics, and astronomy slowly tore down that belief. Einstein himself was part of this process, but over a period of 50 years or so, the belief in an eternal universe was shown to be faulty. The universe had to have a beginning, and there was a steady stream of evidence to prove it. That realization really impacts our worldview. Let me explain…
If the universe had a beginning, that means all of it had a beginning. That means not just matter had a beginning, but space, time, energy and matter all had a beginning! Ponder that for a minute, because if you do, it will blow your mind! We’re not used to thinking that even space or time didn’t used to exist! But all the evidence points to the fact that they all came into existence in a moment of time. That has huge implications!
If space came into existence, then something or someone outside of space (spaceless) had to exist to cause it to come into existence. If matter suddenly came into existence, then something or someone not made up of matter (i.e. immaterial), caused it to come into existence. If time came into existence, then something or someone outside of time caused it to come into existence. Not only is all this true, but the Cause had to be, not something, but Someone. Why? Because molecules, matter or energy, they don’t do things themselves. They don’t decide things, organize things, energize things. Only a person could decide to organize and create. So the very universe we live in, because it came into existence at a certain point (which almost all scientists now admit), had to be caused. It had to have a Cause that made it. And that Cause had to be personal, immaterial, timeless or eternal.
These things are facts, not theories or philosophies. And what do these facts indicate concerning the major worldviews I mentioned a minute ago? Well, if there had to be a Cause which brought the universe into existence, then atheism can’t be true! Atheism says there is no cause! It’s not a painting. It just seems like one to us, but really, it’s not designed, there is no plan, and no one made it. So everything came from nothing – no thing! Wow, have you ever seen anything come from nothing? Neither have I! So you’d have to have a lot of “faith” to believe everything came from nothing. Atheism takes a lot of (blind) faith!
But you know what else? Hinduism and Buddhism can’t be true either! Why? Because they are pantheistic, which says God is part of everything and everything is part of God. Well, that can’t be! Why? Because everything had a beginning, even space, time, matter, and energy! In other words, the Cause of the universe had to be outside the universe; the Cause could not be part of the very universe it (He) was causing! (No one would look at a car, for example, and say the car caused itself. There has to be a factory somewhere.)
What this means is that the only possible worldview is theism. Theos is the Greek word for God. Theism says there is a supernatural Person, God, who made all there is. The universe is theistic, and we can know this without reading any kind of “holy book” or being part of any religion. The only theistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. So they are the only possibilities for us to really consider. Now they could all be wrong to some extent, but theism is nevertheless the most likely explanation for the universe. They cannot all be true, because they contradict each other. But something along the lines of what they teach must be true. A supernatural (outside of nature) Personality who is infinite, eternal, immaterial, infinitely powerful and infinitely wise and intelligent must be the Cause of the universe around us. So now, is there any way to figure out which of these world religions fits best with the universe we see around us?
Would God, who is obviously a Person, want to communicate with us if He made us? It would certainly seem so, don’t you think? Well, how would or could He do that? Since it has only been in the last 100 years that we have had things like radio, TV, telephones, email and such, the best form of communication for God to use would have to be writing. It would have to be a book. Now Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all have books they claim were inspired and delivered to us by God. (So do the religions we’ve already ruled out.) Could one of these books be God’s Word? If so, which one? How could we know?
What does God do that no one else can do? He can do supernatural (beyond the scope of nature) things, can’t He? What do we call supernatural works or events? We call them miracles! Has a God ever done anything supernatural, anything miraculous, that would let us know He was trying to communicate with us? He sure has!
The first supernatural thing He did was create the entire universe. There are even atheist astro-physicists who say the beginning of the universe was supernatural, and I have quotes from some of them to prove it! It was a miracle, so if you have a problem with that, I’m sorry. The greatest miracle that was ever done is all around you every day and night, and there’s no way you can escape that! Lesser miracles have to be possible, because the greatest miracle of all already happened at what we call the Big Bang. There are many others, but certain ones are of primary importance.
The Hebrew Scriptures, what we Christians call the Old Testament, tells of a shepherd who encountered a burning bush. When he drew near to this miraculous burning bush, God spoke to him, and commissioned him to go bring His people out of slavery in Egypt. When he went there to carry out his mission, God sent mighty plagues and judgments, and they were all miraculous. Through them, God demonstrated His power and presence to the world. Then He brought Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea and fed them supernatural food, manna, in the desert for 40 years. God did many miracles to reveal Himself to Israel, and He had these things written down, so we could all read them and know about Him, His power and His ways.
Some 1500 or so years after Moses, God raised up Someone He said was a Prophet, a Spokesman for Him, to lead His people to a new level of spiritual deliverance that would not only be for the Jews, but for all people. (Deut. 18:18) This Man was born exactly where it was prophesied that He would be born, of the family line it was prophesied He would be born to, and He was born supernaturally, of a virgin who had never been with a man. A supernatural astronomical occurrence guided some wise men from the area of modern Iraq or Iran to where the baby was lying in a manger. This Man grew up, was baptized and filled with God’s Spirit, and then began to do more miracles than even Moses had done. He restored the sight of blind people, made cripples walk, walked on water Himself, drove out demons, calmed storms, and even raised dead people to life! The greatest miracle of all was that He predicted His own death and resurrection in three days, and then accomplished it! After that, He sent out His followers to do the same sorts of miracles to confirm He was who He said He was, God’s Messiah, God’s Son, the Son of David, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Thousands of Jewish people believed these words, and a new community called the Church began to spread all over the known world. The Jews who believed in Jesus stopped worshipping on Saturdays, stopped going to the Temple or focusing on the laws of Moses, and many of them were persecuted and even tortured to death for their beliefs in Jesus’ resurrection and Lordship. Eventually the Church began to have more Gentile members than Jews. Secular writers of the time recorded the main facts of Jesus’ story, which validates the truth of it. There is so much evidence that this story is true it has become the largest religion in the world.
Now then, Judaism was begun with miracles to confirm it came from God. But it is incomplete, because Judaism predicted many things, the coming of Messiah, the inclusion of the Gentiles, the restoration of Israel, and these things never happened during the times of the Old Testament. The New Testament, the Christian faith, is the continuation of the Old Testament, and brings fulfillment and closure to many of the OT promises. Miracles confirm both Judaism and Christianity, and the many manuscripts, the prophecies, plus archeology and history validate and bear out the truthfulness of the message of Jesus. The evidence is so strong, so good, it actually takes less faith to believe Christianity is true than it does to believe any of the other worldviews or explanations for reality.
But what about the third theistic religion – Islam? Couldn’t it be true? That would take several more programs to cover! But let me just say first, that Islam and its prophet, Muhammad, claim no miracles. None. Muhammad said the Koran itself was his only miracle. There is just no comparison with the evidence Christianity presents. But not only is this so. The Koran was written some 600 years after the New Testament, and it contradicts things the NT clearly teaches. Yet the Koran presents no evidence as to why we should believe it instead of the NT. Why believe hearsay written 600 years after the fact, by people who weren’t there, when we have eyewitness accounts from people we can trust, written much closer to the time, confirmed by miracles?
That’s all we have time for today. The point is there is strong evidence, there are many strong reasons to believe in the God of the Bible, and His Son, the Lord Jesus. Next time, I’d like to talk to you about the strong evidence we have for believing the Bible itself, especially the New Testament, is the most accurate book from ancient times in existence today, and is totally reliable for faith and practice. Tune in next time!