Is There a God?
By: Ben Stewart
Introduction…
Why are you here today? I think that you are here reading today because you believe there is a God. In this lesson I will be speaking to the existence of God. I know that most, if not everyone here believe that God is real and he exists.
I am however preparing you to present the arguments for God and his existence. Today there is a real problem, people due to their freedoms here are making themselves God. By denying that there is a Creator, people think they are the highest level of existence.
Since so many atheists exist in the world, and are trying to present cases to courts that deny our rights to freely exercise our religion, I thought it worth your time and mine to prepare a sermon that will help all of us to present the idea of a Creator.
There are a few arguments that I will use. The Cosmological Argument, The Teleological Argument, and the Moral Argument…
The Cosmological Argument
Cause and effect
This argument would state that everything has a cause and effect.
Because the world is in a state of regression or decay then there must be a cause
Have you ever heard of the idea of perpetual motion?
Perpetual motion is defined as eternal motion
For years scientist have been trying to figure out a way to have perpetual motion
The problem with this ideal is in science you must put more energy into something to get an output. The ratio of energy in and energy out is call efficiency.
The higher the efficiency the better the output
Could you imagine an engine that never quits, we all know things like friction and heat keep it from running without end.
Because of these types of things we all must put oil in our cars and trucks
The law of entropy, or the law of chaos…continuous change…positive and negative equalizing…
The law of entropy is a law of physics that has just been generated in the last century. It states that the unbalanced forces in the universe will work, through this law, to balance all other forces. That since there is always an unbalance, then this constant balancing of forces is the reason for creation and not God.
If this were true, the universe would still have to have an original beginning of forces that balance themselves out.
Every bit of matter we know does decay and is not eternal: plants, animals, and humans
We know that all matter is finite or has a beginning and an end.
Logic says that nothing can create nothing. That something does not come from nothing
These scientists have created this idea so it will agree with the evolution theory.
For it to be true the forces must be eternal to be in the beginning. In other words there was no starting point or ending point for these forces that balance themselves out. Since nothing can create nothing, this view is out of reasoning with common sense. If there was nothing…the absence of anything…then there would be nothing but emptiness…
Since the world is here there must be something that created it.
Alternatives to this view
It is an Illusion
Some philosophers state that we really are somewhere else and this is what we dream or experience because of being elsewhere.
It is like the ideas portrayed by the movie Matrix
It sporadically arose out of nothing
As I spoke of earlier this defies any form of logic
It basically says that out of nothing came something.
This is what some people of the big bang theory suggest that out of nothing came this big explosion in which everything was put into motion.
It had no existence but has existed for eternity makes no sense unlike A Creator created the world.
Assessment of these ideas
The ideas that the world is an illusion is not within reason
The idea that nothing created something also defies reason.
The idea that the Sun is decaying…has been measured. However the idea that the world has forever and will forever continue to decay…The stars that die out, the earth and its wealth of life, are evidences that everything started at a fixed time and place.
The law of entropy says if everything was hot and cold then in time due to mixtures there would be a perfect balance called warm. The idea is that there is an eternal amount of hot and cold. So the forces behind creation is the mixing of cold and hot to get warm. However the world has always and will continue to decay or become older, until the Lord comes back.
The only other assessment left is that there is a creator that created everything.
He was the one who gave us the starting point of time and place
God is the Creator. Someone may say well who created God?
There is something we must understand about God. Jesus said “God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and truth” John 4:24
God is a spirit; He is self-existing. He needs nothing other than Himself to exist. He relies only on Himself for his existence, He is eternal…we get older and die just like the world gets older everyday.
We are humans we are finite, meaning we have a beginning and an end, We depend on our environment to sustain our lives. In essence we depend on God to live. However The Great I Am of All that IS indeed Self-Existing…Eternal.
The Teleological Argument
The design and purpose
Have you ever just thought about the chances of us being here?
Odds for this happening by chance
What are the odds of the earth being the exact distance from the sun that we neither burn up nor freeze to death?
That everything is beneficial to everything else?
Evolution idea
The odds of a chemical soup existing in which some amino acids come together to form the first 1 cell organism of life happening by chance.
The odds of this 1 cell organism evolving into a 2 celled organism
Invertebrates
Fish or vertebrates
Reptiles
Birds
Mammals
The very odds of this happening says that we did not evolve
They have never found the missing links, which bridge the gap between the species.
There are other proofs as well. They have found trees that are upright and pass through several layers of the geological strata. Thus proving the strata did not happen over billions of years because for that to happen; the tree would have to be billions of years old. In fact it suggests that there was a great flood.
The ecosystem
The human waste product of carbon dioxide is one of the substances needed for the plants to survive.
The plants support the animals, and the animals and plants sustain us.
The earth is 2/3rds water, and evaporates in such a way that produces clouds that carry this water to the land so that crops or vegetation can grow for the benefit of the animals, and humans.
The water collects and then is distributed to the land or earth
The extra is then collected into rivers, streams, and lakes then returned to the seas
It is no accident
These things did not happen by accident
Each item has a purpose and a plan in the environment.
The watchmaker
Someone has given me an illustration of a watch
The idea is that for all of this world to happen by accident or mere chance is like me taking the parts of a pocket watch, putting them into a bag, shaking the bag and its contents up, then reaching my hand into the bag and pulling out a put together, complete and working pocket watch.
You and I both know you cannot put the right parts in a bag shake it up and have a complete product. You see each part of a pocket watch has a design and a purpose.
Each gear, piece, bearings, and shafts all depend on the others for it proper working order.
The watch would never work unless an intelligent being put each piece in its proper place so that it would run correctly.
God the watchmaker
God is the one who put each part of this universe together
He is the source of all things.
He is the intelligent being that put everything in its place.
Moral Code
If men are only smart animals, then what?
Supposing we are here just by accident, then why do we consider some things to be wrong?
If we are upright animals, then what is wrong with me eating a baby for lunch?
You and I both know that eating humans and especially babies is wrong
If we are just animals, then only the strong survive
So on animal instincts, anything that could be food is considered food.
All people have an inherent sense of right and wrong called a conscience
Everybody has there idea of right and wrong
Some say we legislate morality for the preservation of humans
Then why are we do we consider it wrong when people like Geoffrey Dahlmer eat humans
We get so mad at people for killing other people we make their punishment so severe that others will never do or else they also will be punished severely as well.
For us to be smart animals means we had to evolve
Why are the apes still not evolving?
Why are the apes not speaking in a language of their own doing…organizing…teaching…etc.?
What will we evolve into in the future?
Men are moral because God is moral
You and I have a sense of good and evil because we are not just animals
We are not just physical beings we are spiritual beings
We have a conscience and an ability to reason unlike the animals
We can reason right and wrong
God because he is our Creator wants us to know how to behave
He gives us the Bible so that we see what his standard of morality is…Jesus had to meet the minimum requirements of not breaking the Ten Commandments…
By reading His standard our standard is changed to be like His.
For there to be a moral law there must be a moral Law Giver
Conclusion:
So with the idea of a God being established by anyone of these arguments we know there is something greater than ourselves out there. In every singly society since the dawn of man has worshipped something. Man is hard wired to believe in something greater than himself.
The Aztecs, Indians, the Aborigines, Greeks, man has always since the need for a Divine aid. In some societies they went about to create their own God. That is why there is so much idolatry in the world today. We do not see it very much today here in America but there are many gods of the Hindu’s, Buddha, etc
The problem with all of these other gods is most are presumed to be mean or evil and have to be appeased by sacrifices. Most people who are idolatrous believe they must give to the god or else harm will come unto them.
The God that we see in the Bible is a loving, caring, forgiving, just, fair God, who only punishes those that directly disobey Him. God knows that man is not perfect and has not measured up to his standard of living. If man could be as good as God then God would not be merciful and having sent Jesus to die on the cross and be raised from the dead so you can choose to never do evil or sin again and Jesus was raised so you as proof you could be forgiven and change... Because of our predicament (our sins) we need help in obtaining this moral perfection in the eyes of the life giver.
God made a way for us to be saved. He gave us a way to be saved or forgiven in His eyes. That way is Jesus Christ. Jesus said “ I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but through me. John 14:6
There is only one way to Heaven and that my friend is through Jesus Christ.
The five finger Gospel:
Hear
(Rom 10:17) So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Believe
(Heb 11:6) And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.
(Joh 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.(Joh 3:17) For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.
Repent
(Act 17:30)The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent:(Act 17:31)inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
(Luk 13:3) I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish.
Confess
(Rom 10:9)because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved:(Rom 10:10)for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
(Mat 10:32)Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven.(Mat 10:33)But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Baptism
(Act 2:38)And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.(Act 2:39)For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.
(1Pe 3:21)which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ;
(Mar 16:16)He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.
Father help us to have eyes which see You and ears to hear You…in Jesus of Nazareth’s name amen.
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