Category: Existence Of God

Views of God's Existence: Part 2 - False Views

10/21/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · Views Of God’s Existence: Part 2 - False Views

Agnosticism believes that God’s existence is unknowable and impossible to know. Scripture states that God can be known by those who seek Him.

But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. - Deuteronomy 4:29

Atheism believes that God does not exist. Scripture states that those who claim there is no God are fools.

The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. - Psalm 14:1

Deism believes that God exists, but that God is uncaring and uninvolved with His Creation. Furthermore, it denies the Trinity, the inspiration of Scripture, Christ’s deity, and miracles. Scripture states, that God is very involved in the natural processes of the created realm.

For to the snow He says, Fall on the earth, And to the downpour and the rain, Be strong. From the breath of God ice is made, And the expanse of the waters is frozen. Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; He disperses the cloud of His lightning. It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, That it may do whatever He commands it, On the face of the inhabited earth. - Job 37:6, 10-12

Pantheism believes that God is in everything and everything is God; there is no distinct personal God. Hence, a rock, a tree, the sun, and grass are God. Scripture states that God is not to be worshipped with idols or images of anything from the created realm. If God were a rock, a tree, the sun, or grass why forbid worshipping Him with these images?

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; - Exodus 20:4-5

Polytheism believes that there are many gods. Scripture states that there is only one God — the Lord — YHWH.

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! - Deuteronomy 6:4
For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. - Psalm 96:5
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. - James 2:19

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Views of God's Existence: Part 1 - Monotheism

10/21/2020

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TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · Views Of God’s Existence: Part 1 - Monotheism

Monotheism believes in one God, Who is creator, omnipotent (i.e., all powerful), omnipresent (i.e., everywhere present) and omniscient (i.e., all knowing) and intervenes in the affairs of the world.

To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him. - Deuteronomy 4:35
yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. - 1 Corinthians 8:6
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, - 1 Timothy 2:5

Besides the many Biblical prooftexts supporting monotheism, there are three key arguments support monotheism.

First, a study of world religions demonstrates that at their roots, they began as monotheistic, before devolving into polytheism. Each of these religions share a set of common truths: one God who is personal, omniscient, and omnipotent, who created the world, is the author of morality, and provides reconciliation to those who disobey Him. That these religions share these common truths demonstrates that monotheism is foundational to humanity’s belief in God.

Second, the universe demands one God who orders and sustains the universe. If more than one God existed, it would result in chaos and disorder in the universe. Such chaos and disorder would be the result of each competing deity’s authority and choice.

Third, God is a perfect being. Perfection means that God lacks nothing in His character or attributes. In other words, God is complete, full, wanting in nothing. Therefore, for another deity to exist, it would have to be different from God. Anything different from perfect is less than perfect.

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The Anthropological Argument for God's Existence

8/8/2020

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TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Anthropological Argument For God’s Existence

A third argument for God’s existence is the Anthropological Argument or Moral Argument. It argues that humanity’s recognition of morality cannot be attributed to any evolutionary process.

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, - Romans 2:14-15

Lewis Chafer states, “There are... moral features in man’s constitution which may be traced back to find their origin in God … A blind force … could never produce a man with intellect, sensibility, will, conscience, and inherent belief in a Creator.”1 That pagans, without having God’s written Law, value and practice the moral standards of God’s Law demonstrates an innate knowledge of God’s Law. Such knowledge did not evolve. Instead, God placed it within the conscience of humanity at Creation.

Another way to express the Moral Argument is by presenting two premises and drawing a conclusion.

Premise 1: If God does not exists, then objective moral values do not exists (i.e., laws require a law-giver).
Premise 2: Objective moral values do exist.
Conclusion: Since objective moral values exist, God exists.

Such an argument presents a conundrum for atheists. Atheists condemn rape and child abuse as immoral. That they deed these actions immoral requires that objective moral values exists. Since objective moral values exists, God exists.

ENDNOTES:

Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 8 vols. (Dallas: Dallas Seminary, 1947) 1:155, 157.

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The Teleological Argument for God's Existence

8/5/2020

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TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Teleological Argument For God’s Existence

A second argument for God’s existence is known as the Teleological Argument. It argues for the existence of God based on the arrangement and intelligence displayed in the universe. Henry Theissen states that, “Order and useful arrangement in a system imply intelligence and purpose in the organizing cause.”1 Thus, by looking around at creation one sees evidence for God.

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. - Psalm 19:1-2

The classic illustration of the Teleological Argument is the ‘Watchmaker Analogy’. William Paley states, “[S]uppose I found a watch upon the ground, [...] when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive […] that its every parts are framed and put together for a purpose e.g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that, if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, [...] or placed after any other manner, or in any order than that in which they are placed, [then] no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine ...”2

Consider two examples of arrangement and intelligence in the created realm. The sun is ninety-three million miles from the earth. At that distance, it provides a climate which sustains life. A little farther from or closer to the earth and life on earth would not exist. The moon is two hundred and forty-thousand miles from the earth. At that distance, it creates the tides of the sea. The tides clean the shorelines, keep the ocean current circulating, and prevent the ocean from stagnation. These are but two examples of arrangement and intelligence in the universe that give evidence to God’s existence.

ENDNOTES:

Henry C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, revised by Vernon D. Doerksen (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), p. 28.
William Paley, Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1862), 5.

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The Cosmological Argument for God's Existence

8/5/2020

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TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Cosmological Argument For God’s Existence

The first argument for God’s existence is the Cosmological Argument. It is built on the Law of Causation which states, “Everything which exists in the world must have an adequate cause; and if this is so, the universe must also have an adequate cause, that is a cause which is indefinitely great.1 […] “Everything which has a beginning has a cause.”2

The Law of Causation requires that everything which exists have an indefinitely greater cause. In other words, something larger than the universe must exist, which in turn created the universe. The Scripture states that God created the universe.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1

The phrase, ‘the heavens and the earth’ is a Hebraic figure of speech which refers to the universe. This is known as a merism in which two opposite ideas are joined together into a single, all inclusive concept.

That Causation is a Law necessitates the need for a lawgiver. The Scripture states that the Law of Causation is a God-ordained law.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. - Hebrews 3:4

The one who builds all things is none other than God. God is the only cause, and there are no others.

…I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. - Isaiah 44:6
I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God… - Isaiah 45:5

Consider the sun. Its diameter is one hundred and nine times that of the earth. The sun’s volume is 1.3 million times the earth’s volume and 330,000 times the mass. The sun puts out 3.86 × 1026 watts of power requiring four million tonnes of matter to be converted every second into energy. If the sun is this large and powerful, how much larger and powerful is the God who created it?

ENDNOTES:

Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1938), 26.
W.T. Stace, A Critical History of Greek Philosophy (London: MacMillan and Co., 1934), 6.

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God's Existence: A First Truth

8/1/2020

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TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · God’s Existence - A First Truth

Scripture begins with God -- in the beginning, God (cf. Genesis 1:1). It provides no origin narrative. The Bible simply states that God exists and then outlines how God created the universe. That Scripture begins with God’s existence is known as a first truth. A first truth is a truth that is not proved or debated but held as foundational to all other truths. Augustus Strong states that “A first truth is a knowledge which, though developed upon occasion of observation and reflection, is not derived from observation and reflection.”1

A first truth is established by three tests. The first test is the universality of the truth. Universality does not mean that everyone accepts the truth, but that everyone displays a belief in a deity on some level. That the vast majority of humanity, separated by time and space, recognize the existence of a deity or deities demonstrates the universality of God’s existence as a first truth.

The second test is the coherence of the truth. In other words, while someone can deny the existence of a truth, they cannot disprove the truth. If someone claims that God does not exist, they must be prepared to explain why. However, for an individual to have sufficient evidence to deny God’s existence would require them to be everywhere (i.e., omnipresent) and all-knowing (i.e., omniscient). If they were omnipresent and omniscient, they themselves would be God. To deny the truth of God’s existence is indefensible.

The third test is the logic of the truth. For a truth to be logical, it must be argued according to the rules of formal argumentation. There are three arguments to demonstrate the logic behind the truth of God’s existence. Those arguments are cosmological, teleological, and anthropological.

ENDNOTES:

Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1907), 54.

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Views of God's Existence: Part 2 - False Views

Views of God's Existence: Part 1 - Monotheism

The Anthropological Argument for God's Existence

The Teleological Argument for God's Existence

The Cosmological Argument for God's Existence

God's Existence: A First Truth

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