ETERNAL FOUNDATIONS FOR MANKIND – Part 2

"There is a God!" – August 18, 2002
Tracy L. Moore
Riverwood Church of Christ

I stand before you boldly this morning and affirm, "There is a God, and He is alive, in Him we live, and survive!" There are those in our society who do not want me to tell you that. In their words, it is "such nonsense." These are the fools of the world. Strong language, but they come from the mouth of God. Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works…" (KJV)

From the words of Batsell Barrett Baxter, "…if there be no God we need not go any further. It is also the most basic issue, for upon it all the other issues rest." (I Believe Because…)

Sigmund Freud, generally known as the father of psychoanalysis, once wrote that religion is merely the projection of a wish. He believed that man, because of his fears, developed the idea of a protective father. He believed that man created God, rather than that God created man. This is a statement of arrogance, one of the main reasons why some will never believe in a Divine Being or Someone greater than they are.

However, pride isn’t the only reason folks reject the Lord. Sometimes, there are circumstances that lead to that conclusion – especially in times of tragedy. One person walks into the preacher’s office and says, "I have tried to make contact with God, and all I get is silence." Another person attends the funeral of someone they love only to hear the preacher say, "God took her because he needed her more than we did." While those are meant to be words of encouragement, they can also be confusing and even misleading. No one said understanding God would be simple, nor that man has the intelligence to comprehend Him completely.

Blaise Pascal once wrote, "It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be joined to the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world should be created, and that it should not be created…" The question is, "Can we really know there is a God?" I affirm that we can, based on some simple reasoning:

In the previous lesson, we established the Bible as true, without error, and, most importantly, from God. We know that what it says can be trusted, and the Bible says there is a God. From the very first words of this great book, we are introduced to our Creator. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (NKJV)

From that verse on, we learn about the nature of God and His purpose for mankind. In a moment we are going to notice some of the powerful traits of our Maker.

Jehovah has made Himself known in the wonderful creation around us everyday.

Psalm 19:1-4, "The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world." (NLT)By personifying the heavens and the skies, the psalmist is picturing nature as a preacher, standing behind a pulpit with a sermon to preach. The sermon preached by the heavens is God’s glory. The Hebrew word forglory means "weight" or "heaviness." The more "heaviness or weight" associated with a person, the more status and splendor that person was thought to have. God’s glory is the reality of God’s presence as it manifests His power, splendor and holiness. Although nature’s sermon doesn’t consist of literal words, this sermon’s message penetrates the entire universe. Every language hears nature’s sermon.

Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (NIV) We are surrounded by fantastic evidence of God’s existence. Though God is a Spirit-Being and cannot be seen by man (I Tim. 1:17), He has not left us without evidence of His existence. Creation is the evidence that God has been here and worked His wonders.

When I was in junior high it was popular for kids to leave their mark, so to speak, everywhere they went. On bathroom walls, notebooks, and all sorts of public property, you would find the message, "[name of the person] wuz here" followed by the date. Do you remember those days? Creation was God’s way of saying, "I wuz here and exist."

For a person to say that the world just happened by some cosmological bang is absurd. We hear people who say all the time, "how can you believe in something you cannot see?" Yet, the Bible says God has left evidence of His existence – His creation being one. Can we believe in something we cannot see?

Quantum physics is physics of the incredibly small. It tries to explain the behavior of even smaller particles than electrons, protons, and neutrons. In fact, quantum physics even describes the particles that make up these particles. These are known as "quarks." Think about this for a moment - an atom is tiny, and the nucleus is ten thousand times smaller than the atom. The quarks and electrons are at least ten thousand times smaller than that. We do not know how small they are because they are invisible to man’s greatest microscopes. Someone may ask, "Then how do they know they exist?" Answer: "When these quarks and electrons are aroused they run into each other and leave skid marks that can be seen with a microscope." In other words, they know they are there by what they leave behind.

The same is true with creation. We know there is a God by His creation. God’s creation testifies to His existence. Acts 14:15-17, "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." (NKJV) This is why people feel close to God when they’re close to nature. A breathtaking sunset or a snowcapped mountain inspires us to think about God.

One of the interesting bits of history about the Manned Moon Mission is that when the first men landed on the moon, and while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were waiting for the greenlight from NASA’s Mission Control to step out of the Lunar Lander and walk on the Moon’s surface, Buzz Aldrin took a moment to take out a tiny communion kit, given him by his church, that had a silver chalice and wine container about the size of the tip of his finger. During the morning he radioed, "Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and give thanks in his own individual way."

It is interesting to think; the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements. Many of the astronauts who had been into space have been moved by the presence of God. As one astronaut observed after a flight on the Space Shuttle, "You cannot look down at earth without realizing how small our world is, and how big our God is."

Man has tried to become creator and failed. They have tried to improve on God’s work and made a mess of things. For example, in 1859, Thomas Austin imported some 24 European rabbits to improve the balance of nature in Australia. The results: Since there were no natural enemies of these rabbits in Australia, nothing kept them in check. They multiplied beyond expectation and did serious damage, destroying the grass on which the sheep feed.

I could go into great detail talking about the dynamics of the earth and prove the universe had to have had a Divine designer. We could look into the laws of Biogenesis, Thermodynamics, Genetics, the fossil record, etc. The simple truth is – there is a God. But the book of nature is limited; it only tells us about God as our creator. We can know about God through nature, but we can’t know God personally through creation. To do so, as one man described, would be like "an adopted child who yearns to meet his birth parents." Creation only reminds us that such a person exists. This is why the Bible is all-important in knowing God. But notice our third reason we can know there is a God.

Romans 1:18-19, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them." (NKJV) One translation says, "For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts." (NLT) While we have evidence that God’s hand designed the world around us, He also established within us that He exists. This is known as the conscience – the innate sense of right and wrong.

Paul argued that even the ancient Gentiles, who had no written law from God, "instinctively follow what the law says, they show that in their hearts they know right from wrong." (Rom. 2:14-15 – NLT) There is something about the way our universe is made and the way man is made that causes us to lift our eyes to the heavens to seek God.

Batsell Barrett Baxter, in his book I Believe Because…, makes an interesting point. He wrote that in Washington, D.C., the most spectacular of our national monuments is to be found. The 550-foot monolithic Washington Monument towers above the entire city. When visitors drive their cars into the monument area, park them at the base of this huge structure, and step out of their cars, instinctively, their eyes rise from the base to the top. Similarly, there is something God’s creation that causes us to lift our eyes to the heavens to seek God.

Since God has no body, how can we perceive him? How can we communicate with God? Could a spirit-God use a kind of direct intuition to communicate to people?

Bats detect insects by sonar; eels stun their prey with electricity; pigeons navigate by magnetic fields; bloodhounds drink in a world smell, unavailable to us. Perhaps the unseen world requires an inbuilt set of correspondences activated through some sort of spiritual quickening.

God uses the conscience to prove His existence. But beware, because that conscience can be seared (I Tim. 4:2). Television, relationships, books, tragedy, etc. can pollute the mind of God’s existence. Yet, there is one more evidence of the existence of God.

John 1:18, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." (NKJV) Jesus Christ declaredthe Father. The Greek term means "to lead out, to explain, to rehearse the facts, to recount a narrative. Often used for the publishing or explaining of divine secrets." John meant that all that Jesus is and does interprets and explains who God is and what He does.

Paul described Christ as the "image of the invisible God." (Col. 1:15 - KJV) The Hebrew writer said, "The Son reflects God own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly." (Heb. 1:3 – NLT) Jesus would say, "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also…he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." (Jn. 14:7,9 – KJV) This again goes back to our first lesson on the trustworthiness of the Scriptures. To know we can trust it is to know Christ is God’s Son.

The Psalmist was right when he said, "The fool has said in his heart there is no God." Do you realize the probability of the universe just coming together based on Darwin’s theory of evolution? When you look at the design and all the parts that had to come together by "chance," you begin to realize the problems. In fact, to put together a complex system arranged in 200 parts, it would be 10 to the 375^th power. That is, a number written as "one" followed by 375 "zeros." This would be like your buying lottery tickets and winning almost everytime. Yet, that is only the probability of a system that contains only 200 parts. The cerebral cortex of the human brain contains over 10 million cells, all arranged in proper order, and each of these cells is itself infinitely complex!

There is a God and He is alive! But to truly "know" Him, we must turn to the pages of the Bible to find His character and nature. It is there that we learn of the Christ and His way and claims. There is a God, and we can know Him. The Psalmist said, "Be still, and know that I am God." (Ps. 46:10 – KJV) When Paul wrote to the Galatians he said, "But now that ye have come to know God…" (Gal. 4:9 – KJV) Paul confidently affirmed, "I know whom I have believed…" (II Tim. 1:12 – KJV) Man is able to know God because He has revealed Himself to His rational creatures.

Concerning those who "refuse to have God in their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28), the Scriptures blatantly state that the Lord "gave them up," and worthy of everlasting separation from Him. (Rom. 1:32) II Thessalonians 1:8-9, "In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." (NKJV) These verses show that it means more than just knowing there is a God, but also obeying Him. This principle will be developed in the next lesson.

1. Essays in Apologetics Volumes 1-4, Bert Thompson – contributing writer and editor.

2. I Believe Because…, Batsel Barrett Baxter

3. A Ready Defense, Josh McDowell