The Existence of God
Text: Genesis 1.1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Thesis: To prove that God exists; therefore, man must obey Him.
Introduction:
(1) In today’s world, humanistic theories such as evolution have caused many people to doubt the validity of God’s existence.
(2) Nevertheless, God still does exist, but how does one go about proving His existence?
(a) Does one go to the Bible to prove God’s existence?
i. If so, then, in reality, one would be arguing in a circle.
ii. For example, one who believes in Islam might say that he/she knows that Allah exists because the Koran says so and then if asked about the authority of the Koran, he/she might respond by saying, “It’s Allah’s word.”
iii. Substitute God for Allah and the Bible for the Koran and you get the point (Gilmore).
(b) One proves God’s existence by looking at the evidence everywhere that he/she looks.
i. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1.20).
ii. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge” (Ps. 19.1-2).
(3) We shall look at three arguments for the existence of God:
Discussion:
I. The Teleological Argument Proves the Existence of God.
A. This is better known as the design argument.
1. It was popularized by men such as William Paley who demonstrated it by noting that if a watch is found to have clear-cut evidence of design, then it must have a watchmaker.
2. Henceforth, if concrete evidence of design can be found, then there must be a designer (i.e., God).
3. The Hebrew writer states it as follows: “For every house is built by some man; but he that built all things is God” (Heb. 3.4).
B. It is best seen demonstrated by examining two realms: 1) Inorganic; and 2) Organic.
1. First, the inorganic realm will be examined by noting the earth’s location in the universe.
a. The location of the earth is in just the right spot to receive the correct amount of heat and radiation.
(1) The sun’s interior temperature is estimated at over twenty million degrees Celsius with the earth located ninety-three million miles away from it.
(a) If the earth were ten percent closer to the sun, then there would be too much heat upon the earth.
(b) If it were ten percent further away from the sun, then there would not be enough heat upon the earth.
(2) Did this design occur by chance or by a designer?
b. The rotation of the earth provides clear examples of design.
(1) The earth is moving around the sun at 70,000 miles per hour while rotating on its axis at 1,000 miles per hour at the equator.
(2) It departs from a straight line by just one-ninth of an inch every eighteen miles.
(3) Mankind would either burn to death if the earth were to depart from that line by one-eighth of an inch or would freeze to death if it were to depart by one-tenth of an inch.
(4) Did this design occur by chance or by a designer?
c. As one said, “Everywhere we look are found examples of design so intricate and so interdependent that they could have been produced only by supernatural intelligence and only according to a marvelous, overall plan” (Castell).
2. Second, the organic realm will be examined by noting the design of the human eye.
a. Charles Darwin himself said, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”
b. As one evolutionist wrote, “It is hard to accept the evolution of the eye as a product of chance […] The eye appears to have been designed; no designer of telescopes could have done better” (Jastrow).
c. How does the human eye exemplify design?
(1) It can handle 1.5 million simultaneous messages.
(2) It gathers eighty percent of all knowledge that is absorbed by the brain.
(3) A person would have to walk fifty miles each day to get the muscles in the leg to get the same amount of exercise as does the human eye.
(4) The probability of this evolving “has never been observed and will never be observed by any human in the entire universe” (Borel).
(5) Charles Darwin even admitted, “To suppose that they eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest sense.”
d. As one wrote, “The unprejudiced mind cannot fail to read in every organ, nay, we may say in every cell and fiber, the inscription of purpose, and to learn thereby that hey are the products of supreme power directed by supreme wisdom” (Macalister).
II. The Cosmological Argument Proves the Existence of God.
A. The argument goes as follows:
1. If the world exists and is contingent, then a necessary being exists.
2. P
3. Therefore, Q
B. The argument explained:
1. All things are contingent and changing.
2. They demand a sufficient reason.
3. Hence, a necessary being is only possible (Lipe).
III. The Morality Argument Proves the Existence of God.
A. The argument goes as follows:
1. If the moral code of someone can be criticized as to real moral wrong, then there must be some objective standard other than the moral code.
2. P
3. Therefore, Q
B. The argument explained:
1. Why were the Nazis found guilty of the events of the Holocaust?
a. R. H. Jackson, in his closing address in the Nuremberg Trial, appealed to a higher law, which rises above the provincial and transient.
b. What law was this?
(1) They were not guilty of the law of Germany.
(2) They were not amenable to the law of England, USA, etc.
(3) This is the higher law over all others.
(a) This law transcends place and time.
(b) It is the words of Jesus (cf. John 12.48).
2. This is the concept of “doing by nature the things contained in the law” (Rom. 2.14). (Warren)
Conclusion:
(1) If God does not exist, then:
(a) We are nothing but organized matter.
(b) Everything we are and do is the result of non-living, non-intelligent, non-purposive matter.
(c) There is no real right or wrong, good or evil.
(d) No one had any real obligation to do anything or not do anything.
(e) Physical death is the absolute end of us all.
(f) No matter how we have acted, there will be no accounting, no judgment, and no punishment (Lipe).
(2) The Christian needs not to fear the attacks being made against the Christian faith by those who are blinded by scientism and humanism, but rather boldly and loudly proclaim the valid and true arguments for the existence of God while also pointing out that true science disproves evolution and proves creation.
(3) We must declare facts instead of fictions of men and truth instead of lies of evolution and then those who will weigh the evidence will climb the mountain of knowledge only to find creationists on the top who had been there all alone. Then we will all be able to join hands and declare that Genesis 1.1 has been right all along.
(4) Since God does exist, then we must obey Him by obeying the gospel and being faithful.
