Month: April 2008

The Gospel of Matthew records that one day when Jesus was with his disciples, he asked them a question … “Who do people say that I am?”  [Matt.16:13]

At that time there were a wide variety of opinions as to who Jesus was. Some thought he was John the Baptist risen from the dead, or Elijah come back in their time (remember, tradition said that he had never died but was taken up in a flaming chariot), or maybe the prophet Jeremiah. It was clear that there were differences of opinion and no one seemed sure who he really was.

Peter finally answered and said that Jesus was ‘the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of the living God.” Jesus affirmed this statement about his identity and let Peter know that he had received that thought by revelation from the Father.

Here we are over 2000 years later, and Jesus’ question is still relevant – “Who do people say that I am?”

Although many people believe Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God … many others aren’t sure.

Today there are a myriad of opinions about Jesus …

• Go to www.amazon.com and search books about ‘Jesus’ and you’ll find 259,435 results.
• Go to the internet search engine www.google.com and type in ‘Jesus’ and in an instant you’ll find 179 million web pages to visit that have an opinion or comment about Jesus.

Of course, everyone thinks that they have a handle on the ‘real Jesus’. But even after 2000 years, there is clearly not a consensus about Jesus, the founder of Christianity.

In the last few decades, it seems there has been a concerted effort in our contemporary culture to ‘dethrone’ Jesus. It’s coming from everywhere – educational institutions, academic books (check out the religious section of any bookshop – other than a Christian one), works of fiction (such as The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown), news items, as well as movies and TV shows.

Unless you’re in a Christian bubble, you might have heard statements such as this from various places:

• Jesus’ tomb has been found
• Christianity’s beliefs about Jesus were copied from pagan religions
• New explanations have refuted the resurrection of Jesus
• Paul took captive the original movement of Jesus
• Jesus message was primary political and social
• There are other alternative gospels just as credible as the Four Gospels that paint a clearer picture of who Jesus really was
• The Bible’s portrait of Jesus can’t be trusted because the church tampered with the original text

Maybe Jesus was just a man – just a wisdom teacher, an apocalyptic preacher, a prophet, a social reformer, a miracle-worker, or a would-be Jewish Messiah who failed in his mission?

This can create a lot of confusion for people. It kind of makes you want to say – “Would the real Jesus please stand up!”

We’ll consider this topic further over the next few days …

In conclusion, when considering whether God exists, place all of the evidence on the scales and watch which way they lean. None of these things that we have discussed proves God’s existence. However, I think they clearly lean in favour for the existence of God.

There are good reasons to believe in God, but ultimately belief requires faith – a step of trust, based on the existing evidence.

The writer to the book of Hebrews puts it this way …

"So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him." [Heb 11:6. NLT]

What do you believe?

Here is a final promise from God himself, shared through the prophet Jeremiah …

"If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me." [Jer 29:13-14. NLT]

Continue reading “Is God a Delusion? [Part 5]” →

And now for some final evidence for the existence of God …

5. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Christian story is founded on an empty tomb.

If the tomb was not empty, then the Christian movement would have been snuffed out just by someone going and getting the body of Jesus.

There are four main theories to explain how the tomb became empty.

1. Firstly, maybe the Jewish or Roman authorities stole Jesus’ body, and the disciples mistakenly assumed he had been raised, inventing stories of appearances afterwards. The reason that this is so clearly wrong is that the authorities were trying to stop the Christian movement from growing, and if they had stolen his body they would simply have produced it.
2. Secondly, maybe Jesus did not really die, but fell into some sort of unconscious state, then revived in the tomb, and moved the stone himself. This is even more ridiculous, if you know anything about Roman crucifixion. Soldiers executed hundreds of people a year, they knew exactly what they were doing, and one could survive it, far less roll away a two-ton stone and then take out two guards.
3. Thirdly, maybe the disciples stole the body and then imagined or pretended they had seen him alive afterwards. But consider the high improbability of multiple near-identical hallucinations that would have been needed and the fact that many of the witnesses were tortured and killed for their proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection, which you would be unlikely to undergo if you had made it up.
4. This only leaves option four – that God really did raise Jesus from the dead.

Surprisingly, Dawkins never discusses the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is strange for a book proposing to be undermining belief in God, and especially the Christian God. From the earliest days until now, the resurrection has been central to Christian belief and practice. In fact, it is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and its strongest evidence (1 Cor.15:14). Dawkins never even mentions it! Instead he spends a lot of time on material not directly relevant to his main topic.

Andrew Wilson in his book Deluded by Dawkins responds to this in this way … “To make fun at the ontological argument while ignoring the resurrect, and to think that one has thereby removed the basis of belief in God, is to chase mice out of the sitting room, and thus announce that the house is free of animals, while there is an elephant grinning on the sofa!” [p.82]

Continue reading “Is God a Delusion? [Part 4]” →

Let's continue looking at more evidence for the existence of God …

3. Morality and Ethics.

Another argument for the existence of God comes from the observation that in human nature world-wide, there exists a kind of moral code stamped on the hearts of human beings that provides an inner sense of ‘right and wrong’, as well as a sense of responsibility to adhere to the right and avoid the wrong.

Where does this come from?

Reasonable people would say that this indicates the existence of a lawgiver and judge who built into mankind this sense of responsibility for doing what’s right.

If we simply evolved from chemical gases, grown up germs or recent improvements of the apes, how do we account that in almost every culture in the world there a preference for love over hate, truthfulness over lying, kindness over violence, and justice over injustice.

What accounts for this? Are gases, germs or genes capable of creating a moral code of values in people worldwide, one that is remarkably consistent even though billions of people have existed on different continents?

C.S. Lewis talks about this “moral argument” in his book Mere Christianity. It is estimated that over 10,000 people have come to faith through this little book.

Do morality and ethics have a Darwinian explanation (altruistic genes selected through the process of evolution giving people natural empathy) or are they evidence for God?

4. Human Experience.

Hundreds of millions of intelligent people all over the world from all walks of life claim that they have experienced the love or forgiveness of God, the peace of God, or the comfort of God. Many could testify about the nearness of God. This cannot or should not be taken lightly.

People from all walks of life have also claimed to have personally experienced something of the supernatural. So what are we supposed to do with these accounts of divine healing, prophetic revelation, answered prayer, and other miraculous phenomena?

In addition, every human being seems to have a God-shaped hole inside of them that causes them to search for God. It’s a search for meaning, for transcendence, for eternity, and even immortality (see Ecc.3:11). Is this just ‘wish projection’, as Dawkins would have us believe, a projection of human longings? Is God is an invention dreamt up by human beings? Human thirst points to the existence of water that will satisfy that desire.

Maybe atheism is wish fulfillment too. People want to be free to do their own thing.

Part 4

Today, let's have a look at some of the evidence for the existence of God.

1. The World that Exists.

The first piece of evidence for the existence of God is the world that exists (see Isaiah 40:26). The world is here. We see that some things actually exist (trees, clouds, mountains, planets, stars, universes, etc). How did these things come to be and why do these things exist? Something or someone must have caused them to come into existence. Suppose that nothing exists. Nothingness wouldn’t require an explanation. The moment that something exists, there has to be a reason or a cause. Every effect has a cause.

How do we explain the world that exists? Either nothingness exploded by random chance and resulted in everything that we see OR it came into existence by a creator God (see Gen.1:1. 1 Chron.16:26).

For many centuries, thousands of people have wrestled with this cosmological argument for the existence of God. Many have concluded that it is a compelling argument.

2. The Design in the World.

The second piece of evidence for the existence of God is the design in the world. Not only does the universe exist, there is an order, a beauty, as well as a sense of harmony and purpose to everything.

Popular scientist Stephen Hawkings puts it this way: “If the density of the universe one second after the big bang had been greater by 1 part in a 1000 billion, the universe would have re-collapsed after 10 years. On the other hand, if the density of the universe at that time had been 1 part less, the universe would have been essentially empty after 10 years. How is it that the initial density of the universe was chosen so carefully?” What are the chances? He goes on to say, “The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are clearly religious implications.”

Who or what is responsible for this? The incredible design in the world seems to point to the existence of a designer. A random chance explanation is highly unlikely. It doesn’t pass the standard test of reason. Whenever, wherever there is purpose, order, design and structure, reasonable people know that someone was responsible for it. Unless we can demonstrate that the world is capable of creating itself in all of its intricate design, then God must exist.

Charles Darwin himself, the king-pin in the theory of evolution, in a chapter titled “Difficulties with the Theory” (from his book “The Origin of the Species”), says, “To suppose that the human eye with so many parts all working together could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” The improbability factor is incredible.

Only an intelligent designer could have produced a human eye or the navigation system of a homing pigeon or the spinning ability of a spider.

Based on what we know today, I truly believe that atheism (not believing in any kind of god) is a much bigger leap of faith than theism (believing that God exists).

Continue reading “Is God a Delusion? [Part 2]” →