DEFENDING THE GOSPEL:
GIVING REASONS FOR OUR HOPE
SESSION: 4
Teacher: Bill Payne
“. . . always being ready to make a defense.
. . .” (1 Pet 3:15) [1]
1. Our call to defend the Gospel
2. Where do we stand to defend Gospel?
3. Where do we turn for reasons for hope? (Reason, Evidence, Presuppositions, and Experience)
Goal
To understand arguments from reason, evidence,
presuppositions, and experience of God that can be used to challenge
unbelievers to abandon their suppression of the truths of God’s existence and divine
nature.
Lesson
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1)
God holds men and women accountable for knowing His
existence. Unbelievers who go as far as
denying God’s existence altogether have completely suppressed this truth. Most people in the
Romans 1:18-21
18. For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the
truth in unrighteousness,
19. because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20. 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.
21. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
1. What does the word of God expressed in this passage say about those who deny God’s existence either verbally or by how they live their lives?
2. What does God say we can know about him through what he has made?
3. What does God say about the thinking process of those who refuse to acknowledge Him?
Richard Pratt states in Lesson 10 that the 1st aspect of defending the Gospel is to proclaim truth. One component of proclaiming truth according to Pratt is the “evidence from the external world.” As we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, it is important that we reflect carefully on the role that arguments from God’s creation play in our defense of the hope that is within us.
Challenging Unbelief With Reason – Classical
Arguments for God Existence
Cosmological Arguments
1. Argument from Contingency (St. Thomas Aquinas)
· All things that we see around us are finite and contingent.
· Finite things owe their existence to other finite things.
· There cannot be an infinite number of finite causes.
· All finite things trance back to an uncaused cause.
· This uncaused cause (unmoved mover) is God.
2. Argument from Change
· If there is nothing outside the material universe, then there is nothing that can cause the universe to change. But it does change. Therefore, there must be something in addition to material universe. But the universe is the sum total of all matter, space, and time. Three things depend on each other. Therefore this being outside the universe is outside matter, space and time. It is not a changing thing; it is the unchanging source of change.[2]
3. Argument from Time and Contingency
· Things around us come into being and go out of being. These things don’t have to be. Suppose that nothing has to be; that is, nonbeing is a real possibility for everything. Then right now nothing would exist. For if the universe began to exist, then all things must trace their origin to some past moment before which there existed –literally- nothing at all. But from nothing, come nothing. In this case the universe could not have begun. But it did begin. We see it. Therefore, it had a cause. That cause is an uncaused cause. That uncaused cause is God.[3]
4. Kalam Argument
Statement of the Kalam Cosmological Argument by William Lane Craig[4]
1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence. 2. The universe began to exist. 2.1 Argument based on the impossibility of an actual infinite. 2.11 An actual infinite cannot exist. 2.12 An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite. 2.13 Therefore, an infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist. 2.2 Argument based on the impossibility of the formation of an actual infinite by successive addition. 2.21 A collection formed by successive addition cannot be actually infinite. 2.22 The temporal series of past events is a collection formed by successive addition. 2.23 Therefore, the temporal series of past events cannot be actually infinite. 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.
Another Statement of the Kalam Argument
· The universe either had (a) a beginning or (b)no beginning.
· If it had a beginning, the beginning was either (a) caused or (b) uncaused.
· If it had a cause, the cause was either (a) personal or (b) not personal.[5]
Arguments from Design (Teleological Argument)
1. Argument from Meaning and Mind
· The world contains meaning and information.
· Meaning or Information must come from a mind.
· There must be mind behind the world.
· God is this mind.
2. Argument from Analogy (Watchmaker)
· Living organisms are a lot like machines.
· In our experience machines are always designed by an intelligence with an end in view for the machine.
· Therefore living organisms are most likely designed by a mind as well.
· This mind is God.[6]
Romans 2:1-6
1.
Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that
which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the
same things.
2. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
3. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4. Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
5. But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6. who will render to each person according to his deeds:
1. In this passage, what does God say about people knowing right and wrong?
2. What does God say about people’s consistency with what they know?
3. What does God say will be the eventual result of inconsistency?
4. What do we learn about the character of God from how he has dealt with our inconsistency?
Arguments from Moral Law
1. Argument from Knowledge of Moral Law
· All men are conscious of an objective moral law.
· Moral laws imply a moral Lawgiver.
· Therefore, there must be a supreme moral Lawgiver. [7]
2. Argument from Conscience
· We all have a sense that we should obey our conscience. Not doing so results in guilt and negative self-effects. We would not naturally create this system within ourselves. Only god is the only rational reason for this system. [8]
Romans 1:19
19. because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
1. Argument from Being (St. Anselem’s Ontological Argument)
· If God exists, we conceive of Him as a necessary Being.
· By definition, a necessary Being must exist and cannot not exist.
· Therefore, if God exists, then He must exist and cannot not exist.[9]
2. Argument from the Origin of the Idea of God
· We have ideas of may things. These ideas must originate from ourselves or from things outside us. One of these ideas we have is of God –an infinite, all-perfect being. This idea could not have been caused by ourselves, because we know ourselves to be limited and imperfect, and no effect can be greater than its cause. Therefore, the idea must have been cause by something outside us which has nothing less than the qualities contained in the idea of God. But only god himself has those qualities. Therefore God himself must be the cause of the idea we have of him. GOD exists.[10]
Challenging Unbelief With Evidence
for Gods Existence
1. Argument from Probability
· Naturalists assume that life came into existence by means of the random interactions of matter.
· The probability of matter developing into living beings is so low that it is impossible.
· Since probability makes a natural explanation for life impossible, there must have been an intelligence involved in the development of life.
·
This intelligence is God
2. Argument from Eternity in Our Hearts
· Anthropological research has indicated there is a universal belief in God among the farther and most remote primitive peoples today. In the earliest histories and legends of people all around the world the original concept was of one God, who is the creator. An original high God seems once to have been in their consciousness even in those societies that are today polytheistic. Regardless of other accretions added to this unknown God, the idea persisted.[11]
Scientific Arguments for the Existence of God (Cosmology)
The force of recent scientific arguments for the existence of God is based on a wide body of information. In order to use these arguments, it is important to become familiar with the evidence. One of the key proponents of scientific arguments for the existence of God is Hugh Ross. His organization, Reason’s to Believe, provides a web page that can help the reader with necessary resources. http://www.reasons.org.
1. Argument from Expanding Universe and Big Bang
· The discoveries of an expanding universe and the Big Bang theory have destroyed the ideas of an infinite, steady, and eternally existing universe.
· Modern discoveries demonstrate that the universe has a beginning.
· The Biblical description of the creation of the world best fits the new scientific evidence.
Note: These arguments have produced considerable controversy among Christians. The most critical element is that those who use arguments based on Big Bang theory also subscribe to the theories dating of the universe and earth. Those who hold to a literal 24-hour day interpretation of the creation account find this unacceptable. In his recent book, Battle for the Beginning, John McArthur is critical of Hugh Ross’ efforts to use current scientific theory.
2. Argument from Design and the Fine Tuning of the Universe
· “Now that the limits and parameters of the universe can be calculated, some even directly measured, astronomers and physicists have begun to see a connection between these factors and the existence of life. They have found it impossible to imagine a universe containing life in which any one of the fundamental constants of physics or any one of the fundamental parameters of the universe is different, more than slightly so, in one way or another.”[12]
· Naturalistic and other attempts to explain this immense complexity have failed.
· Only the personal transcendent creator of the Bible can explain the design that we observe.
· A list of fine tuning evidence can be found at http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologietics/designevidenceupdate1998.html
3. Argument from Information
· DNA molecules contain information.
· There are no chemical rules that determine the organization of this information.
· The information in the DNA is independent of the medium. Scientists can record the information and they use it to synthesize a copy of the DNA.
· There is nothing inherent in the DNA sequences to give them meaning.
· Intelligence is required to confer meaning.
· “Intelligence infers design.”[13]
Engaging Unbelievers with God’s Revelation of Himself in History: Presentation of Biblical and Extra Biblical Historical Evidence
1. Argument from the
proclamation of Biblical Truth
·
The Bible
assumes the existence of God and operates on the reality of His existence
without long drawn out proofs (Gen 1:1)
·
Belief in the
existence of God is the beginning of all wisdom and understanding (Ps 14:1)
·
The Scriptures
teach that only a fool would deny the existence of God (Ps. 14:1)
·
The fact that
the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments were and are being fulfilled shows
that the Christian God exists and is working all things by His own will.[14]
Challenging
Unbelief by Examining Presuppositions
1. Transcendental Argument (VanTil)
· ... in Scripture God is the source of all reality, and hence all truth, all knowledge, all rationality, all meaning, all actuality, and all possibility.
· Without God there is no meaning (truth, rationality, etc.): therefore, God exists.[15]
2. Consistency with Presuppositions Argument
· We all have to begin somewhere in our thinking. This beginning is called our presuppositions.
· For a belief system to be rational it must be consistent with its presuppositions.
· All worldviews except for theism have commitments to meaning, personal freedom, and morality that are inconsistent with their presuppositions.
· Only the presuppositions of Theism are consistent with the realities of human experience and reason.[16]
Challenging
Unbelief with the Experience of God
1. Pascal’s Wager
·
If we live our
lives believing that God exists and he does, we gain everything.
·
If we live our
lives believing that God exists and he does not, we loose nothing.
·
If we live our
lives as if God does not exist and he does, we loose everything.
·
If we live our
lives as if God does not exist and he does not, we gain nothing.
2. Argument from the
proclamation of Biblical Truth
·
The Bible
assumes the existence of God and operates on the reality of His existence
without long drawn out proofs (Gen 1:1)
·
Belief in the
existence of God is the beginning of all wisdom and understanding (Ps 14:1)
·
The Scriptures
teach that only a fool would deny the existence of God (Ps. 14:1)
[1] All
scripture quotations are taken from the New Americans Standard Bible,
[2] Limtiaco, Karlos, “Arguments for the Existence of God”
[3] Limtiaco
[4] Craig,
[5] Ramey, Bill, “The Kalam Cosmological
Argument: A Summary,” http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/billramey/kalam.htm
[6]
Moreland, JP, Scaling the
[7] Geisler, Norman and Brooks, Ron, When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences, (Grand Rapids, Baker Books) 1990 Pg. 22
[8] Limtiaco
[9] Geisler, Pg. 25
[10] Limtiaco
[11] Little,
Paul, Know Why you Believe, Updated and Expanded by Marie Little (
[12] Ross,
Hugh, The Fingerprint of God, (
[13] David,
Jimmy and Poe Harry, Designer Universe: Intelligent Design and the Existence
of God, (
[14] Pratt,
Richard, Every Thought Captive: A Study Manual for the Defense of Christian
Truth (
[15] Frame, Pg. 70
[16] McCallum, Dennis, Christianity the Faith That Makes Sense: Solid Evidence for Belief in Christ (Wheaton, Illinois, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc) 1992 Pgs. 38-45