Does God Exist? Yes!

So here it is part two of Does God Exist? I'm sorry I could not post this until now. A snow storm knocked out our power for a few days and I'm just getting back on the computer. 

This study is taken primarily out of Acts 17.  

 

Is this just an academic exercise or is it an eternal reality?

II. The consequences of belief - (vs. 30-31)

Francis Schaffer said, “Ideas have consequences.” And no concept or thought has the significance of the existence of God. 

What difference does one’s view of God’s reality matter? The answer to this question will affect your understanding of other significance issues. What’s more, your answer will determine your belief about a host of other significance questions including:  

1. Eternity: Is there life after death? Is there a heaven and a hell? (vs. 31)
   1. “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:5-7

2. Morality: What is right and wrong? 
   1. When Paul said God “commands,” he indicated that God has established rules for us to follow. (vs. 30)
   2. In essence, God tells us what behaviors are right and wrong for us.

3. Relationships: Should I commit to a relationship?
   1. Consider the marriage vows. "He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain, shall be one flesh." Matt 19:4-5. If God doesn’t exist then our vows to each other are illegitimate and worthless. 
      
      
4. Religion: Which religion is right? People will worship any “idol” (vs. 16). At some point we must ask about the validity of our objects of worship. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

5. Purpose: Why am I here? (vs. 26-29)
   1. Does life have legitimate meaning?
      
      
   2. Are humans unique from the rest of the created order? “Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen 1:26

6. Truth: What is truth? (vs. 34)
   1. "Now, O Lord GOD, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.” 2 Sam 7:28:

Ideas do have consequence. And the absence of the knowledge of God has serious consequences. In October 2009 five boys, ages 13 to 15, in Miami set a boy on fire because he told on one of them for stealing a bicycle. They found the young man near a swimming pool and held him as they poured rubbing alcohol over his body. They then set him on fire. Although he jumped into the pool to put out the fire, the boy suffered burns over 60% of his body. 

The worse of this story is the lack of conscience of the five regarding their behavior. While in jail, only one of the five expressed any remorse for his actions or compassion for the burned boy. It was reported that the other four boys were laughing about what they had done.

This is a microcosm of a world without God or His influences.  Does your belief system center around God and His Word or is your center something or someone else?

III. The case for the existence of God.

Someone might ask, “Is there any proof or why would we believe in God?” 

1. One Biblical observation: The Bible never attempts to prove the existence of God. From the
very first verse God is presented as a reality. (Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-2)

2. Five extra-biblical arguments for God’s existence. 

1. The concept of God [The Philosophical argument] (vs. 22-23)

1. Why do the vast majority of cultures have a concept of God and morality?
   
   
2. How do we account for the inherent knowledge of God?
   
   
3. Some have suggested that this vast knowledge of God is due to a “God-shaped vacuum” in the human heart. 
   
   
4. The Apostle Paul would say that this is true because God has revealed Himself to us:: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 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 1:18-20

3. The origin of Matter [The Cosmological or Cosmos argument] (vs. 17:24)

1. One absolute scientific reality is that everything comes from something.

Charles Ryrie writes, “If something now exist [the cosmos]

then it either came from nothing or it came from something

that pre-existed.” [“Basic Theology,” Ryrie, 29]

1. Incidentally, which of those two options requires more faith? 
    
2. If we use observable science as our standard of proof then we must conclude that everything we see in the natural world indicates that everything has a precursor. And God is the ultimate something that precedes everything. 

4. The evidence of design [The Teleological argument] (vs. 17:24)

1. Our world is full of complexity. And within that complexity we find incredible order. Logic tells us that order and design in the universe point us to a designer. Ryrie adds, “Random action could never have produced the highly integrated organization which we observe in the world.”

1. Consider a pack of toothpicks. They lay in order within the box. Suppose I place a firecracker in the box and set it off. What is the probability that that explosion will create a toothpick bridge? ZERO! Order does not result from chaos. Instead, design points to a designer.

5. The uniqueness of humans [The Anthropological or human argument] (vs. 28-29)

1. Humans differ from the whole of creation in that we possess intellect, moral judgment, self-awareness and the knowledge of God. How can we honestly explain the differences without acknowledging a God of like being? Consider our moral conscience.

1. Animals don’t have a moral objection to stealing or killing. We do. Consider our intellect. How can we possibly suggest that our minds have evolved beyond all animal species when dolphins possess echolocation?

Those are philosophical arguments, but is there any concrete proof that: [1] God exists, [2] the God of the Bible is the real God, and [3] Jesus is truly the Son of God? ABSOLUTELY.

3. One indisputable historical evidence: [The Resurrection of Christ] (vs. 31) 
   1. The resurrection validates and proves the existence of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
      
      
   2. Ultimately, Christianity rises or falls on the reality of the resurrection.
      1. An empty tomb -- Luke 24:5: “and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” 
          
      2. Transformation of the disciples -- Men do not imagine what they do not believe, and the women's intention to embalm a corpse shows they did not expect His resurrection.
         
         
      3. A hallucination -- Then it was a hallucination involving five hundred people at once and many moreover a 40 day period.

Conclusion: When Charles Colson, onetime Watergate criminal-turned-founder of Prison Fellowship, is challenged about the truth of Christ’s resurrection, he responds, “My answer is always that the disciples and 500 others gave eyewitness accounts of seeing Jesus risen from the tomb. But then I’m asked, ‘How do you know they were telling the truth? Maybe they were perpetuating a hoax.’ ” Colson says, “My answer to that comes from an unlikely source: Watergate.” 

He writes: “Watergate involved a conspiracy perpetuated by the closest aides to the president of the United States — the most powerful men in America, who were intensely loyal to their president. But one of them, John Dean, turned state’s evidence, that is, testified against Nixon, as he put it, ‘to save his own skin’ — and he did so only two weeks after informing the president about what was really going on! The cover-up, the lie, could only be held together for two weeks, and then everybody else jumped ship to save themselves. Now, all those around the president were facing was embarrassment, maybe prison. Nobody’s life was at stake.”

“But what about the disciples? Twelve powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stoning, execution. Every one of the disciples insisted, to their dying breaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead. Don’t you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded or stoned? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did. Men will give their lives for something they believe to be true; they will never give their lives for something they know to be false.”