Equipped 2026: Youth: "Why You Should Believe and Convince Others to do the Same" by Nathan Liddell

Okay, well our assignment this morning is reasons to believe. Why should we believe the principles of the Christian faith and why should we share the truths of the Christian faith with others?

Okay, right now, how many of you feel comfortable giving reasons for why you believe there is a God? Show of hands.

Okay, how about why we believe the Bible is from God?

Alright, how about why we believe Jesus is the Son of God?

Okay, well, you're in the right class this morning because those are the three big questions that define our Christian faith.

Is there a God? Is the Bible from God? Is Jesus the Son of God?

Those are the three central questions of the Christian faith.

So we have one 40-minute class together. My time hasn't started yet, Chase.

One 40-minute class together. We're going to look at what we call the big three.

Okay, the big three questions that define our Christian faith.

And here's what we're going to do. We're going to provide many real reasons to believe.

Now, here's what I think will happen.

What I think will happen is that once we have those real reasons, then we will be comfortable with talking to others about why we believe that the Christian faith is true.

Does that make sense? Yes? Yes? Does it make sense?

Okay, good. Alright, so that's what we're going to do.

So imagine this scenario. A friend at school asks you, why do you believe in God?

Why do you believe in the Bible? Why do you believe in Jesus?

Now, let me ask you, do you know anyone at school or maybe on your ball team or maybe in your neighborhood that doesn't believe in God?

Show of hands if you want to know someone that doesn't believe in God.

Okay, have they shared with you their reasons for not believing in God?

Have you ever asked them, why is it that you don't believe in God?

And what I want to suggest to you is, particularly you graduating seniors, you're going to encounter more and more people the older you get who don't believe in God.

Now, if they don't believe in God, will they believe that the Bible is from God?

No, because if there isn't a God, the Bible can't be from God.

And if they don't believe in God, will they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?

No, Jesus can't be the Son of God. If there's not a God, where do you believe the Son of God, right?

So, if a friend at school asks you those questions, could you give them a real answer?

An answer that would be something different than, well, that's just what I've always believed, that's just what I've always been taught.

Or, you know, that's what my parents believed and that's what they told me.

And the goal of our class is to give you those real answers.

Walk through the biggest questions any Christian faither has his own to see that there are good reasons, not just feelings, good reasons, not just feelings, for us to believe that Christianity is true.

Hey, so here's what I want to convince you of. Faith is not a leap in the dark.

Hey, don't believe that about the Christian faith.

Faith is not a leap in the dark.

If someone says to you, faith is a leap in the dark, they have misunderstood faith.

Faith is not a leap in the dark as they step into the light.

And that's what we want to do in our study together this morning. We want to step into the light of evidence.

Okay, so here are our three questions.

Is there a God like God?

Is Jesus the Son of God?

I want to suggest to you that these three questions work like three witnesses in a courtroom.

Each testifies to something different, but together they build one strong case.

And that case is that Christianity is true.

So how are we going to approach our subject today?

First, we're going to ask, is there a God?

And I'm going to give you three arguments for the existence of God.

How's the logical argument?

Second, the moral argument.

And third, the dependency argument.

Then we're going to ask the question, is the Bible from God?

I'm going to give you an argument from Thomas B. Warren that demonstrates that the Bible is from God.

Third, is Jesus the Son of God?

I'm going to give you five historical facts that even skeptical historians accept as historical.

And we're going to ask, what is the best explanation of those five facts?

All right, now, how many of you are with me so far?

Show of hands.

All right, good.

You're doing well.

We're going to move somewhat quickly.

Okay, but you all are bright.

And you're young.

And you're fresh.

And you slept well.

And you're lightweight now, right?

Okay, so I'm sure you're going to do great following along.

I gave you this handout so that you can do that.

Okay, so I hope you'll hold on to this and work through it with me as we go through our study.

You'll notice as you open the handout, you'll see at the top of the left page, question number one.

That first question is the source of all the other questions.

If there's not a God, then you don't have to worry about is the Bible from God or is Jesus the Son of God?

So we start at question number one.

Is there a God?

And I want to suggest to you that while we're going over these three arguments this morning, we could, if we wanted to, go through and find 30 or 40 different arguments, at least, for the existence of God.

So please don't think that these three arguments are the only three arguments there are.

They just so happen to be three of the most powerful arguments, three of the easiest to understand and the easiest to remember.

Okay?

So we're going to start there.

I want to encourage you, if you will please, to try to fill in these blanks as we go.

And we're going to try first to understand this argument and even to memorize this argument.

This argument is called the Prolonged Cosmological Requirement.

By the way, before we do that, let me say one more thing.

1 Peter 3.15, what did Peter, my inspiration, say?

Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer or a defense.

An apology is that every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you would be disinfused.

That's our goal.

That's our goal.

That's where we want to end up as Christians.

We want to be in a place where we're always prepared to give an answer.

Okay?

And so we're hoping to equip ourselves today with some of those answers.

All right, so here's our prolonged cosmological argument.

The first premise is this.

Whatever begins to exist has a cause, number one.

Number two, the universe began to exist.

Therefore, number three, the universe has a cause.

All right, everybody stand up.

All right, let's memorize this together.

Premise number one, say it with me.

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

The universe began to exist.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore, number three, the universe has a cause.

All right, let's do it one more time, all together.

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

Number two, the universe began to exist.

Number three, therefore the universe has a cause.

All right, you all say it with me one time.

Number one.

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

Number two.

The universe began to exist.

Number three.

Therefore the universe has a cause.

All right, you guys are awesome.

You think you can remember 20 states?

You think you can remember that?

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore the universe has a cause.

All right, so let's talk about these premises quickly.

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

My mom comes home from work.

My brother and I have been home during the summer.

Imagine that we're, oh, sixth grade or eighth grade.

And my brother and I have been doing something that my mom said we don't do.

We've been in the house, but we love playing baseball.

So guess what we've been doing while mom was away at work?

Well, what is something you're not supposed to do in the house?

Don't throw the baseball in the house.

All right, well, we've been throwing the ball in the house.

Mom comes home, and the lamp on the candy table is broken.

Mom comes in, and she's upset.

The lamp is broken.

She says, how did this happen?

How did the lamp get broken?

And we both shrug.

Our kids would shrug and say, I don't know.

All right?

And mom says, what do you mean you don't know?

Lamps don't just spontaneously break.

Something causes a lamp to break.

All right?

Would mom have a pretty case here?

Here, do you think so?

Do you think I could come back to mom and say, no, lamps just spontaneously break.

Nothing causes that.

What if she sees the baseball over in the puddle of lamp shards?

Do you think she might infer that the baseball hit the lamp, and the lamp fell off, and the lamp broke?

OK?

So the lamp began to be in a broken state.

Something caused it to begin to be in a broken state.

It was a baseball hit.

OK?

So notice, we understand that when certain conditions begin to exist, there must have been a cause.

OK?

When you came into this world, there was a cause for your coming into this world.

Right?

If there's a loud noise in the other room, mom and dad are going to say, what was that?

There was a cause for the loud noise.

OK?

So whatever begins to exist has a cause.

We believe this.

We don't believe, for example, and let me ask you this.

How many of you are concerned that when you get home, there's going to be a tiger in your bedroom?

It just popped into existence out of nowhere.

Do we believe that?

That things pop into existence out of nowhere?

How many of you might be wishing for something like an Xbox or a PlayStation?

And you don't have one, and you think, well, what's just going to pop into existence?

In my room.

Is that a good layer?

Maybe?

OK.

All right?

But if it didn't happen, if one was just popping into existence, that would be cool, right?

But that's not how it works.

Things don't just pop into existence.

For those to begin to exist, something has to cause them to begin to exist.

Like, for example, you may have to go and earn money and pay somebody to sell you a PlayStation or an Xbox.

All right?

So that's our premise number one.

That makes sense.

Things don't begin to exist without a cause.

Here's premise number two.

The universe began to exist.

Now, how do we know the universe began to exist?

Well, the second law of thermodynamics points to a universe with a beginning.

The second law of thermodynamics says that in any closed system, the energy is running down, such that eventually all usable energy will have been used up.

The way we illustrate this is a car or, rather, gas in a gas tank in your car.

OK?

Some of you folks out here are driving right now.

All right?

And maybe some of you are buying your own gas.

Anybody out here buying your own gas right now?

OK?

Is it getting pretty expensive to buy your own gas?

All right.

If you fill your tank up, I put about $19 in my car.

If I fill it up, unfortunately, I have to buy a premium.

So I spend $90 right now filling up the tank of my car.

It's brutal, brother.

It's brutal.

OK?

All right.

But when I fill up my tank and I seal that cap, what happens?

I drive and I drive and I drive.

And what happens to the gas in the tank?

It gets used up, doesn't it?

So there's a little beam on my car that's going like this, three quarters, one half, one quarter, one eighth.

I hit the butt.

How many miles do I have left?

What's my range?

A little light comes on and warns me, don't get to a gas station soon.

You're going to be out of gas.

If I keep driving forever, what will happen to the gas in my tank?

It'll run out.

I'll be on the side of the road with all my phone calling me and demanding, do we still have AAA?

We don't.

Do we still have AAA?

Please send somebody to get some gas.

In a closed system like that gas tank, it only has so much energy in it.

And if you use up all our gas, over the course of time as you use that energy, what will happen is eventually it will all be used up.

Now, is all the energy in our universe, our closed system, our gas tank, is it all used up?

Who knows how to do that?

The sun's still shining outside, isn't it?

So there's still energy in our universe.

What that means is the universe hasn't existed forever.

If it had, it would have run out of gas a long time ago.

So we know that the universe hasn't existed forever.

But if it hasn't existed forever, what does that mean?

It had to begin.

It had to begin.

So we've established premise number one, whatever begins to exist has a cause.

We've established premise number two, the universe began to exist.

That's all we have to do.

When we establish those two premises, the conclusion follows necessarily from the two premises.

So whatever begins to exist has a cause.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore, the universe has a cause.

So is everyone with me so far?

The universe began to exist.

Therefore, the universe must have a cause.

What is that cause?

When I look at this argument, I don't see the name God anywhere in this argument, do y'all?

Okay, so how is this an argument for God?

Okay, well let me ask you this.

What kind of cause would it take to create a universe?

Not a giant explosion.

No, take a look at that window.

What kind of cause would it take?

All right, let's answer that question.

Here's the kind of cause would it take.

It would take an immaterial cause.

The cause of the universe contains all matter.

Right?

So whatever caused all matter to come into existence itself would have to not be made of matter.

So first of all, the cause would have to be immaterial.

That might say it another way.

The cause would have to be spirit instead of matter.

Second, the cause created time, so the cause would have to be outside of time.

The cause would have to be outside of time.

So time, the cause that came into being with the universe, whatever created the universe, created time.

And thus that thing that created the universe is itself, or we might say himself, from our Christian perspective, timeless.

Okay?

Third, the cause of the universe is spaceless.

The cause of the universe contains all physical space.

Okay?

So the cause of the universe is not located in space.

Okay?

He is outside of space and time and is not material.

Finally, the cause of the universe is incredibly powerful.

He's strong enough to bring everything that there is into being.

So immaterial, timeless, spaceless, incredibly powerful.

Who does that sound like?

It sounds like God does it.

John 4, verse 24 says, God is a spirit.

John 4:24

God is a spirit.

He is immaterial.

We know of God that he dwells in eternity.

Isaiah tells us, we know of God that he is outside of space and time.

He is omnipresent.

He's present at all points.

The cause is not located in any particular point, as David tells us in his Psalms.

He's incredibly powerful, strong enough to create the universe.

Genesis 1, verse 1 says, in the beginning, what?

Genesis 1:1

God did what?

Created the heavens and the earth.

Alright, so powerful enough to create heaven and earth.

Do we have a question here?

I thought maybe we had a question.

Okay.

Alright, so here is question number one.

Is there a God?

And here is argument number one.

It's a long cosmological argument.

Let's say it together one more time.

Number one, whatever begins to exist has a cause.

Number two, the universe began to exist.

Number three, therefore, the universe has a cause.

Okay, very good.

I tell you what, I'm looking at my time, so here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to give you the fill in the blanks for the other two arguments.

And we're going to move over to our second question.

And time permits we'll come back to those other two arguments.

Okay.

So here is the moral argument.

If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

But we know that objective moral values and duties do exist.

Therefore, God exists.

If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

But we know that objective moral values and duties do exist.

Therefore, God exists.

Okay, this argument is established on our knowledge of the moral facts.

We know that some things really are right and some things really are wrong.

The Bible says that we have this wall written on our hearts, Romans 2, 14 and 15.

All right, but if we know moral facts, then there has to be some explanation for the existence of moral facts.

Well, evolution is not an explanation of the existence of moral facts.

It only explains physical states, not moral states.

Society is not an explanation because some societies are wrong, like Nazi Germany.

Personal preference is not an explanation because we are all judged by this fact.

They're not a matter of our personal opinion.

So what is a good explanation?

Well, only God supplies a good explanation.

He is a transcendent standard.

He is the moral law of heaven.

He is the one who explains why we have personal values.

I can't explain this in the detail I need to, but I just want to put a book, a place marker here and say to you,

come back and look at the moral argument again and you will find it very valuable.

If moral facts exist, God must exist.

Moral facts exist.

Therefore, God exists.

Oh goodness, what have I done now?

Let's see.

All right.

Do we have a technology guy here?

Yes, I'm going to help you with this.

All right.

Okay, so let's keep looking at our next argument, our next question.

And we'll get back on screen as soon as we can.

Question number two is, is the Bible from God?

We've asked question number one, is there a God?

And we've answered yes, there is a God.

And we've answered yes, there is a God.

There must be a cause for the universe coming to existence.

But just because we've said there is a God, does that establish that Christianity is true?

Okay, because let's still ask that question.

Which God exists?

Thank you, sir.

Which God exists?

All right.

So we can ask, which God exists?

And so we need another answer.

We need the answer to question number two.

Question number two is, is the Bible from God?

Now, the Bible claims to be from God.

2 Timothy 3.16, what did Paul say about all Scripture?

All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God.

Okay, so the claim of the Bible is that it comes from Jehovah God.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The God of Genesis 1, who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.

Now, if the Bible is from God, then we know that the God that exists is Jehovah God without the Bible.

So we need to answer question number two, is the Bible from God?

Okay, now I'm going to give you an argument for the inspiration of the Bible, which comes from Thomas Warren.

His grandson, Mark Warren, any of you know Mark?

Preaches at the congregation in Alaska.

Okay.

And so this is an excellent argument.

I would encourage you to memorize this argument as well.

This argument says, number one, if the Bible contains information that could not be of human origin, the Bible is from God.

Number one, if the Bible contains information that is not of human origin, then the Bible is from God.

Okay, number two, the Bible contains information that could not be of human origin.

And therefore, number three, the Bible is from God.

Alright, now notice the Bible tells us that it's from God.

It says in 316, all scripture is breathed out by God.

It's inspired by God.

But we want to demonstrate, we want to give evidence to show that the Bible is from God.

Now, if the Bible is from God, how much authority should it have in my life?

If the Bible is from God, how much authority should it have in my life?

A little bit?

How much?

Yes sir, how much?

A bunch.

A bunch.

A bunch.

All of it.

Alright.

If the Bible is from God, then the Bible should have all authority in my life.

Is that right?

Because the Bible is God telling me His will.

It's Him telling me why He created me.

It's Him telling me how He wants me to live.

It's Him telling me how to live in the very best way, to be happy, to find meaning and fulfillment,

and to live my life in such a way that I will be the happiest with the way I live my life.

It's God telling me about what is beyond this life, about heaven and hell,

and about the opportunity that He gives us through His Son, Jesus Christ,

to spend all of eternity in heaven with Him.

Now, if the Bible is from God, that's what the Bible is.

And so the Bible should have all authority in my life.

Based on that evidence, based on that argument, based on that proof,

I should trust the Bible to tell me how I should live my life.

Does that make sense?

Does this make sense?

Does that make sense?

Alright, good.

Okay.

So, let's look at our argument again.

If the Bible contains information that could not be of human origin, the Bible is from God.

So, our second claim is the Bible contains information that could not be of human origin.

This is the one we're concerned with, premise number two.

We need to show that the Bible contains information that could not be of human origin.

Okay?

So, how do we do that?

How do we show that the Bible contains information that could not be of human origin?

Alright, well, we have to find some information.

Come on.

I've done it again.

We have to find some information that could not be of human origin.

Okay, work that out.

Alright, so here are some candidates for satisfying premise number two.

Here are some possibilities for information in Scripture that could not be of merely human origin.

Okay, so here are some features of Scripture that mere human causation cannot adequately explain.

Okay?

So, one of those is unity.

We would suggest about Scripture that it demonstrates what might be thought of as a kind of miraculous unity.

That when we look at the Bible, how many books are in the Bible?

Six.

How many Shabbat?

How many books?

How many meals?

39.

How many meals?

27.

Alright, how many years did it take to write the Bible?

Well, it was written over 1,500 years.

How many different authors?

About 40 different authors.

And what kind of authors were they?

Well, they were shepherds, they were kings, they were fishermen, they were a doctor, they were a tax collector.

They wrote in three different continents and three different languages, but they told one story.

The story of creation, fall, and redemption.

The love of God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

The first prophecy of Jesus found in the first book of our Bible, Genesis 3, 15.

How will it end between being a woman, between dicing and cursing?

He shall bruise my head and I shall bruise His heel.

A prediction of the Son of God coming and dying on the cross for our sins.

If we took 40 men over 1,500 years who separated them into different groups and we said, write a book, it's going to go in a collection.

The one thing I need you to do is be sure that you tell the same story as the other 39 guys.

Would we end up with a book that was united in theme?

A book that was united in story? Absolutely not.

And so we suggest that here is a kind of feature out of the book which could not be of mere human cause.

A second kind of feature in the book is what we call scientific foreknowledge.

Scientific foreknowledge is the idea that the Bible contains certain scientific facts which were not known to man at the time of the writing of the book

and which according to the scientific process that man had discovered at that time could not have been discovered through the scientific process by man.

So one of my favorites is Job 26 verse 7 and it says that the earth hangs on nothing.

Job 26:7

How many of you saw Artemis 2 go out into outer space and circle around the dark side of the moon and come back?

Any of y'all brave enough to get in that capsule and go that far away from home?

I'm not. I'll be honest with y'all. Not a chance. Not a chance.

Pretty amazing that they were able to do that, right?

Now when they got all the way out there to the moon and they looked back at the earth, was there a great big screen on which it was hanging?

And was there a pin at the top that was pinning it up to the ceiling?

No.

What's happening with the earth out there in space? It's not hanging on anything, is it?

That's an amazing statement in Scripture that demonstrates scientific foreknowledge.

There are other candidates for this and I'm sure you've been exposed to those before but I encourage you to consider signing up for one of those.

Moral and spiritual depth. Moral and spiritual depth.

The Bible contains a picture of morality that is the highest picture of morality man has ever seen.

It is exemplified in the man of Jesus Christ.

Who has sinned in all points of life as we are yet, but not sin. Hebrews 4.15.

Who gives us an example that we should follow in his steps.

It is found in principle in his teachings.

So consider for example Matthew 7.12, the golden rule.

What does the golden rule say?

All things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them, for this is the law of the cross.

It doesn't say don't do things to other people that you don't want them to do to you.

That's a kind of negative golden rule. It's what we call the silver rule.

The golden rule says you do to other people what you wish they would do to you.

Here's the principle of God and love encapsulated in one rule.

Okay, so moral and spiritual depth.

But the particular feature of scripture that demonstrates that it could not be of human origin.

That we want to consider as the main support for this argument is fulfilled prophecy.

Fulfilled prophecy.

And how many of you know what's going to happen in 700 years?

We don't have that ability do we?

How many of you?

As human beings we don't have the ability to know the future.

I don't know what's going to happen this afternoon.

Much less than 700 years.

And so if we can find within scripture specific predictions that were made centuries in advance.

That were fulfilled in detail.

Then we see within scripture true predictive prophecy.

Well of course we have those predictions in the case of Messiah.

Micah 5-2 he would be born as Bethlehem.

Isaiah 53 he would be pierced for our transgressions.

Zechariah 11-12 he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

Notice the degree of detail. Notice those details are fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ.

Let's look at one particular passage though.

That is perhaps the most powerful in satisfying this criterion of fulfilled prophecy.

That is Isaiah 53.

So if you have your Bible please turn to Isaiah 53.

If you look at it on a phone please turn to Isaiah 53.

Okay I'm going to read this for us.

And then we'll summarize the predictions in Isaiah 53 of the fulfillment in the life of Jesus.

Okay Isaiah 53 verse 1.

Isaiah 53:1

Now who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he shall grow up before you as a tender plant.

As a root of dry ground he has no form of humbleness.

And when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows and plaintive withdrew.

And we did as it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we did not esteem him.

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we have seen him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities.

Chastising for our peace was upon him.

And his stripes, rather by his stripes, were revealed.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned to everyone in his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted.

Yet he opened not his mouth.

He was led as a lamb to the squalor.

And as a sheep before its shearer's assignment.

So he opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment.

And you will declare his derogation.

For he was cut off from the land for a living.

For the transgression of my people he was stricken.

They made his grave for the wicked.

But with the rich ended his debt.

For he hath had no violence.

Nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to burn his image.

Rather he has put it to grief.

When you make yourself an offering for sin.

He shall see his sin.

He shall prolong his days.

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied.

By his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many.

For he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion of the grave.

And he shall divide the spoiled with the strong.

Because he poured out his soul unto death.

And he was numbered with the transgressors.

And he bore the sin of many.

And made intercession for the transgressors.

Alright.

Let's look at Isaiah 53 and the life of Jesus.

I want to tell you that Isaiah 53 was written 700 years

before Jesus was born.

This could not have been a lucky guess.

Based on trends at the time.

It was written 700 years before Jesus was born.

Verse 3 says of the suffering servant.

He was despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows acquainted with grief.

John 1-11 he came to his own.

His own people did not receive him.

Isaiah 53-5.

He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

John 19-34.

One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear.

Isaiah 53-7.

Michael lambed and led up to slaughter.

He opened not his mouth.

Matthew 27-14.

He gave you no answer.

Not even to a single charge.

Isaiah 53-9.

Remained his brain with the wicked until the rich man is dead.

Matthew 27-38.

57-60.

He was crucified between criminals.

He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

Isaiah 53-10-11.

He shall see his offspring.

He shall prolong his days.

He shall be satisfied.

Luke 24-6.

He is not here, but he has risen.

The suffering serpent lives and sees his spirit's offspring.

Isaiah 53-12.

He bore the sin of many.

He makes an intercession for the transgressors.

1 Peter 2-24.

He himself bore our sins and his own body on the tree.

So the answer then from scripture is that Isaiah 53 foretells all of these things about the life of Jesus Christ.

7 centuries in advance, Isaiah sketches the suffering of the Savior.

He dies with the guilty.

He is buried with the rich.

He rises to see his offspring.

Jesus matches every line.

What does this passage foretell?

It foretells Messiah's rejection.

Messiah's rejection.

Substitutionary death.

Burial with the rich.

And his vindication.

Alright.

You guys are doing great.

You have five minutes left.

Okay, so we've answered question number one.

Is there a God?

The answer is yes.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument says that whatever beings exist as we have called, the universe began to exist, therefore the universe has a cause.

Genesis 1-1.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Question number two.

Is the Bible from God?

The Bible says that it is.

2 Timothy 3-16.

All scriptures.

It's given by inspiration of God.

To be from God.

The Bible has to contain information that could not be of the origin.

The Bible does contain such information.

In this case, we look in particular at the prophetic prophecy as found in Isaiah 53.

Which foretells Messiah's rejection.

Substitutionary death.

Burial with the rich.

And his vindication.

The Bible, listen to it, is from God.

The Bible is from God.

Question number three.

Is Jesus the Son of God?

Did you know that the whole Christian faith stands or falls on one event?

The resurrection.

The whole Christian faith stands or falls on one event?

The resurrection.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15-14.

If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

I want to give to you quickly what is called the minimal facts argument or the minimal facts approach.

This is how we make this argument.

We use only historical facts that even skeptical scholars will accept.

We're talking about 90% plus of historians who would call themselves atheists or agnostics.

They would say, yes, but these five facts are historical facts.

So what we do is we look at these five historical facts.

Number one, Jesus died by crucifixion, accepted by the great majority of historical scholars.

Number two, the disciples believed he rose.

They thought they saw their resurrected Savior.

Number three, Paul the persecutor was converted.

Number four, James, his skeptical brother, was converted.

Number five, the tomb was found empty.

The tomb was found empty.

So we're going to look at those facts together and we're going to ask this simple question,

what best explains these facts?

What best explains these facts?

So how many of you know Sherlock Holmes?

So Sherlock Holmes finds a dead body.

And there's blood and there's knife and there's a footprint in the sand.

And he finds a certain piece of cloth has been torn on a nail.

And he looks for people and he says, who could have done this?

He's looking for the explanation that explains the knife, explains the footprint in the sand,

the cloth on the nail.

He's looking for the best explanation of all the facts.

So that's what we do with the minimal facts approach.

Okay?

We ask, what is the explanation that best explains the fact that Jesus died by crucifixion,

the disciples believed he rose, Paul was suddenly converted, James, his brother, was converted,

though he was a skeptic, the tomb was found empty.

Okay, well, there are some alternative theories.

One alternative theory is the disciples lied.

They just made up the legend that Jesus rose from the dead.

What's wrong with that theory?

Liars don't accept torture and persecution and go to their deaths for what they know is a lie.

Okay, so this one doesn't work.

Number two, well, maybe they hallucinated and believed that they saw their Savior resurrected.

Well, hallucinations are individual.

They're not shared by groups.

Okay, so if I was having an awesome dream that I was at the beach,

I couldn't wake baby up and say, hey, I'm having an awesome dream at the beach,

why don't you go back to sleep and join me in my dream?

All right?

Those dreams are individual, just the same way hallucinations are.

Groups don't share identical hallucinations.

And yet Paul and James and the twelve and five hundred, we're told,

when 1 Corinthians 15, saw Jesus resurrected.

The hallucination theory doesn't work.

The next theory called the swoon theory says Jesus didn't really die.

He only appeared to die.

What's wrong with this theory?

What's wrong with it is that the Roman executioners were paid executioners.

It was their job to kill people on crosses, and they knew how to do it.

Remember the text tells us that they went around breaking the legs of the people

who were still hanging on the cross at the evening time?

But when they came to Jesus, did they break his legs?

Well, they did.

They pierced his side and blood came out.

Blood and blood.

And Jesus really did die.

And if he had only almost died, and they placed him in a tomb,

could he get himself out of all those raftings and move that heavy, heavy stone away?

No.

Jesus really did die.

Well, what about someone's stolen body?

We could ask the question, who stole the body?

The Romans didn't want to steal the body.

They wanted the body to stay in the tomb.

They set a guard.

They put a seal.

They did not want this criminal, as they did, coming out of the tomb.

What about the Jews?

The Jews wanted him to stay dead.

They asked for the body.

They wanted him to stay dead because they wanted to put down this uprising,

this heresy known as Christianity.

The disciples had no motive and no ability to move the body.

Why would they steal the body if they believed the body was dead?

Because if the body was dead, that would have been the end of their faith.

They wouldn't have stolen the body and then laid out Christianity.

So notice, these theories don't work.

There's only one explanation that fits all these facts,

and that explanation is he really did rise.

He really did rise.

The tomb really was found empty on the third day.

Now, Jesus rose from the dead.

He is who he said he was.

He is the Son of God.

And that's what Paul tells us in Romans 1-4.

He declared he was the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus said if he would give them the sign of Jonah,

he would tear down the tomb in three days,

he would build up once again.

Jesus actually did rise from the dead,

and therefore we know that Jesus is the Son of God.

Okay, so let's put it all together.

We've asked three questions.

We've given three answers.

They give us one future.

Okay, is there a God?

Yes.

There is a God.

There has to be a God that caused the universe to come into existence.

Number two, is the Bible from God?

Yes, it bears the fingerprints of that creator.

Remember, it contains information that could not be of human origin.

Number three, is Jesus the Son of God?

Yes, he was raised from the dead.

And he is that God in the flesh.

So notice, not every question that we ask in this life gets answered,

but the big questions do.

We have the answers to the three central questions of Christianity.

So we can do what Peter tells us to do.

We can be prepared to give an answer that everyone asks us to give,

the reason for the hope that we have.

You now have reasons.

I'll give you those reasons.

I want to ask you this.

Look at the back of your handout, and we'll be done.

We'll be done, okay?

Look at the back of your handout.

I want you to reflect on these questions.

Question number one, the question I am least sure about is,

the question I am least sure about is,

I want you to think about the answer to that question,

and then I want you to find more evidence.

I want you to talk to someone who can help you strengthen your knowledge

and your faith in the area where you are least sure.

Number two, the argument I found most compelling is,

think about that.

Memorize that argument and learn how to use it to talk to other people.

Number three, someone in my life was asking these questions.

Think about that person that you know that is struggling with their faith in God,

with their belief that the Bible is from God or that Jesus is the Son of God,

and open a conversation with them.

Hey, tell me, what do you think about this argument?

Whatever gives or exists has a cause.

The universe can be anything that exists.

Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Now, finally, one way I will share what I have learned this week.

I want you all to think about how you can share this with someone else.

It might just be that at lunch today, you talk to your family and you say,

Hey, I memorized this long, cosmological argument.

It's really cool.

Let me tell you about it, okay?

Listen, thank you guys so much.

Y'all have been awesome.

You have given me your attention.

I really appreciate it.

I hope I provided you some good answers.

I want to make myself available to you.

If you have more questions, if you want to study this further, that's what I do.

I am an instructor in apologetics.

That's what I do.

And so I would love to study with you more.

Thank you so much for your kind attention.