Christianity 101 - Theism - Is There a God?

All right, so in Christianity one O 1, looking at the basic

fundamentals of the faith, I tried to back out as far as

possible to come up with what where do you begin to to discuss

Christianity? And so today it it's about as

far a 10,000 foot view as we can get as possible.

And we're going to deal with the topic of theism.

You may not be familiar with some of the words and

terminology. I don't mean any of it to be

overly and intellectual. And we'll define some of those

definitions. But first, let's just deal with

point #1 which is the case for a creator.

Theism is the belief that there is a God, the case for a

creator. If you backed up the furthest

away possible to look at Christianity at the surface, I

think at the center or the greatest possible thing you

could walk away with would be that there is a God.

In Christianity. We believe in a God and really

as we look at the world, there are really only two major world

views that we that somebody believes there is a God that

created all things and that doesn't mean they're a

Christian, but that there is some kind of God or someone that

does not believe in some kind of God.

Now what whether you believe that or not doesn't make it

true. Truth is true whether what it

doesn't matter what we think or care about it.

But let's first talk about the the opposite of this, and that

is atheism may not be a popular church word today.

It's not technically a Bible word.

But if theism is belief in God, the A in front of theism is an

awe. It it, it takes away theism.

So it is without God. This is essentially where our

country is headed, where much of the world is.

We're so smart, we don't need God anymore.

And I have a statistic for you on the screen.

It might be a little bit small, but I think this was twenty,

2444% of Portland and Vancouver were religiously unaffiliated in

some way in some form of atheist, agnostic, or nothing in

particular. So you're looking at about half

of the city that would say we we want absolutely nothing to do

with spirituality, with faith, with God.

We're literally not interested, and that ranks at one of the

highest 4 cities in the United States.

So these are the people that we're trying to reach, people

that think God doesn't even exist.

And that's why this topic is so big and so broad today.

Many would not claim atheism and they would use another term,

agnosticism, which is to say I can't know if there is a God or

not a God, as atheism is kind of a difficult position to hold

down. But let me give you words from

one of the greatest prophets of atheism in our day.

Maybe you've heard of Stephen Hawking.

He says we are each free to believe what we want.

And it's my view that the simplest explanation is there is

no God. No one created our universe and

no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound

realization. There is probably no heaven and

no afterlife either. We have this one life to

appreciate the grand design of the universe.

Somehow an atheist would say there is a grand design of the

universe, and for that I'm extremely grateful.

This is the end of atheism. There is no heaven, there's no

afterlife, there's no meaning or purpose to life.

That's one of the greats. Psalm 14 says the fool hath said

in his heart there is no God. That's the position of atheism.

It doesn't mean they're not intelligent or haven't studied

things, but that is the the position of atheism.

Let's look next at the position of theism.

Theism, as I said before, is a belief in a God.

And if you look up this word, it mostly leans itself into a

monotheistic Christian kind of worldview.

But at the very core of our faith is a belief in God.

You know this, right? If you open your Bible to the

very first page, Genesis 11, how does it go?

Yeah, in the beginning, God, right?

It is only four words into the Bible until there is a God.

So it is perhaps the biggest, most basic, fundamental element

of our faith that we believe there is a God.

According to this verse, the first verse in all of the Bible,

God exists. He created all things and He

exists outside of the physical universe.

He is not a part of creation. He existed before creation.

Right there lets us know how everything began and it really

is quite amazing how even one verse in the Bible can give more

answers than tons and tons of research.

Looking for an alternative option.

Here in this verse, we get time, space, and matter.

All beginning time in the beginning space, Heaven.

If you study Genesis 1, you'll see that heaven is an expanse.

It's called the firmament. The waters are separated from

the waters, and everything in between is called heaven.

And then we have matter, which is earth.

All of life's answers are so simply found in the truths of a

God creating the world. There's a famous Christian

scholar named William Lane Craig who said our whole universe was

caused to exist by something beyond it and greater than it.

For it is no secret that one of the most important conceptions

of what theists mean by God is creator of heaven and earth.

It's a pretty basic fundamental force.

So I put it to you this way in your notes.

Theism doesn't make 1A Christian, but you can't be a

Christian without theism. So theism to believe in a God

isn't the thing that saves us. It's not the thing that makes us

uniquely Christian. There are many people that

believe in a God, a form of God, a different God.

The Bible even tells us in the book of James, Thou believest

that there is one God. Thou doest well.

The devils also believe in tremble.

So even God's enemies, there are spiritual beings in the

universe. They know that there is a God,

but that doesn't make them Christians.

They're not submitted to him. They don't believe him by faith.

They don't want to follow him. So if you're new to your faith,

this is the place where you have to start believing that a God

exists, acknowledging him and saying if you're real, I need to

know, I want to know, I'd like to find out.

That's the place where we all have to begin.

Secondly, let's look at the case for evidence.

So far, we've made a really bold claim that Genesis 11 is the

answer that science can't figure out.

But what about the evidence? Wouldn't it be intellectual

suicide to say that you have faith that something happened

that you can't see to describe a being that you'll never

physically material interact with?

Well, not really. We have a few verses that tell

us that it's possible for us to see and understand things even

if we can't fully describe them. Romans chapter 1 says the

Romans 1 · chapter mention

invisible things of him. Him is God.

From the creation of the world are clearly seen, so it is

possible for man to see clearly invisible things.

Perhaps it is not absolutely scientifically, perfectly

observed, but the creation of the world tells us that there is

an eternal power and Godhead to the universe.

You, you know this, right? Like we can't go and see God in

person. The Bible says no man has seen

God at any time but nature. We have to have an answer for

how did we get here? How is the world the way that it

is? And it would be just like this

building, right? This building was, it's

wonderful. And it was constructed by

somebody that you've never met. Do you think that this building

built itself? According to the second law of

thermodynamics, you cannot get order out of chaos.

It's not possible for this building to accidentally

assemble itself. But you don't deny that the

building exists. You don't deny that it was

built, although you've never met the person to build it.

We see the same thing in the Bible.

Psalm, chapter 19. The heavens declare the glory of

Psalms 19 · chapter mention

God. All we have to do is go out and

look up. However far you can see, we can

tell that there is something greater and more powerful than

we understand. The firmament is the whole

expanse of the heaven shows a handiwork that there is somebody

actively involved in creating and designing the fine tuning of

the universe. For example, Earth's place just

close enough to a son, no other life anywhere in existence.

This witness of creation goes beyond even the special

revelation of the Word of God. It says day unto day utter a

speech every single day. Creation speaks even through the

night. There is no speech nor language

where their voice is not heard. If you can see, you can tell

that there's a God. Now, I have a few folks that

I'll be introducing you to today through this time, and one of

them is a Nobel Prize winner. Christian B Anfinson won the

Nobel Prize in 1972 for his work on the ribonucleus.

He is a biochemist. And this is what he said.

I think only an idiot can be an atheist.

We must admit that there exists an incomprehensible power or

force with limitless foresight and knowledge that started the

whole universe going in the first place.

So tell me that Christianity and science can't work together.

Here's a Nobel Prize winner that would say, if you can't figure

that one out, you're just not very smart.

So first, let's look at creation.

Creation proves that God is real.

Creation proves that God is real.

We're talking now about the objective observable sciences.

So in case you need to be reminded, if it's been a minute

since you've been in science class, science, this is the

definition from Google. OK, it's the world's best

trusted source. Here you go.

This is for you the systematic study of the structure and

behaviour of the physical and natural world through

observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories

against the evidence obtained. Now this through observation

part is critical. To be a scientist is essentially

to observe, to study, to figure things out, to test and probe

over time. But what most science is today

is theory. We're talking about things

authoritatively that we've never seen or observed.

And if we're specifically talking about the theory of

evolution, we have predicted a model backwards into the past

millions and billions of years that we've never observed.

We just think our algorithm is right, and then we make a

declarative, authoritative stance to say this is absolutely

the way it has to be. And that's honestly not science.

That's called theory. Christianity in some way is also

a theory in the sense that we cannot observe and prove the the

beginning of the universe. We take it by faith that God

says in his word. But we do have material things

that we can prove as well. But you've got to be careful

with people that use the word science or have degrees in their

names or teach courses and classes or write books.

Just because they're revered, just because they're peer

review, doesn't make them right. Paul writes to Timothy and says

to him, Timothy was a pastor. He says, O Timothy, keep that

which is committed to thy trust and avoid profane and vain

babblings. Profane would be gross, immoral.

Vain would be empty, meaningless, purposeless.

And he says an opposition's of science falsely so-called.

Now, that is not to say that you can't enjoy science or be a

scientist and be a Christian. I'll tell you in a moment that

that's definitely not true. But science, falsely so-called,

is what most science is today. It's claiming to be something

that it actually is not so we don't waste our time.

I don't read books by people I don't respect.

If I do, it's for research. I bought a book by Secular

Humanist recently, and I did it really just to be able to quote

them. I'm not interested necessarily

in what they have to say. Maybe you've had this

experience. This has been my experience.

When I go to Powell's Books, my office is in the Pearl District.

Right down the road is Powell's Books.

And when my wife and I go on dates, we go into the city and

walk around and do stuff. And Powell's Books is a city

block of just books, tons of books.

And in Portland, it's like a virtue to read.

It's like, you're a good person if you read books, right?

So I go in the bookstore and we, I just try to putz around and

look at books. And I'm just overwhelmed by the

amount of falsehood that's published, the things that would

disagree with what we truthfully know about science, like things

like gender and the basics of life and reality.

And yet the the reprobate mind is at work producing, producing

and producing and writing and publishing tons of information.

And I just struggle to wonder who is reading all of these

books and why so much of it is emotion.

It's not science, it's not data, it's not good.

It's politics and emotion. And this is where honestly we

end up. To come to a position of theism

means I can't make that decision based on how I feel.

But if you have talked to people, even good staunch

atheists, it is a feeling based decision.

I have two examples for you. I talked to a guy this week who

would openly call himself a devout atheist materialist.

And I joke, I'm getting to know him.

So I joke around a little bit and I say, what, what would it

take for you to be a person of faith?

And he's like, you know, kind of already starts to get worked up.

And that was, that was my basic question.

And he immediately went to Christian nationalism.

And I was like, bro, I don't, I mean, that isn't where I was

started. And we, we had this kind of

emotional conversation and I just tried to digress and keep

the main thing, the main thing. But finally I asked him and I

used you should use this. I use this.

I said, if I could prove to you that there is a God, would you

believe it? And he said, no.

You see, what he really said in his answer was I don't want

there to be a God. It isn't.

I'm objectively wanting to know the truth.

It's I reject the truth. I don't like that is most

people's position. Recently, probably two months

ago, I met with a guy who was a chemist.

His, his job is to do chemistry things.

So I inquired at the scientist in him and said, ah, you're a

scientist. So if I and I asked this

question, if I could prove to you that God was real, would you

believe him? And he said no.

And then he admitted how illogical it was to be a

scientist and deny evidence. And he admitted from his own

work, his own mouth, that he made the decision about whether

there's a God or not based on how he felt a scientist.

This is how people discern their worldview.

It's not about the truth. It's about do I want there to be

a God, yes or no. But let me encourage you for a

moment. There are several respectable

men in the sciences, fathers of modern science.

I want you to hear from them. You don't have to just go with

the flow of what everybody says or whatever is popular and

trending today. 1st is Sir Isaac Newton.

He invented calculus, he formulated the laws of motion,

developed the theory of universal gravity and design

telescopes. How's that for being a

scientist? He says this most beautiful

system of the sun, planets and comets can only proceed from the

counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.

They'd kick him out today, wouldn't they?

They don't want your calculus. That's that's evil.

That sounds conservative to me. How about Robert Boyle?

He's called the father of chemistry.

He developed Boyle's Law and the vacuum pump.

He says the two great books of nature and of Scripture.

Have the same author. So the latter does not hinder at

all an inquisitive man's delight in the study of the former.

How about Sir Francis Bacon, known as the father of

empiricism? He's the one that created the

scientific method. We study and we check and we

check and we we study and check over and over again.

He says if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end with

doubts, but he if he will be content to begin with doubts, he

shall end in certainties. If you think you got it all

figured out at the beginning of your experiment, you probably

don't have a very good experiment going on about Blaise

Pascal. This guy developed Pascal's

triangle. He designed one of the first

calculators, he revealed how pressure is transmitted through

liquid liquids and he's known for his wager where he says if I

believe in God and life after death and you do not, if there

is no God, we both lose when we die.

However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain

everything. That's Pascal's wager, you

should use that one. Lastly, how about Galileo?

Galileo is known as the father of modern astronomy.

He invented a telescope, improved heliocentric theory,

inertia and more, he says. I do not feel obliged to believe

that the same God who was endowed us with reason, with

sense reason and intellect, has intended us to forgo their use.

Now, those are some of the big names in science.

We haven't made these kind of discoveries in the modern era.

We're, I mean, this might sound crude, but we're a whole lot

Dumber than these men were. So I put it to you this way in

your notes. Basic science helps us answer

the question, Do I want there to be a God?

You can simply look at heaven and begin that pursuit.

The Bible says in Acts chapter 17 that they should seek the

Acts 17 · chapter mention

Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him, though

he be not far from every one of us.

So you got you don't have to know math and science to have

faith, but if you know math and science, you can still have

faith if you want to know him. So that's creation.

Secondly, let's look at morality.

See, morality proves that God exists.

This is a unique part of the human experience, that there is

something within us that understands good and evil.

It certainly didn't come from evolution.

There's no purpose for so much of our conscious morality apart

from a God or a standard of good and evil.

There is no objective right and wrong, Christian apologist Frank

Turek says. Without God there is no basis

for objective morals. It's just Mother Teresa's

opinion against Hitler's. It's not that atheists think

there's no right and wrong. They just don't have an

objective standard. They can't prove one.

It's opinion. It's essentially whoever has the

most power gets to make the rules and determine what's right

and what's wrong. But there is something deep

within us. We know that something is right

and wrong. It doesn't even have to be

taught to us, Romans chapter 1 says, because that which may be

Romans 1 · chapter mention

known of God is manifest in them.

There is something uniquely inside inside of us.

We are wired for it. If you read CS Lewis in his book

Mere Christianity, he talks about this law that all of the

world has. Every nature, every culture

seems to have a similar set of rules whereby we know things are

good and evil. Like don't murder the innocent,

that's a good start. Don't take another man's wife.

We should protect children from bad people.

Some of these things you can look throughout the whole world

and just say we all just know that that's not right or that we

should do that. It's deep within us, as Roman

says. For when the Gentiles, those

were the people that didn't know God, which have not the law,

they didn't have the scriptures, he said.

They do by nature the things contained in the law.

These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show

the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience

also bearing witness. See, we have something deep

within us. God has designed us to know

things are good and bad. This is the shame that you feel

when you've made a poor decision.

Maybe you have things in your life you've done that you you

hope nobody ever finds out. There's something deep within us

that knows that, but it's only in a Christian framework that

you can have an objective moral standard.

The conscience isn't perfect. This is the objective standard.

The conscience points us to the objective standard.

But famous atheist Richard Dawkins says that without God

there's no objective morality. And he's absolutely right.

Without a standard, it's just whoever's opinion.

And the end result of this kind of opinion is really quite sad.

I want to read it to you from Dawkins's book The Blind

Watchmaker. He says in a universe of blind

physical forces and genetic replication, some people are

going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you

won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice.

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we

should expect. If there is, at bottom, no

design, no purpose, no good, and no evil, nothing but blind,

pitiless indifference, isn't that sad?

There's no purpose. That means, according to

atheism, you have no purpose over any other thing on the

planet. There's no design.

You were not intentionally created, you're just an accident

from a bunch of soup. There's no good and evil,

really. It's just everybody do whatever

they want to do. There's no justice.

There's no ultimate justice for people that make really, really

bad decisions. It's really sad that people

believe this. Put it to you this way.

Rejecting God is ultimately a rejection of what you know is

right on the inside. See, the way that you come to

Dawkins's understanding is you have to reject your internal

mechanisms that tell you there's a God.

You have to choose. I don't want there to be a God.

And then you formulate a scientific worldview around it

that is essentially atheism. But let's look now at the case

for consideration. These are some high and lofty

kind of claims. Maybe we're throwing some words

and phrases around you're not familiar with, but let's just

humble ourselves for a moment. I put these in your notes.

If you're not a Christian, will you be open to the possibility?

Will you be willing to seek the truth and the evidence no matter

where it takes you? If you are a Christian and you

would say, of course, I believe in creation and design and

order, are you living like God is real?

You would say there's a conscience and there's something

in you that knows good and evil. Are you obeying it if you're

doing good so far, Are you getting equipped to be able to

handle this book and share it with others and say there's an

alternative way that has purpose and meaning and hope?

And it's true? I hope if nothing else today can

encourage you that it's OK to read and study and think and

test and probe at the universe. And you will discover, like all

of these fathers of science, God is true and so is his word.

It's not a compromise to be a person of faith.

I'd say most of us in the room are believers.

And so I'd like to take a moment to respond here in a little bit.

We'll have communion. We'll jump back into the

scriptures. But let's take a moment and pray

if you, if you kind of get the tone of which I'm trying to

approach this series, maybe you think there's somebody else that

needs to be in the room that's not here right now.

Maybe at very least you can pray for somebody who believes some

things that aren't true or maybe even for yourself.

There's some decisions that you need to make today to say, man,

I've been living totally different than what I would say.

So I'm going to give you a moment of silence to pray and

respond to the Lord. I'll lead us in a prayer and

then we're going to have a Psalm.

So let's take a moment and pray.