THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

It is so good to be in the Lord’s house when the lord of the house is in. Amen.

We’ve been dealing with apologetics.

Apologetics is a reasonable defense of the gospel or the church response to the world outside. One of the things that burdened my heart with the world trade center, with their falling is that on many talk shows they had different preachers on asking for an explanation.

God is loving and kind, all-powerful, then why? And over and over, again, I heard preachers say, “I don’t know why.” And yet from the God we are told that when they ask us about the hope that we are supposed to be prepared to give an answer. And I think its important for us to recognize that in every season, every century of the church, there has always been a questioning of the faith by the outside world. And in every generation all the way down through the ages there have always been those apologist that God has raised up to answer the questions that the world ask of us. “That our faith is a reasonable faith.” Amen.

I want us to be clear in our understanding the times in which we live. I ‘m not pretend, posture about eschatology from a point of view of post millennium, pre-millennium, our millennium, historic pre-millennium, e.t.c. I am talking about that in every generation; see the premiere of the church they preach about backdrop of tandems and the stories in the epicureans and the other. Then the church from 100 AD to 600 AD. They had to deal with Plato’s philosophy and they had to deal with that whole mindset.

Then in the middle age they had to deal with Aristotle philosophy and then down through the age. In the reformation we have the enlightenment-taking place and we come to our day where most adopt the post millennium that we live in.

And also we must recognize that everybody has a world view everybody on planet earth has a way that they view the world. They have a basic presupposition that they judge every thing by. Now everybody cannot articulate their worldview, so we help them. We talk about ‘Naturalism, logical positivism, linguistic analyses, exhustanicalism, analogism, dialectical, materialism, nasticims sceptism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, all of the “isms” that we talk about.

But the bible makes it clear from the book of Romans that every worldview apart from Christianize is really a cover up.

That man is an obscuration, his covering it up, he knows there is a God, he intellectually knows by creation that there is a God but because he loves darkness more than light, he suppresses that truth, he changes the truth for a lie and comes up with a false religion.

A false view, a worldview to make up for the reality of God that is revealed.

So we must preach the gospel with enthusiasm.

The theologian John start form Austria said that we must be familiar with the Biblical text, secondly the culture of our day, so that we can speak the divine word to the human need with sensitivity and accuracy.

So we just don’t want to be shooting shows out there just open and hit somebody but we are to know exactly from where they are coming from and tailor make your message to shoot then right between the eyes.

That’s the way we need to do this thing.

We live in a time, what we live in is what they call the secular worldview humanism, naturalism. So I want us to take a look that we are clear on what that means and then secondly, therefore draw from that to say as the church, recognize as against that backdrop of naturalism, we need to preach the gospel, tailor make out message to respond to that, and tear it down their strong hold.

To tear it down, every philosophy, everything that exults itself against the knowledge of God. I don’t study to talk over people heard but to make sure that people don’t talk over my head.

The church through in every age has had key people that God has raised up to make sure the world doesn’t talk over head and that we can respond to the world intelligently to recognize that God has an answer.

God is an intelligent being.

No one from any university, no Ph.D has got a question that God can’t answer. No such things call it anthropomorphic discusses. Nobody can talk down God, even when it comes to Genesis when they say we are six-day people and they are 15 billion years people.

I tell people that are a simple answer, we will deal with that when we get there.

We are going through the creed anyway. “I believe in God, Father Almighty,     

Maker of heaven and earth”.

When we get to maker of heaven and earth, then we are going to deal with Genesis 1. we are going to talk about the 6 days and the 15 billion years. Why is there a kind of dycotomy there by efication and how do we deal with that and what does the word really say, and is there some kind of compatibility between theology and science.

Now we want to deal with this natural, this secular doctrine. Let me just go on record in saying this, there is no such thing as a secular world. The entire world is sacred because of its creator. God created the heavens and earth.

In the sacred and secular, when we study the dialectical process we will see that Augustine with his nature and grace then in enlightenment they dropped the grace and kept the nature. And so all of a sudden we find the dichotomy, from nature and grace next you know are just the secular and the church at its come back talks about the sacred and the secular.

Here is the reality, before God, there is two theologies that make all of us brothers and sisters. There is the theology of creation; by the theology of creation all men are brothers and sisters. But there is the theology of redemption, that you are not my brother, you are not my sister unless you’ve been barb again.

So there is a theology of creation and there is a theology of redemption. But both make God the maker so therefore, all is sacred and all life is sacred and the earth is the lords the fullness there of the world and all that dwell therein. So if it belongs to God, then it is all sacred.

You can have a secular world view, in your mind, but the world is sacred. This is holy ground, the whole planet is holy ground, especially since Jesus walked the shores of Galilee.

Lets talk about first of all Emmanuel carn. He believed we have what you call the Neo-orthodox, and this is what they argue. They argue that because man’s mind is limited he cannot know the supernatural. Here is the problem. That’s the Neo-orthodox view.

But the problem is, the naturalist or the secularist are telling you that there is no supernatural to know. Emmanuel carn said because our minds are limited we can’t know the supernatural. Then the secular world view the natural said there is no supernatural to know. We are going to start with that statement and end with that statement.

The secular man has four theories about his world. This is important because this is the backdrop in which we live our Christian faith. This is the dominate world view, naturalism in other words it’s a close system  on which no one from the outside can inference. But here are their four tenants of faith, or their theories of world view.

THE SECULAR THEORIES (WORLD VIEW)

1.         COMPREHENSIVE CONTEGENCY THEORY: In other words, all reality has what is called provisional character. In other words reality is irrational, nature is blind, history is unpredictable and chaotic. Think about this world view because this is important. There is  actually people in universities who teach this, professors and philosophers who tell us their students this is what life is all about.

So when we sent our kids to the university. There is no problem in sending our kids to the university because I believe that if we raise them up right we can blow their brain out of the water, but I tell people before you send, Christian schools here is only problem I have with Christian schools. I say when your kids get to high school you need to teach your children apologetics because now they are going to leave high school and go to a secular university, that is ungodly, that don’t know Christ, and they are going to bombard them with all these world views and questions which they have not been prepared with to answer and, now they are in the minority.

And I think every Christian has to sit there in their class room in every high schools and in every universities, they are sitting there with a smiles in their face because in their pocket they got a bomb. And we know how to pull the pin and drop the bomb. You can smile oh brother you don’t know what is happening because I’m going to blow this place up, because the gospel is the power of God. halleluiah.

So we need to get our children ready for that. Comprehensive contingency says that reality is irrational. This folks have Ph.D (pile high and D), reality is irrigational, nature is blind, history is unpredictable and chaotic. In other words God is in exile and there is no decisive reason for man or for this world, there is no decisive reason for your existence or mine in this world, it’s irrational, its chaotic, its unpredictable, its blind and there is no God to be found.

That was important that we recognize that even Thomas Jefferson, one of the founders of America, that he was a theist, in other words in believed in biblical principle but he had no personal relationship with God. Infact in the Thomas Jefferson bible which is still preserved today. He cut out all the miracles, he cut them all out because the principles are good and their movements are mire standard but common. You don’t believe that God intervenes and that such a thing is a supernatural move of God in the earth, you got to be crazy. There is no mater narrative.

The word mater narrative means there is no ground story to be told. But we begin the month of December where we celebrate  the birth of Jesus. You talk about a mater narrative. The bible in Luke, Mathew and mark start out with the angels proclaiming that I bring you a great story that wraps up and explain all of human history, because God who is a transcendent rationalitc being, he makes everything make sense to us. Amen.       

   

2.                       TOTAL TRANSIANCY OF REALITY AND EXPERIENCE THEORY: In other words the temporal process in which we live is all that there is. So we pass through this life as one philosopher, Martin Hidega said you know we are thrust into this life, we rush through this life towards death with no explanation. That is a tragic thought.

                             

  You talk about, nobody like me, every body hates me, yes I should eat some worms. This is really despondent, this is discouraging, yet they are trying to tell us this how life is, that we are just floundering in the quick sands of an exultancies move.

  So you’re going to have to grow up and stand on your own two feet and face this irrational, unpredictable, blind in story kind of thing, do the best you can and don’t expect anybody to help you. That’s the way they tell us that we ought to live

  That is depressing to me. No wonder some people do irrational things. You say what are they doing? If you understand their modus-operand; their way of life and thinking, no wonder people are acting crazy on planet earth. You don’t even need to invite the devil in for this stuff.

3.         Radical Relativity Theory: Which means since every thing is relative there is no ultimate or absolute truth, no ultimate or absolute morals, no ultimate or absolute authority, so everything is relatives, situation ethics. If it foels right do it,

it may no be right for you but don’t judge me, I’m doing what’s right for me, you do what’s right for you. But there are no absolutes.

  One of the side bars to this world trade center event of terrorism, is now there is a new order of religion, everybody is trying to get together now. If I get together with Muslim the Christian after all we serve the same God hold up, lie number one. The Hindus the Muslim, the Christian we do not serve the same God.

  I studied comparative religion, Christianity has a manertistic triume-mannertism, three in one, one in three. Muslim don’t believe that’s God, Judaism don’t believe that’s God, the fact that we believe in three in one and one three they say that crazy talk, they don’t believe in that God we do.

  We are tolerant in the sense that we respect everybody’s a right to believe what they believe, but we do not believe that you and I are serving the same God. We don’t believe that and we are going to explain that further a little down the road. Because we have a ten point thesis to make as-well-as the four point doctrine.

4.         Absolute Autonomy of men theory: That he does not need God for he is self sufficient. So when you walk through your world that you have been called of God to preach the gospel here then you need to understand the culture of your day. You need to look at your newspapers watch your television show, the books and the magazine and understand the per-supposition that is underneath it all so you can scratch the world where it really itches. That’s important for us.

So the television, the media, all of these areas of media are purporting this doctrine of secular humamosm, the are purporting that and the world is being bombarded with it and anybody that speaks differently from that they just shut you out, cut you off.

In class you can dress any kind of way, talk any kind of way, but all you got to do is mention God, look at the contradiction.

The same secular mind talks of universal justice, they talk about neighborly love and our cosmic duty to the planet to observe, I mean save the whiles. You know some folks have so much time that they are trying to save the bugs, mosquitoes, you know what I’m saying they have too much time on their hands. So when we talk about this universal justice, this neighborly love, all this kind of stuff, but at the same time they are promoting all this kind of things without any belief they say.

If the foundation is irrational, unpredictable, then how can you ask people to live rationally, predictably and with any sense of absolutes. That is why almost every body in America is on drugs. People with P.H.D’s we have billion dollar industries where drinks are produced because we are killing folks with this mind zest. It’s chaotic, its in conflict and people are burdened with an exhustancial stress because they do not feel at home in the universe. That is why rich folks jump out of building.

When you are born poor you know nothing about that, now you know rich white folks are jumping out of windows “I cost twenty billion dollars.” You think the money fell out of their pockets? no they are stretched out.

Not feeling at home in the universe, people are flaundaring, they are lost out there, so we walk around that is why the car we live in, they are just scraping to find something that identifies me, gives me a sense of meaning. Walk around arrogantly, following a dialectical process that says in the evolution is Darwinism, that I can get involve with you that my race is better than you race , it’s all a way of trying to feel at home in this universe.

We’ve got to understand that everything else is a symptom of that disease. I don’t care what they act like, snobby if they want to be. We’ve got to realize that everybody is trying to survive. But if I have to step on you or what ever I got to do to give me a sense of feeling. And you know you in America too you can get people alone and say be quite because that makes us nervous.

In America first thing you meet somebody you say oh what do you do, as if what I do defines who I am. You got to be before you do. The Greek say I’ll be going my way as you’ll be going. That’s Greeks, “I’ll be going to do the will of God.

The seenlar minds have the nerves to have values that they associate with in life. Now he said life is irrational, said it was impredictable, nature is blind but the get to talk about values there is another self  contradiction, value is associated with life, home, work, society, they have no basis to exist if life is ultimately meaningless, them none of these things are necessary. Will miles will be naolistic, eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow you are going to die.

All of these talks means nothing if life is meaningless, and you can’t ask a whale to behave itself, to have a sense of purpose when you are at the same time telling him there is no purpose for this life. And nothing beyond grave. Lord have mercy.

Then to escape God, secular man turns his finiteness, so them celebrate the finiteness of man, we make them super man, super women we have got them idols, we got to puff people and give big resumes and viles and make them danigods if you will. Because to get rid of God we have to make ultimate of our finite existence.

His public dew rations ( the secular humanist )are contradicted by his private life. We are talking are thing, talking loud and saying nothing, but we got to decide either it’s the logos of God or the meaninglessness of life, you have the choices, chose between life and death. It’s either the logos or the meaninglessness of life, make your choice.

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO THE SECULAR WORLD VIEW (THEORIES)

I BELIEVE WE SERVE A GOD WHO SPEAKS AND SHOWS UP

I believe that we serve a God who speaks and shows up. You know that is important because the secularist they said even if God hear He will not come out and hear you, you are on your own. You see, Christianity says well when you think of that world view, you get to understand that only at the universities do they actually teach it as a doctor. But Television, programme, book and music promote that world view, you know people can articulate it

         

But you have to be able to articulate it, understand it when they talk about it, it register, oh I know that world view and I know the gospel message that will appeal to this person knowing where they are. So we believe we serve a God who speaks and shows up.

That is a real good talk because the Bible makes it clear that, “in the beginning God”. But right now the Christmas story is what we are all about; the incarnation is the mean doctrine that we all should be promulgating right now. That God became a man, I know it sounds foolish put pull the pin and drop the bomb.

We preach the charisma manifested in Calvary this is all we all about. This is number one of God who speaks and shows up. The believer says:

1.                 REVELATION IS A DIVINELY INITIATED ACTIVITY:

God’s free communication by which he alone turns his personal privacy into a deliberate disclose of his reality. Because of his own free will he said I’m going to make myself known. God in his own freewill, in his transedentress he decide to be eminent. And when he become eminent we stood in awe.

That’s good news to the seculars who says there is nobody out there who is going to come out and help you.

You say no, I got news for you, there is somebody out there who will show up and make you feel at home in the universe. Because God is a good God. Also in revelation God steps out of his hiddeness and disclose what would otherwise remain secrete and unknown. There is a hiddeness to God and when he steps out of that we call it revelation. But you can’t make him step out. It’s thoracic it’s intimated by God. we are involved in the thoracic experience it starts in heaven it doesn’t start on earth with man. It starts with God himself. We have this peculiar view of finding God when we surrender yourself we say I found God. No God was the boss, He found you, you were the lost soul. It’s not right to say that, it will be right to say, He found me. Where were you the good shepherd track you down floundering in the quick sands of an exhustancial move.

He tracked you down and made you feel at home in the universe because the God of the universe moved in with you. I can handle this whole universe as long as He’s in the house.

2.                 REVELATION IS GIVEN BY GOD FOR HUMAN BENEFIT: God didn’t just show up to show He is tough. God shows up for human benefit offering us privilege communion with our creator and His kingdom . the secular mind needs to hear that, we need to tell them little point, you feel your are floundering, you don’t feel at home in this universe, you know this God showed up for your benefit. To offer you privilege communion with the creator of the universe. The good news to a desperate society that is lost and floundering.

3.                 Revelation Dose Not Completely Erase God’s Transcendent Mystery:

4.                  He is hidden and revealed. God remains hidden because He is transcendent God, but that transcendent God is also an eminent God, and that why a Christians has this paradoxical kind of feature when we say we are hungry for God and we are satisfied at the same time.

5.                 I am satisfied by the eminent nature of God, He comes touches me I am satisfied but he is also transcendent and hiddenness of God, I long to know him to see him and feel Him. That hiddenness draws me and I hunger to know the unknowable, to comprehend the incomprehensible but what I do know, what I’ve comprehended it satisfies me.

So we understand that God’s transcendent nature is not completely erased by His revealedness. So you can’t box God in. We all know that we behold through a glass darkly, we see in part, we know in part and after all your studies and gone through all you exodnsical exercise in Greek and Hebrew, integrated background, grammatical structures all of that we know in part. But thank God that what we do know is authentic knowledge.

6.                 This Very Fact of Disclosure By The One Living God Assures Comprehensive Unity Of The Divine Revelation: And incomplete does not mean an incoherence. Just because the disclosure of God is not totally complete, doesn’t mean that it’s incoherent. It is rational, it is logical to believe in God, it makes sense to believe in God and you don’t have to leave your brains out when come to Jesus.

7.                 Infact, if you engage your mind, you’ll recognize that your theology should lead to doxology. If you are studying a discipline reflection of who God is. If you are really engaged in Him then your discipline reflection upon which God is will bring you to your knees in worship. That’s how you end with learning with your burning.

Study yourself to death and pray yourself alive. That’s what we have to do it makes sense. We are not talking about politician, it’s a scriptophranic kind of view we don’t play one God against another.

 We are talking about God who is co-inherent. Not incoherent but co-inherent. Prerecaracies in other words, the father is God, the son is God, the Holy Spirit is God but there is only one God. The father is not the son, the son is not the Holy Ghost and the Holy ghost is not the father and the son.

But in the father dwelleth the son and the Holy Ghost, in the son dwelleth the father and the son, for these three are one. So the is a co-inherency within God, not a scepsophranic meaning of one God against the other. You can never pick God the father against God the son or the Holy ghost. Never going to happen.

But in those days they pick one god again the other, the god of the hill will defeat god of the water, god of the water will defeat God of the valley, God of the valley will come against God of the forest.

8.                 God Determine Both The Form And The Contents Of His Self-Disclosure: In Roman I, which is a prove text for this, it say, “Although when they know God, they didn’t glorify Him as God”, because God was made know even through His creation His divine attributes were revealed. So God has decided through general revelation, which is through the universe and all that we see and then by specific revelation, which is the word of God, He’s given us a conscience that tells us there sub- ordinate revelation is wrong. And then sub-ordinate revelation is when you meet the lord Himself. Like Paul on the Damascus Road, that’s a sub-ordinate revelation. He meets Christ on the Road.

We have a lot of people that argue that in the revelation of God, that there is no proposition, God gives us no contract, no rational explanation. I won’t go into this but in philosophy, Aristotle found what is called the square of opposition. And in the square of opposition, we say that:

¨                 All revelation is prepositional

¨                 No revelation is prepositional

¨                 Some revelation is prepositional

¨                 Some revelation is not preposition

And the position that we hold is that some revelation is prepositional. Some things God does is just never in vein but some times it is prepositional and the preposition is “ Come let us reason together”. I’ve got something to say to you and I want to know your rational response to it.

We know God by revelation, and our ability to reason is the instrument that God has given us to discern the revelation. That God gives our ability to reason to us is our instrument to recognize and discern God’s revelation to us. So some revelation is prepositional.

9.                 God Revelation Is Uniquely Personal In Both Content And Form: God has a personal subject originates revelation and He intends the revelation for people. God is interested in people. Don’t believe in any long secular humanist who believe that people in the world they don’t need anybody, they don’t feel at home in the universe, the earth is chaotic, it’s irrational, its blind to know oh you mean this God did all that for me. That’s enough to make me feel better.

10.            The formula for divine self-presentation is the naming of God’s proper name. He revealed Himself to Abraham and to Moses, that “I am that I am,” Yahweh, the Holy tetra-gramatan. The four sacred letters “Y H W H,” “I AM THAT I AM”, I will become all to you that you need me to be.

In other words He is a God of intimacy. Jesus said when you pray say, “ our father” The whole thought there is not so much as God is male or female, that’s a secondary issue, we are both created in His image, te icon of Go. But real massage is God want to be intimate with man. And this is what makes us happy, so we go back to the original statement of secular humanist to say that as Emmanuel can said, that because man’s mind is limited then he can not know anything about the revelation of God.

And the secularist said that there is no supernatural to know.

But thank God that one day almost 2,000 years ago, that the little shepherd boys were out in the filed doing business of watching sheep, just hanging out in the hood of Jerusalem because at that time Rome was a great power. So Jerusalem was the hood where all the people that were in oppression and the minority within the Rome Empire are.

But while they were out watching the sheep, that night the Bible said that the angels showed up and said I bring you good tidings of great joy, because this night is not like any other night. You heard Caesar is born in your world, your mummy was born in the world, your daddy was born in is world, but to night somebody is about to be born in this world, like nobody that’s ever been born into this world.

Tonight the king of kings and the lord of lords has decided to step out of is Hiddeness and re-erects Him in a human flesh and become a man. The Jesus put a face on God, and will not only do He put a face on God, the lord has mercy, now the universe beings to feel like home. Because the God of the universe as walked the shores of Galilee.

John said, we touched Him, we felt Him, and we behold His glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.

It is the will of God to tabernacle with man, when God brought Israel out of Egypt. He put a tabernacle and glory cloud dwelled over the tabernacle, because the cloud represented the glory God.

The difference between Christianity and other religions. We are the only people that serve a God who comes. That when you call on the name of Jesus, demons have to come out, disease has to come out of the body, because at the name of Jesus ever kneel shall bow and every tongue shall confess, the Jesus is lord to the glory of God the father.

History has been changed because there was a man named Jesus. I like the woman at well, that when she met with Jesus, He touched her. The God of heaven took time out at well with a little prostitute woman, but when Jesus got through with her. She ran back in to the city and said come and see a man, never a man spoke like this man, this man is something else, this man speaks with authority. This man must be sure amashia, He is the Christ.

I am thanking God that God intervenes, that we do experience the supernatural. the good news of Christianity to a secular world is you need a miracle and I know a miracle worker. You need a miracle, you need a healing, you need deliverance, you need to be set free, you need a God on your side and all you’ve got to do is call on Jesus. He will hear, He’ll heal your body, He’ll will clean up your mind, and He’ll set you straight, He’ll put your family back together, because he is a God who cares.

This is the Christmas story that God became a man. Every Christian ought to know about the incarnation. You see the devil has build up strong holds in the minds of people, the secular mind. But Paul said, ‘’ I’m not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God.’

Every time you feel the touch of the Holy Ghost, that’s the touch eternity, letting you that, I will never’ leave you nor forsake you. But after this world is gone, I will be with you at other side. So every time God touches you, he is telling you that I am with you even unto the end.  All we have to do is speak the word in the language they will understand. Paul wake up Athens and said to them in mars’ hill, you know there is this inscription to the unknown God, Paul said to you know, in him we move, in him we live and have our being. You don’t know who that God is, but that unknown God is Jesus.

So Paul took their language their view, their philosophy there owns writings and brought them to God. Told them what they were, using their own language and bring them to God.  So we need to know these things about where, the bible says the sons of Isalchar knew the times and knew what Israel ought to do.

We have to discern in our generation as in other generations what is the backdrop against culture that we preach the gospel. It is the mindset of the world that we are trying to reach and let’s tailor makes our message to scratch them where they itch. We have a bomb but we have to know how to package the bomb.