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I AM

• Showing that Gods exists and is knowable
• Rolan Monje, BD, DMin

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Outline

• 1. PROVING GOD
• 2. KNOWING GOD

Some slides following taken from Anne Jeffers
(UOL) John Oakes (ARS)
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• Part I
• PROVING GOD

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• There will always be questions about God
• We must meet people where theyre at and move
  from there. (Thats what Jesus did in the
  gospels.)
• When people say, Prove to me that God exists,
  the first thing to say is What kind of proof do
  you expect?

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Accepted approaches to proof

• Tautological proof something is necessarily
  true, i.e. mathematical certainty (e.g. sum of
  the angles of a triangle 180 deg)
• Empirical proof something is seen to be true by
  observation involves scientific method
• Inferential proof something is inferred to be
  true because of the existence of other factors
  relates to scientific theory (in contrast to
  scientific method) used to prove the existence
  of God

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Bible passages?

• The Bible presents no argument for the existence
  of God
• His existence is assumed
• Certain aspects of the Biblical text (e.g.
  prophecy, claims of Jesus) can be used to show
  the divine nature of the Bible.

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Basic Arguments for the Existence of God

• 1. The Cosmological Argument (also known as the
  argument from cause touched upon in Gen 1)
• 2. The Teleological Argument (more commonly known
  as the design argument touched upon in Rom 1)
• 3. The Ethical Argument (also known as the moral
  argument touched upon in Rom1,2)

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Sidenote Influence of culture

• Culture is inescapable
• Men try to convey feelings and convictions
• Expression in God in art
• e.g. Michelangelo
• Male figure
• Muscular
• Long white beard

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• We have to filter out the influence of culture.
• Most people will not buy into the idea of an old,
  bearded guy in the clouds!

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1 Cosmological Argument

• Is there a universe?
• Can it be empirically proven?
• What are the origins of the cosmos?
• Why does the universe exist, instead of not
  exist?

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Facts - cosmology

• Our galaxy, the Milky Way has about 400 billion
  stars
• There are about 100 billion stars in the universe
• Every star is separated by vast amounts of empty
  space

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Some proponents of the cosmological argument

• Ancient Greek philosophers (e.g. Aristotle and
  Plato)
• Christian theologians (e.g. Thomas Aquinas,
  Frederick Copleston)
• Jewish theologians (e.g. Maimonides)
• Islamic theologians (e.g. the Kalam argument
  presented by, among others, al-Ghazali).

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Aquinas Argument Uncaused Cause

• The argument from the Uncaused Cause
• Everything has a cause.
• Every cause has a cause.
• This cannot go back forever.
• Therefore there must be an uncaused cause that
  isnt caused.
• The uncaused cause is what people understand
  by God.

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Pertinent discussions

• David Hume
• Frederick Copleston
• Bertrand Russell
• In the end, if given a choice between believing
  that a physical thing (the universe) has always
  existed, or believing that a spiritual thing
  (God) has always existed, many will go with God.

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Cause theory Statue of Liberty causes

• The material cause Without the existence of
  marble we could never have a marble statue.
• The efficient cause The marble itself is
  obviously not the marble statue. For the statue
  to come into being it needs to have been carved
  out of a block of marble by a person using a
  hammer and chisel, and a substantial measure of
  skill and artistry.
• The formal cause Random hacking at a piece of
  marble will not make a statue therefore we need
  a further cause. To be the thing that it is, the
  statue needs to take the shape that it does, that
  of a horse or a man or whatever.
• The final cause The only reason that all the
  other causes take place is because a sculptor has
  set out to make a statue in the first place. All
  three of the other causes have been called into
  operation in order to realize an intention the
  overall reason for the statues existence is that
  it is the fulfillment of a sculptors purposes.

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2 Teleological argument

• Teleios end, fulfillment
• Mankind tends to think of an end to everything
• The world everywhere reveals intelligence, order,
  harmony, and purpose
• This implies the existence of an intelligent and
  purposeful being, adequate to the design of such
  a world

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William Paley (1700s)

• Imagine that you are walking down a beach and
  that you stumble upon a wrist watch. Even if you
  had never seen a wrist watch before, it is likely
  that you would be struck by the fact that it
  differs from the other objects in the vicinity a
  watch is obviously a collection of parts that
  have been cleverly combined in such a way as to
  fulfill a particular function, namely, to
  indicate the time. You would assume that the
  watch is not a natural object, but an artifact,
  i.e. something made on purpose by some
  intelligent agent. Indeed, you are likely to
  assume that the watch is the handiwork of a
  watchmaker who knew what he was doing when he
  made the watch. The assumption at work here is
  that the order found in the watch (and other
  artifacts) does not occur as a result of blind,
  accidental forces. On the contrary, it is assumed
  that order is always the result of an intelligent
  designer.

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• Paley said that if we all agree that a watch must
  have been designed by a watchmaker then surely an
  eye (that is complex beyond our imagination) must
  also have been designed.

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• An argument from analogy uses inductive logic.
  Based on what we observe we can induce a
  conclusion. This type of logic can only ever
  provide us with evidence that creates a high
  likelihood of the conclusion being true. Paley is
  really saying that given the complexity of the
  natural world it is highly likely that it came
  into being because of the intention of a designer
  (God).

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Pertinent discussions

• David Hume
• Charles Darwin
• Richard Dawkins
• F.R. Tennant
• David Hume also said that at best the argument
  shows that the universe must have been designed.
  It doesnt, though, guarantee that the designer
  was God.
• Charles Darwins theory of evolution appears to
  have shown that the complexity of life can be
  explained without the need of a designer.

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3 Ethical argument

• One cannot deny the development of ethical
  thinking Sumer, Egypt, China, Palestine, Greece,
  etc.
• Mankinds recognition of a highest good and the
  quest for a moral ideal, demand an necessitate
  the existence of a God to give reality to that
  ideal.

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The problem of evil suffering

• If belief that God exists is based on our
  observations of the world, we must be willing to
  look at everything. We have seen clearly that the
  world is incredibly complex. If we keep looking
  we will also see without much effort that it is
  often incredibly cruel.
• Some of historys most influential philosophers,
  for example David Hume, John Stuart Mill and
  Bertrand Russell, challenged the traditional idea
  of an all-powerful,all-knowing and loving God
  because of the problem of evil.

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• A theodicy is an attempt to explain why the
  existence of evil and suffering doesnt
  necessarily show that God doesnt exist.

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Two types of evil or misfortune

• Philosophers of religion talk about two
  particular types of evil
• Moral evil caused by human beings themselves
• Natural evil caused by the way things happen
  in our world.

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Discussion points

• Atheists often assume that the reality of moral
  and natural evil is one of the most important
  pieces of evidence against belief in God.
• But then, how they can assume that there is no
  explanation for such a state of being in this
  world? Could the existence of God answer to
  those same questions?

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Theodicy argument against God

• If God is omnipotent (all-powerful) why doesnt
  he crush evil and stop suffering?
• If God is omniscient (all-knowing) why did he
  create a world which he knew would result in such
  pain and suffering?
• If God is all-loving why does he allow innocent
  children to suffer?
• Many people assume that if these questions cant
  be answered adequately then the only reasonable
  view to hold is that God simply doesnt exist.

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Discussion points

• Free-will concept in Genesis
• Crucifixion in Gospels, Romans
• After-life concept in Corinthians, Revelation
• Sovereignty argument in Isaiah, Job

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Focus of existence

• Probably the central idea in Christianity is that
  humans find meaning and purpose in a love
  relationship with God and each other
• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
  with all your soul and with all your strength and
  with all your mind, and love your neighbor as
  yourself.

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• The faith position is an altogether more
  positive and optimistic one than the assertion of
  meaninglessness. It maintains that although evil
  is a terrible reality it can beovercome and one
  of our main tasks as human individuals is to
  fight against it. -- P Vardy
• Were there no other evidence at all, the thumb
  alone would convince me of Gods existence.
  --Sir Isaac Newton

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• PART II
• KNOWING GOD

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God is knowable

• This is something very distinct (and encouraging)
  about the Christian Worldview
• The God of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are
  very nebulous or distant gods
• The God of the Bible is not only knowable, but
  also wants to be known

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God is about relationships

• Gen 126-27 shows from the beginning that God is
  about community
• He is a God of fellowship this nature of God is
  intimately connected with the fact that he is
  knowable
• God wants to be known ? He makes himself knowable

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We can come to know God

• Realizing human frailty and weakness, God, in his
  compassion, reaches out to us as humans
• He reaches out to us in many ways, mainly
  through
• Creation
• The Bible
• His Son

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• Jesus is the supreme revelation of the father (1
  John 520).
• Although it is not possible to know God
  completely, the Bible affords us a practical
  knowledge of Him that is sufficient for fallen
  humanity to have a relationship with Him.

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God revealed in Scripture

• The Bible reveals Gods essential qualities
  through
• Appellations
• Activities
• Attributes

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1. Appellations (names)

• In certain cultures, names carried special
  importance. In many Asian societies, a name is
  considered to reveal the character of the bearer,
  his true nature and identity.
• This concept is well understood in the Ancient
  Near East.

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• Note how Gods name is to be hallowed in the Ten
  Commandments (third commandment, Ex 207).
• David sang praise to the name of the Lord (Ps
  717).
• For further study Ps 1119, Ps 14813.

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Important Divine Names used in the Old Testament

• Ex 314 (interlinear) YHWH
• Original Hebrew text reads right to left all
  consonants
• ????said ?????And God ?? unto ????
  Moses, ???? I AM ????THAT ???? I AM

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• , ???? ???? ????
• Transliteration xhyh xsr xhyh
• With vowels ehyeh asher ehyeh
• Translation I am who I am or I will be what I
  will be, indicating Gods steadfast nature in
  relationships

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• Yhwh appears more than 6,000 times in the Old
  Testament. Jesus alluded to this name of God in
  John 858.
• Note The true pronunciation of the
  tetragrammaton (yhwh) is unknown. The vocalized
  Yahweh is conjectural. The Masoretic Jews
  simply added the vowels of adonai (Heb meaning
  Lord) to the four consonants.
• Some translations use Jehovah, but this is
  simply an Americanized rendition.

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• Gen 11, Ex 202 EL/ELOHIM
• These highlight Gods power
• These depict God as the strong and mighty One
  (see also Dan 94).
• Other Near Eastern Cultures also called their
  local gods El.

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• Ps 14814, 1506 YAH
• An abbreviated form of YHWH
• Contained in the word hallelujah, which means
  Praise the Lord.

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2. Activities

• One can learn a lot about a person by looking at
  his/her schedule
• What you do tells a lot about who you are
• Bible writers spent considerable amounts of ink
  on Gods activities

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• God creates (Gen 1, Ps 24)
• God saves and redeems (Deut 5, 2 Cor 5)
• God plans (Isa 46)
• God promises (Dt 15, 2 Pet 3)
• God forgives (Ex 34)

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3. Attributes

• The Bible writers use a number of devices to
  present Gods attributes
• These attributes are basically personal traits
  that God allows us to appreciate
• Examples omniscient (Job 3716, Ps 1391-18),
  living (Jn 526), independent in will (Eph 15),
  eternal (Ps 902, Rev 18)

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• Gods attributes are not isolated traits. They
  stem for his relational nature. E.g. love (Rom
  58), compassion (Deut 3327), holiness (Ps 999).

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Closing

• Let us take time to study the arguments involved
• Let us keep in mind that there is a purpose for
  our existence
• Let us praise God for his uniqueness and his
  character!
• Let us be excited that we can know our great and
  awesome God!