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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. And so that brings us down to the question, where does the evidence lead us? Remember, we can't prove there is a God. The atheist can't prove there isn't a God. But the question is, where does the evidence lead? Does the evidence, the very best evidence argue for or against the existence of God?
Welcome to Pathway to Victory. With author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, research shows that nine out of ten Americans say they believe in God. But deep down, many people struggle with doubts.
Perhaps right now you're wrestling with questions about God's goodness or even His existence. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress presents compelling evidence for God based on science, design, and human experience. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David. Today on Pathway to Victory, we'll continue our teaching series called How Can I Know? Answers to Life's Seven Most Important Questions. And just before we get started, I'm inviting you to contact Pathway to Victory to receive a helpful resource I've written for you. Many people struggle with the exclusive claims of Jesus. And my booklet answers this question.
Is Christianity the only right religion? There's no cost or obligation when you contact us and request your copy at ptv.org. Then, as you hear today's message, be prepared to jot down some other important information at the close of the program. I've written a bestselling book that complements this teaching series.
It's called How Can I Know? Answers to Life's Seven Most Important Questions. I want you to own this bestselling book and share it with a friend or family member. You see, those who disavow the Christian faith are often quick to discredit our beliefs, and their method is somewhat predictable. As a ploy, these critics often take hard questions and try to stump us. Well, in my book, I'll prepare you with solid answers to challenging questions about your faith, such as how can I know the Bible is true? And with all the suffering in the world, how can I know God is good? This book, How Can I Know?, is my gift to you when you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory. Now, it's time to get started with today's question.
Today, we're asking a relevant question. How can I know there is a God? Last time, we began looking at four powerful arguments for the existence of God. There's the cosmological evidence, the cosmos.
The second argument we're going to look at today is the teleological argument. How do you explain the complex design of the universe? Where exactly do we find this evidence of design in the universe?
Well, look at the universe itself. The universe has uniquely designed planet Earth to be a place that allows for life. Astrophysicist Hugh Ross estimates that there are 122 constants that have to be present for life to exist. If you take the constants necessary and the number of planets in our universe, the chance that any one planet in the universe would accidentally have all 122 constants present in it, you know what the number is? The chances are one in 10 to the 138th power.
You know what that's saying? The chances are zero. A third evidence of design is found in the cell itself. So what is the possibility that a fully functioning cell could assemble itself together by chance?
Sir Frederick Hoyle was the founding director of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Cambridge University. He said, quote, the likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 zeros behind it. It is a number big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution.
If the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence. Now, the cell is complex enough, but consider the complexity of the design of the human body. Our bodies are more than a single cell. There are billions of cells that form thousands of different systems and organs in the human body. Think of the intricacy of design for just one part of the body, the eyeball.
How do you explain that complex design? If the chance of a single cell coming into existence by itself is one in 10 to the 40,000th power, what are the chances that the eyeball could just emerge, happen, without a designer behind it? How does the atheist explain that? How does the atheist explain the complexity of the universe and the mathematical hurdles involved in a chance explanation?
You know what he resorts to? He resorts to something called the multiple universe theory, which imagines that our universe is just one of an infinite number of universes. The late Norman Geisler wrote about the multiple universe theory this. He said, the multiple universe theory is simply a desperate attempt to avoid the implications of design.
It doesn't multiply chances. It multiplies absurdities. It's just like Psalm 14 one, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
That word fool is the word we get moron from. You have to be a moron to believe all of this happened just by chance. That's the teleological arguments for the existence of the universe. Thirdly, the third piece of evidence, the anthropological evidence.
Anthropos, meaning man. How do you explain the existence of man if you don't believe in God? Think about, for example, our existence, our mere existence. You know, we talked about life beginning from a unicellular creature, but what are the chances that that cell, how did that cell come into being?
Well, the atheist says, for billions of years, the earth was covered in ammonia and hydrogen and methane. One day, lightning struck these chemicals and out popped the amino acid, but that's not a cell. Those amino acids had to collect together and form a protein molecule, but that wasn't enough.
You had to have multiple protein molecules that come together to make a cell. And we've already seen the chances of that cell coming into being is one followed by 40,000 zeros. So how does the evolutionist explain a single-celled creature that evolves into a fully functioning human being? His only explanation is, given enough time, anything can happen.
You know what that would be like? That's the evolutionist. Given enough time, there will be slight modifications that will produce a human being. That's like saying, if you had a 66 Corvette and parked it in your garage and left it there, eventually, given enough time, that 66 Corvette would evolve into a massive ocean liner. It doesn't matter how long you wait.
That is never going to happen. Think about not only our existence, but a human's consciousness. What is it that gives us an awareness, first of all, of ourselves?
I love this. Alan Sandage asked the question, how is it that inanimate matter, nonliving matter, how is it that inanimate matter organized itself to contemplate itself? I mean, why are we aware of our own existence?
There's no explanation for that. Or think about our awareness of God. Where does that come from? Now, we say, well, the evolutionists would say we are wired to believe in God, and we would agree with that. We believe God has placed on our hearts an awareness of him. Some people tune that out, but it's there, an awareness of God. But to say we are spiritually or biologically wired to believe in God, for the atheist to claim that is to absolutely refute his own theory of evolution. You see, part of the theory of evolution is the survival of the fittest, that we are wired in such a way only to do what is in our best self-interest.
And while it's true, a belief in God has some benefits to our well-being, it also has some downsides to it. Think about giving your money. That's not operating in your best interest. Or giving your time to come and worship God.
That's not in your best interest. Think about the martyrs who were tortured and beheaded and murdered in any number of gruesome ways. Their belief in God didn't lead to their immediate self-interest. And the fact is, there's no explanation for that. Furthermore, if the atheist says that we are wired to believe in God, then what he's really saying is we are wired to believe a lie. Because to the atheist, there is no God. So the atheist is saying we're wired in such a way to believe a lie. Therefore, you can't trust what your mind leads you to believe. Well, if that's true, I'd say to the atheist, why do you think you can trust where your mind leads you to deny the existence of God? What if you are not wired to believe the truth but to believe a lie? And science is a lie. It doesn't make any sense. No, the better explanation for man's awareness of God is that such an awareness is rooted in reality.
C.S. Lewis famously argued that our desire for God is one of the most convincing arguments for the existence of God. He wrote it and explained it this way. Creatures are not born with desires unless the satisfaction of those desires exist. A baby feels hunger. Well, there's such a thing as food.
A duckling wants to swim. Well, there's such a thing as water. People feel sexual desire.
Well, there's such a thing as sex. If I find myself in myself, a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Where's our consciousness of morality?
Where does that come from? How do you explain that if we're not designed by God? Well, people say, well, we're biologically wired to know the difference between right and wrong. If it's just a case of biology, then why do we call anything evil? Why do we call abusing a child evil?
Why don't we call it orange or purple? Why do we call it evil? How do we have a sense of right and wrong? The evolutionist says, well, if it's not just a case of biological wiring, every community has to decide for itself what's right and what's wrong. Cultures develop their own standard of what's right and what's wrong. That's how we determine evil and good. But can you really trust culture to tell you what is right and wrong?
Can culture tell us what is evil and what is good? You know, for a long time, our country, the majority of our country, felt that it was okay, it was right for one human being to own another human being. The Supreme Court said in the Dred Scott case, it's all right for people to own African Americans.
They're nothing but chattel property to be bought and sold. But even though that was the consensus of our culture and the argument of the courts, we knew it was wrong. There is a higher standard for what is right and wrong. Every person has stamped on their heart a moral code. And if there is a universal moral code, that code has to come from a lawgiver who transcends time and culture. And that lawgiver is God himself.
God has stamped on our hearts the awareness, the consciousness of good and evil. And that leads to a fourth evidence, a fourth argument for the existence of God, and that's the experiential evidence. Why do people find God if he doesn't exist?
Isn't that interesting? Why do people keep finding God if he doesn't exist? Think about the 11 remaining apostles after Christ died and the 500 witnesses, all of whom said they found, they saw, they experienced the resurrected Christ.
Now, the cynic would say what they were looking for, and that's just the case of wish fulfillment. But the fact is they weren't looking for the risen Christ. They didn't expect to see him.
In fact, they had written him off. They thought the crucifixion on Good Friday ended all of that. If they had been expecting a resurrection, they would have been camped out at the tomb Saturday night waiting for the big day, but they weren't. And yet the 11 apostles saw the resurrected Christ, 500 witnesses saw the resurrected Christ, even though they weren't looking for him. And by the way, it wasn't confined to them.
Throughout the last 2,000 years, people from every race, every background, every country, every situation have claimed to find God through his son, Jesus Christ, and some did so at great costs. Think about the first century Christians. Hebrews 11 verses 36 to 37 says, and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with a sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, and ill treated. As Pascal said, I believe those witnesses who get their throats cut. These witnesses to Christ paid a great price to do so. They weren't operating in their self-interest as the evolutionists were wired to do. They operated in a way contrary to their self-witness. Other people throughout history have found God, not because they were running toward him, but because they were running away from him.
Think about C.S. Lewis. Even though he grew up in a religious home, he rejected Christianity largely because it offered, he thought, no explanation for the existence of evil. And yet, by the time he entered Oxford University in 1917, he was a full-fledged agnostic.
But it was during that time that he became friends with J.R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield. It was during that time that Lewis finally abandoned his agnosticism and surrendered on his knees to the belief that God is God. He later said he was the most reluctant convert in all of England. In more recent times, agnostic A.N. Wilson shook the entire world when he announced to the world on Palm Sunday 2009 that he was renouncing his atheism and returning to historic Christianity.
In a letter he penned to the newspaper on the Saturday before Easter 2009, and I remember reading this letter to you all, A.N. Wilson wrote, my own return to faith has surprised no one more than myself. My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known, not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived and faced death in light of the resurrection story or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die. The Easter story answers their questions about spiritual aspects of humanity. It changes people's lives because it helps us understand that we, like Jesus, are born as spiritual beings. This experiential argument, let me say it again, isn't limited to any one geographical region, any one time period in history, to any particular race. The Christian message is transcendent. People everywhere in every circumstance have found God even when they weren't looking for him.
Evolution has no answer for that. Why do so many people find God if he doesn't exist? And so that brings us down to the question, where does the evidence lead us? Remember, we can't prove there is a God. The atheist can't prove there isn't a God. But the question is, where does the evidence lead?
Does the evidence, the very best evidence, argue for or against the existence of God? You know, every day we are forced to make decisions based on the best evidence available. For example, let's just say that you prefer sweetened iced tea. And somebody sits in front of you, two glasses of iced tea, and they said, now I put a sweetener in one of them, but I can't remember which one. Your chances of picking the sweetened tea would be 50-50. But even if you picked the wrong glass of tea, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if you had to drink unsweetened tea.
But just suppose your host said to you, here are two glasses of tea, I accidentally dropped a cyanide tablet into one of them. How much evidence would you require before you felt confident enough to take one of those glasses? Now listen to this. The legal scholar Mortimer Adler concluded, more consequences for life and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from any other question. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the bottom line question. Does God exist? Where does the evidence lead you? What decision are you going to make? To ignore the evidence that we've looked at today for the existence of God is to, like one person said, slide into eternity with your fingers crossed, hoping you're right.
What sane person would ever make that choice? The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. There is a God.
The evidence is overwhelming. But belief in God is not enough to put you in a right relationship with God. There is a God. He is a holy being. He desires and demands absolute perfection on our part.
There's a standard that none of us can meet. The Bible says all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but that holy and just God is also a loving God. Jesus said it this way, for God so loved the world, he so loved you and me, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in Christ, trust in him, shall not perish, but will have eternal life. There's only one way to be in a right relationship with God, and that's by confessing your sins to God and believing that Jesus died in your place on the cross. He took the punishment that you deserve to take, and the moment you acknowledge that to God and you put your faith in Christ, you receive the forgiveness of your sins.
You receive the assurance that one day you'll be welcomed into the presence of God. If you'd like to receive that forgiveness, I invite you to pray this prayer right now in your heart. Follow along as I prayed out loud, would you? Dear God, thank you for loving me. I know that I have failed you in many ways, and I'm truly sorry for the sins in my life. But I believe that you love me so much, you sent Christ to die for me, to take the punishment I deserve to take for my sins. And right now I'm trusting in what Jesus did for me, to save me from my sins.
Thank you for forgiving me, and help me to live the rest of my life for you. In Jesus' name, amen. Maybe you've begun to question the existence of God, or perhaps you're following social media sites where your belief in God is openly mocked. I've written a book that complements our current series. It's called How Can I Know? You deserve solid and convincing answers to your questions, and in my book I go into much greater detail on today's topic.
In fact, I address seven of the most important questions in life. This book, How Can I Know, is a bestseller because people are starving to hear the truth, and Pathway to Victory is uniquely positioned to deliver it. Tragically, sometimes the contemporary church fails to teach the Bible. For example, I heard from a student in California who said, Unfortunately, the churches in my city deliver a watered-down version of Christian theology. They don't teach solid theology.
In fact, they deviate from it. So thanks, Pastor Jeffress, for teaching the truth of the Bible on Pathway to Victory. And then he went on to describe how he's using our materials in his small group Bible study at church. God bless you for standing with Pathway to Victory so that we can continue reaching students like this one. And thank you for standing in the gap so that men and women around the world can benefit from the bold teaching of God's Word. Remember, to say thank you for your generous gift today, I want you to have a copy of my book called How Can I Know?
One last thing. This daily program has drawn so many people like you into our circle of friends, but we rarely get to meet face to face. Well, this coming May, I'll be hosting the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise, and I'd love to meet you personally. This is an exquisite 12-day vacation to some of the most beautiful locations in the world, including the Greek Isles, Ephesus, and Rome. The dates are May 5th through 16th, and you can reserve your spot today or just check out the itinerary by going to ptv.org.
David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory or when you sign up to become a Pathway partner, we'll say thanks by sending you the best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress called How Can I Know? Simply go online to ptv.org or call 866-999-2965.
And when you give $75 or more, you'll also receive the complete collection of audio and video discs for the newly updated teaching series How Can I Know? To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could also write to us, P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O.
Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. In America, we celebrate religious freedom and tolerance, but that doesn't mean that all beliefs are equally valid. I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us next time when Dr. Jeffress answers the question, How Can I Know Christianity is the Right Religion? That's Friday here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
