Today, on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Looking at our universe. We ask the most basic of all questions. Yeah. Exist.
From Genesis to Revelation, repeatedly throughout Scripture, there is the clear attestation of the existence of God, who is the creator of all things. Nothing comes into being apart from Him. He is the Creator and the Sustainer of all things. Welcome to The Verdict, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor John Monroe. Today on the verdict, we're beginning a brand new series called What Would You Ask God?
We're going to be exploring many important and intriguing questions that cut to the very heart of life and faith. Today, John is beginning with the most fundamental and essential question of all. Does God exist?
So let's join Pastor John Monroe for the introduction of today's lesson. What is your view of God? Do you believe God exists? If so, what difference does God make in your life? Today, we begin our wonderful new series on the greatest of all subjects: God.
I know you may have many questions about God, or questions you might ask God. During this series, we'll think of these questions and look to the Bible, which is the Word of God, for our answers. Our first question is Does God exist? What do people mean when they say they believe in God? Why is there something rather than nothing?
Where did everything come from? These are huge questions that every thinking person must consider.
Now, you may not necessarily agree with everything I say, but I ask you to listen carefully. I'm trying to answer this question. Does God exist?
The Declaration of Independence of July 4 1776 states, We hold these truths to be self-evident. that all men are created equal. and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life. Liberty.
and the pursuit of happiness. Integral to the founding of this nation, then, was the belief in a Creator. Stamped on our coins is a wonderful phrase, In God we trust. The Supreme Court begins its day with the cry God save this honourable Court'. Presidents begin their terms by adding the phrase So help me God' to the oath of office required by the Constitution.
However, God is banished from our public schools. A public school teacher would find it rather difficult to explain to children what their founding fathers meant. when they used the word creator. In the school district in California, the phrase under God' is deleted when children recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
So today we ask the most basic of all questions. Does God exist. The famous and very influential German philosopher Martin Heidegger says that the most basic question is this. Why is there something and not nothing. You say, well, no one can understand these crazy German philosophers.
That may be true, but he is asking a very, very important question. Why does anything exist at all? Why do we exist? Why is there a world? Why is there something rather than nothing.
In other words, does God exist? And this Is not a mere philosophical question, but a question which impacts how we view our world. This question determines how we live our lives. This question determines how we will spend our eternity, because if there is a God To reject him is surely the gravest and most costly of all mistakes. But does God exist?
Or is he as many would say, just a figment of our imagination. Ludwig Feuhrbach maintained that God was basically nothing else more than the projection of our own longings and desires, a kind of wish fulfillment. We would like there to be a God, and so we have manufactured a God, but of course God doesn't actually exist. Sigmund Freud believed that religion is a distorted form of of an obsessional neurosis. That those who believe in God are in fact.
suffering from an illusion. God is a crutch to help poor, puny people cope. with the difficulties of life. For Karl Marx, Christianity and indeed all religion was the opium of the people. a narcotic, he said, alleviating the social and political and economic misery of the oppressed masses.
But, argued Marx and Engels, when the great Communist state comes, religion In Christianity and this belief in God. would fade away. Interesting, far from being a liberator of human oppression. Communism and Marxism have crushed the human spirit. and have slaughtered millions of people throughout the world.
The Marxism and Communism now stand discredited, and throughout the former Soviet Union and throughout Communist China today, millions upon millions believe in God. But the question still remains does God exists. I want to consider five relevant questions. As we ask this question, A question which you may be asking, or a question which others may ask you: Does God exist? First of all, the question of origins.
What is this question? looking at our universe. Looking at the planet Earth, we ask. Where did all of this come from? Why is there something rather than nothing?
We look at the vastness and the beauty of the night sky. We look at the beauty of the ocean. and we cannot help wondering As we look at these, as we see the beauty of the mountains, we can't help wondering. how all of this got there. What's the biblical explanation?
The consistent testimony of Scripture, as we're going to read, is that God. is the creator of all things. Turn with me In your Bibles? to the first book and the first chapter. Genesis Chapter 1, verse 1.
Here is how the Bible begins. In the beginning, God created the The heavens. and the earth. That's it. In the beginning, God created the heavens.
and the earth. Turn over to the book of Psalms about the middle of your Bible. Psalms, which was the hymn book of ancient Israel. Psalm one hundred and twenty one. Here Is what?
The ancient Jewish nation believed the Psalm written some three thousand years. years ago. Psalm 121, the Psalm begins by asking, where does our help come from? In time of need, in time of difficulty, to whom or to what? The Utahn Psalm 121, verse 2.
My help comes from the Lord, says the psalmist, who made heaven. And earth. If God made the heavens and the earth, He certainly can help me, He can help you. with the ups and downs. of light.
Over to the New Testament to the book of John, the fourth. Gospel. New Testament begins with the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Here is the fourth one, the four Gospels telling us. Of the ministry, the life and death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
Here is how John, one of the followers of Jesus, begins his. Gospel. John chapter 1. Verse one. Obviously, he's thinking of Genesis 1, verse 1.
Because he says this: In the beginning was the word, that's God the Son. And the word was with God. and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by him.
And apart from him, notice this. Apart from him, that is God the Son. Nothing. came into being, that has come into being. Everything that exists has its being, has its origin in God who is in the beginning.
the maker of the heavens. and the earth. Now the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation. We began with Genesis. Revelation The last book in the Bible, you can find that one, Revelation chapter 4.
And here is verse 11. John the Apostle gives us an insight. Into heaven. He opens a door, as it were, of heaven, and we look in, and this is what we read. Read of this.
Wonderful worship. Revelation 4:11, were they? Are you. our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power. For you did create all things.
And because of your will, They existed. and were created. There it is. From Genesis to Revelation, repeatedly throughout Scripture, there is the clear attestation of the existence of God, who is the Creator of all things. Nothing comes into being apart from Him.
He is the Creator and the Sustainer of all things. The question of origins. What's the secular explanation? The consensus of scientists is that the universe did have a beginning, that it is not eternal. If you read the Greek philosophers, they believed, as some scientists did, formerly that the matter universe was eternal.
Modern science no longer believes that. They agree that the universe had a beginning. The current explanation for the origin of the universe in science is the Big Bang theory. The inflation Big Bang model proposed by the physicist Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology holds that around fourteen or fifteen billion years ago if you can get your mind round that All of the material of the cosmos Was contained in an area no larger than a basketball and possibly smaller than an atom. You got it?
Then there was an explosion. When the universe expanded from a pinpoint to cosmological size in seconds. With space itself inflating many thousands of times faster than light, so we're told. According to the Big Bang theory, then, all of the matter in the entire universe. Including over four sextillion stars.
That's four with twenty one zeros. All matter, including These four sextillion stars was concentrated in a spec of matter. That's the Big Bang theory. Isn't it interesting? The people who ridicule the notion That when our Lord was on earth, that he took five loaves and two fish and fed thousands.
People would laugh at that, but they can believe that the whole universe, including all these stars, just came from a pinpoint. Interesting, isn't it? The question of origins restated, where did everything come from? Since the universe exists, we exist, there is a universe, we're agreed with that. And since it had a beginning, we agree with that.
Science agrees with that. We who are followers of Jesus Christ, who believe in a transcendent God, we believe that the universe had a beginning and is not eternal. Because it exists and because it had a beginning, it must have been caused by something beyond itself. Everything that has a beginning clearly must have a cause. Nothing can't cause something because nothing has no power to do anything at all.
If you've got nothing, what do you have? Nothing. What comes out of nothing? Nothing. But if you read, as I did, Time magazine.
september fourth, two thousand six on the cover It says how the stars were born. And then there's an article dealing with this very subject.
So it's a very relevant subject, and I quote from the article Time magazine. See if you can get your mind around this. See if you can understand it, because I can't. Here it is. About thirteen point seven billion years ago, the universe burst into existence.
creating everything it is now.
Now what burst into existence? that we are saying there wasn't a universe. But nothing apparently burst into existence. creating everything it is Yeah. I mean, where did the original matter of the Big Bang come from?
Self-creation is impossible, although that's what Time magazine is saying. For something to create itself, It would have to exist in order to create. Correct? And we agreed that nothing can create nothing. If you've got nothing, you've got nothing.
Something can't come from nothing. It would have to exist. before it existed in order to create its own existence. But that's exactly what the Big Bang Theory, according to Time magazine, is saying. That's an impossibility.
How can something that did not exist burst into existence.
So, if someone says, Well, if you're asking these kind of questions about the Big Bang theory, where did God come from? Who made God? You've got the same problem as we have. Because you're saying We're saying in the beginning the Big Bang. You're saying in the beginning God.
Where did God come from? Who made God? Didn't we say that everything which has a beginning must have a cause. But God didn't have a beginning. The universe has a beginning, but God didn't have a beginning.
Why is that? Because God by definition is eternal. God is not an effect of anyone or anything. God does not require a cause. Before the beginning of the universe, there was a God, an eternal God, who was, who is and who ever shall be.
Who in the beginning Created. everything out. of nothing. The question of origins. Points.
to God. in the beginning. God. Here's the second question the question of design. the question of origins, secondly the question of design.
What's the question of design? How do we state that question? With whither we look up at the stars, As I'm sure you love to do. Or whether you look down at a rose, whether we look at these beautiful flowers, Doesn't everything that we see in the universe show evidence of design. Think of the amazing radar system.
of a bat. Pretty ugly creature, I agree. We don't like them flying into our homes. Don't know anyone who has bats as pets, not exactly cuddly creatures. But behind that rather ugly Creature, there is an amazing radar system designed by something or someone.
Think of the magnificent wings of an eagle. of any bird for that matter. But of the large eagle. Think how quickly it can soar, think how quickly it can come down. with this wonderful constructed aerodynamics.
Think of the intricate design Of a snowflake. Each snowflake is different. Each snowflake has its own intricate design. Or think. as you love to do to take a newborn baby.
in your arms. Think of the wonder. of a newborn baby. You can't The little toys. little fingers.
You see the little nose and little ears. What an incredible design. Or consider the design of the human eye, your eye, which can handle 500,000 messages simultaneously. That really is multitasking, isn't it? The human eye has automatic aiming, focusing, and aperture adjustment.
It has one hundred thirty million receptor cells to differentiate between light and dark and colour. The human eye cleans itself and maintains itself. Doesn't this amazing organ, the human eye, with all of its wiring to the brain. Is it possible that that simply evolved to such a high degree of sophistication, or could it be? is designed by an awesomely intelligent designer.
Stephen Jay Gould, now deceased, formerly of Harvard. the sceptic, the agnostic, if not atheist, writes The human brain is the most complex object in the known universe with billions of chattering neurons connected by trillions of synopses. There it is. The human brain Is the most complex object in the known universe. Think of the design.
of the brain. Simply happening What's the biblical explanation? Listen again to the psalmist. Psalm nineteen, verse one, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. You see the sky, you see the mountains, you see the ocean.
declares the glory of God. We look at a flower. And there we see the handiwork of God. designs My God. H.
of these beautiful Fireworks Listen to Isaiah. the Old Testament prophet writing 750 Years. BC, this is how he puts it, Isaiah 45, verse 18. For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, He is the God who formed the earth and made it. He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it.
Notice this. But formed it to be inhabited. God The Bible is saying formed this universe, this planet Earth that we're on, he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord. and there is none else.
Or think of the words of Paul. In Acts chapter seventeen, when he appears at Athens, before the Athenian sceptics And he Presents The Christian message in Acts chapter seventeen. Listen to him. in verses twenty four and twenty five The Lord Who made the world and all things in it? Since his Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by human hands as though he needed anything.
since he himself gives to all life and breadth. and all things. This tiny planet that we live on, called Earth, is designed by God in such a way That it is suited for life, for human life, and for animal life, and for the life of plants, and so on. Our earth. has the right rate of spin for producing warm days and cool nights.
The axis of rotation of the earth has an ideal angle of tilt to produce the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. The earth also spins on its axis in an anti clockwise direction once per day, causing the night and day cycle, with the sun always rising in the east and setting in the west. As long as I've lived, I've never seen this seen the sun set in the east. It always sets in the West. That's the way it's been designed.
By God. The level of tilt, twenty three. five degrees is just right for life, we're told. Our atmosphere, the ozone layer, the magnetic field, gravity, the very brightness of the sky. are all designed for life.
Honours. That's the biblical explanation. What's the secular explanation? Evolution. Evolution explains that the whole universe, with its amazing design, came into existence by a combination of chance events.
and impersonal natural laws. Stephen Jay Gould again. the expert. Human beings arose As a kind of glorious cosmic accident. resulting from the catenation that is the linking of thousands of improbable events.
Do you understand what he's saying? You are the improbable product of a cosmic accident. Makes you feel real good, doesn't it? Gives you a warm glow inside to be told that you are the improbable product of a cosmic accident. Jean-Paul Satre, the famous French existentialist who is so influential, says that the world is not the product of intelligence.
It meets our gaze as with a crumpled piece of paper. What is man? but a little puddle of water whose freedom is death. Is that what you think? The question of design restated.
Is it feasible that the design of our universe is the result of chance? Is that feasible? Is that probable? What do you think? It doesn't Our universe's complexity, its beauty, its awesomeness.
Its meticulous design point to a great designer. and the fingerprints of a powerful designer all over Creation. This is the verdict featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever.
but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict.org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry.
Whether it's $5, $50, or more, your gift today helps cover the cost of sharing these gospel messages to listeners around the world. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast, featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandam. It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or simply go to our website. Again, that's theverdict.org. The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte.
We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, We invite you to join us for our Sunday services. For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Does God exist?
What do you think? If there is no God, why is there something rather than nothing? How can nothing produce something? I believe that there is a God. who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.
a God who designed the vast expanse of the universe, and created the unique patterns of the snowflake. A god? who've made us in his image. Therefore, we are all accountable to God. Join me next time as we try to answer this question again: Does God exist?
Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
