Presentation 02

Presentation 02

School-children are sometimes given the opportunity to ask any question of visiting ministers. They often ask, 'Where did God come from?' Sometimes the question reflects a genuine spirit of enquiry it may also reveal the dismissive treatment given to God by the children’s parents. Today, many people are dismissive of God because they have supressed or stifled their knowledge of God and any genuine spirit of enquiry that may have existed in their hearts. Rom. 1.21.

The implication behind the question is that people will not accept God’s existence without understanding his origins.How do we respond to such a question and all that lies behind it?

Introduction

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The approach of such individuals is flawed for a number of reasons. First because it is inconsistently applied. We don't hear people saying, 'I won't believe in the existence of the world unless I know how it came into being!’ The materialistic scientist will explain the existence of the world in terms of the big bang theory of the universe, which states that the universe was created by a gigantic explosion and all that we observe today was produced within the first few minutes after the big bang.

The extremely high temperature and the density of matter are said to have turned subatomic particles into the chemical elements.

A Flawed Question

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The high density of the primeval atom would have caused the rapid expansion of the universe. As it expanded, the hydrogen and helium would cool and condense into stars and galaxies.There are significant pieces missing from a purely materialistic big bang theory. E.g. Where did the matter come from that created the big bang? The lame response of the materialist is that 'it was always there!'

Here is a glaring contradiction. It seems that some are prepared to accept unquestioningly the eternity of matter but they refuse to accept the eternity of God.

A Flawed Question

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Secondly, we need to ask, how men by dismissing God can then adequately explain the order and design found in the universe. We are closed into one of two choices, either we believe ourselves to be the product of a vast cosmic accident or we recognise that they are the product of wise design. Imagine an explosion in a printworks, which resulted in paper, ink, glue and letters being blown skywards. But as they returned to the ground they had amazingly and accidentally arranged themselves into 29 beautifully bound volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Statistically that scenario is much more probable than it is to accept that the order and design of the universe came about as a result of an accident.

A Flawed Question

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Tony Holland, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Salford was a scientific humanist up to the age of 30. Then he was challenged by the question, ‘Is there a God?’ He concluded:“On consideration it was inconceivable to me that the complex system of which we are a part could have occurred without a creator. Just as a great symphony testifies to the skill of a composer, the world and the universe testify to the wisdom and power of God. Science is but a description of God's work.

Now the case for the origin of the universe is often mischievously presented as accepting on the one hand the findings of reason and science, or on the other that of faith and the Bible”.

A Flawed Question

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You are either a 'big banger' who has evolved from an accident in space and time or you accept that, 'In the beginning God created'. In reality both these views involve faith. The vital and all important difference being the object of that faith. One the one hand there are those who place their faith in, a cosmic theory, while others place their faith in a Creator God. A contemporary writer commenting upon the view that we are merely creatures of chance says:

“At some remote point in history nothing became something, by chance the ingredients occurred for a spontaneous creation. Of course this view presupposes the existence of the basic ingredients of matter, which seems to leave us where we were. Frankly I think it takes more faith to be an atheist than to believe in God”.

A Flawed Question

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The ordinary man in the street often has greater confidence in scientific theory than do scientists themselves. Let me quote from a contemporary British Scientist:“Many people wishing to bolster an argument will declare 'The scientist says'. Such an approach is based on two fallacies. The first is to believe that the scientist lacks any prejudice. Nothing in history supports that view. Take the field of medicine Lord Lister introduced antiseptics to surgery. You might have thought that he would have been hailed as a great innovator by the profession and that honours would have been heaped upon him. The reverse was true he was vilified mocked and scorned. His views would never have gained ground were it not for the fact that his patients lived and those of his detractors died.

A Flawed Question

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The second fallacy arises from a failure to recognise that by its nature science is always, changing. No scientist can arrive at certainty. It used to be taught in school that matter could neither be created nor destroyed. However Einstein postulated that if you could destroy mass the energy released would be equivalent to the product of that mass destroyed and the speed of light squared [E= mc2]. People did not laugh at him. Eventually over the Nevada desert, arose that sinister mushroom cloud as it was demonstrated that man had learned to split the atom and the mass of the residue was less than the original.

We therefore need to guard against investing upon the findings of modem science a quality of infallibility.

A Flawed Question

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The scepticism of our age has deepened as man has increasingly placed more faith in himself, in his reason and developed mind. Causing him to say, 'If I cannot understand God to my satisfaction I will not believe in his existence.'

But this contemporary approach is also flawed because on a daily basis we exercise faith in many things we do not understand. As a non-medical person, I do not understand the digestive system, but it does not stop me from eating. I do not understand all about our respiratory system, but I continue to breathe.

A Flawed Question

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The approach which says, ‘I will not believe in God until I can understand him’, is further flawed in that it attempts to bring God down to our tiny finite level. It is merely another way of saying, 'I will not believe in a God who is greater than I am.’

In one of his plays, George Bernard Shaw describes one of his characters as 'a self made man who worships his creator.' When we close our minds to what God discloses about himself and so close God out then, and this is Paul's argument in Rom 1, we worship the creature instead of the Creator.

A Flawed Question

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Is there another approach which might be taken in order to answer the child’s question ‘Where did God come from?’ or that of the adult who looks out into the cosmos and asks, 'Is there anyone there?' The Bible reminds us that 'without faith it is impossible to please God and that anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists’ Heb. 11.6.

This does not mean that we have to kiss goodbye to our brains. Biblical faith is not a leap in the dark, or even whistling in the dark hoping that God is there. Rather it is faith in a God, who has made and continues to make himself known.

A Better Approach

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Paul makes it clear in Rom 1. 19-20 just 'what may be known about God’. In the first place God has made himself known in the created order, and the Psalmist reminds us that 'the heavens declare the glory of God‘ Psalm 19.1. The order and design of the universe argues for the existence of a wise designer. Our earth is 93,000 miles from the sun, any nearer and the planet would burn up any further away and it would freeze.

But our knowledge of God is not only external it is also internal. In Ecclesiastes 3.11 we read that ‘God has placed eternity in the heart of man’. There is a holy dissatisfaction in the heart of man telling him there is more to life than his treadmill existence down here and persuading him that the grave is not the end.

A Better Approach

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But our internal knowledge of God is more than a ‘sense of destiny.’ God has made man in his image. That involves among other things creating him as a moral being. Wherever you go in the world you will find evidence of the fact that God's law has been written on man's heart. Men instinctively know right from wrong. Whether you stay in Tokyo or Tehran no one needs to tell you murder or stealing is wrong.

Of course all of our God-knowledge can be suppressed. We can suppress God's truth in our consciences, when it tells us that a particular code of conduct is wrong.

A Better Approach

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In Rom 1.18 we read of ‘men who suppress the truth about God by their wickedness’. Knowledge of what God is like floats like a piece of wood in the surface of human consciousness but that knowledge can be held under the surface, just as a piece of wood held under water becomes waterlogged and sinks.

But even then God can reveal himself with unmistakable clarity and power despite our best efforts to blot him out. Some time ago, a Serbian soldier, who had entered a Croat village to engage in ethnic cleansing, found some Christian literature. He read it and as a result came to faith in Christ. He discovered for himself the God who is there.

A Better Approach

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There is one final piece of information that we need, which causes us to face our origins. In making man like himself, God did not only make man a moral being he made him a personal and spiritual being. Man has been made for fellowship with God and when he is not enjoying that then he experiences an inner restlessness which nothing else can fill.

Augustine put it this way, 'my heart was restless till it found its rest in you.'

A Better Approach

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Pascal described man as having a 'God shaped blank' in his life and until that spiritual vacuum is filled he experiences a significant emptiness. No other adequate explanation has ever been given for the spiritual dimension that exists in man's life. This is what separates him from the rest of the created order. Have you ever seen a field of cows praying? Have you ever found a herd of cows who were keen to attend church? There is something quite different about man and it is this - he has been made for fellowship with God. He has been made to enjoy God's company.

He either possesses a God shaped blank in his life or is possessed by God and has begun to realise the purpose of his existence.

A Better Approach

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You may be thinking, 'I have no problem accepting God’s existence, for many reasons including some of those mentioned. I am happy with the idea’. But we need to go further. When some people say they ‘believe in God’ often what they mean is, 'I believe in my kind of god - a god who suits me, a god who has been shaped by my thinking’.

And in their thought process God is often reduced to a benevolent heavenly grandfather, someone who is there to cater to their every whim and grant their every wish. In other words a god built to their specifications, a god made in their image.

A Better Approach

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In answer to the question, ‘Is there anyone there?' God replies, 'Yes, I am the one who has created you for myself, the one who alone can equip you to live life to the full, a God worth searching after. When you find me you will discover that before you started your search for me, I began mine for you. I long to draw you to myself. I am not found by accident but‘if you seek me with your whole heart you will surely find me.’ Jer.29.13

Conclusion

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