GENESISWhat do you think of when you think of Genesis?

THE FIVE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL QUESTIONS IN LIFE1. Origin: Where did we come from?

2. Identity: Who are we?

3. Meaning: Why are we here?

4. Morality: How should we live?

5. Destiny: Where are we going?

Geisler, Norman L.; Turek, Frank (2004-03-12). I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Foreword by David Limbaugh) (Kindle Locations 284-288). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

BIG IDEAS FROM GENESIS LAST WEEKGod is our source

We were made for Relationships,

Vulnerable, open, without duplicity and without brokenness or breach

God is the Boss

God had set up Roles or Boundaries between him and us.

BIG IDEAS FROM GENESIS LAST WEEK

Gods Role was to be in Control, Our roles was to yield to God’s Control of the world and to control our selves.

Gods Role was to be the source, our role was to depend on the source

God is the Judge of Life, we were to experience life.

God Made the rules, We were to obey them

GENESIS ALSO SAYS

God created everything from nothing

He Ordered it and designed it all

What does science say about this?

Why do we study this today, how does this help you?

It tells us about who God is

It helps us share the gospel with confidence

It helps us defend against heresy

IRRITATING FACTS

In 1916 most of the scientists believed in a static universe. A universe that was always there and will always be there, unchanging.

Einstein Developed his Theory of General Relativity and in it developed equations that indicated that the universe was expanding from a single point. So he added a “fudge factor” to show the universe was static.

In 1919 Arthur Eddington conducted an experiment proving the General theory of relativity. He wrote: “Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of nature is repugnant to me… I should like to find a genuine loophole.”

IRRITATING FACTS

In 1927 William Hubble discovered a red shift from every observable galaxy which proved the Universe was expanding from a single point in the distant past.

After visiting with Hubble, Einstein said that he wanted “To know how God created the world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thought, the rest are details.”

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

1. Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

2. “‘ To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One” (40: 25). The answer is in the next verse: “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens” (v. 26).

3. Isaiah goes on to say that God knows all of heaven’s stars by name!

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENTJOB 38Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone—

while the morning stars sang together

and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

1. Everything that had a beginning had a cause.

2. The Universe had a beginning

3. Therefore the Universe had a cause.

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENTEVERYTHING THAT HAD A BEGINNING HAD A CAUSE.

Premise 1 is based on the “Law of Causality” the foundation of all of science.

Science is the study of causes.

If there is one thing we have observed about the universe, it’s that things don’t happen without a cause.

If the Universe had a beginning then there must have been a cause

S.U.R.G.E THE EVIDENCE THERE WAS A BEGINNINGThe universe has a beginning

The universe has an end.

S.U.R.G.E

S- Second Law of Thermodynamics

The Universe has a finite amount of energy and it is running out of it.

Entropy says that nature tends to bring things to disorder. If we are becoming more disordered, where did the original order come from?

Because we have limited order and energy, then if the universe was eternal then we would be out of both. Therefore it had a beginning.

S.U.R.G.E

U - The Universe is Expanding and therefore we can predict going back into time until the universe shrinks into nothing.

Before the Big Bang there was nothing. There was not time, nor space or matter.

The universe did not come from existing matter, there was none. It was created from nothing.

It did not occur in a point in time because there was no time.

It did not occur in space because space only exists inside of the Universe.

As the Universe expands, it is not expanding into space but expanding space itself.

The cause of this Universe exists outside of Time, space and matter.

The cause of our Universe is therefore eternal because you need time to have a beginning and an end.

S.U.R.G.E

R- Radiation from the Big Bang

In 1965 Penzias and Wilson discovered that everywhere they looked in the Universe there was a low level of Radiation. It appeared to be everywhere.

In 1948 Scientist predicted that this Radiation would exist if there was a Big Bang

No explanation other than the Big Bang has been found for the fireball radiation. The clincher, which has convinced almost the last Doubting Thomas, is that the radiation discovered by Penzias and Wilson has exactly the pattern of wavelengths expected for the light and heat produced in a great explosion. Supporters of the steady state theory have tried desperately to find an alternative explanation, but they have failed. At the present time, the Big Bang theory has no competitors.

S.U.R.G.E

R- Great Galaxy Seeds

in 1989 NASA Launched COBE to see if there were (as predicted) variances in temperature, where matter could coalesce and begin forming Galaxies

The Ripples were found but what was amazing was their precision. The ripples show that the explosion and expansion was precisely tweaked to cause just enough matter to congregate but keep the Universe from collapsing back on itself.

The ripples are so exact (down to one part in one hundred thousand) that Smoot, the project leader, called them the “machining marks from the creation of the universe” and the “fingerprints of the maker.”

S.U.R.G.E

E- Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

It demands an absolute beginning for time, space, and matter.

It shows that time, space, and matter are co-relative. That is, they are interdependent— you can’t have one without the others.

“Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same: the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”

“God and the Astronomers” Written by Robert Jastrow, Astronomer, Founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Head of Mount Wilson home of Edwin Hubble’s discoveries. Agnostic

S.U.R.G.E

E- Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

“Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover. . . . That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact.”

The Big Bang was the beginning point for the entire physical universe. Time, space, and matter came into existence at that point. There was no natural world or natural law prior to the Big Bang. Since a cause cannot come after its effect, natural forces cannot account for the Big Bang. Therefore, there must be something outside of nature to do the job. That’s exactly what the word supernatural means.

COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

There are only two possibilities for anything that exists:

1) it has always existed and is therefore uncaused

2) it had a beginning and was caused by something else

According to the overwhelming evidence, the universe had a beginning, so it must be caused by something else— by something outside itself.

COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Characteristics of the First Cause based on the evidence we’ve discussed

Self-existent, timeless, non-spatial, and immaterial (since the First Cause created time, space, and matter, the First Cause must be outside of time, space, and matter). In other words, he is without limits, or infinite

Unimaginably powerful, to create the entire universe out of nothing;

Supremely intelligent, to design the universe with such incredible precision

Personal, in order to choose to convert a state of nothingness into the time-space-material universe (an impersonal force has no ability to make choices).

TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Roman 1:20

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Every Design had a designer

The universe has a highly complex design.

Therefore, the universe had a Designer

TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENTANTHROPIC CONSTANTS

Oxygen Levels

Atmospheric Transparency

Moon Earth Gravitational Constant

Carbon Dioxide Level

Gravity

Centrifugal Force

Constant Velocity of Light

Water Vapor Levels

Jupiters Size and current orbit

Thickness of earth’s crust

Rate of Rotation of earth

23 degree tilt of the earth

Lightning rate

Seismic activity

TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

There are 122 Constants in all.

There are assumed 10 to the 22nd power planets

There is a one in 10 to 138th power chance that a planet would have all 122 constants.

There are only 10 to 70th power atoms in the universe.

TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

You don’t need anyone to tell you that something beautifully designed requires a designer. It’s practically self-evident. Nevertheless, let’s state the argument formally again:

1. Every design had a designer.

2. As verified by the Anthropic Principle, we know beyond a reasonable doubt that the universe is designed.

3. Therefore, the universe had a Designer.

There’s no plausible explanation for the Anthropic Principle other than a Cosmic Designer.

THE BIGGER ARGUMENT

5. Miracles confirm a message from God

6. The New Testament is historically reliable.

Early testimony, Eyewitness testimony, Uninvented (authentic) testimony, Eyewitnesses who were not deceived

7. Jesus claimed to be God.

8. Jesus’ claim to be God was miraculously confirmed by:

His fulfillment of many prophecies about himself; His sinless life and miraculous deeds; His prediction and accomplishment of his resurrection.

9. Therefore, Jesus is God.

1. Truth about reality is knowable.

2. The opposite of true is false.

3. It is true that the theistic God exists. This is evidenced by the:

a. Beginning of the universe (Cosmological Argument)

b. Design of the universe (Teleological Argument/ Anthropic Principle)

c. Design of life (Teleological Argument)

d. Moral Law (Moral Argument)

REFLECTION

Based on this information, how do you see God different?

How different from us is God?

How similar are we to God?

When given the opportunity to help others to believe in God, how would you proceed?

What have you seen be effective in helping others come to a saving knowledge of God?