WEBVTT 00:00:00.110 --> 00:00:03.970 Before they went to bed, I said, stay away. Stay 00:00:03.970 --> 00:00:06.589 more than six feet away from us. We don't want 00:00:06.589 --> 00:00:09.310 it. So Ariana's got music practice every day 00:00:09.310 --> 00:00:12.009 except for one this week and every day next week. 00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:14.710 And then she has the musical Friday, Saturday, 00:00:14.710 --> 00:00:16.429 and Sunday next week. So if she gets sick between 00:00:16.429 --> 00:00:17.949 now and then, she's going to be heartbroken. 00:00:18.070 --> 00:00:19.750 And if they get a whole bunch of people sick 00:00:19.750 --> 00:00:21.230 in that thing, they're going to be in trouble 00:00:21.230 --> 00:00:23.789 because they've got a bunch of kids. All right, 00:00:23.789 --> 00:00:26.210 let's pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you 00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:29.170 that you have made our body, our world, this 00:00:29.170 --> 00:00:31.690 universe. with extreme complexity beyond what 00:00:31.690 --> 00:00:35.149 mankind has been able to figure out. And to that 00:00:35.149 --> 00:00:37.490 end, then, we have doctors all over the place 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:39.109 and hospitals all over the place and scientists 00:00:39.109 --> 00:00:41.109 all over the place working to heal the human 00:00:41.109 --> 00:00:43.270 body the best they know how. Many of them know 00:00:43.270 --> 00:00:45.770 you personally and are doing it out of the goodness 00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:47.950 of their heart, service, and because they love 00:00:47.950 --> 00:00:50.310 to take care of people. Others don't know you 00:00:50.310 --> 00:00:53.609 and need to. And then, Lord, we could list the 00:00:53.609 --> 00:00:55.810 people. I've heard that Hannah's sick. Holly's 00:00:55.810 --> 00:00:57.729 been sick for several days since Saturday, I 00:00:57.729 --> 00:00:59.859 believe. Natalie. It was the urgent care just 00:00:59.859 --> 00:01:02.179 now. We've got Kyler and Carson have both been 00:01:02.179 --> 00:01:04.079 sick. Caitlin's been sick. I don't know who else 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:06.159 I'm missing, but we continue to pray for Mike 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:08.299 and Jamie, what's going on there, and for Rachel, 00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:10.019 even though she's had a good report recently. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:12.379 She's got a long way to go to be fully out of 00:01:12.379 --> 00:01:13.900 the woods, and we just ask that you take care 00:01:13.900 --> 00:01:15.560 of her. We'll pray for Carrie, what's going on 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:17.500 with him. We'll pray for Chris McCrory, dealing 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:19.599 with bone -on -bone in his knee and needing a 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:21.599 knee replacement. Father, we just pray that you 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:23.599 would take care of our hurt. We bring our burdens 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:25.500 to you, that you can carry them and make of them 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:28.019 what you will. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:30.620 Okay, so we've been talking about for the last 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:33.260 several weeks, we've been talking about how to 00:01:33.260 --> 00:01:39.439 basically prove via argument that God is real, 00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:44.000 that he exists. What happened? Oh, no. You know 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:48.019 what? It's two -sided and you only have one side. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.040 So not only did I mess up the hole punches, but 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:54.900 then I messed up and made it only one -sided. 00:01:58.060 --> 00:01:59.719 And you have the back side, not even the front 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:02.579 side. Sheesh. So let me go get it. I'll be right 00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:34.129 back. Okay. Brother Tim is sick, and Miss Chris 00:02:34.129 --> 00:02:36.210 is sick, and I forgot to mention them, so pray 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:42.349 for them too. All right. So, as I started to 00:02:42.349 --> 00:02:46.469 say, we have been... working through like proofs 00:02:46.469 --> 00:02:48.550 for God. How do we know that God exists? And 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:51.110 if somebody is struggling with a concern, how 00:02:51.110 --> 00:02:53.930 do we help them understand not only, you know, 00:02:53.930 --> 00:02:56.449 that God exists, but what kind of a God he has 00:02:56.449 --> 00:02:59.710 to be, right? And so in that, then if you look 00:02:59.710 --> 00:03:02.409 at the very top of your page there, it says exists, 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:05.669 right? And then these are the character traits 00:03:05.669 --> 00:03:08.870 of God that we proved. We'll recap the proof. 00:03:08.949 --> 00:03:10.289 So don't worry about the fact if you can't prove 00:03:10.289 --> 00:03:11.849 them right now, we'll recap that before we're 00:03:11.849 --> 00:03:13.460 done. But these are the things that we proved 00:03:13.460 --> 00:03:16.539 with the logical arguments that we did two weeks 00:03:16.539 --> 00:03:18.860 ago and four weeks ago. All right. So the first 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:21.120 one is that he exists. Does anybody know what 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:25.400 the N is? Okay. It is that he is necessary. Okay. 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:31.060 Necessary. N -E -C -E double S -A -R -Y. Necessary. 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:35.030 Okay. Then he is powerful. And transcendent. 00:03:35.030 --> 00:03:38.270 So transcendent means he exists outside creation. 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:42.370 We'll talk more about that later. So if you had 00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:45.229 a fish tank and your fish were in the fish tank, 00:03:45.330 --> 00:03:47.729 to them you are transcendent. You exist outside 00:03:47.729 --> 00:03:52.150 the fish tank. And then non -contingent. Non 00:03:52.150 --> 00:03:54.479 -contingent. Which means that... It's a being 00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:56.460 that's not based on anything. It doesn't require 00:03:56.460 --> 00:04:01.599 anything to exist, like a certain situation or 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:03.919 faith. They used to talk about the old Greek 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:05.639 gods and stuff, and they'd say if nobody believed 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:07.439 in them, they would cease to exist. Well, our 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:10.219 God has to be non -contingent. He doesn't need 00:04:10.219 --> 00:04:13.780 anything to exist. And then intelligent, personal. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:15.719 We know what those things mean. Personal means 00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:17.420 he relates on a personal level. Intelligent, 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:19.949 obviously, we know what that means. Moral. which 00:04:19.949 --> 00:04:22.189 means he has a set of standards. These are all 00:04:22.189 --> 00:04:24.889 on the top there. Got it? Okay, and then say 00:04:24.889 --> 00:04:28.870 again. Yeah, exists, necessary, powerful, transcendent, 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.269 non -contingent. These are all across the top 00:04:31.269 --> 00:04:34.649 of that page. Intelligent, personal, moral, and 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:38.259 then E is engaged. Okay, which means he's still 00:04:38.259 --> 00:04:40.399 doing something. There's a pretty famous president 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:42.240 of the United States. Well, I don't think it 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:43.540 was a president. It was a founding father of 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:45.560 the United States who believed that God, he was 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:47.980 a deist and believed that God exists but doesn't 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:50.639 affect humanity. He's just distant. Okay, and 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:52.500 we know that that's not able to be true based 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:54.100 on the proofs that we did. Okay, and then the 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:56.579 last one is unique. Okay, so these are the character 00:04:56.579 --> 00:04:59.660 traits. So now, remember that everything that 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:03.339 we did so far does not prove that our God exists 00:05:03.339 --> 00:05:06.759 or that a God like we believe in exists. God 00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:10.379 like the Bible teaches exists necessarily, but 00:05:10.379 --> 00:05:13.600 it proves that that God must have these characteristics. 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:16.360 So if these characteristics then line up with 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:18.620 the God of the Bible, then the God of the Bible 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:20.519 can be that God. And that's where we're going 00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:22.639 next. Before we get there, we're going to look 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:26.180 at three ways that people see things, if you 00:05:26.180 --> 00:05:29.339 will, three belief systems and why they don't 00:05:29.339 --> 00:05:31.870 work. So the first one is atheism. Anybody know 00:05:31.870 --> 00:05:34.069 what atheists believe, just generically speaking? 00:05:34.370 --> 00:05:37.069 Right. They do not believe that God exists. They 00:05:37.069 --> 00:05:40.050 believe God does not exist. And then the weakest 00:05:40.050 --> 00:05:43.649 form of atheist says, well, at least if he exists 00:05:43.649 --> 00:05:45.449 or something like him exists, then we can't know 00:05:45.449 --> 00:05:47.569 anything about him, right? Which is really getting 00:05:47.569 --> 00:05:50.209 to be strong agnosticism, which we'll talk about 00:05:50.209 --> 00:05:52.970 in a second. So atheism and agnosticism are like 00:05:52.970 --> 00:05:55.970 stepbrothers. Atheism says there is no God. I 00:05:55.970 --> 00:05:59.110 know there is no God, okay? So there's a couple 00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:01.839 of logical fallacies in that. The first one is 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:04.040 it requires a complete and exhaustive knowledge 00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:06.639 of all creation. So in order for them to know 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:08.079 that there is no God, they would essentially 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:10.000 have to be God. That make sense? In order to 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.879 know that there cannot possibly be a God anywhere 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:14.079 in the universe, then they would have to know 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:15.800 everything that is in the universe everywhere 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:17.980 in the universe. And that doesn't even make any 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:20.500 sense, okay? And then the second part is it does 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:23.060 not meet our requirements as discerned. Obviously, 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:25.420 it says that God does not exist. So therefore, 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:28.139 he's not necessary, powerful, transcendent, non 00:06:28.139 --> 00:06:30.990 -contingent, intelligent, personal, moral. engaged, 00:06:31.050 --> 00:06:32.970 and not unique. So he's none of those things. 00:06:33.129 --> 00:06:36.569 So atheism does not work. Remember, we had proofs 00:06:36.569 --> 00:06:38.689 that got us those characteristics on the top 00:06:38.689 --> 00:06:40.509 up there. So we're going to look at them again 00:06:40.509 --> 00:06:42.649 before we're done, but right now we know those 00:06:42.649 --> 00:06:44.779 are the characteristics of God. So we know that 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.339 atheism does not work because we have proofs 00:06:47.339 --> 00:06:49.720 that say that God is personal, for example. So 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:52.620 if God is personal and he clearly exists and 00:06:52.620 --> 00:06:55.100 he's personal, then atheism is not correct. That 00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:58.279 make sense? Okay. The next one is called agnosticism 00:06:58.279 --> 00:07:01.220 and is the stepbrother of atheism. Agnosticism 00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:04.319 is actually not a statement about God at all. 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:06.360 It's not a belief about God at all. Basically, 00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:09.560 agnosticism just says, I don't know if I can 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:11.490 believe that there is a God. If there's God out 00:07:11.490 --> 00:07:13.009 there somewhere, I don't know what we can know 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:14.310 about him. I don't think we can know anything 00:07:14.310 --> 00:07:17.189 about him. And so really all it does is tell 00:07:17.189 --> 00:07:18.930 you what that person thinks. It doesn't tell 00:07:18.930 --> 00:07:21.449 you anything about God at all. So it's not a 00:07:21.449 --> 00:07:24.149 belief system that actually stands against God's 00:07:24.149 --> 00:07:25.410 existence because it says, well, I don't know 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:27.350 if he exists or not. Or it's necessity. So, well, 00:07:27.410 --> 00:07:29.009 if he's necessary, he probably does exist, but 00:07:29.009 --> 00:07:31.290 I don't know if he exists and like that. So agnosticism 00:07:31.290 --> 00:07:33.529 is not a belief system that speaks about God 00:07:33.529 --> 00:07:36.189 at all. It speaks about the person's beliefs. 00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:38.170 Can you get that door? Somebody's got it. Okay. 00:07:39.339 --> 00:07:42.100 The other one was unlocked. That one was unlocked. 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:48.379 Anyway, welcome. All right. So also notice then, 00:07:48.459 --> 00:07:50.819 because they don't know whether or not there 00:07:50.819 --> 00:07:53.779 is a God, they're denying personal. So if God 00:07:53.779 --> 00:07:57.240 is personal, then they would know that he exists. 00:07:57.660 --> 00:08:01.360 And so on. So agnosticism does not line up with 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.420 the qualifiers that we have determined by our 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:05.980 proofs. And then the last one we'll look at today, 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:07.980 we're going to do some more in two weeks, but 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:10.480 this last one for today is called pantheism. 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:14.459 So pantheism is that everything that exists is 00:08:14.459 --> 00:08:18.339 God. I actually had this the one time I was witnessing 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:20.519 with a person over on Main Street and they tried 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.120 to tell me that God was everything and in everything 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:26.079 and every stick was God and every tree was God 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.759 and every star was God. And you can kind of understand 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:31.300 how a lost person or a blind person spiritually 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:34.320 might fall on that because all creation testifies 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:37.120 about God. And so if you take the testimony and 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.320 you say, oh, the testimony tells me that the 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:41.159 tree is God. The testimony tells me that the 00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:43.240 Son is God rather than the testimony tells me 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:45.440 about God. So that's how people get into that. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:47.700 Anyway, so they say everything that exists is 00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:50.980 God. God is impersonal. When we die, we are absorbed 00:08:50.980 --> 00:08:53.600 into the impersonal whole. And this is kind of 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:55.840 like Star Wars, right? There's the force, light 00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:58.700 side, dark side. You die, you're absorbed back 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:01.639 into the force, right? That's a pantheistic religion 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:04.240 or thinking about God. So this doesn't work. 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:06.940 Because it fails to account for the features 00:09:06.940 --> 00:09:11.100 of God expressed in the cosmological design and 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:13.919 moral arguments that we looked at. This belief 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:17.179 system does not allow for engagement since that's 00:09:17.179 --> 00:09:19.480 a trait of persons, not the impersonal. So in 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:21.519 other words, you can't engage with God because 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:23.669 everything is God. God doesn't engage with us 00:09:23.669 --> 00:09:25.409 because everything is God. In other words, we're 00:09:25.409 --> 00:09:27.789 part of God. So if I'm part of God, then there's 00:09:27.789 --> 00:09:30.750 no engaging. I don't engage with God. I might 00:09:30.750 --> 00:09:33.289 engage with other parts of God, right? So it 00:09:33.289 --> 00:09:35.529 doesn't work. It doesn't fit the things that 00:09:35.529 --> 00:09:38.309 we proved. And nothing can be transcendent if 00:09:38.309 --> 00:09:40.350 everything is part of God. So how could there 00:09:40.350 --> 00:09:43.230 be a God that's transcendent outside, existing 00:09:43.230 --> 00:09:45.950 outside all of creation, if everything that is 00:09:45.950 --> 00:09:48.370 creation is actually God? And we've already proved 00:09:48.370 --> 00:09:50.929 that God is transcendent, okay? All right, so 00:09:50.929 --> 00:09:52.330 now we're going to remember. the qualifications. 00:09:52.350 --> 00:09:54.710 So is there anybody here that feels like they 00:09:54.710 --> 00:09:58.129 understand the proofs for God? Because when I 00:09:58.129 --> 00:10:00.490 looked at it, even I didn't think so. I'm like, 00:10:00.570 --> 00:10:02.570 I don't think I can prove all 10 of those things. 00:10:02.750 --> 00:10:04.970 Can you? Anybody can do it? Can anybody prove 00:10:04.970 --> 00:10:08.570 by any of the arguments that we used that God 00:10:08.570 --> 00:10:10.789 exists? Okay, give me one. Tell me how you would 00:10:10.789 --> 00:10:12.669 tell. Say somebody needed to know that God exists. 00:10:12.830 --> 00:10:14.750 How would you explain to them that you know that 00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:21.129 God exists? Okay, good. So that's the design 00:10:21.129 --> 00:10:24.110 argument that you're using there. And that argues 00:10:24.110 --> 00:10:26.750 for a lot of things actually. It argues for his 00:10:26.750 --> 00:10:29.789 existence. It argues that he's powerful and intelligent. 00:10:32.310 --> 00:10:35.250 I guess you could say non -contingent. That's 00:10:35.250 --> 00:10:37.769 weak, but maybe. So it gets those other ones 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:40.870 for sure. Exactly. So now we're going to go over 00:10:40.870 --> 00:10:43.250 them real quick and see which of these traits 00:10:43.250 --> 00:10:45.669 they argue for. And on the back, we have some 00:10:45.669 --> 00:10:47.570 case studies of people that have the question, 00:10:47.730 --> 00:10:50.230 and then we'll see if we can answer them. So 00:10:50.230 --> 00:10:52.269 the first one is the cosmological argument. This 00:10:52.269 --> 00:10:53.710 was the first one we went through before, too. 00:10:53.830 --> 00:10:56.809 It says that God exists. So observed reality, 00:10:57.110 --> 00:10:59.950 that means what we can see is contingent. That 00:10:59.950 --> 00:11:02.190 means it's based on something. else so everything 00:11:02.190 --> 00:11:04.809 that you can see requires something else right 00:11:04.809 --> 00:11:09.269 something must not be contingent or then it would 00:11:09.269 --> 00:11:12.389 require a cause to right so whatever it was if 00:11:12.389 --> 00:11:15.210 you say Joe Bob created the first million humans 00:11:15.210 --> 00:11:17.970 well who created Joe Bob well aliens from Mars 00:11:17.970 --> 00:11:20.649 created the Joe Bob well who created the aliens 00:11:20.649 --> 00:11:23.230 and so on so you go back as far as you always 00:11:23.230 --> 00:11:25.009 have there always to be something that is non 00:11:25.009 --> 00:11:28.500 -contingent to be the first cause okay And so 00:11:28.500 --> 00:11:31.399 that end there is necessary. So you can fill 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:34.220 in the blank, necessary. Okay. So that being 00:11:34.220 --> 00:11:38.100 must exist by its own nature, not related to 00:11:38.100 --> 00:11:42.460 time, matter, or conditions. Because time, matter, 00:11:42.519 --> 00:11:44.399 and conditions are all part of what? What are 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:46.299 time, matter, and conditions all part of? Say 00:11:46.299 --> 00:11:48.659 it again. I can't hear you. Nice and loud. You're 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:52.919 not sure? Okay, so you're saying those are contingent 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:55.580 things and God is non -contingent. That's true. 00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:58.600 Okay, so time, matter, and conditions are all 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:00.940 part of creation. They're what God made, right? 00:12:00.980 --> 00:12:03.679 So what do we call time? Time is actually the 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:06.240 way the planets work, the Solomon revolves, right? 00:12:06.379 --> 00:12:08.600 It's the passing of events. So none of those 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:11.259 events would be passing if God did not create 00:12:11.259 --> 00:12:13.879 creation, right? The planets would not be revolving 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:16.299 if God did not create creation. The clocks would 00:12:16.299 --> 00:12:19.399 not tick if God did not create creation. So all 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:21.759 of those things, time, matter, and conditions, 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:25.299 are all contingent on the creation of creation. 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:28.740 So something has to exist by its own nature without 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:32.500 those things. And that person is non -contingent, 00:12:32.500 --> 00:12:35.179 okay? And you can fill that blank in, non -contingent. 00:12:35.220 --> 00:12:38.679 This says that God is powerful because causing 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:42.200 literally everything requires immense causal 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.990 power. If you're going to create everything, 00:12:45.269 --> 00:12:47.509 we know that God spoke everything into existence. 00:12:47.509 --> 00:12:50.830 That is a lot of power. What we consider to be 00:12:50.830 --> 00:12:55.009 power. Our kid paints a picture at age eight. 00:12:55.070 --> 00:12:56.860 We look at it and it kind of looks like... what 00:12:56.860 --> 00:12:58.460 it's supposed to be. And we're like, wow, that's 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:00.340 power. That's cool. You're really doing a good 00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:02.139 job there. You're starting to look like what 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:04.500 you made it to look like, right? We recognize 00:13:04.500 --> 00:13:06.639 that. You build a car from all the component 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:09.419 parts. You have causal power. You put it all 00:13:09.419 --> 00:13:12.080 together. You made it work, right? Well, so God 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:15.019 has power. Space and time begin with the universe. 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:18.279 And so the original cause must exist outside 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:21.919 the universe and therefore is transcendent. So 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:24.340 the cosmological argument, that first argument 00:13:24.340 --> 00:13:28.179 proves God's necessary nature, his non -contingent 00:13:28.179 --> 00:13:30.840 nature, his power, and his transcendent. That's 00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:34.279 four of those top ten traits up there proved 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:37.340 by that one argument. And so again, to take them 00:13:37.340 --> 00:13:41.279 back to atheism, atheism denies his existence, 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:45.059 therefore his power, his non -contingent nature, 00:13:45.259 --> 00:13:48.860 and his necessity. So that's wrong. Because we 00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:52.039 have proofs. We know that those things are true. 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:53.940 The cosmological argument proves those things. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:55.720 Then the design argument. This is the one that 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:58.360 RJ used. The universe exhibits fine -tuning. 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:00.340 It goes even further than just the complexity 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:03.340 and biology of the human body. It also, single 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:06.100 -cell organisms that have many parts that work 00:14:06.100 --> 00:14:08.120 in very intricate ways, even though they're only 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:10.480 a single cell. So they can't possibly have evolved 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.120 up from other cells because they're not composed 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:14.139 of other cells. They're just a single -cell organism. 00:14:14.379 --> 00:14:16.840 There's no evolution possible. And yet they're 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:20.500 extremely intricate. The rules, they say there's 00:14:20.500 --> 00:14:23.059 300 rules that are required for life to exist 00:14:23.059 --> 00:14:24.960 on the earth. And if they vary just a little 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.000 bit in either direction, all life would be wiped 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:31.419 out. So that is amazing intelligence. It implies... 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:35.500 complexity and rational selection and craftsmanship. 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:38.259 And so that's intelligence. Then it says designing 00:14:38.259 --> 00:14:41.259 and sustaining a universe requires enormous capabilities. 00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:43.399 So that's power, which we have. So now we have 00:14:43.399 --> 00:14:45.620 the cosmological argument makes power and the 00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:48.679 design argument also power. Fine tuning implies 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:52.600 choice. Physical laws are not logically necessary. 00:14:52.740 --> 00:14:55.039 The blank there is necessary. So in other words, 00:14:55.059 --> 00:14:58.240 is gravity necessary? or necessary as a constant? 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:01.320 No, it didn't have to be that way. Now, it needs 00:15:01.320 --> 00:15:04.559 to be that way for life to exist, but many planets 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:07.279 it's not, right? Meteorites don't have that. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.860 Stars have way too much of it, things like that. 00:15:10.509 --> 00:15:12.570 In order for it to be the way it is, something 00:15:12.570 --> 00:15:14.769 had to decide for that. Something had to make 00:15:14.769 --> 00:15:17.509 one one way and one another. And so what we're 00:15:17.509 --> 00:15:20.190 arguing for there then becomes intelligence, 00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:23.309 power, and decision, right? Which then I got 00:15:23.309 --> 00:15:25.269 ahead of myself a little bit. Okay, so choice 00:15:25.269 --> 00:15:28.389 implies agency. If someone makes a choice, that 00:15:28.389 --> 00:15:30.789 means they are an agent in that situation. Agency 00:15:30.789 --> 00:15:33.470 implies personhood. That means that it's a being, 00:15:33.590 --> 00:15:36.190 right? If somebody can carry on something, then 00:15:36.190 --> 00:15:38.610 they are a being. If your dog can fetch a bone, 00:15:38.830 --> 00:15:41.889 your dog is a being. If your dog can't literally 00:15:41.889 --> 00:15:44.590 do anything, it's a vegetable, four legs and 00:15:44.590 --> 00:15:47.909 brain dead and whatever, it might be living and 00:15:47.909 --> 00:15:50.309 breathing, right? But basically, it's a living 00:15:50.309 --> 00:15:52.320 and breathing rug. Because it can't do anything, 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:55.980 right? And so we understand that agency, the 00:15:55.980 --> 00:15:59.539 ability to do things, implies personhood. And 00:15:59.539 --> 00:16:03.240 then an impersonal force cannot decide constants. 00:16:03.500 --> 00:16:06.399 So it's personal. So the P is personal, right? 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:09.139 So in the design argument, then not only can 00:16:09.139 --> 00:16:11.320 we prove that he exists, that he's necessary 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:13.240 and non -contingent, but on top of that, we can 00:16:13.240 --> 00:16:15.879 say that he's intelligent and powerful and personal. 00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:17.980 So now we've got almost all the traits on the 00:16:17.980 --> 00:16:19.940 top already figured out. And then we had the 00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:23.600 moral argument, which we did. If moral values 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:26.159 exist, there must be a moral grounding for those 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.720 values. Objective moral laws require a transcending 00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:31.720 grounding for them. In other words, somebody 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:35.059 came up with this idea. And since the very beginning, 00:16:35.259 --> 00:16:37.460 mankind walked the earth. Even if you don't talk 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:40.299 about the Bible and Adam and Eve, the history 00:16:40.299 --> 00:16:42.320 of men as they have traced it, they've always 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.340 accepted that certain things are okay and certain 00:16:44.340 --> 00:16:46.980 things are not okay. Now the categories were 00:16:46.980 --> 00:16:51.049 brighter. broader back then. So it has maybe 00:16:51.049 --> 00:16:54.289 more, like there are more social mores than there 00:16:54.289 --> 00:16:56.490 used to be. So there was a time a thousand years 00:16:56.490 --> 00:16:58.450 ago, for example, that nobody said, Gesundheit, 00:16:58.529 --> 00:17:02.029 bless you. Nobody covered their sneeze with their 00:17:02.029 --> 00:17:05.329 elbow. Many of those little things like that 00:17:05.329 --> 00:17:07.329 had never been invented. But whether or not you 00:17:07.329 --> 00:17:08.670 could murder a person, whether or not you could 00:17:08.670 --> 00:17:10.230 rape somebody, whether or not you could beat 00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:12.970 up a child, things like that, those things always 00:17:12.970 --> 00:17:15.769 have some moral connotation to them. So where'd 00:17:15.769 --> 00:17:18.380 they come from? And the answer is they're objective, 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:21.019 which means they came from something outside 00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:23.680 the people who are following them. So God is 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:26.619 transcendent and God is moral because he made 00:17:26.619 --> 00:17:30.880 up those rules. They are commands, not just prescriptions, 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:33.839 and therefore they require a commander. If there 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.900 is a command, somebody gave the command. And 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:40.019 the army, they say, we have to move the rock. 00:17:40.710 --> 00:17:42.750 Why? You're a private, I'm a private, why do 00:17:42.750 --> 00:17:44.210 we have to move the rock? Well, because the corporal 00:17:44.210 --> 00:17:45.990 said we have to move the rock. He's a higher 00:17:45.990 --> 00:17:47.730 level than me, so we have to move the rock. Okay, 00:17:47.809 --> 00:17:50.130 so we'll go move the rock, right? So if there 00:17:50.130 --> 00:17:52.450 was a command, there has to be a commander. That 00:17:52.450 --> 00:17:54.549 means he's personal. God has a trait of being 00:17:54.549 --> 00:17:57.150 personal. Also, he's moral, because that's what 00:17:57.150 --> 00:17:59.150 we're talking about is a moral code. And then 00:17:59.150 --> 00:18:02.250 he's engaged. The E is engaged. So moral duties 00:18:02.250 --> 00:18:05.279 are owed to someone. A moral lawgiver is not 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:08.000 indifferent. Justice, accountability, and moral 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:10.559 order imply involvement in the moral structure 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:13.640 of reality. So in other words, if God said do 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:16.420 this or else, and he did a number of times, and 00:18:16.420 --> 00:18:18.920 sometimes he said do this and I'll do this, then 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:21.779 that... that would make him a moral actor and 00:18:21.779 --> 00:18:25.000 he's engaged with society. Okay. And so we know 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.980 in the Bible that all these traits line up. So 00:18:27.980 --> 00:18:30.920 he, let's see, he has involvement in the moral 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:32.619 structure of reality that makes him personal. 00:18:32.779 --> 00:18:35.380 So it's personal, engaged, existing. And then 00:18:35.380 --> 00:18:37.559 we already got transcendent and moral from earlier 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:39.660 in the same paragraph. So now we've got all of 00:18:39.660 --> 00:18:41.799 them on the top, except which one? And if you're 00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:43.900 looking ahead, you know, unique, right? The only 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:45.740 one that's on the top that we've not covered 00:18:45.740 --> 00:18:48.680 in those three arguments is unique. So if the 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:50.920 the necessary, the word there is necessary being, 00:18:51.099 --> 00:18:53.839 is the grounds for all existence, meaning he 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:56.759 has pure actuality. He brought everything into 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:00.299 existence himself. If he's infinite and unlimited, 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:03.539 which God is infinite and unlimited, then two 00:19:03.539 --> 00:19:06.900 such beings could not exist. So there have always 00:19:06.900 --> 00:19:09.019 been lots of religions, false religions over 00:19:09.019 --> 00:19:11.799 the years that have had multiple gods in the 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:15.369 pantheon. And even now, There is a large swath 00:19:15.369 --> 00:19:17.809 of charismatic Christianity that would add Mary 00:19:17.809 --> 00:19:20.430 as the fourth person in the Trinity, which is 00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:23.690 heretical, right? The Bible says no. It's an 00:19:23.690 --> 00:19:25.769 absolute sin against God to ever do that. And 00:19:25.769 --> 00:19:27.769 the Pope, because they're Catholic, the Pope 00:19:27.769 --> 00:19:29.869 has restrained them from doing that to this point, 00:19:29.930 --> 00:19:33.130 and the bishops and so on. But there are bishops 00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:35.579 who support that. And there actually was a delegation, 00:19:35.779 --> 00:19:38.099 not during this pope's reign, but in the previous 00:19:38.099 --> 00:19:40.039 pope's reign, that actually came and requested, 00:19:40.380 --> 00:19:42.619 asked the pope to name Mary as the fourth person 00:19:42.619 --> 00:19:44.460 of the Trinity. And it was from the part of the 00:19:44.460 --> 00:19:46.799 world where Catholicism is growing. Everywhere 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:48.700 else in the world, Catholicism is dying. But 00:19:48.700 --> 00:19:50.299 there's a huge section of the world where it's 00:19:50.299 --> 00:19:52.740 growing. And so the fear was that this pope would 00:19:52.740 --> 00:19:54.660 be from that region, and he would name Mary as 00:19:54.660 --> 00:19:56.720 the fourth person of the Trinity, which is unbiblical. 00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:00.460 So that's adding to a pantheon. That's adding 00:20:00.460 --> 00:20:03.990 another god. But you can't do that. So if the 00:20:03.990 --> 00:20:05.569 necessary being is the grounds for all existence, 00:20:05.809 --> 00:20:08.390 pure actuality, infinite and unlimited, two beings 00:20:08.390 --> 00:20:11.650 could not exist. That would require a limitation 00:20:11.650 --> 00:20:14.230 or a differentiation. How do you know that Tony 00:20:14.230 --> 00:20:17.029 Tate and I are not the same person? Because he's 00:20:17.029 --> 00:20:19.420 over there and I'm over here. Because he looks 00:20:19.420 --> 00:20:21.880 like he looks and I look like I look. He talks 00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:25.039 like he talks. I talk like I talk. Okay. If I 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:27.480 am infinite, then there would be no room in the, 00:20:27.579 --> 00:20:29.920 if the way I talk is infinite and covers every 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:32.019 possibility, then there would be no room left 00:20:32.019 --> 00:20:34.660 for Tony Tate to have a way to talk. If I am 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:37.299 infinite and everything that I cover, all the 00:20:37.299 --> 00:20:39.599 looks of anything that could ever look like anything, 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:42.019 right? Then there's no room for him to have a 00:20:42.019 --> 00:20:44.720 separate look. If I am infinite and my boundaries 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:49.089 of my skin involve all that is. As far as the 00:20:49.089 --> 00:20:51.089 stars and everywhere, like I fill the entire 00:20:51.089 --> 00:20:53.410 world, then there would be no room for Tony Tate 00:20:53.410 --> 00:20:57.049 to have a skin. See, so God has to be unique, 00:20:57.230 --> 00:20:59.549 a truly necessary, the word there is necessary, 00:20:59.650 --> 00:21:02.910 infinite being could not be divided. or multiplied. 00:21:03.150 --> 00:21:06.650 Therefore, uniqueness follows logically, okay? 00:21:06.829 --> 00:21:08.750 So we didn't talk about the actual arguments, 00:21:08.769 --> 00:21:12.109 but we see where the arguments, which part comes, 00:21:12.390 --> 00:21:15.910 okay? So these are the three arguments summarized 00:21:15.910 --> 00:21:17.529 for you. We're not going to read the whole thing, 00:21:17.609 --> 00:21:19.289 but I'm just going to take just a couple quick 00:21:19.289 --> 00:21:22.750 excerpts just to remind you, okay? I would encourage 00:21:22.750 --> 00:21:24.750 you to read them, all right? So the first one 00:21:24.750 --> 00:21:27.750 is the cosmological argument. contingent things 00:21:27.750 --> 00:21:30.289 exist that is to say things that are based on 00:21:30.289 --> 00:21:32.029 other things exist everything that exists is 00:21:32.029 --> 00:21:34.970 like that so everything has a cause right can 00:21:34.970 --> 00:21:37.069 continue things require an explanation outside 00:21:37.069 --> 00:21:39.650 themselves the universe is contingent therefore 00:21:39.650 --> 00:21:41.789 the universe requires an external explanation 00:21:41.789 --> 00:21:43.569 you go down to the bottom there it says therefore 00:21:43.569 --> 00:21:47.250 there must be a necessary that's a blank non 00:21:47.250 --> 00:21:49.569 -contingent that's a blank the spelling is on 00:21:49.569 --> 00:21:52.039 the front if you need it being that grounds all 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:55.700 reality a that's a blank necessary transcendent 00:21:55.700 --> 00:21:58.759 powerful cause exists okay then the next argument 00:21:58.759 --> 00:22:00.940 was the design argument and it goes like this 00:22:00.940 --> 00:22:03.180 the universe contains fine -tuned constants and 00:22:03.180 --> 00:22:06.339 complex information stuff like that happens because 00:22:06.339 --> 00:22:09.700 of a mind basically The best explanation of fine 00:22:09.700 --> 00:22:11.980 -tuning is an intelligent cause. And then the 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:14.579 last one was a moral argument. If objective moral 00:22:14.579 --> 00:22:18.220 values and duties exist, they require a sufficient 00:22:18.220 --> 00:22:21.480 foundation. Objective moral values and duties 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:25.140 do exist. Therefore, a transcendent moral lawgiver 00:22:25.140 --> 00:22:28.099 exists, okay? So that's the three arguments now 00:22:28.099 --> 00:22:29.720 broken down. You got them right there in front 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:32.380 of you so you can use them. So together, here's 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:34.700 the set of values again. These arguments point 00:22:34.700 --> 00:22:38.930 to a being that is, the N is? We've said it a 00:22:38.930 --> 00:22:42.049 bunch of times. He is necessary. He is transcendent, 00:22:42.049 --> 00:22:45.869 which means he exists outside of his creation. 00:22:46.069 --> 00:22:49.069 And then he exists, which means he exists, right? 00:22:49.170 --> 00:22:51.950 He's real. He exists. He is unique, which means 00:22:51.950 --> 00:22:54.130 no one else is like him. We can be like him a 00:22:54.130 --> 00:22:56.710 little bit, but we're not the same as him. He 00:22:56.710 --> 00:22:59.470 is powerful. He has the power to do things. He 00:22:59.470 --> 00:23:02.170 is non -contingent. The blank in the middle is 00:23:02.170 --> 00:23:04.250 non -contingent, which means he is not dependent 00:23:04.250 --> 00:23:07.650 on anything to be who he is. God does not need 00:23:07.650 --> 00:23:09.569 you to believe in him. In fact, if you choose 00:23:09.569 --> 00:23:11.869 not to believe in him, that's your own stupidity, 00:23:11.869 --> 00:23:13.650 basically, especially based on these arguments. 00:23:13.849 --> 00:23:17.009 And then intelligent. He is intelligent. And 00:23:17.009 --> 00:23:20.589 then the P was what? Personal. RJ's nailing it. 00:23:20.670 --> 00:23:22.730 He's got every one of these things down. Personal, 00:23:23.089 --> 00:23:27.339 moral, and engaged. OK, so again, if you can 00:23:27.339 --> 00:23:28.980 nail down those traits and we're going to use 00:23:28.980 --> 00:23:30.539 them again in two weeks, if you can get those 00:23:30.539 --> 00:23:32.539 things in your head and when you're talking to 00:23:32.539 --> 00:23:34.240 people, you'll hear them say something like, 00:23:34.299 --> 00:23:37.339 well, I question whether or not, you know, there 00:23:37.339 --> 00:23:39.440 really had to be someone to create the universe. 00:23:39.579 --> 00:23:42.160 Or I question whether or not, you know, really 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:44.839 is abortion really wrong? You know, why is it 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:47.420 wrong? You know, and things like that. And you'll 00:23:47.420 --> 00:23:50.099 realize what they're doing is they're questioning 00:23:50.099 --> 00:23:52.799 God's traits in order to get out from underneath 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.039 God's standard is what they're doing. They don't 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:56.960 want to. believe that God exists because if God 00:23:56.960 --> 00:23:58.579 does exist, then they have to make some kind 00:23:58.579 --> 00:24:00.480 of a decision. I have to do something with that. 00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:02.000 If God is real, I have to do something with that, 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:04.000 right? If God is real and he's moral, then I 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:06.480 have to be moral. And I'm not. In my flesh, I'm 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:09.359 not moral. And then, so then what do I do? Just 00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:11.519 go to hell? Be away from God for eternity? You 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:13.319 know, that's the end result of that. Well, that's 00:24:13.319 --> 00:24:15.420 not good. I need a savior. I need someone to 00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:17.839 stop that from happening. Jesus comes in. Jesus 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:20.140 saves me. Now I don't go to hell for eternity. 00:24:20.359 --> 00:24:23.319 And a moral God can rightly not send me to hell, 00:24:23.319 --> 00:24:25.779 even though I sinned again. him because Jesus 00:24:25.779 --> 00:24:59.869 paid the price make sense yeah Yeah, so let's 00:24:59.869 --> 00:25:03.519 talk about that for a second. We take the extreme 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:06.619 and we say women and children. To us, that's 00:25:06.619 --> 00:25:10.279 the extreme. But it's not a question of a universal 00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:12.980 moral standard because there are people in prison 00:25:12.980 --> 00:25:15.319 right now who ate women and children. There are 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:17.440 people who raped women or beat them or killed 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:21.000 them. And they may or may not accept that what 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:22.579 they did was wrong. They may or may not think 00:25:22.579 --> 00:25:23.960 it was wrong. They may say, well, I wouldn't 00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:25.039 have killed her if she wouldn't have been so 00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:28.460 lippy. And they may argue that morally that's 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:30.640 okay. That's not the question. It's not the question 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:33.019 of whether. or not everybody has the same moral 00:25:33.019 --> 00:25:35.579 standard. The question of is there a universal 00:25:35.579 --> 00:25:38.319 moral standard does not mean that the universal 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:40.660 moral standard is the same for everybody. But 00:25:40.660 --> 00:25:43.960 every person, no matter how bad they are, For 00:25:43.960 --> 00:25:46.980 example, Jeffrey Dahmer, who was the guy who 00:25:46.980 --> 00:25:49.660 went to jail and then he was put to death eventually. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:51.559 And the last week he was alive, he accepted Christ, 00:25:51.720 --> 00:25:54.160 allegedly. He said he accepted Christ. But Jeffrey 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:55.940 Dahmer, for example, may have been somebody who 00:25:55.940 --> 00:25:57.660 believed that you don't tell a lie or you don't 00:25:57.660 --> 00:25:59.259 take money that doesn't belong to you. So he 00:25:59.259 --> 00:26:01.640 had a moral code. I'll get you in a second, Tim. 00:26:01.740 --> 00:26:03.940 He had a moral code, even though his moral code 00:26:03.940 --> 00:26:06.700 did not stop him from murdering people and eating 00:26:06.700 --> 00:26:09.059 their body parts. So the fact is, if the only 00:26:09.059 --> 00:26:11.849 way that it would not. this argument of moral 00:26:11.849 --> 00:26:14.710 standards would not hold up is that the people 00:26:14.710 --> 00:26:18.349 in general did not have a moral code in general. 00:26:18.569 --> 00:26:19.910 Does that make sense? It's not that they have 00:26:19.910 --> 00:26:22.690 the same moral code, but it's that there is a 00:26:22.690 --> 00:26:26.769 moral code. And so there might be a classic example. 00:26:27.269 --> 00:26:30.309 In the Jewish society, for example, it was considered 00:26:30.309 --> 00:26:33.509 morally acceptable and even you were a person 00:26:33.509 --> 00:26:35.789 of prowess and intelligence if you could lie 00:26:35.789 --> 00:26:37.769 to a government official and get away with it. 00:26:37.809 --> 00:26:39.730 When I was growing up, there was a moral standard. 00:26:39.980 --> 00:26:42.259 cop didn't see it, I didn't do it, okay? That 00:26:42.259 --> 00:26:44.039 was the standard. In our house, we joked about 00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:46.299 it all the time. And so you could run a red light 00:26:46.299 --> 00:26:47.700 if there were no police around. There was no 00:26:47.700 --> 00:26:52.240 reason not to. Yeah. So, but listen, it's only 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:55.000 illegal if you get caught is a moral standard. 00:26:55.200 --> 00:26:57.819 It's not an amoral standard, right? It's a moral 00:26:57.819 --> 00:27:00.039 standard. It's just a moral standard saying that 00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:02.839 I fully tolerate a set of things that I think 00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:04.859 these set of, even like, so if you say there 00:27:04.859 --> 00:27:06.680 are people who are for abortion and there are 00:27:06.680 --> 00:27:08.960 people who are against abortion, right? And arguably 00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:12.180 they are the pro -lifers who think that the baby 00:27:12.180 --> 00:27:15.220 should live no matter what. And the women's rights 00:27:15.220 --> 00:27:17.119 saying the woman should have a choice to do whatever 00:27:17.119 --> 00:27:19.059 she wants. That's what they arguably say. So 00:27:19.059 --> 00:27:21.359 they have a differing moral standard. Some people 00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:22.819 think abortion is okay and some people think 00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:25.119 it's not okay, right? But both of those things 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:27.839 are a moral standard. So the truth is mankind 00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:30.380 has an understanding of a moral standard. Even 00:27:30.380 --> 00:27:32.420 if Mike and I disagree what that moral standard 00:27:32.420 --> 00:27:35.019 is, I have a moral standard and he has one too. 00:27:35.180 --> 00:27:37.759 Why? Why were we treated with any concept or 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:40.680 any idea of any morals whatsoever? Somebody had 00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:43.019 to be the originator of the idea that something 00:27:43.019 --> 00:27:44.799 is moral and something is not, even though we 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:47.200 may completely disagree with what's moral. So 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:49.759 you go to Rome. for example, or let's take Germany. 00:27:49.819 --> 00:27:52.480 In Germany, they feed their six -year -olds wine 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:57.200 with dinner, right? And 10 years ago, 70 % of 00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.839 children were on Ritalin, for example, you know, 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:02.819 in several European countries. And America was 00:28:02.819 --> 00:28:05.220 going, oh, that's wrong. You can't be medicating 00:28:05.220 --> 00:28:08.160 your kids. But now in America, 70 % of children 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:11.069 are a ridiculously high percentage. At one time, 00:28:11.089 --> 00:28:12.789 it was morally acceptable for them to do it and 00:28:12.789 --> 00:28:16.490 not morally. Right now, abortion is illegal in 00:28:16.490 --> 00:28:18.869 Mexico for any circumstances. You're not allowed 00:28:18.869 --> 00:28:20.670 to get an abortion in Mexico. In Canada, you're 00:28:20.670 --> 00:28:22.750 allowed to get an abortion, but only under certain 00:28:22.750 --> 00:28:24.789 circumstances. In the United States of America, 00:28:25.009 --> 00:28:29.029 it's fully legal. And they live, the guys in 00:28:29.029 --> 00:28:32.269 Canada that believe in that moral code of no, 00:28:32.410 --> 00:28:34.259 of. abortion only under certain circumstances, 00:28:34.779 --> 00:28:38.339 are an hour away. And some people came from here 00:28:38.339 --> 00:28:40.720 and came from there. It's not a question of what 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:42.799 the moral code is. It's a question that there 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:46.819 is a moral code. Why do people even care? Why 00:28:46.819 --> 00:28:49.180 are we, what, that makes us different from animals, 00:28:49.339 --> 00:28:50.900 right? And the funny thing is like some animals 00:28:50.900 --> 00:28:53.880 seem to have a moral code. Like wolves, pack 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:56.660 animals, right? They seem to have an implication 00:28:56.660 --> 00:28:58.259 of moral code, even though their intelligence 00:28:58.259 --> 00:29:00.940 is so far, they'll never learn to read or program 00:29:00.940 --> 00:29:03.680 or change the TV remote, really. I mean, they 00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:06.880 may get bumble on it. But so why, why, why does 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:09.319 creation seem to have a moral code? And the answer 00:29:09.319 --> 00:29:11.640 is because it transcends your thought processes, 00:29:11.799 --> 00:29:14.039 my thought processes. It's not like I woke up 00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:15.640 one morning and decided what was right or wrong. 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:17.259 We never. even think about it and it's not your 00:29:17.259 --> 00:29:19.059 parents programmed you either because in order 00:29:19.059 --> 00:29:21.279 for your parents to program your moral code they'd 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:23.319 have to talk to you every moment from the time 00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:24.819 you got up to the time you went to bed every 00:29:24.819 --> 00:29:27.400 single day all day to program your moral code 00:29:27.400 --> 00:29:29.380 and we don't do that we just pick it up well 00:29:29.380 --> 00:29:31.380 now i've never been in this situation before 00:29:31.380 --> 00:29:33.619 what do i think i'm allowed to do here okay i 00:29:33.619 --> 00:29:35.619 pull up the red light there's no police officer 00:29:35.619 --> 00:29:37.720 around at all and the red light's been sitting 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:39.640 unchanged for two minutes and like it must be 00:29:39.640 --> 00:29:41.559 on a sensor and it's not going to change is it 00:29:41.559 --> 00:29:43.880 morally okay for me to run the red light or not 00:29:43.880 --> 00:29:46.420 now it's breaking the law but is it morally okay? 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:48.640 If the red light's broken, is it okay? Why do 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:51.180 I even care? Why would anybody even ever have 00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:53.539 that thought? We do have that thought. One person 00:29:53.539 --> 00:29:55.680 decides it's okay. Another person decides it's 00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:58.039 not okay. But we have the thought. And because 00:29:58.039 --> 00:29:59.839 we have the thought, that proves the kind of 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:02.660 God that exists. Pretty cool stuff, by the way. 00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:04.319 If you get in a conversation like that with somebody, 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:05.940 they'll go, well, I don't agree with you morally. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:08.019 And you say, well, you cannot agree with me morally, 00:30:08.140 --> 00:30:09.599 and all you're doing is proving that God exists. 00:30:09.940 --> 00:30:13.160 If we disagree on morals, we both have morals. 00:30:13.400 --> 00:30:14.589 That just proves we both have morals. have morals 00:30:14.589 --> 00:30:21.470 therefore God exists yeah exactly and so yeah 00:30:21.470 --> 00:30:24.950 yeah most people just yeah most people just don't 00:30:24.950 --> 00:30:26.829 they don't People don't want to take it to that 00:30:26.829 --> 00:30:28.369 next thought level. They just want to think, 00:30:28.410 --> 00:30:30.490 well, you're dumb and I'm intelligent. Your morals 00:30:30.490 --> 00:30:32.670 are ridiculous. My morals are right. And that's 00:30:32.670 --> 00:30:34.190 what most people want to do, but they won't go. 00:30:34.269 --> 00:30:36.190 But even though your morals are ridiculous compared 00:30:36.190 --> 00:30:38.430 to mine, by my assessment, I still recognize 00:30:38.430 --> 00:30:39.829 that you have morals and I have morals. Where'd 00:30:39.829 --> 00:30:41.349 that come from? That's the question. And the 00:30:41.349 --> 00:30:43.950 answer is God or is a God, right? We haven't 00:30:43.950 --> 00:30:45.609 proved that it's the Christian God or the Bible 00:30:45.609 --> 00:30:47.309 God yet. We're going to get there before we're 00:30:47.309 --> 00:30:49.309 done, but we're not, not today. Okay. We got, 00:30:49.329 --> 00:30:51.789 we got scripture here. So we do need to, that 00:30:51.789 --> 00:30:53.470 was cool by the way. I don't know if you enjoyed 00:30:53.470 --> 00:30:55.670 that or not, but that was cool to me. Okay, so 00:30:55.670 --> 00:30:59.450 look under number one right there. The N is necessary. 00:31:00.349 --> 00:31:06.869 Yes, sir? Cosmological argument. Yes, a necessary, 00:31:07.250 --> 00:31:10.490 yep, transcendent, powerful cause exists. So 00:31:10.490 --> 00:31:12.710 each one of those conclusions is really what 00:31:12.710 --> 00:31:14.410 gives you your meat. It's like gives you your 00:31:14.410 --> 00:31:16.460 teeth when you're talking with somebody. Good 00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:18.460 stuff. And it's necessary, non -contingent, and 00:31:18.460 --> 00:31:20.079 personal. Are those blanks? And now we're on 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:22.700 number one, and it's necessary slash creator. 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:26.720 So it says, Marcus says he understands how things 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:29.440 inside the universe have causes. He looks around 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:31.359 and says, I see that one thing causes another. 00:31:31.619 --> 00:31:34.400 But he struggles to see why the universe itself 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:36.759 needs one. Why does the universe need a cause? 00:31:36.859 --> 00:31:38.880 He doesn't understand that. He wonders if existence 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:42.849 might simply be just there. without any ultimate 00:31:42.849 --> 00:31:46.390 explanation, okay? And so what, the big blank 00:31:46.390 --> 00:31:48.390 there, what argument would you use? Are the ones 00:31:48.390 --> 00:31:50.289 we're talking about cosmological argument, design 00:31:50.289 --> 00:31:52.450 argument, or moral argument? Which one of those 00:31:52.450 --> 00:31:55.309 would you use to reach him and help him make 00:31:55.309 --> 00:31:59.730 up his mind why the universe needs somebody to 00:31:59.730 --> 00:32:01.750 have started it? Anybody want to take a stab 00:32:01.750 --> 00:32:03.250 at it? There's only three possibilities. You've 00:32:03.250 --> 00:32:05.289 got a 33 % chance if you have no clue, okay? 00:32:06.279 --> 00:32:08.599 The design argument works when looking at the 00:32:08.599 --> 00:32:11.559 complexity, but he's talking about causes, right? 00:32:11.680 --> 00:32:14.240 So he's saying, I see that things are caused, 00:32:14.339 --> 00:32:16.980 like I exist because my dad and my mom got together 00:32:16.980 --> 00:32:19.039 and did the deed, right? So I see that things 00:32:19.039 --> 00:32:21.440 exist because of a cause. So the only one of 00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:23.140 the arguments that actually addresses the cause 00:32:23.140 --> 00:32:25.500 -effect thing is the cosmological argument. It 00:32:25.500 --> 00:32:27.619 says that everything that you see is an effect, 00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:30.460 everything. It also can be a cause that causes 00:32:30.460 --> 00:32:32.319 something else. You go outside, you see the cold 00:32:32.319 --> 00:32:35.259 weather, right? It is an effect. It's an effect 00:32:35.259 --> 00:32:36.759 of the... that right now the planet is tipped 00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:38.539 away from the sun on our side we're getting less 00:32:38.539 --> 00:32:41.539 direct sun right wind patterns it's an effect 00:32:41.539 --> 00:32:43.819 of all those things but it also can be a cause 00:32:43.819 --> 00:32:45.599 because it can cause me to wear a coat right 00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:47.940 so he says i see a bunch of stuff is caused but 00:32:47.940 --> 00:32:50.819 if i to the cosmological argument says so if 00:32:50.819 --> 00:32:52.940 we go back to the beginning is the first thing 00:32:52.940 --> 00:32:55.259 going to be an effect or a cause and the answer 00:32:55.259 --> 00:32:57.859 is it's got to be a cause and so it has to be 00:32:57.859 --> 00:33:00.819 a cause that is uncaused right it's not an effect 00:33:00.819 --> 00:33:03.000 of anything and that's the argument that you 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.759 could make to help and Right away, an intelligent 00:33:05.759 --> 00:33:08.099 person that's not doing it because they're, you 00:33:08.099 --> 00:33:10.400 know, mean or trying to be vindictive or something, 00:33:10.500 --> 00:33:12.619 it should latch onto that and go, oh, yeah, that 00:33:12.619 --> 00:33:14.259 makes sense. The first thing has to be a cause. 00:33:14.400 --> 00:33:16.019 Something had to start this cause and effect 00:33:16.019 --> 00:33:18.160 chain, okay? And then we have some scripture 00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:20.619 references there that go, so the next thing, 00:33:20.619 --> 00:33:23.799 in the next smaller blank, write Exodus 3 .14. 00:33:24.359 --> 00:33:28.160 You got a boogie now. I dilly -dallied on that 00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:29.700 one point because I was excited about it. Now 00:33:29.700 --> 00:33:31.880 it's going to take a little bit. It's Exodus 00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:41.180 3 .14. Okay, Exodus 3 .14 basically is where 00:33:41.180 --> 00:33:43.480 it says, I am who I am. God says, I am who I 00:33:43.480 --> 00:33:46.240 am. He's self -existent. The next reference is 00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:49.359 Romans 1 .20. You can abbreviate like R -O -M 00:33:49.359 --> 00:33:52.480 1 .20. We're still on number one. So the first 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:55.380 box was cosmological. The first longer line was 00:33:55.380 --> 00:33:58.059 cosmological. The next short line is Exodus, 00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:01.319 so I just put E -X 3 colon 14, like that Exodus 00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:04.160 3 .14. And then the next is Romans, so I put 00:34:04.160 --> 00:34:08.059 R -O -M 1 .20. And Romans 1 .20 says, God's eternal 00:34:08.059 --> 00:34:12.360 power and divine nature clearly seen. 120 romans 00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:16.219 120 so it's cosmological then exodus 3 14 then 00:34:16.219 --> 00:34:19.920 romans 120 and the last one is hebrews 3 4 and 00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:22.380 hebrews 3 4 is where it says every house is built 00:34:22.380 --> 00:34:24.639 by someone and it goes on to say all all the 00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:26.840 creation was built by God. Okay? All right. So 00:34:26.840 --> 00:34:29.119 again, if you're talking with anybody and they're 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:32.000 struggling with causality, like why does there 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:34.280 need to be an intelligent designer? If I, you 00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:35.860 know, why couldn't things just always exist? 00:34:35.940 --> 00:34:37.920 Then you can, from the cosmological argument, 00:34:37.980 --> 00:34:39.780 you say, well, everything that you see is an 00:34:39.780 --> 00:34:42.420 effect, right? And it can also be a cause. But 00:34:42.420 --> 00:34:44.300 because everything you see is an effect, it has 00:34:44.300 --> 00:34:46.280 to have come from a cause, which also was an 00:34:46.280 --> 00:34:48.039 effect, come from a cause. And you can go with 00:34:48.039 --> 00:34:51.719 a piece of paper and write C -E -C -E -C -E all 00:34:51.719 --> 00:34:54.239 the way back. And so E -C -E -C. all the way 00:34:54.239 --> 00:34:56.940 back and say, well, when does it stop? What was 00:34:56.940 --> 00:34:59.199 the first thing? Was it an effect or was it a 00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:01.889 cause? And they'll say, well, it had to be a 00:35:01.889 --> 00:35:04.309 cause, right? You can't be, there's no infinite 00:35:04.309 --> 00:35:06.570 and it has to be a cause. And then you can help 00:35:06.570 --> 00:35:09.090 them see that God needed to be there. Okay. The 00:35:09.090 --> 00:35:11.530 second one then, and I kind of got the clue on 00:35:11.530 --> 00:35:13.429 the top there in the parentheses, intelligent. 00:35:13.809 --> 00:35:17.070 Leah is fascinated by the complexity of DNA and 00:35:17.070 --> 00:35:19.809 the precise balance required for life on earth. 00:35:19.929 --> 00:35:22.090 But she believes these things are probably the 00:35:22.090 --> 00:35:24.949 result of chance over time. She struggles to 00:35:24.949 --> 00:35:27.849 see why intelligence must be involved in the 00:35:27.849 --> 00:35:29.849 structure of the universe. And I already. gave 00:35:29.849 --> 00:35:32.110 you the clue at the top. That's the design argument, 00:35:32.329 --> 00:35:34.510 right? Now, how does that make sense? If that's 00:35:34.510 --> 00:35:37.150 the question she's asking, how would you explain 00:35:37.150 --> 00:35:39.710 it to her? She's fascinated by DNA and the precise 00:35:39.710 --> 00:35:42.610 balance, but she believes these things are probably 00:35:42.610 --> 00:35:46.010 the result of chance over time. So what would 00:35:46.010 --> 00:35:47.869 you say to help her understand that can't be 00:35:47.869 --> 00:35:50.769 right? Yeah, it's not in a short time frame. 00:35:50.809 --> 00:35:53.670 It doesn't happen ever. There is no observable 00:35:53.670 --> 00:35:57.250 place in creation where creation moves to more 00:35:57.250 --> 00:36:00.530 complexity over time. It falls apart. There's 00:36:00.530 --> 00:36:03.269 a scientific principle called entropy where everything 00:36:03.269 --> 00:36:06.590 decays. Everything falls apart. Now some people 00:36:06.590 --> 00:36:09.610 say, oh, we swirl the water and it goes down 00:36:09.610 --> 00:36:12.989 the drain and the water gets more complex as 00:36:12.989 --> 00:36:15.329 it goes down the drain, right? And it'll go faster. 00:36:15.489 --> 00:36:18.630 But it took you or someone doing something to 00:36:18.630 --> 00:36:21.349 cause the swirl. So if you leave the water alone, 00:36:21.489 --> 00:36:23.389 does it swirl automatically? No, it does not. 00:36:23.550 --> 00:36:26.769 There is no place in creation that creation becomes 00:36:26.769 --> 00:36:29.369 more complex on its own. And then they'll say, 00:36:29.449 --> 00:36:31.949 well, but there is a one in a 74 gazillion chance 00:36:31.949 --> 00:36:34.530 that something could have fallen together and 00:36:34.530 --> 00:36:36.949 become what it is. But that's mathematically 00:36:36.949 --> 00:36:38.989 impossible, right? And actually, the numbers 00:36:38.989 --> 00:36:41.809 are much, much, much higher. They're infinite. 00:36:42.070 --> 00:36:44.530 There's a one in infinite chance, really, that 00:36:44.530 --> 00:36:46.849 those complexities could have developed randomly. 00:36:47.130 --> 00:36:49.409 And then lastly, remember we talked about DNA? 00:36:49.610 --> 00:36:52.550 How DNA is complex parts organized in certain 00:36:52.550 --> 00:36:54.829 orders, and what do we call that? What's on this 00:36:54.829 --> 00:36:58.010 page? Language, right? So DNA is a language. 00:36:58.590 --> 00:37:01.030 and if dna is a language where does language 00:37:01.030 --> 00:37:03.949 come from someone right a person an intelligent 00:37:03.949 --> 00:37:06.429 person right if i find a note someone wrote the 00:37:06.429 --> 00:37:09.769 note dna is intelligent communication in the 00:37:09.769 --> 00:37:11.889 form of a language there's actually to the point 00:37:11.889 --> 00:37:14.050 now they're getting the point is they know it 00:37:14.050 --> 00:37:16.349 so well you could write a letter to your friend 00:37:16.349 --> 00:37:19.210 using the parts of dna because it's it's language 00:37:19.210 --> 00:37:22.170 it's so complex right now it's a specialized 00:37:22.170 --> 00:37:24.769 language for a specific purpose so it would not 00:37:25.070 --> 00:37:26.730 make a lot of sense but it would make enough 00:37:26.730 --> 00:37:28.590 sense that you could probably convey once we 00:37:28.590 --> 00:37:30.469 know it all you could convey the message because 00:37:30.469 --> 00:37:33.530 dna is language so to argue that dna is random 00:37:33.530 --> 00:37:35.650 doesn't make any sense it came from an intelligence 00:37:35.650 --> 00:37:37.969 because it is a language okay now the scriptures 00:37:37.969 --> 00:37:40.829 then for that that you could use to support it 00:37:40.829 --> 00:37:46.090 connect it to the bible psalm 19 1 and that's 00:37:46.090 --> 00:37:48.210 where it says the heavens declare the glory of 00:37:48.210 --> 00:37:52.760 god Then, Isaiah 40, 26. You can shorten those 00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:57.619 up. Psalms can be PSA and Isaiah can be ISA because 00:37:57.619 --> 00:38:00.820 nothing else is the same. And 40, 26. Isaiah 00:38:00.820 --> 00:38:04.739 40, 26. God brings out the stars by number. And 00:38:04.739 --> 00:38:07.579 then the last one is John 1, 3. Through him all 00:38:07.579 --> 00:38:10.039 things were made. Of course, that's talking about 00:38:10.039 --> 00:38:13.690 Jesus. John 1, 3. That was the easy one. Don 00:38:13.690 --> 00:38:15.449 won three, but you're probably tied up on the 00:38:15.449 --> 00:38:18.489 harder one. Okay, next. Three left. Anthony believes 00:38:18.489 --> 00:38:21.230 some kind of higher power exists, but thinks 00:38:21.230 --> 00:38:24.650 it must be an impersonal force like gravity or 00:38:24.650 --> 00:38:27.230 energy. He finds it difficult to believe God 00:38:27.230 --> 00:38:30.469 could think, choose, or relate to people. Which 00:38:30.469 --> 00:38:32.809 of the three arguments above would you use most 00:38:32.809 --> 00:38:35.769 easily anyway to argue, to help him understand, 00:38:35.949 --> 00:38:38.050 basically? And I gave you a clue already. It's 00:38:38.050 --> 00:38:41.030 the design or moral argument. Either one of those 00:38:41.030 --> 00:38:43.030 things would work, right? So the design... argument 00:38:43.030 --> 00:38:46.349 works because the best explanation of fine -tuning 00:38:46.349 --> 00:38:49.869 is an intelligent being, right? And so why would 00:38:49.869 --> 00:38:52.269 he do that? Why would he create those perfectly 00:38:52.269 --> 00:38:55.429 oriented rules to make the universe work? And 00:38:55.429 --> 00:38:58.710 could the force or gravity do that? And the answer 00:38:58.710 --> 00:39:02.050 is no, right? And then also the moral argument 00:39:02.050 --> 00:39:04.409 works really, really well because objective morals 00:39:04.409 --> 00:39:07.969 and duties do exist. Therefore, a lawgiver exists 00:39:07.969 --> 00:39:12.030 and the force, gravity, these things are not 00:39:12.039 --> 00:39:14.519 that right they can't give laws they can't give 00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:16.460 commands because they're impersonal okay and 00:39:16.460 --> 00:39:20.539 then the verses then for those Genesis 1 27 we 00:39:20.539 --> 00:39:22.639 know that that's where humanity was made in God's 00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:25.599 image Genesis our first one was Genesis 1 27 00:39:25.599 --> 00:39:29.239 and then Jeremiah 29 13 and that's where he says 00:39:29.239 --> 00:39:32.719 you will seek me and find me yep 29 13 sorry 00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:36.340 did I say 29 13 and then James 4 8 draw near 00:39:36.340 --> 00:39:38.920 to God And he will draw near to you. So if the 00:39:38.920 --> 00:39:40.619 person is willing to accept biblical testimony, 00:39:40.679 --> 00:39:43.559 you can use those verses. And you can make connections 00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:45.659 between those verses and the arguments that you've 00:39:45.659 --> 00:39:47.800 made. That's the value of them. Number four, 00:39:47.980 --> 00:39:54.000 Jasmine. Why would morality require God? So which 00:39:54.000 --> 00:39:56.639 argument explains why objective morality points 00:39:56.639 --> 00:39:59.760 beyond us or beyond government or whatever? You 00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:02.119 already know the answer, right? The moral argument. 00:40:02.769 --> 00:40:05.730 Moral values are truly objective, not merely 00:40:05.730 --> 00:40:08.230 cultural preferences. They have to be grounded 00:40:08.230 --> 00:40:10.849 in something beyond human opinion. Moral law 00:40:10.849 --> 00:40:13.309 reflects moral character. If there is a binding 00:40:13.309 --> 00:40:16.170 moral ought, like I ought to do this, whatever 00:40:16.170 --> 00:40:18.030 that is, it's different for each person. If there 00:40:18.030 --> 00:40:20.809 is an ought, then there must be a moral law giver. 00:40:21.829 --> 00:40:26.250 Verses Romans 2, 14 and 15 talk about the law 00:40:26.250 --> 00:40:29.280 written on the heart. By the way, Romans 1 and 00:40:29.280 --> 00:40:31.860 2 do a great job with this because they even 00:40:31.860 --> 00:40:34.099 say, I'm going to paraphrase, but it even goes 00:40:34.099 --> 00:40:36.860 on to say that what people do who don't know 00:40:36.860 --> 00:40:39.820 God is they set up their own rules and then they 00:40:39.820 --> 00:40:41.519 break them, which is what people do. Like you 00:40:41.519 --> 00:40:43.380 marry your wife and you tell her, I'll never 00:40:43.380 --> 00:40:46.000 lie to you. And then you lie to her, right? That's 00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:49.199 what people do. I'm going to get by nine. I got 00:40:49.199 --> 00:40:50.900 to get by nine every day to be successful. I 00:40:50.900 --> 00:40:53.159 got to get by nine. 9 .15, still snoozing the 00:40:53.159 --> 00:40:55.500 clock. That's what people do. They set their 00:40:55.500 --> 00:40:57.539 own rules, and they break them. And then God 00:40:57.539 --> 00:40:59.579 says, based on that, they deserve what they get, 00:40:59.659 --> 00:41:02.699 basically. Micah 6 .8. Micah 6 .8 is the next 00:41:02.699 --> 00:41:05.059 reference, and it is, what does the Lord require? 00:41:05.179 --> 00:41:07.000 That's what Micah 6 .8 says. And then it gives 00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:08.780 some answer to that question. But the point is, 00:41:08.820 --> 00:41:11.639 the Lord requires something. Psalm 89 .14 is 00:41:11.639 --> 00:41:14.119 the last one. So the first big box there was 00:41:14.119 --> 00:41:16.820 the moral argument. The first big line, I mean, 00:41:16.860 --> 00:41:19.840 should say moral. And then it's Romans 2 .14 00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:22.320 -15, Micah 6 .8. You can just write moral on 00:41:22.320 --> 00:41:23.980 the open line, whatever line you have open. It 00:41:23.980 --> 00:41:25.639 doesn't matter what order they're in. So one 00:41:25.639 --> 00:41:28.820 line says moral, then Romans 2 .14 -15, Micah 00:41:28.820 --> 00:41:32.519 6 .8, and Psalm 89 .14. And the last one! Derek 00:41:32.519 --> 00:41:35.559 believes God may have created... 89 .14, correct. 00:41:35.900 --> 00:41:38.880 Oh, sorry, did I not read it? Righteousness and 00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:43.719 justice are his foundation. Okay. Yeah. Teleological 00:41:43.719 --> 00:41:46.659 slash design. Design or moral. Right. You got 00:41:46.659 --> 00:41:49.400 it. Okay. Last one. Derek believes God may have 00:41:49.400 --> 00:41:51.940 created the universe, but doubts God is still 00:41:51.940 --> 00:41:54.559 involved in human life or concerned with justice. 00:41:54.780 --> 00:41:57.599 He wonders why a creator would remain interested 00:41:57.599 --> 00:42:00.539 in human behavior after creation. This one's 00:42:00.539 --> 00:42:02.500 a little bit more tricky. Picking which argument 00:42:02.500 --> 00:42:04.940 to use isn't really, that's pretty easy, but 00:42:04.940 --> 00:42:06.599 how to make the connection is the hard part. 00:42:06.739 --> 00:42:11.889 Okay. So first of all, you're using the moral 00:42:11.889 --> 00:42:14.150 argument. Okay, that's the moral argument. And 00:42:14.150 --> 00:42:15.849 then you're trying to extend it by using Scripture. 00:42:16.170 --> 00:42:18.190 But let me ask you this. What if Derek's not 00:42:18.190 --> 00:42:19.929 a big fan of Scripture? What if he doesn't want 00:42:19.929 --> 00:42:22.010 to use the Bible or your idea of what the Bible 00:42:22.010 --> 00:42:23.690 says or whatever like that to make that extension? 00:42:23.789 --> 00:42:25.630 How would you still do it? So think about what 00:42:25.630 --> 00:42:28.369 the moral law is. The moral law is given to us 00:42:28.369 --> 00:42:30.769 by God. If you have a moral law, it's a command, 00:42:31.050 --> 00:42:33.570 right? It's not a description, but a command 00:42:33.570 --> 00:42:36.409 from a moral law giver. So if someone gives you 00:42:36.409 --> 00:42:39.670 the direction on what to do, then they are doing 00:42:39.670 --> 00:43:00.750 that. Okay, good. Yeah, so you're... Yeah, so 00:43:00.750 --> 00:43:03.429 that's an analogy, what you're doing, a parent 00:43:03.429 --> 00:43:05.449 and child analogy, and that's a good way of doing 00:43:05.449 --> 00:43:08.869 it. Basically, if a person... is taking the time 00:43:08.869 --> 00:43:10.510 to give you the direction on what the right thing 00:43:10.510 --> 00:43:13.469 to do is, and it's justice, then clearly they 00:43:13.469 --> 00:43:16.170 are interacting and engaged, right? Otherwise, 00:43:16.230 --> 00:43:18.489 why would God give the direction? Same thing 00:43:18.489 --> 00:43:20.389 as the parent. Let's use a parent analogy. The 00:43:20.389 --> 00:43:21.909 parent's directing their children on what to 00:43:21.909 --> 00:43:23.550 do because they think that's what's going to 00:43:23.550 --> 00:43:25.530 get them the results that the parents want. And 00:43:25.530 --> 00:43:27.050 when they get older, they may say, well, you 00:43:27.050 --> 00:43:29.110 got to make up your own mind when they get to 00:43:29.110 --> 00:43:30.690 be 18 or whatever. You got to decide what you're 00:43:30.690 --> 00:43:32.170 going to do with your life kind of thing. But 00:43:32.170 --> 00:43:34.159 even that. They're doing because they think that's 00:43:34.159 --> 00:43:36.059 what's going to get the good result. They're 00:43:36.059 --> 00:43:38.699 not trying to intentionally sabotage. Or if they 00:43:38.699 --> 00:43:40.199 are, maybe that's their morals. They're trying 00:43:40.199 --> 00:43:41.619 to intentionally sabotage their kids the way 00:43:41.619 --> 00:43:43.280 their parents sabotaged them. But it's still 00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:45.559 a moral directive, and they're still engaged. 00:43:45.940 --> 00:43:49.579 So good analogy. So that's the moral law, but 00:43:49.579 --> 00:43:51.219 you have to use a little bit of an extension 00:43:51.219 --> 00:43:53.679 on it, whether it be an analogy about parents 00:43:53.679 --> 00:43:56.119 and kids or an explanation of what it means to 00:43:56.119 --> 00:43:59.610 be a commander. If the lieutenant, for example, 00:43:59.610 --> 00:44:01.230 use another analogy, if the lieutenant gives 00:44:01.230 --> 00:44:04.329 the privates an order to move the rock, and then 00:44:04.329 --> 00:44:06.429 he comes by later and the rock is not moved, 00:44:06.670 --> 00:44:08.530 and the one private says to the other private, 00:44:08.610 --> 00:44:10.050 or says to the lieutenant, well, I didn't believe 00:44:10.050 --> 00:44:12.050 him. He told me, but I didn't believe him. The 00:44:12.050 --> 00:44:14.230 lieutenant's going to say, I don't care. Go get 00:44:14.230 --> 00:44:16.869 your toothbrush. You're scrubbing grout. Or drop 00:44:16.869 --> 00:44:19.070 and give me $6 ,000. You know, whatever. Because 00:44:19.070 --> 00:44:21.769 he gave an order. It was prescriptive. It was 00:44:21.769 --> 00:44:24.420 a command. And now it was not followed. Okay, 00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:27.679 so to back that up then are some scriptures. 00:44:27.780 --> 00:44:32.119 Acts 17, 27 to 28. Acts 17, 27 to 28. This is 00:44:32.119 --> 00:44:35.199 part of the speech of the Areopagus, and Paul 00:44:35.199 --> 00:44:39.000 basically paraphrased here as he is not far from 00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:42.199 each one of us. So God ordered your life intentionally 00:44:42.199 --> 00:44:44.179 to put you exactly where you are so that you 00:44:44.179 --> 00:44:45.619 could grow up around for him. And finding him, 00:44:45.619 --> 00:44:47.139 you would find that he was never far away in 00:44:47.139 --> 00:44:49.079 the first place. God has always been engaged. 00:44:49.440 --> 00:44:52.559 And then Hebrews 4 .13, which says all things 00:44:52.559 --> 00:44:55.119 are exposed to him. Again, that's a paraphrase. 00:44:55.159 --> 00:44:58.739 Hebrews 4 .13. And the last verse, 2 Peter 3 00:44:58.739 --> 00:45:00.760 .9. And we know what that says. Somebody knows 00:45:00.760 --> 00:45:02.380 what that says without me telling it. That is 00:45:02.380 --> 00:45:05.300 not slow as some men count slowness. 2 Peter 00:45:05.300 --> 00:45:10.389 3 .9. Two Peter. Exactly. And so God does have 00:45:10.389 --> 00:45:12.929 a vested interest. He is engaged. He does care 00:45:12.929 --> 00:45:18.929 about the outcome. God's patientness, if you 00:45:18.929 --> 00:45:21.530 will, God's patience, can be why people start 00:45:21.530 --> 00:45:24.250 to think that God is not engaged. So they make 00:45:24.250 --> 00:45:27.289 an argument and say, well, if God is engaged 00:45:27.289 --> 00:45:29.309 with humanity, then why is it that so many bad 00:45:29.309 --> 00:45:31.010 things are allowed to happen? Why is there so 00:45:31.010 --> 00:45:32.429 much suffering? Why is there so much evil? Why 00:45:32.429 --> 00:45:36.059 is there so much wickedness? So some people will 00:45:36.059 --> 00:45:38.599 ask that question like they think, oh, that's 00:45:38.599 --> 00:45:40.579 it. I've got you now. I've got a noose around 00:45:40.579 --> 00:45:42.739 your neck, Christian. You can't possibly explain 00:45:42.739 --> 00:45:46.320 that. And the truth is that Jesus has set the 00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:49.480 standard for us that we will suffer and die as 00:45:49.480 --> 00:45:52.179 necessary to see another generation of Christians, 00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:54.119 to see more people come to Christ. And people 00:45:54.119 --> 00:45:56.019 have been doing it ever since the church has 00:45:56.019 --> 00:45:57.559 existed. And the truth is they did it all the 00:45:57.559 --> 00:45:59.940 way back into the Old Testament. All the people 00:45:59.940 --> 00:46:02.900 that had lived waiting, hoping for God to send 00:46:02.900 --> 00:46:05.480 the Messiah, lived and died and never saw him. 00:46:05.519 --> 00:46:06.480 And they did that for us.