WEBVTT 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:15.960 Welcome to the July 2025 session of Teaching 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.359 Tuesday at Hub City Vineyard. Tonight, we've 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:20.800 got an apologetics presentation on why we believe 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.519 God exists. But you can also think of it as why 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:25.780 it's logical and rational. You might even say 00:00:25.780 --> 00:00:28.160 that God existing is the only logical conclusion 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:30.699 given the evidence. We'll start by discussing 00:00:30.699 --> 00:00:32.880 when and why this question might come up during 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:34.979 evangelism before jumping into that evidence. 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:37.479 Now, I'm not just doing this to give you more 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:40.100 tools in your apologetics toolbox. I've selected 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.219 arguments from a variety of disciplines because, 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:44.759 if we're honest, all of us have had doubts about 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:47.520 God in at least one area. This is as much about 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.000 strengthening our faith as it is sharing it. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:53.259 Tonight's resource is a book called Darwin's 00:00:53.259 --> 00:00:56.460 Black Box by Michael J. Behe. I used about a 00:00:56.460 --> 00:00:58.380 dozen books to collect all of tonight's information, 00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:00.960 but Darwin's Black Box is the biggest departure 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:03.000 from any of the books I've recommended previously. 00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:05.260 We're going to look at it in more detail later, 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:07.319 but the general idea is that as we learn more 00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:09.819 about what happens inside cells, we find mechanisms 00:01:09.819 --> 00:01:12.519 and processes that are called irreducibly complex, 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.060 meaning they could not have evolved naturally 00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:17.480 because they needed all the component parts or 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:20.140 steps to function. It put the nail in the coffin 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:22.219 for evolution for me, and I think you'll all 00:01:22.219 --> 00:01:25.480 find it just as interesting. The argument presented 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:27.760 in Darwin's black box is one of many I'll be 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:29.780 presenting tonight as evidence that God exists. 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:32.260 But before we get into those arguments, it's 00:01:32.260 --> 00:01:35.079 time for a brief history lesson. In Acts 17, 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:38.799 16 -33, Paul is telling people in Athens about 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:41.540 Jesus, and it's causing quite a ruckus. First, 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:43.579 he gets taken to the city council, then he gets 00:01:43.579 --> 00:01:45.900 taken to the Oropagus or Mars Hill, depending 00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:48.640 on your translation. He's face -to -face with 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:51.060 civic leaders and the greatest philosophers in 00:01:51.060 --> 00:01:53.579 the nation. He begins his speech by mentioning 00:01:53.579 --> 00:01:56.840 an altar to the unknown God, a God that the Athenians 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:59.180 thought existed but were otherwise ignorant to 00:01:59.180 --> 00:02:01.840 its identity. Paul tells them that this unknown 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:05.040 God is actually the God, the Father, and proceeds 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:07.799 to deliver an evangelistic and apologetic message 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:10.539 on Jesus. Paul structures his presentation as 00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:15.219 such because 99 .999999999 % of people in the 00:02:15.219 --> 00:02:18.280 history of humanity up to the 1800s share a worldview 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:21.310 with two essential aspects. First, it's ridiculous 00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:23.469 I even have to mention this. People believed 00:02:23.469 --> 00:02:26.289 in objective reality and truth. The world is 00:02:26.289 --> 00:02:28.650 real. We are real. And there are true facts about 00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:31.250 the world that we can ascertain. Second, it was 00:02:31.250 --> 00:02:33.169 obvious to everyone from observing the world 00:02:33.169 --> 00:02:35.289 around them that there was just some sort of 00:02:35.289 --> 00:02:38.289 god or gods. The supernatural was a fact of life. 00:02:38.469 --> 00:02:40.449 There were just disagreements over the details. 00:02:40.729 --> 00:02:43.229 Paul didn't need to argue for these two aspects 00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:46.050 because everybody already accepted them. Well, 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:48.550 I mentioned the 1800s. And that's when the trouble 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:51.340 started. humanity started making rapid scientific 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:53.639 and philosophical progress in what we now call 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:56.800 the Enlightenment. Now, that part isn't necessarily 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:59.139 bad by itself. We discovered answers to many 00:02:59.139 --> 00:03:01.979 of the greatest mysteries from the past. But 00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:04.219 the problem happened when we decided that if 00:03:04.219 --> 00:03:06.840 we could demystify those aspects of our existence, 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:09.860 we could do it for all of them. Belief in God 00:03:09.860 --> 00:03:12.500 became an intellectual liability, a sign of low 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:14.919 intelligence and lack of trust in science and 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:17.909 human reason. We still see this attitude in universities, 00:03:18.289 --> 00:03:20.830 media, and popular culture, with religious people 00:03:20.830 --> 00:03:23.889 often characterized as unintelligent, ill -informed, 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:27.289 and gullible. Then the second blow came in the 00:03:27.289 --> 00:03:30.610 1960s. One strength of the Enlightenment mindset 00:03:30.610 --> 00:03:32.830 was that people believed in an objective reality, 00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:35.909 the one that humanity was studying and mastering. 00:03:36.710 --> 00:03:38.750 In what some people believed to be a movement 00:03:38.750 --> 00:03:41.250 to deliberately sabotage Western civilization, 00:03:42.009 --> 00:03:44.750 a new philosophy called postmodernism erupted 00:03:44.750 --> 00:03:47.750 from the universities. There is a spectrum of 00:03:47.750 --> 00:03:50.210 postmodern views, but it would be summed up as 00:03:50.210 --> 00:03:53.830 a rejection of objective truth and reality. To 00:03:53.830 --> 00:03:56.469 them, everything is subjective and nothing can 00:03:56.469 --> 00:03:59.969 be said to be objectively true. And so the modern 00:03:59.969 --> 00:04:03.169 Christian evangelist or apologist can't jump 00:04:03.169 --> 00:04:05.550 right in like Paul did, because many people he 00:04:05.550 --> 00:04:08.250 encounters will reject objective truth or the 00:04:08.250 --> 00:04:11.590 supernatural or both. I need to spend a lot more 00:04:11.590 --> 00:04:14.169 time studying postmodernism before I feel qualified 00:04:14.169 --> 00:04:16.790 to talk about it, so tonight we're making the 00:04:16.790 --> 00:04:19.930 case for the supernatural, in particular, that 00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:23.410 God exists. Now, there are a ton of arguments 00:04:23.410 --> 00:04:25.550 for God's existence, and apologists have come 00:04:25.550 --> 00:04:27.670 up with just as many different ways to categorize 00:04:27.670 --> 00:04:30.050 them. For the purposes of this presentation, 00:04:30.269 --> 00:04:33.110 I'm using three categories. We'll call them philosophical, 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:36.750 scientific, and Christian -specific, and we'll 00:04:36.750 --> 00:04:38.850 look at each one and why I've chosen to divide 00:04:38.850 --> 00:04:41.480 them that way, as we go through the arguments. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:44.759 We'll start with the philosophical category, 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.259 and these arguments are those that are made through 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:50.279 internal observation, things like logic, reason, 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:53.180 and contemplation. Because they can't be tested 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:55.860 scientifically, they are often very polarizing, 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:58.220 with some people finding them the most convincing 00:04:58.220 --> 00:05:02.019 and others rejecting them totally. We'll start 00:05:02.019 --> 00:05:04.279 with the moral argument, which follows a pattern 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:06.920 we'll see a few more times tonight. It starts 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:09.100 with an assertion or condition about reality, 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:12.680 makes an observation about reality, then uses 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:15.560 that observation to support the assertion. For 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:17.660 the moral argument, the assertion is that if 00:05:17.660 --> 00:05:20.459 objective morality exists, then a source of that 00:05:20.459 --> 00:05:23.160 objective morality must exist, something you 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:26.220 could call an objective moral lawgiver. Now, 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:28.279 the observation made is that objective morality 00:05:28.279 --> 00:05:32.100 does exist. This may seem obvious to the Christian, 00:05:32.220 --> 00:05:34.600 but atheists often push back against this claim. 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:37.139 So you can present them with some questions like, 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:39.839 Is it ever okay to kill an innocent person for 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:43.120 fun? Or is it ever okay to beat up babies for 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:46.839 fun? Obviously not. Opponents of objective morality 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:49.060 often argue that all morality is subjective. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:51.680 So you could also look at an example from World 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:54.579 War II. When the Nazis were put on trial at the 00:05:54.579 --> 00:05:56.759 Nuremberg trials, they acknowledged that their 00:05:56.759 --> 00:05:58.779 actions were wrong, but claimed that they were 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:01.720 done to defeat a greater evil. Many defended 00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:03.560 their actions by saying they were just following 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:07.300 orders. The tribunal did not agree. They argue 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:09.720 that individuals were obligated to disobey evil 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.079 orders because of their responsibility to a higher 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:14.899 authority. There is an inherent value to human 00:06:14.899 --> 00:06:17.740 life that all humans seem to understand, even 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:21.519 if they choose to commit evil acts. And so, if 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:24.240 this objective morality exists, then an objective 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.480 moral lawgiver, the one we would call God, exists. 00:06:27.899 --> 00:06:30.300 The next philosophical argument is called the 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:32.819 argument from reason. It says that if our sense 00:06:32.819 --> 00:06:35.139 of consciousness and ability to think were products 00:06:35.139 --> 00:06:37.750 of evolution, and operated solely on laws of 00:06:37.750 --> 00:06:40.410 physics, that makes us just organic machines, 00:06:40.709 --> 00:06:42.589 and our thoughts are nothing more than illusions. 00:06:43.069 --> 00:06:45.629 But all humans have a shared experience of thinking 00:06:45.629 --> 00:06:47.670 and inferring information, and although we're 00:06:47.670 --> 00:06:50.149 not perfectly rational beings, our brains are 00:06:50.149 --> 00:06:52.689 capable of drawing accurate inferences and displaying 00:06:52.689 --> 00:06:55.449 creativity. We have idle thoughts and emotions 00:06:55.449 --> 00:06:57.730 that are unnecessary for survival and reproduction, 00:06:58.050 --> 00:07:01.129 so why would we have evolved this way? That seems 00:07:01.129 --> 00:07:03.829 like a waste of resources. This collection of 00:07:03.829 --> 00:07:06.670 attributes and our personal experiences of consciousness 00:07:06.670 --> 00:07:09.790 that we assume everyone else has, they point 00:07:09.790 --> 00:07:11.730 to our minds as something beyond the physical, 00:07:11.870 --> 00:07:14.009 something supernatural in nature and origin. 00:07:14.189 --> 00:07:16.750 To the Christian, our minds are exactly what 00:07:16.750 --> 00:07:18.629 one would expect if people were created in the 00:07:18.629 --> 00:07:21.829 image of a rational creator. Next up is the ontological 00:07:21.829 --> 00:07:25.550 argument. This is easily the most polarizing 00:07:25.550 --> 00:07:28.550 philosophical argument for God's existence. Personally, 00:07:28.709 --> 00:07:30.660 I don't think it's a good argument. And I can't 00:07:30.660 --> 00:07:32.759 imagine it convincing anyone, let alone an atheist. 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:35.319 On the other hand, several of the most skilled 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:37.279 contemporary apologists think that it's one of 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:39.740 the most convincing. God gave us all different 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:42.120 talents, passions, and styles of learning, so 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:44.180 if I can help someone somewhere, then I'm happy 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:46.160 to present it regardless of my personal opinion. 00:07:46.500 --> 00:07:49.620 Either way, it goes like this. Think of God as 00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:52.040 a maximally great being, something that is the 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:54.959 best in every possible aspect. That lines up 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:57.680 with the Christian conception of God. Now, if 00:07:57.680 --> 00:07:59.899 you had one version of God that did not exist 00:07:59.899 --> 00:08:02.620 and one version that did, the version that did 00:08:02.620 --> 00:08:04.980 exist would be better than the one that did not. 00:08:05.399 --> 00:08:08.160 Therefore, since it is possible that God exists, 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:11.360 it is necessary that God exists in order to be 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:14.319 maximally great. This next argument blew my mind 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:17.199 the first time I heard it. In the argument against 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.879 infinite regression, we both argue against an 00:08:19.879 --> 00:08:22.160 infinitely old universe or an infinite series 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:24.399 of causes, and we set the stage for some of the 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:26.980 science -based arguments. Let's look at time 00:08:26.980 --> 00:08:29.740 first. If, as many atheists claim, the universe 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:31.920 is infinitely old and our current version of 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:33.980 the universe is just one of an infinitely old 00:08:33.980 --> 00:08:37.039 series of universes, that puts us on that circle 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:39.399 in the middle of the timeline. However, that 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:42.240 presents a logical problem. Many atheists will 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:44.740 call the present moment zero and then start counting 00:08:44.740 --> 00:08:46.860 to infinity in either direction, arguing that 00:08:46.860 --> 00:08:49.700 that's logically valid. But that's not an accurate 00:08:49.700 --> 00:08:52.700 representation. If there were actually an infinite 00:08:52.700 --> 00:08:55.120 amount of time before the present, we could never 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.279 have gotten to the present day. Similarly, consider 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:00.500 the series of events leading up to this moment. 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:03.139 I am teaching this class because 40 years ago 00:09:03.139 --> 00:09:05.860 my parents watched a romantic movie. My parents 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:08.220 exist because 30 years before that their parents, 00:09:08.299 --> 00:09:10.799 I guess, read a romantic telegraph? I don't know, 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:13.279 but the point is we can trace back to Adam and 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:15.340 Eve, the creation of the universe, and so on. 00:09:15.539 --> 00:09:18.330 But at some point we run into a problem. If we 00:09:18.330 --> 00:09:20.669 don't have a first cause, it's the same argument 00:09:20.669 --> 00:09:23.309 we used against infinite time. We never would 00:09:23.309 --> 00:09:25.889 have gotten to the present. So to summarize all 00:09:25.889 --> 00:09:28.269 of this, we can say that logically, there must 00:09:28.269 --> 00:09:32.129 be an uncaused first cause. And that cause is 00:09:32.129 --> 00:09:35.669 what we would call God. But we can also go further 00:09:35.669 --> 00:09:38.889 by building on that foundation. The Kalam Cosmological 00:09:38.889 --> 00:09:41.330 Argument straddles the border of philosophy and 00:09:41.330 --> 00:09:43.570 science, so it's a good transition between the 00:09:43.570 --> 00:09:46.169 two. It's made up of three statements just like 00:09:46.169 --> 00:09:48.809 some of the other arguments. First is the assertion 00:09:48.809 --> 00:09:51.070 that whatever begins to exist has a cause of 00:09:51.070 --> 00:09:53.950 its existence. Second is the assertion that the 00:09:53.950 --> 00:09:56.690 universe began to exist. Therefore, we conclude 00:09:56.690 --> 00:09:59.610 that the universe has a cause of existence. The 00:09:59.610 --> 00:10:02.190 whole argument hinges on the assertion that the 00:10:02.190 --> 00:10:04.870 universe began to exist. So can we justify that? 00:10:05.029 --> 00:10:07.870 Yes, both scientifically and philosophically. 00:10:08.029 --> 00:10:10.330 Our previous argument was that we can't have 00:10:10.330 --> 00:10:12.529 an infinitely old universe or an infinite chain 00:10:12.529 --> 00:10:15.679 of causes. That's the philosophical answer. The 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:17.659 scientific answer comes in the form of the Big 00:10:17.659 --> 00:10:19.840 Bang, a theory that was developed by a Christian 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.559 astronomer who was mocked by academics for suggesting 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:25.100 that the universe wasn't eternal. But it's now 00:10:25.100 --> 00:10:27.200 the leading theory for the origin of the universe, 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:29.559 and it's fully compatible with Christian theology. 00:10:30.139 --> 00:10:32.460 We observe that the universe is running out of 00:10:32.460 --> 00:10:35.480 energy and expanding. Our telescopes show leftover 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:37.700 radiation from the Big Bang which could only 00:10:37.700 --> 00:10:40.730 have come from a hot, dense origin. Einstein's 00:10:40.730 --> 00:10:42.570 theory of general relativity shows that matter, 00:10:42.669 --> 00:10:45.190 space, and time are interdependent and all had 00:10:45.190 --> 00:10:47.990 a simultaneous beginning. And what's truly fascinating 00:10:47.990 --> 00:10:50.549 about the Kalam cosmological argument is that 00:10:50.549 --> 00:10:52.889 it doesn't just stop by saying that there is 00:10:52.889 --> 00:10:55.830 a cause of existence. As I just mentioned, when 00:10:55.830 --> 00:10:57.830 we say universe, we're talking about matter, 00:10:57.929 --> 00:11:00.169 space, and time, all coming into existence at 00:11:00.169 --> 00:11:03.250 once. So, whatever made the universe is spaceless, 00:11:03.370 --> 00:11:05.750 timeless, and immaterial. Because the universe 00:11:05.750 --> 00:11:08.289 was created from nothing, we can conclude that 00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:10.970 whatever this cause is must have chosen to create, 00:11:11.230 --> 00:11:14.269 meaning it is personal. And finally, given the 00:11:14.269 --> 00:11:17.009 complexity and scale of the universe, this cause 00:11:17.009 --> 00:11:20.669 must also be intelligent and powerful. The Kalam 00:11:20.669 --> 00:11:22.909 Cosmological Argument is considered the gold 00:11:22.909 --> 00:11:26.570 standard of Christian apologetic arguments, because 00:11:26.570 --> 00:11:29.330 it gives us a picture of a universal creator 00:11:29.330 --> 00:11:33.570 that sounds just like the Christian God. As I 00:11:33.570 --> 00:11:36.070 mentioned, the Kalam Cosmological Argument is 00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:38.850 our bridge between philosophical and scientific 00:11:38.850 --> 00:11:41.429 arguments for God's existence. And now we're 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:43.690 going to focus on the purely scientific arguments. 00:11:44.009 --> 00:11:47.049 These use observations and experiments to demonstrate 00:11:47.049 --> 00:11:50.159 that God is the best. and the only explanation 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:52.940 for many aspects of our existence and the universe 00:11:52.940 --> 00:11:55.320 in which we exist. Now this slide should look 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:57.480 pretty familiar. It's called the teleological 00:11:57.480 --> 00:12:00.460 or fine -tuning argument, and this is one we 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:02.759 looked at when we did our introduction to apologetics. 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:04.860 This argument says that the universe appears 00:12:04.860 --> 00:12:07.759 precisely designed for life, and the examples 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:10.200 that we looked at previously were the strength 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:13.980 of gravity, the expansion of space, and some 00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:16.620 of the conditions specific to Earth. Now, these 00:12:16.620 --> 00:12:20.179 are just three examples, but we find more and 00:12:20.179 --> 00:12:23.639 more of these factors every year. And we find 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:27.159 that, for instance, if gravity was a minute percent 00:12:27.159 --> 00:12:30.039 different in either direction, it would make 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:33.110 stars, planets, and life impossible. If the expansion 00:12:33.110 --> 00:12:36.730 of space was minutely faster, it would prevent 00:12:36.730 --> 00:12:39.750 galaxies from forming. If it was minutely slower, 00:12:40.009 --> 00:12:43.429 space would have collapsed in on itself. On Earth, 00:12:43.549 --> 00:12:45.909 for example, if the chemical composition of the 00:12:45.909 --> 00:12:48.090 atmosphere, the amount of water, the rotational 00:12:48.090 --> 00:12:52.409 period, Jupiter's exact size and orbit were different 00:12:52.409 --> 00:12:54.809 by minuscule amounts, life would be impossible 00:12:54.809 --> 00:12:57.740 on Earth. And like I said, we keep finding more 00:12:57.740 --> 00:13:00.159 and more of these factors. And so scientists 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.720 currently estimate that the chance of life naturally 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:05.179 occurring on one planet in the entire universe 00:13:05.179 --> 00:13:09.860 is 1 in 10 to the 138th. Now that is a massive 00:13:09.860 --> 00:13:13.240 number. It's far too big for us to be able to 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:16.480 conceptualize. It means nothing to us because 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:19.600 it's such a big number. Now we can sort of put 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.700 it in context by saying that there are 10 to 00:13:22.700 --> 00:13:25.970 the 70th atoms in the universe. And so you can 00:13:25.970 --> 00:13:28.570 imagine that you set out and you had to search 00:13:28.570 --> 00:13:31.629 for one specific atom in the entire universe. 00:13:31.929 --> 00:13:34.350 And your chance of finding that one specific 00:13:34.350 --> 00:13:38.850 atom by checking a random atom is 1 in 10 to 00:13:38.850 --> 00:13:44.049 the 70th. But because it is 1 in 10 to the 138th, 00:13:44.460 --> 00:13:46.919 If you imagine that there's an entire universe, 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:50.259 the size of our universe, inside that one particular 00:13:50.259 --> 00:13:53.320 atom you were looking for and then you were looking 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:57.019 for a specific atom inside that universe that 00:13:57.019 --> 00:13:59.659 was already contained in a specific atom, then 00:13:59.659 --> 00:14:01.419 the chance of finding that specific universe 00:14:01.419 --> 00:14:05.379 would be picking the one atom and then picking 00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:07.500 another atom in that other universe. It is such 00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:10.559 an incomprehensibly big number that keeps getting 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:14.669 bigger every year. it is just logically nearly 00:14:14.669 --> 00:14:18.409 impossible that this happened by chance and that 00:14:18.409 --> 00:14:21.710 it wasn't designed by a creator. So as we move 00:14:21.710 --> 00:14:24.230 into the next argument, I'm not going to pretend 00:14:24.230 --> 00:14:26.009 that I understand everything happening in this 00:14:26.009 --> 00:14:28.389 diagram. There's a reason that I studied computer 00:14:28.389 --> 00:14:31.370 science and not biology or chemistry. This stuff 00:14:31.370 --> 00:14:34.450 just blows my mind. It's tough for me to understand. 00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:37.769 But what it demonstrates is the central point 00:14:37.769 --> 00:14:40.129 of the book I recommended earlier called Darwin's 00:14:40.129 --> 00:14:42.490 Black Box. And that point is a concept called 00:14:42.490 --> 00:14:45.389 irreducible complexity. Essentially, there are 00:14:45.389 --> 00:14:47.509 a massive number of structures and processes 00:14:47.509 --> 00:14:49.950 happening in our bodies which are made up of 00:14:49.950 --> 00:14:52.669 pieces or steps that all had to be in place for 00:14:52.669 --> 00:14:55.590 that structure or process to function. Additionally, 00:14:55.710 --> 00:14:58.889 many, if not most of these pieces and steps have 00:14:58.889 --> 00:15:02.250 no purpose other than being a part of the final 00:15:02.250 --> 00:15:05.659 structure or process. Supporters of evolution 00:15:05.659 --> 00:15:08.340 argue that everything in our bodies evolved naturally 00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:11.299 over many small steps, but the discovery of these 00:15:11.299 --> 00:15:13.620 irreducibly complex structures and processes 00:15:13.620 --> 00:15:16.740 makes that logically improbable, if not impossible. 00:15:17.779 --> 00:15:20.179 Looking at the example on the screen, which again 00:15:20.179 --> 00:15:23.279 I will not pretend I fully understand, we can 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:25.879 see this concept illustrated in the blood clotting 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:28.220 cascade, which is how your body reacts when you 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:31.490 get cut to stop the bleeding. This process has 00:15:31.490 --> 00:15:34.049 to be very precise. If clotting happened too 00:15:34.049 --> 00:15:36.389 easily, your blood would clot when it shouldn't 00:15:36.389 --> 00:15:38.909 and you would die. If clotting didn't trigger 00:15:38.909 --> 00:15:42.029 properly, you'd bleed out and die. The series 00:15:42.029 --> 00:15:43.990 of steps you see on the screen make sure that 00:15:43.990 --> 00:15:46.330 clotting happens at exactly the right time and 00:15:46.330 --> 00:15:49.049 under the proper conditions and only to the right 00:15:49.049 --> 00:15:52.889 extent. However, all of those steps need to happen 00:15:52.889 --> 00:15:55.309 in that exact order for the process to work. 00:15:55.870 --> 00:15:58.149 It couldn't have evolved over time unless there 00:15:58.149 --> 00:16:00.850 was intelligence guiding that evolution. And 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:03.529 we see a similar or greater levels of irreducible 00:16:03.529 --> 00:16:06.470 complexity in a multitude of other places in 00:16:06.470 --> 00:16:09.649 our bodies. It's as if God's signature is all 00:16:09.649 --> 00:16:12.309 over the tiny machines that make our bodies run. 00:16:12.509 --> 00:16:15.990 So go read Darwin's black box and hear it explained 00:16:15.990 --> 00:16:18.690 by an expert. It's about a hundred times more 00:16:18.690 --> 00:16:21.220 convincing. And speaking of experts, you should 00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:23.220 also take a look at the book called Signature 00:16:23.220 --> 00:16:25.659 in the Cell by Stephen Meyer, but I'll do my 00:16:25.659 --> 00:16:28.299 best to explain why DNA and biological information 00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:31.899 storage also point to God's existence. Most people 00:16:31.899 --> 00:16:34.000 listening to this have heard of DNA and understand 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.019 the basic concept that DNA stores the genetic 00:16:37.019 --> 00:16:39.200 information that determines the properties of 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:42.620 our bodies, such as height, hair color, eye color, 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:45.299 and even immunity or susceptibility to certain 00:16:45.299 --> 00:16:48.570 diseases. This information is stored in sequences 00:16:48.570 --> 00:16:51.250 of four different nucleotides, which we represent 00:16:51.250 --> 00:16:54.809 as four letters. DNA gets unzipped, specific 00:16:54.809 --> 00:16:57.950 sequences are read by something called RNA, then 00:16:57.950 --> 00:17:00.049 it gets zipped back up, and the copied information 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:02.769 is used to create proteins, which are the building 00:17:02.769 --> 00:17:06.170 blocks of various things in our bodies. So what 00:17:06.170 --> 00:17:08.950 does this have to do with God? Well, first, the 00:17:08.950 --> 00:17:11.190 entire thing is a shining example of irreducible 00:17:11.190 --> 00:17:14.710 complexity. None of those parts, the DNA, the 00:17:14.710 --> 00:17:18.099 RNA, The unzipper, the zipper, the protein factories 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:20.740 have an independent function. They all need each 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:23.119 other to function. So thinking that they could 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:26.400 have evolved independently makes no sense. Second, 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:29.180 let's grant that they evolved independently just 00:17:29.180 --> 00:17:32.299 for the sake of argument. If so, where did the 00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:35.900 DNA for the first organism come from? And that 00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:38.559 points to the biggest problem of all. The closest 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:42.269 analogy we have to DNA is computer code. Who 00:17:42.269 --> 00:17:44.730 designed the code and determined what the individual 00:17:44.730 --> 00:17:47.829 nucleotides and sequences of nucleotides would 00:17:47.829 --> 00:17:51.049 mean? The entire system and all the rules needed 00:17:51.049 --> 00:17:53.950 to be implemented all at once. If we saw this 00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:56.450 system anywhere besides the human body, we'd 00:17:56.450 --> 00:17:58.710 insist that a computer programmer had created 00:17:58.710 --> 00:18:01.490 it. So why do we make an exception for the DNA 00:18:01.490 --> 00:18:03.789 system in our bodies when it's clear that it 00:18:03.789 --> 00:18:07.029 also had a programmer? God. And then we'll wrap 00:18:07.029 --> 00:18:09.490 up our scientific arguments with another bridge 00:18:09.490 --> 00:18:12.329 argument, this time between the scientific arguments 00:18:12.329 --> 00:18:15.569 and the Christian -specific arguments. In particular, 00:18:15.789 --> 00:18:18.390 we see the confirmation of ancient scientific 00:18:18.390 --> 00:18:21.670 assertions made in the Bible, which have only 00:18:21.670 --> 00:18:25.369 recently been confirmed by modern science. One 00:18:25.369 --> 00:18:27.230 of these examples comes from the book of Job. 00:18:27.390 --> 00:18:31.849 And basically, near the end of the book, Job 00:18:31.849 --> 00:18:34.589 questions God. And as part of God's response 00:18:34.589 --> 00:18:50.190 to Job, he says, This happens in Job 38, 31 to 00:18:50.190 --> 00:18:54.619 32. Now, This just sounded like, you know, big, 00:18:54.740 --> 00:18:58.000 grand, cosmological language that didn't really 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:01.000 mean anything until modern science started looking 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:05.640 at these star clusters and constellations with 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:08.220 modern telescopes. Some of these things we've 00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:11.000 only been able to confirm within the last couple 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:14.579 decades. And these are amazing. These blew my 00:19:14.579 --> 00:19:16.859 mind the first time I heard them. For instance, 00:19:17.059 --> 00:19:20.400 when God says, bind the cluster of the Pleiades. 00:19:21.130 --> 00:19:23.369 Ancient people couldn't have known that the Pleiades 00:19:23.369 --> 00:19:27.049 is a star cluster. They are bound gravitationally 00:19:27.049 --> 00:19:29.769 to each other. They also couldn't have known 00:19:29.769 --> 00:19:33.490 that Orion was not a cluster. So when God says 00:19:33.490 --> 00:19:36.829 loosing the cords of Orion, the ancient people 00:19:36.829 --> 00:19:39.829 couldn't have known that Orion isn't a star cluster 00:19:39.829 --> 00:19:41.930 or isn't linked together and they're actually 00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:45.089 starting to move apart. And finally, when God 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:46.930 says directing the constellations through the 00:19:46.930 --> 00:19:49.690 seasons or guiding the bear with her cubs across 00:19:49.690 --> 00:19:52.670 the heavens, Well, we didn't know until incredibly 00:19:52.670 --> 00:19:56.910 recently that the bear or Arcturus wasn't a single 00:19:56.910 --> 00:20:00.230 star, but it's actually 53. Well, that's the 00:20:00.230 --> 00:20:03.309 bear and her cubs. Scholars believe that Job 00:20:03.309 --> 00:20:05.710 is the oldest book in the Bible. It was passed 00:20:05.710 --> 00:20:07.950 down by oral tradition before it was recorded. 00:20:08.269 --> 00:20:10.609 This information would have been impossible for 00:20:10.609 --> 00:20:12.829 these people to know unless it was given to them 00:20:12.829 --> 00:20:16.690 by the very creator of the universe. So other 00:20:16.690 --> 00:20:18.890 than that final bridge argument we looked at 00:20:18.890 --> 00:20:21.670 with the confirmation of ancient scientific assertions, 00:20:21.789 --> 00:20:24.190 the arguments for God's existence to this point 00:20:24.190 --> 00:20:26.569 have been fairly general. They could apply to 00:20:26.569 --> 00:20:29.369 any single creator God, not necessarily the God 00:20:29.369 --> 00:20:31.430 of the Bible. Now, however, we're going to look 00:20:31.430 --> 00:20:33.789 at arguments for God's existence that are specific 00:20:33.789 --> 00:20:36.069 to the God of the Bible and allow us to make 00:20:36.069 --> 00:20:38.430 the case that he exists as the one true God. 00:20:38.650 --> 00:20:40.630 But it's also fair to say that these arguments 00:20:40.630 --> 00:20:43.420 might be a little bit tricky. They may not necessarily 00:20:43.420 --> 00:20:46.420 be convincing to non -Christians, but they can 00:20:46.420 --> 00:20:48.819 act as a confirmation of faith to Christians. 00:20:49.099 --> 00:20:51.440 A good example of this is the first one, which 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:54.359 is the personal witness of the Holy Spirit. Many 00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:56.819 apologists will say that it is the best evidence 00:20:56.819 --> 00:21:00.519 to an individual that God exists. Every single 00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:03.539 Christian has had the experience of an interaction 00:21:03.539 --> 00:21:06.319 with the Holy Spirit. It might be something small 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:09.259 like... a feeling or an emotion, or it could 00:21:09.259 --> 00:21:11.960 be something dramatic, like God pointing you 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:14.240 or pushing you in a certain direction for your 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.140 life that was totally unexpected. It is impossible 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:19.559 to explain to people who haven't experienced 00:21:19.559 --> 00:21:22.799 it, but every Christian has had this experience. 00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:25.380 They have had a personal encounter and interaction 00:21:25.380 --> 00:21:29.460 with God, and it is something that is unmistakable. 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:31.960 It is something totally distinct from any other 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:34.480 encounter that you've ever had in your life. 00:21:34.779 --> 00:21:37.940 And this goes hand in hand with the second argument, 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:40.359 which is the radical transformation by the Holy 00:21:40.359 --> 00:21:43.160 Spirit. These are extreme life and personality 00:21:43.160 --> 00:21:46.039 changes that are unlikely or impossible to be 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:48.420 made by a person on their own, like breaking 00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:51.559 an addiction or with no withdrawal. Now, skeptics 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:54.799 will often dismiss this as coincidence or a person 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.779 exercising their will, but the sheer volume and 00:21:57.779 --> 00:22:00.180 the extent that we see these, even here in our 00:22:00.180 --> 00:22:03.509 own church, is overwhelming. Let me share a personal 00:22:03.509 --> 00:22:06.710 story for this one, because this is what convinced 00:22:06.710 --> 00:22:10.710 me that God was real. You see, way back before 00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:12.410 I was a Christian, back when I was a teenager, 00:22:12.589 --> 00:22:14.750 I started having some very serious health problems. 00:22:14.910 --> 00:22:19.450 It involved muscle pain, joint pain, muscle spasms. 00:22:19.730 --> 00:22:22.670 Basically, over time, over the period of a couple 00:22:22.670 --> 00:22:25.869 of years, my entire body was in extreme pain. 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:29.039 My parents got very concerned about this early 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:31.299 on when it started, and as it got more and more 00:22:31.299 --> 00:22:33.539 serious, they went through a lot of trouble and 00:22:33.539 --> 00:22:35.299 a lot of time to take me to a ton of different 00:22:35.299 --> 00:22:38.420 doctors. I went to doctors at different hospitals 00:22:38.420 --> 00:22:40.880 in different cities, and nobody could understand 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:42.980 what was going on with me. They did all sorts 00:22:42.980 --> 00:22:45.220 of tests. They did blood work. They took samples 00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:47.140 of everything you can imagine, and some of it 00:22:47.140 --> 00:22:50.220 was pretty painful, and I probably went to 40 00:22:50.220 --> 00:22:52.559 or 50 different doctors over the course of a 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:55.539 couple years. Nobody had any idea what was going 00:22:55.539 --> 00:22:58.339 on with me. And finally, when I was about 18 00:22:58.339 --> 00:23:02.819 or 19, my primary care doctor, he felt bad for 00:23:02.819 --> 00:23:06.039 me. I was in constant pain all the time. And 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:08.079 he said, listen, they don't know what's going 00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:11.200 on with you. I'm just going to give you something 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:13.319 to help you with the pain and to help you manage 00:23:13.319 --> 00:23:15.859 the symptoms. Now, I hold no ill will against 00:23:15.859 --> 00:23:17.819 him for this. He was simply trying to treat me 00:23:17.819 --> 00:23:21.549 to the best of his ability. As many of us know, 00:23:21.730 --> 00:23:24.130 painkillers and muscle relaxers tend to not work 00:23:24.130 --> 00:23:26.069 as well over time. And so you have to keep bumping 00:23:26.069 --> 00:23:29.130 up the dose. And so that's what got me hooked 00:23:29.130 --> 00:23:32.130 on painkillers and muscle relaxers. And over 00:23:32.130 --> 00:23:34.869 the course of many years, it went from one small 00:23:34.869 --> 00:23:38.250 pill to a handful of pills every day. And I think 00:23:38.250 --> 00:23:41.069 it's fair to say that I was pretty irresponsible 00:23:41.069 --> 00:23:43.309 in it. I was using higher doses than I should 00:23:43.309 --> 00:23:45.849 have just because I felt so bad all the time. 00:23:46.569 --> 00:23:49.170 I started getting queasy to my stomach. I started 00:23:49.170 --> 00:23:51.230 feeling depressed. It really changes your personality 00:23:51.230 --> 00:23:54.730 a lot. I would wash these things down with alcohol. 00:23:55.009 --> 00:23:58.690 And then I even tried other drugs, much more 00:23:58.690 --> 00:24:01.670 severe drugs, to give me the energy back that 00:24:01.670 --> 00:24:03.849 I was losing from these. And this went on for 00:24:03.849 --> 00:24:07.970 a very long time. And so the day that I got saved, 00:24:08.230 --> 00:24:10.630 I remember laying in bed that night and saying 00:24:10.630 --> 00:24:13.849 to myself, God, there's obviously a lot of things 00:24:13.849 --> 00:24:16.769 in my life that need changed. Please help me 00:24:16.769 --> 00:24:19.829 make that change. When I woke up the next day, 00:24:19.910 --> 00:24:22.289 it was almost like I was watching myself work 00:24:22.289 --> 00:24:25.869 on autopilot. I remember waking up and getting 00:24:25.869 --> 00:24:29.289 a trash bag and walking around my apartment and 00:24:29.289 --> 00:24:33.589 throwing out all of those pills and all the alcohol 00:24:33.589 --> 00:24:36.089 and all the other stuff. And I chucked it in 00:24:36.089 --> 00:24:38.910 the trash. And what's remarkable and impossible, 00:24:39.170 --> 00:24:42.460 unless it was God working, is that after almost 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:45.299 two decades of taking all these various substances, 00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:48.200 I didn't have a single moment of withdrawal. 00:24:48.900 --> 00:24:51.880 God saved me from that. And that is the type 00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:54.980 of radical transformation that we see all the 00:24:54.980 --> 00:24:58.339 time here in HCV and millions and millions of 00:24:58.339 --> 00:25:01.759 Christians see around the world. In 1 Corinthians 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:05.700 15, 14 -15 in the NIV translation, Paul says, 00:25:05.900 --> 00:25:08.160 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.640 is useless, and so is your faith. More than that, 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:12.720 we are then found to be false witnesses about 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:15.299 God. We have testified about God that he raised 00:25:15.299 --> 00:25:19.160 Christ from the dead. According to Paul, Jesus' 00:25:19.380 --> 00:25:22.539 death and resurrection are the critical element 00:25:22.539 --> 00:25:25.240 of Christianity. They prove all of Jesus' claims 00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:27.400 correct. If the resurrection happened, Christianity 00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:30.599 is true. If the resurrection didn't happen, Christianity 00:25:30.599 --> 00:25:34.160 is false. Because of Christ's claims, if Christianity 00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:37.059 is true, then God exists and everything that's 00:25:37.059 --> 00:25:39.349 written in the Bible about God is true. Consider 00:25:39.349 --> 00:25:41.849 this a preview of an upcoming session, because 00:25:41.849 --> 00:25:44.710 this topic deserves its own session, and there's 00:25:44.710 --> 00:25:46.529 so much material here that we could spend a couple 00:25:46.529 --> 00:25:49.109 hours on it. But let me give you two important 00:25:49.109 --> 00:25:51.589 pieces of evidence. The first is this. When we 00:25:51.589 --> 00:25:54.109 look in the Bible, the Jewish authorities accuse 00:25:54.109 --> 00:25:57.990 the apostles of stealing Jesus' body. They don't 00:25:57.990 --> 00:26:00.630 deny that the tomb is empty. They don't deny 00:26:00.630 --> 00:26:03.210 that the body is missing. Had the Romans or the 00:26:03.210 --> 00:26:05.869 Jews taken Jesus' body, they could have produced 00:26:05.869 --> 00:26:08.779 it and debunked the entire argument. but they 00:26:08.779 --> 00:26:11.019 knew that the body was missing. Church tradition 00:26:11.019 --> 00:26:13.220 holds that all of the apostles except for John 00:26:13.220 --> 00:26:15.480 were martyred for maintaining the truth of Jesus' 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:19.079 resurrection. History puts us fairly certain 00:26:19.079 --> 00:26:20.880 that four or five of them were, and we don't 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:23.000 know about the rest, but the point is that the 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.720 one group of people who would know for sure whether 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:28.359 Jesus had died and come back to life were all 00:26:28.359 --> 00:26:31.440 willing to die for their belief that Jesus did 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:34.480 come back to life. If they had stolen the body 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:37.079 or were in any way involved in some sort of conspiracy, 00:26:37.950 --> 00:26:39.890 they wouldn't have allowed themselves to be tortured 00:26:39.890 --> 00:26:42.970 and killed to maintain that story. And that's 00:26:42.970 --> 00:26:45.069 just barely scratching the surface of the evidence 00:26:45.069 --> 00:26:47.809 we have for Jesus' resurrection. And like I said, 00:26:47.849 --> 00:26:50.549 we'll tackle this in a future section. And then 00:26:50.549 --> 00:26:52.410 we come to the argument from fulfilled prophecy. 00:26:52.690 --> 00:26:54.750 You probably heard Chris talk about this several 00:26:54.750 --> 00:26:57.289 times at Easter. I know this is a big focal point 00:26:57.289 --> 00:26:59.269 of when I tell the Easter story to the kids. 00:26:59.650 --> 00:27:01.750 Now we have to acknowledge that almost every 00:27:01.750 --> 00:27:03.970 religion offers prophecies, and occasionally 00:27:03.970 --> 00:27:07.049 they get one correct. But on the low end, the 00:27:07.049 --> 00:27:09.670 God of the Bible has fulfilled at least 300 prophecies, 00:27:09.690 --> 00:27:11.710 with many scholars putting the number significantly 00:27:11.710 --> 00:27:15.190 higher. Even more importantly, he has never been 00:27:15.190 --> 00:27:18.009 wrong. It would be one thing if the Bible made 00:27:18.009 --> 00:27:21.109 millions of predictions and got 300 correct, 00:27:21.210 --> 00:27:23.809 but got thousands of them wrong. But that's not 00:27:23.809 --> 00:27:26.470 the case. No prophecy or information contained 00:27:26.470 --> 00:27:28.990 in the Bible has ever been found to be incorrect. 00:27:29.430 --> 00:27:31.349 And so who else will be able to tell the future 00:27:31.349 --> 00:27:34.299 accurately? other than the God who is outside 00:27:34.299 --> 00:27:37.059 of time and is able to see that future exactly. 00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:40.200 And our final Christian -specific argument is 00:27:40.200 --> 00:27:42.799 the unique and exceptional history of Christianity. 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:46.140 This is another topic that deserves its entire 00:27:46.140 --> 00:27:48.700 discussion, so let me just give you the 30 -second 00:27:48.700 --> 00:27:51.440 version. The basic premise is that what started 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:53.980 as a small, heavily persecuted sect of Judaism 00:27:53.980 --> 00:27:56.880 not only survived, but became the official religion 00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:59.299 of the Roman Empire and the dominant religion 00:27:59.299 --> 00:28:02.680 of the world. But this wasn't done through military 00:28:02.680 --> 00:28:06.380 conquest like Islam, but through peace and charity. 00:28:06.619 --> 00:28:09.200 People converted to Christianity because they 00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:11.940 saw that radical personal transformation of the 00:28:11.940 --> 00:28:15.519 Holy Spirit. The people in Rome were blown away 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:17.960 by the charity shown by Christians. You see, 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:20.539 there was a common practice in Rome called exposure, 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:23.140 where when people had a baby and they didn't 00:28:23.140 --> 00:28:24.920 want it or they thought something was wrong with 00:28:24.920 --> 00:28:27.279 it, they would just leave it outside at night 00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:31.089 and the wild dogs would, you know, get the baby. 00:28:31.470 --> 00:28:34.309 Now, Christians were vehemently opposed to this 00:28:34.309 --> 00:28:37.009 process. So they would go around at night and 00:28:37.009 --> 00:28:39.529 pick up these exposure babies. Christians started 00:28:39.529 --> 00:28:41.950 the first orphanages to care for these babies. 00:28:42.069 --> 00:28:44.930 They started free hospitals. They did free meals 00:28:44.930 --> 00:28:47.890 for people. They took care of orphans and widows. 00:28:48.230 --> 00:28:51.529 They showed people that life didn't have to be 00:28:51.529 --> 00:28:54.369 the way it was. And then they told people that 00:28:54.369 --> 00:28:57.680 the motivation for that change was Jesus. It's 00:28:57.680 --> 00:28:59.980 one thing for Islamic soldiers to ride into a 00:28:59.980 --> 00:29:02.319 village, force people to convert at the point 00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:05.240 of a sword, and kill anybody who doesn't, versus 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:08.319 people willingly converting when they see God 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:11.759 transforming lives. The timing of Jesus' life 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:14.759 and death and the way that Christianity spread 00:29:14.759 --> 00:29:16.920 and the speed that it spread and the method that 00:29:16.920 --> 00:29:19.180 it spread are nothing short of miraculous. And 00:29:19.180 --> 00:29:21.279 like I said, we'll examine this in a lot more 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:23.940 detail in a future session. I became a Christian 00:29:23.940 --> 00:29:27.630 when I was 34. I spent between 20 and 25 years 00:29:27.630 --> 00:29:31.130 as an atheist. I knew for a fact that we either 00:29:31.130 --> 00:29:33.630 could or would explain every aspect of our existence 00:29:33.630 --> 00:29:36.349 scientifically, and that God was an unnecessary 00:29:36.349 --> 00:29:38.950 human invention meant to fill gaps in our knowledge. 00:29:39.069 --> 00:29:41.029 I've come to realize that the opposite is true. 00:29:41.529 --> 00:29:43.990 It's not just irrational, but an act of great 00:29:43.990 --> 00:29:46.210 self -deception to look at the world and conclude 00:29:46.210 --> 00:29:49.089 that God does not exist. He has made his presence 00:29:49.089 --> 00:29:51.599 known in many ways. And I pray that you'll use 00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:53.619 these arguments to break down barriers and open 00:29:53.619 --> 00:29:57.700 doors for evangelism and apologetics, but also 00:29:57.700 --> 00:30:00.480 to eliminate doubts within yourself and to draw 00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:04.599 people to God through Jesus. Thank you for listening. 00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:07.519 Here's the resource again, my contact information, 00:30:07.900 --> 00:30:10.920 and a link to the slideshows and videos. God 00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:13.519 bless, and look forward to next month's session. 00:30:13.619 --> 00:30:17.000 We start part one of a two -part session on salvation.