Q & A Apologetics Theology

Theology - [Greek: theos (God) + logos (word)]: The study of the existence (or non-existence), nature, and attributes of God.

1. God is and it is reasonable to conclude that he is
Psalm 14; 53
Cosmological Argument – the fact that every known thing in the universe has a cause is evidence that that the universe itself has a cause and the cause of such a universe can only be God

A. Two Great Questions
1. Why is there something rather than nothing?

Carl Sagan: “The Cosmos is all there ever was, all there is and all there ever will be.”
2. If the second law of thermodynamics is true, and Carl Sagan’s belief
is true, why are we still here and alive?
2nd Law of Thermodynamics – energy is converted to less useful forms (steam engine uses some of the created heat produce motion, but all of it is not harness and is not recycled to continual use, but goes away in other forms)

Teleological Argument – focuses on harmony, order and design in the universe and argues that the order and design of the universe is evidence of an intelligent purpose and intelligent designer (telos – end, goal or purpose)
1. RNA Replication – evidence of irreducible complexity and the fact of
complex information at a level that cannot be broken down to a simple cell.

2. God has revealed himself in Jesus and Jesus claimed to be Yahweh
John 8

“I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’
“That is the thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”
“You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

3. God is not hidden, and he can be known and desires to make himself known
John 1:1-3, 14

Consequences

1. Our faith is not some blind belief but a hope constructed on the conviction that what we have heard and seen and tasted is truth
- We don’t have faith in faith or hope in hope. We have our hope constructed
on the historical Jesus as presented in the historical bible who said, and
demonstrated, that he is God.

2. We have a message to tell
3. Our message has global implications that all Jesus’ followers are called to
- Our global punch springs from our local engagement

4. Our hope is sure and we will not be put to shame in our hope!
Psalm 119:116 “Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope!”