Monday, December 27, 2010

Celebrate Reason

Hey guys,

I really love snow. I love the uniqueness of each snowflake and how it covers everything in site. It reminds me of Isaiah 1:18 which says, "Come let us reason together, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow." This is a very appropriate verse for this weeks sermon. I entitled the sermon "Celebrate Reason" because it is based on a billboard that the atheist put up with a picture of the nativity scene. It said, "We know it's a myth. This season celebrate reason." Here is a picture of it in case you would like to view it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334040/You-know-myth-Atheist-banner-causes-storm-entrance-New-York-tunnel.html

I found this quite intriguing that an atheist group would call Christians unreasonable. For I believe that we have more reasons to believe in God then they have reason to believe in a Big Bang theory. Since we were unable to meet together this week at church, I decided to embrace technology and preach the sermon to my computer. You can listen to the sermon at the church's website.

www.ocbaptist.org

Below I have put the main points from the sermon, so that you may be able to have these arguments when debating with non-believers as to the existence of God.

a. David Hume is probably the most famous atheist who argues against the possibility of miracles. Hume argues that is impossible to prove that a miracle has occurred. He gives four reasons why miracles are false.

i. No miracle in history is attested by a sufficient number of educated and honest men, who are of social standing that they would have a great deal to lose by lying. In other words, the only people who claim to have witnessed a miracle are those who are poor, uneducated and stupid. These people need to draw attention to themselves and would stand to lose nothing if they were caught lieing.

ii. People crave the miraculous and will believe the most absurd stories, as the abundance of false tales of miracles proves.

iii. Miracles occur only among barbarous peoples.

iv. Miracles occur in all religions and thereby cancel each other out, since they support contradictory doctrines.

b. Each of these arguments are based on false information.

i. First and foremost, the miracles in Scripture had several witnesses by both abundant and qualified people. The fact, of the matter is historians of every culture could not argue with the idea that many people had seen Jesus do miracles. Even Muslims do not argue with the idea that Jesus was a miracle worker. Also, every apostle who claimed to witness the resurrection lost their life. Seems to me that they did have a lot to lose. Many of the disciples were called uneducated men because they were fisherman. But the gospel of Luke was written by a doctor, how much education do you want? The disciples also each died giving testimony of the resurrection.

ii. His argument here only proves that people don’t tend to believe miraculous stories without proper scrutiny. When you see a special on TBN about miracles happen, all you really do is question the veracity of the event.

iii. Jesus miracles occurred in Jerusalem, not amongst barbarous people.

iv. Hume argues that all religions have miracles. This is not true. Christianity is the only religion that claims to able to prove its teachings through miracles.

Finally, Here is three reasons why we can believe in an Intelligent Designer as opposed to a Big Bang theory.

1. The Origin of the Universe – The fact of the matter is that almost every scientist and rational thinker today believes that the universe had a beginning. Some would call it a big bang. But what was the cause of the Big Bang? You cannot take something from nothing and the universe beginning had to start from something. If we heard a big bang outside and then walked out and saw a tree. We would ask where did that come from. If I said It came from nothing and just fell from the sky. You would laugh at me, because no rational person would accept that answer. Something had to create the universe and it’s not beyond reason to believe in an Intelligent Designer.

Now the logical question to this would be, “If everything has to have a first cause then who created God or where did God come from? The answer to that is, God doesn’t have a beginning like the universe does. “The premise is that whatever begins to exist must have a cause. In other words, ‘being’ can’t come from nonbeing’. Since God never began to exist, he doesn’t require a cause. He never came into being.” Now the Big Bang theory says that cells were the things that were uncaused. So the faith is in a God or cells. Either way it is faith. This leads me to the second rational thought to the existence of God.

2. The Complexity of the Universe – If cells came together and created our complex universe over billions of years then you have more faith than I do. In fact, scientist today say that the Big Bang was not some chaotic, primordial event, but rather a highly ordered event that required an enormous amount of information. In fact, from the very moment of its inception, the universe had to be fine-tuned to an incomprehensible precision for the existence of life. In other words, this planet had to have the perfect amount of oxygen combined with hydrogen and other gases to sustain life. And this points to an Intelligent designer makes more sense then coincidence. If you just took the complexity of the human body, you would have to come to the conclusion of an Intelligent designer.

3. Our Morals point to a God – If God does not exist then neither do morals. Try asking an atheist who determines what is right and wrong in a society. For one religion says it is ok to kill anyone who is not a blue-eyed blonde and another person says it is wrong to kill. What is right and what is wrong? The truth is we all know deep down that there is a moral value system. We know it’s wrong to lie, steal, murder, and cheat. Why because God put those values in us. Next time you meet someone who doesn’t believe in God ask them what determines right and wrong. You will probably get the answer well its relative to each person. At that point, punch them in the nose. They will you can’t do that. And you say, "says who?" (btw, please don't punch anyone in the nose, we are just making a valid point here that we know it is wrong to just punch somebody in the nose.) We have a moral value system that points to a God.

If you like to study this subject more I would like to suggest two books.

1) The Reason for God by Tim Keller

2) Reasonable Faith by William Craig

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Sunday, December 12

This past Sunday we continued our series "Advent" and we looked at the Christian virtue of Joy. Joy is contentment, rejoicing and continual happiness. Joy is not a personality trait or an emotion. The Bible calls us to be joyful always. We learned that there is no circumstance or event that should steal a Christians joy. We are able to be joyful because of the work of Christ, the character of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, the blessings God has given us, and the privilege that we have to share the Gospel. If you feel like your joy is not full in Christ it is probably because 1) you are not really saved, 2) you are being tempted by Satan and you need to give the temptation to the Lord, or 3) you have false idea of who God is. You think you deserve more than you truly deserve. You can listen to the sermon at
http://www.ocbaptist.org/media.php?pageID=21.
Just click on the sermon entitled Joy and I hope you enjoy!

Btw, don't forget that this sunday we will be meeting at our East Campus - 102 North Division Street in Ocean City. We will have a fellowship breakfast at 9:30 and then the service will start at 10:30 where the children will present the Christmas play. Hope to see you there! Have a great week.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sermon series: Advent - Peace

Today, we continued our Advent series. Advent is a Christian tradition that helps us look forward to the coming of Christ. Many liturgical churches celebrate Advent by lighting a candle every Sunday until Christmas. The emergent church has recently strayed away from this tradition. The celebration of Advent does not make us more spiritual. And a church is not more relevant when it chooses not to celebrate Advent. This year, we are celebrating this tradition by looking at what the Bible can teach us about each of the virtues remembered through Advent. This week we looked at peace.

Our sin has caused us to be at war with God-- it separates us from the Holy God. But, God offered a peace treaty through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we admit we are a sinner and give our life to God we begin a relationship with God. God then gives us peace in our hearts.
The angels sang about this peace when they announced the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds in Luke 2:8-14. They sang a chorus of glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.

You can listen to this sermon on the church website - http://www.ocbaptist.org/#/ocbc-tv