I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth : And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord ; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried ; he descended into hell ; the third day he rose again from the dead ; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost ; the holy catholic church ; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins ; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen

“An affirmative existential proposition can be proved, but a negative existential proposition – one that denies the existence of some thing – cannot be proved.” - Dr. Mortimer Adler “Truth in Religion”

“Two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many weeds. One explorer says, “Some gardener must tend this plot.” The other disagrees, “There is no gardener.” So they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen… Yet still the believer is not convinced. “But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, who comes secretly to look after the garden he loves.” At last the Skeptic despairs. “But what remains of the original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?” - Anthony Flew, Theology and Falsification

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” - Richard Dawkins

Key Question… “Why do we have something rather than nothing at all?” -Martin Heidegger “The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics”

“In one sense man does not ask the question about God, his very existence raises the question about God”. -Wolfaart Panneberg “Basic Questions in Theology”

Four Possible Explanations for Reality 1.Reality is an illusion 2.Reality is/was self-created 3.Reality is self-existent (eternal) 4.Reality was created by something that is self-existent

“I think, therefore I am.” -Rene Descartes Descartes, a mathematician, argued that if he is thinking then he must ‘be’. In other words, I think, therefore I am not an illusion. Illusions require something experiencing the illusion. You cannot doubt the existence of yourself without proving your existence. Reality is an Illusion

“Nothing is what rocks dream about.” -Aristotle Spontaneous generation is an analytically false concept – false by definition. Something cannot be ontologically prior to itself. “I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a cause.” - David Hume, Skeptic/Atheist Reality is/was Self-Created

Something exists Nothing cannot create something Therefore, a necessary and eternal being exists -Jonathan Edwards Only Logical Stance on Reality

“There are not many options – essentially just two. Either human intelligence ultimately owes its origin to mindless matter; or there is a Creator. It is strange that some people claim that it is their intelligence that leads them to prefer the first to the second.” - John Lennox

All scientific discovery points to one fact: The universe had a beginning. Everything that begins to exist must have a cause The universe began to exist Therefore, the universe had a cause And simply stated, what has a beginning cannot be eternal. An Eternal Universe

Something exists You don’t get something from nothing Therefore a necessary and eternal being exists The only two options are an eternal universe and an eternal Creator Science has disproven the concept of an eternal universe Therefore, an eternal Creator exists An Eternal Creator

According to Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, and other leading scientists, the answer is … Directed Panspermia Scientists Explanation for Life

The “Unmoved” Mover -Aristotle An infinite regress of causes is impossible. There is a difference between theoretical and actual infinity; you can’t practically put an infinite number of things between two points. Problem: Infinite Regress

Some limited, changing being(s) exist The present existence of these beings is caused by another There cannot be an infinite regress of causes of being Therefore, there is a first Cause of the present existence of these beings The first Cause must be infinite, necessary, eternal, simple, and unchangeable This first uncaused Cause is identical with the God of the Bible - Norman Geisler, The Philosophy of Religion What Kind of Eternal Creator?

The Eternal Being as Revealed in Nature

“No finite point has any meaning unless it has an infinite reference point” - Jean Paul Sarte

The Eternal Being Revealed in Scripture

Which Best Explains the Evidence?

“Essentially, I realized that to stay an atheist, I would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non- life produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too big for me to take, especially in light of the affirmative case for God's existence and Jesus' resurrection (and, hence, his divinity). In other words, in my assessment the Christian worldview accounted for the totality of the evidence much better than the atheistic worldview.” - Lee Strobel on accepting atheism from a thinking standpoint

Immanuel Kant didn’t believe you could know God, but taught that if God doesn’t exist, then ethics were meaningless. Without God all ethics are emotive – a matter of opinion. Kant asked the question, “What would it take for ethics to be meaningful?” Another Example – The Moral Argument

Now you have an omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, and holy Judge, who serves over a world that is beyond this life. Doesn’t this sound like the God of the Bible? Remember – Kant came to this result without using the Bible

No Excuse “But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! ” – Romans 1:19, The Message

Some Old Testament Names of God

God – A Trinity Father SonSpirit Is not God “Every once in a while in my discussions someone asks how I can believe in the Trinity. My answer is always the same. I would still be an agnostic if there was no Trinity, because there would be no answers. Without the high order of personal unity and diversity as given in the Trinity, there are no answers.” - Francis Schaeffer, He is There and He is Not Silent

“And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one Eternal.” - Excerpt from Athanasian Creed

Hierarchy in the Trinity “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44) “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:49) “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me” (John 15:26)

The Trinity in the New Testament

God the Father “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."(Matthew 6:14) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,"(Ephesians 1:3)

God the Father – What is He Like? “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.” ’ “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.“ - Luke 15:17-24

God the Father

A Change of Heart “I think the origins of the laws of nature and of life and the Universe point clearly to an intelligent Source. The burden of proof is on those who argue to the contrary.” – Anthony Flew, former outspoken atheist

“More consequences for life and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from any other basic question” – Mortimer Adler, Philosopher, Legal Scholar

Why Belief in the True God is Critical “The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God … What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. ” – A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth : And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord ; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried ; he descended into hell ; the third day he rose again from the dead ; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost ; the holy catholic church ; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins ; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen