1. Proof of the Existence of God
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Proof of the Existence of God
This proof should help the reader to see in what sense the evidence for God is obvious.
The conclusion of the argument will not be some bare theism, but the distinctive God of Scripture: Trinitarian, sovereign, transcendent, immanent, absolute and personal
Moral Argument
Epistemological Argument
Metaphysical Arguments:
Teleological Argument – Purpose
Cosmological Argument – Cause
Ontological Argument – Being

2. Psalm 71:14-19 Apologetics to the Glory of God
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Psalm 71:14-19
v.14 Faith is being sure, or confident,
of the hope you have.
I will speak so God is praised and
v.15 His salvation is clearly displayed.
Proofs of God’s righteousness and his deeds of salvation are more numerous than I can count.
v.16 Speak with POWER from the Holy Spirit
v.17 I have known God from my youth and I keep on proclaiming His wondrous deeds in my life.
v.18 Preserve me till I’m old so that I
will proclaim You to another generation.
v.19 Your righteousness extends into infinity. You do great things,
Who is like you?
v.14 1 Peter 3:15
v.15 So let us recount some of the proofs today with these arguments for God’s existence and also especially by proclaiming the gospel clearly.
v.18 I pray that as you follow Jesus, He will make you such a productive fisher of men as you cast your net broadly, that you will have spiritual offspring of multiple generations even before you get to be old and grey. May you be able to write a letter like Paul addressing the recipient (Titus 1:4) “my true son in our common faith.”
v.19 “into infinity” it reaches the high heavens

3. Moral Argument Moral Values We cannot see them We cannot feel them
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Moral Argument
Moral Values
We cannot see them
We cannot feel them
We cannot hear them
We know they exist
Ex. A witness can see a thief walk into a bank and rob it, but they cannot see the moral evil of the robbers action. The evil is without a doubt there.
Right and Wrong cannot be seen or heard
5. Robbery is not wrong b/c we don’t like it: rather, we don’t like it b/c it is wrong. Our outlook on robbery is not just our own subjective taste: it is rather a judgment which we make and we believe everyone is obliged to make
6. They arrive from experience, David Hume said “x brings good consequences” does not logically imply that “ x is morally good.”

4. Moral Argument Ethical Values Truth is an ethical value
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Moral Argument
Ethical Values
Truth is an ethical value
Jean-Paul Sartre
Ethical values are hierarchically structured
Truth is what we should believe and what we should speak with each other
Argued vigorously against ethical values but also said that we should honor people who “live authentically”. If authentic existence is not an ethical value why should we care about it at all, so basically Sartre refuted himself
We should seek to make our children feel good is one ethical value but most parents first ethical value is we should seek to teach our children self-discipline. For a Christian it would be to teach your children and want them to grow up in the light of God

5. Moral Argument Morality We learn morality, typically, in the family
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Moral Argument
Morality
We learn morality, typically, in the family
Moral standards presuppose absolute moral standards, which presuppose the existence of an absolute person
If God is absolute then he has no beginning and no end
Parents rightly demand the obedience of their children. Other adults may be wiser than your parents, but the word of the parent counts for more- unless is goes against a still higher moral authority. If we obey our parents b/c they love us and are wiser, and care for us then we obey the absolute person b/c he is supremely wise. If our parents deserve honor b/c they are our parents then so does the absolute person.
3. And since he is absolute then he must be one b/c there can only be one final ultimate authority for morals and knowledge. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent

6. A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology
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Epistemological
A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology
What is knowledge?
What can we know?
How do we come to know what we know?
How do we know we really know?
What are the limits of knowledge?
These questions are all a part of that branch of philosophy known as epistemology. The term itself comes from the Greek episteme (knowledge) and logos (theory), hence, epistemology studies the origin, processes, and validity of knowledge. All philosophical questions pertaining to knowledge ultimately start with a proper understanding of God and His creation. To the Christian mind, knowledge is impossible apart from the existence of a personal-infinite God as revealed in Scripture. It is only in the self-contained ontological trinity that we can have an answer for what we know and how we know. The presupposition of Christianity itself rests on the fact that a personal God has acted in history to reveal Himself. God has revealed Himself both in general and special revelation. General revelation refers to the created universe and His providential care. Special revelation comes through Christ, the Second Person of the ontological trinity, and through Holy Scripture. A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

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Scripture is God’s voluntary self-revelation and our knowledge of who the Creator is and who we are must come from this authoritative Word.
The Psalmist says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1)
Because this is God’s world, His Word must grant us insight to His plan and purpose for this world and “they that dwell therein.” God tells us to apply our hearts unto His knowledge if we are to know the certainty of the worlds of truth (Prov. 22:17-21). Since all knowledge begins with God and the authority of His Word, it follows that the revelation must be self-authenticating and self-attesting. The Word carries within itself its own validation since God is the only adequate witness to Himself. A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

8. Apologetics to the Glory of God
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Circular Reasoning
Circular reasoning is the only reasoning that is possible for finite man
we either reason from God to God-given and God-interpreted facts
or, from man to man-interpreted facts.
We either start with a self-contained God who is dependent upon no one but Himself or with an autonomous man who is able to attain knowledge independent of God’s direction and standards. A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

9. Two levels of knowing God’s knowledge is ultimate and absolute
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Two levels of knowing
God’s knowledge is ultimate and absolute
Man’s knowledge is derivative and dependent
When we say that God is internally self-conscious, we mean that there is no point of predication (cognitive departure point) outside of God whereby God knows Himself or anything else. In more basic terms, God has never learned anything because He has always known everything there is to know and therefore, the existence of a fact in the universe that is not known by God is an impossibility. A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

10. Three states of epistemological consciousness
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Three states of epistemological consciousness
1. Adamic Consciousness- although this state does not exist at the present, it was extant with Adam and Eve prior to the fall. Adam as a finite being was created with an innate knowledge of God.
Evangelicals are very willing to accept the Fall and the moral rebellion of Adam, but at times fail to realize the epistemological significance of the Fall. Adam, although finite, had the capacity to comprehend a propositional revelation from an infinite God. Originally, his finitude was no burden to him; he freely accepted his creaturehood and gladly acknowledged his Creator. A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

11. Three states of epistemological consciousness
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Three states of epistemological consciousness
2. Unregenerate Consciousness- Scripture tells us that when Adam broke the law of God, a profound change took place in Adam and subsequently in all men. Instead of being inherently receptive to the revelation and law of God, Adam’s reason, will, and affections sought to suppress the same law and revelation (Rom. 1:18-23).
The Unregenerate Consciousness, as heir to Adam’s sin, is characterized by Van Til under the following points:
Man is ultimate judge of what can or cannot happen.
Man denies (either implicitly or explicitly) that God can control any and all phenomena.
Man’s thought is absolutely original. His interpretation will be true for him.
The facts which confront man are not created by God. They are brute facts— uninterpreted and ultimately irrational. The universe is therefore controlled by chance. A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

12. Three states of epistemological consciousness
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Three states of epistemological consciousness
3. Regenerate Consciousness- After regeneration the intellect, the will, and the affections are renewed in principle
(Col.3:10). By the renewing work of the Holy Spirit man’s mind is in principle returned to its normal (Adamic) condition.
The Christian should be characterized as a “new man” having a renewed mind, new commitments, a new direction, a new Lord, and hence new presuppositions in the world of thought. The believer’s thinking ought to be rooted in Christ “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

13. If evolution was true, why does only man have logic?
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If evolution was true, why does only man have logic?
- Some say it was an evolved improvement to preserve the human species (e.g. we don’t just step in front of a car expecting not to be hit, because of logic)
- According to evolutionists cockroaches and other animals have been around longer than humans
If our logic was developed from impersonal chance then it would not be normative if our logic is not normative then we have no obligation to it. – why should we trust our logic?

14. Apologetics to the Glory of God
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In Conclusion
The power of logic is normative and ethical. It tells us what we ought to confess as a conclusion, granting our confession of premises. And if it is ethical, it is covenantal; like moral values, it rests on the dependable word of a trust worthy person, a Lord, or absolute divine personality. Thus, when unbelievers use logic to raise objections against Christianity, they are using something which, manipulate it how they may, points in the opposite direction.
Apologetics to the Glory of God, John Frame p.104
Our very ability to conceptualize about anything is impossible apart from God and His Word. Just as we are dependent upon God for our being, we are dependent upon God for our meaning and for our knowing. To the man who has been regenerated, knowing God or any part of His creation is not a neutral intellectual endeavor. Facts do not speak for themselves. They are not self-interpretative. All thinking is based upon pre-theoretical assumptions or presuppositions. We "fit" facts into our intellectual "system" and that "system" determines what the facts say. Therefore, when we endeavor to take a neutral stance, we unwittingly and un-christianly endorse assumptions which are hostile to our faith. There is only one consistent way in which a "system" may be constructed which will enable the facts of life to speak the truth. This can and will occur when the system is constructed from Scripture by men who are in the state of Regenerate Consciousness which produces not only new-birth conversion but epistemic conversion as well.
A Cursory Look at Christian Epistemology, Allen L. Monroe,Ph.D

15. Teleological Argument
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Teleological Argument
S: walk into place were K is reading BIBLE. Then asks, what are you reading?
K: I read how the earth was made.
S: Oh, from what book? That is an interesting topic for me.
K: The bible, in Gen. I also like hearing about the way God made us.
S: You really believe that? Your Religious aren’t you? But everyone knows the bible was and is proven wrong.

16. Teleological Argument
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Teleological Argument
* The name “the teleological argument” is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning end or purpose.
* It is important to keep in mind that when we say that the world is “designed” we are comparing it to man made objects.
K: Freeze (put on slide) This conversion that would be called an TA an argument of Purpose and Design.
K: How has the bible been proven wrong?
S: In many ways take the finding of Fossils in dated Rock layers and all life is evolving slowly upwards in intelligences.
K: Well were did Life come from?
S: Life started with a big bang and…
K: so evolution is your belief, right?

17. * Definition of religion: is the way one believes
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* Science is a Religion
* Definition of religion: is the way one believes
* Science is not a religion. Creation is a religion but not science.
* Science is based upon faith. For example: evolution has not been seen and has not been tested but with faith people believe that it happened.
K: so evolution is your belief, right?
S: Right, if you wont to put it that way.
K: And what you believe is what your religion is, so you’re religious too. (slide) Religion is the way one believes by definition of religion.
S: Ok, so I’m religious, but that does not prove the bible right.

18. * Was that circular reasoning?
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* Scientist dated Fossils by the Rock layers they were found in and Rock layers were dated by the Fossils in them. This is CIRCULAR REASONING.
* Logical reasoning tells us that rock layers that are lower are older than those that are higher. But sometimes to find the age of a rock we have to look at the fossils inside that rock.
* Was that circular reasoning?
K: so, lets take dating the Fossils, as you said earlier. (read slide)

19. * Life is evolving but only in a downhill direction.
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* Life is evolving but only in a downhill direction.
* There is plenty of evidence for beneficial mutations and natural selection as seen in the way bacteria adapts to new environments.
* Everything can adapt to new environments, but can a group mutate into a whole new species?

20. The universe has an intelligent DESIGNER Psalm 8: 3-4
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Therefore
The universe has an intelligent DESIGNER
Psalm 8: 3-4 * *
*“Apologetics to the Glory of God” by John M. Frame. Page 107

21. Cosmological -The basics of Cosmological-
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Cosmological
-The basics of Cosmological-
-Came from the Greek Word “Kosmos”, which means “World” or “Universe”
This argument generally begins with the existence of the world or some part of it and seeks to establish the existence of a necessary Being who causes the existence of the world.
The Three Forms of the Cosmological Argument
1. The Thomist argument – Discussed later
2. The Leibnizian argument – The existance of God is important and necessary
3. The Kalam argument – The world was caused to exist at the beginning of time
The Cosmological Assertion
Every finite reality, whether it appears to be designed or not, must be dependent on an infinite God, simply because of its finitude.
Why is there something rather than nothing? - Leibizian

22. The Thomist Argument Got its name from St.Thomas Aquinas
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The Thomist Argument
Got its name from St.Thomas Aquinas
Humans are restricted, contingent beings
Such beings need something to be dependent upon
Must come from one Essential Being like God

23. Sub-sets of the Thomist Argument
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Sub-sets of the Thomist Argument
Motion – every motion is caused by a previous motion, ultimately requiring an “unmoved mover”
Cause – much like the motion argument, but simpler. Every effect is caused by a previous action; the whole process requiring a “first” or “uncaused” cause.

24. Opposition to Thomistic Arguments
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Opposition to Thomistic Arguments
Irrationalism – believe some events are “uncaused”
Ironically try to build rational arguments to prove their beliefs.
However any effect resulting from an “uncaused” cause would have no meaning or rational grounds.
How can we find meaning in an irrational world?

25. Overview of the Kalam Argument
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Overview of the Kalam Argument
Universe
Beginning
No Beginning
Caused
Not caused
Personal
Not Personal

26. From the view of Christianity
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From the view of Christianity
The world is not self-existent and self-explanatory.
It is not Causeless
God is the ultimate source of the world.
If we assume that the world is rational, we must assume that God is the author of the reason.

27. Ontological Ontological Argument Ontological Argument Alone?
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Ontological
Ontological Argument
The ontological argument attempts to prove God’s existence through abstract reasoning alone.
Ontological Argument Alone?
-All arguments should be presented and used together.
For example: Many strands of one rope.
Proving God’s Existence
-If arguments are united, God’s existence becomes convincing to unbelievers.
Ontological Argument Alone? To begin with we would like to state that the whole point of learning these apologetic arguments is not to use them in-and-of themselves, but rather they should be presented and used together. If used properly, they produce a vast number of reasons why an unbeliever should believe in the existence of God.
For example: A rope is made up of many strands and because the strands are working together the rope as a whole is extremely strong. If the rope becomes unraveled however and only one strand remains then the strength of the rope has decreased largely.
Proving God’s Existence: It is impossible to prove, literally or physically, the existence of God to an unbeliever, but if all arguments are united, it becomes very convincing and probable that God does exist.
Definition of God: Perfection; greatest possible being, not merely the greatest thing that happens to exist. He has the highest great-making properties to the highest degree. If he is the greatest then he must exist in reality.
Argument based on reason: According to the argument there is no need to go out looking for evidence of God’s existence; we can work out that He exists just by thinking about it. The fact that we can conceive the idea of God shows that he exists because we cannot conceive anything greater than ourselves, unless that being gives us the ability.
Ontological Argument Claims: that the idea that God doesn’t exist is just as preposterous as saying a four-sided triangle does exist. Because of the definition of triangle everyone knows that it is impossible to have a four sided triangle. In this same way, knowing what God means, makes it clear that God’s non-existence is impossible.
Confusion of Atheists: When one thinks of God as being non-existent, this is to think of God as being imperfect, because a God who doesn’t exist could be better than He is. To think that God is an imperfect God is just as absurd, however, as the idea of having a four-sided triangle, as we previously discussed. Being perfect is part of the definition of God, just as being three-sided is part of the definition of triangle. The idea that God doesn’t exist, implies his imperfection. As a result, the idea of having a non-existent God is just as absurd as the idea of having a four sided triangle. Therefore, the non-existence of God is impossible.
Conclusion: Anselm of Cantebury: In his writings, Anselm, who provided the most influential formulation of the ontological argument, indicated that he was not doubting God’s existence but was merely trying to prove the God whom his heart believed and loved. He stated that he was seeking “Not to understand, that I may believe, but to believe, that I might understand.”

28. Ontological Continued…
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Ontological Continued…
Formulating the Ontological Argument:
Premise 1: God has all perfections.
Premise 2: Existence is a perfection.
Conclusion: Therefore, God exists.
Definition of God:
Perfection: greatest possible being, not merely the greatest thing that happens to exist. He is the highest great-making property to the highest degree.

29. Ontological Continued…
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Ontological Continued…
Argument Based on Reason:
The fact that we can conceive the idea of God shows that He exists, because we cannot conceive anything greater than ourselves, unless that being gives us the ability.
Ontological Argument Claims:
that the idea that God doesn’t exist is just as preposterous as saying a four sided triangle exists.

30. Ontological Continued…
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Ontological Continued…
Confusion of Atheists:
Perhaps atheists doubt in the existence of God because they can’t believe in the existence of a perfect being.
Conclusion – Anselm of Cantebury:
He stated that he was seeking “not to understand, that I may believe, but to believe, that I might understand.”

31. Apologetics to the Glory of God
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