Giving an Answer – Part 11
GodÕs Not Dead: Thinking Through the
HOW
1 Peter 3:15
I want to give a little introduction to what is going on in this film.
The film that IÕm talking about, for those of you who havenÕt heard the other
parts of this, is the first film, GodÕs
Not Dead [1]. There is GodÕs Not Dead
[2]. And GodÕs Not Dead: A Light in
Darkness [3] is just about finished production.
If you go out on the Internet, you can see a number of different
reviews—some are good, some are bad. Some of them are very critical of
the technical aspects of writing, and editing, and acting. I think, for the
most part, especially if youÕre a Christian and youÕve been around for very
long, itÕs such an improvement over
much that was done in the 60s, 70s, or 80s under the guise of Christian film
and Christian movies. ThatÕs not a perspective I want to talk about or
critique, but the comments are that GodÕs
Not Dead [2] is better on all of those accounts.
If you watch the film, GodÕs Not
Dead [1], they have like seven plot lines going—six or seven plot
lines—with different people who are all struggling with some aspect of
their relationship to God. ItÕs not really clear how all of those other plot
lines really fit within the main theme or thesis of the film. I think that was
a little confusing. That was one of the things that pointed out in several
reviews. In GodÕs Not Dead [2], it
says that they didnÕt have quite as many plot lines going, so itÕs not as confusing.
WhatÕs positive and good about films like this and The Case for Christ, which was just released, is that they can
provide a very useful foundation for discussion with unbelievers as well as believers. The downside is that often the arguments that are
presented, because of the venue in which they are presented, canÕt get very
deep or very complex in presenting some rather sophisticated arguments. But
they do a pretty decent job most ways.
But one of the positive values about this is that we can look at the
film and then talk about. I know several of you have seen the film. Some of you
havenÕt seen the film. IÕve given you a handout of the script. It gives all of
us a chance to talk about whatÕs going on, because weÕve all had these
experiences. WeÕve talked to somebody; tried to present the gospel. TheyÕve
asked us questions, and
Then we start kicking ourselves in the pants over that. We all go
through that. Let me tell you, after youÕve gone to seminary, and to school,
and youÕve taught this as many times as I have, you never get away from it,
because weÕre fallen, corrupt creatures. ThereÕs no such thing as perfection.
Thank God.
As I pointed out, we have the Holy Spirit. According to John 16, He is
the One who is making the gospel clear, and HeÕs the one whoÕs making the issue
clear. So no matter how many mistakes we make, we know that God the Holy Spirit
is superintending the whole process.
So when I do this kind of a critique of the film, I donÕt want anybody
to get the idea, ŅWell, they really blew it. This isnÕt good. We shouldnÕt
watch it. ThereÕs no value to it.Ó I think that you should. ItÕs something that you should watch; you should listen to
the evaluations here. Think about it, and think about how you would do what
this young man does in that kind of a pressure situation.
ItÕs sort of like the Super Bowl. One team goes to the Super
Bowl—usually itÕs the New England Patriots—and they win. After all
of the celebration is over and everybody sobers up and relaxes, sometime in the
spring they will get together and they will get the game films. And they look
at the game films. No matter how well they did, no matter how great the score
differential was with the other side, not every player did their best. There
were flubs by almost every player, because weÕre all human. We all fail. We all
lack perfect performance skills.
They watch those films over and over again in order to self-critique, in
order to understand what they did, why they did it, how they could do it
better, so that the next time they can improve on their skill. ThatÕs kind of
what weÕre doing tonight. WeÕre going to analyze and evaluate the moves that
are made, talk about it, and see how it could be done better. weÕll all learn some things it in the process.
One caveat that I wanted to bring out is a weakness. If you read a book
... For example, on the website weÕve posted CharlieÕs early Framework One book
on Giving
an Answer. In the last chapter, he gives some sample dialogues, which
are good to read through also. But thereÕs always—that and whether itÕs a
film—a level of artificiality. Because when you finish writing, as a
Christian, we want the unbeliever to become saved. We are, in a sense, making
up a dialogue. So thereÕs a level of—what would you call it—itÕs
artificial. ItÕs contrived a little bit.
But in this film, they really tried to stay away from that as best they
could. They do a pretty good job. WeÕve all had similar kinds of dialogue. In
fact, what they did was researched 30 different trial cases, or lawsuits,
involving Christian students bringing charges against professors who
discriminated against them in the same way that this professor does in the
classroom—refusing to give them a good grade, kicking them out of class,
intentionally failing them, because of their religious beliefs, things like
that. So a lot of the verbiage that comes out of the mouth of the atheist
professor is taken from real-life circumstances, situations, transcripts
from trials.
So the situation and the circumstance is very
realistic. It may not be the kind of thing that your child or grandchild will
necessarily face on campus; but itÕs realistic, and they very well could. I
have heard of many examples from Connecticut, from Texas, from other areas,
where similar kinds of situations happened in the classroom. I saw some that
were not quite as extreme when I was a student in university, and that was
several decades ago. So this kind of thing is not just contrived. We live in a
culture where people who are vocal against Christianity are more and more the
hero. So we, as Christians, need to know how to face and how to handle these
things.
Now, just a couple of things through the slides that I want you to
remember as we talk through this. These are the things that weÕve learned from
all the biblical examples we looked at.
1. People have a religious system.
This professor professes to be an atheist. But he believes in God. At
one point, as a child, he was probably a believer. His mother died when he was
11 years old. He kept praying that God would heal her and that she wouldnÕt
die, and when she died, he took out all of his anger against God. So he
believed that God didnÕt exist and God was of no value.
What is he doing? He is suppressing the truth, just like Romans
1:18–23 describes.
2. Unbelievers are not spiritually
neutral.
Atheists are not spiritually neutral. No human being is spiritually
neutral. No unbeliever is a true atheist. At the core of their soul, they know
God exists.
3. The purpose of a confrontation is not
just to change their mind about God, but to bring them
to salvation.
4. Questions that we ask expose unbelief
and are designed to either directly or indirectly challenge people to obedience
to the Scripture.
5. People are able to evaluate the
evidence despite a prior commitment to suppress the truth.
They are consistently reinterpreting it, as the apostle Paul did, up
until the point that the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus.
6. Again and again, the Bible presents
evidence for GodÕs presence and for GodÕs work, but itÕs not treated as neutral
between the unbeliever and the believer.
7. God uses historic facts and evidence to
expose the unbelieverÕs sin and rebellion.
8. Often, their reaction may be quite
hostile.
1. Often it begins with
questions—asking questions to bring out what people believe and what they
mean.
2. The believer should always assume the
Creator God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob exists.
WeÕre not taking a position of neutrality to try to prove God
exists—what would be the basis for that. We may give evidence for the existence of God, but thatÕs different from trying
to argue for the existence of God or prove it.
3. Sometimes, the focus is—as Elijah
did on Mount Carmel—to point out the inadequacies of the other personÕs
worldview, their inability to live on that basis.
TheyÕve taken a position. So, by asking questions, you demonstrate they
canÕt live consistently with it.
4. Realizing, again, all men know God
exists. They are suppressing that truth in various ways, but they know and God
the Holy Spirit is also working. So, itÕs our job to simply present the truth
and answer questions.
Then, just to put this back in your minds again, we have, basically,
four different ways that we come to know truth.
Through reason alone, called rationalism.
Empiricism, which is through the use of evidence,
through the use of observation, the scientific method.
Mysticism, which is the idea that somehow, intuitively, we come to know.
And revelation: God speaks.
They each have a counterpart in terms of apologetic strategy. The first
one is what was called classic apologetics. Now, I want to put this in your
head. Think about this. ThereÕs a chart in the back of Ken
Boa/Robert BowmanÕs book, Faith has Its Reasons.
There they say that with regard to science, the classic apologist takes a
view of creation that is sort of generic. ThatÕs the dominant view. There are
going to be exceptions to each of these, but thatÕs the dominant view.
In evidentialism, which is a counterpart to an empirical basis—that manÕs evidence is the point of common
ground—facts, history, or science is neutral. Under evidentialism, in
terms of science, they usually believe in old-earth creation—not a
young-earth creation.
Under mysticism, the counterpart is fideism—just believe. They
usually have some form of theistic evolution.
Then, for the person who believes in the priority of revelation and is
consistent with it and is a presuppositionalist, then the truth of Scripture is
presupposed and they usually believe in a young-earth creation.
Then, one last chart to put in your minds. We saw great evidence of it today. I assume most of you know what
happened today. It has been talked about for a couple of weeks. ŅWill President
Donald Trump take us out of the Paris climate treaty or not?Ó And he did.
If you take the time to go on some website youÕll hear all of the horrible, angry, bitter, vile things
that many celebrities said about Donald Trump and accused him of—that he
hates the earth, all kinds of things—the anger, the emotion thatÕs there.
See, this is what happens; when youÕre thinking about how to get down to the
basic levels of how people think, it often starts at a surface level. In this
case itÕs a political or national decision. It immediately goes to the first
layer underneath; it exposes ethics.
These people are angry. And we
are going to see this in the film. These people think that what he has done is
horrible! ItÕs wrong! ItÕs terrible! Where are they coming up with these
values? See, emotion is important because it exposes certain things that are going on in a personÕs thinking. We
will see some evidence of that.
As soon as you ask, ŅWhere did you get that value?Ó the next thing is,
ŅWell, how do you know that value is
true? ThatÕs the issue of knowledge—or as philosophers call it,
epistemology. How do you know itÕs true?
Then, ultimately, that takes you to ultimate reality. What is ultimate
reality? Is it matter? Is it nothingness? Is it a personal, infinite
God—what philosophers call metaphysics?
With that for a reminder, IÕm going to have James and Gregory come up,
and weÕre going to have them start reading through the script. There are three
points in the film where Josh Wheaton has to get up in front of this college
classroom to express his argument for the existence of God.
The scenario is that the professor is an atheist and is angry with God,
but thatÕs not evident at this point in the film. The professor comes along and
at the beginning of this philosophy class tells the students that they, in
order to get past all this ŅGod talk,Ó which he thinks is just a waste of time,
that he wants all of his students to write out and sign a statement that God is
dead. ThereÕs one student whoÕs a committed Christian, and heÕs not going to do
it. He wonÕt sign it. So the professor says, ŅWell, if you wonÕt sign it, then
why donÕt you come and present your case, why donÕt you present your evidence
for the existence of God and prove that God is not dead?Ó
So thatÕs what happens. There are three times in the film when he does
that. ThatÕs what the script is that you have in front of you. So weÕre going
to start with the first one, and we will start with Josh Wheaton. HeÕs the
student, and he starts with the statement, ŅAtheists say that no one can prove
the existence of God.Ó
Gregory is going to be Josh Wheaton, and weÕre going to typecast James,
because James was the atheist, science background unbeliever who came to
Preston City Bible Church and for the first few dates that he and Laura had,
they were looking at Institute for Creation Research websites, talking about
Creation and evolution. As the Lord worked on him over a
year, thatÕs when he came to understand the gospel and trust in Christ.
So I thought weÕd typecast him.
[James] ŅIt took me more than three arguments.Ó
[Dr. Dean] ŅIt took you more than three arguments? They didnÕt have time
in the movie for that. It took you a year.Ó
ŅGregory, why donÕt you start? Since IÕve got a hot microphone, IÕll
just speak into it when I get the female student role.Ó
Josh Wheaton: Atheists
say that no one can prove the existence of God, and theyÕre right. But I say
that no one can disprove that God exists. But the only way to debate this issue
is to look at the available evidence, and thatÕs what we are going to do. We
are going to put God on trial; with Professor Radisson
as the prosecutor, me as the defense attorney, and you as the jury.
Most cosmologists now agree that the universe began some 13.7 billion
years ago in an event known as the big bang [video image illustrating the big
bang in the background]. So letÕs look at theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize
winner Steven WeinbergÕs description of what the big bang would have looked
like. Since heÕs an atheist, we can be sure there isnÕt any believer bias in
his description.
ŅIn the beginning there was an explosion, and in three minutes, 98% of
the matter there is or ever will be was produced. We had a universe.Ó
[On-screen animation of the big bang]
For 2,500 years most scientists agreed with Aristotle on the idea of a
steady-state universe—that the universe has
always existed with no beginning and no end. But the Bible disagreed. In the
1920s, Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaitre, a theist, who was actually also . .
.
Female Student 1:
What, whatÕs a theist?
JW: A theist is someone
who believes in the existence of God. He said that the entire universe, jumping
into existence in a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, out of nothingness
in an unimaginably intense flash of light, is how he would expect the universe
to respond if God were to actually utter the command in Genesis 1:3, ŅLet
there be light.Ó In other words, the origin of the universe unfolded
exactly how one would expect after reading Genesis, and for 2,500 years the
Bible had it right, and science had it wrong. You see, in the real world we
never see things jumping into existence out of nothingness, but atheists will
make one small exception to this rule; mainly the
universe and everything in it.
Female Student 2: But, in his book, The
God Delusion, Richard Dawkins says that if you tell me God created the
universe then I have the right to ask you who created God.
JW: DawkinsÕ question only makes sense in terms of a god who has been
created. It doesnÕt make sense in terms of an uncreated god, which is the kind
of God Christians believe in. And even leaving God out of the equation, I then
have a right to turn Mr. Dawkins own question back around on him and ask, if
the universe created you, then who created the universe? You see, both the theist and the atheist are both burdened with
answering the same question of how did things start.
What IÕm hoping youÕll pick up from all this is that you donÕt have to
commit intellectual suicide to believe in a Creator behind the Creation. And to
the extent that you donÕt allow for God, youÕd be pretty hard pressed to find
any credible alternative explanation for how things came to be.
Professor Radisson: Well,
I imagine youÕre quite pleased with yourself. I see you carefully avoided the
fact that Steven Hawking, the worldÕs most famous scientist and whoÕs not a
theist, has recently come out in favor of a self-designing universe.
JW: I havenÕt avoided
it, I just didnÕt . . . .
PR: You just didnÕt know
about it. Well, letÕs see what professor Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Physics
at Cambridge who occupies a teaching chair once held by Sir Isaac Newton, has
to say about the origin of the universe. And I quote, ŅBecause thereÕs a law
such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing
spontaneously. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something instead of
nothing; why the universe exists; why we exist. ItÕs not necessary to invoke
God to set the universe in motion,Ó end quote. So you may have never come
across his comment but his point remains. How do you answer it?
JW: I donÕt know.
PR: You donÕt know? I
prick the balloon of your entire argument with a single pin and you donÕt know.
Huh?
JW: Well, I mean, IÕd
like to tell you I have the perfect answer, but it doesnÕt shake my underlying
faith.
PR: OK. So the greatest
scientific mind of all history says that God is not necessary, but first
semester freshman says, ŅOh, yes He is.Ó Wow, you know, itÕs gonna
be a really tough choice. Well, I look forward to next weekÕs lecture. Class is
dismissed.
Okay, letÕs look at this a minute. WhatÕs going on here?
IÕm going to take you back to this chart here. What is JoshÕs strategy?
Is he a classic apologist? Is he an evidentialist? Is he a Fideist? Or is he a
presuppositionalist in this first argument? What do you think? Anybody have any
idea? Ten weeks weÕve been talking about this, and youÕre like, ŅHmmm É I donÕt
know.Ó I get an ŅF.Ó
What is he? A classic apologist? Not quite. He
is not looking at reason. WhatÕs he going to do? The key statement is in the
first paragraph. What was the first thing you said, Greg?
ŅThe only way to debate this issue is to look at the available
evidence.Ó ThatÕs your key; thatÕs your starting point. HeÕs going to look at
the available evidence.
Then the next thing he says to the class is, ŅWe are going to put God on
trial; with Professor Radisson as the prosecutor, me as the defense attorney,
and you as the jury.Ó
Is that right or wrong? If itÕs right, why is it right? If it is wrong,
why is it wrong? Does anybody see a parallel with the biblical incident where
God is put on trial? ThatÕs right!
ItÕs the same thing that Satan does with Eve in Genesis 3. ŅWeÕre going
to put GodÕs statement—that if you eat from the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, you will certainly die—on trial. ŅGod didnÕt
really mean that, did He?Ó I mean, that is SatanÕs approach. ItÕs to take a
human being to think they can judge God and that they can test God.
Is another incident where Satan tried to get someone to test God? ŅJob?Ó
ŅNo, not Job.Ó
ŅChrist in the desert.Ó
ŅThatÕs right. I donÕt who said that, but thatÕs it.Ó Jesus
in the desert—the first wilderness temptation. In JesusÕ response,
He quotes Scripture, ŅDonÕt test the Lord your God.Ó We donÕt put ourselves in
an authority over God.
What would have been another way to have done this that would not have
compromised God and put the students in that position where theyÕre judging
God? Put the scientist, or put the professor, on trial. ŅWeÕre to put his statement on trial; weÕre going to
evaluate him.Ó
Another thing that he could have done É The
issue is the statement that he wants everybody to sign—that God is dead.
Josh couldÕve said É WhatÕs one of the key tactics
that IÕve talked about when weÕre talking to somebody? Ask questions.
ŅWhat do you mean by ŅGod is deadÓ? Do you mean that God doesnÕt exist?
Or God never existed? When that phrase first came out, historically, it really
didnÕt mean God never existed, but that God is no longer needed to explain
things—that God wasnÕt necessary.
ŅWhat do you mean by ŌGod is deadÕ?Ó When did you first come to this
idea? What were the circumstances around that? What evidence do you have that
God doesnÕt exist? See, youÕre putting them on trial to expose their thinking,
their values, and to ultimately expose what they think about ultimate reality.
It seems subtle. And thatÕs what I want to point out. Because we think,
ŅOkay, weÕre going to look at the evidence.Ó ThereÕs a right way to look at the
evidence and a wrong way to look at the evidence, and heÕs exhibiting a pure
evidentialist type of approach. So the student shouldÕve started by asking
questions and by putting the professor and his position on trial.
Then, when we go a little bit further, he makes a statement. ŅMost
cosmologists now agree that the universe began some 13.7 billion years ago in
an event known as the big bang.Ó Do you think that he agrees with that or
disagrees with that? Josh never makes a case that God created a young earth. He
accepts the big bang as a valid explanation. In fact, he is going to quote from
WeinbergÕs description and from Georges LemaitreÕs explanation that is really a
theistic evolution explanation that the big bang was how God brought everything
into existence.
But if you look at the description, in the beginning thereÕs an
explosion. So thereÕs something that explodes. So you have the existence of
matter, and then thereÕs this huge explosion of light, and from all of that
comes the stars, comes the solar system, comes planet Earth. But if you look at
what the what the Scripture says, the Scripture has a
slightly different order of events.
Look at Genesis chapter 1. IÕm going to take two approaches here from a
conservative young-earth view. View number one is the view that I hold; itÕs a
young-earth view, but thereÕs a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, which
is when you had the angelic fall and satanic rebellion. So you would have God
creating the original universe, and itÕs very similar to the universe thatÕs
described in the new heavens and new earth in Revelation 21. There is no salt
sea—that comes later. And thereÕs no darkness. Revelation 21:1, with the
new heavens and new earth, John says, ŅNow
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away. Also there was no more sea.Ó
As I say in a Genesis series, the presence of the salt sea in Scripture
is negative. ItÕs a consequence of sin. So itÕs the deep thatÕs mentioned in Genesis 1:2, that the Spirit of God
hovered over the face of the deep. In Revelation 21:23 John describes a new
heavens and new earth. 23 ŅThe city had
no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it.Ó So thereÕs an earth, and
thereÕs the city of the New Jerusalem and all the inhabitants of the earth, but
thereÕs no sun; thereÕs no moon; there are no stars; thereÕs no solar system.
ThereÕs none of those things in the new heavens and new earth—just the earth.
So he goes on to say, 23 ŅThe city had no need of the sun or of the
moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.Ó
GodÕs presence illuminated the universe. So I argue that that was the case in
the original heavens and earth created in Genesis 1:1, that thereÕs no salt
sea, thereÕs light, and then something happens and thereÕs darkness. And thatÕs
Genesis 1:2—that represents the fall.
So you originally have light. Then
you have darkness. You just had the empty box of the space–time continuum
of the universe, and thereÕs just one
planet, the earth. You donÕt have the sun and the moon and the stars created
until the fourth day. Now thatÕs not the same order that you have if you go
with a big bang. What happens in theistic evolution is that they try to say,
ŅWell É Moses doesnÕt get the order quite right.Ó And they express their order,
ŅSee, itÕs just kind of general and you can blend them together.Ó
But what IÕm showing is you canÕt make the kind of statement that Josh
makes, that this is how youÕd expect the universe to respond if God actually
uttered the command in Genesis 1:3. The order is different. So heÕs compromised
Scripture in the way he is presenting his case for God. This is consistently
what happens in classic apologetics and evidentialism; the most they get is
probability. TheyÕve compromised their underlying view of God because of their
methodology, not necessarily what they say.
If you look down a little bit after the second female student makes her
statement about Richard Dawkins, you have a hint of presuppositionalism there.
ŅDawkinsÕ question only makes sense in terms in a god who has been created. It
doesnÕt make sense in terms of an uncreated god, which is the kind of God Christians
believe in.Ó
See, he should have started with this. ŅAs a Christian, the kind of God
the Bible talks about is a Creator God Who is
omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. This is the God IÕm going to tell you
about.Ó ThatÕs what Paul does on MarsÕ Hill. He doesnÕt try to prove that; he
says, ŅThis is what we believe.Ó
If you go back and you look at the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham
at Answers in Genesis. Ken Ham is a consistent presuppositionalist, and he
never steps back to try to prove God
exists. He assumes the existence of a triune Creator God all the way through. So thatÕs that strategic kind of difference. Then, of
course, the professor tries to hit him with the Ņgotcha questionÓ at the end,
and that sets up the second debate.
Anybody have any questions about what IÕve said or comments about what
went on in that first episode? ŅThis is helpful,Ó or youÕre confused. I can see
some nods, so thatÕs good. LetÕs go with the second debate, and that starts
when he comes back the next class period. He is going to present a response to
the professorÕs quote from Stephen Hawking.
JW: [Stephen Hawking] also wrote a book called The Grand Design which says the following, ŅBecause there is a law
such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.Ó To be
honest, I didnÕt know how to refute that. I mean, after all, Hawking is clearly
a genius. But, Professor John Lennox, who teaches mathematics and philosophy,
has demonstrated that there are not one, even two, but three errors of logic contained
in that one simple sentence, and it all boils down to circular reasoning.
Hawking is basically saying that the universe exists because the universe
needed to exist, and because the universe needed to exist it therefore created
itself.
ItÕs like this, if I say to you that I can prove that Spam is the best
tasting food thatÕs ever existed because in all of history, no food has ever
tasted better, youÕd probably look at me strange and say I havenÕt proven
anything, and youÕd be right. All IÕve done is restate my original claim. But
when Hawking claims that the universe created itself because it needed to
create itself and then offers that as an explanation as to how and why it was
created, we donÕt immediately recognize that heÕs doing the same thing. But he
is, prompting Lennox to further comment, ŅNonsense remains nonsense even when
spoken by famous scientists, even though the general public assumes they are
statements of science.Ó
PR: This is the height of hubris. Are you telling me that you, a freshman,
are saying that Stephen Hawking is wrong?
JW: No, what IÕm saying is that John Lennox, a professor of mathematics
and philosophy, has found Professor HawkingÕs reasoning to be faulty, and I
agree with his logic. But, if you canÕt bear to disagree with HawkingÕs
thinking, then I suggest that you turn to page five of his book where he
insists philosophy is dead. And if youÕre so sure of Professor HawkingÕs
infallibility, and philosophy really is dead, then, uh, well, thereÕs really no
need for this class.
[Laughter from the class;
followed by a break in the debate scene to a counseling session between the
pastor and Professor Radisson’s Christian girlfriend.]
JW: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, for the last 150 years, Darwinists
have been saying that God is unnecessary to explain manÕs existence and that
evolution replaces God, but evolution only tells you what happens once you have
life. So, where did that something thatÕs alive come from? Well, Darwin never
really addressed it. He assumed maybe some lightning hit a stagnant pool full
of the right kind of chemicals—bingo—a living something.
But, uh, itÕs just not that simple. You see, Darwin claimed that the
ancestry of all living things came from that one single simple organism which
reproduced and was slowly modified over time into the complex life forms we
view today, which is why after contemplating his own theory Darwin uttered his
famous statement, ŅNatura non facit
saltum,Ó meaning, Ņnature does not jump.Ó Well, as noted, author Lee
Strobel pointed out that if you can picture the entire 3.8 billion years that
scientists say life has been around as one 24-hour day, in the space of just
about 90 seconds most major animal groups suddenly appear in the forms in which
they currently hold, not slowly and steadily as Darwin predicted, but in
evolutionary terms almost instantly. So, Ņnature does not jumpÓ becomes Ņnature
makes a giant leap.Ó So how do theists explain this sudden outburst of new
biological information?
ŅAnd God said, let the waters teem
with living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of
the sky. So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and
moving thing with which the water teems according to its kind, and God saw that
it was good.Ó Genesis 1:20
In other words, Creation happened because God said it should happen. And
even what looks to our eyes to be a blind, unguided process could really be
divinely controlled from start to finish.
LetÕs take a look at this. WhatÕs going on in this second maneuver is
that Josh is pretty much reacting to what heÕs been saying. So, the first thing
that he does is he looks for a refutation or evidence to use against the quote
from Stephen Hawking.
Now IÕm going to switchover here on the screen so you get a little bit of
background on this. One of the things that you and I are not told when we go
see the film is that this film was highly influenced by a book called,
strangely enough, GodÕs Not Dead. It was written by Rice Broocks, who is the cofounder of a ministry
called Every Nation family of churches. So itÕs his book that informs a
lot of the arguments here. HeÕs the real apologist who is influencing the film,
and heÕs an old-earth theistic evidentialist.
WhatÕs of positive value here is that Josh is taking a really strong
stand for creation, but heÕs not taking a
strong enough stand for creation.
What is interesting is if you go on some of the websites and you read some of
the statements, there are a few good critiques of the film from doing something
similar to what weÕre doing here. And then youÕll have a lot of comments from
people, ŅOh, no, no, no. He believes in creation.Ó You didnÕt listen!
One of the things that people do often—I see this all the
time—is somebody says, ŅI believe God created the heavens and the earth.Ó
They say, ŅHe believes what I believe; heÕs a good creationist.Ó And you read
your view into what they said instead of letting them talk, reading between the
lines to understand what their view is. I saw this over and over again in
viewer comments, that they imputed to Josh what they thought he was saying about creation. So
just to put this up there in terms of background.
Another thing to point out is an article written by John Lennox. John
Lennox wrote a book to refute Stephen HawkingÕs statement that the universe was
self-generated or self-created. In the middle of this he points out something
thatÕs very important. In fact, IÕve had people e-mail in questions to me about
this because I constantly make the statement that modern science, Western
European science, which is the only true development of science in the history
of the world, was the result of Judeo-Christian values coming to play in their
understanding of things.
In the middle of this article he makes the statement, ŅThe very reason science
flourished so vigorously in the 16th and 17th centuries
was precisely because of the belief that the laws of nature which were then
being discovered and defined reflected the influence of a divine Law-Giver.Ó
ŅOne of the fundamental themes of Christianity is that the universe was
built according to a rational, intelligent design.Ó Now, Lennox is an
intelligent-design guy. HeÕs not a young-earth guy either, but he has good
facts here. He says, ŅFar from being at odds with science, the Christian faith
actually makes perfect scientific sense.Ó
ŅSome years ago, the scientist Joseph Needham made an epic study of
technological development in China.Ó Needham died in the 90s. He wrote his
classic work—I think it was in the in the 70s—on science and
technology in China, a huge work of
research. He basically brought up things that IÕve brought up before, but itÕs
good to have a good source for this.
That the Chinese invented a number of things. We know they invented gunpowder. We know they invented paper. They
invented a number of other things. But it never went anywhere. They never developed it. Why? Because their
metaphysical worldview didnÕt have a creation that was ordered by a God Who
sovereignly oversaw the laws of nature, so that what they observed today would
be true tomorrow.
You see the same thing went with Islam. Islam has an arbitrary Allah; he
is not the God of the Bible, and he can arbitrarily change things tomorrow. So
they never developed science either. Only when you had people who were taking
the Bible seriously, that there were laws that you could count on, that God is
the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that the law of gravity is going to
be the same tomorrow, next year, next century, and 10 centuries from now, are
you going to formulate a foundation based on a solid ultimate view of reality
and a solid view of knowledge to develop science.
So Lennox talks about him and says, ŅSome years ago, the scientist
Joseph Needham made an epic study of technological development in China. He
wanted to find out why China, for all of its early gifts of innovation, had
fallen so far behind Europe in the advancement of science.Ó
ŅHe reluctantly came to the conclusion that European science had been
spurred on by the widespread belief in a rational creative force, known as God,
which made all scientific laws comprehensible.Ó
See, how many times have you heard me say, ŅYou canÕt talk, you canÕt
think, you canÕt exercise logic if you donÕt presuppose God.Ó Because without
God there is no order given to anything in GodÕs creation. Because as a
Christian we understand every fact is what it is because God created it. We
must think and act on that presupposition, and we canÕt step away from it
without being inconsistent.
This is reluctantly recognized by Needham. He critiques Hawking because
of this. If you go to the godsnotdeadbook.org
website, you can see an interview between Rice Broocks and John Lennox, who
is quoted in the film.
Strategically what heÕs showing is that HawkingÕs reasoning is flawed.
HeÕs doing the same thing Elijah did on Mount Carmel—that the priests of
BaalÕs logic, their reasoning, their belief system is
not going to sustain them. It doesnÕt work in reality. And heÕs doing that.
That is an approach, a tactic, that is consistent with
presuppositionalism.
In this heÕs assuming certain things about creation that are not that
evident unless you go back and you know about Rice Broocks and these other
things. TheyÕre not that evident; nevertheless, thatÕs whatÕs informing him.
The last thing I want to comment on is in both of these first two
episodes what is the doctrine that is the focal point in both presentations?
Creation. Creation is not some secondary idea thatÕs not significant or
relevant to understanding the gospel. ThatÕs why I pointed out, every time we
see Paul talking to an audience, or we see Peter talking to a Jewish audience,
theyÕre presupposing the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who is the Creator God.
Paul establishes and identifies his God as the Creator God of all things
before he ever gets to a point where he can talk about the Cross or
resurrection. Creation is not some secondary idea that creationists have
decided to make an important debating point that doesnÕt reflect the Bible. It
is central to these guysÕ presentation to identify Who
the God is that theyÕre talking about.
LetÕs go to the third debate. The focus here is going to be on the
problem of evil.
JW: It has been said that evil is atheismÕs most potent weapon against the
Christian faith. And it is! After all, the very existence of evil begs the
question [sic], ŅIf God is all good and God is all powerful, why does He allow
evil to exist?Ó The answer, at its core, is remarkably simple: free will. God
allows evil to exist because of free will. From the Christian standpoint, God
tolerates evil in this world on a temporary basis so that one day those who
choose to love Him freely will dwell with Him in heaven free from the influence
of evil, but with their free will intact! In other words, GodÕs intention
concerning evil is to one day destroy it.
PR: Well, how convenient. ŅOne day, I will get rid of all the evil in the
world, but until then you just have to deal with all the wars and holocausts,
tsunamis, poverty, starvation, and AIDS. Have a nice life.Ó Next he will be
lecturing us on moral absolutes.
JW: Well, why not? Professor Radisson, whoÕs clearly an atheist, doesnÕt
believe in moral absolutes. But his course syllabus says he plans to give us an
exam during finals week. Now, I am betting that if I managed to get an A on the
exam by cheating, he will suddenly start sounding like a Christian, insisting
it is wrong to cheat, that I should have known that. And yet, what basis does
he have? If my actions are calculated to help me succeed, then why shouldnÕt I
perform them? For Christians, the fixed point of morality, what constitutes
right and wrong, is a straight line that leads directly back to God.
PR: So you are saying that we need a god to be moral? That a moral atheist
is an impossibility?
JW: No, but with no God there is no real reason to be moral; there is not
even a standard of what moral behavior is. For Christians, lying, cheating,
stealing, and my example, stealing a grade I didnÕt earn, are forbidden as a
form of theft. But if God does not exist, as Dostoyevsky famously pointed out,
ŅIf God does not exist, then everything is permissible.Ó And
not only permissible, but pointless. If Professor Radisson is right,
then all of this—all of our struggle, all of our debate, whatever we
decide here—is meaningless. I mean, our lives, our deaths are of no more
consequence than that of a goldfish.
PR: Come on, this is ridiculous. So after all of your talk, you are saying
that it all comes down to a choice—believe or donÕt believe.
JW: ThatÕs right. ThatÕs all there is. ThatÕs all thereÕs ever been. The
only difference between your position and my position is that you take away
their choice. You demand that they choose the box marked ŅI donÕt believe.Ó
PR: Yes, because I want to free them. Because religion is like a . . .
itÕs like a mind virus that parents have passed on down to their children. And
Christianity is the worst virus of all. It slowly creeps into our lives when
weÕre weak or sick or helpless.
JW: So religion is like a disease?
PR: Yes, yes. It infects everything. ItÕs the enemy of reason.
JW: Reason? Professor, you left reason a long time ago. What you are
teaching here isnÕt philosophy; itÕs not even atheism anymore. What youÕre
teaching is anti-theism. ItÕs not enough that you donÕt believe,
you need all of us to not believe with you.
PR: Why donÕt you admit the truth? You just want to ensnare them into your
primitive superstition.
JW: What I want is for them to make their own choice. ThatÕs what God
wants.
PR: You have no idea how much I am going to enjoy failing you.
JW: Who are you really looking to fail, Professor: me or
God?
JW: Do you hate God?
PR: ThatÕs not even a question.
JW: Okay, why do you hate God?
PR: This is ridiculous.
JW: Why do you hate God?! Answer the question!
YouÕve seen the science and the arguments. Science supports His existence. You
know the truth! So why do you hate Him?! Why?! ItÕs a very simple question, Professor. Why do you hate
God?!
PR: Because He took everything away from me! Yes, I hate God! All I have
for Him is hate!
JW: How can you hate someone if they donÕt exist?
PR: YouÕve proven nothing.
JW: Maybe not, but they get to choose. Is God
dead?
Good job.
When we look at this, what we see in this last episode is really where
he should have started. Here he has a presuppositional approach. He is doing
two things. HeÕs assuming that God
exists. From the very beginning he talks about this basic problem of evil, he
presents that, and then he says, ŅFrom the Christian standpoint this is why God
allows evil.Ó So heÕs not waffling or trying to wobble away from that.
Then, when the professor starts to come in, he recognizes that what the
professor is doing is what I talk about in this slide.
He is immediately making an ethical decision about what is right or what
is wrong. He is implying in his statement that, ŅWell, all you have to do is
deal with all the wars, the Holocaust, tsunamis, poverty, etc.; have a nice
life.Ó See, heÕs implying this is wrong—heÕs judging God by that
statement.
So immediately he sees thatÕs the weakness. And he can now take this
ethical decision and drive it down and show that the professor canÕt live
consistently with that. That gets down to revealing his epistemology about
knowing right or wrong. He points out that the professor, if he finds out that
a student has cheated, is not going to allow that because itÕs wrong. Well,
where does he get that value? Only Christianity has this value of right or
wrong. And only if you have a righteous God do you have a fixed point of
reality. So he is showing that he canÕt live on the basis of and within the
framework of his own system.
What happens at that point is that he begins to get angry. That emotion
is what reveals what this guy believes. JW uses that to ask questions, to try
to further expose what the problem is. Before he asked that question about,
ŅHow can you hate somebody if they donÕt exist?Ó JWÕs response is, ŅWhy do you
hate God?Ó He says, ŅBecause He took everything away from me.Ó You canÕt make a
statement like that unless you believe that God exists. HeÕs admitted it; he
has exposed that suppression mechanism via the anger thatÕs there.
ThatÕs what happens in life. When something happens and we have emotion, that is a window into a belief system. So that last
one is an example of a presuppositional approach.
WeÕve just about run out of time. Anybody have any questions? Any other
observations or thoughts that have popped up in your mind as youÕve listened to
it and talked about it? Any ideas?
What is your question?
ŅThey quote Dawkins—that nincompoop. He says, ŌBecause thereÕs a
law such as gravity ...Õ ThatÕs where you stop him
right there. Just a minute, Where did that come from?Ó
ThatÕs right. ThatÕs what Lennox points out—thatÕs one of his
logical flaws.
ŅHe should have stopped him right then and there.Ó He should have.
ThatÕs a good point. Where does he get that?
Of course, the other logical flaws were clearly evident. Because he
personalizes the universe as if itÕs intelligent—itÕs going to create
itself because it knows it has a need. HeÕs implying all of that, and he has a
circular reasoning there. ThatÕs the third logical fallacy.
ŅHow do they know that the Big Bang took three minutes?Ó
ThatÕs what Lemaire or the other guy said. ŅAnother nincompoop.Ó ŅFoolÓ
is a better word, Katherine. Yes, he is a fool. ŅThe fool has said in his heart, ŌThere is no God.Õ Ó
Fool—GodÕs words are better—Psalm 14:1.
You are making the point that he is not presupposing and standing on the
Scripture. When Jesus is in the wilderness, what is Jesus standing on? He is
standing on the Word of God; He doesnÕt compromise it. So, yes, your points are
well taken. Very good. IÕll give you an A. ŅThank you,
Darling.Ó
If there are no other questions, we will close in prayer. What I want to
do over the next two or three class periods—and this has become more
complicated than I thought it would be. I think itÕs helpful for us as a
training É And remember, thatÕs part of what education is—to train people
not only how to think, but what to think, and what to do—is, if somebody
make certain statements to you, ŅWell, how can you trust the Bible?Ó How do we
handle that? You can throw it back and say, ŅWell, why wouldnÕt you think you
could trust the Bible?Ó I think I read somewhere in all of my reading recently
that the vast number of people who claim you canÕt believe the Bible because it
says strange things have never read the
Bible.
You throw it back on them. Ask them. Put them on the defensive.
But what I want to do is try to think about how we know the Bible is
true—five basic reasons—boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then do
that with the deity of Christ, resurrection, miracles.
Not try to cover all the bases and hit everything that we can hit, but just
three or four basic things that can
come to your mind.
I said this at the very beginning. If you are a
Mormon, if you are a JehovahÕs Witness, if you are in some other cult, you
would be trained. Like the other day when I was out walking in a neighborhood
park back here, there were some JehovahÕs Witnesses with their little booth set
up. If you were to talk to them, theyÕre going to know exactly what your
rebuttals are going to be—what your objections are going to be. They have
a canned, pat answer for everything. But, as evangelicals, we donÕt train
people like that.
But weÕre constantly getting into conversation and we go, ŅI got that in
Bible class somewhere. I donÕt know where those notes are anymore, but I know
IÕve heard that.Ó Well, we should be able to get things in a concise format in
our head where we can begin to think through things. We all have this
problem—somebody asks us that and our
brain freezes! I know that probably hasnÕt happened to you; it happens to
me.
I was talking to Charlie about this several weeks ago and he said, ŅI
always think of the best things to say three days later.Ó ThatÕs common for all
of us. So if we think about it a
little more, then it will be more towards the front of our mind.