Skeptical (W. 1) - “How Did We Get Here?” - Genesis 1

“How Did We Get Here?”

How did we get here?

That’s a question I’ve asked myself a few times over the last few weeks, thinking about this wonderful new role, at this incredible church.

The day I started on staff here was April 8. That same day was the solar eclipse.

So many people were able to view something extravagant and powerful and awesome through the lens of some glasses.

The Sun facts

Equator circumference: 2,930,000 miles

Radius: 431,000 miles

Temperature: 27,000,000°f at the core. that is the hottest part of the sun.

Average orbital speed around the Milky Way: 720,000km/h (200km/s)

Star type: Yellow dwarf

Average time taken to rotate on axis: 27 Earth days

The sun could contain 1.3 million earths.

Even though the Moon is much smaller than the Sun, because it is just the right distance away from Earth, the Moon can fully blocks the Sun's light from Earth's perspective. During a total solar eclipse, the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun. This completely blocks out the Sun's light.

What’s the big idea of the text?

What God created, God has the right to command.

What God created, God has the right to command.

Creation and command are both important

In order for us to experience the total eclipse, we’ve got to wear glasses.

In order for us to understand the truth, we’ve got to put on a lens of spiritual truth to see it.

Y’all join me in Genesis 1:1-3

Genesis 1:1–3 KJV 1900

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Outline:

1. There is a God.

The Scripture we just read is foundational for our beliefs.

Genesis 1:1–3 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Hebrews 11:3 ESV

3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Why do people try to reject that there is a God that created this?

Romans 1:20–25 KJV 1900

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

How did we get here?

IN THE BEGINNING, GOD.

AND GOD SAID.

a. The Arguments for God:

Cosmological argument - There is a Creator

“Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore the universe has a cause.”

If something could come into being from nothing, then why doesn’t this continue to happen?

Did the universe begin or has it always been?

2nd law of thermodynamics: the universe is running out of usable energy.

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Alexander Friedmann and George Lemaitre. they found that the universe is expanding from Einstein’s general theory and equations.

Edwin Hubble measured the red shift in light from distant galaxies and found that the universe is not only expanding AND that it had a single start from the finite past. Wow.

3 leading cosmologists from 2003 confirmed that it could not be an eternal universe because it’s expanding.

Alexander Vilenkin said, “Scientists ‘can no longer hide behind a past-eternal universe. There is no escape, they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning.’”

Conclusion has a cause. What could it be?

Spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful.

Who else? God.

The Ontological Argument - The Creator must be All-Knowing, All-Powerful, and Morally Perfect

If it is possible that God exists, then it follows logically that God does exist. - 1078, Anselm of Cantebury.

Many people think it’s cute.

God is defined as a maximally great being.

In order to be maximally great MUST be:

All powerful

All knowing

Morally perfect

in every possible way

in every possible world.

Married bachelor does not exist in any possible world because it’s logically incoherent.

Summary of the ontological argument:

It’s possible that a maximally great being exists

A maximally great being exists in some possible world

If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.

If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.

A maximally great being exists in the actual world.

Therefore a maximally great being exists.

Is the iDEA of a maximally great being incoherantly illogical, like a married bachelor? No. It’s an intuitively a part of us.

He puts eternity in all of us.

Ecclesiastes

The Moral Argument - He must be All-Good

Can you be good without God?

This is not “can I be a nonbeliever and be good.

If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist.

Remove God, the good becomes subjective morality.

Richard Dawkins said, “No evil, and no good. nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”

God wills something because He is good.

Anytime you think or say or feel, “that’s wrong, unjust,

Michael Ruse, “The man who says that it is morally acceptable to rape little children is just as mistaken as the man who says, ‘2+2=5.’”

If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do no exist. Objective moral values and duties do exist. Therefore, God exists.

Scriptural Argument

Genesis 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Our God is the Author, Initiator, Creator of all things, that is Maximally Great, meaning He is All-powerful, All-knowing, and morally Good, and He has a divine plan to have a relationship with you.

No scientist or historian can improve upon, “In the beginning God …” This simple statement refutes the atheist, who says there is no God; the agnostic, who claims we cannot know God; the polytheist who worships many gods; the pantheist, who says that “all nature is God”; the materialist, who claims that matter is eternal and not created; and the fatalist, who teaches that there is no divine plan behind creation and history. God’s personality is seen in this chapter, for He speaks, sees, names, and blesses

Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Ge 1.

2. There is a Design.

Hebrews 11:3 ESV

3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

His design has order.

His design is good.

His design was to make us in His image.

Verses 26-28

3. There is a Purpose.

Genesis 1:28–31 ESV

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.