Old School 1 - We Believe in God the Father

The following 2 statements are a part of our “Statement of Faith” at Oasis Bethany Church in accord with our Spiritual Covering in The Church of God of Prophecy:

We believe in the Holy Trinity—one God, eternally existing in Three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We believe in one God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen.

A major new survey released today reveals that evangelicals are confused about some core doctrines of the Christian faith.

Ligonier Ministries’ 2018 State of Theology survey was conducted by LifeWay Research, which interviewed a representative sample of 3,000 Americans. The full survey results are available online at TheStateOfTheology.com. (religionnews.com)

*We’ll just look at the results from Evangelicals...

Evangelicals were defined by LifeWay Research as people who strongly agreed with the following four statements:

The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.

It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.

Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

Evangelicals A majority of evangelicals said (1) that most people are basically good, (2) that God accepts the worship of all religions, and (3) that Jesus was the first and greatest being created by God the Father. However, all these beliefs are contrary to the historic Christian faith.

Some 52 percent of evangelicals agreed that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. This contrasts with the Bible’s teaching that human nature is fundamentally sinful (Rom. 3:10).

A majority of evangelicals (51 percent) agreed that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. However, Jesus insisted that access to God is only possible through faith in Him (John 14:6). (The proportion of those who agree is an increase from the 2016 survey, when 48 percent of evangelicals agreed.)

John 14:6 NKJV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Acts 4:11–12 NKJV

11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Almost all evangelicals (97 percent) agreed that there is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But more than three-fourths (78 percent) also said that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. The idea that Jesus was the first and greatest being created by the Father is contradicted by the Bible (John 1:1) and has been rejected by the church down through the centuries.

John 1:1–3 NKJV

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 nothing was made that was made.

More positively, 91 percent of evangelicals affirmed that people are justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

Dr. Stephen Nichols, chief academic officer of Ligonier and president of Reformation Bible College, said:

“These results are a serious cause for concern. It is the depth of man’s sin that led Jesus to die on the cross. How, then, can a majority of evangelicals say most people are good by nature? Down through history, Christians have proclaimed that Jesus is truly God, not some sort of created being. The evangelical world is in great danger of slipping into irrelevance when it casually forgets the Bible’s doctrine.”

We Believe in God

Psalm 14:1–5 NKJV

1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. 4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord? 5 There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous.

Some have proclaimed April 1st to be National Atheist Day. I posted that once on Facebook and some didn’t catch the nuance and wondered how I, as a believer, could possibly be celebrated Atheists’ Day.

There are many, many arguments for the existence of God. I will touch on 3 of them:

The Cosmological Argument

It has a fancy name—the Kalam cosmological argument—but it’s really easy to understand. By the way, a “cosmological” argument is any argument for God’s existence that’s based on the mere existence of the cosmos, the universe.

The Arabic word kalam literally means "speech," but came to denote a certain type of philosophical theology—a type containing demonstrations that the world could not be infinitely old and must therefore have been created by God. This sort of demonstration has had a long and wide appeal among both Christians and Muslims. Its form is simple and straightforward.

Whatever begins to exist has a cause for its coming into being.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore, the universe has a cause for its coming into being.

Grant the first premise. (Most people—outside of asylums and graduate schools would consider it not only true, but certainly and obviously true.)

Here’s the basic idea.

First, for anything that came into existence, there must have been something that caused it to come into existence. Clearly, effects have causes. Pretty basic, and entirely consistent with our common-sense experience of the world.Second, the material universe (the cosmos) came into existence sometime in the past. Virtually everyone affirms this point because of the widespread and, I think, justified belief in the Big Bang.Therefore, the material universe must have had a cause.

Put most simply, “a Big Bang needs a big Banger.” The bang didn’t bang itself. Note, by the way, that this line of thinking puts the cause of the cosmos outside of the material universe. So the cause would have to be immaterial, intelligent, powerful, and personal—since only persons can start a causal chain of events.

This argument doesn’t prove the God of the Bible, of course, but it gets us pretty close, and it’s a great springboard to other arguments and other evidences for Christianity.

The Argument from Conscience

Since moral subjectivism is very popular today, the following version of, or twist to, the moral argument should be effective, since it does not presuppose moral objectivism. Modern people often say they believe that there are no universally binding moral obligations, that we must all follow our own private conscience. But that very admission is enough of a premise to prove the existence of God.

Isn't it remarkable that no one, even the most consistent subjectivist, believes that it is ever good for anyone to deliberately and knowingly disobey his or her own conscience? Even if different people's consciences tell them to do or avoid totally different things, there remains one moral absolute for everyone: never disobey your own conscience.

Now where did conscience get such an absolute authority—an authority admitted even by the moral subjectivist and relativist? There are only four possibilities.

From something less than me (nature)

From me (individual)

From others equal to me (society)

From something above me (God)

Let's consider each of these possibilities in order.

How can I be absolutely obligated by something less than me—for example, by animal instinct or practical need for material survival?

How can I obligate myself absolutely? Am I absolute? Do I have the right to demand absolute obedience from anyone, even myself? And if I am the one who locked myself in this prison of obligation, I can also let myself out, thus destroying the absoluteness of the obligation which we admitted as our premise.

How can society obligate me? What right do my equals have to impose their values on me? Does quantity make quality? Do a million human beings make a relative into an absolute? Is "society" God?

The only source of absolute moral obligation left is something superior to me. This binds my will, morally, with rightful demands for complete obedience.

Thus God, or something like God, is the only adequate source and ground for the absolute moral obligation we all feel to obey our conscience. Conscience is thus explainable only as the voice of God in the soul. The Ten Commandments are ten divine footprints in our psychic sand.

Job 32:8 NKJV

8 But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.

This is indeed the source of conscience.

The Design Argument

The world is complex. The world has complex function. The world displays design. Therefore, there must be a designer.

Intelligent Design can only come from a mind: Cave Drawings illustration

Complexity at the beginning demands both intelligence and intentionality of design. Not just a few elements, a minimum of 60 proteins are required for life. We now know a simple life form could not have existed that became more complex over time. There was “irreducible complexity” at the beginning

Mouse trap example

We Believe in the Trinity

1 John 5:1–11 NKJV

1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. 9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. 10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. 11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

The Trinity is seen in the Beginning

Genesis 1:1–4 NKJV

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

The Trinity exists in perfect unity and harmony which requires love.

1 John 4:7–8 NKJV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

CS Lewis:

All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is love’. But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. Of course, what these people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different: they really mean ‘Love is God’. They really mean that our feelings of love, however and wherever they arise, and whatever results they produce, are to be treated with great respect. Perhaps they are: but that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement ‘God is love’. They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else.

We Believe in God the Father

C. S. Lewis described God’s love like this: "God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creations in order that He may love and perfect them.

John 1:12–13 NKJV

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 John 3:1 NKJV

1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Psalm 68:5–6 NKJV

5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. 6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

Psalm 103:13–18 NKJV

13 As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. 17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, 18 To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.