Bible Seminar Day 1 (2)
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Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
There is a time for seeking the Lord to find out if all that He has said it true. Who is this Lord? is there such thing as Lord. Some of us know Him as God. Some of us have a view point about this God. In this verse that we just read it’s a simple verse. The Lord from the Bible is asking us to seek. The world seek has a similar meaning to the word “inquire” or “check”. Have you ever had an inquiry about something? I’m pretty sure you do. We often check something that we think is vital. Some of us are constant checkers and there are some who are non-checkers. Right now you are a student. Do you know what you check the most with your teacher? What do you check the most with your teacher? Your current grades. Thats right. After you get it, you inquire again. Do you know what the second question is? Sir what am I missing? Then the teacher announces, 6 chapters of vocabulary, 6 sets of worksheets and 6 sets of tests, pretty much everything. Lets say there is a senior student who didn’t check his grades whether if he is passing or not, but in his mind, he think is going to graduate. Let me ask you a question, is there a deadline for grades? Can he check his grades after the fourth quarter ends? It was only in that moment, and that only time he could only fix that current grade and to graduate with hi senior class. Based on his own thoughts, he thought he was graduating. We have our thoughts, but we know that to check something as simple as grades, we have to go to the source , which is in this case, the teacher who has access to the gradebook, The power school. Even if his friends think, and try to encourage him, “don’t worry you’re passing bro” but they themselves don’t have access to the teacher’s gradebook. Would you be able to find peace in that? Or find assurance through that. Even at that, conscience knows, they don’t really know. Even if the parents, may even encourage, the grades that their child is doing fine, it still wouldn’t give the child full encouragement. For we know that their thoughts are different than the teacher’s thoughts.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
We check because we know, we don’t know. We should check the Lord if he truly is who he says He is. If could truly do what He says he’ll do. Ther are spiritual things that we should check. We should check the Lord if he truly exists.We should check if heaven and hell exists. We should check the Lord if he can really can judge us for our sins. We should check if he is truly the living God set apart from the other gods or religion.
You might be wondering why we are here in this Bible Seminar. What would we be learning in this Bible seminar? Here in this seminar, God has provided you with ways you can check on his existence. Evidence and proofs that you can find out through the bible. Creation, Flood, Israel, end times, sin, and salvation. Right now, you are in your youth, this may be one of the rarest time for you to check whether these spiritual things truly exist. Soon this time as a youth will pass. The days our lives are not that long.
Lets look at this picture: what do you see this middle school student struggling with. This is an interesting article about what great amount of stress students are going through in this pandemic. The student is having an online class with a tutor. He just doesn’t get it the work that is set before him. This is a such an authentic picture. If you’ve noticed there are essential things in the background of this picture. After is probably done with class, the next thing nearest him is his Ipad. He will probably play games, or watch some streaming movies. He might even check his social media, contact some friends and hang out with them. But two things on the side that are also interesting, there is the bible in the top corner and a plaque that says forever and always. When we are young these ideas of the Bible or God and Forever or Eternity are nearest are thoughts. But later, this things will drift further away from us. Because there will be more labor to come. We will get busier. We won’t remain a youth forever. But the other phases of our life will soon arrive.
Psalm 90:10 “the days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away”.
This is an obvious truth that our life has a time limit. That it is up to 70 or 80 years. Isn’t this truly the limit of our life. And yet what can we say it is really filled with what? If the entire life is too much to think of, think of this year? A bit too much, how about this month? What do you mostly remember. Labor and sorrow.
Our life is filled with Labor and sorrow. Could anyone truly say that most of their life is filled with no labor and no sorrow at all? No, there are these two things that have embraced us in our life. Is it really a fulfilled life of happiness? Actually it isn’t that filled. We first start off as a baby, then we grow through our childhood years till we finally complete all necessary education. After high school, most attain a college degree. Then we seek our spouse to start our family. Then we all become grandparents. And yet all of us in the end. We will have our time of mourning in the coffin.
Happiness has a special etymology. Happiness comes from a norse world “Hap” to refer to happenstance like luck. We are trying to be lucky, to wait for something happen to us, for something lucky. This is what happiness means. This is what defined as happiness. We live trying to catch luck. Can you catch you luck? Luckiness is like wishful thinking.
Let’s look at this funny cartoon. My biological clock. Welcome me, Take care of me, play with me, notice me, dance with me, date me, marry me, help me, listen to me, grow old with me, sit with me, remember me and welcome me.
Let’s look at this picture of 2020. The year 2020 was a pandemic year. Do you know any of these people? Black panther actor? Singer? Congress man. Supreme court judge. How strong could one really be the live a long life? Is 100 years old, truly much? Is it really a lot. The verse describes our life a cage. Our life is like this isn’t it? We are so limited to many things. Limited strength, limited health, limited time, limited location, limited being and we are waiting to be free from this cage. Death will set us free. Yes we have limited freedom, we could be here and there yet all our destination is the same.
Lets take a look at this picture. This is Washington cemetery in Brooklyn New York. It is a very crowded cemetery of the dead. I believe this is a very profound picture. There will never be enough space for the dead, because everybody has to die. That much land will be taken up for the dead. Graves don’t decrease in number, but they rather grow. Here it’s reaching its spacious limit, that they started to take up the side walk. What’s ironic is that there is an elderly lady and grandson. Both looking the other way. Perhaps trying to avoid thinking about death. It may be somewhat uncomfortable to talk about death, but it doesn’t mean that the more we talk about it we would hasten it, nor if don’t we don’t we could prevent it. It is a natural occurrence. What we must do is to prepare for it. The one who is most prepared for the death is the one who is most prepared to live. We usually count our years going up. 1 year old , 2 years old. This child looks 8 or 9 years old. This grandma probably in her 60s. in fact, we could only count upwards. But actually, once we are born, our clock started and our ages are in fact counting backwards. Counting the years we have left. We don’t know our time. The bible says “for man does not know his time”. We have a death clock that’s counting down, not counting.
Lets take a look at the road on the end of this picture. You can see a road, of cars parked on the side, and some card might have passed through. They might have even driven pass this cemetery many times. Our life is like a drive. The drive of life we are driving in and through. But between these two, what is most important. The drive or the destination. Do we drive for the sake of driving, or do we drive for reaching the destination in the end.
We are driving through, but do we really know the destination of our life? Are you sure about your life’s destination? Do you keep on driving without knowing where you’re going to? Do you keep on living without knowing what you’re living for? Do you keep on going without knowing where ending up? When we drive there is a rear view of mirror and side mirror. Do you know what people use the rear-view mirror for? These days, they face the rear mirror towards themselves. We should take a look at the rear-view mirror. We should see what we have passed by so far. We should see that we are passing many things and are now behind. Have you checked how many things you passed behind you. Do you read the signs?
The drive of life we are driving. But between these two, what is most important. The drive or the destination. Do we drive for the sake of driving, or do we drive for reaching the destination in the end. We should slow down and think. Where am I? or where am I headed? Time is passing by and it will pass by faster and faster.
Back to the picture of the boy which also shows a plaque that says Forever. Why do we yearn or already believe in this concept of a forever? Has anyone ever experienced a forever? Yet we say things like “I love you forever”.
Ecclesiastes: 3:11. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”
We already know that there is an eternity, a better place than this world at least we hope it to be. At least now we can check it, in the bible. What does God have to say about Eternity. Where our souls are meant to be. The glorious place that our souls long to be.
God is not an irrational God, God is very reasonable and rational. He knows we already have grown up in our own belief system. We have very strong reasons why we believe what we believe. We may have strong reasons why we don’t want to believe in God. But even God wants you to bring it up.
Isaiah 41:21 “present your case,” says the Lord. “bring forth your strong reasons,” says the king of Jacob.
Whatever your reasons are for believing or not believing in God. God has an answer for them. He has answer for all the things we have in the word of God. If he claims to be the creator of our souls, that he knows why souls are behave the way they do. Only an inventor knows his invention. Only the creator can make sense to us of His creation. God will present his case as well, so you can see how his thoughts operate. If He is truly God. Actually he has presented his reasons or case. In the word of God. We can find all about him here.
Isaiah 41:21 “Let them bring forth and show us what will happen: Let them show the former things what they were. That we may consider them. And now the latter end of them; or declare to us the things to come.
If God can tell us what will happen in the future, then He is the true God, also if God can explain the past, even before man discovered any possible thing presently, this also proves that He is God. God can explain the former things, what they were. Even the foundations of the world or even the wonders in the Universe. If God had explained them before hand, then he is the true God. All of these God has explained in the bible.
John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
Is the word of God the truth or is it all a lie? Yes the word of God, of the bible. The bible that wrote about Jesus. Let’s see if this truly a real book, that truly witnesses about Jesus. What if Jesus is fake or False? If the bible is false or fake, then God is fake then this world is fake. A produce of random chance or natural selection. You don’t need to stake your life in it. But if he is true, if the bible is telling the truth about Heaven about hell than we must be all the more cautious. You might have your own belief system, whether catholic or protestant. Shouldn’t you check if you what you believe in, is really true? If they are genuinely really true. What if you practice it all your life, but in your heart you don’t really believe it is true. Just a tradition that was pass down. Even Muslims or Hindu, shouldn’t we investigate if they are true. Not man made, not made up. You don’t want to stake your life on it for nothing. Test it. The bible even tells us to test it. The bible even tells us to examine yourselves. Even to present the cases. God has answer to all of them.
Honestly, I prefer you to be sceptical, sceptics are more honest people. Because they don’t want to believe unless they are convinced by some fact or evidence. If I told you if you something like if you knock on wood you will receive a million dollars. Aside from people who just believe in anything their pastors, priests, grandparents say they just believe it, it just true. Should you not check if it is true and then believe. That makes more sense to me, and not to me alone, that makes more sense to God. That people should check. We are a sceptical people these days, aren’t we? Why are we sceptical people, because we don’t want to be cheated or waste our time for anything that’s not worth it. But would you give the word of God a chance to demonstrate that there are evidence to support these bold claims that the Lord is making. In the bible a man really wanted to believe in Jesus, he cried out “help my unbelief!”. Even a man doubted name Thomas, Jesus was alive, but Thomas said until I put my hands on the nails till then how can I believe? Jesus didn’t rebuke him, he showed him the nails on his side. The Lord has many things to show you to help you believe. Because he wants to make you a genuine believer not a fake one. All these scepticisms are in our hearts, that are hindering us from fully believing in God and trusting in his Word. We know that these scepticism or doubtful things prevent you from believing. We are not going to shy away from them, we are not going to ignore them, we need to address them. We address them, because we understand that problem it creating in men’s hearts. We understand how it’s misleading many people. We do understand how conflicts with the bible and attempts to discredit the word of God. Test them and also test the bible along with it. Which of these carry more weight or Supersedes the other. Which has a more logical explanation though the word of God. If sceptical with a noble heart that is respectable before God. Meaning, that some people are sceptical for the sake of being rude, impolite and not being open minded to the words being spoken. But the bible says those with a noble heart, is a respectable heart, a gentleman’s heart, with manners giving the speaker or the word of God a chance to speak, listening carefully thoughtfully to check whether these things are true or not and they after what said is done then they make a judgment or conclusion. They bear fruit with patience. I believe if you are patient in listening, this will be a fruitful Seminar for you (Luke 8:15).
2 Timothy 3:16. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,”
The bible claims that the scripture isn’t inspired by men, not man made, but from God Himself, inspired or breathed out from God. His thoughts and attributes can be clearly understood. His will, His intentions. His reasons for Creation, his purpose for us, why these things are so. Lets first look the compilation of the bible. The bible is composed of 66 books, 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 Books of the New Testament. The bible can be categorized into these areas. The Law, History books, Poetry books, Major Prophets and Minor Prophets. The New Testament can be composed of The Gospels, the history book, epistles and prophecy. It is organized by 40 writers but it’s main author is God. Many times in the bible we read that the word of God came to the Prophets and they wrote down the word of God himself. Every book had different time periods when it was made, proving it to be more credible in divine authorship.
1 Peter 3:21 “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
These different writers had different backgrounds, occupations and most importantly the time frame. A writer was able to write something to happen in their future and a writer in the future professed and across the historical timeline delivered the same message. They all communicated the same Goal, although they never met and were existing at different points of time. 27% of the bible is has prophecies, and not one of them has ever failed, and there are just a few left. We will also discuss this in the seminar of what prophecies in the bible have been fulfilled and the few left that will be fulfilled in the end.
Some might suggest that bible would have been changed over time, as they were transcribing things , from the ancient times to the medieval ages, to the reformation and through the enlightenment, industrial revolution , wouldn’t they have had to change it. Possibly, the changes should have occurred over a period of two to three-thousand years. To clarify that it wasn’t changed, the dead sea scrolls discovery by the dead sea, showed that nothing was changed. If you look in the Old Testament for example the book of Isaiah remains intact. (show dead sea scrolls). Even what you have has been miraculously preserved. The dead sea scrolls are preserved because it is a very dry area, in the Qumran cave.
Isaiah 40:28 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the lord the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable”
God is making another bold claim that he is the Creator. When a claim is made, then evidence should support the claim that had been made by the claimant. If there is no substantial evidence, we may disregard it.
Psalm 147:5 “Great is our lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite”
God is claims two things here, an understanding that is infinite, this implies that He knows everything than we would ever know, or whatever we may have understood in knowledge, science he knew first. God can claim that too. We humans are very proud people, we love to shout loud discoveries, print new things, publish new books, research and journals. In fact, all along God knew of them. God puts them down on the bible 2,000 to 3000 years ago prove to us that he knew it first. If he is truly a Creator then wouldn’t he be able to demonstrate what he created beforehand? We are very proud in listing numerous scientific studies.
Physical science; Life science, and Natural science. Biology, earth science, chemistry physics, Life science: zoology, biology, botany. God has mentioned many of these things before we even knew it. Even Social Sciences, humanities, anthropology, Geography, history, sociology, politically and economically. Also, Culturally, and philosophically. We will look at many of these things that would demonstrate God understood them beforehand, which were a phenomenon in the beginning for us in the beginning. There are many phenomenon’s that we didn’t understand, until we studied it.
Lets begin with this the first book of the bible
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.
We’ve read the plants, sea creature and land creatures were created on the 3rd, 5thand 6th day. One thing to especially note is the repeated phrase “According to its kind”. Every creature is not related to each other, but rather they are unique in its own biological structure. Evolution would suggest that they are connected to each other and that by random chance and natural selection, the creatures had to adapt to their environment, and for some spontaneous reason that scientists cannot explain their DNA structure added another protein out of no-where. They use vague and general terms like “appeared” “emerged” or “evolved”. Yes it hasn’t been observed. The basic rule of science, at least for them, is observable. At least have some observation that we can see it happening from one DNA change to another. Even any specie transitioning to another, whether is chimpanzee to humans. Birds to reptile. But why stop there, what about now, what are humans evolving into? Has there been any changes that we can observe and measure? (see article: We have still not found the missing link between us and Apes”.) they say it’s a long lost parent. LCA, who was this long lost parent. Evolutionary are hoping to conclude it is animal of some family tree. But the bible already has an explanation for this phenomenon. Are all creatures are one point interconnected together. We can make observations. For example, lets take a look at this image; beneath us, are layers In the ground. If Evolution were true, than we should clear phases of transitions occurring and their remains intact, we can bones chimpanzees attempting to become human, as it gradually moves upward. The lowest of the layers would indicate the earliest species and the latest of layers would indicate the recent species. These are layers, Precambrian and Cambrian, the rest are group upwards, paleozoic, Mesozoic, and cetozoic. We should see a transitional specie, attempting to evolve from amoeba to the specie. For example like this brontosaurus neck attempting to grow it’s neck from long periods of time, but we just a brontasarus already with long neck. That is because it was made according to it’s kind. When we just look at the animals, and see how complex and wondrous we can see a design but also majestic lesson about God and us, and our relationship between Him and us. Almost as if God gave us these animals to learn something.
Job 12:7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord had done this,”
Have you ever truly observed nature? You can’t help but to feel that godly attributes are present. You can see the attributes of the creator, through the creation. You can that these emotions and talent that they exhibit are not a product of random chance but display the wonder and majesty of God. You would have to be out of your mind, and only having in theoritcal knowledge that this is evolution. God says to observe the nature.
Also the distance and size of the moon help create tides for earth’s water to circulate around the world. If a moon was too close then instead of rising tides you would have rising tsunamis. Actually the moon makes eclipse possible to observe the sun’s glares. No other planet like earth this is privileged position .This is called the “goldilocks” zone. To which life can be sustained, and it has been kept there for thousands of years. If you really believe in random chance, then aren’t the chances higher for the something chaotic to take place? Even if the earth took a break from it’s axis. All of humanity would be frozen or burnt up. Random chance doesn’t prove order, actually random chance suggest that something is more chaotic to happen given all of these conditions for life to exist. Mainly we wouldn’t exist. Everything , every law and order of the cosmos, of our planet, all of these conditions must be constant in order for life to be sustained. Particularly what life? It’s human. Everything is designed for the purpose of Human’s survival. If we were accidentally misplaced at a different planet, with a different sun, with a different star, there is no way humans would exist.
Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,”
God is claiming that it’s measurements were determined. The earth’s foundation, like a cornerstone. It wasn’t randomly there, as random chance would suggest but rather with a purpose a reason for our survival it was determined. Someone cares for our Survival, its God.
Who knows what is in the foundation of the earth the very foundation? We can call he earth’s core.
Job 28:5 “As for the earth, from it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire”
from the earth, the ancient peoples know that this is where bread comes from right? As in grounding the wheat in flour? But God goes on to add, it is turned up by fire. A fire is turning up the soil. We know that it’s the earth’s core. When was this discovery? 1901 – 1926, rather pretty recent, about a generation ago. Which was a big deal I the science and geology community. We treat this as a breakthrough, but a book recorded about 3,000 years ago mentioned a cornerstone ,turned up fire. The writer didn’t’ even have the tools to analyze this but yet it was written anyway because it was told by the creator God. God in many ways like these, demonstrates that he is the maker, creator, the designer of this planet. And has a purpose an
intention. He has a Will for the earth and the people.
Isaiah 45:18 “for thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
What use would the earth be if humans couldn’t survive in it. Would they exist for the animals? Would they exist for the plants? Plants would exist for the animals, or the fruits what would they be for? For the bats? The bananas? for the monkeys. The wheat, rice, and the corn, all of these are nutrients for what? What about cattle? The purpose of cattle is for me. If humans are not there, then earth’s purpose would be useless, wouldn’t? other planets don’t have it, because if it did, what humans would be there to consume it? No planet has been habitable, when they find something it’s always 85%, 75%, like earth. Actually a habitable planet must be 100%. Because if one law fails then nothing would exist. If there is no water, no planet can have supported life. If there is no Sun like ours as well. If no magnetic field, we wouldn’t ‘be protected by the Sun’s harmful rays. God determined these laws consistently running in place so that we can make a judgement if God really exists, or if he is really ruler, governor or Lord of all the universe. If any of these laws, fail at least just one of them mankind would cease to exist. So even 10%, 15%, already no life wouldn’t be able to be sustained in that planet.
Aliens: there is a way to find out if aliens exist. Have you heard of aliens? (Show a list of alien pictures.) when you look at this picture, it has the same features as us. Because it has the same features as us, a nose, a mouth to eat, eyes to see, hands to carry something, we can see that the person behind this attempted to form an idea as aliens along with these same physical characteristics as us. But if it has a nose, then it must need oxygen as we do. If it has a mouth, it needs a planet that has food to support its life. Even their spaceships would need materials or resources from a planet like ours to build a ship. Actually, there has been no habitable planet discovered identical to the composition like ours. (Use article on planet 2.0) When we see news we also find out that these are hoax. (show Utah Monolith article). These artists try to scam us, and the news networks attract a higher audience when they post we are not alone in the universe, and then they end up posting, that it was actually indeed artists who placed them there.
God who created the heavens, so the earth can be there, did not create it without a purpose, it wasn’t in vain. But with a purpose of inhabitation. Random chance means that it was in vain. If everything was random, without a purpose, then it is all in vain. Nothing has value, there is no judgment for our actions and there no need to listen to your conscience. What is bad is subjective, and what is good is also subjective. You don’t have to care or respect people’s wellbeing or show care to animals, the caring of the environment. Meaning that if we are originating from random chance, then the only logical conclusion is that chaos is equivalent and permitted. Since Random chance is a permissible outcome, then chaos is just one of the possibilities of random chance occurring. If we listen to our conscience, we know that is no way right. And also when we look at the creation we notice it’s with a purpose, meaning there is a value in it. If random chance is truly random, then couldn’t we say “ I’m just committing a crime out of random chance. My genes made me do it, because its randomly structured, I try not to steal but I steal. I’m a product of random chance.” We shouldn’t’ arrest that guy and judge him, because it isn’t his fault. Yet we create court system, yet we have government in place, yet we create religious institutions, yet we create religious celebrations? We acknowledge that these things are true, but we don’t want to give credit to God.
Romans 1:19-20. “because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that the yare without excuse.
His power or authority is clearly shown He is Lord of all creation. His “God Head” means He is one claiming to be in Charge and we are under his Lordship or governorship. We see that the creation has value, and if they are created , then we are also created and in us has so much precious value. Lets go to the last day’s creation.
Genesis 1: 27 & 31 “so God created Man in His own image; in the image of God he created him, male and female. He created them… Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
We are made in the image of God. What is the image of God, so this is our value. Is it talking about the genetic makeup? As if God has biological features. Actually no, it’s talking about the Spirit of God.
John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirt and truth”
God isn’t flesh like us, we have an eye because we need to see, nose to breath, If God had these physical features that that wouldn’t’ be a God of Eternal Power. We know that this body is frail and will die one day and return to the dust. Man is composed of three things: Body, Soul, and Spirit.
God said in deed it was very good, because we were made in his likeness, his image. The creation was in proper order. The heavens to hold the planets, and the earth in place. The heavens or firmament to hold the stars. Then the earth to hold water and land. The land to hold herbs and grass, and trees that bear fruit. This herbs and fruits to fee the animlals. And then herbs and animals to feed us. All of us, are so valuable to him .If we don’t know our value, that God set upon us, then we would be living such a vain life. We would live a meaningless life. Why does good seek to look upon us, seek a relationship with with. H
1 Thessalonians 5:23 ‘Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Our body is composed of this physical flesh. It is a vessel carrying the soul. We have this body along with its senses to observe the world and to adapt and live in this environment. This body actually depends on this habitable planet to survive. Also, our senses helps us to see, hear and even taste the wonders of God in creation. This body has an appetite for food, has sexual desire, and needs rest. This body is frail isn’t it .
Our Soul is our emotions and intellect. We have emotions that we exhibit, sadness, happiness, laughter etc. Also we have an intellect, capacity to learn and discern.
Our Spirit is the religiosity and conscience. We have a religious instinct. What is this instict it’s the search for God. The conscience is the capacity to distinguish between Good and Evil. It is the inner voice that tells us “don’t do it” it’s not right. “you should do this, not that” or “you should’ve done that”. This conscience convicts. The bible calls this the inner-, man as well. Like another person is in us, guiding us towards a moral direction. This Spirit is in the Image of God. Has the likeness of the goodness of God, at least it yearns to be. In our heart, has the eternal yearning as we have read in Ecclesiastes. Our Spirit is yearning for the God to made us. We yearn to be with God. We are actually afraid what happens if we are separated for God. When we commit wrong or offense, our hearts tremble, our conscience is convicted. Who told us that it was wrong? Yet we fear. So mankind tries to make amends with God, although God is invisible, they seek for an atonement, or an absolution for their guilty conscience. They seek to make atonement for their God.
There are many religions and cultures in this world have a common trend. The pattern is they try to pray to a God. They are seeking to communicate or say something to divine being outhere and invisible. So they try to make an image of Him, whether its mythical beings, god of the thunder Zeus, god of war, god of beauty, this is polytheism, the belief of more than one god. Also they believe that there is a god in the rock, the trees, the water, the natural things, this is called pantheism. They are all praying to them. These are also the same word as “paganism”. People who worship these multiple gods of nature outside of the One creator God. In ancient times till now this has been the practice of humans. They are looking for their creator for help and an answer. They are seeking for salvation form their offense, they are worried about a judgment to come.
Why do humans feel need a religion or a God for us? To guide us or to resolve our many issues in our life? Couldn’t we just manage ourselves, or destinies without a God? Are we really misguide and lost that we have to seek a God to be found? Yet mankind has this inner instinct to seek for God, yes all over the world.
You may wonder what about atheist? They don’t believe in God. We had this seminar to show that God exists, through the many ways. Evolution rather is illogical, irrational, and unobservable. But when we study the creation we find that God is a logical God, rational and his creation is observable. Some contend you can’t see God, that is because He is invisible. But we do believe in the invisible things like atoms, the flow of the wind, electromagnetic waves, even love or other emotions. These are invisible things, but we believe them. Let’s imagine you go to the beach, and you see footprints on the sand, you don’t need to see the person to know that a person once walked through here.
Psalm 14:1-2. “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. The Lord looks own from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.”
Isaiah 40:22 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is I who sits above the circle of the earth?...
The earth is circular, which was wasn’t verified until Magellan circumnavigated the globe in 1519, 500 years ago. Columbus barely knew what was beyond their Atlantic Ocean beyond 1492. How can a book 3,000 years old know this circular of the earth? It would have to be if someone was actually there to witness it. God is asking were you there to witness it? Were you there to observe it? He was the only one there. scientists may claim to think they know what happened in the ancient time, as if they were there, observing it and understanding it. Actually only God is the one who was there, and only he can explain it in detail before anyone can dare claim they knew it first. Only a qualified witness can give a credible testimony for the ancient past. It is God. Many evidences like this he shows us to convince us He is Lord.
Job 26:7 “He stretches out the north over empty space, He hangs the earth on nothing”
This is a two part evidence; first the empty space in the north. And then the Earth hanging, but its hanging out nothing, it being held up by nothing. We know this is obvious, but when did people realize that the earth was hanging on nothing just floating in outer space. We know that Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton in the 1600s were the closest to describe this. But when it was really seen through photos, was when Satellites or NASA rocket ships saw the earth truly hanging on nothing. This is truly amazing, it’s wonder of God, this was phenomenal to them at that time. Copernicus would roll ever his grave, if he was there with the astronauts. This is what the astronauts said in Apollo 8. (show video of Genesis 1 reading). This was broadcasted. Why did the read the book of Genesis. This can be very controversial, the scientific community might have condemned them, they should have mentioned “the earth a product of random chance, a great accident, No big deal, happens all the time, we see them everywhere”. But no, their hearts cried automatically, this is Genesis 1. They knew they ought to give thanks to God, to give glory to God, to give credit to God. When we see all these things don’t you feel like we can give credit to God. In other words, give thanks to God. If that’s in your heart, then that is when you are giving thanks to God.
“it suddenly struck me that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the earth. I put my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”– Neil Armstrong
Look how small the earth looked in that perspective. With his thumb he claimed he could blot out the earth. Imagine if you were huge, and you had the charge to be responsible of taking care of the earth. You held it your hand, what if you blew out of your hand. What if you squeezed it too tight. We are so fragile, so ready to be vaporized if not properly cared for by some divine power. So sensitive, I wouldn’t imagine taking up such a great task and responsibility. How is this earth constantly manage this way? Story. Lets say God ask us to take care of the earth for one minute. I want the moon to be closer. Then suddenly the waves are higher, and causing tidal waves. I know I’ll get rid of the ocean 30% water, then the all the coral reefs die and the fishes habitats and ecosystem also die. Also oxygen level drop. Oh no, Guam. Guam has no fish!” ok I’m gonna slide Guam to the Philippines so it’s cheaper to fly from there. Guam is gone. It fell into the mariana’s trench. The man is so stressed out. He needs to take guam out. So he tries to turn Guam upside down. But then it’s circular he doesn’t know how to flip it upside down. But there is no upside the down because the earth is circular. So he shakes the earth really hard so Guam could come out. God comes back. “Thanks for watching the earth, wait a minute? Where did everyone go?. The man says “Noah’s flood”. Aren’t so blessed that no one else is responsible but God himself.
“I thought at one point, if you could be up in heaven, this is how you would see the planet. And then I dwelled on that and said, no, its more beautiful than that. This is what heaven must look like. I think of our planet as a paradise. We are very lucky to be here.”
-Neil Armstrong.
Automatically, in his human instinct. He describes heaven. Instinctively, he is thinking about Heaven. Why does he feel the need to describe heaven. This must have been the most beautiful thing he has ever seen , and then his inner voice whispered to him “Heaven”. “we are very lucky to be here” this is such an honest quote. We are so lucky. What are the chances of all this happening? This is the same as saying, it is completely impossible for us to be this lucky. God designed it. This is currently our home. Momentarily actually.
The first part of the evidence; is he stretches out the north over empty space. (1981 article of empty space) this empty space was discovered in the northern sky behind the big dipper and there is a gap of light years of nothing. We use light years to measure distance. Basically it is unnaturally far. This article says it goes against the big bang theory. The big bang theory claims that the stars and elements, are equally scattered, because an explosion should scatter the matter like a bomb in all empty spaces. Example lets say you threw a bomb in a restroom. The toilet pieces are all over the place, but the ceiling is clean, no stain, the fan no stain, lights are still intact. This logically impossible. Do you know why God mentioned this here? Because job needed to know this? Because job had to tools to check if it was actually empty. I don’t even know if he even knew about telescopes. It was for us. Because God knew that there will be theories to shake us, theories that challenge god to mislead people that we are all an accident. But it’s ok, God already put safeguards in our Faith and his word. Safeguards, like “according to it’s kind”, to tell us that there no such a thing as a transitional specie.
We can see that God is very reasonable, he isn’t a demanding God, that says because I’m God just believe, and if you don’t I will punish you. I heard one so called believer say to another, you don’t need evidence, he is God, you better believe or he will destroy you. If God was like this then why did he create all these wonders, majestic creations? Because he knows that we could believe clearly, more accurately and genuinely. Doesn’t He want you to genuinely believe better than to fake it. I have a personal story, I was tutoring some students, two brothers. They were going to church. But they said something skeptical. Why does God have to make all this huge space out there. Why can’t he just make the earth, the sun, and the moon. They said it’s just a waste. Because He can. He wants to shows us how infinite he is. The unlimited things he could possible do, create that is beyond this universe, and that we still stand and wonder how far does this beautiful creation really go? We can never come to a halt or an end to it. If we did, then we can say, “this is all God can do, this is the limit to his power and his creation” this would make us very arrogant. But when we see how unlimited it is, we are humbled. Like what neil Armstrong said, we are very small. It would be such a big offense to think that, “we don’t need God to protect us”. Really? You really don’t need God. I told my students, do you think we really don’t need God?
Psalm 139:13-14. “For you formed my inward parts; you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.”
We humans are so frail, even if we study are body inwardly, we can see the wonders of God as well. Every organ is so complex. From the brain, the heart, the eye, the ear drum, the nose, etc. and yet we are still wondering how all of this is even possible. Even when one of these organs fail, it’s very hard to extend our life. We try to have transplants, but the blood type must match and still there would be many complications. A kidney machine is this. (show picture). If any of these body parts would fail, our body will also fail. We are so frail aren’t we?
Psalm 39:4 “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.”
We are so frail, aren’t we? If even a virus enters our body, we are so scared. We have to spend this much and this much to see a doctor. Even when we have a cold, we try to take medicine, and yet we still can’t find the cure for the common cold. Do you understand really how frail we are and yet we are still being preserved at least for a short time by God. The previous verse we read, “my soul knows very well”. Does your soul know very well now, that it was God who is preserving you. He has determined your how you will live and even where you will live.
Acts 17: 23-24 “For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One who you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: “God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heavens and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is he worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He give to all life, breath and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.”
One of the Apostle name Paul was in Athens, Greece. And he came upon a many gods that the greeks worshipped. And this the pattern he saw. Many people make gods, and then they try to please their gods by giving something. This is not only in Greece, it’s even in other gods in other religions and even now. (show images of offerings). Does God really need these? Fruits because he has a mouth like ours and if we don’t he will starve to death. Even logically that would be impossible because that go against the logic of identity. Whatever God identifies himself as, nothing should contradict it. God isn’t a man, that he needs food to it. God is in a temple? And then if you go out of it, He is no longer there? We can go out, and he can’t. We are then more powerful than a god like that. But mankind is attempting in so many ways to please god. They have this common pattern. They feel God is high above, so they build their temples in high places and at the very top of the high mountains, they offer some sacrifice to please the gods to provide some sort of atonement. (show high temples, and short history of blood sacrifices). China: temple of heaven, Mexico: Aztec human sacrifice, Thailand: Angkor temple, Greece: Poseidon temple sacrifice. All around the world they build temples, with this one goal, to please their God because they know and feel a judgment would be coming.
v.26. “And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellins.
Pop quiz, who is the one blood that the nation of the world came from? Yes, Adam and Eve. Lets go to Genesis.