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The Choice That Matters (September 9, 2012)

Every day we make choices. Most barely matter.

Coffee or tea? Blue socks or black socks?

Then there are those choices that do drastically impact our lives.

Do I obey my parents and go to dental school or do what I want and go to clown school? Do I marry Sally or Louise?

But there is one choice that towers above all others in terms of significance. A choice that really matters – now and for all eternity.

Is Jesus Christ God and the only way of salvation or not? This morning – in both services – we have seen a number of young men and women publicly declare their faith that Jesus Christ is God and that He is the only way of salvation. I want to address those who have not yet made that same choice. This morning we have young men and women here – late primary, high school, university – who have been raised hearing about Jesus. They are nearing or at the time when they have to decide – do I live my life in line with faith in Jesus – who is

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God – and the only way of salvation? Do I live with Him as my Lord? Do I follow in the faith of my parents or not? We also have men and women here who don’t believe the claims of Christ. Some have never really thought long and hard about spiritual matters. Others have thought through the claims of Christ and rejected them. And sitting here we also have people who have trusted Christ – but the storms of life, the call of the world, the strain of daily living have leeched away some of your faith – and you have doubts. Is the gospel real? I want to talk to all of you this morning – because decisions – and failing to choose is a decision – have drastic effects on our lives and eternity. If you fall into any of those categories – for most of us – when we sift all the dross away – there are two questions that matter. The first is this:

Is There A God? Again and again when I share the gospel – the first response I get is something like this:

But, I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in some higher power. I am a man of science not superstition.

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Before I would even think about your claims, you have to prove the existence of God to me.

If that is you this morning – then I have a question for you:

What would prove the existence of God to you? Most people blithely answer – if I saw a miracle – I would believe in God. No you wouldn’t. If you don’t want to believe – you won’t. The miracle would shock you – then you would find a way to argue it away. Maybe I was hallucinating. Maybe it was a magic trick. The philosopher Voltaire was at least honest about this. He said, “If a miracle occurred in the market place of Paris and in the presence of two thousand men, I would rather disbelieve my own eyes than the two thousand.” Miracles help those with faith have a firmer foundation – but they rarely convince the sceptics. In John 6 we have an account of Jesus performing some astounding miracles in front of crowds of people. Feeding the five thousand with a few loaves and fishes. Walking on water. But when Jesus called on them to have faith in Him – they said – this is a hard saying – and walked away. You want miracles? God has performed astounding miracles – the ten plagues, parting the Red Sea, raising the dead to life, healing the blind. Men didn’t believe then. And those who saw wrote it down – so that we might know they happened. 1 John 1:1–3:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

But people today don’t believe despite this eyewitness testimony. I then get told – well for me to believe – I want a personal miracle – not some account from someone else. The problem for these people is that God is no domesticated genie ready to perform a miracle on call.

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He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He has deigned to perform miracles of incredible power for mankind – and if we reject that – don’t think God will perform on cue for you and don’t think that even if He did you would believe. Some want a personal encounter with God. They don’t know what they are asking for. Man cannot exist before the glory of God – and again – this won’t convince a sceptic. So what does prove the existence of God? It depends what you mean by proof. Many people talk about scientific proofs – doing the same test under the same conditions and achieving the same results. But how do you put God under the microscope or in the test tube? And even if you could that would not constitute proof. Scientific proofs are for laymen. Scientists have long known that proofs exist only in mathematics and logic, not in science. All scientific theories are tentative and provisional. There is no such thing as final proven knowledge in science. The currently accepted theory of a phenomenon is simply the best explanation for it among all available alternatives at the present time. We repeatedly see theories replaced by a better theory or new evidence that might challenge the accepted theory. So while you can prove a mathematical theorem – you can’t prove God. There is no God equation. Well, if there is no scientific proof – are there philosophical proofs? Philosophers have been asked – if there were a God like the God of the Bible – what would prove He exists? The most common answer is that if such a God exists – we are too finite, too small to grasp any proof of His existence. We are too pitiful to grasp the glory of God. It is like an ant trying to grasp the workings of a supercomputer. Still, men have tried. There are many attempts to prove through logic and philosophy that God exists. One Web site that sums up a number of these proofs is: http://www.existence-of-god.com/ While I personally find many of these the attempts to validate the existence of God satisfying – the reality is that God is so far beyond us – that with our limited minds – and philosophical proofs are limited. They satisfy some – they don’t satisfy others.

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So, is their mathematical or logical proofs for the existence of God – none that satisfy everyone. However, what must be remembered is that if you apply the same criteria, you cannot prove any other theory about our existence and purpose. For me – the question of is there a God – comes down to faith. For me – it requires much greater faith to believe there is no God. What do I mean? We exist. If our existence is real, then there are two and only two options. Either there is some intelligence or force involved – or there isn’t.

Either this universe, this world, human beings:

Is shaped by some intelligent force – God, a god, aliens. Or Is not shaped by some intelligent force.

The second one is perhaps the prevailing worldview today in the West. Not because it has overwhelming proof, logic or evidence – but because it enables us to live lives that do not bend the knee to a greater power. If there is no intelligence involved, then you either have to assume that the universe in some form or other has always existed in some form – or that came into being.

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The prevailing wisdom among those who deny the involvement of any intelligent force – is that it came into being. How? Most hold to a big bang theory. Again, this is a theory. It has never had the full support of the scientific community – but it is the best theory they have at this time. However, as evidence is gathered and this theory is tested – it is under siege. Many of you would have seen the recent article in the Australian newspaper on August 20 this year titled:

Big Bang theory under threat from quantum graphity breakthrough A newer theory that seems to fit some findings better is gaining traction. Here is some of what that article said.

A paper being published in a US physics journal suggests it may be possible to view “cracks” in the universe that would support the theory of “quantum graphity”, considered to be the holy grail of physics. The team of researchers from the University of Melbourne and RMIT say that instead of thinking of the start of the universe as being a big bang, we should imagine it as a cooling of water into ice. “Think of the early universe as being like a liquid,” Melbourne University theoretical physics researcher James Quach said. “Then as the universe cools, it ‘crystalises’. … Mr Quach says the standing model for the origins of the universe, the big bang, needs to be rewritten. He hopes experimentalists will be able to find evidence to support the theory put forward by the Melbourne team of researchers, that would replace it. “The biggest problem with the big bang model is the bang itself,” Mr Quach says. “At the bang, physics breaks down. “The model cannot make any predictions at what occurs at the big bang. You can’t use any of the mathematics (or) any of the theories.”

So in twenty years time – Big Bang will probably be out and Quantum Graphity or something else will be in – of course they will have to come up with a catchier name than Quantum Graphity to get people to believe it. But for now – the Big Bang is still in. While it sounds catchy, while most scientists say they think this is how the universe came into being, there is in fact no shred of consensus about what happened or how it happened.

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In his best-selling A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson outlines some views of the big bang.

One notion is that perhaps the singularity was the relic of an earlier, collapsed universe – that ours is just one of an eternal cycle of expanding and collapsing universes, like the bladder on an oxygen machine. Others attribute the Big Bang to what they call ‘a false vacuum’ or ‘a scalar field’ or ‘vacuum energy’ – some quality or thing, at any rate, that introduced a measure of instability into the nothingness that was. … It may be that our universe is merely part of many larger universes, some in different dimensions, and that Big Bangs are going on all the time all over the place. Or it may be that space and time had some other forms altogether before the Big Bang – forms too alien for us to imagine – and that the Big Bang represents some sort of transition phase, where the universe went from a form we can’t understand to one we almost can.

Basically there are many theories about where the universe came from – but no facts. I want to suggest that it takes a great deal of faith to assume that everything came from nothing – all by itself. I would argue this is a far greater leap of faith than trusting in God the Creator. Even apart from the notion of creation – we still have to deal with the question of where life came from. In the Introduction to his book Bryson points out some of the leaps of faith. He begins by pointing out that the fact you exist is almost beyond belief. He starts his book with these words:

Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn’t easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realise. To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and curiously obliging manner to create you. It’s an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. p. 17.

He then spends the whole book showing how utterly improbable it is that we exist. He says such things as:

Generally speaking in the universe [atoms forming life just] doesn’t [happen], so far as we can tell. This is decidedly odd because the atoms that so liberally flock and congenially flock together to form living things on Earth are exactly the same atoms that decline to do it elsewhere. p. 18.

He gives examples:

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[For life] we need a lot of [proteins]. By all the laws of probability proteins shouldn’t exist. p. 351.

He points out that proteins are made from amino acids. But scientists trying to create conditions under which amino acids form – with a lot of manipulation – have managed to cause the formation of just one simple amino acid. But even a very simple amino acid like collagen takes 1,055 varied amino acids in sequence. Bryson writes:

The chances of a 1,055-sequence molecule like collagen spontaneously self-assembling are frankly, nil. It just isn’t going to happen. p. 351.

Mathematically – the chances of life happening are near impossible. The famous astronomer Fred Hoyle said this:

The notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.

Tim Keller shows the improbability of life from another direction:

For organic life to exist, the fundamental regularities and constants of physics – the speed of light, the gravitational constant, the strength of the weak and strong nuclear forces – must all have values that together fall into an extremely narrow range. The probability of this perfect calibration happening by chance is so tiny as to be statistically negligible.1

The scientist, Francis Collins adds this:

When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants – the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc. – that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by even one part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets or people.2

In other words – this idea that – our universe came into being from nothing, with precisely the right forces that enable it to exist – and then a planet capable of supporting life formed – and then complex molecules formed – and then they formed a living cell that eventually became complex life forms – with no intelligent input – I suggest this requires a huge leap of faith.

1 Timothy Keller, The Reason For God, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2008. pp. 129-130. 2 Cited in Timothy Keller, The Reason For God, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2008. p. 130.

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Atheists accuse Christians of trusting our worldview by faith. I agree. They forget they too trust their worldview by faith. The question is – which is a more reasonable faith? In his 1983 book The Intelligent Universe, Fred Hoyle wrote the following:

A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing 747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled 747, ready to fly, will be found standing there? So small as to be negligible, even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole Universe.

Hoyle used this to show how unlikely it is for life to spontaneously form. And yet Hoyle assumes all the parts of the jumbo are there – and jumbos are nowhere near as complicated as the simplest life form – yet atheists tell us we are to have faith – that somehow it happened. Evolutionists realised they had a problem. Even if you assume the formation of a stable universe and a planet capable of sustaining life, statistically, evolution was still incredibly unlikely. Their first way to try and get around the unlikely premise – is time. Ever since Darwin – the age of the earth has been stretched out. The idea was that given enough time – natural selection should give us evolution. It is the old – enough monkeys typing for enough time – will give us the complete works of Shakespeare – theory. But, mathematicians stepped in to point out the fallacies in this. They told us that – not only is a simple life form far more complex than a mere work of fiction – but trillions of trillions of monkeys typing randomly even for hundreds of thousands of orders of magnitude longer than the age of the universe – that is 14 billion years raised to the power of hundreds of thousands – an impossibly large number – even then – statistically the chance of getting even one of Shakespeare’s works is still almost zero. Then throw in the second law of thermodynamics – that the universe is losing complexity. Throw in questions about how each body part – for example – an eye could ever evolve when you need every part working for it to function. And evolutionists realized 4 billion years on earth is not enough time. Some then brought up panspermia – life evolved elsewhere and was seeded to earth – but not even 15 billion years is enough time. They thought about pushing the boundaries to make the time longer – but they needed so much more time it was impossible. So – they came up with this notion. Wait for it. Here is the key to denying God the Creator … Infinite universes!

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From the early 1970’s on, Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, postulated that to get this improbable universe, there must be a huge number of universes, quite probably an infinite number, each with different attributes, in different combinations, and that we simply live in the one that defied every statistical norm to combine things in a way that allows us to exist. This is the very argument Richard Dawkins makes in his book The God Delusion. He says that there may be trillions of universes – or most likely – an infinite number of universes. Given the enormous number of universes existing over enormous amounts of time and space, it is inevitable that some of them are fine-tuned to sustain our kind of life. Get that. To try and deal with the absolute improbability of life apart from God – the only way is to postulate – totally without any shred of proof – infinite universes – so that what is so absolutely remote in probability – life occurring spontaneously – if you mention the magic word – infinity – then even if impossibly unlikely – in infinity it should happen somewhere. Then they tell us – this is science – not faith. It is faith of the highest order! Bryson admits to this circular brand of faith:

The bottom line is that life is amazing and gratifying, perhaps even miraculous, but hardly impossible – as we repeatedly attest with our own modest existences. p. 355.

He assumes there is no God – so life has to happen without God. Since we exist – life forming is not impossible. If by faith you take God out – then whatever theory just might explain our existence – becomes what must have happened. If you say there is no intelligence involved – then as unlikely as the Big Bang or protein formation or reproducing life or evolution is – if we postulate an infinite number of universes – then on one of them – things should come together for life to exist – and since we exist – evolution and multiple universes must be true. Mathematics says this is basically impossible. There is no evidence for these multiple universes. It is clutching at straws to still retain some way to say – I can still grasp the concept of a universe without God. I suggest this is a religion – not science – and takes much greater faith – than to believe in God. They refuse to believe in God because of pride and a refusal to bow the knee.

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Yet, in contrast to the infinite universe theory where by the magic of saying ‘infinity’ – you can make statistical impossibility – possible – there is evidence for God. Creation, miracles and Christ. God has revealed Himself to us. Psalm 19:1:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

We only have to look at the creation to realise the hand of God. Hebrews 1:1–3:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

God spoke through prophets authenticated by miracles and finally by entering this world Himself. Men saw – touched – heard – God. Far more proof than infinite universes. Creation tells us there is a God. Last Sunday there was a wonderful documentary on the Apollo missions to the moon – it was called – In the Shadow of the Moon. A number of the astronauts shared how going to a place that is absolutely desolate – atmosphere, no water, no life – then returning to a world that is clearly created for us – helped them come to faith that this is a created world. It is my contention that it takes far greater faith to ignore the evidence of creation and trust in the theory of the day concerning how this universe, this world, you and I – came into being apart from the work of God.

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Is there a God? I think the evidence is overwhelming? It is just that men suppress it. They don’t want to believe. Romans 1:18 says that they suppress the truth. Then Romans 1:19–20 says this:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

At the end of time – no one can say – I didn’t know there was a God. Since He created everything – man could know there is a God – they could know his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature – because of the things that He made. We are without excuse. In Acts 17 – Paul was addressing the brilliant minds of Athens on Mars Hill. In verses 22-28 he said this:

Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

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Whether you are an educated Athenian, an animistic tribesman or an ordinary Australian – you cannot escape the fact that the Creator has revealed Himself. The Athenians knew there had to be a Creator. They even created idols TO AN UNKNOWN GOD in the hope that if there was a powerful god that they did not know about, that he would be appeased. We are religious beings. We were created to be in a relationship with our Creator. Paul reinforces this truth by appealing to two Greek poets who realised this:

In Him we live and move and have our being. And:

For we are indeed His offspring. Even the unsaved, poets of the ages testify to the fact of the existence of the Almighty. The knowledge of the Creator is within us. We can suppress it – but we can’t erase it.

There is a God – the evidence the is there. We can suppress it – but it is there. But is this God the God of the Bible? Creation tells us there is some greater being. But is He an alien, Allah, some cosmic force? Left to ourselves – we would never know. God is so far beyond us that unless He chooses to make Himself known – we would never know who He is.

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But, He has chosen to make Himself known. He revealed Himself through prophets and the Old Testament Fathers. But His greatest revelation was when He entered this world Himself. He became the Son. John 1:1–3:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

God Himself – the Creator – came to our world. John 1:14:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus then performed sign miracles and the greatest miracle of all – rising from the dead – to show that He is indeed God the Creator. And John sums this up. John 20:30–31:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Creation tells us there is a God. God then spoke through the prophets. He validated this testimony through miracles, and through fulfilled prophecy. Finally, He spoke by sending His Son. Jesus showed us the Father – through His life, His teachings, His miracles and especially through His death and resurrection. This testimony was written down – passed on – and it works miracles today. You saw baptisms – men and women captured by Christ – living breathing miracles. There is evidence for God and evidence that the God of the Bible is the one true God. The Bible tells us that this world is special. Trillions of lifeless barren worlds – and then earth. And this earth was created especially for the kings and queens of creation – us. But we rejected God and this world became marred – fallen. Death came – physical death and spiritual death.

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But God came to this world to save us – because He loves us. And only those who heed His warning and trust the one way of salvation will be saved. Every one of us will face our Creator. Hebrews 9:27:

It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Almost twenty-eight years ago to the day – I was a medical student – suckled on evolution – living with no thought of God – but I was asked to consider the evidences for God. I could not deny them. It will do us no good to claim ignorance – Romans 1 says we should have known there was a God who was holy and good from His creation. It will do us no good to trust we have done enough good works. Ephesians 2:8–9:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works.

It will do us no good to stick our heads in the sand and say it is all too hard. God exists. Creation declares it. God has spoken. Jesus has come. And now every man and woman has a choice to make and it is a choice that matters. We can hope that there is no God. That when we die – that is it. Our atoms return the universe who made us. We can put our faith in infinite universes, random chance and mathematical improbabilities. Ignoring the evidence won’t help us. Choosing to make no decision – is a decision – it is rejecting God. If you are on holidays in an apartment block and the fire alarms go off, and people yell – fire! – and you smell smoke and hear alarms – you can ignore it – probably just someone burning toast – and go back to sleep. But there are consequences for ignoring the evidence. For us those consequences are that we will be held to account – eternally. Or we can choose to listen to God – our Creator and Saviour.

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We can believe Him when He tells us that:

God became man – to save us. Jesus – His miraculous birth, miraculous life, miraculous death – is the greatest proof of God and His love. We can trust in Christ – who died that we might live. Maybe you are unsure. Maybe you want to hear more. Maybe you have questions. The greatest privilege we have at this church is to share this soul saving truth. We run a course regularly. A number of those who were baptised came to this course. It is low key – no pressure. We just talk about the questions you might have. Please talk to me – talk to Dave – talk to someone about Jesus. For those who are Christians – sometimes we doubt. Great minds tell us – science has proven … there is a Big Bang … there is no God. Not true. It is merely men and women seeking for a way not to bow the knee to their Creator. Have faith – and live.