Jesus said “I am the Way the Truth and the
Life…” and Pilate said “…What is Truth?” as he washed his hands. If we believe the first, we will know how to
answer the second. This paper seeks to
clarify my position on my own World View. I will try to clearly write what it
is I believe, and why; and finally answer the question of how this applies to
my daily life. I will answer this in three parts; Part One is Natural Theology,
proof of God from nature. Part two is Revelation from Scripture, and the
historicity of the Bible, and finally Part three will be an explanation of how
I integrate this into my life and how I treat others based on my understanding
of what is real and true.
Part One: Natural Theology
In our text book, James Sire (2004) made for me the
stunning observation of how our ontology, how we understand the “really-real”
effects our own perceptions. He writes, “…the object of knowledge controls the
way knowledge of the object will be able to be apprehended.” (p 88) In other words only if the Infinite is
personal, are we able to perceive Him.
An impersonal force is an enigma and undefined, and ineffable. So in my life, I look to the
Infinite-personal God, the Creator of the Universe as my ground to ontology
that shapes my life and world view. My
faith needs an object, not a projection of my psyche, or a wish-fulfillment as
put forward by Sigmund Freud. Frances
Schaeffer (2006) writes it this way “…Faith in faith, rather than faith
directed to an object which is actually there.” (p 84) But how do I know that
there is a God out there?
My first proof of there being an infinite-personal God,
is in Cosmology. William Lane Craig
(2008) developed the early 13th century argument known as “The Kalam
Cosmological Argument.” (p.111) This argument from philosophy/cosmology gives
us a look at a syllogism that explains the origin of the universe. The argument runs like this:
1. What
ever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The
universe began to exist.
3.
Therefore, the universe has a cause.
The
argument is that because as we can see, we have ‘something’ instead of nothing;
there has to be a ‘first-cause’ and that attempts to prove God. As we have grown up with the astronomers and
physicists who developed and prove the “Big-Bang,” we have come to take for
granted the idea that there was an absolute start to the universe. But if the universe has an absolute
beginning, there has to be a cause; nothing just ‘pops’ into being; this is why
the Big-bang cosmology sounds like problems for Atheists. But this is not proof, but a strong
possibility for the existence of an All-powerful, Unlimited, Being…God.
But
this Big-Bang Cosmology was not always taken for granted. Up until the development of this theory and
the mathematical and astrological support, it was assumed by most that the
universe was eternal. This was the
belief of most philosophers, including Plato.
But Plato and later Aristotle had the sense of a ‘beginning’…they
understood the idea of the problem of motion.
Aristotle proposed the ‘un-moved mover,’ the start of the ‘chain’ of
motion. But according to W.T. Jones (1969) this un-moved mover of Aristotle was
not our idea of God. Jones writes
There are virtually no religious overtones in
Aristotle…Hence it is misleading to modern ears to talk about Aristotle’s
theology. It is better to use the
neutral expression, “Aristotle’s account of his unmoved mover”…Thus there is
…no divine providence, which is so important an aspect of the Judeo-Christian
view of the world. His god does not look
out for, care about, and provide for man.
He did not create the universe, for it is eternal, and he[god] is utterly
indifferent to it. (p 231)
This is an
interesting observation, even more so when you understand that W. T. Jones was
an Atheist.
So now I have some proof that God
may exist as evidenced by the cosmos.
Next, another sign of God from the area of Biology; and this is the
evidence of design in nature, or Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design, is a term coined by Dr.
Michael Behe, professor of Bio Chemistry at Lehigh University
A cilium is a structure that, crudely put, looks like a
hair and beats like a whip. If a cell
with a cilium is free to move about in a liquid, the cilium moves the cell much
as an oar moves a boat…But discovery of the Lilliputian details of cilia had to
wait for the invention of the electron microscope, which revealed that the
cilium is quite a complicated structure. (p 59)
So what he discovered was
the amazing molecular machines, which have a level of “Irreducible Complexity”;
these systems can only work when all the parts are together. Mike’s theory which he wrote in his book Darwin’s
Black Box is that a much more feasible explanation for this complexity is
an intelligent designer. Mike is a
Christian, but although this complexity points to God, he only makes the modest
claim to an intelligent designer. But with the organization of not only the
universe, and the impossibly complex molecular machines in living cells, there
is a much higher chance of the existence of God as evidenced by Nature itself.
Part Two: Revelation of God; the Bible
If we are to understand a being like the Creator of the
universe, and if his hand can be seen in the creation around us, it would seem
that he would give us a revelation of himself.
That book is our Holy Bible, a combination of the Old Testament (the
Jewish Bible) and the New Testament (the testimony of the fulfillment of
prophesies of the promised Messiah).
Frances Schaeffer (1982) writes of our senses and our rationality here
when he wrote;
These two eyes which the Bible gives us to look through
always agree perfectly—the eye of didactic teaching and the eye of God working
into history and in the cosmos…That when God reveals his attributes to man,
they are true not only to man but to God.
God is not just telling a story; he is telling us what is really
true…What he tells us is not exhaustive, because we are finite and we know
nothing in an exhaustive way. We cannot
even communicate with each other exhaustively…But he tells us truly—even the
great truth about himself. (p 79)
So a rational God created
rational being with senses that can apprehend the world; and this God gave us a
revelation of himself and his created order.
But with any communication, there is the telling of not
only God’s creative power, but the comprehension that there was a time when
humanity was perfect, but we rebelled against God’s order, and caused a divide
between the true and good God, and ourselves.
This is the revelation that God wants us to know in his Word, the
Bible. But as with any rebellion, restitution
had to be made, and when that rebellion is against our creator, the only
satisfaction is our very lives.
One can read between the covers of the Bible and see the
means and methods over time that this infinite—personal God used to remove the
separation between us. As we read in
the New Testament, God sent his own Son to be that means of removing the
gulf. That God would so desire our
hearts, and for us to be in fellowship with him; he would allow his Son to be
sacrificed for our sin and rebellion.
But
unlike other religions which are grounded in impersonal essences or forces, our
Father and Creator, became exactly like us, to show us how God really is. Jesus was fully human and fully divine. He was the Truth incarnate! Douglas Groothuis (2001) writes;
The
truth of the gospel is not subject to any human veto or democratic
procedures. Jesus was not elected Lord
by humans but was chosen by God; nor can he be dethroned by any human effort or
opinion or insurrection. (p 68)
So you see Jesus, the
Messiah, came to save the lost. But we
rational beings need to believe the writing of God’s revelation to humanity in
his Bible.
The challenge then becomes to prove that this is the
actual truth of God written through humans who were inspired by God’s Holy
Spirit. To help the belief in the
veracity of the Bible is the fact that it is grounded in history. You can follow a historical narrative that
can be corroborated in many places, both in archaeology and other writings, to
give us confidence in the truth of what is being revealed there. But the most remarkable and earth-shaking
evidence is the empty tomb of Jesus himself.
The four gospel accounts are an amazing array of
eye-witness testimony, which most biblical scholars believe now to be reliably
dated as being written before 70AD and the destruction of the Temple of
Jerusalem by Titus. Not only did the
writers use their own witness, and the accounts of other eye-witnesses, the
extant writings corroborate the existence of Jesus as written by Josephus, and
contained in Tacitus’ writings of the burning of Rome (Licona 2011) and the
persecution of Christians. Tacitus explains “Their name comes from Christ, who,
during the reign of Tiberius, had been executed by the procurator Pontius
Pilate.” (p. 243) We have good and
reasonable accounts of the life and death and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth,
the Messiah, Son of God.
Part Three: Integrating Beliefs in My Life.
I once believed in Jesus because it gave me good
feelings, and I liked hanging out with other Christians, and the music was
great. But I had a period of my life
where hard times hit me, and I turned my back on God. For many reasons, I
blamed God for my problems; but mostly because I never was taught that faith
could be reasoned and reasonable. When I
finally stopped running away from God, I wanted to ‘do things your way, God.’
One of the first things I did was to intensively study the Bible. But next I studied commentaries of Bible; and
soon that grew to the Philosophy of Religion, and Apologetics. This meant that now although worship is a
wonderful (and sometimes emotional experience) I now can articulate why I am a
Christian. I am a Christian because I
believe in the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; who is the
Son of God. He, with the Father, sent
his Holy Spirit to dwell in me and guide me in my life and in the fellowship
with other believers.
Because I understand the Bible is a historically reliable
book, I know that I am reading Truth.
That leaves me with options of what to do with that truth; I can either
ignore it, or I can follow it. I have
been pondering what it really mean to “love my neighbor” and “who is my
neighbor”, the same question the Lawyer asked Jesus in Luke 10:29. I know the utterly difficult words of Jesus
and his “Sermon on the Mount.” When you really study these words, they are revolutionary
and truly difficult…so difficult you cannot walk in His words. But that is the point, you need to surrender
your will to God, and He will work the change in you.
But one other application; as an Apologist for the
Christian faith, I am called to lovingly give an answer for the hope within me,
the hope I am required to share to spread God’s kingdom on this earth. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) is not
optional. We all need to learn how to
share and defend our faith, hope, life, and the Truth.
What is Truth?
Jesus, the Son of God. The Way,
The Truth, and certainly The Life.
Amen.
References:
M. Behe (2006) Darwin’s Black Box.
New York, NY: Free Press
W. L. Craig (2008) Reasonable Faith 3rd
Ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossways
D. Groothuis (2000) Truth Decay.
Downers Grove, IL: IVP
W.T. Jones (1969) A
History of Western Philosophy: The Classical Mind. New York, NY:
Harcourt Brace & World.
M. Licona (2011) The Resurrection of
Jesus. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.
F. Schaeffer (2006) The God How is
There. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.
--(1982) He is There and He is Not
Silent. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
J. Sire (2004) Naming the Elephant.
Downers Grove, IL: IVP.
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