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I'd like to just go again to
John chapter 1, where we see the gospel foundations in Genesis
there. And then I'm going to ask you,
after I read this, when we read it together, if you would then
return to be able to identify the Gospel
foundations in Genesis. In the beginning, John starts
out, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made
that has been made. In Him was life, and that life
was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness has not understood it. Let's come to him, our sovereign
Lord. We thank you, Lord Jesus. We thank you for these words
from the apostle whom you loved so much. We thank you for this
assurance that you are indeed the one who was there in the
beginning. that you are the one who created
all things, that you are the one who communed with the Father
and had glorious fellowship and planned our redemption and then
worked it out beginning on the very first day. And so we just
pray that you'll give us wisdom as we look at the opposing worldviews
that are constantly bombarding our young people and ourselves.
we thank you in Jesus' name, Amen. Now as you look then at the second page from last week,
oh by the way, look at the topic page, and we didn't make a change
because we were going to talk about the 6 days and 6,000 years
today, and we realized we really need to lay this foundation,
these two conflicting worldviews, we went over the relevance of
Genesis last week that there's a real battle going on and we
have to put on the full armor as in Ephesians 4 and the first
Corinthians it says that we are fighting a spiritual battle we're
tearing down strongholds and so number two there is which
side has more evidence the two conflicting worldviews so as
we look at our world view, what is it in Genesis that we see
in this passage that I just read? There's really at least two foundations
in Genesis right there. What do you see? The foundations of the gospel
there. Yeah, this is... Okay, began
with God and came out in the end. with God. And so we see that
Christ was there from the beginning. What role did he play in creation?
All things were made through him and by him nothing was made
that was made. That's right. And it says there
also that he was in the beginning was the Word. So when God spoke,
who was speaking? Christ. Pre-incarnate Christ. That's his role in the Trinity,
it seems. And then, what else do we see
here in the following verse? Or verses? Verse 3? What did God make on day 1? verse 4. Oh, is that right? In John. Yes, we're in John.
I'm sorry. Yeah, I was asking what there
is in this passage in John. The light. Okay. And so if you
go to your notes there and just let me ask you then, who has,
what day was the light created? What are the four essential truths
of the gospel that we presented last time? Who can say all four? goodness of our creator, sinfulness
of man, grace and mercy of Christ, and hope of eternal glory. Oh,
that's so good! Who can give me one example of
God's goodness, His holiness, His perfection that we see as
the days of creation unfolded? said it was good and on the last
day he said what it was very good and so here we had a perfection
that was there and as we'll see we saw last week because of Romans
8 that tells us that there was no sin and death and suffering
in the world before that where did all that okay well that's
I'm getting ahead of myself so what I answered the second one. And
then what about man's sinfulness? Where did that happen? Okay,
in the garden. And then where has Christ revealed
His promise, the first promise of His coming? Somebody could
read that Genesis 3. Who can find it? Who can read that? Can you read it with a booming
voice? And I will put infancy between
you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will
crush your head and you will strike his heel. Okay, so he
will, so that's talking about his What? His death and his resurrection,
and crushing the heel, defeating death, which is Satan, and death,
which is the last enemy. So we see, what other symbol
is there? Hint, number five here on the
list. What was the symbol of Christ
covering as a picture of the gospel? Adam and Eve made a covering,
clothing, an atonement, in that sense. And so that was a picture
for the whole sacrificial system is based on that. And God brought
the first death into the world, as we saw. The first death was
not a human being. It was not Adam and Eve, the
first physical death. It was a creature that God sacrificed. And then lastly, where do we
see our resurrection hope in the gospel? That's a little tricky, but yeah. That had to be the end of 15.
Right, right. The end of Genesis 3, 15, the
end of verse 16. Right. OK. And then as we go
on through Genesis, Who had the faith that was a resurrection
faith later on in Genesis? Noah did. And the death and resurrection
of Christ is pictured there. And Peter says it's baptism is
a picture of all of that. Being immersed, being raised
up, coming out to new life is pictured by Noah's Ark. And it
was all of nature that was cursed And so God took all of nature
in. So very good. You guys are really
good. So let's go on. Let's look over the page. If
you put it in here. Today is which side has more
evidence? And each day we have a question
that is a question of a Christian or a skeptic. This one is a question
that a Christian might ask. or sometimes skeptics will challenge
us. I'm always being challenged when
I'm speaking in a university in particular, saying, you give
me one evidence for creation, because all of the evidence is
on the side of evolution, they'll say. Is that true? No, it's not
true. And we're going to see how that
pans out. So we'll look at our objectives.
We've already reviewed the essential truths. I want to turn now to
Acts chapter 17 and we're going to look at Narsil's sermon here
and I'm just going to highlight a couple of things because we
want to do this as an introduction to a video that we're going to
watch of Ken Hamlin today. He does a superlative job on
this And Paul, before X 16 or 17, Paul had had traveled around
in this. He made a practice along with
Barnabas earlier, and Peter also did the same of preaching to
the Jews first, and then to the Gentiles. And Paul says that
in Romans 1.16, that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto all who believe. To the Jew first,
and then to the Gentiles. In Acts 17, it says that he was
there alone, and he had been preaching as he always did in
the synagogue first of all and then he went out he didn't have
his companions with him and he was trying to figure out how
to relate to these Athenian intellectuals and so it says there that Paul
in verse 16 of chapter 17 Paul was waiting for them at Athens
that was his companions church planning partners he was greatly
distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned
in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as
well as in the marketplace, day by day, with those who happened
to be there. A group of Epicureans and Stoic philosophers began
to dispute with him, and some of them asked, What is this babbler
saying? He seems to be advocating foreign
gods. And they said this because Paul
was preaching the good news, the gospel, and the resurrection. And so they said, he's using
these names we've never heard of. And so I guess they were
thinking, who's this Jesus? Who's this resurrection that
he's talking about? And he believes in them as his
gods so clearly. And so Paul stood up in the meeting
place there. We call it Mars Hill. And he
said, Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious.
This is down in verse 22. You are overly superstitious
or you are very religious. For as I walked around, I saw I observed your objects of worship,
and I even found an altar with this inscription, The Unknown
God. Now when you worship as something
unknown, I am going to proclaim to you." So he knew that he wasn't
communicating like he did to the Jews. They didn't have a
foundation. And so he said it started with
what? The God who created or made the world and everything
in it is the Lord of heaven and earth. live in temples made by hands. He is not served by human hands
as if he needed anything because he himself gives all men life
and breath and everything else. And from one blood or one man,
that's the first Adam, he made every nation of men that they
should inhabit the whole earth. And he determined the places
where they would live beforehand. So this is another extension
of predestination, their places where they would live. The different
ethnic groups around the world were determined most likely facilitated
at the Tower of Babel to go out to where they were assigned by
God. And God did this, verse 27, God
did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out to
Him and find Him, though He's not far from each one of us.
And in Him we live and move and have our being as some of your
own poets have said, we are his offspring. So he was getting
their attention and then he made this point. They were asking,
who is this Jesus and who is this resurrection? What is this? These strange things. And therefore,
he says, since we are God's offspring, using something that relates
to men, they can understand that we, since we are God's offspring,
we should not think that the divine being that the God is
made by man's design and skill and in the past God overlooked
such ignorance but now he what commands all men everywhere to
repent repent and so he brings this to these scholars and intellectual
people they're hearing this for the first time for and then he
goes on for he has set a day when he will judge the world
with justice by the man that he has appointed. The man that
he has appointed. And he has given proof of this
to all men by raising him from the dead. There's the resurrection.
It's not another person. This is Jesus, the last Adam. dying for the first Adam and
being raised up again. Defeating death in the grave. When they heard about the resurrection
of the dead, some of them sneered. And some of them said, we want
to hear again on this subject. And so I remember hearing once
from a seminary professor, he was well-meaning, but he said,
Paul wasn't very successful here. Peter had thousands who came
to Christ from his sermons. But what's the difference? These
people had never heard before, and Paul was relating to them.
And it says right there at the end, verse 34, after Paul left
the council, he says, a few men became followers of Paul and
believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Aragopolis, the
ruling council there. Wow. And so he didn't get a whole
bunch, but he did. He did get some. Now, I just realized since this
isn't working, I do have the video. Now, who can. Yeah. Anybody help me with this? Pastor
Phil. I think John's better than me. OK, John. Yes. Here we go. And so what we're going to look
at is a video by Ken Ham. And we're under his ministry
as video conferencing coordinators. And he has gone all over the
world. I've heard him so many times.
He has a creation museum back in Kentucky. And he is pleading here for us
to understand that we sometimes don't communicate. because we're
not understanding, first of all,
that there are these two different ways that people understand the
world around them, and especially the natural world. Because Romans
1 says that, hey, I better read
it and not misquote it. Romans 1. 20. For since the creation of the
world, God's invisible qualities as eternal power and divine nature
have been clearly seen, being understood from what was made,
so that men are without excuse. And then over in chapter 2, verse
14, it says these Gentile people that Paul was speaking to, secondly,
after the Jews, these people who did not have the law do have
do by nature things required by the law, and they are a law
unto themselves, even though they do not have the law, since
they show that the requirements of the law are written on their
hearts. And so as we consider apologetics,
it's so important to have this focus on the word of God, because
that's what's powerful. We're in a battle, and God has
sent us out to tear down strongholds. He had sent us out to be in a
battle and put on the full armor. Part one. That's what we'll Ken Ham was driving around Cincinnati,
actually the Virgin Islands. Over the years I found that many
Christians can be easily intimidated by non-Christians in regard to
their witnessing concerning the Christian faith. As a result,
many Christians can be quite timid, not really knowing what
best to say. Well, in this session I want
to do something that's sort of radical for education. I want
to teach you not just what to think, but how to think, how
to think logically as a Christian. how to best logically argue the
Christian faith with a non-Christian, and therefore be able to answer
those sceptical questions in a way that leaves the non-Christian
not having an answer. When you understand this, you'll
be much more bold in your witnessing, and see people listen concerning
the truth of God's Word. For this session, I want to bring
two verses of scripture together. Romans 1.20 says, since the creation
of the world is a visible attribute, it's clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so they are without excuse. It's so obvious from looking
around us that there's a God, obvious from the creation that
there's a God. But then there's this verse of
Scripture in Romans 10.17, faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. So it's obvious from the creation
there's a God, but faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
Word of God. And I want to bring those two
together to help us understand how we need to be communicating
the message of the Gospel, the message of Christianity, to our
culture today. You know, the issue of origins
is very different to talking about how to build a motor car,
or how to build a space shuttle, how to make a computer. The issue
of origins is really an issue of history. And if you think
about it, here we are in the present. We're in the present
and we're trying to understand, well, hopefully we exist in the
present. When I was a teacher, not all my students did exist
in the present, but that's a whole other issue. Here we are existing
in the present, and what we're trying to do is to understand
what happened in the past to bring the present into being.
You see, the problem we have, it's like watching a Sherlock
Holmes movie. I was watching the Sherlock Holmes movie. It
was totally frustrating. I got so angry at the end. Because
you see, you get halfway through, you know, we've done it, the
butler done it. Three calls away through, it's obvious the butler done
it. Three minutes before the end, the butler definitely done
it. Then two minutes before the end, Sherlock Holmes does something
that is so annoying. He suddenly pulls out this wonderful
piece of evidence that they didn't tell you through the whole movie.
You realize it wasn't the butler that did it after all, it was
this other person. The movie ends and you say it was a waste
of time watching that. You feel like kicking the TV
in the teeth. I mean, it's ridiculous. See, here's the problem we've
got. No matter how much we know, there's an infinite amount more
to know, which means no matter how much we know, we don't know
how much more there is to know anyway, which means we don't know how
much we do know or don't know in relation to whatever that is,
which we don't know because we don't know how much more there
is that we don't know, which means we just don't know much
at all. That's the bottom line. That's what it's all about. You
see, no matter how much we know compared to what God knows, do
you realize we know next door to nothing? Ultimately, the only
way you could ever be sure that you're going to come to the right
conclusion about things in the past when you weren't there,
you don't know everything, is if someone who was there, who
knows everything, who doesn't tell a lie, who told us what
happened, revealed to us the information we need to know.
Oh, by the way, I happen to have a book. That claims to be the
Word of One who knows everything, has always been there, who doesn't
tell a lie, who says, here's what happened so you can understand
all you need to know to put it all together, know who you are,
where you came from, what the universe is all about. You see,
ultimately, there are only two ways of understanding reality.
You either start with God's Word, the Word of One who knows everything,
who has all information, who gives us the information we need,
or somehow man has to figure it out. If you think about it
from a perspective of the secularists who don't believe in God's Word,
here they are in the present and they're trying to work from
the present into the past to understand what happened in the
past. You know, for the Christian, we've got a revelation from someone
who says, here's what happened in the past, so we work from
what happened in the past to the present. It's very different. And you see, when you think about
it, the education system in America, the government education system,
has thrown God out of that system. And so they keep something like
this, for instance, the late Carl Sagan said, the cosmos is
all there is, or ever was, or ever will be. In fact, they teach
this history. There was a big bang 15 billion
years ago, 10 billion years ago, the stars formed 5 billion years
ago, the sun 4.5 billion years ago, molten earth 3.8 billion
years ago, water cooled on the earth. By the way, they know
all this from digital photographs. Oh, by the way, the fact that
you laughed tells me you understand the issue. You know they weren't
there. You know they don't have digital
photographs of what happened in the park. That's the whole
point. They weren't there. They didn't see that happen.
You got the point. They believe that as water cooled
on the earth, that eventually life formed. Nobody can explain
how that happened, but they believe it did. A man in history called
Charles Darwin looked at life on Earth and noticed that life
changes. In fact, it does. Dogs change.
They change into dogs. Pigeons change. They change into
pigeons. Elephants change. They change
into... See, you get it. You understand. Exactly. But
he said, given enough time, the changes we see will add up to
big changes to change one kind of animal into another. Supposedly,
over millions of years, as life evolved, Death, bloodshed, disease,
suffering is all a part of this process. Eventually, ape-like
creatures turn into people. Supposedly, the record of the
evolutionary history of life is left in the fossil record.
For instance, at the Grand Canyon, you see those layers, one on
top of the other. It's a record of death and struggle and suffering
and thorns and diseases and animals eating each other. It's a horrible
record. The secularist construct what they call a geological time
scale based on the fossil layers we see around the Earth, and
they have the oldest layers on the bottom and the youngest layers
on the top. By the way, by and large, basically we agree, in
most instances the oldest layers are on the bottom and the youngest
layers are on the top. But not younger by millions of years,
younger by maybe a few months in most instances. And then they
have a statement of purpose and meaning. Richard Dawkins, a well-known
atheist, who wrote the book The God Delusion, he was being interviewed
by BeliefNet, You can actually go and see the whole interview
there. He's asked this question, and Dr. Dawkins, the idea of
evolution and natural selection makes some people feel that everything
is meaningless, people's individual lives and life in general. See,
he was asked this question because, you know, basically people say,
now wait a minute, you're an atheist, you don't believe in
God. That's right. When you die, you won't even know you ever
existed. That's true. And when people who knew you die, they
won't know that you existed, you won't know that they existed,
and none of you will know that anything ever happened. Is that
right? That's correct. And eventually the whole universe dies and no
one will know anyone ever existed. Is that right? That's correct.
That's what it's all about. Then people will get the idea
there's no purpose and meaning in life. And you know what his
answer was? Well, if it's true and that causes
people to feel despair, that's tough. If it's true, it's true
and you better live with it. What a wonderful message of hope
for the world. You know what? There's no God. When you die,
you won't even know you ever existed. Become an atheist. But
see, when you start with the Bible, the Bible says something
very, very different. See, the Bible claims to be,
regardless of what anyone else says about it, you know, you
say, well, I don't believe the Bible. It claims over 3,000 times
to be the Word of God. It claims it's the Word of God
who knows everything, who's always been there, who has revealed
to us what we need to know about who we are, where we came from.
In fact, it gives us a very specific history. In fact, when you start
with the Bible, it talks about the origin of time, the origin
of space, the origin of the Earth, of water, the origin of dry land,
the origin of plants, the origin of the sun, the origin of the
moon, the origin of the stars, the origin of flying creatures,
the origin of sea creatures, the origin of land creatures,
the origin of man, the origin of woman, the origin of marriage,
the origin of sin, the origin of death, the origin of nations,
the origin of languages, the origin of clothing. Do you really
have a book that does that? Not even an evolutionist book
does all that. This book is very specific. In fact, if this book
really is the word of God, The history is so specific, we should
be able to test it. In fact, we summarize that history
from Genesis to Revelation, the first book to the last book,
as the seven C's of history. Creation, corruption, catastrophe,
confusion, Christ, cross, consummation. Creation, the creation week.
God made animals after their kind. And then God made the first
man from dust, the first woman from his side. By the way, we're
all descended to one man and one woman. That would mean there's
only one race of people. Actually, when the Human Genome
Project mapped the human genome, do you know what they said? We
found there's only one race. Wow, who would have ever thought
of that? And then the Bible says the first man, Adam, sinned against
God. Adam against God. That's why death came. Death
is an enemy. That's why we die. The Bible
also tells us there's been a global flood. If there was a global
flood, you'd expect to find billions of dead things buried in rock
layers, laid down by water all over the earth. You know what
you find? Billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by
water all over the earth. The Bible says after the flood that people
congregated together again to worship the heavens instead of
worshiping God who made the heavens, instead of moving out over the
earth. And so God gave them different languages. As a result, the families,
according to their language, moved away from each other, the
Bible says. They would have formed distinct cultures and people
groups, which is exactly what we see today. And then the Bible
tells us that the Son of God stepped into history to be a
man, to be one of us, to be a descendant of Adam, of the human race, to
be a relative, but a perfect man. to pay the penalty for our
sin, to die on a cross because death was a penalty for sin,
be raised from the dead, offer a free gift of salvation, to
save us from what we did in separating ourselves from our Creator. And
one day there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth because
this one's groaning because of the effects of sin. It's going
to get back to what it used to be. In fact, as you have a look
at the seven seas, it was a perfect creation. and one day in the
future it's going to be perfect once again. Sin entered the world
and death is a result of sin. That's why Jesus Christ died
on the cross, erased from the dead. The flood of Noah's day
was a judgment, but it's a wonderful message of salvation, an act
of salvation. People had to go through a doorway
to be saved. Jesus Christ said, I am the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he'll be saved. The tarot label reminds
us we're all descendants of one man, Adam. There's only one race.
And Jesus Christ became a member of the human race, which is why
the gospel message is for all tribes. and nations and then
there's a wonderful message of purpose and meaning for God said
I love the world he gave his only begotten son that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life and
you look at that and say wow that's so different to the other
account of history that's right in fact I have young people say
Mr. Hamm you just give us two totally different accounts of
history that's right two totally different accounts big bang no
big bang billions of years thousands of years Death has always been
here. Death is an intrusion. It's an enemy. Man and woman
from ape-like creatures. Man from dust. Woman from his
side. No global flood. Global flood. No purpose of meaning. Purpose of meaning. They're totally
different, aren't they? So people say, how can you have
two totally different accounts of the origin of the universe?
Well, whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian, a creationist
or an evolutionist, let me ask you a question. Do we all have
the same fossils or different fossils? Do we all have the same
animals, real animals, like a kangaroo? Do we all have the same animals,
or different animals? Same. Do we all observe the same
rock layers and canyons? Yes, we do. Do we all have the
same world? Well, it depends upon your perspective, but we
all have the same world. That's true. Do we all observe
the same dinosaur bones and so on, talk about the same dinosaurs?
Yes, we do. Do we all observe the same animal death? Yes, we
do. Do we all suffer the same human death? Yes, we do. Do you
know what that means, by the way? Here's the point I want
to get across to us. Whether you're a Christian or
non-Christian, a creationist or an evolutionist, actually
when it comes to talking about the issue of origins and history,
we all have the same facts because we all have the same present
world. It's not the facts that are any different. I have people
come to me sometimes and they say, oh, I'm here because I want
to hear all the facts that prove creation. Actually, I'm going
to talk about the same facts an evolutionist does. What do
you mean? We've all got the same facts. You see, there are people
that say, wait a minute, an evolutionist has all these facts that we're
going to win. We've got to have more facts than them. And that's
how some people look on it, that, you know, we've got to get the
most facts. Actually, when it comes to the issue of origins,
we all exist in the present. We all have the same present
world. The battle is really over the same facts. What's different
is not the facts. What's different is not the evidence.
What's different is how you interpret that evidence in the context
of history. And how you do that depends upon
your starting point. There are ultimately only two
starting points. You either start with God's word, or you start
with man's word. On the basis of those two starting points,
we build a worldview. We put on a set of glasses. We
look at the world in the present on the basis of our starting
point, and we look at that evidence and we interpret it in accord
with our starting point. For instance, when we look at
DNA, that molecule of heredity, We find that DNA is actually
a language system and an information system, and languages only come
from intelligence. Information only comes from information.
DNA cries out, in the beginning, God, not in the beginning, hydrogen.
Isn't it exciting to be a Christian? Oh, God, you're so exciting.
Maybe we should try that again. It's exciting being a Christian.
Now, when you start from God's Word, it says God made kinds
after their kind on the basis of man's ideas, one kind changed
into another. Actually, as you examine genetics
in dogs, we'll do that when we talk about the race issue. We'll
give a little course on genetics in that particular session and
help us understand that actually you can have great changes within
a kind A kind is more at a family level of classification, a family
genus species. But that one kind doesn't change
into another. It actually confirms the Bible. When it comes to looking
at the human race, even the Human Genome Project said there's only
one race, which fits exactly with what the Bible said. Not
one. Charles Darwin popularized different races. And the more
you look at canyons and rock layers and fossils, the more
you see evidence consistent with catastrophism, not slow processes
over millions of years. When you come to the Creation
Museum, One of the first exhibits we take you through is called
the dig site and we want to teach you to understand how scientists
interpret evidence in relation to the past. So let me show you
the short video that helps people understand this. I grew up fascinated by dinosaurs. Watching movies, collecting models. I don't know about you. Dinosaurs were big. They were
magnificent. They were awesome. I was taught
that dinosaurs once ruled the world, but then millions of years
ago, they disappeared from the earth. Everything I believed
about the age of the earth, the cycles of life and death, the
evolution of humankind, began with dinosaurs. And then, I learned
that the Bible presented a very different history. Tim here is
my colleague. fellow paleontologists, we've
been friends since college. Today we study the same fossils,
we use the same techniques, but that doesn't mean we agree on
what happened here. We do interpret our findings
differently. You see, fossils don't come with tags on them,
telling us how old they are, where they lived, what they ate,
or even how they died. We have to figure that out from
the clues that we find. We never have enough clues. Our
starting points usually lead us to different conclusions.
Here's how I see it. I think this dinosaur died over
a hundred million years ago. It dried out in the sun for a
long time. And later, I think this specimen
was covered by a river sediment, which was caused by a local flood.
She'd been lying here all this time till wind dug her up. Where
Kim sees millions of years, I see evidence of a different history.
I believe this animal died in the flood, but it wasn't a local
flood. It was a massive flood that covered the earth, Noah's
flood, when God judged the world. The carcass was buried suddenly,
before it could be eaten or decomposed, buried in a layer of sediment
that stretches across the entire continent. Since the flood, according
to the Bible, was about 4,300 years ago, that's how old I believe
this fossil to be. We come to different conclusions
because of our different starting points. I start with the Bible. My colleague does not. We all have the same facts. We
merely interpret the facts differently because of our different starting
points. And so you see, it really comes down to different starting
points. that cause you to interpret the same evidence differently.
Now I have people say, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. But
doesn't science show that the Bible is not correct? Doesn't
science actually prove evolution? And I may have even Christians
who say, oh, I don't believe in science. I believe in the
Bible. And others say, well, in the battle of the Bible versus
science, can I ask you not to say that it's Bible versus science?
Because it's not. See, first of all, if I ask you
the question, what is science? What would we say? You know,
I would say if you had a hundred people in the audience and said,
could you define what you would understand by science, you'd
probably get a hundred different definitions. But what does the word science
mean? If you look up the dictionary definition of science, it means
state of knowing, knowledge. having knowledge. Science really
means knowledge. You know, in the Bible, where
we read that verse, science falsely so-called, it's knowledge falsely
so-called. You know what's not taught in
our education system? The difference between knowledge
gained through observation that builds out technology, observational,
operational science, and historical science, which is really history,
your beliefs concerning the past, when you weren't there. So let
me show you this short video that helps people understand
this. Have you ever heard this? Billions
of years ago there was an explosion in space or a hundred thousand
years ago this happened or that happened. or even in the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth. Question, how does anyone
know? I mean, was anybody there to
observe it? Well, actually somebody was, but I'm getting ahead of
myself. Check this out. First of all, we need to recognize
that there is a huge difference between observational science
and historical science. Both are valuable, but very different.
Let's define the two real quick, shall we? Observational science
is simply when we observe something and experiment to draw conclusions.
It involves repeatable experimentation and observation in the present.
It's through observational science that we find cures for diseases
and build space shuttles and stuff like that. Now, through
historical science, we consider things that happened in the past,
but they cannot be checked in the same way. I mean, we don't
have access to the past like we do the present because, well,
it's gone, right? All we really have is speculation,
or at best, circumstantial evidences of past events based on what
we see in the present. That's not to say that we can't
make intelligent guesses about the past. or form reasonable
inferences from rocks or fossils in the present. But we certainly
cannot directly test our conclusions because we cannot repeat the
past. Got it? So, does that mean historical
science is unimportant? Not at all. Let's drop an example
down here for a minute and take a look at the Eiffel Tower. You
know, that 19th century Parisian monument designed by Gustave
Eiffel to stand at 1,063 feet tall, which was built as the
entrance for the 1889 World's Fair, and is still the tallest
building in Paris today, visited by millions of people each year?
Yeah, that one. Well, guess what? Everything
I just told you is true. But how do you test it? Well,
applying observational science, we can, of course, observe the
Eiffel Tower anytime we're in Paris. It's here in the present.
Then, we can continue by testing the height and comparing it to
all the other structures in Paris and confirm the claim that it
is indeed the tallest building in Paris. But that's the extent
of the kind of facts that can be proved by observational science
in reference to this claim. How do we really know that Gustav
designed it? How do we really know it was built in the 19th
century as an entrance to the 1889 World's Fair? How do we
really know how many people visited? That's all in the past. It can't
be repeated. For that kind of information,
we need to go outside the limits of observational science and
discover what has been communicated to us through historical documents
and eyewitness accounts. And furthermore, we have to believe
those eyewitnesses and documents are trustworthy. The same is
true when we talk about the origin of the Earth. The Earth is here.
We all agree with that. So, does observational science
confirm that the world was created by God? And are there trustworthy
documents and eyewitness accounts that confirm it? Well, let's
take the last part first. In short, what we're really asking
is my original question. Was anybody there to observe
it? The answer is, yes. God was there, and he told us
how he created it. He inspired people to write down his very
words that became books that were compiled into a complete
book called the Bible, which has been verified over and over
again. and has demonstrated itself to be totally trustworthy in
all the claims it teaches. Even secular scholars will concede
that the Bible accurately records historical events. Anyway, we
have the most trustworthy revelation. from the most trustworthy eyewitness.
Now, what about observational science? Does it confirm the
Bible? Yes. And what's extremely important
to realize is the observable fact that the universe is logical
and orderly. That makes sense only if its
creator is logical and has imposed order on its creation. It doesn't
make sense at all if the universe is just an accidental explosion.
Also, our minds are able to comprehend many things about the universe.
And that's only possible if the creator of the mind gave us the
ability and desire to explore the universe. It doesn't make
sense if our brains are byproducts of chance because we couldn't
trust our conclusions to ever be accurate. And lastly, it only
makes sense that we can observe and repeat an experiment if the
universe consistently obeys the same laws from day to day, which
only makes sense if a lawgiver created it that way and upholds
it. So to be bluntly honest, science itself, whether observational
or historical, is only possible because God exists and the Bible
is true. I could go on, but enough said. There are evolutionists who do
some great science in the sense of observational science. Because
you see, they have the same science we do. That's why I met an evolutionist
and a creationist years ago at the Goddard Space Center, both
working on the Hubble telescope, and they agreed on how to build
the Hubble telescope. But what they disagreed on was the origin
of the universe. See, that's a very different
matter. That's what we need to understand. And you know, when
it comes to origins, What we want to know is knowledge. We
want to have knowledge, but we need all knowledge to make sure
we got it right, which means we need someone who is omniscient.
Oh, I know someone who is. We have a book that claims to
be a revelation from God. And in fact, when you look at
that history, it makes sense of the world. Oh, that's why
there are fossils over the world. That's why we die. Oh, that's
why there's only one race of human beings. Oh, so now I understand. That's why dogs always reproduce
dogs. Yes, it makes sense. The Bible's history makes sense
of the world. And you see, here's the point.
Here's how we can decide whose starting point is right in that
sense. Now, we would say, as Christians, that it's actually
illogical not to start with the Bible. You have to start with
the Bible. I mean, why do we have the laws of nature? If it's
a random universe, why do we have the laws of nature? If it's
a random universe, why do we have the laws of logic? You know,
a young man once who came to me, he said, oh, sir, I went
to your seminar, You know what? He said, I still believe in the
Big Bang. I believe we're the result of chance-random processes.
Really, son? Yes, sir. I said, well, if you're
the result of chance-random processes, your brain is the result of chance-random
processes. Is that right? Well, yes, sir. If your brain's
the result of chance-random processes, your processes of logic are the
result of chance-random processes. Is that right, son? I guess so,
sir. Well, if your logic is the result of chance-random processes,
you don't know your logic evolved the right way. Son, you're not
even sure if you're asking me the right question. To which he said,
what was that book you recommended? because you start to understand.
It's actually illogical not to start with the Bible. Actually,
the only thing that makes sense of the universe is the biblical
God. In fact, really, non-Christians have to borrow from biblical
presuppositions to even do their research even if they don't admit
it, because when they agree with the laws of logic and the laws
of nature, they're actually saying there's a God, the God of the
Bible. OK. Intermission for church. OK. What was his first name? Ken Ham. And just like. He shows a picture of a fossilized
ham. And it says it's no relation
at all. So. Well, what do you think? I understand he's pretty fast
paced and he hit it on the nugget. And of course, this is the basis
of our ministry in the Philippines, where we go into universities
and we just start out teaching the Bible and saying that all
the founders of modern science at least believed in the Bible
and founded their theories upon it. And so that's what we need
to do in our apologetics is to realize the Bible is the foundation
of everything. So, okay, are there any questions
before we leave? What's the name of that video?
Okay, that is... I have the cover here somewhere. It's a series. That's a series. It's called
the Foundation Series. And we'll be seeing a segment
probably every time I'm not going to show the whole thing because
this is this is the one that is specifically apologetics.
But all of them he deals with aspects of apologetics. So he
has 12 videos and I will probably show a segment of each one of
those that's related to the apologetics issue. But we will we can make
these available. It's called the foundations series. And if anybody has lacking handouts
or notebook covers, come see me. It looks like there's some
up here, but I don't know. Yep. Yeah. Anyway, just. All
righty. OK. You didn't bring your guitar? Thank you for mentioning that.
How about next week? Pastor, is that OK? Yeah, there's
a great song that goes along with this. And so we might start
out next time. One of the workers, co-workers
of Ken Ham, Buddy Davis, sings songs about creation. And they're
very doctrinal. They're very Genesis-based. And so you'll enjoy it. Let me close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You
for this message. We thank You for the Word of
God that we have and the power that is sharper than any two-edged
sword. We thank You, Father, for the
armor that You have provided for us. And we thank You, Father,
for Your assurance that we have the victory in the battle that
we are in and that we are assigned to tearing down strongholds and
that we have all power as Jesus has given us, all power in heaven
and earth. We thank you for the Holy Spirit
who works in us and those who we witness to and give these
answers. Just help us to be ready always
to give an answer. And I pray, Father, that as we
go, that we'll all be able to get the resources that we need
to do that. And we thank you in Jesus' precious
name. Amen. Amen.
Two Worldviews in Conflict
Series Creation Apologetics
| Sermon ID | 7131417101010 |
| Duration | 48:31 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Language | English |
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