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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them
to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19,20).
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July 2, 2017
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Contents:
1) Questions and Answers on the Existence of God (Tom Edwards)
2) News & Notes
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Questions and Answers on the Existence of God
Tom Edwards
1) "How Do We Know That God Exists?"
We know that God exists because we exist! This doesn't mean
that He exists because we made Him up in our imagination; but,
rather, that our very existence is the proof of His reality. Paul
indicates this in Romans 1:19,20: “...that which is known about God
is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since
the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His ETERNAL
power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without excuse”
(emphasis mine). In other words, since we and everything else
in the physical universe had a beginning, it required not only
something that preexisted everything else (that Great “First
Cause”), but also that which had high intelligence, tremendous
power, and awesome abilities to bring about the creation and all
things therein.
We also know that God exists by what we can infer in the fulfillment
of Old Testament prophecies that were given hundreds of years before
Jesus came to earth and, therefore, prior to the New Testament Age,
yet came to pass with even specific accuracy. God, thus, has that
power to know beyond human ability of things to come — and through
prophecy and its fulfillment, He has proven that!
2) "How Do We Know That Our Creator Wasn’t Also
Created By an Even More Superior Being?"
One might say, however, that “to speak of God as having ‘preexisted’
prior to the creation,” as mentioned earlier, “doesn’t necessarily
mean that He has always been. How do we know that He was not
created by a God even more superior?” The answer to that is
found within the word God has given us. For after acquiring faith
through His word (Rom. 10:17), realizing the reality of His
existence through the creation and the fulfillment of Bible
prophecy, and learning about the goodness of His nature, such as
knowing that He cannot lie (cf. Titus 1:2), we can then very easily
accept by faith the truthfulness of His word, such as in Isaiah
43:10-13, in which He says: "'You are My witnesses,' declares the
LORD, 'And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and
believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no
God formed, And there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the
LORD, And there is no savior besides Me. It is I who have declared
and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So
you are My witnesses,' declares the LORD, 'And I am God. Even
from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out
of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?'" God is also
referred to elsewhere as being "eternal" (Deut. 32:27),
"everlasting” (Isa. 40:28); and, in addition, the idea of His being
“the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 21:6)
figuratively expresses His eternal nature.
In view of the indications of God's reality through the creation and
fulfilled prophecy, perhaps these are a couple reasons why the Bible
declares that “The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'
...” (Psa. 14:1, Psa. 53:1). In other words, God's existence should
be easily accepted by any accountable person -- and certainly much
more reasonable to do so than to believe that everything on earth
and throughout the universe came about without an Intelligent
Designer behind it all.
Recently, I watched a BBC documentary of a baby developing in the
womb. It was interesting to see that in just 18 to 19 days from
conception, the heart began to form and then started functioning at
around the 21 or 22 day. The heart, of course, is necessary in
distributing food and oxygen for the continuation of the baby to
develop and is, therefore, said to be “one of the first recognizable
organs to form.” But while seeing the entirety of this unformed
substance begin to form its own heart, I began to think of how
anyone could actually deny this amazing process as having been made
possible by God. For how would an unintelligible mass know it needs
to first form the heart in order that the rest of the development
can also occur? And that is just the heart! Think, too, of all
the other organs that will also become necessary to sustain life. It
is said that the body is made up of 70 vital organs. The top 10, in
countdown fashion, are the bladder, the skin, the small and large
intestines, the kidneys, the spleen, the stomach, the liver, the
lungs, the heart, and the brain. Each one has its own special
function, and each one has its own design, and each one is made up
of numerous cells. But how did each cell know of which group
of organ cells it was to be a part of and how it was to form with
the others of that group to make possible a particular needed organ,
and where it was to reside in the body? According to
Smithsonian.com, the body is made up of 37.2 trillion cells! But
each one is not merely anywhere in some haphazard fashion throughout
the body; but, rather, where it needs to be with purpose in forming
and performing. We know that all of that was made possible by the
DNA code, but how did that highly complex code come about? Could we
not compare it to a computer program? Modern technology has provided
us with a wide array of programs to use in our computers and other
electronic devices. We see on our screens what they can do. But
within each program or app is the needed line after line of computer
language that gives the instructions that make the program what it
is, how it appears, and how it functions. For example, Windows
10 is said to have about 50 million lines of code, while Facebook
has 61 million, and Google (with all its Internet services) is 2
billion lines of code! But if we thought of each human genome
pair in our DNA as a line of code, it would require 3.3 billion
lines! So just as a lifeless computer program has the need for
an intelligent programmer, the same is similarly true of us -- but
of the need for a Creator who can also give life to that which He
makes!
Yes, we can know that God exists because we exist!
3) "How Do We Know That God STILL Exists, and Is Not
Now Dead?"
Someone might admit that God once existed, created all things, and
set everything up to continue as it does — but could it be that God
now no longer exists?
Fifty-one years ago, on the never-before pictureless cover of Time,
were the three words — in large, red letters on a black background —
that asked the question, “Is God Dead?” It was the cover story
for the April 8, 1966 edition. Even 42 years later, the Los Angeles
Times referred to it as being one of the "10 magazine covers that
shook the world." Do some still ask that question today? “Is
God dead?”
The good news is that God is very much alive and well! He
still exists and will always do so, because He is eternal. For
that which is eternal cannot die. Even Jesus, who was put to death
on the cross, only had His human body (which had a beginning) to
die, while His true essence (His eternal spirit, which has always
been) was still very much alive and in Paradise (cf. Luke 23:43) for
those three days following His death and until His resurrection.
Similarly, Jesus speaks of Himself figuratively as being the Bread
of Life “which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it
and not die” (Jn. 6:50). And that “If anyone keeps My word, he will
never taste of death” (Jn. 8:52). In saying these things, Jesus does
not mean that a person who keeps the Lord's word will never die
physically, but that spiritual death will never come to the one who
does so. His soul will remain spiritually alive unto God —
rather than spiritually dead.
Imagine, for example, that before God could die, one would have to
first go back in a time machine to the “beginning” of God, that time
when He first came into existence. But since God has always existed,
the individual in the time machine would never arrive at the “time”
when God began. God, of course, dwells in eternity and not in
linear time as we do or as indicated in this example. But we are
using a stretch of endless time in both directions, past and future,
to represent eternity and to point out that there will never be an
end to God, any more than you could actually find a “beginning” of
His existence -- since He has always been. And what God, therefore,
has always been, He will also always be. This, too, means that He
never had to acquire or develop good traits or qualities, as we do.
For His virtues have always and perfectly been a part of who and
what He is. When the Psalmist, therefore, declares, “...Even from
everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psa. 90:2), he is not
prophesying that God will still be God at some future time; but,
rather, that God already is filling all eternity as fully God. It is
only because we cannot actually imagine eternity that we think in
terms of the linear time that we do know, with its past, present,
and future. But how wondrously different an eternity in heaven
will truly be!
Isn’t it great to know that this God, the only true and living God
who has always been and always will be, also wants us to enjoy an
eternity with Him in heaven? What an unsurpassed experience
that will be for all those who believe and obey God’s plan of
salvation!
(Unless otherwise indicated, all Scriptures are from the NASB.)
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News & Notes
Misty Thornton had recently been in the hospital and was
diagnosed with a blood clot in her lung, but they are now indicating
it was a false reading. Her blood pressure is also now back to
a better range, so she was released.
The results of the lumbar puncture show that Kelli Fleeman
has no cancer in her spine. So she has no need of inthrathecal
chemo, but will continue with the kind of chemo she has been
receiving.
Other folks, too, who can use prayer:
Shirley Davis, Pat Joyner, Ronald Renfrow, Randy Bartlett, Mary
Lou Prevatt, Cheryl Crews, Misty Thornton, Jim Lively, Mary
Vandevander, Penny Medlock, James Medlock, Cicily Thompson,
Michelle Rittenhouse, Rachael Gerbing, LaDonna Andrews, Buddy
Gornto, Sunny Nichols, Billy Lowe, Gary Cradick, Tom Haney and his
wife.
WordPress version of this week's bulletin:
https://thegospelobserver.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/the-gospel-observer-july-2-2017/
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the gospel, for that is how faith comes (Rom. 10:17;
John 20:30,31).
2) Believe in the deity of Christ (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent of sins (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9,10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water for the remission of sins (Mark
16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4; Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet. 3:21).
6) Continue in the faith, living for the Lord; for, if not,
salvation can be lost (Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
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Tebeau Street
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross, GA 31501
Sunday services: 9:00 a.m. (Bible class); 10 a.m. & 5 p.m.
(worship)
Tuesday: 7 p.m. (Ladies' Bible class)
Wednesday: 7 p.m. (Bible class)
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (912) 614-8593
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
http://thegospelobserver.wordpress.com (Gospel Observer website
with pictures in WordPress)
http://thomastedwards.com/go (Older version of Gospel Observer
website without pictures, but back to March 1990)
http://tebeaustreetchurchofchrist.org/
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/audioser.html (audio sermons)