18 Jan Free Miracle #1: Something Came from Nothing – Part 1 of 3
Blog Series
Why Believe in God? ~ If You Reject God, You’ve Only Done Half the Job.
The focus on this blog series is that if you reject God, you have only done half the job. The other half of the job is that you must explain reality without God, which is impossible if you think things out to all four corners.
Therefore, those who reject God must either:
- Short-circuit their thinking, and not take their presuppositions to their logical conclusions, or
- Begin with an anti-supernatural presupposition and declare that they will not believe in God, no matter how compelling the evidence might otherwise be.
The second alternative is what modern science has chosen. We saw last week however that, in attempting to explain reality without God, first modern science asks us for five free miracles and then they will explain the rest.
The five free miracles modern science wants are:
- Something came from nothing.
- Order came from chaos.
- Life came from non-life.
- Consciousness came from non-consciousness.
- Transcendence came from consciousness.
Free Miracle #1. Something came from nothing.
Now, let’s look more closely at the first free miracle they want, something came from nothing.
The ultimate philosophical question is: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Any credible worldview must give a satisfactory answer to that question.
To answer that question, there are certain laws we use to govern our thinking. Without these laws, we cannot know anything. One of these laws is that every effect must have an adequate cause. If you read that a building exploded, no one would believe that it was because a single firecracker went off. A firecracker is not an adequate cause to explain the fact that a building exploded.
So, what is the “cause” that best explains the “effect” of the universe that we see around us. The options are limited:
- The universe is eternal.
- Something came from nothing.
- God created it.
The Universe is eternal: Taking those alternatives in order, no one believes anymore that the universe is eternal. The stars are great balls of fire hanging in the heavens. Like an overnight campfire, when the fuel is burned up, the fire goes out. If nothing changed, all the stars in the universe would eventually burn out. The universe as we see it cannot be eternal.
Plus, science has now accepted the Big Bang Theory, that the universe had a beginning 13 billion years ago, so we can scratch the universe being eternal off the list.
Something came from nothing: This is unreasonable. Illogical. If there is nothing, then there is nothing. Anywhere. And something cannot come from it. So, we can scratch that option off the list as a credible answer to the question of “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
God created it: However, modern science refuses to believe in God, so – now what are they to do? They’re out of options. Since they no longer believe that the universe is eternal (that’s what Einstein believed), and since they don’t really believe that something came from nothing, how do they answer the question of “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
They have chosen not to actually answer the question and hope no one notices.
They have chosen to assume the first free “God-less” miracle that something actually did come from nothing. And because the public subconsciously accepts their miraculous starting point, they get away with it.
We are not going to give them that free miracle
But we are not prepared to give them that free miracle. We insist that modern science consider the three options; matter is eternal, something came from nothing, or God created the universe. If they cannot credibly believe that the universe is eternal, and if they cannot believe with intellectual integrity that something came from nothing, they must deal with the reality that God created it.
Christians find that easy to accept, of course. But after we have accepted the reality that God created the universe, that does not mean that there are no further challenges to the Christian faith. There are. There are many things that are difficult to understand, explain or accept.
But if we accept that the God of the Bible is the only explanation for why there is something rather than nothing, then we understand that we cannot decide to reject Him when confronted with the very difficult challenges to the Christian faith. We have no other credible explanation for reality… no other explanation for “what is.” So we must make peace with the existence of God, use His existence as the starting point, and figure everything else from that point.
As a result, when we hit rough spots in life, our only hope is to continue to move forward, toward God, and not reject Him because of the problem. That is not an option, because if we were to do so, we would forfeit the only explanation for reality.
A cynic may decide that God is evil or capricious but he cannot decide that there is no God. That is not intellectually complete. That is failing to think through our assumptions to their logical conclusion. People who have rejected God have only done half the job!
The better option is trusting that He will ultimately lead us through our confusion and doubt into truth and confidence, rather than moving away from God into greater confusion and hopelessness.
Conclusion
While it may not actually be true, the story is often told of Cortez, a Spanish conquistador in 1546, who, after landing his military force on the Mexican coast, burned his ships. The reason was to force his soldiers to accept that there was no possibility of going back. Their only hope was to move forward to achieve the purpose of their mission. It was do or die.
The same is true with life. We cannot reject the God of the Bible when the going gets tough. To do so is to unhinge from reality. Our only hope is to press on toward God through the confusion. And when we do, the promise of Scripture is that, on the other side of confusion and doubt, we can find truth and confidence. As Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
If we don’t let modern science off the hook with how the universe came into existence, if we don’t give them a free miracle that “something came from nothing”, but come to the conclusion that “God created it”, that generates yet another question: Which god? Join me next week as we look at the possible answers to that question.
In case you’re new here
This blog post is part of a series titled “Why Believe in God? If You Reject God, You’ve Only Done Half the Job.”, introduced on January 5, 2022. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives at www.maxanders.com.
If you know anyone who you think might enjoy joining us in this study, please forward this blog to them and encourage them to go to my web site (www.maxanders.com) and sign up for the free video, “Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You”, available there on the home page. This will put them on my regular mailing list and they’ll receive my weekly blogs on this subject.
I look forward to going through this faith-affirming journey with you.
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