Recently I received a number of questions from an Atheist. The first was simply, “What are some of your favorite verses in the Bible and
WHY?”
Here is my response:
This first passage is a favorite
because it tells us that there is a God and we can know this by the created
universe around us.
Romans 1:18-20, “The wrath of God is
being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men
who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God
is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation
of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have
been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are
without excuse.”
These other passages (and I have only
quoted a few of the many) show that the God of the Bible is the one who created
the universe.
Our modern understanding of hydrological
motion, or the hydrological cycle, first came together in the 17th century.
But it is accurately described in the Bible at a number of places. One is at:
Isaiah 55:10. "For as the rain
and snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the
earth and making it bear and sprout and furnish seed to the sower and bread to
the eater, so shall My Word be which goes forth from My mouth. It shall not
return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding
in the matter for which I sent it."
The point of Isaiah is to show that
the Word of God always accomplishes its purposes for which God sends it forth.
The Bible is not a book trying to teach science, however, when it uses a
scientific analogy it is an accurate one. This analogy: as the rain comes down
from heaven and returns there but only after its watered the earth is the
hydrological cycle, and as I pointed out was not understood by man until the 17th
century. However, the God of the Bible knew it from the beginning.
Modern astronomy has essentially told
us that the universe is of infinite size and has an infinite variety of the
physical components that make up the universe, including the stars.
Jeremiah 3:22, "As the host of
heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will
multiply the descendants of David."
Here the Bible says you can't count
the stars, however, before the seventeenth century, Hipparchus said there were
1,022 stars. Ptolemy said there were 1,056 and Kepler said there were 1,055.
Today scientists tell us there are over one-hundred-billion stars in our galaxy
and billions and billions of uncounted galaxies. The God of the Bible taught
this centuries before man knew it.
Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
Here the Bible tells us that mankind was created by an omnipotent God, not by random "natural selection" as Darwinism would have you believe.
DNA, the coded instruction that is in
every cell of every living thing is language, information that scientists can
understand. In other words, the organic world is really an encyclopedia that
contains complex biological information. I read that if all the information in a
single strand of DNA were put into English and then into an encyclopedia it
would fill 1 million pages.
And where does information come from?
Information comes from an intelligent source. Never is it generated by blind
material forces, chance or coincidence. If I were to get up one morning and
find my box of Alpha-Bits Cereal tipped over and some letters had fallen out
which formed the message, HONEY PLEASE TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE, would I be safe in assuming that the letters had fallen out and
randomly formed the message which I can ignore or would it make more sense to
assume that some sort of intelligent life (my wife) had left the message for me
and I better take out the garbage.
Think of the genetic code again.
Scientists have now discovered that the genetic code is digital, it's not
analogous to a digital code, it is a digital code. It is exactly like a digitized
computer code. It is in reality a digital code of
information. Did this information come about randomly or from an incredibly
intelligent source?
Carl Sagan wrote a novel about SETI
(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) called Contact, which was
later made into a movie starring Jodie Foster. In the novel Sagan wrote, "after
years of receiving apparently meaningless 'random' radio signals from
outer space, the Contact researchers discovered a pattern of beats and
pauses that corresponded to the sequence of all the prime numbers from 2 to
101." That got their attention, and they immediately inferred a designing
intelligence. When a sequence begins with two beats, then a pause, three beats,
then a pause ... and continues through each prime number all the way to 101
beats, researchers must infer the presence of an extraterrestrial intelligence.
According to Sagan, beats and pauses
showing the prime numbers from 2 to 101 infers an intelligent source but 1
million pages of genetic code was created by chance.
Exodus
20:1-17, which contains the 10 Commandments—God's moral law. However, the Jews
so codified this law that they could say that they were following (outwardly)
the commandments while inwardly (in their hearts) they were not. That is why
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), told the listening Jews that
the requirements included not only an outward compliance with God’s law but one
needs to have the appropriate heart condition. For example, concerning murder
(Matthew 5:21-26) Jesus said, “do not murder,” but He also said, “anyone who is
angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” He did the same thing with
adultery, divorce, oaths and love for enemies.”
God’s standard was summed up by Jesus
when He said at Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect; therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”
But we cannot be perfect. How are we to
be reconciled to a Holy God having broken most if not all of his commandments?
Which brings me to another great
passage: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry
of reconciliation, that is, that God
was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and
has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were
pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no
sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
Note the number of times reconciled is
used. This passage tells us that through Christ our sins are not counted
against us (Christ died our death on the cross) and even more—Christ's righteousness is imputed to us (therefore when God looked at Christ on the
cross He saw us and when God looks at us He sees Christ.)
V17 “he is a new creation,” brings to
mind John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." When one
is truly born again God will give that person a new heart and put a new spirit
in them; “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes,
and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
"Answers for an Atheist--Part 2" is here.
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