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Dr. Robert Jeffress | Robert Jeffress - How Can I Know There Is A God? (Part 2) | January 12, 2025
- ♪ music ♪
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- [announcer] from the pulpit
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- Of the first baptist church of dallas, texas,
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- This is "pathway to victory" with dr. robert jeffress.
- 00:00:09.833 --> 00:00:14.037
- Hi, i am robert jeffress
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- And welcome again to "pathway to victory."
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- If you've ever looked up at the night sky full of stars
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- Or gazed at the range of majestic mountains,
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- Then you've probably asked yourself the question,
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- Where did it all come from?
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- Well, we have lots of evidence for the existence of god,
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- And today i'm going to explore the origins of god
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- And the universe as revealed in scripture.
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- We're answering the question,
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- How can i know there is a god?
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- On today's edition of "pathway to victory."
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- ♪ music ♪
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- ♪ death could not hold you ♪
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- ♪ the veil tore before you ♪
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- ♪ you silenced the boast of sin and grave ♪
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- ♪ the heavens are roaring ♪
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- ♪ the praise of your glory ♪
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- ♪ for you are raised to life again ♪
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- ♪ you have no rival, you have no equal ♪
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- ♪ now and forever, god, you reign ♪
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- ♪ yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory ♪
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- ♪ yours is the name above all names ♪
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- ♪ what a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is ♪
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- ♪ the name of jesus christ, my king ♪
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- ♪ what a powerful name it is, nothing can stand against ♪
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- ♪ what a powerful name it is, the name of jesus ♪
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- ♪ you have no rival, you have no equal ♪
- 00:02:25.902 --> 00:02:32.008
- ♪ now and forever, god, you reign ♪
- 00:02:32.809 --> 00:02:38.948
- ♪ yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory ♪
- 00:02:39.882 --> 00:02:46.322
- ♪ yours is the name above all names ♪
- 00:02:47.156 --> 00:02:52.662
- ♪ what a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is ♪
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- ♪ the name of jesus christ, my king ♪
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- ♪ what a powerful name it is, nothing can stand against ♪
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- ♪ what a powerful name it is, the name of jesus ♪
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- ♪ what a powerful name it is, the name of jesus ♪
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- ♪ what a powerful name it is, the name of jesus ♪
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- ♪ there is no other name ♪
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- ♪ but jesus ♪
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- ♪ music ♪
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- (congregation applauding)
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- [announcer] it's okay to have questions about your faith,
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- But you need answers you can trust.
- 00:04:01.030 --> 00:04:02.999
- In his book, "how can i know?"
- 00:04:02.999 --> 00:04:04.901
- Dr. robert jeffress
- 00:04:04.901 --> 00:04:06.369
- Addresses seven of life's most important questions.
- 00:04:06.369 --> 00:04:09.339
- If you've ever wondered how you can know the bible is true
- 00:04:09.339 --> 00:04:12.675
- Or how you can know if you're going to heaven,
- 00:04:12.675 --> 00:04:15.111
- This book makes a compelling case
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- For answers you can embrace with confidence.
- 00:04:16.846 --> 00:04:19.782
- Request your copy of "how can i know?"
- 00:04:19.782 --> 00:04:21.951
- When you give a generous gift
- 00:04:21.951 --> 00:04:23.386
- To support the ministry of "pathway to victory."
- 00:04:23.386 --> 00:04:27.323
- ♪ music ♪
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- Last time we begin a series entitled,
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- "how can i know:
- 00:04:37.900 --> 00:04:39.902
- Answers to life's seven most important questions,"
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- And last time we began looking at four powerful arguments
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- For the existence of god.
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- There's the cosmological evidence, the cosmos.
- 00:04:51.347 --> 00:04:55.418
- It's simply the question, why does anything exist?
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- Why is it when i look around
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- I see something instead of nothing?
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- How do you explain something rather than nothing?
- 00:05:02.825 --> 00:05:07.230
- The second argument we're going to look at today
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- Is the teleological argument.
- 00:05:09.732 --> 00:05:12.935
- How do you explain the complex design of the universe?
- 00:05:12.935 --> 00:05:17.140
- Teleos, it means design.
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- How do you explain the intricate design
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- Of the systems and things that we see in the universe?
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- Author dennis mccallum illustrates it this way.
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- Imagine there are two men on a train
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- And the train is pulling into the station,
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- And one man looks out the window
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- And says, "oh, look over there on the hillside.
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- Look at the message.
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- It says, 'welcome to canada.'
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- Somebody sure went to a lot of trouble
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- To make us feel welcome."
- 00:05:48.638 --> 00:05:50.573
- The second man said, "nobody designed that.
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- That just happened by chance,
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- Those rocks fell down the hill
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- And formed that message by chance."
- 00:05:57.113 --> 00:06:00.750
- That same second man a few moments later
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- Says to the first man,
- 00:06:03.085 --> 00:06:04.454
- "well, i guess we better go into the train station
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- And change our currency from american currency
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- To canadian currency."
- 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:11.994
- The first man says, "why should we do that?"
- 00:06:11.994 --> 00:06:15.131
- The second man says, "didn't you read the sign?
- 00:06:15.131 --> 00:06:17.333
- It says we're in canada."
- 00:06:17.333 --> 00:06:20.002
- Now, dennis mccallum's point is,
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- You can't have your philosophical cake and eat it too.
- 00:06:22.104 --> 00:06:26.175
- You can't say everything is random that happens.
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- We're here by chance, not by design.
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- You can't say that and at the same time say,
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- When you're trying to offer an alternate explanation
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- That there's certain laws of science
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- That can be repeated over and over again
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- And there's order in the universe.
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- You can't have one and the second observation
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- At the same time.
- 00:06:52.468 --> 00:06:54.337
- Where exactly do we find this evidence of design
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- In the universe?
- 00:06:57.740 --> 00:06:58.841
- Well, look at the universe itself.
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- You know, the big bang theory basically says
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- All of the universe was compacted
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- Into a massive matter that exploded,
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- And yet, if that massive matter
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- That included the entire universe,
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- If that mass were changed by no more
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- Than what would be one grain of table salt,
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- The big bang theory would've never happened.
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- If there had been one tiny variation
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- In the amount of matter,
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- Either the big bang wouldn't have happened at all,
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- Or the universe would've begun to expand so rapidly
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- There would be nothing.
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- The universe, the massive matter, look at the earth itself.
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- The universe has uniquely designed planet earth
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- To be a place that allows for life,
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- Even though the universe as a whole
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- Seems to be hostile to the existence of life.
- 00:07:53.563 --> 00:07:56.999
- William dembski writes,
- 00:07:56.999 --> 00:07:58.834
- "imagine you discover an abandoned cabin in the mountains.
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- As you approach the cabin, you notice something strange.
- 00:08:03.806 --> 00:08:07.443
- Your favorite meal is cooking in the oven.
- 00:08:07.443 --> 00:08:10.379
- The television is turned on to your favorite tv show,
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- And all of your favorite books, dvds,
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- And video games are lying on the table.
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- What would you conclude?
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- The best explanation would clearly be
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- That somebody was expecting your arrival.
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- Scientists have recently learned
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- That the universe is much like this cabin.
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- It's crafted uniquely for us."
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- Scientists estimate there are over 100 constants,
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- 100 conditions that have been woven together
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- To form a scientific welcome mat to you and me
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- As residents of planet earth.
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- A third evidence of design is found in the cell itself.
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- How did life begin?
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- Well, charles darwin postulated
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- That life came about when the first unicellular organism
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- Crawled out of a primordial biotic soup.
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- It happened just by accident
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- That this one cell came into being.
- 00:09:17.413 --> 00:09:20.549
- Yet darwin himself said, quote,
- 00:09:20.549 --> 00:09:24.053
- "if it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed,
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- Which could not possibly be formed
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- By numerous successive slight modifications,
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- My theory would absolutely break down."
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- Darwin didn't know when he wrote those words
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- That he was signing the death certificate
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- For the theory of evolution
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- And his own theory of the origin of life.
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- Sir frederick hoyle was the founding director
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- Of the institute of theoretical astronomy
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- At cambridge university.
- 00:09:57.687 --> 00:09:59.455
- He said, quote, "the likelihood of the formation of life
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- From inanimate matter
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- Is one to a number with 40,000 zeroes behind it.
- 00:10:06.328 --> 00:10:11.667
- It is a number big enough to bury darwin
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- And the whole theory of evolution.
- 00:10:15.938 --> 00:10:18.407
- If the beginnings of life were not random,
- 00:10:18.407 --> 00:10:21.410
- They must therefore have been the product
- 00:10:21.410 --> 00:10:23.713
- Of purposeful intelligence."
- 00:10:23.713 --> 00:10:27.149
- Now, the cell is complex enough,
- 00:10:27.149 --> 00:10:30.086
- But consider the complexity, the design of the human body.
- 00:10:30.086 --> 00:10:35.024
- Our bodies are more than a single cell.
- 00:10:35.024 --> 00:10:39.195
- There are billions of cells that form thousands
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- Of different systems and organs in the human body.
- 00:10:42.865 --> 00:10:46.669
- How does the atheist explain that?
- 00:10:46.669 --> 00:10:49.472
- How does the atheist explain the complexity of the universe
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- And the mathematical hurdles
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- Involved in a chance explanation?
- 00:10:56.145 --> 00:10:59.415
- You know what he resorts to?
- 00:10:59.415 --> 00:11:01.217
- He resorts to something called the multiple universe theory,
- 00:11:01.217 --> 00:11:05.154
- Which imagines that our universe is just one
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- Of an infinite number of universes.
- 00:11:07.890 --> 00:11:11.627
- It's a foolish explanation.
- 00:11:11.627 --> 00:11:14.463
- First of all, there is no evidence
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- That there are multiple universes in existence,
- 00:11:17.199 --> 00:11:21.237
- And secondly, even if you allow
- 00:11:21.237 --> 00:11:23.405
- For that fanciful explanation,
- 00:11:23.405 --> 00:11:25.808
- It basically means there's no explanation
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- For anything that we see.
- 00:11:28.244 --> 00:11:30.312
- There's no reason that water freezes at 32 degrees.
- 00:11:30.312 --> 00:11:34.116
- There's no explanation for why the earth
- 00:11:34.116 --> 00:11:36.418
- Revolves around the sun,
- 00:11:36.418 --> 00:11:38.120
- Or why summer follows the springtime.
- 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:41.624
- The late norman geisler
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- Wrote about the multiple universe theory this,
- 00:11:42.925 --> 00:11:46.228
- He said, "the multiple universe theory
- 00:11:46.228 --> 00:11:48.264
- Is simply a desperate attempt
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- To avoid the implications of design.
- 00:11:51.133 --> 00:11:55.304
- It doesn't multiply chances, it multiplies absurdities."
- 00:11:55.304 --> 00:12:00.342
- Psalm 14:1, "the fool has said in his heart,
- 00:12:01.277 --> 00:12:05.848
- 'there is no god.'"
- 00:12:05.848 --> 00:12:08.050
- That word fool is the word we get moron from.
- 00:12:08.050 --> 00:12:12.488
- You have to be a moron
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- To believe all of this happened just by chance.
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- That's the teleological arguments
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- For the existence of the universe.
- 00:12:21.864 --> 00:12:24.767
- Thirdly, the third piece of evidence,
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- The anthropological evidence.
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- Anthropos meaning man,
- 00:12:30.105 --> 00:12:31.607
- How do you explain the existence of man
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- If you don't believe in god?
- 00:12:35.511 --> 00:12:37.313
- Think about, for example, our existence,
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- Our mere existence.
- 00:12:41.617 --> 00:12:44.086
- Think about not only our existence,
- 00:12:44.086 --> 00:12:46.388
- But a human's consciousness.
- 00:12:46.388 --> 00:12:49.191
- What is it that gives us an awareness,
- 00:12:49.191 --> 00:12:53.596
- First of all of ourselves?
- 00:12:53.596 --> 00:12:55.764
- I love this, allen sandage asked the question,
- 00:12:55.764 --> 00:12:59.368
- "how is it that inanimate matter, non-living matter,
- 00:12:59.368 --> 00:13:04.640
- How is it that inanimate matter organized itself
- 00:13:05.574 --> 00:13:09.144
- To contemplate itself?"
- 00:13:09.144 --> 00:13:11.680
- I mean, why are we aware of our own existence?
- 00:13:11.680 --> 00:13:16.218
- There's no explanation for that,
- 00:13:16.218 --> 00:13:18.287
- Or think about our awareness of god.
- 00:13:18.287 --> 00:13:21.257
- Where does that come from?
- 00:13:21.257 --> 00:13:23.058
- Now we say, "well, the evolutionist would say
- 00:13:23.058 --> 00:13:25.961
- We are wired to believe in god,"
- 00:13:25.961 --> 00:13:28.464
- And we would agree with that.
- 00:13:28.464 --> 00:13:30.399
- We believe god has placed on our hearts an awareness of him.
- 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:34.837
- Some people tune that out,
- 00:13:34.837 --> 00:13:36.906
- But it's there, an awareness of god,
- 00:13:36.906 --> 00:13:39.875
- But to say we are spiritually
- 00:13:39.875 --> 00:13:42.711
- Or biologically wired to believe in god,
- 00:13:42.711 --> 00:13:45.981
- For the atheist to claim that
- 00:13:45.981 --> 00:13:48.183
- Is to absolutely refute his own theory of evolution.
- 00:13:48.183 --> 00:13:51.387
- You see, part of the theory of evolution
- 00:13:51.387 --> 00:13:53.689
- Is the survival of the fittest.
- 00:13:53.689 --> 00:13:55.958
- That we are wired in such a way
- 00:13:55.958 --> 00:13:58.160
- Only to do what is in our best self-interest,
- 00:13:58.160 --> 00:14:02.197
- And while it's true, a belief in god
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- Has some benefits to our wellbeing,
- 00:14:04.266 --> 00:14:07.670
- It also has some downsides to it.
- 00:14:07.670 --> 00:14:10.372
- Think about giving your money,
- 00:14:10.372 --> 00:14:12.207
- That's not operating in your best interest,
- 00:14:12.207 --> 00:14:14.944
- Or giving your time to come and worship god,
- 00:14:14.944 --> 00:14:17.212
- That's not in your best interest.
- 00:14:17.212 --> 00:14:19.148
- Think about the martyrs who were tortured and beheaded
- 00:14:19.148 --> 00:14:22.418
- And murdered in any number of gruesome ways.
- 00:14:22.418 --> 00:14:25.454
- Their belief in god didn't lead
- 00:14:25.454 --> 00:14:27.256
- To their immediate self-interest.
- 00:14:27.256 --> 00:14:30.059
- The fact is there's no explanation for that.
- 00:14:30.059 --> 00:14:33.429
- C.s. lewis famously argued that our desire for god
- 00:14:33.429 --> 00:14:38.767
- Is one of the most convincing arguments
- 00:14:39.601 --> 00:14:41.070
- For the existence of god.
- 00:14:41.070 --> 00:14:43.839
- He wrote it and explained it this way.
- 00:14:43.839 --> 00:14:46.141
- "creatures are not born with desires
- 00:14:46.141 --> 00:14:49.178
- Unless the satisfaction of those desires exist.
- 00:14:49.178 --> 00:14:53.482
- A baby feels hunger.
- 00:14:53.482 --> 00:14:55.150
- Well, there's such a thing as food.
- 00:14:55.150 --> 00:14:57.386
- A duckling wants to swim.
- 00:14:57.386 --> 00:14:59.154
- Well, there's such a thing as water.
- 00:14:59.154 --> 00:15:01.256
- People feel sexual desire,
- 00:15:01.256 --> 00:15:03.225
- Well, there's such a thing as sex.
- 00:15:03.225 --> 00:15:05.928
- If i find in myself a desire
- 00:15:05.928 --> 00:15:09.865
- Which no experience in this world can satisfy,
- 00:15:09.865 --> 00:15:14.136
- The most probable explanation
- 00:15:14.136 --> 00:15:16.739
- Is that i was made for another world."
- 00:15:16.739 --> 00:15:21.243
- Where's our consciousness of morality?
- 00:15:22.077 --> 00:15:24.279
- Where does that come from?
- 00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:25.748
- How do you explain that if we're not designed by god?
- 00:15:25.748 --> 00:15:29.952
- Well, people say, "well, we're biologically wired
- 00:15:29.952 --> 00:15:34.790
- To know the difference between right and wrong."
- 00:15:34.790 --> 00:15:38.460
- If it's just a case of biology,
- 00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:42.765
- Then why do we call anything evil?
- 00:15:42.765 --> 00:15:46.101
- Why do we call abusing a child evil?
- 00:15:46.101 --> 00:15:49.705
- Why don't we call it orange or purple?
- 00:15:49.705 --> 00:15:53.308
- Why do we call it evil?
- 00:15:53.308 --> 00:15:55.611
- How do we have a sense of right and wrong?
- 00:15:56.512 --> 00:15:58.947
- The evolutionist says, "well, if it's not just a case
- 00:15:58.947 --> 00:16:01.450
- Of biological wiring,
- 00:16:01.450 --> 00:16:03.218
- Every community has to decide for itself
- 00:16:03.218 --> 00:16:06.088
- What's right and what's wrong.
- 00:16:06.088 --> 00:16:08.390
- Cultures develop their own standard
- 00:16:08.390 --> 00:16:11.360
- Of what's right and what's wrong.
- 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:13.729
- That's how we determine evil and good."
- 00:16:13.729 --> 00:16:16.965
- But can you really trust culture to tell you
- 00:16:16.965 --> 00:16:19.468
- What is right and wrong?
- 00:16:19.468 --> 00:16:21.737
- Can culture tell us what is evil and what is good?
- 00:16:21.737 --> 00:16:25.808
- God has stamped on our hearts the awareness,
- 00:16:25.808 --> 00:16:28.844
- The consciousness of good and evil.
- 00:16:28.844 --> 00:16:32.815
- And that leads to a fourth evidence,
- 00:16:32.815 --> 00:16:35.851
- A fourth argument for the existence of god,
- 00:16:35.851 --> 00:16:38.954
- And that's the experiential evidence.
- 00:16:38.954 --> 00:16:41.957
- Why do people find god if he doesn't exist?
- 00:16:41.957 --> 00:16:47.196
- Isn't that interesting?
- 00:16:47.696 --> 00:16:49.064
- Why do people keep finding god if he doesn't exist?
- 00:16:49.064 --> 00:16:53.602
- Think about the 11 remaining apostles after christ died
- 00:16:54.703 --> 00:16:58.507
- And the 500 witnesses, all of whom said they found,
- 00:16:59.508 --> 00:17:03.412
- They saw, they experienced the resurrected christ.
- 00:17:03.412 --> 00:17:07.483
- Now, the cynic would say, "well, they were looking for
- 00:17:07.483 --> 00:17:10.018
- And that's just the case of wish fulfillment,"
- 00:17:10.018 --> 00:17:14.022
- But the fact is they weren't looking for the risen christ.
- 00:17:14.022 --> 00:17:17.493
- They didn't expect to see him.
- 00:17:17.493 --> 00:17:19.728
- In fact, they had written him off.
- 00:17:19.728 --> 00:17:21.230
- They thought the crucifixion on good friday
- 00:17:21.230 --> 00:17:23.932
- Ended all of that.
- 00:17:23.932 --> 00:17:25.167
- If they had been expecting a resurrection,
- 00:17:25.167 --> 00:17:27.002
- They would've been camped out at the tomb saturday night
- 00:17:27.002 --> 00:17:30.105
- Waiting for the big day, but they weren't.
- 00:17:30.105 --> 00:17:33.509
- And yet, the 11 apostles saw the resurrected christ.
- 00:17:33.509 --> 00:17:38.113
- 500 witnesses saw the resurrected christ
- 00:17:38.113 --> 00:17:41.350
- Even though they weren't looking for him,
- 00:17:41.350 --> 00:17:43.285
- And by the way, it wasn't confined to them,
- 00:17:43.285 --> 00:17:46.221
- Other people throughout history have found god
- 00:17:46.221 --> 00:17:49.892
- Not because they were running toward him,
- 00:17:49.892 --> 00:17:52.161
- But because they were running away from him.
- 00:17:52.161 --> 00:17:55.130
- Think about c.s. lewis.
- 00:17:55.130 --> 00:17:56.732
- Even though he grew up in a religious home,
- 00:17:56.732 --> 00:17:59.034
- He rejected christianity largely because it offered,
- 00:17:59.034 --> 00:18:02.804
- He thought, no explanation for the existence of evil,
- 00:18:02.804 --> 00:18:06.675
- And yet by the time he entered oxford university in 1917,
- 00:18:06.675 --> 00:18:11.146
- He was a full-fledged agnostic.
- 00:18:11.146 --> 00:18:14.116
- But it was during that time that he became friends
- 00:18:14.116 --> 00:18:16.652
- With j. r. r. tolkien and owen barfield.
- 00:18:16.652 --> 00:18:19.988
- It was during that time
- 00:18:19.988 --> 00:18:21.323
- That lewis finally abandoned his agnosticism
- 00:18:21.323 --> 00:18:25.160
- And surrendered on his knees to the belief
- 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:27.829
- That god is god.
- 00:18:27.829 --> 00:18:30.799
- He later said he was the most reluctant convert
- 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:34.670
- In all of england.
- 00:18:34.670 --> 00:18:36.838
- In more recent times,
- 00:18:36.838 --> 00:18:38.941
- Agnostic a. n. wilson shook the entire world
- 00:18:38.941 --> 00:18:42.844
- When he announced to the world on palm sunday 2009,
- 00:18:42.844 --> 00:18:46.748
- That he was renouncing his atheism
- 00:18:46.748 --> 00:18:49.218
- And returning to historic christianity
- 00:18:49.218 --> 00:18:52.454
- In a letter he pinned to the newspaper
- 00:18:52.454 --> 00:18:54.556
- On the saturday before easter 2009,
- 00:18:54.556 --> 00:18:57.926
- And i remember reading this letter to you all,
- 00:18:57.926 --> 00:19:00.262
- A. n. wilson wrote, "my own return to faith
- 00:19:00.262 --> 00:19:04.032
- Has surprised no one more than myself.
- 00:19:04.032 --> 00:19:07.302
- My belief has come about in large measure
- 00:19:07.302 --> 00:19:10.305
- Because of the lives and examples of people i have known,
- 00:19:10.305 --> 00:19:14.309
- Not the famous, not saints,
- 00:19:14.309 --> 00:19:17.212
- But friends in relations who have lived and faced death
- 00:19:17.212 --> 00:19:20.983
- In light of the resurrection story
- 00:19:20.983 --> 00:19:23.652
- Or in the quiet acceptance
- 00:19:23.652 --> 00:19:25.287
- That they have a future after they die.
- 00:19:25.287 --> 00:19:28.490
- The easter story answers their questions
- 00:19:28.490 --> 00:19:31.126
- About spiritual aspects of humanity.
- 00:19:31.126 --> 00:19:34.696
- It changes people's lives
- 00:19:34.696 --> 00:19:36.732
- Because it helps us understand that we, like jesus,
- 00:19:36.732 --> 00:19:40.602
- Are born as spiritual beings."
- 00:19:40.602 --> 00:19:45.073
- This experiential argument, let me say it again,
- 00:19:45.073 --> 00:19:48.110
- Isn't limited to any one geographical region,
- 00:19:48.110 --> 00:19:52.314
- Any one time period in history, to any particular race,
- 00:19:52.314 --> 00:19:57.019
- The christian message is transcendent.
- 00:19:57.019 --> 00:19:59.588
- People everywhere, in every circumstance,
- 00:19:59.588 --> 00:20:02.557
- Have found that god, even when they weren't looking for him.
- 00:20:02.557 --> 00:20:06.862
- Evolution has no answer for that.
- 00:20:06.862 --> 00:20:09.331
- Why do so many people find god if he doesn't exist?
- 00:20:09.331 --> 00:20:14.069
- And so that brings us down to the question,
- 00:20:14.069 --> 00:20:16.872
- Where does the evidence lead us?
- 00:20:16.872 --> 00:20:19.808
- Remember, we can't prove there is a god.
- 00:20:19.808 --> 00:20:22.177
- The atheist can't prove there isn't a god,
- 00:20:22.177 --> 00:20:24.880
- But the question is, where does the evidence lead?
- 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:28.750
- Does the evidence, the very best evidence,
- 00:20:28.750 --> 00:20:31.486
- Argue for or against the existence of god?
- 00:20:31.486 --> 00:20:35.123
- You know, every day we are forced
- 00:20:35.123 --> 00:20:37.993
- To make decisions based on the best evidence available.
- 00:20:37.993 --> 00:20:43.965
- For example, let's just say
- 00:20:44.566 --> 00:20:46.268
- That you prefer sweetened iced tea
- 00:20:46.268 --> 00:20:49.705
- And somebody sits in front of you two glasses of iced tea
- 00:20:49.705 --> 00:20:53.008
- And they said, "now i put a sweetener in one of them,
- 00:20:53.008 --> 00:20:55.577
- But i can't remember which one."
- 00:20:55.577 --> 00:20:58.013
- Your chances of picking the sweetened tea would be 50/50,
- 00:20:58.013 --> 00:21:03.352
- But even if you picked the wrong glass of tea,
- 00:21:04.252 --> 00:21:06.555
- It wouldn't be that big of a deal
- 00:21:06.555 --> 00:21:08.290
- If you had to drink unsweetened tea.
- 00:21:08.290 --> 00:21:10.959
- But just suppose your host said to you,
- 00:21:10.959 --> 00:21:13.829
- "here are two glasses of tea,
- 00:21:13.829 --> 00:21:15.430
- I accidentally dropped a cyanide tablet into one of them."
- 00:21:15.430 --> 00:21:20.402
- How much evidence would you require
- 00:21:21.203 --> 00:21:24.106
- Before you felt confident enough
- 00:21:24.106 --> 00:21:26.908
- To take one of those glasses?
- 00:21:26.908 --> 00:21:29.478
- Now listen to this.
- 00:21:29.478 --> 00:21:30.812
- The legal scholar, mortimer adler, concluded,
- 00:21:30.812 --> 00:21:33.949
- "more consequences for life in action
- 00:21:33.949 --> 00:21:37.719
- Follow from the affirmation or denial of god
- 00:21:37.719 --> 00:21:41.790
- Than from any other question."
- 00:21:41.790 --> 00:21:44.393
- Ladies and gentlemen,
- 00:21:44.393 --> 00:21:45.627
- This is the bottom line question,
- 00:21:45.627 --> 00:21:49.030
- Does god exist?
- 00:21:49.398 --> 00:21:51.867
- Where does the evidence lead you?
- 00:21:52.601 --> 00:21:55.036
- What decision are you going to make?
- 00:21:55.036 --> 00:21:58.306
- To ignore the evidence that we've looked at today
- 00:21:59.307 --> 00:22:01.943
- For the existence of god is to, like one person said,
- 00:22:01.943 --> 00:22:06.615
- "slide into eternity with your fingers crossed
- 00:22:06.615 --> 00:22:11.887
- Hoping you're right."
- 00:22:12.387 --> 00:22:15.223
- What sane person would ever make that choice?
- 00:22:16.158 --> 00:22:21.596
- "the fool has said in his heart, 'there is no god.'"
- 00:22:22.664 --> 00:22:27.235
- ♪ music ♪
- 00:22:27.569 --> 00:22:31.273
- If you haven't already, it's time to make that choice.
- 00:22:32.374 --> 00:22:36.077
- Is there a god or isn't there?
- 00:22:36.077 --> 00:22:38.814
- The evidence is strong and the stakes are high.
- 00:22:38.814 --> 00:22:42.350
- You can't sit on the fence forever.
- 00:22:42.350 --> 00:22:45.520
- Well, before we wrap up today,
- 00:22:45.520 --> 00:22:47.255
- Let me say a quick word of thanks
- 00:22:47.255 --> 00:22:48.890
- To those of you who give and make this program possible.
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- Your investment is truly making a difference
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- Questions like, how can i know the bible is true?
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- We can't prove the existence of god,
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- But when you add up all the evidence, the cosmological,
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- The teleological, the anthropological,
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- And the experiential,
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- Well, in recent decades, i've become increasingly aware
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- Of an alarming fact.
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- Both christians and non-christians,
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- Are embracing the idea
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- That all religions are equally valid.
- 00:25:31.086 --> 00:25:34.122
- So, is christianity really the only right religion
- 00:25:34.122 --> 00:25:38.460
- Or are there multiple paths to god?
- 00:25:38.460 --> 00:25:41.429
- Stay tuned for a preview
- 00:25:41.429 --> 00:25:42.998
- Of what's coming up next in our series, "how can i know?"
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- Only christianity is spelled d-o-n-e.
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- Done.
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- Everything we need has been done by jesus christ.
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- That's why he said "tetelestai" on the cross.
- 00:26:01.016 --> 00:26:02.317
- "it is finished."
- 00:26:02.317 --> 00:26:04.886
- Paid in full,
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- And perhaps that's worth applauding for.
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- [announcer] set your dvr
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