Reason = a basis or cause, as for some belief, action, or fact.
Faith = confidence or trust in a person or thing.
Evidence = that which tends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief.
Our challenge today is to follow the evidence!
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Evidence Based Upon Modern Scientific Inquiry Proves It Is Reasonable to Believe That…
- There is a primary ‘First Cause’ for the origin of space, time, and matter, a ‘Lawgiver’ of the laws observed throughout nature.
Genesis 1:1, 3 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
- It is not reasonable to believe that nothing created everything or that the laws related to nature and cosmology are illusionary.
- The Law of Biogenesis cannot be violated, and life is the direct result of an ultimate Life-Giver.
Genesis 1:27 “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
- It is not reasonable to believe that life comes from non-life through time, chance, and unknown random processes.
* A Biblical worldview is built upon a reasonable faith.
- The design, order, and complexity observed throughout creation is not accidental or illusionary, thus pointing to a Designer of creation (cf. John 1:1-4).
- It is not reasonable to believe that mankind has been merely ‘tricked’ into perceiving design and complexity observed in nature.
- DNA, an immensely coded genetic blueprint of information, reveals the supernatural intelligence of a masterful Creator (see Colossians 1:16; Nehemiah 9:6).
- It is not reasonable to believe that this, too, is only a contrived misperception of man’s wishful thinking or confirmation bias.
- Random mutations have no possibility of providing the mechanism for creatures to change (i.e., transition) into something totally new in kind.
- It is not reasonable to believe that mutations can bring forth any necessary new genetic information required for traversing of species.
- The precise fine-tuning laws of the universe, allowing for the existence of life itself, is insurmountable proof of a Creator who is behind it all.
- It is not reasonable to believe we just somehow got ‘lucky’ or to proposed unprovable and untestable ‘theoretical concepts’ (e.g., the multiverse theory) that actually do not relate to the fine-tuning laws at all.
Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Evidence Based Upon Moral and Ethical Reasoning Proves It Is Reasonable to Believe That…
- Humanity possesses authentic purpose and meaning…
- It is not reasonable to believe that life is purely a series of accidental and ultimately meaningless coincidences of ‘nature’ (cf. Hebrews 11:3).
- Objective moral values and duties do exist… (cf. Romans 1:20)…
- It is not reasonable to believe that such truth claims are situational or a reflection of merely contemporary cultural mores.
- The universal human sense of spiritual reality is not just superstition of the ignorant…
- It is not reasonable to believe that spiritual life experienced throughout recorded human history can be explained via naturalistic philosophy and materialism (Psalm 33:6; 104:24).
- There are objective moral differences between evil actions and good behaviors…
- It is not reasonable to believe that evil and non-evil are ultimately morally non-distinct (Isaiah 5:20; Romans 3:23).
- Man’s logic and reasoning capacities are not the result of purely naturalistic processes developing over time… (Psalm 144:3; Genesis 2:7)…
- It is not reasonable to believe that biochemical or random forces of nature would produce human consciousness, self-awareness, ethics, esthetics, or rational thought in humankind.
Summary: Following the evidence will lead to a reasonable faith and the God who is there!
Check out the School of Bible Prophecy that equips believers to know and teach this subject in their own churches and Bible study groups @ PerspectiveInProphecy.com.