Bible Study

God & Science
The antagonist asserts, “God is a myth.”

  • Everything that begins to exist must have a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, universe must have a cause.
    1. Causality proves God. Every effect must have an equal or greater cause. Follow the effects to its logical origin.
  • The fine-tuning of the universe is due to necessity, chance, or design. Fine-tuning is not due to necessity or chance. Therefore, fine-tuning is due to design.
    1. If the universe is fine-tuned to allow life that can observe it, then the universe is fine-tuned for this purpose.
    2. The most brilliant scientist, Isaac Newton, observed that an intelligent Agent started the nature’s order (Opticks). Add Pasteur, von Braun, etc.
  • What is more complex than design is most probably designed. Biology is more complex than human design. Therefore, biology is most probably designed.
    1. Design in nature & moral conscience proves God (Ro 1:20–21; 2:13–16).
    2. Every code has a creator. DNA is the genetic code found in most cells of every life form.
    3. Molecular nanomachines show the complex design within cells, which the intelligent Creator must have designed.
  • Science is observed. Abiogenesis & the evolution of genera are unobserved.
    1. Diodorus Siculus recorded the ancient myth of evolution that life emerged & evolved into animals, & then bestial men, hunted, gathered, discovered fire, & invented language via grunts.
    2. If the cause of the expansion of the universe existed before natural laws, then the cause must be supernatural by definition.
  • Secularists exclude preexisting isotopes from radiometric dating & they ignore that the Creator created a mature universe. God created trees not seeds; man and not babies.
    1. Secularists assert the evolution of genera because of fossils in layers of earth laid down by water.
  • If there was a worldwide flood, people would find fossils buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.
    1. The Bible records scientific insight including thermodynamics (He 1:10–11), cosmology (Is 40:22), sea currents (Ps 8:8), biogenesis (Ge 1), lifeblood (Le 17:11), diagnosis (Le 13), & antibacterial soap (Nu 19).

The Reality of Christ
The mythicist asserts, “Jesus is a myth.”

  • First-century communities delivered the four Gospels as eyewitness testimonies of Jesus Christ.
    1. The church exists & began in the 1st c. because various people experienced appearances of Jesus risen from the dead.
    2. Critical scholars affirm that the Gospel of Jesus’s death, burial, & resurrection is an ancient creed dating to Jesus’s death (1 Co 15:1–11; Ga 1:11–2:10).
    3. Opponents like Paul and James converted because of witnessing Jesus bodily risen from the dead (1 Co 15:5–11).
    4. Hostile sources attest that Jesus predicted His resurrection on the 3rd day & that guards sealed and protected the tomb that everyone found empty (Mt 28:11–15).
    5. The eyewitness testimonies of the Gospels agree with the Scriptures that predicted the Messiah & His resurrection (Ps 16:10; 22; Is 53; Ac 2:14–26).
    6. By character judgment, people believe the Bible, because they find that Jesus & His Apostles are honest, genuine, & sincere (Jn 7:17).
  • Critical scholarship affirms that Jesus predicted the Temple’s destruction in AD 70 (Mk 13; Lk 21).
  • Jesus Christ testified to the Genesis account of the Creation of the universe (Mt 19:4–9; Mk 10:5–9).

Moral Absolutes
The antagonist perceives, “Morality is subjective.”

  • Humanity has a universal sense of fairness and justice. The Bible affirmed such innate morality (Rm 2:14–15).
  • If God does not exist, then objective morality does not exist. However, objective morality does exist. Therefore, God exists.
  • Virtue requires a personality to possess them. Moral virtues are objective, constant, and eternal. Therefore, an eternal person must consist of virtue.
  • If God does not exist, then love is not objectively moral. However, love is objectively moral. Therefore, God exists.
  • If there is no Creator, then there are no inalienable rights. There are inalienable rights. Therefore, there is a Creator.
  • Secularists accept subjective morality that allows the morally corrupt to invent their own morality.

Evil & Suffering
The antagonist expresses, “A just God would not allow suffering and evil in the world.”

  • Why does God allow evil?
    1. God allows evil for the complete & ultimate defeat of evil. God allows evil for the great acts of good such as compassion, mercy, & forgiveness. God allows evil as the only option for free will to exist.
  • God made this world good, but man has sinned & caused this world to go wrong.
    1. The Bible teaches that suffering and death are in the world because of humankind’s sins (Ge 3; Ro 5:12; 8:20–22; Ep 2:3).
    2. God allows evil to exist for the greater good of love & free will. God is all-powerful & thus can & will make all things right.
    3. The world is an ideal environment for humanity to seek, find, and love God.
  • Love requires free will, & free will allows people to hate & abuse others. God has a place where people can heal, & where there is no more suffering & pain (1 Co 15:50–56; Re 7:16; 21:4).
    1. God did not create evil just as light does not create darkness (Jn 8:12).
    2. God comforts & saves victims in this life & the next, & He uses suffering to make the faithful stronger (Ro 5:3–4; 8:28).
  • Jesus suffered death and rose from the dead (1 Co 15:1–4).
    1. Jesus came bodily rose to live to conquer death (1 Co 15:25–28, 54–57). For this reason, those who believe will rise to eternal life (Jn 3:16; 6:39–40).

The Existence of Hell
The antagonist expresses, “A just God could not have created Hell.”

  • Sinners kindle their own fire (Is 50:11). Each person condemns oneself to Hell (Jn 3:18–20; Ro 2:1–11; 5:12, 16, 18).
  • Jesus proclaimed that Hell is just, & each person will receive their just stripes (Lk 12:47–48).
    1. Hell is “the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord” (2 Th 1:7–9).
    2. Jesus reported that “the everlasting fire [was] prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41).
    3. Jesus confirmed Isaiah’s description of Hell, “For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh” (Is 66:24; cf. Da 12:2).

The Allowance of Slavery
The antagonist asserts, “The God of the Bible condones slavery.”

  • Moses’s Law condemned enslaving others, & God commanded the execution of those who enslaved others (Ex 21:16; De 24:7).
    1. Biblical “slavery” was for war criminals & thieves who were civilly judged (Ex 22:2–3; De 20:10–15).
    2. U.S. 13th Amd: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
    3. These bond-servants were regarded as an investment & property (Ex 21:21; Le 25:45).
  • Some sold themselves as indentured servants to overcome poverty & debt (Le 25:39–40; Mt 18:21–35).
    1. God commanded the execution of those who murdered bond-servants (Ex 21:20–27; De 24:7).
    2. The Law commanded people not to return “slaves” who ran away from their master (De 23:15–16).
    3. If a bond-servant was struck & injured, then the servant received freedom (Ex 21:26–27).
    4. Sexual relationships with bond-servants was forbidden unless by free-will marriage & the spouse treated the other as a spouse and not as a servant (Le 19:20).
  • God commanded masters to compensate substantially all servants (Ex 21:2; De 15:12–14).
    1. In Moses’s Law, Israelite bond-servants were released on the 7th year (Le 25:10).
    2. No one was to oppress anyone for race or nationality (Le 19:34; De 24:14).
  • Moses’s Law is not the standard for Christian morality (Mt 19:7–8).
  • The NT condemns enslaving others (1 Ti 1:9–10), warned masters to give fairly to servants (Ep 6:9; Cl 4:1), & instructed equality (Ga 3:26–27; Pm).
  • The Apostles encouraged bond-servants to seek freedom, but otherwise to obey their masters (1 Co 7:21–24; Cl 3:22; 1 Ti 6:1–2; 1 Pe 2:18).
    1. Whether in bondage or free, all Christians are slaves in Jesus Christ (1 Co 7:20–24; 12:13; Ga 3:26–28).

The Consent for Execution
The antagonist perceives, “The God of the Bible condoned and commanded genocide.”

  • God commanded Israel not to slay the innocent & the righteous (Ex 23:7; cf. Ge 18:25).
    1. God instructed Israel to offer peace to opposing nations requiring tribute & service (De 20:10–15).
    2. Regarding the Flood, the wickedness of humanity brought suffering & destruction upon their own including their children (Ge 6:5–9).
  • God drove Adam & Eve out of the garden for which they died after long lives, & likewise God commanded Israel to put to death corrupt nations by driving them out.
    1. Adam & Eve’s death by removal from Eden consisted of the same words for slaying man, woman, & child of corrupt nations by driving them out of the land (Ge 2:17; 3:22–24; 1 Sa 15:2–3).
  • At Baal Peor, Israel protected women & children, but Moses commanded the execution of the guilty women & males hiding among the children (Nu 31:10–11).
    1. Philo & Josephus made the same historical interpretation that children were not killed by Israel at Baal Peor.
  • God’s instruction to destroy completely the Canaanites meant to drive them out (De 9:4–5; 20:16–17).
    1. God was patient for 4 centuries waiting for these nations to repent before declaring punishment for their atrocities & perversions (Ge 15:16).

The Value of Women
The antagonist expresses, “The God of the Bible hates women.”

  • God made man & woman in the image of God (Ge 1:27), & more than man, woman is made in the glory of man from which comes her femininity (1 Co 11:7–12).
    1. God made man in God’s glory from which comes his masculinity (1 Co 11:7–12).
    2. Male and female are one in Christ (Ga 3:28).
    3. God made woman for man and from man and now man is born of woman (1 Co 11:7–12).
  • God knows more about the natural role of men & women than anyone knows of oneself.
    1. God made woman because man needed help (Ge 2:18).
    2. God created man first to lead sacrificially & lovingly via service (1 Ti 2:11–13).
  • God sent Christ in the flesh as a male whose 12 disciples were men (Mk 3:13–19).
  • The New Testament reveals that man and woman are one in Christ having the same inheritance of salvation (Ga 3:28).
    1. Some worldly men resent the glory of women, & many women resent the leadership of men.
  • God commanded Israel to execute rapists (De 22:25).
    1. No Israelite forced a Moabite virgin from Baal Peor to marry him (Nu 31). Ruth chose Boaz like all women who married in the Bible.
    2. In Moses’s Law, the man must pay 50 shekels of silver for persuading a young woman to sex & must marry by paternal consent without the ability to divorce (Ex 22:16–17; De 22:28–29).