Have you ever stopped to think about where our ideas came from? Our values, our morals, the things that bind us together as a society?
As America celebrates its 250th birthday this year, it’s important to stop and realize that our country was founded on principals of law. Social contracts, that is to say the rules that we are governed by, are instincts within us, placed within us by our creator. These help us form our worldview.
Our worldview is our pattern of ideas, beliefs, convictions and habits that help us make sense of God, the world, and our relationship with God and the world. Our worldview also influences our beliefs and actions.
For example, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a rule we live by. “Do no harm to others” is another one.
The Biblical teachings that helped us form these values are called doctrines. The first doctrine we understand it this: We have been created by a great creator.
More and more evidence has come to light in the past 30 years showing and proving that the world we live in, and mankind itself, did not evolve from nothing. Only nothing comes from nothing. We live in a highly complex world.
The designs of DNA – only available to us in the past two decades, have proven that there is a design element in our creation. If there is a design, there must be a designer.
From these findings we understand that there is a God. And that God created us out of his great love, giving us a mind and a free will to love him back. I John 4:7-8 says,” 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God created us out of His love because He wished to have someone to love and someone to respond to His love, in other words – to love Him back. Angels don’t have free will, they simply obey.
This Valentine’s Day remember this: Love is without any effect until you give it away, and the response of receiving love it to respond with love!
The second doctrine we learn is that our worldview is Biblical in nature. By that I mean that it comes to us from the Bible, God’ Holy Word. God gave us His Word to instruct us, to show us the pathway to Him through Jesus Christ, and to teach us about His great love.
What is some of the evidence for God?
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Over the thousands of years, the Bible has not changed! It is an infallible record of God interacting with the people He first loved, the Jewish people, then also the Gentile nations (including us). Manuscript copies of portions of the Bible have been discovered that are from the first century, and from the second century we have copies covering half the New Testament. By the third century (the 200’s AD) we have complete copies of the entire New Testament.
The Dead Sea Scrolls found in caves in Qumran (the West Bank of Israel) in 1947 are nearly exact copies of portions of the Old Testament from the earliest periods. These all show us that God’s Word has not changed over the years. Only God could do that!
God’s Word proves that it is God’s Word – written over 3400 years by about 40 different authors (all inspired by God), show it is one complete story found in a thread of continuity. Some call it a SCARLET THREAD. The 322 prophecies in the Old Testament which came true during the life of Jesus Christ are an astronomical impossibility, but for God.
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The order and complexity of the cosmos, the earth, the world, nature, animal life and people show that it must have come from an organized mind, an intelligent mind. Order comes from order. Disorder comes from disorder. The world as we know it could not have come about by random chance. Life always comes from life. You cannot get life from non-life. You never get a frog from a rock.
It is far more reasonable to believe… “In the beginning, GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.” – than to believe life evolved out of nothing.
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THIRDLY – The Moral argument shows us God
Romans 2: 14-16 says, “so,… when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.
Paul makes a remarkable observation here – even those without knowledge of God’s revealed law demonstrate an innate understanding of moral principles.
This indicates a universal moral awareness implanted in humanity, a “law written on the heart,” which points to a universal moral lawgiver. This suggests something profound: moral law exists independent of human invention, or cultural agreement. God gave it to us in the form of social contracts or understanding.
It’s not something we created; it’s something we discovered, like gravity or mathematics.
This chapter is not about salvation. This chapter is about God’s judgement. It’s the inner sense of right and wrong. CONSCIENCE. It’s found in all cultures, all tribes, all people around the world.
Atheism offers no basis for morality, no hope, and no meaning for life. Morality – right and wrong – give us a guiding hope and purpose in life. There are many moral absolutes in the world even outside of Christianity.
A MORAL COMPASS
Man has an inherent knowledge, a guiding light, a built-in sense of right and wrong. By these things we judge each other and each other’s lives and actions. These cannot evolve from a rock to a fish or a fish to an ape or an ape to a man. They are given to each man, each woman – from God. “The work of the law is written on each heart”
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You shall not murder. Kill someone.
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You shall not steal
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You shall not lie
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You shall not cheat
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Respect the rights of others
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Do not engage in torture
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Do not discriminate
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Do not abuse others
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Protect the innocent
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Honor your commitments
• What does this sound like? The Ten Commandments and other Biblical teachings! To make it clear and identify sin, God gave ten commandments to Moses, to give to the people of Israel and the world. These commandments were given by God to Moses and can be found in the Bible in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
The written law was not given at first to gentiles. But, the same moral compass was given to them because it was written in their hearts.
THE LAW (MORALITY) points us to a LAWGIVER. A LAWGIVER POINTS US TO A CREATOR!
Acts 17:30-31 says, “ God overlooks ignorance of these things in times past, but now directs everyone everywhere to change their hearts and lives. This is because God has set a day when he intends to judge the world justly by a man he has appointed. God has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Every person who is apart from Jesus Christ either DREADS the coming judgement, or DENIES it. God will judge men and women for what they are in HIS sight. God has given these commandments to every man. Of all the things God teaches us in life, in the scripture, what is the true commandment, the most important one?
First, Love God. Second, Love people! To love someone is to want the best for them. Sin is selfish. Love is self-less. The judgement, then, is whether we have responded to God’s love or not.
John 3:16-18 says this: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
So, we see that God is the source of love, and of morality and this morality is reflected in the human conscience and is further revealed in His Word. Without God there would be no objective basis for morality, no life, and no reason to live it. Without God, there would be NO ATHEISTS! Yet all these things do exist, and so does God. Thus, the moral argument is for the existence of God, as seen in His great love!
A reminder: Our FOOD PANTRY is available to everyone – there is no pre-qualification. Come by the church office on Monday, Wednesday or Friday from 9-12 for a free bag of food!
Craig Valley Baptist Church, next to Bibo’s at 171 Salem Ave in New Castle, welcomes you to visit and share in the forgiveness we have experienced. We meet Sundays at 11AM, with an upbeat service of music, sharing and preaching. You don’t need to dress up, and you won’t be asked to speak, so just come and hang out and meet new and old friends! Questions? Call 540-864-5667 or email pastor@cv-bc.com.
– Pastor Scott Gabrielson