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Proof of God Listen
to the audio version
In several recent talks on modern skepticism, we have been trying to show evidence from many
angles that God is just exactly what the Bible claims Him to be. Not one word of Scripture has
ever been broken and disproven by generations of critics. All the latest facts of true science
coincide with the Bible record. God does exist, and He still functions as the mighty Sustainer
of the Universe He created—in spite of the modern blasphemy of theologians and scholars.
There are those who tell us that they do not believe in the existence of God simply because
no one has ever seen such a Being. In other words, they would have us think that they believe
in only that which they have the ability to see. However, human experience daily teaches us
that we actually believe a great many things which we do not see nor understand. Take, for instance,
gravitation, electricity, air, thought. No one has ever seen these forces and yet we know that
they exist because of what they do and accomplish. The Scripture declares: “The heavens
declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” Psalm 19:1.
That is to say, as we view His created works we may clearly see and understand that there must
be an invisible Being, namely God, who has brought all these things into existence. To illustrate,
we understand that there is a skywriter in the clouds when we see the skywriting, even though
our limited vision may be unable to penetrate the distance and see the one who does the writing.
In both cases to disbelieve would be utter foolishness.
There is such abundant and conclusive evidence in the heavens of the existence of a Supreme
Being, that no unbiased person can consistently deny it. The sublime pageant of the heavenly
bodies in their orderly march through infinite space, testifies of the Deity. Says the prophet:
“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out
their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he
is strong in power; not one faileth.” Isaiah 40:26.
Our finite minds are incapable of comprehending the vastness of the universe. Astronomers tell
us that all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world would scarcely equal the number
of the stars in the universe. Dr. Howard Shapley, noted American astronomer, estimates that
there are 200 billion galaxies or island universes each of which contains billions of stars
or suns. All these stars are in perpetual motion. Countless billions of these blazing suns plow
their way through limitless space, orbit intersecting orbit like the links of a chain, and yet
there is no conflict, no collision! What mathematical Genius has conceived, planned, made and
coordinated all these worlds?
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Psalm 14:1. Such an one
may ascribe the existence of this infinitely complex universe to chance, but chance cannot invent,
organize, or plan. Chance cannot even make a watch. Each little wheel, spring, jewel, or cog
in the watch has its place. Were we to place the parts of a watch, its jewels, wheels, and springs,
in a container, and shake them together ever so vigorously for a million years, those parts
would never of themselves make a watch. Only an experienced mind, and skilled hands can fit
those parts together. A prominent businessman, a manufacturer of cutlery, who had been delivered
from the soul destroying influence of skepticism, and who became a firm and ardent believer
in the existence of God, was asked to give one reason for his strong and unyielding faith in
the God of the Bible. His answer was as follows: “It takes a girl in our factory about
two days to learn to put the seventeen parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that these
millions of worlds, each with its separate orbit—all balanced so wonderfully in space—it
may be that by a billion years of tumbling about they finally arranged themselves. I don’t
know, I am merely a plain manufacturer of cutlery. But this I do know, that you can shake the
seventeen parts of a meat chopper around in a wash tub for the next seventeen billion years
and you will never make a meat chopper.”
Dr. Compton, nationally known physicist, believes in God, and assures us that his faith is a
very real thing to him. Answering his own question as to what faith is, he says: “For
myself, faith begins with the realization that a supreme intelligence brought the universe into
being and created man. It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for it is incontrovertible
that where there is a plan there is intelligence, and an orderly, unfolding universe testifies
to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered: ‘In the beginning, God. ...’”
Let me ask you, Do you know of anything that is superior to your mind? Look at the planets coursing
through the sky. Behold, in all its splendor the entire cosmic universe with its suns, its nebulae
and galaxies. Yet they are inanimate. They have no mind, no intelligence. They cannot do what
you can do—think, reason, plan, and carry out plans according to private volition and
will. The human mind can think, reason, plan, and push those plans into action. It can invent
and produce instruments by which it gathers a knowledge of the vast universe. Through radar
man has now been able to send a signal to the moon and command it to return. He can control
waterfalls and make them serve his needs, cause rivers to run backward, turn the forces of nature
to serving the needs of mankind. And now he has learned how to break down the atom, and utilize
a power so vast that man is able finally to annihilate all life from the earth.
But there remains one thing no man ever has been or ever will be able to do. He cannot build,
produce, or create anything that is more intelligent than himself! A man can take existing materials
and out of them build a house. But it requires intelligence and power superior to the house
to produce the house. An automobile is almost a living thing, but the intelligence and powers
required to invent and produce it are superior to the thing produced. To suggest to you that
anything you could invent or bring into being could be superior in intelligence and ability
to you and your mind would certainly insult your intelligence!
Now let me ask you, Do you honestly believe that any power or force which is inferior to your
mind could have produced you? If you do not believe in God, then you have only the alternative
of believing that something less than your intelligence produced you—that dumb, purposeless
unintelligence brought into being your intelligence! The only rational possibility is to confess
that the very presence of the human mind is proof that the Great First Cause is also the supreme
intelligence, infinitely superior to the wisdom of mortal man!
Now take a look at the miracle proof of created things. It matters not whether we study a distant
sun through the telescope, or a tiny cell through the microscope, we will find law, design,
and purpose pervading every atom in infinite space. The protons and electrons in the smallest
atom are just as definitely governed by law as are the greatest suns in distant space. Wherever
laws exist, there must of necessity be a lawmaker. Many scientists agree that it is impossible
to explain the behavior of nature aside from God.
William Ritter, former director of the Scripps Institution for Biological Research, University
of California, says: “Seeing God in the universe is no more difficult than seeing electrons
there,” while Pasteur, French scientist and father of bacteriology, declared: “Posterity
will one day laugh at the sublime foolishness of the materialistic philosophy. The more I study
nature the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. I pray at work in my laboratory.”
If I had the very finest railroad watch made, it would not keep perfect time. Once or twice
a week I would have to adjust it a second or two. If I want to be sure it is accurate to the
second, I set it by the master clock of my city, or any city, which is always found at the Western
Union. But even this clock does not keep perfect time. Once or twice a week it must be adjusted
a second or two by the master clock of the nation, by telegraph, from the Naval Observatory,
Washington, D. C. There at the Naval observatory is the Master Clock of the U.S.A. But this
great Master Clock of the nation is not perfect, either. It, too, must be adjusted and corrected
occasionally.
Yes, it is corrected by the Master Clock of the Universe—up in the skies—by astronomers!
Up there in the heavens is the great Master Clock that never makes a mistake—is always
on time—never off a fraction of a second—the heavenly bodies coursing through the
skies!
Now, if I show you my fine factory precisioned 23-jewel railroad watch and tell you that it
was not made by any watch company at all, in fact, it was not designed or put together by any
watchmaker but that it just sort of happened, would you believe that? The iron ores just brought
themselves up out of the ground, refined themselves, formed and shaped themselves into the delicate
little cogs and wheels and other pieces. Would one person accept my story that the silicon just
came of its own accord out of the earth and turned itself into the glass crystal, or that the
gold case just refined itself, shaped itself. Then suppose I asserted that the cogs and wheels
and scores of little parts just assembled themselves together in that case, wound themselves
up, and started themselves to running and keeping almost perfect time, well, if I should try
to tell you anything like that, you would tell me I’m crazy or a fool, would you not?
Certainly! You know that the presence of that watch is positive proof of the existence of a
watchmaker who thought it all out, planned it, put it together, and started it running.
But then you look up into the great vast sky at that Master Clock of the universe, which never
misses a second, the perfect watch by which we must constantly set all our imperfect man-made
watches, and you tell me, “That all just happened? There was no Great Watchmaker! No master
mind thought out and planned that complicated universe, brought it into being, set each star,
sun and planet in its own precise place, and finally started the countless heavenly bodies speeding
through space, each in its prescribed orbit.” Do you tell me that it just fashioned itself,
put itself together, wound itself up, and started itself running? There was no Intelligence,
no planning, no creation, no God! |
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