Passage:

God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it” (Genesis 1:27-28).

Difficulty: Doesn’t the science of genetics refute the concept that the entire population of the world came from just one couple?

Explanation: Over the past couple of decades researchers have used “population genetics” to estimate initial population size of the human species. By studying human genetic diversity in the present day, they have tried to extrapolate back to determine the minimum size of the original population of humans necessary to produce the diversity we observe today. Some have argued that it is impossible for civilization to have come from one human couple.

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Passage:

God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves” (Genesis 1:26).

Difficulty: Why does God refer to himself as “us”?

Explanation: Some people suggest that God, being a Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), is actually speaking among the three persons of the Godhead and therefore refers to himself as us. We know, for example, that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, was at creation for it says in Genesis 1 that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water” (verse 2). Scripture also states that Jesus was at creation. “Through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth…He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together” (Colossians 1:15-17).

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Passage:

The creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth (Genesis 2:1-4).

Difficulty: Did God create the world in six 24-hour days, or is the world billions of years old as the standard scientific dating suggests?

Explanation: There is a wide variety of theories Christians have presented and understood for the duration of creation in Genesis. Here are a few of the more common explanations:

The gap theory postulates that eons passed between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2—possibly leaving plant and animal remains in the fossils we now find. Part of this theory postulates that Satan was cast down to earth and destroyed it, rendering the earth “formless and empty” as described in Genesis 1:2. This is partially based on the assumption that God would never create something as chaotic as is described in the second verse of the chapter. The time then between verses 1 and 2 could have been millions of years. This view has grown out of favor in scholarly circles.

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

 

Difficulty #1: Doesn’t science claim the universe is eternal? If so, how can it have a beginning?

 

Explanation: The First Law of Thermodynamics states that matter and energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. For centuries scientists believed the universe was uncaused and eternal.

 

In the early part of the twentieth century the scientific community was confronted with the ramifications of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Like most scientists of the day, Einstein assumed the universe was static and eternal. Yet his mathematical equation of relativity pointed strongly toward a universe that was either expanding or contracting. While this seemed to unsettle him, Einstein later accepted that the universe had a finite past. Why did he change his mind?

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The Bible says we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and are in need of forgiveness. But why did Jesus need to die to enable us to be forgiven by God? Isn’t that an extreme measure for God to use in order to forgive people for making some bad choices?

 

Sin’s Role To understand why Jesus had to die we must understand a little of what sin is and the nature of God. We will summarize these two issues to place this question within a proper context.

 

God is a relational God who is by nature perfectly holy (Isaiah 54:5 and Revelation 4:8) and absolutely just (Revelation 16:5). Scripture says, “He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Doing holy and just things isn’t something God decides to do, it is something he is. He by nature is holy and just.

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Once a person dies, really dies, and is buried, there is no coming back. People just don’t rise from the dead naturally. It is impossible without miraculous intervention. So is there proof that a miracle took place—that Jesus was dead and then was bodily resurrected?

 

There is an abundance of evidence to support Jesus’ resurrection. Many good resources are available on the subject. However, there are also a number of alternative theories that try to explain the absence of Jesus’ body from his tomb. They include the “stolen-body theory,” “the relocated body theory,” “the hallucination theory,” “the spiritual resurrection theory,” and others. Each of these theories attempts to explain facts about which there is little debate. The question is not whether those facts are true, but which theory best explains them. We will consider three of those facts.

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The Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24) and that no one has ever seen him and lived (Exodus 33:20). So then how can we, being human and not spirit, ever know what he is like?

While it is true that God is hidden from us in many ways, he has still to a great extent revealed himself to us. He has revealed himself in all of creation. When we see the world around us we get a glimpse of God’s creative nature, his infinity of tastes, and his incomprehensible immenseness.

God has also revealed himself to us in Scripture. Through the reliable written Word of God we get deep insights into:

his infinite characteristics

his relational heart

his holy nature

And because he has revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ we see God with skin on.

Although there may be credible evidence for God’s existence, a major question still remains: Who or what caused God? It seems everything that exists had to have a beginning sometime,so when did God begin, and who or what caused him to begin?

In our discussion of the first-cause argument for the existence of God, you may remember it has three premises:

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore the universe has a cause.

It is important to clarify that we did not assert that everything that exists needs a cause. Rather, everything that begins to exist must have a cause.

So the short answer to “Who or what caused God?” is “Nothing.” God is eternal, which means he has life without beginning or end. There was never a moment that God didn’t exist, nor will he ever end. And because God has always existed, he doesn’t need a cause. This is not special pleading by Christians, for the very definition of God implies a being that is self-existent. If God could be caused to exist, then he would not be God! You see, we can only consistently ask what caused things that can in principle be caused, such as chairs, books, and computers. But God, since he is by definition uncaused, is not the type of entity that can be caused. Therefore, the question “What caused God?” is actually meaningless.

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Not long after my dad, Josh, became a Christian he was in a debate with the head of the history department at a Midwestern university. He was telling him how his new relationship with God gave him meaning and purpose. He interrupted with, “McDowell, are you trying to tell me that you believe in God and he has really changed that much about your life? Give me some specifics.” After listening to a 45 minute explanation, he finally said, “Okay, okay—that’s enough!”

People have asked my dad, “How do you know you became a Christian?” “How do you know God is real?” For one, he changed his life. This transformation is one way that he’s assured of the validity of his conversion and the existence of a real and personal God.

I’m sure you have heard people speak of the “bolt of lightning” that hit them when they had their first religious experience. Well, it wasn’t that dramatic for my dad. After he prayed, nothing happened.  Nothing. He still hasn’t sprouted wings or a halo. In fact, after he made his commitment to God, he felt worse. He actually felt he was about to throw up. Oh no—what have I gotten sucked into now? He wondered. He really felt he had gone off the deep end (and some people probably think he did!).  1

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Every human culture known to man has had a moral law. We find it in the records of past cultures as well as in all present societies. And the morality of all these societies is surprisingly similar, no matter how widely separated by time, geography, cultural development, or religious belief. The morality defined in the Jewish Ten Commandments, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, the Chinese Tao, and the Christian New Testament differs in detail and emphasis but not in essence.

For example, some societies allow individuals to kill to avenge a wrong, while others insist that all execution is the prerogative of the state. Some societies allow freedom in premarital sexual relationships or permit men to take more than one wife, while others forbid such behavior. But all have rules that say people cannot kill others at will or engage in sex with just anyone they want. These laws protect human life. They are rules that govern marriage and family relationships, condemn stealing, and encourage doing good to others.

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