On 20th August 1977, Voyager II, the inter-planetary probe launched to observe and transmit to earth data about the outer planetary system, set off from earth travelling faster than the speed of a bullet (90,000 miles per hour). On 28th August 1989 (12 years later) it reached the planet Neptune, 2700 million miles from earth. Voyager II then left the solar system. It will not come within one light year of any star for 958,000 years. In our galaxy there are 100,000 million stars, like our sun. Our galaxy is one of 100,000 million galaxies. In a throwaway line in Genesis, the writer tells us, ‘He also made the stars’ (Genesis 1:16). Such is God’s power.
Many of the world’s greatest thinkers believe that God not only exists, but that He created the universe and its inhabitants. So the next time someone tells you that only simple, uneducated people believe in God – don’t buy it. Dr Robert Jastrow, founder and director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA, writes in his blockbuster book, God and the Astronomers: ‘The astronomical evidence supports the Biblical view of the origin of the world…The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and Biblical accounts of Genesis are the same…Science has proved that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment… What cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter or energy into the universe? Science cannot answer these questions… and for the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance… is about to conquer the highest peak, and as he pulls himself over the final rock he’s greeted by a band of theologians who’ve been sitting there for centuries.’
Source: The UCB Word For Today devotional, 2/10/2016
Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, led a team of over 2,000 scientists who collaborated to determine the three billion letters in the human genome – our own DNA instruction book. He said, ‘I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that.’
Francis Collins, The Language of God, Simon & Schuster UK, (2007), p.67
In the Bible God says, ‘I…made the earth and created mankind upon it’ (Isaiah 45:12 NIV). Did you know that if the earth was 10 percent larger or 10 percent smaller, life as we know it wouldn’t be possible? Or that we’re just the right distance from the sun so we receive the right amount of heat and light? If we were any farther away we’d freeze, and if we were closer we wouldn’t be able to survive. Consider for a moment the amazing tilt of the axis of the earth. None of the other planets are tilted like ours at 23 degrees. This angle allows the sun’s rays to touch every part of the earth’s surface over the course of a year, as the earth circles the sun. If there was no tilt to the axis, the poles would accumulate enormous masses of ice, and the centre of the earth would become so hot we couldn’t stand it.
Source: The UCB Word For Today devotional, 4/10/2016
Author, John Dickson writes: “It is interesting that Darwin himself believed in God and didn’t view his theories as a threat to belief in God (at least not until later in life). [Charles Darwin graduated from Cambridge University with a B.A. degree in theology.] In fact, in his book, The Origin of Species, there is a reference to God as the Creator who “originally breathed life with its several powers into a few forms or into one”. In his later years Charles Darwin commented: “I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out guesses, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.”“
Source: A Sneaking Suspicion, by John Dickson, p.47
Many people think that science and Christianity are at odds with one another and that they contradict each other but I find the opposite to be true; I find that they complement each other. In the final analysis, science only ever seeks to answer the question, ‘How?’ but Christianity never attempts to answer that question: Christianity seeks to answer the question ‘Who’ not ‘How?’ Similarly, many people ask the question: ‘How can I know there is a God?’ and they may even turn to the Bible for answers, but the Bible never tries to prove that God exists, it simply assumes it, and from the very beginning. Indeed, the very first sentence of the Bible opens with the words: ‘In the beginning God…’ – assuming the existence of God from the very outset.
R. Ian Seymour
R. Ian Seymour, Empowered Personal Evangelism, Weybridge: New Wine Press (2014), p.30
Professor Edwin Conklin, biologist at Princeton University, made this statement: ‘The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of an Unabridged Dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing factory.’
Source: David Watson, 1979, Is Anyone There, Hodder & Stoughton, p.27
‘Tony Holland, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Salford, was a scientific humanist up to the age of thirty. Then he was challenged by the question, ‘Is there a God?’ He concluded: “On consideration, it was inconceivable to me that the complex system of which we are apart could have occurred without a creator. Just as a great symphony testifies to the skill of the composer, the world and the universe testify to the wisdom and power of God. Science is but a description of God’s work.”’
Source: David Watson, 1979, Is Anyone There, Hodder & Stoughton, p.27
The Bible tells us that God created mankind is his own image; male and female he created them. In all of creation, we are special because we are made in the image and likeness of God, who created mankind to have dominion and to take care of the earth, with God but under God’s direction. And because we are made in God’s image we have been endowed with a personality and character and freewill, the ability to choose for ourselves. But we chose wrong; we chose to ignore God and to do things our own way, and we messed up… that’s the problem (what the Bible calls sin) that separates us from God!
If we were simply the product of evolution, a chance coming together of raw inorganic matter, how can we ever explain our personality? Can a river run higher than its original source? No (not unless it is manipulated by human engineering). Then how do we account for human personality? It is impossible for a river to run higher than its source, and it is also impossible for inorganic matter to evolve into rational, thinking, calculating, emotional human beings with individual character and personality. The fact is our personality points to God, who made us in His image.
Why do we feel generous, and grateful, when things go well; why do we feel the need to share and thank someone? On the other hand, why, in a crisis or when things go wrong, do we feel the need to pray or cry out for help? Why do we claim ‘it’s not fair’? Where does our concept of right and wrong come from, or our concept of fairness? If we are simply a product of chance, evolution, survival of the fittest, why do we even care about fairness? Where does our sense of justice come from?
Our moral understanding, our values and sense of right and wrong all point to the existence of God, as does our conscience – which is a pointer to God if ever there was one! Our conscience acts like a code or law inside of us: instinctively it makes judgments, sometimes acquitting (we have a clear conscience) sometimes condemning (and we feel guilty). And this presence of an inner-law suggests a Lawgiver. Our conscience is a clear pointer to a God who is so concerned with right and wrong that He put a moral indicator inside each one of us.
R. Ian Seymour
R. Ian Seymour, Empowered Personal Evangelism, Weybridge: New Wine Press (2014), p.36
I wonder if you have ever watched The Simpsons – those yellow animated characters on TV. In one episode Homer Simpson says, “Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me. As an offering, I present these milk and cookies. If you wish me to eat them instead, please give me no sign whatsoever. [Then there’s a brief pause.] Thy biding will be done,” says Homer and the he promptly scoffs the lot. – Homer thinks God is absent, silent, impotent maybe… but, friends, that is not the experience of millions and millions of Christians around the world.
Source: Rico Tice, One Life What’s It All About, 2011, Malden, Surrey: The Good Book Company, p120
Evangelism How BIG Is God An Incredible Perspective
The sun’s temperature is 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit and we live 93 million miles away from it – just the right distance. If the earth’s temperature were even 50 degrees hotter or colder, all life would cease. Why was the earth not fixed in place twice as far away or twice as near? Because God is Creator; and in Him All things hold together. The earth rotates 365 times a year as we pass around the sun. What would happen if we only rotated 36 times instead? Well, if this were the case our days and nights would be ten times as long; we’d be terribly hot on one side of the earth and terrible cold on the other! Oxygen makes up about 21% of our atmosphere; just the right amount. Why not 50%? Well, if it was 50% the first time someone lit a match we’d all be toast! It’s 21% by design because God is Creator and in Him All things hold together.
Adapted from The UCB Word For Today devotional, 04/06/2000
Isaac Newton, the eminent 17th-century English physicist and mathematician famous for discovering the law of gravity, said, ‘In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.’ On one occasion, to assist him in his studies Newton constructed a model of the solar system which he placed in his office. Sometime later a friend and fellow scientist, who was an atheist, visited Newton and he marvelled at the model and asked who made it. ‘Nobody!’ replied Newton. When his friend objected and charged him with being ridiculous, Newton asked him, ‘If you accept that a model needs a maker, why do you have a problem when confronted with the actual universe?’
R. Ian Seymour, Empowered Personal Evangelism, Weybridge: New Wine Press (2014), p.33
There is good evidence that God exists. Here are seven pointers or facts:
The fact of the world.
The fact of design.
The fact of personality.
The fact of morals and values.
The fact of the human conscience.
The fact of religion.
The most powerful pointer to God’s reality is Jesus Christ
Source: Michael Green, After Alpha, p.37-40
A philosopher once voiced this opinion about the life of man. “Man is Nothing; but fat enough for seven bars of soap, iron enough for one medium sized nail, sugar enough to fill seven cups of tea, lime enough to whitewash one chicken coop, phosphorous enough to tip 2200 matches, magnesium enough for one dose of salts, potash enough to explode one toy crane, and sulphur enough to rid one dog of fleas!” – Now, surely there must be more to life than this! Are we simply nothing more than a complex mix of minerals and compounds, a chance coming together of raw inorganic matter?
R. Ian Seymour, Empowered Personal Evangelism, Weybridge: New Wine Press (2014), p.35
Consider the earth and the universe, being like a tiny precious jewel in a large crown. How did the jewel and the crown come to be? Now consider this analogy: Three men are walking across a vast open dessert (the universe) when they come across a magnificent city in the middle of, what appears to be, nowhere in particular. The men marvel in amazement as they wander around and discover that the city is truly astonishing and intricate in its design, right the way down to the tiniest detail; everything is so beautiful and fits so perfectly together. And the three men ponder and debate upon how this magnificent amazing city came to be.
The first man concluded that the city wasn’t real: it was just a mirage that appeared real, or a dream, an illusion. There is no beginning and no end, and there’s no how or why or reason to it – there just is, and why do we even feel the need to question how it came to be anyway? Who cares… it just is, so let’s just enjoy it.
The second man thought this answer wholly inadequate. He concluded that somehow cosmic forces of time and nature over, probably, billions of years must have somehow fused together, and somehow produced energy and primitive life forms, all of which then must have then somehow evolved into this magnificent city that we see today! Basically, he concluded that it came about somehow by chance!
But the third man thought this answer also was wholly inadequate. Instead he surmised that the sheer beauty, and the intricate design and the way that everything works and fits so perfectly together is evidence or proof of a creator; of divine intelligence: God created the city.
R. Ian Seymour
R. Ian Seymour, Empowered Personal Evangelism, Weybridge: New Wine Press (2014), p.31-32
The heavens or this vast galaxy that we live in, is spinning at the incredible speed of 490,000 miles an hour (136 miles a second), and yet, even at this breakneck speed, our galaxy still needs 200 million years to make one rotation. It’s also been estimated that there are over one billion other galaxies just like ours in the universe, and some scientists say that the number of stars in creation is equal to all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world! And yet, this complex sea of spinning stars functions with remarkable order and efficiency, so much so, that today, with human technological advancement, we can now send a man to the moon and predict with pin-point accuracy the exact time and place of his landing. All of these scientific facts support the biblical truth that order and creation are by design, and not somehow by chance or accident!
Adapted from Life Application Bible (NIV) commentary notes on Genesis 1:1
Consider for a moment that a Grand Piano made by skilful hands has 240 strings on which beautiful melodies can be played. The tiny human ear, in comparison, has the equivalent of 24,000 strings, which enable us to hear those melodies. Consider that a television camera has some 60,000 electrical photographic components, which pick up images and enable the camera to ‘view’ the surrounding area. In contrast, the human eye has over 137 million similar elements. Likewise, a personal computer has several hundred feet of wiring and the capacity to store several billion pieces of information. A man’s brain, on the other hand, is infinitely more powerful. In fact, it has been suggested that the capacity for our brain to process and store information is, literally, unlimited. I have also heard it said that if you unravelled a man’s brain cells and placed them end to end, there would be enough to go around the world 25 times! Indeed, Man is a remarkably complex design. You are a wonderful creation.
Adapted from: Is Anyone There by David Watson, 1979, London: Hodder & Stoughton, p27
Go to the very first line in the Bible (Genesis 1:1) and it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The heavens or the vast galaxy we live in is spinning at the incredible speed of 490,000 miles an hour, and yet, even at this breakneck speed, our galaxy still needs 200 million years to make one rotation. It has also been estimated that there are over one billion other galaxies just like ours in the universe, and some scientists say that the number of stars in creation is equal to all the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. Yet, this complex sea of spinning stars functions with remarkable order and efficiency. All of this supports the Biblical truth that it is creation by design, not by accident or chance!
Source: Adapted from Life Application Bible notes on Genesis 1:1
Wernher Von Braun, the first director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre, who’s known as the ‘father of the American space programme,’ stated in a published article in May 1974: ‘One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be a design and purpose behind it all… The better we understand the intricacies of the universe… the more reason we have found to marvel at the inherent design upon which it is based… To be forced to believe only one conclusion – that everything in the universe happened by chance – would violate the very objectivity of science itself… What random process could produce the brains of a man or the system of the human eye? [Evolutionists] challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun… They say they cannot visualise a designer. Well, can a physicist visualise an electron? What strange rationale makes some physicists accept the inconceivable electron as real, while refusing to accept the reality of a designer on the grounds that they cannot conceive him?
The page you are reading was not the result of an explosion in a printing press. No, if there is a written page, then there must be a publisher. If there’s a building, then there must be an architect and builder. If there’s a work of art, then there must be an artist. – Isaiah 40v26 says: Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Source: http://www.konig.org/wc179.htm (and ‘The UCB Word For Today’ devotional)
Dale Carnegie wrote: “There are as many atoms in one drop of water as there are drops of water in the Mediterranean Sea – and, there are as many atoms in one drop of water as there are blades of grass in all the world. And the atoms that make this paper are composed of what? Still smaller things called electrons and protons. These electrons are all rotating around the central proton of the atom, as far from it, relatively speaking, as the moon is from the earth. And they are swinging through their orbits, these electrons of this tiny universe, at the inconceivable speed of approximately ten thousand miles a second. So the electrons that compose this sheet of paper [in this book] you are holding have moved, since you began reading this very sentence, a distance equal to that which stretches between New York and Tokyo.”
Dale Carnegie (1927), How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking”, Verillion: p.214
Contrary to what we’ve been led to believe, science and Scripture aren’t necessarily opposed. The ranks of Bible-believing scientists have grown rapidly since the discovery of quantum physics, which demonstrates the amazing symmetry and order that make up the universe. Did you know that one of the most brilliant scientific books of our time was written by no less than sixty notable scientists, including twenty-four Nobel Prize winners? The book’s title is ‘Cosmos, Bios, Theos’, which means Universe, Life, and God. And one of the contributing authors, Yale physicist Professor Henry Margenau, concludes, ‘There’s only one convincing answer’ for the intricate laws that exist in nature. And what does this brilliant man think it is? Evolution? Coincidence? Happenstance? No! Margenau believes that ‘creation is by an omnipotent omniscient God.’
Source: The UCB Word For Today devotional, 3/10/2016
We live in a fallen world – fallen from God’s grace because of man’s sin. Adam’s sinful act of disobedience affected Creation and now Creation is out of kilter. The earth is under a curse. God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:17). This is the greatest environmental disaster that has ever happened. The world we know is not the place it was originally created to be… earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, wars, famines, disease, epidemics … When God finished making the earth it was a good creation (Genesis 1:31). But today it is a groaning creation, filled with suffering, death and pain. All of this is a result of Adam’s sin. Creation is not at fault. Creation is groaning as it waits to be renewed; waiting for God to recreate the new heavens and the new earth (see Revelation 21v1).
