G.A.P Part 2

May 10, 2023

QUESTION 5 : How can God judge people who have never even heard about Jesus?

is real. So what happens to all the people who never even heard about Jesus?’

People don’t raise this objection because they are truly concerned for those who haven’t heard, instead they want to use this as an excuse to not have to accept Christianity as the only truth.

Religious

- the idea that all religions can point to the same truth - to follow in question 10 but Spoiler Alert they CAN NOT.

There are several passages that are relevant to the topic.
First we need to look at what the Bible says about General Revelation and Special Revelation

-

revelation - What God reveals by Natural means and moral conscience
(Listen to last week’s question 1 - the evidence for God)
Rom 1:19-20 (creation testifies of God)
Rom 2:14-15 (moral conscience has the power to accuse or excuse us of the law)
The Bible says that there is a sense in which everyone has at least ‘heard’ of God

-

Revelation - What God reveals by Supernatural means
Creation and morals is not enough to deduce the specific truths of Christianity. Therefore God had to reveal Himself in supernatural ways, through Jesus and the Bible.
Special revelation tells us that Jesus is the exclusive Saviour of the world
(John 3:18, John 14:6, Rom 10:9, 1 John 5:11-12)

The response is not to add more paths to God but to offer possible answers given the knowledge that:
- God is fair and
- He has revealed that Jesus is the only path to salvation.

General Revelation

Special Revelation
Old Testament heroes of faith - Bible says at least some of them are with God (Heb 11:13&16)

Paul explains no one is made

by the law , only by accepting God’s gift of grace by faith, which was made possible by Jesus’ sacrifice. Eg Abraham believed and received the sacrifice retroactively. How does this pertain to those who live after Jesus? Two possible answers

1)

God does not provide salvation to those who don’t hear about Jesus (exception of small children or mentally handicapped).
Restrictivists believe though specific knowledge about Jesus was not needed for Old Testament saints it is different for non-believers today.

2)

Only reason anyone is saved is because of Jesus’ sacrifice but it can apply to people who don’t know about it just as it applied retroactively to old testament saints.
Inclusivists believe if general revelation is enough to condemn you, it must be enough to save you
Inclusivism IS NOT Pluralism!

Only certainty is that God is

QUESTION 6: Why Would God Need People to Worship Him?

Definition: Worship is

to all that God is with all that we are

There is a general misunderstanding within and without the church as to what Worship is

Let us look at the Definition and break it down

ALL THAT GOD IS
Our idea of worship is founded in human terms – mainly our relationship with each other.
Think of Celebrity Fandom/Watching WWE and the passion people have for their “idols”
This is wrong

God is not like any human or earthly thing
He is

He is

of All
He

Worship

Understanding this is the starting point of our worship

So Why Would He Need Or Want Our Worship

Does God Need our Worship?
Just because the Bible says we should, does not mean He needs it

Acts 17:24-25 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

In other words, He is Perfectly Self-

Needing our worship is unbiblical and also mistaken

Does God

our Worship?
YES

1 Chronicles 16:29
John 4:23
Romans 12:1

Is it

to Want our Worship?
NO

Arrogance is this egotistical inflated sense of self
Remember God is Perfect – He is NOT Arrogant. He has an accurate understanding of His

worth.

God knows we will be

by worshipping Him because we are created to be in relationship with Him.

Worship is a

response to an appropriate understanding of who God is, not an act of reluctant humility before an attention – seeking Creator

Responding With All That We Are
More the pre-service praise and worship
It is to respond to God’s glory with the humble devotion of our Whole lives

Bible

Living the Christ-

Life

How we worship matters – it is a

, not a set of routines that we do!

QUESTION 7: WHY IS GOD SO HIDDEN?

A social media poll amongst Apologists revealed their biggest challenge to their faith is the

(or the hiddenness) of God. If God exists why doesn’t He make Himself more

in our lives?

Sceptics argue

If God exists He would make Himself obvious to us
God has not made Himself obvious to us
God must not exist

1) “If God exists He would make Himself obvious to us”
Let’s establish: We are not in a position to know how God would act if He exists.
The Bible says God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). So why is He hidden? The answer is rooted in free will. God wants us to choose to love Him. If He revealed Himself too much He would take away our freedom of choice because many will fear hell more than they love Him. He gives us space to either seek Him or avoid Him and Bible says those who do diligently seek Him will find Him (Deut 4:29)

2) God has not made Himself obvious to us.
Skeptics argue that God has not showed Himself in any meaningful way, in fact they often say there is NO signs or evidence where God revealed Himself. We believe God has revealed Himself sufficiently in
a) the existence of the universe,
b) the existence of moral values,
c) indication of intelligent design,
d) the fine-tuning of the universe and earth,
e) the authenticity of Scripture,
f) the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,
g) the witness of the Holy Spirit

To some people no amount of evidence will ever be enough. We may not dictate to God what we choose as enough evidence. God has

what is sufficient for us to know Him and we will find it if we look.

3) God might be Hidden but He is not Absent

QUESTION 8: Is Faith in God the Opposite of Reason

What is

What is

There is a confusion when it comes to Faith and this leads to the misconception from sceptics that Faith is the Opposite of Reason
We as Christians can also be unsure on how to define faith…

WHAT IS REASON?
Reason is fundamentally the act of

the mind—whether done intuitively or rigorously, poorly or flawlessly. It is, ideally, a process of

thinking, always involving logic, and often drawing upon evidence.

Peter Grice “True Reason”

Everyone Reasons, that is what we are doing right now.
However, there is this implied charge that we as Christians reason poorly.

Sam Harris: “Tell a

Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence whatsoever.”

Richard Dawkins: “Faith is the

cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”

William Harwood: “The difference between faith and insanity is that faith is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is

with the evidence, whereas insanity is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence.”

Bertrand Russell: “We may define ‘faith’ as the

belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of ‘faith.’”

Do you see the link? No Evidence, Lack of Evidence and the most scathing of all – faith is equal to Insanity which is “incompatible with the evidence”

So really, all this is just to say: “There’s no evidence for God, so anyone who has faith in Him is necessarily using poor reasoning given that good reasoning is based on an intellectually honest response to evidence.”

Three Essential Things to Note:
There are Christians who reason poorly but that doesn’t mean Christian belief is necessarily based on poor reasoning.

Anyone can reason poorly, including Atheists.

The force of this entire implied statement rests on the assertion that there’s no evidence for God.

Neither Both Christians nor atheists are willing to believe in something without evidence.

It is a more honest approach to say that we disagree over what consitiutes legitimate evidence for God.

Atheists label this idea of belief in God without evidence as faith and as a result, the world has for the most part accepted this definition.

But is it what the Bible says?

What is Faith?

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

The phrase that gets latched onto is ”

for.” See even the Bible is just a matter of wishful thinking, but this thinking ignores the words confidence and assurance.

But look carefully at the verse

in what we hope for

about what we do not see

This verse presupposes that Christians have good reasons for belief leading to Confidence and Assurance.

Faith is the commitment to a belief – a commitment when you place your trust in something you have good reason to believe is true.

We all

faith – atheists included
Getting on a plane for example

The Bible calls us to

reasoning in the Christian life
Matthew 22:37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”

1 Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways”

1 Corinthians 14:20 “Do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature”

1 Peter 3:15 “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”

Jesus is the best example and ultimate testimony that God

evidence and good reasoning.

Matthew 11:1-5 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.
2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Faith and Reason Go Hand-in-Hand
Remember to

words and phrases – this is half our battle.

Don’t allow the biblical meaning of faith to be

and

it in terms that make us looks like joke and make us feel ashamed of Christianity.