MTYC 2010: You Are My Witnesses

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Montana Youth Conference

MTYC 2010 Breakout Seminar - Atheism

Wes Peppers

Seventh-day Adventism, God’s Answer to Modern Atheism

And what we're going to talk about in this seminar for the next couple of days is atheism and where it comes from, where it arose from.

We'll see straight from prophecy how that arose and why it's significant today.

And then we're going to look at in our second class some proofs of why the Bible can be trusted.

We're going to look at a number of different things and you know, Atheism is a movement that's on the rise today and it's become quite prevalent especially in American society.

And so that's what we're going to do through our seminar.

So and then we're going to look at our third seminar, the top arguments of atheism, how to answer them, how to approach the atheistic mind and seeking to win them over for Christ.

And so as we begin this morning, this is going to be, this 1 is going to be a little bit more philosophical and then we'll get into some more practical things as we go.

So let's just begin with a word of prayer and then we'll dive right in.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much this morning that we can learn from your word, how to deal with this modern mindset that is beginning to just take over our society.

And as we look at this Lord, where it comes from, may you give us wisdom in knowing how to answer it, how to deal with it.

And so we ask for your blessing now in Jesus' name, Amen.

All right, our seminar title, our theme is The Reason for our faith and answer for the skeptic.

And Seminar 1 deals with the rise of atheism and prophecy.

And the first question I want to ask is, why does it matter?

I mean, we're Bible-believing Christians.

You know, I was going door to door once and I was talking to this man about atheism and whatnot.

He said, it doesn't really matter about atheism.

He said, because I know already where I'm going when I die.

He says, I know what the Bible says and I believe that, so why would I need to know about atheism?

It's because there are a sea of people around us that do not believe in God, that do not believe in the Bible, that do not believe that there is a reason that we should live for anything except for ourselves.

And so the Bible tells us very specifically, we're going to look at this in just a minute, that we should always have a reason for the hope that is in us.

There was a young man named Josh who came to my office about 2 classes ago when I was teaching at AFCO.

And he was about 3 quarters of the way through the AFCO session.

He came into my class, or my office rather.

He sat down in front of me And he said, I really don't know why I'm here.

He says, I don't even believe in the Bible anymore.

He says, and I don't want anything to do with this concept of Christianity.

And I was kind of shocked because here was this guy at AFCO and he's coming into my office basically telling me that he's an atheist, he doesn't believe in God, and he doesn't want anything to do with him even if he did exist.

And so I started talking with him and asking him some questions about why he believed the way they believe, And he was telling me all these crazy reasons why.

He said, there is no evidence that God exists.

There is no evidence why I should believe.

And so I shared with him a number of things that I'm going to share in this seminar.

And at the end of our time together, he says, you know what, I've never known this stuff my entire life.

He says, I grew up in church, I grew up around people that believed in the Bible.

He said, but I always thought that it was just this blind faith.

He said, but now I have evidence that God exists and evidence that the Bible can be trusted, amen?

And so 1 Peter 3, 15, I wanna share with you this text and you probably know it pretty well already.

And Peter is very, very candid about this.

He says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready.

I wanna say, he says, always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

And So Peter tells us specifically that we should always be ready to give an answer.

So if someone walked up to you and said, why do you believe in the seventh day Sabbath?

Would you be able to answer that question?

We whip out our Bibles and we go to Exodus chapter 20, 8 through 11, Mark 2, 27, the Son of Man, the Lord of the Sabbath, Revelation 1, 10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

We know how to answer how the Sabbath was changed.

But what if someone came to you and they said, I don't believe in God, I don't believe in the Bible, can you give me proof?

So would you be able at that point to reach for your Bible and say, this is why I believe what I believe, yes or no?

It might be a challenge to do that, right?

Because they say already, I don't believe in that book, don't tell me anything about it.

That's what we wanna talk about in our lecture series.

So let's just examine atheism for a minute.

The word atheism comes from the Greek word a meaning not or no, kind of like against, and then theos, atheism, meaning God.

So a meaning no or against, and theos meaning God.

That's where the word atheism comes from.

Number 1, the natural matter of the universe is all that exists.

In other words, the universe operates only by natural laws, like the law of gravity, the law of physics, et cetera.

And any event that seems to happen supernaturally is really some sort of natural occurrence.

In other words, Everything in the universe is here and it happens by natural means.

And any event, whether it be some type of miracle or some type of healing or any type of supernatural experience is just something natural that's happening, but it cannot be, we haven't figured out what it is yet.

We haven't figured out how to explain it, right?

The reality of evil, the purposelessness of life, the randomness of the universe, and evolution all argue in favor or against.

Of God, that's what atheism basically claims.

It also claims that the Bible is a book of human invention and not really the divine word of God.

I mean, obviously if God doesn't exist, if what we see around us is all there is, just natural laws, the natural universe, then obviously The Bible could not be from God because God doesn't exist, right?

And Jesus, if He existed, performed no miracles, did not rise from the dead, and was not who?

And we're gonna prove that to be false in this seminar as we progress.

There's an interesting statement from the Humanist Manifesto II that says, no deity will save us, we must save, who?

No deity will save us, we must save ourselves.

But the reality is, is that human beings have been trying to save themselves for centuries.

In fact, since they have existed, since we have written record of history, man after man has risen up trying to save humanity.

The Case for Faith - Unquestionable Evidence or Unreasonable Hope?

Alright, well we're back for part 2 of our series on atheism and skepticism and how to answer that.

And what we're going to look at in this section is we're going to examine several evidences that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Bible can indeed be trusted and that God is real and that Jesus Christ is different from every other religious philosopher in history.

And we're going to examine that part by part and I'm excited because when you leave this place, you're gonna have tools in your hand to then share with other people that you encounter.

You're gonna have a reason for the hope that is in you, amen?

So let's begin with a word of prayer and then we'll dive right in.

Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for this time.

Once again that we have to share with each other, Lord.

And we pray that as we look at these different evidences that you would bring them to our minds as real things that are of substance, things that we can believe, things that we can build our hope upon.

And Lord, ultimately, they lead us to trust in your word and that we can indeed have an answer for those around us in a skeptical world.

We ask your blessing now, we Seek it in Jesus' name, amen.

Napoleon made a statement and he said, as for myself, I do not believe that such a person as Jesus Christ ever existed.

But as the people are inclined to superstition, it is proper not to oppose them.

Isn't that an interesting statement coming from the mouth of Napoleon?

There are many people that are making these types of statements today.

You may have seen television programs on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, that try to have a balanced opinion and they ask the question such as, does God really exist?

And These programs are becoming very popular and they try, or they attempt rather, to be non-biased but in fact they ultimately lead you to the conclusion by the end of the program that the Bible cannot be trusted.

This type of thought, this type of philosophy is becoming more and more popular.

There's a man named Thomas Carlyle and he said this, if Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him.

They would ask him to dinner and hear what he had to say and then make fun of him.

Another man, Bjorna Jolvaes said, the story of Jesus is very fascinating.

It still has such a tremendous power even after 2000 years, But we don't really know if he existed as a historical figure.

These type of statements are becoming more and more prevalent.

People like Charles Darwin have written a number of not Charles Darwin.

But I'm trying to remember his first name.

I forget his name, but anyway, he's a very, very popular proponent of evolution.

And He's a modern evolutionist, does not believe in the Bible, does not believe in God, and has written numerous books that discredit any concept that God exists.

And it is becoming destructive to the Christian world today and is continuing to be promoted again and again.

And so this is a serious problem in society.

More copies of the Bible have been produced last year in America than in any other time period before.

And yet, we find that more and more Christians are becoming ignorant about God's word and what it actually says.

A few years ago, there was a test of Bible knowledge given to a group of seniors in high school, And most of them failed the test completely.

Some were so confused that they thought Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers or that the gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luther, and John.

Others said that Eve was created from an apple and that the stories of Jesus used in teaching were called parodies.

More than 80% of the pupils could not even complete such familiar quotations such as, many are called but few are chosen, right?

And so this is very, very sad, but it's becoming more and more.

The reason that atheism, the reason that this type of philosophy is becoming so popular is simply because people are becoming more and more ignorant about God's word.

There's the famous book, The Da Vinci Code, which is supposed to unravel the mystery of Jesus and the Bible, and people will read that book.

They'll read books about the Left Behind series and all these various books, but they rarely read the Bible themselves.

There was a Gallup poll done, and it found that 60% of Americans didn't know what the Trinity was, the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

60% of people couldn't even say the 3 parts of the Trinity.

66% couldn't say who delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

And 79% of people were unable to name even a 1 Old Testament prophet.

Now friends, that's sad, but that's the reality of the society that we're living in.

When more people were questioned on television or radio, it's remarkable to see how little they know about the subject.

It's like the little boy that thought that the apostles were married to the epistles, right?

And that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.

More than 91% of Americans own a Bible and 85% consider themselves to be Christians, but only 40% say that they are born again.

More than half believe that their entrance will be gained into heaven by their behavior, good works versus bad works.

And although 80% believe the Bible is inspired word of God, 61% believe the Holy Spirit is not real.

There was another Gallup poll that was done recently and it found that something like 60% of all ministers of all denominations, and when you put them all together, 60% of those people believe that Jesus committed sin while he was here upon the earth.

It's kind of like the young girl that was cleaning the house 1 day and she came across a big family Bible and it was all covered with dust and so she knocked off all the dust and she blew it off and she looked at it and she took it to her mom and she said, mommy, what's this?

And the mother said, well, honey, she said, that's God's book, that's the Bible.

And she said, well, she said, maybe we should give it back to him because we're sure not using it, right?

We are not, we've become ignorant about the things that we once held so dear.

And so philosophy of atheism, the philosophy of agnosticism, the philosophy of evolution and all these things have crept in and they've started off slowly but now they've crept into society and basically society is being consumed by all types of different ideas and the Bible today is being thrown out the window.

And so how do we answer this type of argument?

How many of you have heard of the term called Christian apologetics?

Many people say, does it mean to apologize for Christianity?

What it simply means is for somebody to give a defense for something they believe in.

And if you're specifically for religious, the dictionary definition is reasoned arguments or writings and justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine.

So in other words, apologetics is simply defending what you believe, giving a reason for what you believe and why you believe it, right?

And so in other words, as I mentioned in our first seminar, taking the Bible to somebody who doesn't believe in God and saying, you need to be saved because Jesus came to die for your sins, while that is truth, it may not be specifically what's applicable to that person at that moment in time.

Because they don't respond to the Bible, they don't believe in the Bible, and so apologetics simply uses their own line of reasoning, their own line of thinking to approach that person with evidence that A, maybe you should rethink your philosophy that God doesn't exist, rethink your philosophy that the Bible can't be trusted because here is the evidence.

So apologetics typically relies upon external evidence.

In other words, evidence outside the Bible to show that the Bible can be trusted.

And it kind of lays a foundation for people that have no Christian background or no religious preference.

So with that being said, we're gonna look at a number of evidences of why the Bible can be trusted.

So I wanna ask the question first, what does the Bible claim about itself?

In 2 Timothy 3, 16, the Bible says how much Scripture is inspired by God.

In other words, we believe as Christians, we believe as Seventh-day Adventists, that the Bible is indeed the word given from God.

Now, granted, it was written by men, but it was written by men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, correct?

And it was not created by men, it was not invented by men, But the thought process that is involved with the writing of the scriptures was given by God, that's what we believe.

The Top 5 Arguments of Atheism and How to Answer Them

So let's just begin with a word of prayer, and then we'll dive right in.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much today that we can have a new day of life, a new day of hope, a new day of trust in you.

And we ask your blessing to be with us now as we study together that your spirit may guide our thoughts, may guide our minds.

I remember when I was in college and my professors, I was not a Christian at that time.

I thought Christianity was really no different than any other world religion when you sat down and broke everything down.

And I remember I used to have college professors that would, as I was studying evolution, I was studying all these different theories.

I had college professors that would actually make jokes about the Bible in class and There were Christians in the in the class and they would just kind of hang their head and and very very negative But as I began to learn the arguments that are against atheism, against evolution, or rather a more reasonable way as I began to learn about God and the plan that He had for my life, I began to see that the arguments or the theories or the whatever you want to call them that evolution presents that atheism presents As I learned the counter answer to those I realized that the atheistic argument was not very reasonable at all And so what I want to share with you are some arguments that they often like to use to try to refute any type of religion, any type of God, and then the answer to those things.

So we're going to look at a number of those today.

The first 1 that is often used is that truth is relative.

In other words, there is no absolute truth.

Whatever you feel like doing, whatever seems good to you, then that's what you should do.

And there's many, many problems with that.

But what they say is morality is relative to one's personal perspective or cultural background.

In other words, if it's in my culture to put, have you ever seen those, I think it's in Africa or somewhere where they put those really long neck on the women, and the more ring she has, the more valuable she becomes as a bride and the higher her dowry is.

If a woman is ever found to be unfaithful, then they remove all those rings and her neck has been so stretched that her head just falls to the side and she either dies from her neck breaking, from flopping, or she dies of suffocation.

And so, you know, some societies, that's okay, right?

And some societies would say that's not so, right?

And so they say that morality is relative to the cultural background.

In other words, whatever your culture approves as moral, then That's what you should do, okay?

Since morality does not originate with God, it did with human beings.

So essentially what they're saying is that the right thoughts, the right actions, the right motives or the standard for morality comes not from a higher power but comes from where?

That is essentially not atheism, that is humanism.

Saying that we have the power inside of ourselves to be morally right.

Well, time has proven for 6, 000 years that that's not the case at all.

Every time in society human beings have left, have been left to decide what's right and wrong, disaster has taken place.

We looked at that yesterday, speaking about the French Revolution.

When humanity is left to judge morality, disaster takes place every single time.

Good or immoral is described by society as What is best for the largest number of people in the long run?

Ernest Hemingway made this statement, what is moral is what you feel good after.

And what is bad or immoral is what you feel bad after.

But is that not the most common answer today when you're addressing the issue of right versus wrong?

I think that there's a deeper issue, and we're gonna find that to be true with the Atheist Department, that there's a deeper issue involved, and it is not an issue of whether what's right or wrong, it's an issue of me doing what I want to do when I know it's wrong.

And that's what it ultimately boils down to.

So the question I have for that person is, are you absolutely sure that truth is relative?

So to say, to make the statement, truth is relative, there is really no such thing as truth, there is really no absolute truth, that is an absolute statement.

So if there is no absolute truth, you cannot say absolutely that truth is relative.

It's an absolute statement, a contradicting statement.

Morality goes against the very idea of evolution and survival of the fittest.

Evolution teaches that the strongest of the species will survive, correct?

If you're not, if there's only 1 banana and there's 3 gentlemen and that's the last thing to eat on the island, who's going to get the banana, right?

If there is a large group of animals or whatever and some of them are not strong enough to get the limited source of food or some of them get sick or whatever, only the strongest are going to what?

And so in a sense, evolution, survival of the fittest, the origin of species that Darwin wrote when he wrote about all these things, In a sense, what that says is that you should always look out for who?

In other words, it doesn't matter what anyone else does.

My only goal in life is to be competitive with that person for the best position, for the best food, for the best money, et cetera, et cetera.

And so morality goes against that very belief because morality says you don't just look after who?

So if the survival of the species is true, if that's a true theory, then why is it that when I help somebody else, when I make a sacrifice for somebody, that it gives such a sense of peace to my soul.

In other words, when I help somebody, when I do good things, there is a satisfaction that comes with doing that that is not present when I only seek to satisfy and gratify myself.

So morality says, don't just look out for yourself, but look after others, right?

And so what they say is that morality is relative, truth is relative.

You should look out for number 1, and yet it's been proven time and time again that that does not bring satisfaction to the soul.

That's what people say, that society decides what's best, and that truth is based upon cultural background, okay?

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MTYC 2010 Breakout Seminar - Atheism

The Top 5 Arguments of Atheism and How to Answer Them

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Parts

Seventh-day Adventism, God’s Answer to Modern Atheism

1h

The Case for Faith - Unquestionable Evidence or Unreasonable Hope?

56m

The Top 5 Arguments of Atheism and How to Answer Them

58m

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