An Empty Tomb...

So we've been talking about reasons to believe.  Up to this point we've talked about the cosmological argument and how it is necessary for God to exist.  Maybe that doesn't convince you though.  That's fine if it convinced everyone the matter would be settled.

Well one of the best reasons to believe, in my opinion, is the empty tomb, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  This is not only the symbol that Christians rally to but it's one of the best reasons to believe.

Why though?  Why is the resurrection of Jesus a good reason to believe?  Well at the time of Christ the Jews were waiting on a messiah.  The one who would free them from the tyranny of the Romans, a political and military leader.  Also resurrection was not part of their dogma at the time.  Yet Christianity exploded after the resurrection of Christ!

The Jews were expecting a political leader they got a suffering, dying, servent.  In Matthew 16 Jesus rebukes Peter for this expectation.

²¹  From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²² And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!^[e]This shall never happen to you.” ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance^[f] to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Peter did not believe in the dying servent, no one did.  If Jesus had not risen then there would have been no hope.  Their leader would have been dead.  But the tomb was found empty and Christ did rise!  That gave all hope to the early church.  Christ, in his risen form, appeared to his disciples and over 500 other people (Luke 24:13-27, 1 Cor 15:3-6).  If Christ had not risen from the dead Christianity would have never gotten off the ground at all.  It was completely counter cultural for one to believe in a dying, suffering servent.

This is the wonderful bit.  Christ is risen from the dead!  In this we can take hope because this life is not the end.  Check out this awesome song and God Bless!

Kalam bringing it home!

What a wonderful weekend we had up here in Michigan!  Yesterday was pretty fantastic and today is no different.  Well over the past two blogs we've been discussing the Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God.  Today I want to bring that argument home with that last bit which is the Kalam Argument.  This seeks to show that the Universe has a cause.  We'll see how all of these relate in just a moment but first the Kalam argument.







The basic form of the Kalam argument is this:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause

2. The universe began to exist

∴  The universe has a cause


Now we have the basic form of the argument.  As you can see the only premis that can be refuted with any plausibility is the second.  The universe may not have began to exist.  However, if you recall my previous blog an eternal universe is impossible because an "Actual Infinity" (the kind involved if the universe had no beginning or end) is impossible.  So if the universe was created then who created it?  


If you remember back to my first blog, if the universe is not necessary by nature then it must exist by some external cause.  That external cause must be grater than the universe to have caused it.  Therefore the creator of the universe must be God, the only being great enough and timeless to have caused the universe to come into existence.  


A question you may be asking yourself is: If the universe cannot be infinit then how can God be?  The answer to that is really quite simple.  The universe exists in time, and in time there cannot be an actual infinity because an infinit regression of temporal events cannot exist (previous blog).  God on the other-hand exists outside of time.  Therefore God can be infinit (eternal) without causing this logical conundrum.

This has been quite a bit of fun to write about and think on.  If any of you have any question please leave your comment.  I would love to engage in scholarly debate.  Next time we're going to look at another proof for God.  But this time the heart and soul will be engaged more so than the mind.




^"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."



Colossians 1:15-17 

And it goes on and on and on... or does it?

So yesterday I talk a little bit about the leibniz Cosmological Argument for the existence of God.  And one of the possible counterexamples for this argument is that the universe is eternal!  As we established eternal means without beginning or end or in other words INFINIT!!!  Which brings us to todays topic!  An Infinitely existing universe.

The counter arguments goes something like this.  What if the brute fact is the universe it's self.  As we stated if you remember Premis (1) was this:

"Everything existing thing has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause."


This could lead one to conclude that the universe is a thing that is necessary by nature.  For us to exist the univers needs to exist so why does God have to come into the picture, why can't the universe exist in it's own right?

For something to be necessary by it's own nature it must be eternal, for if it were not eternal it would not be necessary because there would have been a time without it or a time coming where it no longer is.  So the universe is eternal, no big deal right?  Well actually it is kind of a big deal.  See if the universe is eternal that would mean that it would contain an infinit number of events the preceded and other event, for instance you reading this blog.  This is where our problem resides.

According to set theory if a particular set contains an infinit number of (x) then adding (z) more (x) would not increase the number of (x) in the set.  The same holds true if one were to subtract (z) or (y) from the set.  The problem with the universe having an infinit number of events that precede any one event is that the univers would have to go through an infinit number of events to get there.  What this means is that we would have never gotten to you reading this blog or me writing it or either of us being born for that matter or anything!  Because there would need to be a limitless number of events that precede any other event.

What does all of that mean?  It means that infinity is not possible it is an impossibility.

But wait, not it's not because if you take any two integers you could divide them into 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 into infinity, meaning that there are an infinit number of divisions between two integers = Infinity real.  This is a confusion of terms.  It's a confusion between actual infinity and potential infinity.  Actual infinity is impossible and is the kind that we talk about when we talk about the universe being eternal because actual time would have had to pass to get us to this moment.  Potential infinity is any situation where there is a potential amount of answers such as the space between two integers.

Ergo, the universe cannot be infinit which means that is cannot be necessary of it's own nature.  Which means that is must have come to exist through some other means, God.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." - Gen 1:1


Next time a look at the Kalam Cosmological Argument and the conclusion of this section of Cosmological arguments.

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Hello There!

My goal for this blog is to update it every other day or so, especially once I'm on mission.  I want this to be about loving the Lord our God with all of our Hearts with all of our Souls and with all of our Minds.  I'm just going to dive right in.

For the next few weeks I want to focus on our Minds.  If you're like me you've been asked some pretty difficult questions regarding the existence of God.  This morning I want to begin my laying out the Leibnizian Cosmological Argument for God.  But before I do that I want to say this is not so you can go around bashing in Atheists arguments.  My goal is that you be encouraged and know that there are Good reasons for you to believe in God and Jesus Christ who he sent.


Alright, the Leibnizian Cosmological argument is this: Basically the Universe must have a creator and that creator is God.  But this form might not satisfy your Atheist friends!   So Todays post will be about the Leibnizian Cosmological Argument.

Basically it's this:

1: Everything existing thing has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause.

2: If the universe has an explanation of it's existence that explanation is God.

3: The Universe is and existing thing.

∴ The explanation of the existence of the Universe is God


The main problem with this argument is that your Atheist friend will probably refute premis (2)  saying that God doesn't exist. If they do this they are saying that the Universe is a necessary being meaning it must exist there can be no other.  However, it's pretty easy for us to imagine a universe where nothing exists at all (just think of a big black space).

So your friend should come to the conclusion that either the Universe is eternal (without beginning or end), or God exists as the explanation for the Big-Bang!  Either that or the universe magically popped into existence from nothing.  I hope you've been encouraged by this and know that God loves us all even your Atheist friend.

Next time we'll talk about the Kalam Cosmological Argument that supplements this one.  Until then continue to "...love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Source: William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland, The Kalam Cosmological Argument, Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, comp. Louis P. Pojman & Michael Rea, (Thomson Wadsworth: Belmont, 2008) p.33-36