THE TRUTH

A Newsletter of PURSUING THE TRUTH MINISTRIES
October 2003

Greetings to you from Pursuing the Truth Ministries. I pray that all is well with you. If there is anything that we can pray with you or for you about then please let us know. email us at prayer@pursuingthetruth.org and we will be happy to pray with you.

THE VISION

Pursuing the Truth Ministries is a ministry for and to the people. We endeavor to help you establish a personal relationship with the Father through the foundation of Bible study. The Bible is God's revelation of himself to us. Therefore, it would behoove us to read and know it, which would give us a better awareness of God.

Pursuing the Truth Ministries exists to serve you. We endeavor to provide resources for your use in your own pursuit of the truth. We believe that your relationship with God transcends your church membership or religious affiliation. We believe that your relationship with God is your responsibility and not that of your church or pastor. You have to take the initiative to answer God's call for you. Our vision is just that. For you to realize your position with God through Christ. We hope that you would grasp the liberty that you have in Christ so that you would be delivered from those things that enslave you and keep you from doing what God wants. We are here to minister to you from the foundation of the Word of God.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

WE'RE ON THE RADIO!...AGAIN! God has given us favor with the radio station that we began broadcasting on last month. Our broadcasts will now be aired on Mondays at 11:00 for thirty minutes! The president of the radio station has also agreed to give us free advertisement for any event that we might have. Praise God! Also, he gave us all of this for only $30 more per month. WOW!

Pursuing the Truth Ministries is really a worldwide ministry. We interact with people all over the world. Our email list continues to grow and the visits on our website exceed 4000 per month and steadily increasing (we had 4656 last month). We are getting visits from our friends in Japan, Singapore, Australia, Africa, Canada, India, the USA, and other parts of the world. It's amazing to hear from you all and we are very excited that you have found Pursuing the Truth Ministries helpful in your quest for truth. We were asked by a pastor in Singapore, China to provide ministry material on a monthly basis and we are very excited about that. If you would like ministry information from Pursuing the Truth Ministries then please let us know. We would be happy to help as much as we can.

So praise God that we are actually reaching the world and we are growing. Many pastors measure growth as the increase in people attending the church. We at Pursuing the Truth Ministries measure growth by the impact the word of God has on people and the growth of those whom we do come into contact with. Please continue to pray for us as we attempt to move forward in our ministry to help others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he truth of the Christian Faith.

DOES GOD EXISTS?

By William R. Cunningham

Most of us do not need evidence for the existence of God. You probably already believe that God exists. As a matter of fact, if you believe in Jesus Christ then that implies that you believe in God. So to you this is not an issue accept for ministry purposes. What do I mean by that? Well some people have problems with believing in God and therefore have problems in believing in Jesus Christ. After all, if you do not believe in God then how could you believe in the Son of God, namely Jesus Christ? So for the benefit of helping to edify you ministry repertoire, I am going to briefly discuss evidence for the existence of God.

There are many people that are skeptical about the whole God issue and Christian issue. I cannot blame them to some extent because the religious churches has defamed the name of God so much with all of the prosperity and get rich schemes. These skeptics conclude that the church is only out to get your money and they therefore are never really introduced to Jesus Christ so to speak. Instead they are brought face to face with religion and man-made doctrines. In any case, people have many issues with God and therefore Christianity.

Now our task as the true church of Christ is to help these people to overcome those obstacles and come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. This means that we might have to provide objective evidence to those who for whatever reason do not believe that there is a God. We have to be able to talk to the skeptic. First let's describe a skeptic. A skeptic is basically someone that doubts the existence of God. They are not sure if God exists or not and are therefore skeptical about the "God talk" that goes on in religious circles. There are seven types of skeptics according to "How to Talk About Jesus with the Skeptics in Your Life" by Ralph O. Muncaster. They are listed as follows.

1. "Closed" hard-core skeptics -These are generally atheists, agnostics, or philosophers. The are generally greatly opposed to anything pertaining to the idea of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible.
2. "Open" hard-core skeptics - These are generally atheists, agnostics, or philosophers. These are like the "closed" hard-core skeptics accept they are more open to listen to reason.
3. Apathetic skeptics - These people generally do not care about God, Jesus, or the Bible. They are content to take whatever comes their way. They therefore do not consider such things as God, Jesus, and the Bible as important.
4. Religious skeptics - These people are typically part of a non-Christian religious system or religion. It is possible that these people are part of a cult and therefore a social economic system and are less willing to listen to reason. That is, they are brain washed to some extent or indoctrinated.
5. General skeptics - These people really have no idea what they believe. They are general skeptics and see organized religion as a threat to them.
6. Nonaffiliated skeptics - These people are not affiliated with any religion though they might identify themselves as Christian or other ways. These people would probably be more receptive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
7. Seekers - These are people that are genuinely seeking the truth about God and are open to reason.

In addition to this, I would like to briefly describe atheism and agnosticism.

• Agnostics claim that the existence and nature of God are not known or that they are not knowable.
• Atheists believe that there is no God in or beyond our universe

OK. I've presented some information to get you acquainted with those that might claim there is no God. Now let's discuss the evidence for a God. There are four sources of evidence for the existence of God that I would like to discuss.

1. Nature
2. The 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics
3. General theory of relativity
4. Astronomical observations

Let me briefly present these sources of evidence to you now.

Nature

All of nature points to a creator. How could the things that exist now come into being? What caused the first grass blade to manifest? What caused the first animal to appear? Nature indeed points to a creator. There are various philosophies and theories that attempt to explain the creation apart from God but all efforts have been futile. One major theory is called the Theory of evolution. This theory suggests that all living things evolved from lower class organisms until we get back to the single cell ameba.

The theory of evolution exists in three forms according to the "Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics." These forms are cosmic evolution, chemical evolution, and biological evolution. These in turn deal with the three respective areas of evolution: the origin of the universe, the origin of first life, and the origin of new life forms. Again, this attempts to explain things apart from God.

Nature also includes the attributes of humans. For example, where did we get the concept of fairness or justice? Why are some things considered universally wrong? Why is it considered a bad thing to hurt someone without a cause? Why does it seem intrinsic to want to return a favor? Where do our sense of morality or good morals come from?

When we look at the trees we are left to wonder about its origin. We wonder how did all of creation come to be. We wonder if things could have simply evolved from simpler and simpler forms of matter and even life. However, we are still left to wonder the origins of those even simple forms. Where did they come from? We are left to contemplate on the possibility of a great creator that created all that exists today. Is there any other evidence for the existence of God that is more objective?

The Laws of Thermodynamics

Yes I believe there is more objective evidence of the existence of God. Let's turn our attention to science. That's right! I said science. Many people consider science and theology to be opposed to each other. However, true science is an methodology of seeking. We seek to understand our universe. We use theology to help us understand the creator. So they are indeed compliments of each other and not opponents.

There are two things in science that stand out in our quest for the existence of God. They are the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Now I love physics, but I will spare you the details about these two laws, though I don't claim to be well versed in these, as I am not a physicist. Let me summarize them below.

1. The first law of thermodynamics is the statement of scientific observations and experiments that a energy is neither destroyed or created in a closed system. Energy in a closed system is therefore conserved. The only way to get more energy into a closed system is to transfer energy to it from an external source, which would make the system no longer closed.
2. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the entropy of any system increases. The following is an excerpt from www.2ndlaw.com/entropy.html, which gives a good summary of this second law.

Rocks and balls fall if you drop them, tires blow out if there's a hole in them, hot pans cool down in cool rooms, iron rusts spontaneously in air, paper and wood in air will burn and make carbon dioxide and water (if you give them a little boost over their activation energy barrier www.secondlaw.com/three.html ) You think these are all completely different? Sure, they are. BUT they're all due to the same cause -- some kind of energy in them spreads out! Whether it's rocks or balls falling that you raised in the air (potential energy changing to kinetic energy to "heat"), or hot pans cooling (thermal energy, "heat"), or iron with oxygen changing to iron oxide (bond energy, enthalpy), or wood burning in oxygen (bond energy, enthalpy), each change involves energy dispersing to the surroundings. (In cases like a gas expanding into a vacuum, it's the gas's original energy being spread out more in the new larger volume. Likewise, for ideal fluids that mix spontaneously -- the original energy of each is more spread out in the bigger volume of the mixture.)

The second law just summarizes our experience with those spontaneous happenings and millions of others: All kinds of energy spontaneously spread out from where they are concentrated to where they are more dispersed, if they're not hindered from doing that. The opposite just doesn't occur spontaneously -- you don't see rocks concentrating energy from all around them and jumping up in the air, while the ground where they were cools down a little. Same way, you'll never see pans in a cupboard getting red hot by taking energy from the cupboard.

The 2nd law of thermodynamics basically tells us that things tend to disperse energy or move towards more randomness as opposed to order. Science says that the things in creation tend towards more randomness or dispersion than towards more order. So what does this have to do with the existence of God? Just a moment. I'm getting to that.

The importance of these laws on the existence of God is phenomenal. The first law of thermodynamics suggest that the universe could not have created itself. It also suggest that the energy in the universe is finite and therefore the universe cannot be generating more energy than what it started with. Also, it points to a definite source for the energy within the universe that is apart from the universe itself. In other words, the first law of thermodynamics seems to suggest that a creator must have created the universe and was the source of energy for all that is in the universe.

The second law of thermodynamics suggests that the universe has a definite beginning. This coupled with other scientific observations suggests that the entropy of the universe is also increasing. This suggests that the universe had a definite beginning and one of order. Since the universe is becoming more random or dispersed, i.e., disordered, then there must have been a creator and this creator is capable of astonishing order and energy.

These two laws suggest that the universe is not infinite and that it had a beginning. They suggest that the universe started with order and began to move towards disorder. They suggest that the universe could not have created itself and is scientifically directly opposed to the evolution theory since that theory suggests that the universe tends to more order. These point to a creator, namely a god.

Now remember that though these point to a creator, they say nothing about that creator or his plans for humanity. These tell us nothing of salvation or God's love for us. They only suggest that a god must exist because the universe must have begun at some point.

Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Many of us have heard the formula E =mC². This is the relationship between energy and mass of matter at rest. The full equation (relationship) is more complex. In any case, many of us do not know that the results of this theory led Einstein to conclude that there must be a god and he wanted to know how God created the universe ("Show Me God: What the Message from Space is Telling Us About God" by Fred Heeren).

The main point about the theory of relativity is that Einstein's equations suggested that the universe was expanding or contracting and not static and eternal as was the common belief of that time. The interesting thing is that Einstein originally introduced a fudge factor into his equation to make his equations agree with the beliefs of that time. The beliefs at that time were that the universe was static and infinite (unchanging). Later another mathematician (Russian, Alexander Friedmann in 1922) discovered an error in Einstein's algebra. He corrected Einstein's equations and threw out the fudge factor and found that the equations show an expanding (or contracting) universe. Einstein's equations suggested either an expanding or contracting universe.

Other scientists also critiqued Einstein's equations and found that the universe was indeed expanding from a mathematical perspective, even if the fudge factor was left in the equations. Einstein admitted later that his fudge factor (called the cosmological constant) was one of the biggest blunders of his life. He then became vehement about pursuing how God created the universe. This is not to say that Einstein accepted or believed in the God of our Bible. However, he did at least believe that a god existed and he wanted to know how he created everything.

Now in general, the theory of relativity is very complex. There are actually two of them: the general and special theory of relativity. But for our purposes they suggest that the universe is expanding, which implies a beginning of the universe, as it could not have been expanding forever. OK. We have proof from Einstein that a creator exists. Well, not exactly but it is interesting that great minds of science came to the conclusion that a creator must have created our universe. The theory of evolution is not based on scientific evidence. That is important to realize.

Astronomical Evidence

Humans have always looked up into the heavens and wondered. There were times when people thought that the earth was at the center of the universe and that the sun along with the planets rotated around the earth. Well we are long past those days. I do wonder sometimes how silly our conclusions about our universe will seem thousands of years from now. Actually the aforementioned beliefs about our universe existed only hundreds of years ago.

One of the things that has been discovered about our universe through astronomical observations is that the universe is indeed expanding. This is consistent with Einstein's equations for the theory of relativity. Astronomers have discovered that the heavenly bodies are moving away from each other at astonishing speeds. They have also discovered that the further the body is away from us then the faster it is moving away. Another interesting observation by scientists is that the objects in the universe are decelerating. This leads to the idea that the universe is exploding, which further leads to the idea of a big bang. That is well beyond the scope of this lesson though it is very much related.

Basically the astronomical evidence points to a beginning of the universe. We also know that the laws of science that we have discovered imply that the universe is not eternal and it is not static. We know that the universe could not have created itself or formed from nothing by some sort of natural processes. Everything that we have investigated thus far points to a creator of our universe. They all point to God!

Summary

Long before modern science, when men thought that the universe was unchanging and eternal, the Bible writers wrote of the truth about the finiteness of the universe and the creator. Consider the following scriptures.

• Psalm 102:25,26
• Isaiah 34:4, 51:6

Ancient cultures served gods that were within the universe. They believed that the gods they served actually resided within this universe (the universe was thought to be eternal). However, the Hebrews believed that God transcended the universe and even created it. They believed that God was outside of the universe. We know now that God specifically revealed himself to the Hebrew people of old and that is why they knew more about the one true God than anyone else.

The Hebrew Scriptures declare the truth of God's existence. They knew the truth about our universe and its creator long before science, theology, or any other discipline began to examine the universe for clues. God revealed himself to us so that we are able to know of Him. Yes God exists and He has indeed made himself known to us through the special revelation of the Bible and general revelation of His great creation.

Now you have sources of evidence for the existence of God and something to discuss with those who claim there is no God.

THE ABSENCE OF GOD

By William R. Cunningham

The Christian community, or rather the Church community, is very interesting. People go to church Sunday after Sunday, year after year and still know very little about the Christian faith. I have found that many Christians don't really know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They can't explain what Jesus Christ did for us in regards to his death and resurrection, though they do know that he died for us and was raised from the dead. Very basic principles are beyond their knowledge. This is a shame, but not entirely their fault. Consider the arena of church today and how it is influenced by the teachings of prosperity and riches. So many people want to be like Doctor so and so. Pastors try to model their church after a famous preacher or television evangelist. However, who would dare declare, "we want to be like Jesus!" When will church pursue Jesus instead of riches?.

I believe that the church community today is absent of God. God is no longer the center of attraction in many churches. People in the congregations are not taught to pursue God and His righteousness. We are taught to pursue things, which in many ways are idol gods. I am reminded of a passage of scripture from the book of Revelation.

Revelation 3:20 (NKJV) Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Is Jesus standing at the door of your heart knocking so that he could come in. We found in our Bible study at Pursuing the Truth Ministries Church that people were healed by Jesus during his earthly ministry when they came to him. The Bible doesn't indicate that Jesus healed people by force. He made himself available and it was up to the people to approach him in some way. Therefore, just because we enter a place called church doesn't mean that the Lord Jesus is there. Consider the following scripture.

Matthew 18:20 (NKJV) For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

If two or three come together in the name of Jesus and perhaps even for the sake of the Lord then we know that the Lord Jesus is there in agreement with them. However, a group of people coming together in a place called church are not necessarily gathering in the name of Jesus.

We have to stand up for truth. We have to witness the truth about Jesus Christ to the world. It's not a church thing. It's a life thing. Your life is a ministry to those who don't know Christ and possibly to those who know Christ but are bound by religion. Would you stand up and fight with us and promote the Lord Jesus Christ to all people? Would you dare to go out and make disciples of all people in the way that God has wired you to do?

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

God is still here. He has not left us. However, many have left him. God is our heavenly father and he loves us. His love was demonstrated by the death of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Come back to God. Come to Christ and experience true eternal life.

God bless you always.

Pursuing the Truth Ministries is dedicated to promoting the truth of God's word. We are determined to present true Christianity to the unsaved and to those who are bound by false religions within the church. Feel free to contact us at any time at question@pursuingthetruth.org if you want to comment on something or prayer@pursuingthetruth.org for prayer request. God bless you always.

- Pastor Bill