1 00:00:00,780 --> 00:00:04,980 Hi, I am Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee 2 00:00:04,980 --> 00:00:09,420 Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. 3 00:00:09,820 --> 00:00:13,660 Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to 4 00:00:13,660 --> 00:00:15,279 share what you've learned with others. 5 00:00:17,660 --> 00:00:21,619 A lot of people use the internet these days to learn about God and religion, 6 00:00:22,009 --> 00:00:26,859 and out of all the searches for answers about God, what question would you 7 00:00:26,860 --> 00:00:29,059 say that people are asking the most? 8 00:00:29,630 --> 00:00:34,319 Recent reports indicate that it's the very question we've been talking about. 9 00:00:34,789 --> 00:00:37,470 The age old problem of evil. 10 00:00:37,990 --> 00:00:42,449 The top three questions in Google searches according to the numbers are these. 11 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:46,509 Number one, why does God allow suffering and evil? 12 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,960 Number two, does life have a purpose? 13 00:00:50,349 --> 00:00:53,200 And number three, does God exist? 14 00:00:53,650 --> 00:00:58,890 It's interesting that after thousands of years, with all of our advances in 15 00:00:58,900 --> 00:01:05,319 medicine and technology and other areas, mankind is still asking the same things. 16 00:01:05,559 --> 00:01:08,130 Some questions just won't go away. 17 00:01:08,660 --> 00:01:10,959 That's because some things don't change. 18 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:17,560 Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse nine is where Solomon said 3000 years ago, “The 19 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:23,779 thing that has been it is that which shall be. And that which is done is that 20 00:01:23,789 --> 00:01:30,810 which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun.” So it's encouraging 21 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:36,900 that God anticipated these concerns and He addressed them in the Bible long ago. 22 00:01:37,470 --> 00:01:40,110 These three questions are also connected. 23 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:44,000 I'm talking about the question, why does God allow suffering the 24 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,990 question, does life have a purpose, and the question, does God exist? 25 00:01:48,049 --> 00:01:49,639 These are all interconnected. 26 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,810 The answer to one affects how you answer the others. 27 00:01:54,220 --> 00:01:58,640 And today in this lesson, we will see that one popular approach to 28 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:00,870 the problem of evil will not work. 29 00:02:01,469 --> 00:02:06,069 That approach is atheism, and we are about to see why in this lesson that 30 00:02:06,070 --> 00:02:09,600 we'll call “Atheism is no answer.” 31 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:13,570 You can say the same thing about agnosticism and skepticism. 32 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,780 Agnosticism is different from atheism. 33 00:02:17,210 --> 00:02:20,790 It's the view that no one can be sure whether God exists. 34 00:02:21,309 --> 00:02:25,710 Atheism, on the other hand, tries to prove God does not exist. 35 00:02:26,010 --> 00:02:28,660 It claims to know that God is not real. 36 00:02:29,060 --> 00:02:32,910 Agnostics, on the other hand, believe we just can't be sure. 37 00:02:33,179 --> 00:02:35,160 They are skeptical about everything. 38 00:02:35,599 --> 00:02:40,660 They question what Christians say and even what atheists say, and then they tell us 39 00:02:40,709 --> 00:02:42,940 that no one can be certain either way. 40 00:02:43,330 --> 00:02:47,470 They question everything, that is, except their contention 41 00:02:47,660 --> 00:02:49,720 that no one can know for sure. 42 00:02:50,139 --> 00:02:54,410 But that's the very thing they claim to be sure about—that no one can be sure. 43 00:02:54,820 --> 00:02:59,209 So when these people—and I'm talking about agnostics—when they say they 44 00:02:59,209 --> 00:03:02,610 don't believe in God because of all the evil in the world, they 45 00:03:02,610 --> 00:03:04,720 reason like a dog chasing its tail. 46 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:08,089 But an atheist looks at these three questions and gives a 47 00:03:08,099 --> 00:03:09,720 definite answer to each one. 48 00:03:10,330 --> 00:03:13,810 Why does God allow evil and suffering an atheist? 49 00:03:14,660 --> 00:03:17,769 God is supposed to be all-powerful and all-loving. 50 00:03:18,270 --> 00:03:23,240 A God like that, an atheist says, could not and would not allow all 51 00:03:23,260 --> 00:03:27,760 the suffering and evil in the world a. But since there is so much evil 52 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:32,600 in the world, the conclusion for the atheist is God does not exist. 53 00:03:32,910 --> 00:03:37,800 But if there is no God in atheistic thinking, then the atheist has to answer 54 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,910 the question: Then why are we here? 55 00:03:40,540 --> 00:03:42,020 What's the purpose of all this? 56 00:03:42,470 --> 00:03:44,120 What's the meaning of life? 57 00:03:44,670 --> 00:03:47,779 Now atheists answer that there is no purpose to live 58 00:03:47,820 --> 00:03:50,090 or reason for us being here. 59 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:52,599 There is no meaning to life. 60 00:03:53,190 --> 00:03:55,500 Where does that kind of thinking leave them? 61 00:03:55,970 --> 00:04:00,520 Well, if there's no purpose for all this, especially all of what they 62 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:05,140 call pointless suffering in the world, then how are we to feel about life? 63 00:04:05,540 --> 00:04:08,919 So in the atheistic camp, there are two ways of thinking. 64 00:04:09,059 --> 00:04:11,480 There are two different kinds of atheists. 65 00:04:11,490 --> 00:04:14,810 Now there are more, but there are two basic kinds of atheists when 66 00:04:14,810 --> 00:04:16,459 it comes to this problem of evil. 67 00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:19,970 In regard to the question, What is the purpose of life? 68 00:04:19,980 --> 00:04:24,020 What is the meaning of all this?—some atheists dwell on 69 00:04:24,020 --> 00:04:26,190 how empty and hopeless life is. 70 00:04:26,770 --> 00:04:30,269 They live in a world of pain and sorrow and violence, and 71 00:04:30,270 --> 00:04:32,140 to them there is no answer. 72 00:04:32,670 --> 00:04:38,230 There is no reason for us being here and no hope of where we're going [to them]. 73 00:04:38,420 --> 00:04:41,980 There is no God to help us much less to comfort us. 74 00:04:42,389 --> 00:04:44,770 There is no heaven to go to when we die. 75 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:49,230 We live in a dark world and there is nothing that we can do about that. 76 00:04:49,900 --> 00:04:54,880 The name for an atheist who thinks like this is the word existentialist. 77 00:04:55,350 --> 00:05:00,320 Now that word has a variety of meanings in religious circles, but in the 78 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:05,049 philosophical world where atheism and skepticism reign supreme, an 79 00:05:05,059 --> 00:05:11,520 existentialist is one who says, “We exist, we are here. Don't look for a reason 80 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:16,840 why or a purpose, just live with it, because there is no God to explain it.” 81 00:05:17,130 --> 00:05:23,109 Now, obviously, this is a very gloomy, pessimistic, depressing outlook on life. 82 00:05:23,660 --> 00:05:27,110 How could anyone think like this without becoming suicidal? 83 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:31,440 And sad to say that's what it sometimes leads to. 84 00:05:32,099 --> 00:05:36,070 On the other hand, there are other atheists who say, “You've got it 85 00:05:36,070 --> 00:05:39,919 all wrong.” Getting rid of the thought of God makes them feel 86 00:05:39,929 --> 00:05:42,540 good without God in the picture. 87 00:05:42,820 --> 00:05:43,820 There are no rules. 88 00:05:44,100 --> 00:05:45,049 There's no guilt. 89 00:05:45,380 --> 00:05:46,630 There's no fear of hell. 90 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,779 Now, this camp of atheists don't think a world without purpose is depressing. 91 00:05:52,309 --> 00:05:54,280 They see it as a reason to celebrate. 92 00:05:54,309 --> 00:05:57,974 It reminds me of what the Bible says in First Corinthians 15, 93 00:05:57,980 --> 00:06:02,100 verse 32 about people who do not believe in life after death. 94 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:06,640 Paul is basically saying there, as he quotes the Old Testament in Isaiah 95 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:12,320 chapter 22, 13 and 14, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow, we die.” 96 00:06:12,590 --> 00:06:17,159 So these atheists, in contrast to the existentialist, try to be positive. 97 00:06:17,410 --> 00:06:18,860 They try to be optimistic. 98 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:23,020 They see a bright future ahead where mankind can explore 99 00:06:23,020 --> 00:06:24,810 and discover and create. 100 00:06:25,530 --> 00:06:28,990 And if you ask them about all the suffering and evil in the world, 101 00:06:29,349 --> 00:06:33,349 if you ask them, “What about all of that? What are you going to do? How 102 00:06:33,349 --> 00:06:36,940 do you deal with it?”—they will tell you that they're working on that. 103 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:42,340 And in time they will tell you that human beings can eradicate things like 104 00:06:42,350 --> 00:06:44,570 disease and crime and maybe even death. 105 00:06:45,150 --> 00:06:52,020 Now this type of atheist is often called a humanist, and they are very, very naive. 106 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:56,570 In fact, they're very dishonest about the world and the facts about it. 107 00:06:56,970 --> 00:06:58,510 They're also very arrogant. 108 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:04,850 In 1973, a group of renowned scientists and educators wrote a manifesto 109 00:07:04,850 --> 00:07:07,609 called the Humanist Manifesto Two. 110 00:07:08,230 --> 00:07:12,170 In it, they stated their goals for a world without religion. 111 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:19,780 They say, “No deity will save us. We must save ourselves.” It's interesting 112 00:07:20,010 --> 00:07:24,130 that this booklet talks about how atheism plans to deal with the problem of evil 113 00:07:24,130 --> 00:07:26,540 and suffering in regard to morals. 114 00:07:27,020 --> 00:07:30,770 This manifesto says that nothing is absolute in ethics. 115 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,020 Nothing is right or wrong for everybody. 116 00:07:33,420 --> 00:07:36,870 Every person decides what is good or bad for him. 117 00:07:37,540 --> 00:07:41,289 In regard to human suffering, it says that people should work together 118 00:07:41,309 --> 00:07:45,270 to have peace on earth and to put an end to things like poverty. 119 00:07:45,690 --> 00:07:49,960 And one thing these atheists agree on is that they don't need 120 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:51,890 God to accomplish any of this. 121 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:54,400 Now that's the humanist agenda. 122 00:07:54,970 --> 00:07:59,820 But regardless of which view of atheism a person holds, an atheist 123 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:04,199 will point to evil and suffering as a reason why he does not believe in God. 124 00:08:04,639 --> 00:08:09,620 Here are a couple of examples of men that were well-known atheists who were very 125 00:08:09,630 --> 00:08:12,820 bold in denying God on that very basis. 126 00:08:12,820 --> 00:08:14,120 So consider these men. 127 00:08:14,740 --> 00:08:18,270 Robert Ingersoll was a famous orator in America. 128 00:08:18,710 --> 00:08:21,839 He lived from 1833 to 1899. 129 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:27,460 He was so gifted and accomplished at public speaking that people would pay 130 00:08:27,460 --> 00:08:33,000 money and fill places to hear him speak for three to four hours on politics, 131 00:08:33,159 --> 00:08:35,620 religion, and history, and other topics. 132 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:37,970 He was a notorious skeptic. 133 00:08:38,469 --> 00:08:41,409 He ridiculed the Bible, he blasphemed God. 134 00:08:41,809 --> 00:08:45,490 He loved to point to stories in the Bible like the Israelites’ war against the 135 00:08:45,490 --> 00:08:51,100 Canaanites, and then he would ask, “If the devil had been in command of the Israelite 136 00:08:51,150 --> 00:08:56,369 army instead of God, how could he have done any worse than what God commanded 137 00:08:56,370 --> 00:09:01,600 the Israelites to do when he told them to kill every man, woman, and child?” 138 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:06,450 So Ingersoll not only said he couldn't believe in the God of the Bible because 139 00:09:06,450 --> 00:09:11,340 of all the evil in the world, but he also said he didn't believe in God 140 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:13,699 because of all the evil in the Bible. 141 00:09:14,090 --> 00:09:17,709 Now, there's much more that we could say about that in response, but right now 142 00:09:17,740 --> 00:09:21,390 I'm simply pointing out some examples of how people use this problem of 143 00:09:21,390 --> 00:09:24,010 evil to reach the level of atheism. 144 00:09:24,620 --> 00:09:28,050 Number two, we find a man by the name of Anthony Flew. 145 00:09:28,300 --> 00:09:31,420 He lived from 1923 to 2010. 146 00:09:32,009 --> 00:09:36,349 He was a brilliant, highly educated man by worldly standards. 147 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:41,089 He was a world-renowned atheist who wrote, lectured, and debated 148 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:42,810 to destroy belief in God. 149 00:09:43,340 --> 00:09:45,819 He said believing in God was like believing in the 150 00:09:45,820 --> 00:09:47,649 tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. 151 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:52,540 But then after decades of fighting against God, he shocked the world 152 00:09:52,789 --> 00:09:57,849 when he was in his early eighties by announcing that he had changed his mind. 153 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:01,540 He decided that he could no longer be an atheist. 154 00:10:01,940 --> 00:10:04,160 He released his autobiography in 2007. 155 00:10:05,710 --> 00:10:11,820 The title is, There is a God with the subtitle How The World's Most 156 00:10:11,859 --> 00:10:15,000 Notorious Atheist changed his Mind. 157 00:10:15,910 --> 00:10:19,120 I was like a lot of people when I heard about this, so I 158 00:10:19,130 --> 00:10:20,370 bought the book and read it. 159 00:10:20,940 --> 00:10:25,780 I wanted to know, first of all, what made him decide to be an atheist to 160 00:10:25,780 --> 00:10:30,950 begin with, and second, I was interested in what led him to change his mind. 161 00:10:31,450 --> 00:10:33,220 And I found both answers in the book. 162 00:10:33,850 --> 00:10:37,780 Flew starts by telling us that he was not an atheist always. 163 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:42,300 As a matter of fact, his father was a Methodist minister, but he said 164 00:10:42,309 --> 00:10:47,120 although it was hard for him to put his finger on any one thing that marked his 165 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:52,010 transition to atheism, he said there is one thing that affected him early on. 166 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:52,920 He admitted it. 167 00:10:53,290 --> 00:10:54,810 It was the problem of evil. 168 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:59,200 Now, the Flew family lived in England, and Anthony Flew said that as a 169 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:02,610 young man, his father would take him on trips to France and Germany 170 00:11:02,870 --> 00:11:05,389 in the 1930s before World War II. 171 00:11:06,180 --> 00:11:09,590 There he saw how the Germans were mistreating Jews. 172 00:11:10,060 --> 00:11:14,360 There he saw thousands of Nazi soldiers marching in support of Hitler. 173 00:11:14,650 --> 00:11:19,250 He said in his autobiography that he could not express in words how 174 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:23,859 deeply these experiences influenced his very young mind, and as a 175 00:11:23,859 --> 00:11:26,150 result, he became an atheist. 176 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:30,130 He could not see how an all-powerful, all-loving God 177 00:11:30,420 --> 00:11:32,319 could allow such evil to exist. 178 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:38,260 Then after decades of being an atheist, after all those years of writing and 179 00:11:38,260 --> 00:11:41,260 debating against God, he changed his mind. 180 00:11:41,639 --> 00:11:42,199 Why? 181 00:11:42,690 --> 00:11:43,340 It's simple. 182 00:11:44,060 --> 00:11:47,680 It was, he says in his own words, nature itself. 183 00:11:48,220 --> 00:11:49,800 It was God's creation. 184 00:11:50,330 --> 00:11:54,360 It had been right in front of him all that time, all his life, 185 00:11:54,849 --> 00:11:56,269 but he was too proud to see it. 186 00:11:56,830 --> 00:12:02,600 He finally came out and said, “I now believe that the universe was brought into 187 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:05,480 existence by an infinite intelligence.” 188 00:12:05,860 --> 00:12:09,290 Now those words “infinite intelligence” are interesting. 189 00:12:10,010 --> 00:12:12,920 That's the sad part about his so-called conversion. 190 00:12:13,490 --> 00:12:15,680 He never said he believed in the God of the Bible. 191 00:12:16,260 --> 00:12:20,820 The God of the Bible is not only infinite in knowledge, but He's 192 00:12:20,830 --> 00:12:24,960 also infinite in love and power and justice and all his attributes. 193 00:12:25,110 --> 00:12:28,780 So when Flew said that he changed his mind and became a believer in God, he 194 00:12:28,780 --> 00:12:30,880 was talking about the God of deism. 195 00:12:31,290 --> 00:12:33,889 Now, that's a God who made the world, but has not intervened 196 00:12:33,889 --> 00:12:35,509 with it since he made the world. 197 00:12:35,510 --> 00:12:38,680 Now, that was a popular view when the United States began. 198 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:40,580 Thomas Jefferson held to that kind of view. 199 00:12:40,610 --> 00:12:42,920 Thomas Paine was a deist as well. 200 00:12:43,470 --> 00:12:46,250 And at the same time, Flew was like a lot of people today. 201 00:12:46,260 --> 00:12:50,319 A lot of people today want to believe in God and say they believe in God, 202 00:12:50,790 --> 00:12:52,240 but it's not the God of the Bible. 203 00:12:52,820 --> 00:12:56,380 They say they believe in God, but they don't want to answer to God. 204 00:12:56,810 --> 00:12:59,189 They don't want to have rules from God. 205 00:12:59,770 --> 00:13:04,660 So Flew died without believing in the true God, without believing in 206 00:13:04,660 --> 00:13:08,949 Jesus, and without believing in the Bible as the inspired word of God. 207 00:13:09,589 --> 00:13:12,990 He had turned to atheism because he thought it was the 208 00:13:12,990 --> 00:13:14,770 answer to the problem of evil. 209 00:13:15,030 --> 00:13:18,939 But in the end, he admitted it was no answer at all. 210 00:13:19,420 --> 00:13:24,579 Now, one thing we do see in his story is that there is no excuse for anyone 211 00:13:24,580 --> 00:13:30,640 being an atheist because nature itself shows the existence of God to everyone 212 00:13:31,260 --> 00:13:32,990 everywhere on the face of the earth. 213 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:38,400 In Psalm 19 verse one, the Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God 214 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,490 and the firmament shows his handiwork. 215 00:13:40,780 --> 00:13:45,670 Day unto today utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. 216 00:13:46,010 --> 00:13:51,490 There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” That passage 217 00:13:51,490 --> 00:13:57,420 says that the heavens above the sky up above us—all these things show the 218 00:13:57,429 --> 00:14:01,920 power and the glory of God anywhere at any time on the face of the earth. 219 00:14:02,639 --> 00:14:07,180 In Acts chapter 14, verse 17, Paul and Barnabas are in the city of Lira. 220 00:14:07,490 --> 00:14:11,400 These are superstitious people, and the Bible shows that Paul pointed them to 221 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:15,870 nature because God is the one and the only one who could make this creation. 222 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:19,660 In Acts chapter 14, verse 17, here's what they said. 223 00:14:20,450 --> 00:14:24,289 “Nevertheless, He did not leave himself without witness.” Now 224 00:14:24,289 --> 00:14:25,590 they're talking about God. 225 00:14:25,830 --> 00:14:28,500 God did not leave himself without testimony. 226 00:14:28,860 --> 00:14:34,120 God didn't hide Himself in the heavens and not reveal His power to man. 227 00:14:34,429 --> 00:14:37,579 And how did He reveal Himself to these superstitious people 228 00:14:37,580 --> 00:14:38,889 who didn't even have a Bible? 229 00:14:39,230 --> 00:14:41,930 Well, the Bible shows us in Acts 14, verse 17. 230 00:14:42,180 --> 00:14:47,230 He did not leave Himself without witness “in that he did good and gave us rain 231 00:14:47,230 --> 00:14:52,970 from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” 232 00:14:53,349 --> 00:14:55,069 Where do these things come from? 233 00:14:55,380 --> 00:14:59,719 How do we arrive at getting these things that we need in life? 234 00:14:59,900 --> 00:15:01,829 It's because of the goodness of God. 235 00:15:01,980 --> 00:15:04,180 It's because of the design of God. 236 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:08,070 It's because we have, and the world has, a Creator. 237 00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:12,150 In Acts chapter 17, Paul is in the city of Athens. 238 00:15:12,530 --> 00:15:16,709 This is a city that is full of idolatry and also a city that is 239 00:15:16,709 --> 00:15:19,090 renowned for the intellectuals. 240 00:15:19,350 --> 00:15:23,020 Imagine that you have all of these supposedly worldly wise 241 00:15:23,060 --> 00:15:26,400 people, and yet you have a city that is full of foolish idols. 242 00:15:26,540 --> 00:15:28,809 So how does Paul address these people? 243 00:15:29,179 --> 00:15:30,550 What does he say to them? 244 00:15:30,929 --> 00:15:34,609 How is he going to talk to people that don't even believe in the true God? 245 00:15:34,609 --> 00:15:34,909 Yet? 246 00:15:35,469 --> 00:15:40,100 The Bible shows us in Acts 17, verse 24, that he took them straight 247 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:45,400 to nature, to creation, because creation points you to the Creator. 248 00:15:46,030 --> 00:15:52,269 In Acts 17:24, Paul said, “God, who made the world”—there’s the key—“and 249 00:15:52,279 --> 00:15:56,860 everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in 250 00:15:56,860 --> 00:16:02,380 temples made with hands.” Going down to verse 26, he said that God “has made 251 00:16:02,540 --> 00:16:07,699 from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. 252 00:16:08,250 --> 00:16:12,290 And has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their 253 00:16:12,290 --> 00:16:16,390 dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they 254 00:16:16,390 --> 00:16:18,219 might grope for him and find him. 255 00:16:18,470 --> 00:16:23,919 Though he is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have 256 00:16:23,940 --> 00:16:30,239 our being, as also some of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” 257 00:16:30,550 --> 00:16:34,520 And then you have that powerful passage in Romans chapter one. 258 00:16:34,870 --> 00:16:35,130 Here. 259 00:16:35,130 --> 00:16:39,059 Paul teaches us that nature points us to God himself. 260 00:16:39,550 --> 00:16:46,310 He shows us and teaches us that the creation logically leads to the creator. 261 00:16:46,910 --> 00:16:51,859 In Romans one, verse 18, Paul said, “For the wrath of God is revealed from 262 00:16:51,860 --> 00:16:57,970 heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the 263 00:16:57,970 --> 00:17:03,930 truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest 264 00:17:03,940 --> 00:17:09,480 in them, for God has showed it to them; for since the creation of the world 265 00:17:09,660 --> 00:17:15,079 His invisible attributes are clearly seen , being understood by the things 266 00:17:15,109 --> 00:17:22,099 that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead: so that they are without excuse.” 267 00:17:22,420 --> 00:17:26,889 Even though we cannot fully understand why God made the world knowing that 268 00:17:26,890 --> 00:17:31,230 the world would be filled with evil and suffering, what we do know and 269 00:17:31,230 --> 00:17:35,370 what we must not ignore is that the creation reveals the Creator. 270 00:17:35,719 --> 00:17:40,049 We don't know the answer to why all this happens, but one thing we do know 271 00:17:40,049 --> 00:17:42,699 for sure is that God made this world. 272 00:17:43,049 --> 00:17:47,060 Whatever we do, we must never let our ignorance of the one 273 00:17:47,210 --> 00:17:48,840 lead us to deny the other. 274 00:17:49,330 --> 00:17:54,770 That can be hard to do when you're hurting so bad and feel so helpless that you feel 275 00:17:54,780 --> 00:17:56,859 like your faith is at the edge of a cliff. 276 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:01,590 Below you are the sharp, jagged rocks of unbelief. 277 00:18:02,050 --> 00:18:05,300 You're standing on solid ground, but you feel like it's 278 00:18:05,370 --> 00:18:07,070 shaking and about to give way. 279 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:11,060 It's at that moment that each person makes a choice. 280 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:16,150 You can consider the alternative to faith in God, which is unbelief or 281 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:21,060 atheism, or you can back away from the edge of the cliff and think it through. 282 00:18:21,570 --> 00:18:26,190 More than that, you can get down on your knees and humble yourself before God. 283 00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:31,810 Now, if you take a leap of hate, what I would call a leap of hate, hatred 284 00:18:31,810 --> 00:18:37,299 of God, hatred of life, hatred of yourself, then you will end up bitter, 285 00:18:37,369 --> 00:18:41,690 miserable and estranged from God on the jagged rocks of unbelief below. 286 00:18:41,990 --> 00:18:43,730 I call that a leap of hate. 287 00:18:43,980 --> 00:18:45,100 It's a hatred of God. 288 00:18:45,100 --> 00:18:49,729 You know, the Bible does talk about some who hate God in Romans one, verse 30. 289 00:18:50,099 --> 00:18:54,970 They didn't set out intending to hate God, but they end up at that point 290 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,660 and it's usually because of a lot of pain and a lot of suffering in their 291 00:18:58,660 --> 00:19:03,300 life, and they get angry with God, then bitter at God and then finally hate God. 292 00:19:03,980 --> 00:19:07,300 Now Christianity does not teach a leap of faith. 293 00:19:07,990 --> 00:19:10,810 Many people talk about a leap of faith, but the Bible nowhere 294 00:19:10,810 --> 00:19:12,870 tells us to take a leap of faith. 295 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:14,750 Our faith is not a leap. 296 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:16,410 It is not a leap of faith. 297 00:19:16,670 --> 00:19:18,400 It is not a leap in the dark. 298 00:19:18,710 --> 00:19:22,060 It is not a leap without facts and evidence and proof. 299 00:19:22,060 --> 00:19:26,929 If in a time of crisis you keep your feet on the solid ground of 300 00:19:26,929 --> 00:19:31,010 facts and faith, you will recover from this dark and trying time. 301 00:19:31,230 --> 00:19:33,320 God will give you strength and rest. 302 00:19:33,590 --> 00:19:37,360 Most people go through a crisis in life that is so severe that they 303 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:40,839 eventually get to the point to where they question God's justice. 304 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:41,850 Job did. 305 00:19:42,210 --> 00:19:43,450 Others did in the Bible. 306 00:19:43,809 --> 00:19:46,839 But that doesn't mean that we should allow that kind of anger 307 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:48,400 to drive us away from God. 308 00:19:48,830 --> 00:19:52,980 This is why we need to spend more time contemplating God's creation. 309 00:19:53,630 --> 00:19:57,159 Now, that's more than just spending time with nature as people say. 310 00:19:57,719 --> 00:19:59,470 A lot of people love the outdoors. 311 00:20:00,130 --> 00:20:05,089 They enjoy the tall mountains, the beautiful seas, the majestic stars, and 312 00:20:05,089 --> 00:20:09,630 the breathtaking array of animals and birds and fish and flowers, and trees that 313 00:20:09,630 --> 00:20:11,980 cover the landscape of our home on earth. 314 00:20:12,430 --> 00:20:15,470 They love to go on vacations and be close to nature. 315 00:20:15,990 --> 00:20:19,780 But the sad part is they don't give a second thought about the God who 316 00:20:19,780 --> 00:20:24,480 made all this, and they rarely feel that they owe God anything in return, 317 00:20:24,700 --> 00:20:26,410 even a prayer of thanksgiving. 318 00:20:26,940 --> 00:20:31,100 They feel exhilarated in nature, but not humble enough to obey God. 319 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:35,990 But as Christians, we see and feel much more when we look into nature. 320 00:20:36,460 --> 00:20:38,490 We see the power of God in nature. 321 00:20:38,830 --> 00:20:41,240 We see the love of God in His creation. 322 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:42,920 We see the wisdom of God. 323 00:20:43,180 --> 00:20:47,810 We recognize who we are and how little and dependent we are on God. 324 00:20:48,220 --> 00:20:51,010 David often marveled about this in the Book of Psalms. 325 00:20:51,179 --> 00:20:54,950 In Psalm eight, verse three, he said, “When I consider your 326 00:20:54,950 --> 00:20:57,100 heavens”—and let me just stop there. 327 00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:59,670 How many times do we even do that today? 328 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,800 He said I am considering your heavens. 329 00:21:02,830 --> 00:21:04,010 I'm looking at the heavens. 330 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:08,360 I don't just glance at them and then hurry back to whatever I was doing. 331 00:21:08,670 --> 00:21:10,110 He said I really think about it. 332 00:21:10,139 --> 00:21:13,650 I ponder, I meditate on this vast creation. 333 00:21:13,940 --> 00:21:15,549 Do you do that in your life? 334 00:21:15,809 --> 00:21:20,700 Do we take the time even to look up just for a few seconds or a few minutes 335 00:21:21,110 --> 00:21:23,890 and think about how great our God is? 336 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,460 That's one of the things that is a shortcoming in the lives of many 337 00:21:27,460 --> 00:21:31,020 Christians today that don't spend enough time contemplating nature. 338 00:21:31,389 --> 00:21:35,809 And what I'm saying to you in this lesson is that if you're going to deal with 339 00:21:35,820 --> 00:21:39,679 the problem of suffering and evil in this world, and if you're going to live 340 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:43,990 with all of the trials in your life, you’re going to have to not only study 341 00:21:43,990 --> 00:21:47,650 your Bible and pray to God, but you're going to have to look into creation. 342 00:21:47,990 --> 00:21:52,640 You're going to have to spend more time contemplating creation because the God 343 00:21:52,850 --> 00:21:58,880 that can create and maintain and sustain all of this is the God that we depend 344 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,440 on to get us through those trials. 345 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:06,000 If we believe that God created all this by his mighty power, then there is no 346 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:10,700 reason we should doubt the fact that he will see us through the hardships of life. 347 00:22:10,889 --> 00:22:12,389 It's just as simple as that. 348 00:22:12,860 --> 00:22:17,250 But if you and I are so busy that we cannot even take the time to look up, 349 00:22:17,410 --> 00:22:19,650 then our faith is going to be weak. 350 00:22:20,020 --> 00:22:23,169 Now look again at what David said in Psalm eight, verse three. 351 00:22:23,730 --> 00:22:29,589 “When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, 352 00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:35,020 which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man 353 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:39,800 that you visit him for? You have made him a little lower than the angels. And you 354 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:41,889 have crowned him with glory and honor.” 355 00:22:42,300 --> 00:22:46,050 Now, you will see this same kind of thinking brought up in the Book of Job. 356 00:22:46,260 --> 00:22:47,559 We will look at that later. 357 00:22:47,639 --> 00:22:51,770 We are going to discuss, we're going to talk about, the Book of Job, but I 358 00:22:51,780 --> 00:22:55,740 just want to make a reference right now to one thing in the Book of Job, and 359 00:22:55,740 --> 00:23:01,330 that is that when you look at all the speakers in that book, you have Job, you 360 00:23:01,330 --> 00:23:06,810 have his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and then the young man named 361 00:23:06,870 --> 00:23:09,300 Elihu, and then you have God Himself. 362 00:23:09,890 --> 00:23:15,350 So each one of these six talked about Job's suffering from the 363 00:23:15,350 --> 00:23:19,909 standpoint of the creation, even though Job and his three friends 364 00:23:19,940 --> 00:23:22,559 disagreed as to why he was suffering. 365 00:23:23,170 --> 00:23:28,410 Every one of them at some point talked about and appealed to nature itself. 366 00:23:28,930 --> 00:23:33,190 They all talked about the fact that nature or the creation backed up 367 00:23:33,210 --> 00:23:36,589 what they were saying in some way or another about the problem of evil. 368 00:23:37,210 --> 00:23:40,260 When you look at the book of Job, you find that God, who is the last 369 00:23:40,260 --> 00:23:43,530 one to talk, appeals to His creation. 370 00:23:43,780 --> 00:23:45,610 He talks about nature itself. 371 00:23:45,610 --> 00:23:50,080 He talks about what He has made and He tells Job to consider this because 372 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:54,510 He asked Job a lot of questions about his creation that Job cannot answer. 373 00:23:54,820 --> 00:23:59,710 Now, the point is simply this: Job thought that he had a case against God. 374 00:24:00,299 --> 00:24:04,260 He looked at the evil, the suffering in his life, and he 375 00:24:04,260 --> 00:24:05,900 thought he had a case against God. 376 00:24:05,910 --> 00:24:08,340 He thought that God was being cruel to him. 377 00:24:08,340 --> 00:24:13,040 He says that in Job chapter 30, and so what God does, instead of arguing with 378 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:17,950 him and proving him wrong on the level that Job wanted to argue about, God 379 00:24:17,950 --> 00:24:19,719 simply takes him back to the creation. 380 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:26,949 And He says, Job, if you don't even understand how and why I made, and how 381 00:24:26,990 --> 00:24:32,029 I manage, and why I do the things with the physical world that I do—the sun, the 382 00:24:32,030 --> 00:24:36,699 moon, the stars, the animals, the seas, the frost, the hail, the lightnings, 383 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:41,140 the clouds, all this—if you don't understand how I manage all this and 384 00:24:41,140 --> 00:24:45,740 why I put all these things into place, then how on earth do you think that 385 00:24:45,740 --> 00:24:50,979 you know enough to criticize me because of what I allow or what I do or how I 386 00:24:50,980 --> 00:24:56,120 manage the moral part of this life—the part of human beings and their actions 387 00:24:56,120 --> 00:24:57,790 and their morals and their choices? 388 00:24:57,950 --> 00:25:03,210 You don't know enough about that Job, and so if we look into the creation, we 389 00:25:03,210 --> 00:25:08,639 are not going to get answers that will satisfy us as to “Why, Lord?” but it 390 00:25:08,639 --> 00:25:13,360 will help us to put that question into perspective, and that really is what the 391 00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:15,470 focus of this study is really all about. 392 00:25:15,780 --> 00:25:18,530 Now, here's something else to always remember about the 393 00:25:18,530 --> 00:25:20,420 problem of evil and atheism. 394 00:25:20,900 --> 00:25:24,950 Atheism is no answer because it always contradicts itself. 395 00:25:24,950 --> 00:25:26,169 Here's what I mean by that. 396 00:25:26,759 --> 00:25:30,889 Atheists say that they cannot believe in God because of all 397 00:25:30,900 --> 00:25:32,660 the evil that is in the world. 398 00:25:32,940 --> 00:25:34,400 That is a contradiction. 399 00:25:34,740 --> 00:25:35,320 Why? 400 00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:39,469 Because if atheists are true, then God does not exist. 401 00:25:39,849 --> 00:25:44,389 If there is no God, then there is no real right or wrong. 402 00:25:44,740 --> 00:25:45,639 That's the point. 403 00:25:46,090 --> 00:25:49,209 There is no evil in the world if God does not exist. 404 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:54,570 Atheists don't have anything to point to, In the minds of atheists, there is no God. 405 00:25:54,900 --> 00:25:58,700 That means that there is no ultimate standard to say what 406 00:25:58,700 --> 00:26:00,250 is right and what is wrong. 407 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:04,169 Now you have human beings obviously, you have people that say, “Well, I think 408 00:26:04,170 --> 00:26:08,310 this is right, or I think that this is wrong.” You have people who say, “Eell, 409 00:26:08,390 --> 00:26:12,409 the majority of people seem to say this about right and wrong,” and then others 410 00:26:12,410 --> 00:26:17,820 say, “Well, I disagree with that.” As long as you keep morals or ethics on a 411 00:26:17,820 --> 00:26:20,020 human level, there's nothing objective. 412 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:22,880 There's nothing that really is absolute. 413 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:29,350 But if morals are absolute, if there is anything that is objectively right 414 00:26:29,370 --> 00:26:34,730 or wrong in this world, then that means that there must be an ultimate standard. 415 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:40,079 There must be an objective source of right and wrong, and 416 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:41,899 that source can only be God. 417 00:26:41,930 --> 00:26:45,820 It can't be man, because people differ in their ideas of right and wrong. 418 00:26:45,830 --> 00:26:50,190 You have to have some kind of law that rises above human law. 419 00:26:50,429 --> 00:26:52,790 I mentioned Anthony Flew just a few minutes ago. 420 00:26:52,790 --> 00:26:55,840 I want you to think about a debate that he had with a gospel preacher named 421 00:26:55,860 --> 00:26:59,499 Thomas Warren in 1976 in Denton, Texas. 422 00:27:00,209 --> 00:27:05,560 This was at a time when Anthony Flu was in his prime as an atheistic debater. 423 00:27:06,300 --> 00:27:12,520 So brother Warren asked him the question: Did the Nazis commit real moral evil 424 00:27:12,530 --> 00:27:14,739 when they murdered 6 million Jews? 425 00:27:15,259 --> 00:27:18,700 And Mr. Flew said well obviously they did. 426 00:27:18,700 --> 00:27:21,930 Then Brother Warren asked him the question: what law did they violate? 427 00:27:22,190 --> 00:27:25,710 He said the Nazis didn't violate German law because German laws 428 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:26,760 said that they should do it. 429 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,620 They didn't violate the law of Great Britain because they were 430 00:27:30,620 --> 00:27:32,379 not under the law of Great Britain. 431 00:27:32,790 --> 00:27:35,930 They didn't violate the law of the United States because they were not 432 00:27:35,940 --> 00:27:38,240 subject to the law of the United States. 433 00:27:38,370 --> 00:27:40,430 So what law did they violate? 434 00:27:40,660 --> 00:27:44,230 And Flew in that debate never could get out of that trap. 435 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:48,150 He never could dig himself out of that hole because if there 436 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:52,659 is no God, there is nothing that those Nazis did that was wrong. 437 00:27:52,670 --> 00:27:54,750 You can't say that they were guilty of sin. 438 00:27:54,950 --> 00:27:58,189 You can say that they maybe broke some kind of law that you invent in 439 00:27:58,190 --> 00:28:01,630 your mind or that you appeal to on a human level, but you can't really 440 00:28:01,630 --> 00:28:05,230 say that they did anything that was really morally, objectively evil. 441 00:28:05,429 --> 00:28:06,740 And that's what I'm talking about. 442 00:28:07,170 --> 00:28:11,350 So it's an incredible thing that you have all these very educated men, supposedly, 443 00:28:11,469 --> 00:28:17,270 and women who point to the evil that is in the world, the suffering that takes 444 00:28:17,270 --> 00:28:20,530 place on earth, and say this is wrong. 445 00:28:20,550 --> 00:28:24,090 This is evil, and the God that you Christians say you 446 00:28:24,090 --> 00:28:25,760 believe in cannot exist. 447 00:28:25,929 --> 00:28:28,669 Because if He was really all powerful, He would stop this. 448 00:28:28,820 --> 00:28:32,190 If He was really all loving, He would want to stop this. 449 00:28:33,490 --> 00:28:34,360 stop what? 450 00:28:34,380 --> 00:28:37,900 And they of course will answer: stop all the evil that is in the world. 451 00:28:37,900 --> 00:28:41,519 But yet they've contradicted themselves the very moment they say that, because 452 00:28:41,540 --> 00:28:43,610 if there is no God, there is no evil. 453 00:28:43,610 --> 00:28:46,060 We're just dirt and rocks and dust. 454 00:28:46,389 --> 00:28:48,760 We're just animals just like any other animal. 455 00:28:48,980 --> 00:28:53,370 And animals don't live on the basis of this is right and this is wrong. 456 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,099 When a tiger attacks or when a spider bites, we don't talk about 457 00:28:57,099 --> 00:28:59,600 that being sinful or evil or wrong. 458 00:28:59,690 --> 00:29:01,080 They just do what they do. 459 00:29:01,250 --> 00:29:04,499 And so people killing you, each other, people murdering each other, people 460 00:29:04,500 --> 00:29:09,110 starving each other to death—whatever the atrocity is that you point to in life, 461 00:29:09,250 --> 00:29:11,550 none of that is evil if there is no God. 462 00:29:11,930 --> 00:29:16,990 So it is just absolutely incredible that atheists are so stubborn and so 463 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,030 prideful and so blind that they don't see that they're contradicting themselves 464 00:29:21,070 --> 00:29:26,550 at every turn because every time they bring up the problem of evil as their 465 00:29:26,550 --> 00:29:31,590 reason for not believing in God, they are not only logically but also 466 00:29:31,620 --> 00:29:34,060 inevitably contradicting themselves. 467 00:29:34,389 --> 00:29:38,009 We need to teach our young people especially to remember this 468 00:29:38,179 --> 00:29:41,380 when they're confronted with the problem of evil as a reason for not 469 00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:43,630 believing in God because it is not. 470 00:29:43,830 --> 00:29:49,720 It is actually a reason for believing in God, and that's why we say atheism 471 00:29:49,950 --> 00:29:52,100 is no answer to the problem of evil. 472 00:29:53,349 --> 00:29:55,649 Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. 473 00:29:55,780 --> 00:30:01,549 Stay connected with our podcast on our website, and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, 474 00:30:01,709 --> 00:30:04,480 or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. 475 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:09,159 Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 476 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,139 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. 477 00:30:13,500 --> 00:30:14,770 Study at your level. 478 00:30:15,210 --> 00:30:17,779 Aim higher and get in touch with us today.