 Okay. Those of you online, can you hear me okay? See me okay? Is the audio with you okay? All right. Thank you. All right. So let's pray and get started. Can I request somebody in the class to please pray and then we'll start. Sorry. Oh, Mike is there. All right. Yes, somebody can please pray and we'll start. Thank you Jesus for this day. We pray that as we continue in the class that you reveal yourself to us and let us learn together of Father God and help us to grow in the revelation and knowledge of you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. So let's quickly review what we did in the last class and then we will move forward. I'm just going to share my screen so that we can have a look at the notes. So we just began. It's kind of a little funny sitting and talking. We began with lesson number one, the introduction. We defined apologetics that we are providing an answer for the questions people have. A defense or a response to the challenges sometimes people may bring to what we believe. Why we believe, giving a reason for it. We saw that Jesus, the Lord Jesus himself answered questions and he demonstrated the power of the kingdom as well as he expressed the wisdom of God. We looked in the ministry of Peter, the Apostle Peter. And we saw that in 1 Peter 315 is the main text that most people, the ministry of apologetics, they use. And the Bible says, give a reason when people ask you for the hope that you have, you give a reason for that. So that's from that verse 1 Peter 315 is where we get the word apologia or the ministry of apologetics. It's a very nice definition of that ministry, the ministry of apologetics. However, in the case of the Apostle Peter, we made note that he was actually an simple, he was just a simple uneducated fisherman. He was not some big scholar, some highly trained person, just a fisherman. And in his ministry, the one incident we saw in Acts 4.13 to 14 is in his ministry, the biggest defense he gave was the healing of the lame man. So the man was healed, people couldn't question. So Peter did not give any big response, he didn't give any big defense and argument, but the healing of the lame man itself was a defense, an answer. To the preaching of the gospel. So that is something you must not forget that many times the apology that we give is actually the works of God, the miracles of God. We looked into the ministry of the Apostle Paul and we saw that even in his ministry, in contrast to Peter, Paul was a very educated man. He was a Pharisee, so he had been well-trained, he knew the Scriptures, he was well-educated. But even in his ministry, he reasoned and demonstrated, so he did both. He didn't just depend on his reasoning, he did reason, he did talk to people, he did explain, he did answer questions, but he demonstrated, he believed in the power of God, he demonstrated the power of God. In one classic example we saw was in Acts 13, when he was before Sergius Paulus, the governor of the island of Paphos, Acts 13, 6 to 12, and there, while he taught the word of the Lord, the power of God was what got this man's attention. When he saw what God did, he then received the teaching of the Lord. Then he spoke a little bit about spiritual dynamics, we said that we must be mindful that there is demonic interference, the devil himself is doing things to blind the minds of people. So really it's not about how well we can argue or how well we can debate, there's a spiritual battle, the devil is blinding the minds of people and so we must take authority over that part. Through prayer, through the exercise of our authority as we are proclaiming the gospel. And we also saw that there will be, there's a human side, some people oppose the preaching of the gospel, they oppose the faith and Paul tells us, we spent some time in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 23 to 26, where the apostle Paul says, we must in humility teach those who are in opposition with humility, we must teach them so that God will give them repentance to the receiving of the truth. So it is God who's going to open their hearts for them to receive the truth from our side in meekness, in humility with patience, we have to share the gospel. Then we also saw how we have to depend on the Holy Spirit, John 16, 7 to 11, it's a Holy Spirit to convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. It's a Holy Spirit is going to open their hearts and minds, we can preach the gospel, we can share about Jesus, we can answer questions, we can give explanation, but it's the Holy Spirit who's going to convict their hearts. And we saw in 1st Peter 2 that if we just, if we maintain a good testimony, God will use that testimony, the testimony of our life in the day of visitation. That means when he visits people, he will use our testimony to speak into their hearts, so that living that testimony in front of people is very important. And another thing we mentioned from 2 Corinthians 3 is that the head follows the heart. Many times God touches the heart, they believe and then they come to understand, and that is true for us also. We believed in Jesus, we didn't understand everything about trinity, if we had to understand everything about trinity and then to believe, it would be very difficult. We believed in Jesus and then later on, the understanding came, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, that understanding came later on, but we believed with the heart, so that's important. So now let's move forward from them and I want to emphasize one very important thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 to 25, please, let's turn there. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 18 to 25, and you can follow with me, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 18 to 25, so the Apostle Paul is writing here, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 to 25. So Paul the Apostle, let me just make this a little bigger here. So he writes, he says, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So what is he talking about? The message of the cross, the message of the cross, it is foolishness. So some people say, oh, what is this, they're preaching, Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago, somewhere in Jerusalem. So it is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of what? The message of the cross. It is the power of God. So think about this. The message of the cross, that is the gospel, the gospel itself is the power of God. And in Romans 1, 16, Paul said the same thing, he said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God. So here he is using the message of the cross, that is, when you are explaining about the cross, when you are sharing about the cross, the message of the cross, it is the power of God. So we say, you know, we want people to encounter the power of God. Well, this is how we do it. We bring them the message of the cross. The message of the cross is the power of God. So we're giving them an opportunity to encounter the power of God when we bring them the message of the cross. Now there are some people who think it's foolishness, but really it's an opportunity for them to encounter the power of God. So let's read on verse 19. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this age, the people argue, has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. So what Paul is saying is, you know, there is the wisdom of this world. There are all these educated people of this world, the wise people, they call them the scribe, the disputer, the debater. All these people are there, but God has really made foolish the wisdom of this world. And he says, the world through wisdom did not know God. Through its own wisdom, the world cannot understand God through its own ways. You're not going to be able to comprehend God. You know, so the world has its own way of thinking, own wisdom. Yeah, we, you know, we do a lot of nice things on the earth, but our wisdom is not going to help us understand God. God is beyond that and it requires spiritual understanding to know God. So the world through wisdom did not know God. And it says, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Notice it says, it pleased God. So this is what God decided. I want people, if this may seem a very foolish thing, preach the message. But it pleased God that through the foolishness of the message preached, he's going to save people. So God said, I'm choosing a very foolish method. The world may think this is foolish, but I'm going to use this foolish method. What is it? Preach the gospel, preach the message. And through the foolishness of the message preached, I'm going to save lives. So God chose this approach. So when you and I think about this, you know, there are all these intellectuals in the world, the wise people of the world. They want to know God. Can you explain God to us? Can you answer our questions? So remember, man through his wisdom cannot understand God. They may be intellectually very great, but through our human intelligence, we cannot understand God. Second, we must understand that how do we approach these people? Well, God has said, I'm just happy with something simple. I'm just happy that you preach the message. It may look foolish, but through the foolishness of the message preached, I will save people. So you and I, we don't have to put too much pressure on ourselves. Just do the foolish thing. Share the message. And God will use that to save people. Okay, just share the message. God has decided that to the foolishness of the message preached, he will save those who believe. Let's read on verse 22. The Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews, a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because a foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So what Paul is saying, he's saying, Paul recognizes that in his audience, there are two kinds of people. There are the Jews and there are the Greeks. The Jews are very spiritual people. They want a sign. They want a miracle. They want something supernatural. So you remember the Jews, they come to Jesus and say, Jesus, what sign will you give us? Do some magic. Do something, some sign. Show us some sign so that we can believe in you. So the Jews are very spiritual. They want to see something supernatural. So there are people who want that. Then there are Greeks. Verse 22. The Greeks seek after wisdom. So the Greeks, they're not interested in signs and supernatural. They want something that will appeal to the mind. So there are the Jews who want something supernatural. There are the Greeks who want wisdom. There are the Greeks who want wisdom. Tell us something very, very complicated. Something that will stimulate our minds. So Paul is recognizing that there are two kinds of people even in his audience. There are the Jews and the Greeks. But what is the message he will give them? Verse 23. But we preach Christ. Whether you're a Jew or a Greek, say a message. We preach Christ. That's the message we give you. So it doesn't matter who, what kind of people are in your audience. There may be people who are very spiritual. They want something supernatural, miracles, healings. There may be people who are very intellectual. They want some wisdom. They want something that stimulates their mind, appeals to their intelligence. Paul says, we have only one message. We have the message of the cross. That's all. We preach Christ crucially. That's the same message. But he says, this message, what about this message? To the Jews, it is a stumbling block and to the Greeks, it is foolishness. That means to the Jews who are looking for something supernatural. You say Jesus died on the cross. What is supernatural about that? You're only seeing a man who is in his weakness. So it's a stumbling block to the Jews. To the Greeks, it is foolishness. You're saying he died, my sins are forgiven. What logic is that? It is foolishness. But he says, verse 24, to those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, doesn't matter who you are. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. That means in this message of the cross, in preaching Christ crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God is being brought into people's lives. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So Jews want the power of God in the message of the cross. God's power is there. The Greeks want wisdom in the message of the cross. The wisdom of God is there. It's actually there. On the surface, it may look like foolishness. It may look like weakness for those who are looking for something supernatural. It may look like foolishness to those who are looking for something wise. But actually in the message of the cross, in us preaching Christ crucified, there is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For us, we must have that confidence in the message of the cross. Whether you're speaking to the Jews, meaning very spiritual people who want, you know, some miracles and healings or whether you're speaking to the Greeks, the intellectual people, we have only one message. It is a message of the cross. And you have the confidence that in the message of the cross, as you are explaining it to people, as you're giving them the simple message, they are going to encounter the wisdom of God and the power of God. Because God has chosen to the foolishness of the message preached. God has chosen. You just go and do this. You just go and give them the message. Just preach the message. So the foolishness of the message, he will save lives. So as we are getting ready to answer some of these big questions of life and is God their existence of God, this and that and all of that, talk about those things. We must be very clear that while we make our efforts to answer the questions, yes, we are going to give an answer. Yes, we are going to give a reason for the hope we have. Yeah, we're going to do that. But most importantly, we must share the message of the cross. And in that message, there is the power of God and there is the wisdom. So very simple message. We are sinners, but Jesus Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose up again. He's alive today. Anyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins and be saved. Simple message. But in that message, there is the power of God and the wisdom. And we must depend on that. God has said, just give the message. You give the message. Of course you answer the questions. Do the best explanation you can, but depend on the power of the message of the cross. Okay. Any questions? Yeah. So when we actually in the message of the cross, there is the wisdom of God and what is, how is it? It goes like this. And Paul explains this very beautifully in Romans chapter five. He explains very nicely. It goes like this. One man sins and the whole human race came under sin, Satan and death. One man sins. Everybody was put under sin, Satan and death. What is the wisdom of God? God said, I will bring another man. I will bring another man. But through this man's obedience, everybody will be brought out of sin, Satan and death. So wisdom of God, Satan thought, ah, I knocked the whole race out. I knocked Adam out. So I knocked the whole race out. God said, I have a better plan. I'll bring another man. But this man whom God would bring, himself must not be subject to sin, Satan and death. He has to be without sin. He cannot be born under Satan. So how can that happen? There's only one way. God has to become man. That's the only way possible because there is no human being who can be in that state. So this is the wisdom of God that God became a man, but this man was very different. This man was above sin, above Satan, above death. But he was a man. But he was God who became. So just as one man disobeyed, put us all under sin, Satan, death, one man. So Paul says, through one man's obedience, referring to Jesus, through one man's obedience, we have all received grace and the gift of righteousness. One man sinned, we all came under sin, Satan, condemnation, death. One man, Jesus, obeys. Through him, we have all received grace and righteousness. This is the wisdom of God. It's wrapped up in this message of the cross. So beautiful. And that is how we experience salvation through Jesus Christ. So in the message of the cross, there is the power of God and there is the wisdom of God. It's there. So now as we, any other questions? As we move forward, just as a little side note, and I want to make this the focus of our study, but as a side note, I want to just point a little bit to the history of the church. And this is in the, you will learn about this in the other course on revivals, visitations and moves of God. Church history, Christian history, Christian history, Christian history, right? So what we will see, and you will find it in that book, Revivals, visitations, moves of God. I'm just sharing this with you. That actually from the very beginning of the church, people had to defend the Christian faith from other dangers, heresies. They call false, false ideas, wrong ideas from the very beginning. So from the early church itself. So apologetics or apology is not something new. In the sense, in the Christian church, apologetics has become something very big, maybe in the last 30 years. But actually, when you study the history of the church, you will see that this whole defending the Christian faith began way back in the early church. So I'll just mention this, you will learn all this in detail in the church history course that Aris Tidus, AD 125. He's referred to as one of the earliest Christian apologists. So this man called Aris Tidus in AD 125. He wrote the first book called Apology, a defense of the faith. So way back in AD 125, the beginning of the early church itself, they had to defend. And some of the things that they had to defend against, and then there was another man called Justin Martyr in AD 155. He wrote a book called First Apology. And after that, many others, theophilus, Arrhenius, Tirtulin, these are all early church fathers who were all apologists. I mean, they defended the Christian faith. Some of the things they had to defend the Christian faith was against things like the canon of scripture, which, you know, what makes up the Bible? So no, these are the scriptures. We can't get rid of this. These are holy scriptures. A very important area they had to defend was about the deity of Christ. Because in the early days, at that time, people were questioning, oh Jesus, it's not deity. He's not God who became man. So they had to defend. And there was so much confusion, you know, because people are trying to understand the deity of Christ. How did God become man? So they had to defend the Christian faith against this and also the Trinity. So Tirtulin, again, was a lawyer and an apologist. This was AD 200. And he brought about the term Trinity to preserve the understanding of the triune God in the Bible. Father, son, holy spirit, to protect that, preserve that. So he came up with this idea of Trinity. And one of the most important things that happened was around AD 325. There was the Council of Nikea, so not Nike shoes on, but Council of Nikea. This was called by the Emperor Constantine. And it was in the Council of Nikea that the Nicene Creed, today we say it, many churches all over the world, almost 2000 years later, we are still saying the same thing. I believe in God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And I believe in Jesus Christ. And I believe in the Church. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Church. I believe that Jesus was crucified, died under Pontius Pilate, was buried, he rose up again on the third day. He ascended to everybody. He's coming back. So the Nicene Creed was written in 325 AD, very specifically to protect the main tenants of the Christian faith. This is what it means to be a Christian. Let us put it down in a simple statement, a declaration. So the Nicene, so 380, 325 was written. So the Emperor Constantine, he saw all these wrong ideas were trying to come into the church. How do I protect the church so that the core beliefs are not compromised? How do we, okay, let us do this. He got a lot of these bishops together and said, okay, let us write this Creed. So people can say it. See, when you say it over and again, everybody understands, everybody will know this is what we believe. So in order to protect the church from all these wrong ideas and things like that, let us write it down. Everybody says it. So everybody knows this is what we believe. So it was done back in 83, 325, long time ago and even today in churches around the world. What an amazing thing people are saying. Of course, they may say that it has been modified slightly in terms of language, but that the main core tenants of the faith were captured in the Creed written down so that nobody can try to disturb, corrupt the Christian faith. So when we talk about apologetics, we must remember it goes back all the way to the early church. We said Jesus was a great apologist. Paul, Peter and Paul, they were great apologists. But understand that after the Apostles died, there have been, there always have been threats against the church about what we believe. There's always been there. It's not something new just to our day. It's been there from those days. And God has used different people to give answers to the questions of their day and time. Of course, in our day and time, the questions may be a little different. There are a lot of social issues today. People are asking questions, but we must be prepared to give answers. Okay, so we are going to go on to lesson two, which is the existence of God. Any questions so far, everyone is fine with me? So the first question we want to deal with is how can we say that God exists, right? How do we know there is a God and how do we know God created everything? Because there are some people who believe there is a God. And again, this is, you have to be careful because even among Christians, there are people who believe there is God, but they believe that everything happened through evolution. Among the Christians, they say there is God, but He let everything happen through evolution. So they are matching, they're mixing both, but that is also wrong because that is not what the Bible says. The Bible says there is a God and God created everything. God didn't say let it evolve, let it happen by chance. The Bible is very clear, there is God and God created everything. So we have to try to answer both these questions. That is, how do we know there is God and how can we say that everything was created, not evolved or happened by chance? Okay, so we will spend a few chapters, chapter two, three and four on this matter, on the subject. So we will look at it from a theological perspective, we will look at it from a philosophical perspective, and then we will also look at it from a scientific perspective. Theological perspective means, okay, this is what the Bible says. Philosophical perspective means, look at the world around you, what do you observe? It has more to do with logic and reasoning. Scientific is, okay, here are scientific facts based on science that we can point to. So look at, we will look at it from all three perspectives. So let's get started, the existence of God. So the question is, does God exist and was the universe created? Now, what does the Bible say about God? Asya 40 verse 28 says, have you not known, have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord? The creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary, his understanding is unsurpassed. So think about, what does the Bible say about God? First, it says he is the everlasting God, that means he is beyond time, everlasting, no start, no finish, infinite in time. So God is infinite in time, everlasting. Second, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary, he is infinite in power. He doesn't get tired, doesn't need to take a nap, sleep, he's infinite. He never faints nor is weary, he's infinite in power, strength, energy. His understanding is unsurpassed, but so he's infinite in understanding. So three things about God, infinite in his time, infinite in his power, infinite in his understanding. Now, here's the problem. We are finite beings, our brain is finite. So the finite is trying to understand the infinite, starting trouble. There it says there's a problem. The finite is trying to explain the infinite. How can we do it? So obviously, there are going to be limitations. There are going to be things beyond our ability to understand and comprehend. Because the finite is trying to explain the infinite. But let us do the best we can. Within our finite understanding, our finite time, whatever time we've had, our time is finite. Our knowledge is finite, our power is finite. Within what we can, let us try to explain. But understand there are limitations right away. So there are limitations on both sides and the person trying to explain and the person trying to understand. So somebody asked a question, how do you know there is a God? And how do you know he created everything? The person asking the question, the person giving the answer, both are finite. And we are trying to talk about an infinite God. So both sides, there are limitations in us trying to explain. And then somebody trying to understand there are limitations. Now, there are two kinds of people who oppose the truth. There is the atheist and there is the agnostic. What is the difference? The atheist, he makes an affirmation. He says there is no God. I know there is no God. That is the atheist. The agnostic says I don't know if there is a God. If there is a God, I don't know. I am not interested in finding out because I don't know if you can actually know or not. That is agnostic. So he's not taking the side of saying there is no God. He's not taking the other side saying there is a God. I don't know if there is a God and I don't know if you can know that there is a God. Don't trouble me. I don't know. Some people are like that. I don't know. Now, there's a nice quote here from a man called Alex McFarland. God is big enough to handle our questions and God is not intimidated by the depth of our scrutiny. So God is not afraid of us asking questions. We don't have to think God is intimidated anyway. So the problem with the atheist, see when the atheist says there is no God, he is actually making a very big statement because he is saying, I have searched everywhere and I didn't find God. But the question is, did you really search everywhere? How can the finite search out the infinite? So we sent one probe. It is so many billion miles away from the earth. But that is still a finite distance. We don't know how much more there is after that. And you only went in one direction. What about the other direction? What about all the other directions? There's so much we didn't search. So how can we say we searched everywhere? You didn't search everywhere. You searched a little bit. You searched a finite time and space. That's all you searched. So the atheist when he says there is no God is making a very big statement, which cannot be substantiated. There's no proof. Simply saying there is no God. But the problem is, even a lie, if it is said long enough and strong enough, people will believe it. That is the problem. You say it long enough, keep on saying it. And you keep saying it like as though it is very strong. Say it long, say it strong, people will believe. That's what happened with atheism. We said no, no God, no God, no God. And said very strong, no God. People believe. So a lie, if it is said long enough and strong enough, people believe. That is deception. But it is not substantiated. It is not that the atheist can give us proof, complete proof. I searched the whole universe. There was no God. How can't you give us proof? So remember, when the atheist is asking us to give proof about God, he himself does not have proof that God is not there. He also has no proof. But he is making a statement. There is no God. And he challenged, how come you say there is God? On the same basis. You are saying there is no God very emphatically without having searched everything, without having valid proof. And you're challenging us when we say there is God. But we can have, we can point to certain real things that say there is God. We will look at that. So at least we can point to hard evidence and say, look at these things. There is a God. So we can actually very logically respond to an atheist when they say. The other thing about the agnostic is, the agnostic is one who says, I don't know if there is a God and I don't know if you can know there is a God. Well, when you say that I don't know if you can know, even that question, that statement is not a final statement. You're just saying, I don't know. But we can't take that as the final statement. It is not the conclusion of the matter. You're just saying, I don't know. So we can say, look, if there is truth and truth can be found out. And the fact is, there is truth. Truth exists. So any matter, truth exists, facts exist. You just have to find out. Exam. I don't know where Ravali stays. Just because I don't know where Ravali says, I cannot say we can never know where Ravali stays. We can never know where she says. We have to find out. In this case, it is a fact. She is staying somewhere. We don't know where she stays. But just because I don't know, I cannot say, I can never know. I don't know. But there is a fact. She is staying somewhere. I must find out. I have to search. I have to ask. Find out. So just because I don't know the fact doesn't mean the fact is not there or doesn't mean I cannot find out the fact. Just because I don't know the truth doesn't mean truth is not there or I cannot find out the truth. I have to search. So the agnostic who says, hey, I don't know if there is a God. You don't know. Does it mean God is not there? You don't know. Does it mean we cannot find out? Search. Ask the questions. Fact is there. You can find out the fact. Truth is there. You can find out the. Right. So that is the response to the agnostic who says, I don't know. If you don't know, find out. Okay. We will come back to this. After the break, we'll get into a theological response and then a philosophical response. Okay. We'll come back in 10 minutes.