 Well, it's good to be back and You know Ross you gave a great excertation here, but inviting non-christians to come to our skeptics forum You know that was the evangelism minister here in the church a full time I would tell people if you watch our non-christian friends to come It's about an eight to one ratio you invite eight on average one will come so don't just invite one Invite many Of all we come I think we can handle that so that's okay, and Ross, thank you for teaching last week. Well, I was off teaching at another church and you weren't here What Ross did is he put everybody between a rock and a hard place All right, that was bad But you know that was a great analogy that you use so so thank you so And you know that's what gives me the freedom to actually go and speak into the church Is the fact that we got such excellent people here that can teach in my stead so I thought we're actually been talking about actually releasing some of the people here to do short classes elsewhere here in the church Okay, oh We need to get this up and running again. All right. Thanks Yeah, last week I was speaking in Surang church. You see what kind of church is that that's a Korean church and so packed with all these Koreans and But what was I real treat for me was a gentleman came up He wasn't Korean there were a few non Koreans that came and he said you remember me and I said no He says why met you 25 years ago? And I was at a big event in Orange County. Well, how many people came he says well a couple of thousand so I guess that's why He didn't remember me But we did talk briefly and he said I bought a copy of the crater in the cosmos He said I spent the next two days reading it and at the end of that second day I gave my life to Jesus Christ, so Yeah, and of all the books I've ever produced it's that one that I've had more people tell me That was a key component to their coming to faith in Christ And I share that too because a lot of you share your faith and you don't really get much feedback Now share this with the younger scientists and theologians that reasons to believe is that? Often it's one of two decades. I mean I hear stories all the time now of people who have you know watched the DVD I did or a book I produce and how that brought them to faith in Christ Typically, it's something that happened 20 25 years ago, and so you're gonna have to wait 20 25 years before you start hearing stories the seeds that you planted and How they brought people to faith in Christ so persevere now you will see some of the fruit and that's the whole point You're only going to see some of the fruit of your labors and spreading the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ God gives us the privilege of seeing the tip of the iceberg but realize when you're seeing that tip There's a huge iceberg below the surface of things you won't see I think that's going to consume a lot of our time When we're in the new creation Just finding out all the people that had an impact in our lives and all the stuff that we weren't aware of so Yeah me that encourage you and just this past Thursday. I was speaking in a church in the desert hot springs and What was especially encouraging is now people came up to me and I recognize them they're former members of this class I'm that a half dozen people out there that were members of this class many years ago And now they're out there in desert hot springs. Yeah, it's a place where I was actually below the average age group there, so It's a retirement community So I kind of felt quite young there But yeah, a lot of our former class members are now out there so that was fun and then you know my wife and I spent Yesterday just going through Joshua Tree National Park I've been in all the parks national parks in Here in the California, but that's one park. I've never been because you know, it's a little bit out of the way to get to But you know, I was really special is you'll see things there that you won't see Anywhere else. I mean they have unique plants and animals out there. So that was really special and scenery That you really don't see anywhere else. So and you know just driving to this class this morning realizing God gave us and magnificently beautiful planet He didn't have to make planet Earth as beautiful and gorgeous as it is, but he did One of the ways he shows his love for us. He says, hey, I'm not just going to give you a place to live I'm not just going to give you a place where you can develop technology and civilization I'm going to make it really beautiful as you look at that beauty Hopefully he'll remind you of what I've done for you how much I love you. Yes I did Yeah keys view is great. Yeah And especially with snow on the Mount San Gregorio and a Mount San Jacinto So we got to see those two peaks From the viewpoint and the look down in the valley out to the salt and sea And it was funny being in that church there saying how many of the people the church are involved and trying to save the salt and sea and To preserve it like it was in the way it was naturally and I said well, you know, are you aware that? 120 years ago it didn't exist That the lake is actually man-made you're trying to preserve something that we made Yeah, I was accidentally man-made it was basically a broken You know water channel that wound up flooding the salt and sea But now they're trying to preserve something that they think nature did know we did it So maybe they should just let it dry up again and get it back to its natural state. I don't know So but whatever hey, I don't think we're ever going to do a reason to believe crews on salt and sea That would be something unusual Anyway, we're in the book of Isaiah and if you did not get the study questions We've got for the book of Isaiah. I got about 60 of them here We've been distributing these several hundred at a time So yeah, maybe if you haven't got them, I'll get yeah, thank you Get those distributed that would be great And just so that you're aware what we're doing in the book of Isaiah It is not a commentary or a survey of Isaiah We're simply going through the book of Isaiah and picking up those texts that pertain to science-faith issues And particularly to what it's got to say about the universe. So And believe it or not, we're still in question number one As you can see there there are 12 questions We're going to be going through as you go through the book of Isaiah and a question number one is What Isaiah passages address the beginning of the universe? I think what you got to discover and going through the book of Isaiah of all this 66 books of the Bible the book of Isaiah has got the most to say about the beginning Of the universe. It's also got the most to say about the expansion of the universe We're going to be getting to that But yeah, it says more than any of the book of the Bible about the beginning of the universe And it's been my experience in engaging non-christians most non-christians have no idea Isaiah says anything about the universe and so you know They basically think well as Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth The book of Isaiah goes into detail about exactly what that beginning is That's kind of what we're going to be doing is digging out the details And what Isaiah has got to say about the beginning of the universe What are these passages say about the universe and what are these passages say about God as a creator? And how can we use these Isaiah texts to persuade people that God exists and the Bible is the inspired tenured Authoritative a word of God and if you've been with us for a while what we've been doing and incidentally those of you Not been with us for a while We're in the midst of a really really long study going through the entire Bible and Looking at all the texts that pertain to creation science-faith issues, and yeah We've made it to the book of Isaiah, so we're actually more than a half way through the Bible isn't that exciting okay great And yeah the earlier chapters of the Bible actually have a lot more to say so right We're going to be going sturdy rapidly now through the rest of the Bible. That's a relative statement, okay But what we did in getting ready for question number one as I had you go through the entire book of Isaiah And wasn't it fun to actually read through the whole book in 15 minutes and small groups and dig out every text And so basically I kind of forced you to do rapid survey reading of the Bible and pick up all the relevant texts and We wound up with about 31 texts that we thought could be relevant And went through another exercise of actually going through those 31 texts and seeing which ones really are relevant I'd ask you to be a little bit on the generous side if there's any doubt about as relevant see we keep it But if there's no doubt about it being irrelevant we dropped it and that reduced us down Oh, we're still we keep losing the computer or the I know why let me get that back in there This cable is a little too heavy So yeah, if we can get that back on that would be great because we're going to need this there we go All right, that's coming it always comes up on this side first Anyway, these are the texts that were left with so you can get an idea purposely left blank the ones that we dropped so on this list you can see that we eliminated a three of the text and Actually, that's the second half. Let's go to the first half. So if they got rid of four texts on the first part of the survey and so this is what we've got left now what I have done is actually Right out these remaining texts have pertained to question one. We're going to do this morning We're going to actually go through these texts quite rapidly And so I'm just going to kind of go through I'm going to read them to you one at a time go through them all But when I finish reading them all I want to ask you the question. Okay with that quick reading What do you get right away in terms of answering the question? What does this say about the beginning of the universe and what does this say about God? As a cosmic a creator and beginner So just focus on those two questions as we rapidly whip through this and then after we've done the rapid study We're going to go back to each verse one at a time and try to dig out the details But yeah, what I just want you to do is listen to these passages and then kind of synthesize What are all these texts saying? About the beginning of the universe and what are they telling us about God as a beginner and as a creator? So here we go Isaiah 6 3 Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts his glory fills the whole earth and Isaiah 14 24 The Lord of hosts is sworn as I have purpose so will be as I have planned it so it will happen and Isaiah 14 27 The Lord of hosts himself has planned it therefore who can stand in its way? It is his hand that is outstretched. So who can turn it back? And Isaiah 37 16 The Lord of hosts God of Israel who is enthroned above the cherubim You are God you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth you made the heavens and the earth Now the next set is basically a set from Isaiah 40 to 48 and as a tip Isaiah 40 to 48 is kind of those nine chapters of the Bible that really go heavy into who God is and How he creates so there's going to be a lot of these texts beginning with Isaiah 40 verse 5 But glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind together will see it for the mouth of the Lord has spoken And Isaiah 40 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or marked off the heavens with a span of his hand? Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure? And Isaiah 40 22 God isn't thrown above the circle of the earth its inhabitants are like grasshoppers He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in Isaiah 40 26 look up and see who created these It's referring to the stars. He brings up the starry hosts by number He calls them he calls all of them by name because of his great power and strength not one of them is missing And Isaiah 40 28 40 time of 28 do not know have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary. There is no limit to his understanding And Isaiah 41 for Who has performed and done this calling the generations from the beginning? I Yahweh and the first and with the last I am he And Isaiah 42 5 This is what the Lord says He who created the heavens and stretch them out who spread out the earth all Who comes all that comes out of it who gives breath to its people and like to those who walk on it And as I say of 43 10 to 11 You are my witnesses This is the Lord's declaration and my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me Understand that I am he No, God was formed before me and there should be none after me I am Yahweh. There is no other savior but me And Isaiah 43 13 Also from today on I am he alone and none can deliver from my hand I act and who could reverse it and Isaiah 44 6 I am the first and I am the last there is no God but me And Isaiah 44 24 I Am Yahweh who made everything who stretched out the heavens by myself who alone spread out the earth and Then we have Isaiah 45 5 to 7 I am Yahweh and there is no other there is no God but me I will strengthen you though you do not know me So that all may know from the rising of the Sun to its setting that there is no one but me I'm Yahweh and there is no other I form light and create darkness I make success and create disaster. I Yahweh do all these things And Isaiah 45 12 I made the earth and created man on it It was my hands that stretched out the heavens and I commanded all their hosts And Isaiah 45 18 God is the Creator of the heavens. He formed the earth and made it. He established it He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited. I am Yahweh and there is no other And Isaiah 45 21 Who predicted this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I Yahweh? There is no other God but me a righteous God and Savior and there is no one except me and Isaiah 46 9 and 10 Remember what happened long ago for I am God and there is no other I am God and no one is like me I Declare the end from the beginning and from long ago. What has not yet done? Same my plan will take place And I will do all my will And Isaiah 48 12 to 13 listen to me Jacob and Israel the one called by me I am he I am the first I'm also the last My own hand founded the earth and my right hand spread out the heavens when I summoned them They stood up together Isaiah 50 verse 3 I Clothe the heavens with darkness and make sack cloth its covering Isaiah 51 13 You have forgotten the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth Isaiah 51 16 I've put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand in order to plant the heavens To found the earth and to say to Zion you are my people And Isaiah 64 8 Yet Lord you are the father. We are the clay. You are our potter. We are all the work of your hands and Lastly Isaiah 66 to my hand made all these things So they all came into being this is the Lord's declaration Okay before we get into this A little tip Collecting all these passages before you actually begin to you know write notes and kind of make a study Read them over over and over again. I mean it's personally how I study these things Collect the passages the symbol like this write them all out and they just read them over and over again before I make any Decisions and to what it's saying. I just read it once all these texts, but here's how I want to begin Having read through all these texts What is the one thing that you hear? Repeated the most as we go through these texts because typically when you see this kind of repetition in a Bible book It's like I want you to pay attention to this. This is the most important point So having gone through all this what is the thing that you think is repeated more than any other? Well, look at all my hands here. I am glad I thought all the smart people over here I am not Okay Okay, all right, and we had three hands up here, so we had four hands, okay I'm gonna begin in this side of the class. So yes same one is him. Okay. Yes same same one you two one God I'm the first and the last Stretched out the heavens that got repeated a lot. Okay. Yeah I'm God absolutely sovereign I made it Lord showing different facets of himself you to comment Okay, agree with that. Let's go to this side of the class. What do you think? I did it my way Sure, but Frank Sinatra believe that I like that. Okay. Yes, go ahead. No one like me Yeah, so it come to pass I Created yeah, I think that's what kind of the thing you see repeated more than anything else is I Did it and no one else but me did it I alone did it And what he was dealing with was a lot of this pagan theology going on in the nations around Israel at the time Where there was a multiplicity of creators involved and says no, there's only one No one else is involved in this but me just one Well, I mean that kind of brings up why do I'm glad we got two clocks here and they're actually synchronized so And That looks like the same clock that I saw Dave throw it here and crash into a little bits and pieces So he fixed it. All right. Okay All right, so Time flew and now it's back up there. Good. Okay So but you know even that kind of theology exists today. Where do you think it exists? Islam Islam well Islam does make the point that there's just one creator, but there are other faiths that say there's not just one There's a bunch Hinduism Yeah, I mean one form of Hinduism is three million people involved in or three million gods Involved in creation. There's another sect that says it's not just three million is 300 million So that's a lot of hands in the pie, right? Yeah Yeah, well about a lot of forms of Buddhism borrow their cosmology from Hinduism So that's kind of how Buddhism works. They borrow from several places Think I was sharing with you when I was in Hong Kong last I ran into a Buddhist sect who believed in Salvation by grace alone and a Trinity But they flatly admitted they just took that straight out of the Bible in Christianity So they say yeah, we just borrow where we want to borrow so But the typically most Buddhist sects will borrow their cosmology from Hinduism. So yeah again as a multiplicity But this something we're actually going to be looking at in some detail because we see repeated over and over again in the book of Isaiah That God alone does it one creator However, you did make the point that it's one creator but three persons and that's something we're going to see It's a question. We got listed down here of all the books of the Bible the book of Isaiah says more about the doctrine of the Trinity Than any other texts in the Bible in fact one of the exercises I'm going to have you do is go through the book of Isaiah and you're going to find a text that Identifies the father as a creator a son as a creator and the spirit as a creator And yet it says repeatedly in the book of Isaiah one creator only So there you got the doctrine of the Trinity three persons are involved in creation But there's only one creator and God insists I alone have done it So it uses the pronoun on purpose I Which means that there's a singular God that makes us and yet three persons are involved. Yes Passages Number being in Isaiah Being there's so many of them sort of mitigates against somebody trying to say oh, that's just And I think it's also the verb tense is used Mitigates against it being quiet if you can comment on that my question But also Obviously there's not expanding Well, I would respond to that by pointing out we already read the passages that resolve that question The question is answered in the very text that we just read I'm going to throw that back at everybody Because he raised a great question. We have eight texts in this book of Isaiah talking about God Stretching out the heavens And we'll spend some time looking at the verb in Hebrew is Natah, which actually means Expansion so stretching out is really not the best translation of the term But you know a lot of skeptics has said well these are just figures of speech and metaphors Look how often it's repeated in the book of Isaiah that we read all of them as we went through this and so Again, just like the text is repeatedly saying I alone had created. I'm the only creator of the universe No one else was involved as repeated so many times. There's no way you can say well It's just God speaking metaphorically actually you involved the angels in this too. No You can't get away with that given the repetition we see here and it's not just Repetitions repeated with different ways of saying it and so that kind of eliminates the possibility This is simply a figure of speech. You'd expect the repetition to be sustained in the matter Which is stated, but that's not the way it goes. Yeah comment Stretching out a tent being a home Yeah, and just to be clear the Young earth creationist science leaders that I've engaged every one of them Agreed that these texts are speaking about an expanding universe They just think is expanding a lot more rapidly than what I would suggest has been expanding and for a lot longer Over a lot shorter period of time So that is standard young earth doctrine that these texts really are speaking about the expansion universe And basically for the same reasons the fact that here in Isaiah You see it repeated so many times and using different language. However John here has raised an interesting question is that you got one text talking about God Stretching out the heavens and spreading out the earth Clearly the earth isn't expanding and so how do you deal with this and I made the comment There's actually resolution right here in the passages that we've read Anybody spotted it? Yeah Both You're on to something because you'll notice in that particular text in Isaiah 42 It contrasts the stretching out the heavens and the spreading of the earth It's not saying God stretched out the universe any in the earth. It's making a distinction So it's something distinct about the Stretching and the spreading It's a different verb and you're making the point that it's actually focusing on the home Because actually it talks about how God stretches out the heavens like a tent to make a home for us To dwell in it. Okay We read another text that talks about God And the earth and the home aspect Remember that as we went through it Okay Yeah, remember Isaiah 45 17 and 18 what does it say there? Let me pull it back here for you Yeah, I'm gonna have to be faster if I do it this way Here we go God is the creator of the heavens. He formed the earth and made it he established it He did not create it to be empty but formed it to be inhabited I am the I'm Yahweh and there is no other and Talks about how God filled the earth with all these forms of life. He did not create it to be empty In fact, that's one thing we notice as we were going through Joshua Tree National Park yesterday A lot of it is really dry desert, but if you look carefully, it doesn't look like Mars There's light everywhere. We just have to look carefully for the light, but you will find it. It's there and You know all different kinds of life are out there We got to see some tortoises. Yeah, we got to see some lots of lizards of course So And the rock formations and of course we saw a lot of human beings on the rocks It's a popular time of year so yes Well, it's a different verb Yeah, so and You know it's making the point notice some of the texts talk about how God made all the stars But he actually is another place remember we looked at that passage in the Psalms Where it talks about how God knows the name of every single star It repeats that claim here that he knows the name of all the stars and incident I've run into some skeptics They'll say well actually says none are missing But there are stars that have disappeared and it become black holes. Well, I mean technically they haven't disappeared They just transformed to become a black hole Yes Well notice that's one of our study questions We're going to be actually looking at what Isaiah's got to say they'll help us to deal with this revival It's going on right now of the Flat Earthers And you know Yeah, it's incredible that the Flat Earth stuff is coming back And you know you figure with people flying in airplanes They'd be able to figure out that hey this this can't be a flat earth look out the window However, you know what they say when you look up the window. Well, yeah, there's air refraction that makes a book curved It's really not good. It's really flat so what I've been telling people on my Facebook and Twitter page what you need to do is fly from north to south and You know, I've gone from LA X to Sydney a few times and have gone from Cairo Down to Johannesburg several times and sometimes at night You know the wonderful experiences you look up the window and watch what happens to Orion And you get to watch Orion slowly turn and go upside down All the constellations turn and go upside down So, yeah, we better go down to South South Africa or Australia New Zealand look up at the sky Everything's upside down. There really is a down under So I'll also explain everything is upside down, but the very fact that you can actually see these constellations Slowly go from right side up to upside down that can only happen at the Earth is a sphere Watch your blood go down So while gravity helps you there too, so Yeah, gravity wouldn't work too well on a flat earth, but and you know what? Our bipedalism requires very fine highly fine-tuned gravity So I had to tell my sons that we were watching that movie of the Martian There's no way Matt Damon could walk 18 miles on Mars. You got the wrong gravity But you got the wrong gravity on a flat earth too, and if you want to be fully bipedal and capable You need one gene Having more gravity or less gravity. Yeah, I mean you like to hike and You can't hike like we like if you got a different gravity So next time you're going up a steep hill with one of your friends and you say gee I wish the law of gravity wasn't quite as intense as it is That was less intense you'd be stumbling all over the place that law of gravity gives you stability But fortunately there's not so much gravity that you're beginning to curse all the weight that's in your pack You can actually get up the hills. It's optimal. There is no better gravity Which means you really don't want to go to another planet go to the planet go to the moon You're gonna have a problem of gravity and even then I'm a little bit off track, but I'll get back on track here is that When you look at how we human beings walk around It's a miracle that we're able to be as bipedally capable as we are I Mean you don't think it's a miracle take a pen or pencil of your pocket Stand it up and see how well it remains stable in a tall position like this What is it that stops us from being so slim and so tall with just these little tiny feet that we got and we don't fall over I Mean take anything else Take a two by four and stand it up How long is it going to stay standing and a foot long two by four? It's going to fall over The slightest breeze will cause it just a puff on a little bit in that two by four will fall over And yet you can do that with your fellow human beings blow on your Friend and they're not going to fall over no matter how hard you blow. It's not going to work And the fact that we can even walk in a 60 mile an hour wind We can do that and yet we can maintain our bipedalism It's an utter miracle that I'm actually got a team of medical research doctors that reasons to bleed as part of our Visiting scholar program We're going to actually have them write some long articles on the miracle of human bipedalism Because it is another miracle So for example, you've got a little tiny gyroscope in your inner ear That gyroscope is always running and that's what helps It's one of the things that helps us to be able to be stable on two feet But there's 300 muscles that are well coordinated by your brain to help you maintain stability as you stand on two feet But yeah, if you don't believe in god, just look at the bipedalism around you If there was no god everybody should be on three four five six legs But we're on two legs. We're tall we're slim and yet we're perfectly comfortable walking right back We're compulsory We're less comfortable walking on all fours than we are on two And so that's the unique thing about human beings. We're not just bipedal Our anatomy compels us to be bipedal. Okay, come it in the back and I'll come to you and then we're going to get back to Isaiah Go ahead And also I was thinking in terms of the Yeah, yeah, I mean there's little fluid ducts in your little tiny channels in your inner ear And uh, you know, if you've got an inner ear problem, it does make it more challenging for you to walk The amazing thing is You can have that gyroscope disturbed in your inner ear and you can still walk just not as easily It shows you how much everything else in the body is working together. Go ahead Could one try to make an argument if we had grown up on let's say markers I forget what fraction ours is. It's four tenths four times. Yes gravity is 40 percent of ours. Let's say God had created us on markers. Our bodies appropriately would be created and or adapted to four tenths gravity not one g Uh, in other words, there's nothing magical about one g or is there Okay, good question. Is there anything magical about that one g? Okay, you could design the human body so it'd be more capable than it would be At four tenths g than it is right now But it will not be as capable as it is at one g in other words In terms of designs. Yes, you could design the human body to be more capable four tenths g than it is now But you're not going to design it to be more capable Then our bodies are at one g. In other words, you will lose some Biopetal capability even with an optimized design at say six percent gravity or one g or 2.5 gravity like you get on jupiter so, yeah One of the beautiful things of planet earth its surface gravity is one g which allows us to be Quite a bipedal. I mean, we're just hearing in the service Our jesus walked a hundred miles to come into jerusalem on palm sunday And it was a design of the human body and the design of planet earth that made it possible from relatively quickly To be able to walk those miles and he didn't have to ride on a donkey You know, he was a strong young man He wasn't tired. That wasn't the reason why he got on a donkey God gave him the right planet and the right kind of Anatomy to be able to do that with relative ease. So there is a reason why it came in Yeah, there is a reason why it came in on a donkey. That's another story Let's get back to the text here because we've got a little bit off track and say we do have a question On the flatter stuff and uh, john, uh, well, he walked away on us No, there he is at the back there Is he's right A lot of people are reviving the young earth doctrine as a way to ridicule christianity I try to make the claim that the flat earth idea came from scripture There's absolutely no Clay or no Faces for that claim I remember debating once the president of the flat earth society kept insisting that the bible was a flat earth book That says there's no evidence that anybody used the bible to promote a flat earth book Matter of fact, one of the questions we got here is based on isaah How can we demonstrate from isaah that the bible is actually teaching that the earth is spherical and not flat So but of course they go to text like well, look at about talking about the four corners of the earth I guess what I know caltech physicists that talk about the four corners of the earth So yeah, the bible sometimes does use metaphors I remember talking to one hebrus scholar. He's making a point Actually, we translate those texts the four quarters of the earth not the four quarters of the earth And the analogy we're thinking of is the quarters like the quarters of an orange So they're actually making a point that the metaphor itself is a connoting asphoricity But back to the beginning Okay, so I think it's quite well established here as we go through these 25 texts That is really emphasizing how there's just one creator behind all this It's not multiple creators as one creator In spite of the fact that the father son and holy spirit as we will see as we go through these study questions All participate in creation one mind one purpose one creation plan Which means we would expect the realm of nature to make consistent sense And one thing that's what god is doing here in isaac is challenging people Only I did it you want evidence for that look around you Does it look like a clue job done by 15 different creators? That's not how creation looks It really does look like it's done by one planner one mind with one purpose alone And basically it's challenging them. I want you to discover What that purpose is in the single consistent creation revelation that I've given you So yes, not just god's words here in the book of isaac. There's plenty of evidence all throughout creation That hey, there's only one mind Behind this whole creation plan But again, we got the comment look how many times it repeats that god not only created the universe He stretched it out And how many of these passages talk about the fact that there is a beginning to the universe As we go through these texts is a really any doubt about the Emphasis on the fact that there's an actual beginning to the universe I started it. I created it. I began it And so Again something you see about repetition Whenever you see a particular book of the bible repeating a point over and over again It's a clue. This is something important Listen to it And it's not repetition like you see in the koran. By the way, if you've ever read the koran I think you'll be just impressed how incredibly repetitious it is But it's repetitious in a very different way from what you see here Notice that when you see a topic being brought up again and again in the book of isaac It's brought up again and again in a different way Making a slightly different point and basically the challenge is put this all together and see exactly what it's saying So it's not only telling us there's a beginning to the universe It's a particular kind of beginning to the universe As you look at the different repetitions to piece it all together, which we will be doing We're going to be able to figure that out. You don't see that for example in the koran It's basically making the same words over and over again Uh, you know, which is why I kind of put the koran down After a while just saying this is incredibly repetitious Any other thing that caught me when I was going through the koran not only is it incredibly repetitious There's not a whole lot of content here It's just making the same statements over and over again And it's done in a way that's trying to impress me that this is really very spiritual Incidentally, I also see that when I go through the Mormon texts The Mormon texts read a lot like the koran Where you actually have these texts going overboard Trying to impress you how great god is And as you read these Isaiah texts It's really different from what you see in the Mormon scriptures and what you see in the islamic scriptures. Yes We'll be looking at that but for example, I've run into a lot of atheists and debates on university campuses who try to insist All these Isaiah texts about god stretching out the heavens Are simply metaphors and figures of speech However, when you examine them and this is something someone who's fluid in Hebrew picks up right away Is it's not only putting the claim of the stretching out in a different way In the different texts that address it It puts the bird in a different verb form in the different texts And it's actually making the point that god is continuing to control the stretching out of the heavens So it's god involved step by step throughout the entire history of the universe Fine tuning the rate at which is being expanded But it's also making the claim that god created the universe With the inherent property that it would expand And so it uses Verb forms that make the point the expansion was a completed Characteristic of the universe at the very point it was created And so at the very beginning when god created it He created it with an endowed property that it would expand from that point forward So it's god being continually involved and god doing it all at the beginning And so he actually three see all three hebrew verb forms being employed in this concept for the stretching out And you know, it's making different theological points with the use of those verbs But the fact that it's making those different theological points tells you these aren't just mere metaphors And this isn't just blind repetition It's making specific points in every passage that it addresses And we actually see this in all the texts that talk about the beginning of the universe And also about how god says i alone have done it When he talks about the fact that he alone has done it notice the different ways it brings all that out so And so that's kind of what we're going to be doing here. So i'm going to take you back through these texts And let me take you back And we're going to try to pull this out one at a time. Here we go So here it talks about holy holy holy is the lord of hosts his glory fills the whole earth And other people have been looking at this and saying It's actually making a point that his glory fills everything no matter where you look In the heavens you see god's glory no matter where you look on the earth you see god's glory What kind of point do you think is being made there a couple of points? I think you can draw to this Yes Yes, he wants you to see what he has done and He's the author of everything Do you notice any repetition in this passage? Okay, yeah, all right Okay, yeah, the word holy is repeated three times I think if you go through the book of isaias it's really hard I mean just look how frequently it talks about the holiness of god And notice when he brings up these creation texts That repeated fact that's probably the most repeated point about god in the entire book of isaias It's the holiness of god How he contrasts his holiness with a lack of holiness And the peoples around the jewish nation any fingers of jews and said you're no better You're not holy either But I am holy i'm the only one who is holy no one is holy But god But I think what we can discern from this as we look at god's creation We should see evidence of his holiness in creation And we're basically being encouraged to see that You know when people ask me to sign the crater in the cosmos I most frequently put isaias 976 in there isaias 976 says that heavens declare the righteousness of god and all peoples see his glory So it's not just that the heavens declare the righteous or the glory of god It declares his righteousness and his holiness So right here in isaias 6 Pardon me. I'm talking about Psalm 97. Did I say isaias? I'm sorry Thank you for catching that It's Psalm 97 verse 6 You know only psalms has gotten more than 97 Chapters to it So thank you for catching that yeah psalm 976 And how often the psalms are talked about the heavens declaring the glory of god But psalm 97 says the heavens declare the righteousness of god And here we have an isaias 6 this emphasis on holiness being tied into what god has created. Yeah john Yes Right it's yeah, the repetition is making the point. I am holy if you want to know the holiness is all about look at me Look what I've created my holiness is seen everywhere you look Right. Yes Okay, he's asked me to define holy I'm going to throw that back if you don't mind not at you but the rest of the class What does the bible mean the old testament being that talks about god being holy? Set apart Well set apart in a sense that no one else is holy. So that makes a big set apart Entirely without sin entirely without fault Yeah, no evil. It's impossible for god to be anything but good What you see in the new testament Only god is good No one else is good only god is perfectly good Only god is always righteous. Yes His characters not only that it's purpose that you can identify as Is good, but it's also incredibly complex And just orchestrated His creation shows That he is so beyond our understanding of the capabilities of intelligence And wisdom That it's a purpose and that there's no flaws in it It's so finely tuned. It's it's beyond our You know, okay, you're making a good point. God is holy beyond what we can think or imagine He's super super holy as we've heard over here So how is this going to be manifested in his creation? Question anybody I'm not putting anybody in the spot. Yes It's lovely. It's beautiful. It's perfect. It's Elegant is what we use Yeah And let me extrapolate that and say is there anything in god's creation that doesn't testify of this holiness Well, yeah our sin would and in terms of what he created So next time you run into a mosquito next time run into an ant Next time you run into a beetle Next time you get infected by the virus or bacteria Realize everything that god created as a testimony of his holiness And look for it Because I mean it's so often that skeptics for example, I think is skeptics forum in a few weeks How pervasive it is among skeptics to think there are all kinds of extraneous stuff in the universe Stuff that fulfills no purpose. It's just there Accidents of evolution But if we can show no there are no accidents nothing is frivolous Nothing is extraneous All of it testifies of god's holiness of his righteousness and his character every that bit of it I mean we kind of saw that how god fills the earth With all of his life. He didn't create it the entity But literally everything is designed to be a testimony to his holiness. Yes Because I'm I need to Russell with this myself red and tooth and claw Yeah The animals devouring animals How do we fit that in? Okay, let me throw this back to you because you're a well educated man Where did that that comment come from red and tooth and claw Roger Kipling Tennyson I was thinking Roger Kipling. Yeah. Well, I mean it got repeated It was very common in British Literature red and tooth and claw but my point is this that came from British scholars who had a non-theistic perspective and so they're kind of promoting the view Yes, there's stuff in the realm of nature that makes no sense from a divine purpose But in fact, it does make sense Red and tooth and claw is basically a reference to the idea If there was a benign creator out there a creator that was really all-powerful and all-loving He wouldn't have animals attacking one another ripping one another to shreds and you know Causing them to bleed and eating them while they're still alive In fact, what kind of got that into British society is people going to Africa and watching wild dogs hunt And you know how wild dogs will hunt is that they'll surround the their prey And they actually go for the the stomach area And they'll actually start eating the animal while it's still alive and they just said that's just so horrible to think about How can that be fit a god that's all-powerful and all-loving? Anybody want to answer that one? I've been to Africa. I've seen those wild dogs And I know it's interesting about the predators. Okay, you got a comment watch it's going no Yeah It's critical of that for preparing the resources we need for civilization and technology God puts a higher value in human life Then he does the birds and mammals and puts a higher value in them Then he does the cockroaches and the bacteria the viruses etc But how does the red and tooth and claw Actually benefit the creatures that are being eaten Okay, yeah I mean, I think what these British academics weren't really appreciating is What life would be like for the herbivores if there weren't predators attacking them and eating them The death rate would go up the suffering would go up And there's actually been plenty of field evidence that tells us what happens when the predators are no longer there To keep things in balance The other thing you notice going back to those dogs The way they're designed by this is true of all predators They develop a killing style To minimize the suffering of the prey Their goal is to spend as little energy as possible and bringing about the death Of the prey that they're attacking And so it's actually quite a compassionate way to hunt And the difference is we human beings don't hunt like that We can hunt any way we want we can kill any way we want The non-human predators don't have that luxury God designed the predator-prey relationships that are the prey are healthy And capable They're always going to escape Unless of course they're just unwary, but of course what's interesting is how wary The prey predator prey become when there's predators around So and incidentally I've taught the zoologists to tell me You need the predators to be around in order to get a healthy reproductive cycle Because if the predators aren't around they basically stop reproducing And so in order to keep the reproduction rate up That's necessary So anyway, I know I'm out of time We need to close on prayer another place you can look is what happened When they introduced rabbits to australia They didn't have a natural predator And boy did they cause untold damage until they're able to restore the predator-prey relationships And so you might not like the coyotes eating your dogs and cats in your neighborhoods But they do keep the rabbit population down So and it's and again notice how efficiently The they kill and they only go after the weak the sick and the dying because it's all they're able to kill And that's what's by the way a really Incredible piece of evidence in favor of god's creation Is that whenever you see a mass speciation event in the history of the earth the predator prey relationships Are immediately optimized for the benefit of the predators and for the benefit of the prey There's no time delay in the development of those relationships. They're optimized right away and you see that repeatedly And so yeah Red and tooth and claw Well, that actually is testimony Of a loving god basically balancing everything With one important proviso You don't need to do that if you don't have gravity thermodynamics and electromagnetism But we need those laws in order to have god efficiently remove evil and suffering once and for all So i'm willing to tolerate a little bit of animal suffering That means the end of all evil and suffering once and for all but the enhancement of our free will with that Our closing prayer father in heaven We want to thank you for putting us on this incredible planet and the vastness of the universe is nowhere else like this planet earth And lord, we thank you for filling it. We thank you for extravagance and creation And we thank you lord that everywhere you look in creation As we examine the soil to examine the rocks as we examine the plants the animals the bacteria Every bit of it testifies Of your holiness testifies of your righteousness Testifies of your love And father as we go about investigating This book of nature you've given us to read help us to see your righteousness Express your holiness express at every event and every component and everything that you created And father i pray that that would humble us before you and help us appreciate just what a great and wonderful Holy god you are And father we're especially humbled that you want a relationship with us in jesus name amen