Fruit of the Spirit

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth...Eph 5:9

Spring 2004                                                            Volume 5, Issue 2

The Fossil Record

The Fossil Record      Studies in Christian
     Evidences

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

“Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars” (Isaiah 40:26). “Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?” (Job 38:28). The clearest of all reasons for the existence of deity is the fact that every effect must have a cause, which fact logically leads back to an uncaused cause.

Plato cited three reasons for belief in “the Gods,” but the one listed “in the first place” was the very existence of “the earth and the sun and the stars and the universe.” The “Gods,” said he, “produce the sun, moon, and the stars” (Laws, Book 10, p. 453).

Joseph Addison (1672-1719), adapting Psalm 19, followed Plato’s reasoning that the existence of the planetary bodies points to a maker of those bodies:

         The spacious firmament on high,
                    With all the blue ethereal sky,
         And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
                    Their great Oriental proclaim.
         The unwearied sun, from day to day,
                    Does his Creator's power display,
         And publishes to every land
                    The work of an Almighty hand.

America’s astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, collected 48.5 pounds of rocks from the moon’s surface, and brought them back to the earth. An analysis shows the presence of 16 earth elements in those lunar rocks, the principal ones being titanium, silicon, aluminum, iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium. Reason says that those stones had a maker, for of nothing, nothing is made (ex nihilo, nihil fit).

The evidence obtained by the astronauts does not testify how or why the moon maker came to be in existence. But unless one assumes an infinity of makers, one must say that somewhere along the line there was a maker who was not made. One’s

reason calls for an unmade maker, but if the maker was unmade he must be eternal. And, if he did not receive his ability to be a maker, he must be independent, self-contained. It appears therefore that the very existence of the moon certifies an independent, eternal maker.

What is true about the moon's maker is true about the universe’s maker: “His unseen things from the creation of the world, his eternal power and divine nature, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20).

TWO INSECTS

A tiny, frail, land-bound maggot, able only to wiggle, somehow transforms itself into a skillful flying machine, complete with antennae, gyroscopes, and wings (Rutherford Platt, “Those Remarkable ‘Two-Animal’ Animals,” Readers' Digest, July, 1970).

The pilot in that remarkable airship, flying faster than the eye can follow, executes a half-roll and lands upside down on the ceiling on six legs. From there, without the use of a runway, he can take off instantly. Helpless scientists can no more explain the change from larva to pupa to adult than they can explain the fly’s aeronautical ability. When they speak of inborn “blueprints” or of “instruction data from the DNA,” or of “the DNA code script” they are saying they have gone as far as they can, and have no answer without using the name “God.”

Another example among thousands is the cicada, often called “the seventeen year locust.” Cicadas have various cycles, with the longest being seventeen years. Almost exactly on May 24 each seventeenth year, these insects climb out of a seventeen-year period spent some 18 inches below the frost line underground. When they emerge they are still encased in a protective subterranean suit resembling plastic.

(continued on page 12)


Inside...
Page 1 - The Gospel of Salvation | Page 2 - Where In The Bible Will I Find...
Page 3 - Prison Report | Page 4 - Old Testament Studies | Page 5 - Is God Unconstitutional? Part 2
Page 6 - Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Part 2 | Page 7 - Christian Evidences | Page 8 - Thoughts On Salvation
Page 9 - The Christian Home | Page 10 - Continuations | Page 11 - The Children's Page
Page 12 - Announcements / Continuations

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