Kindle Notes & Highlights
For any statement about the real world that claims to be true is itself a truth that they claim to know about the real world.
But this is not so since we can apprehend Him without completely comprehending Him.
Imperfect knowledge is not no knowledge.
Truth is what corresponds to reality.
very claim that I know that I cannot know reality is itself a claim to know something about reality.
God is subject to the laws of His own nature. Just as God as a moral being is subject to the unchangeable moral laws of His own nature (so that “it is impossible for God to lie” Heb.
For nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could.
Time must have had a beginning. But if the temporal world had a beginning, then it must have had a Cause (God).
So, both the scientific evidence and sound reason lead to an infinite supernatural Cause of the origin of the space-time universe.
To put it another way, whatever is contingent in its being could possibly not exist.
Hence, the whole universe needs a cause for its existence—right now. But the cause of a contingent being cannot itself be a contingent being or else it too would need a cause. Hence, the Cause of the whole contingent world must be a non-contingent being, that is, a Necessary Being (God).
No part of the universe is self-sustaining. Each part is dependent on something else for its existence.
According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics (above), all matter in the universe is running out of useable energy. So, every part of the universe is dependent or caused. But the whole is equal to the sum of all the parts. Hence, if every part is caused then the whole universe is caused as well.
It must be eternal since if ever there were nothing, then there would always be nothing since nothing cannot cause something.
“The anthropic principle is the most interesting next to the proof of the creation, and it is even more interesting because it seems to say that science itself has proven, as a hard fact, that this universe was made, was designed, for man to live in. It is a very theistic result.”
Why is it a theistic result? Because it points to a theistic God beyond the whole universe who planned the emergence of human life before the universe and tweaked it just right from the very beginning to make it possible.
Laws have law-givers, and prescriptions have prescribers.
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex.”[48] Why do we have a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts unless it is mean to be filled with God?
Bertand Russell: “Even when one feels nearest to other people, something in one seems obstinately to belong to God …—at least that is how I should express it if I thought there was a God. It is odd, isn’t it? I care passionately for this world and many things and people in it, and yet … what is it all? There must be something more important one feels, though I don’t believe there is.”
Powerful statement and amazing insight. However, my heart breaks reading this knowing what staunch unbeliever he was.
Miracles by nature aim to produce and/or promote good.
Unlike magic, miracles are never performed to entertain. Herod’s curiosity prompted him to want to see a miracle, but Jesus refused to do one
Miracles have the distinctive purpose to glorify the Creator and to provide evidence for people to believe by accrediting the message of God through the prophet of God.
Second, when first life appeared from non-life, it too came suddenly. Even atheists Francis Crick admitted it was like a “miracle.”[66] The very words “spontaneous generation” reveal its miraculous nature. There was non-life, and suddenly there was life with no intermediate gradual steps between non-life and first life.
miracles have already happened at two points: the creation of matter and the creation of first life. There are no natural explanations for either event.
For if miracles are a “violation” of what cannot be “altered,” then miracles are by that very fact impossible. Hume’s “uniform” experience either begs the question or is special pleading.
the New Testament some 5800 Greek manuscripts in existence. The most for any other book is Homer's Iliad with 643 manuscripts.[85] This makes the New Testament the best textually supported book from antiquity.
The great New Testament scholar and Princeton Professor, Bruce Metzger, made a comparison of the Iliad of Homer, the Mahabarata in Hinduism, and the New Testament. He found the text of the Mahabarata to represent only 90% of the original (with 10% textual corruption), the Iliad to be 95% pure, and only one half of one percent of the New Testament text being in doubt.
Polycarp (c. 110-150) quoted all four Gospels, Acts, and most of Paul's Epistles.
Further, since some of these writers overlapped with the latest book of the New Testament Gospel of John, widely believed to be dated around A.D. 90, this virtually eliminates any time gap between the completion of the New Testament and the earliest citations of it.
Acts was penned by A.D. 62:
Likewise, any book like Acts that was written after the death of the apostle Paul (c. A D. 65) or the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) would surely have mentioned these momentous events.
Nothing like this amount of detailed confirmation exists for any other book from antiquity. This is not only a direct confirmation of the earliest Christian belief in the death and resurrection of Christ, but also indirectly of the Gospel record.
Jesus died about A.D. 33, placing some books in the 50s and 60s would mean that it was written within 20 to 30 years after the events while most of the eyewitnesses were still alive! Since there are multiple records involved (8 or 9 authors and 27 books), this provides a strong basis for the historicity of their writings.
Since most people in the first century were illiterate, short statements about Christ that were easy to memorize were a good way to transmit truth.
There is unanimity on the central facts about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, along with significant but reconcilable differences on the details.
First of all, the word "unusual" is ambiguous. Does it mean supernatural? If so, then it begs the question, for it amounts to saying "a miraculous claim demands miraculous evidence." But if one provided miraculous evidence for that, then the objector to ask for miraculous evidence for that, and so on to infinity.
Second, if "unusual" simply means merely more than usual, then the New Testament meets the challenge, since there are more manuscripts, earlier ones, more accurately copies ones, with more witnesses, and more corroborated by external evidence for the New Testament than any other book from antiquity.
The Big Bang theory is a case in point. By the standards operating in modern science, the explosion of the universe out of nothing was a highly unusual event.[129] Yet only normal scientific evidence has been required to believe it, such as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, an expanding universe, etc. (see chapter 2).
Fifth, Jesus promised supernatural activation of the disciple's memories, saying, "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26,
He even accepted prayer to himself from the first Christian martyr who said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59).
This is not true of any alleged prophecies of any other religious leader known to mankind.
But Jesus hardly subverted the nation when He told them “to render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesars” (Mat. 22:21). In addition He paid taxes (Mat. 17:27) and submitted peacefully to the capital authority of Rome to crucify Him unjustly. Likewise, healing people on the Sabbath was really a compliment, not a legitimate criticism of Jesus since it showed God’s love over man-made laws (Mk. 3:1-6).
He taught us to “love your enemies” (Mat. 5:43-44). By contrast the Qur’an exhorts Muslims, “Take not Jews and Christians for friends. They are friends of one to another. He among you who takes them for friends is (one) of them” (Sura 5:51)
He commanded us to keep our word, insisting, “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’” (Mat. 5:37).
However, if there is a hell—and Jesus as the Son of God should know—then it would be profoundly inhumane not to warn people that they were headed there!
anger against sin is not a sin; it is an act of righteousness.
Of the great religious leaders, none besides Christ even claimed to be sinless. Muhammad prayed for forgiveness (Sura 47:19). Buddha was far from sinless, having deserted his family and never returned. Mahatma Gandhi engaged in religious wars against Blacks in South Africa.
Further, there is no wisely acclaimed central figure in post-biblical (post first century) Judaism, like Moses, who claimed to be a prophet of God and offered miracles in support of this claim. There have been, of course, many Messianic pretenders (see Acts 5:36-37), but none provided miracles comparable to Jesus, nor did any gain wide acceptance in Judaism.
But the New Testament is the only authentic record of apostolic teachings that we have.[196] Each book was written by an apostle or New Testament prophet (Eph. 2:20; 3:3–5). There are no other books in existence that came from the first century apostles or associates.
