Tony Jeffrey
Where did God come from? Jim Denison, PHD, founder and CEO of Denison Ministries answers this question in his book Biblical Insight to Tough Questions: Volume 1. The following is taken from his essay and used with permission.
“Where did the world come from? What lies beyond the incomprehensibly vast universe? If there is a God, who made him? If someone made him, how can he be God?
“The most popular and common sense answer to the question of God’s existence is to examine the origin of the world in which the question is asked. Our experiences are dominated by causality—for every effect there is a prior cause. If something exists, someone or something else caused its existence. Who or what, then, caused the world?
“This approach is called the cosmological argument for God’s existence, as it works from the cosmos to its cause. Aristotle was among the first to argue that motion implies a mover, causation a First Cause.
“Stated in contemporary terms, if the universe began as a Big Bang, who caused the Bang? If life began as a cell floating in a pool of water, where did the cell and water come from? If there is a cosmos, there must be a Creator.
“A second argument for God’s existence works from the design evident within creation to a Designer. If you stepped on a watch, you’d assume a watchmaker. You would not believe that the hands, gears, face, and strap all happened to fall together at the same place and time. Isn’t the world infinitely more designed than a watch? This is the teleological approach, from the Greek word ‘telos’ for ‘end’ or ‘design.’ Illustrations exist all across the created order.
“For instance, to spell ‘collagen’ (a protein in your body) requires only that we organize all eight letters in the right order. To create collagen, on the other hand, requires that we organize 1,055 amino acids in the proper order. Such an event occurs spontaneously in nature, but the odds of its random occurrence are one in ten followed by 259 zeros, a number larger than the amount of atoms in the universe. In the face of such design, isn’t it plausible to assume a Designer?
“A third option works from our conception of morality to its origin. This moral argument asks where we obtained our sense of right and wrong. If from our parents, where did they get theirs? The generation before them? And so on. Eventually, we find a Giver of morality outside our common experience.
“A fourth and rather abstract argument for God’s existence is based on a rational syllogism:
“Major Premise: God is Perfect. By common consensus, God must be the greatest being which can be conceived, else that which is greater is more truly God.
“Minor Premise: Perfection requires existence. Among all the attributes necessary to divine perfection (love, power, omniscience, etc.) existence is required as well. Otherwise, the God who possesses all characteristics as well as existence is more truly God.
“Conclusion: God exists.”
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