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DOES GOD EXIST?

CHAPTER 16


ANSWERS TO SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS


Churches of God have written excellent booklets on the subjects “Does God exist? and “Which is true: Evolution or creation?” Anyone can access the free resources available at www.beyondtoday.com; www.ucg.org, www.pcog.org; www.rcg.org and www.lcg.org, the respective web sites for United Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, Restored Church of God and the Living Church of God. All literature provided by the Churches of God is always free of charge and without any obligation.

Why then did I choose to write this book? There are two main reasons. I come from a non-Judeo-Christian background. All on my father’s side are Sikhs and all on my mother’s side are Hindus. I belong to two WhatsApp groups of my former colleagues who graduated in my engineering degree batch from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), and who graduated with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (now Kolkata) (IIMC), India. There was a vigorous discussion in the IITD group on the subject of evolution, the right religion and whether God exists. Some very interesting questions were raised in those discussions. I was motivated to write this book to address those questions that are not answered in the Churches of God literature, particularly concerning other religions.

The second reason was that people from other religions with a bias against Christianity may not be motivated to visit the Church of God web sites and read or request the literature provided there. Just as I thought before my conversion to Christianity from Sikhism that a Church web site will contain Christian propaganda to convert people, people from other religions will probably have a similar bias. But because of my criticism of virtually every religion, some people may be motivated to read this book on my web site. Therefore, I felt it was necessary for me to write it and put it on my web site.

Many of the questions posed in the WhatsApp group have been answered in the body of this book. I will answer some of the remaining questions here briefly.

1. Christians Believe the Earth is only 6,000 Years Old  

There are some Christians who believe the earth was created only about 6,000 years ago based on the creation account in Genesis 1:1-3, “1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” Then the account goes on to describe the creation of plant and animal life, and finally man.

Many scholars have looked at verse 2 and agree that the correct translation of verse 2 should be: “The earth became without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep…”

Here is what else is revealed about the history of the earth. Job 38:1-7 states, “1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said…4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding…7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

The morning stars and sons of God here refers to angels. So when God created the heavens and the earth as stated in Genesis 1:1, the angels shouted for joy. Would the angels have shouted for joy if the earth had been without form and void, a chaotic mess, enveloped in darkness, with water covering the entire surface of the earth? It does not make sense.

God said in Isaiah 45:18, “For thus says the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.”

Her God declares that He created the earth to be inhabited. The condition of the earth described in Genesis 1:2 shows that the earth was uninhabitable at that stage. That leads us to conclude that God created the earth to be inhabitable. It was created for angels to work with. That’s why they shouted for joy.

God then sent a pioneering party of about one-third of all the angels under the leadership of the archangel Lucifer, one of the three highest ranking angels, to earth to rule it. They worked on the earth and created their own creation. And that creation was the dinosaur world. That process could have gone on for millions or billions of years. It would have taken a great deal of time for the angels to explore the newly, first time ever, created matter, and then use it ti create plant live and living creatures.   

But then Lucifer convinced all the angels under his command to join him in rebellion against God to try and depose God and take over the rule of the universe. That process also could have taken millions of years. The rebellion was unsuccessful. In a fit of rage and frustration, Lucifer and the angels with him perhaps went on a rampage in parts of the universe. That’s why we see much destruction on other planets, and perhaps in other parts of the universe in addition to our solar system. The chaotic state of the earth described in Genesis 1:2 was a result of that rebellion. That is why the correct translation of verse 2 is “The earth became without form, and void…” Thus, there could be a gap of hundreds of millions or billions of years (your choice) between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1.

After the unsuccessful rebellion Lucifer was named Satan, meaning adversary of God, and the angels became demons. They were blasted back to the earth. 

The scientists who believe the earth is billions of years old are not wrong. The biblical record agrees with science in this regard.

It is important to understand who these biblical scholars are who claim that the earth was created only about 6,000 - 10,000 years ago. These are people (German masqueraders) who have infiltrated Christianity to try and overthrow the faith of some from the inside. They try and knock down Christianity from the outside by posing as atheists or evolutionists, or from the inside by infiltrating Christian organizations and offering endless arguments on some aspects of Christianity. Their criticism of Christianity will never end. They’ll keep inventing new arguments when their old arguments have been pulverized.

2. Carbon Dating Proves Mankind is at Least 20,000 Years Old    

I am not an expert on carbon dating. But the Bible record clearly tells us that Adam was created about 6,000 years ago. The line of Adam’s son Seth kept genealogical records of their line with the number of years various patriarchs lived. There are no other written records older than that. The oldest written records are considered to be the cuneiform Sumerian clay tablets from about 3,200 BCE. 

God created Adam and Eve with the ability to communicate. They did not have to develop a language. Since they kept written records of their genealogies and the years various people lived, they had the ability to write as well. God put that ability within them. So the earliest written records we have are only about 5,200 years old. Based on this evidence, I’d rather believe the biblical record on how old mankind is than the age of mankind determined by carbon dating.

Here is a good explanation I have found on why carbon dating can be in error on the website: 

https://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/is-carbon-dating-accurate-faq.htm

“Is carbon dating accurate? Only to a certain extent. In order for carbon dating to be accurate, we must know what the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 was in the environment in which our specimen lived during its lifetime. Unfortunately the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 has yet to reach a state of equilibrium in our atmosphere; there is more carbon-14 in the air today than there was thousands of years ago. Furthermore, the ratio is known to fluctuate significantly over relatively short periods of time (e.g. during the industrial revolution more carbon-12 was being produced offsetting the ratio a bit). 

“Carbon dating is somewhat accurate because we are able to determine what the ratio was in the unobservable past to a certain extent. By taking a carboniferous specimen of known age (that is, a specimen which we are able to date with reasonable certainty through some archaeological means), scientists are able to determine what the ratio was during a specimen's lifetime. They are then able to calibrate the carbon dating method to produce fairly accurate results. Carbon dating is thus accurate within the timeframe set by other archaeological dating techniques. Unfortunately, we aren't able to reliably date artifacts beyond several thousand years. Scientists have tried to extend confidence in the carbon dating method further back in time by calibrating the method using tree ring dating. Unfortunately, tree ring dating is itself not entirely reliable, especially the "long chronology" employed to calibrate the carbon dating method. The result is that carbon dating is accurate for only a few thousand years. Anything beyond that is questionable. This fact is born out in how carbon dating results are used by scientists in the scientific literature. Many scientists will use carbon dating test results to back up their position if the results agree with their preconceived theories. But if the carbon dating results actually conflict with their ideas, they aren't too concerned. "This attitude is clearly reflected in a regrettably common practice: when a radiocarbon date agrees with the expectations of the excavator it appears in the main text of the site report; if it is slightly discrepant it is relegated to a footnote; if it seriously conflicts it is left out altogether." (Peter James, et al. (I. J. Thorpe, Nikos Kokkinos, Robert Morkot and John Frankish), Preface to Centuries of Darkness, 1991) 

“So, is carbon dating accurate? It is for specimens which only date back a few thousand years. Anything beyond that is problematic and highly doubtful.”

Many will offer counter-arguments to this. But I will not put my bets on fallible science. Everything man touches, invariably degenerates, particularly food. Man thinks he is improving seeds and plants with genetic engineering. But all the evidence tells us that after 3-4 successive crops with decreasing yields, the genetically modified seeds will not even grow a crop. I’d rather believe what the Bible says, which we have proved is the infallible word of God, rather than what science says that is contrary to the biblical record. 

3. Opinion of Jesus, Prophets and Apostles about the Bible

Here are the opinions of Jesus Christ, the prophets, apostles and even the angels of God that the entire Bible is the divinely inspired word of God.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Jesus also said in John 17:17: “…your word is truth.” So, Jesus emphatically said that God’s word, the Old Testament in the Bible (which is what was available as scripture when Jesus Christ was alive) is the truth.   

Jesus also said in Matthew 5:17-18: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily [or assuredly] I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle [the equivalent of a fullstop or a coma as punctuation marks] shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” “The law or the prophets” was a term applied for the Old Testament. Here Jesus was saying that everything written in the Old Testament, including punctuation marks, will be fulfilled. Therefore, it is the truth backed by Almighty God.

When Jesus was arrested before His crucifixion, He said in Matthew 26:54, 56: “But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?…But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook Him, and fled.” This shows that Jesus knew that the Jews possessed the correct Scriptures in the Temple and all synagogues, which were exact copies of the ones in the Temple.  

This was confirmed in Luke 24:44-45, “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures”  

The law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms referred to the canonized Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus confirmed that they were the inspired word of God, containing many prophecies concerning Him, which were fulfilled. 

The disciples were slow to understand the events concerning Jesus’ crucifixion and Resurrection. He said to them in Luke 24:25-27: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

Jesus also said in John 10:35: “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken.” 

Here Jesus was saying that the scriptures cannot be broken, meaning that the scriptures are infallible. By the time of Jesus, the Old Testament scriptures had been written and preserved for a time period varying from more than 1450 years when Moses delivered his first 5 books of the Bible to about 450 years since Malachi the prophet wrote his book. Jesus thus confirmed that the Old Testament had been faithfully preserved by the Jews till His time.

Incidentally, since we have stated that man’s potential is to become gods as sons and daughters of God, Jesus affirmed it in John 10:30 - 36, “30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we do not stone you; but for blasphemy; and because that you, being a man, make yourself God. 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods? [Psalm 82:6] 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say you of him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, You blaspheme; because I said, I am the Son of God?”

Here is what the prophet Daniel thought of the scriptures: “But I [this is probably the archangel Gabriel talking to Daniel] will show you that which is noted in the scripture of truth…” (Daniel 10:21). Daniel recorded what was revealed to him, because he knew it was the truth.

Thus, even the archangels of God call the scriptures truth.  

The angels of God also keep the sayings of the Bible. The angel that was revealing parts of chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation to the Apostle John said in Revelation 22:6-9: “6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. 7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book. 8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. 9 Then says he unto me, See you do it not: for I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.”   

When the prophecies in the Book of Revelation were revealed to John, all other books of the Bible had already been written and the final compilation already done by John the Apostle. So when the angel said that he was a fellow servant like the prophets and kept the sayings of this book, he also signified that the canonization of books that John had done were also scripture. So the angel signified that the New Testament of the Bible had been completed, and he as an angel of God kept the sayings of the entire Bible as they were faithful and true. As the angel had signified to Daniel the prophet that the Old Testament scriptures were the truth, the angel was now signifying to John the apostle that the New Testament that he had finally canonized with the book of Revelation was the truth and even he as an angel of God lived by its words. Besides Jesus Christ, what greater testimony can we have than that of God’s angels that the entire Bible is the true word of God?

The apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” The literal translation in place of ‘inspiration of God’ is “God-breathed.” So according to Paul, the entire Bible is God breathed, or inspired by God.

In Romans 1:2 Paul calls the scriptures ‘holy.’ 

Peter the apostle shows in 2 Peter 1:20-21 that God had an active hand in the writing of the Bible. He said that “No prophecy [which means ‘inspired speaking or writing’] of Scripture ever came by the will of man. Instead, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”  

Thus, from the words of Jesus, the prophets, the apostles and even God’s angels, the scriptures, the entire Holy Bible is the true, inspired and infallible word of God.



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