The Plumb Line A Teaching Ministry of Fellowship Bible Church Fall Semester 2014 Fellowship Bible Church ◊ Greenville, South Carolina Existence & Attributes of God SYLLABUS OF LESSONS Session Lesson Topic Scripture Page Reading 1 A Arguments for the Non-Existence Romans 1:18-32 of God B C 2 A The Question of Being B C 3 A Arguments for the Existence of God B C 4 A Reason & Revelation B C 2 Existence & Attributes of God 3 Existence & Attributes of God Session 1 – An Atmosphere of Unbelief There was a time when one could begin the study of God – the evidence of His existence and the nature of His attributes – in the midst of almost universal belief in that existence, and near universal agreement as to those attributes. And this atmosphere of theism was not limited to the ‘Christian’ world alone, for the Christian theologian could speak with the Jewish rabbi or the Islamic mullah, and find remarkable agreement as to the doctrine of God. No doubt there would be some trouble in the conversation if a Buddhist or Hindu teacher joined in, but across a large swath of the earth, and among a large portion of the world’s population, there was at least a common starting point: God Exists. But this era of general agreement ended about a century and a half ago, and in many cases Christian theologians and apologists have not yet adjusted. Atheism – both theoretical and practical – are far more prevalent, and in some areas of the world even dominant, than could have been imagined one hundred fifty years ago. It is not so clear that any atheists actually existed. Searching for full-fledged deniers of God before the eighteenth century sometimes resembles hunting the unicorn. Part of the problem is that, lacking a tradition of open unbelief, contemporaries also lacked the vocabulary to describe it. Thus the word ‘atheism’ could apply to everything from denial of the Trinity to gross immorality – and did.1 To some extent the Church itself is responsible for this; not culpable, per se, but responsible. It has always been the teaching of the three great monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – that God is, in Himself, incomprehensible. Rationalism took this to mean ‘unknowable,’ and from unknowable it was not a huge step to ‘unknown.’ But theologians meant something completely different by the term ‘incomprehensible,’ actually they meant exactly what the word meant: cannot be comprehended. “Because God is infinite and we are finite, or limited, we can never fully understand God. In this sense God is said to be incomprehensible, where the term 1 Turner, James; Without God, Without Creed: The Origins of Unbelief in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1985); 26. 4 Existence & Attributes of God incomprehensible is used with an older and less common sense, ‘unable to be fully understood.”2 Comprehension means total knowledge (literally, to think around something so as to encompass it with understanding). By the very definition of the term ‘God,’ we conclude rationally that He is a Being incapable of being known by finite Man in a comprehensive manner. So says the Apostle Paul in his explosive doxology from Romans 11, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Romans 11:33) Job also realizes toward the end of his trial, the incomprehensibility of God, Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand? (Job 26:14) It is reasonable, therefore, for us to conclude that the various attempts made by Jewish and Christian theologians to ‘prove’ the existence of God were by no means attempts to comprehensively establish the nature of His Being. For the most part (though there were undoubtedly those who overstepped the bounds of intellectual probity), such arguments as the Ontological, the Argument from Causation, or that from Design, were meant simply to show that a belief in God is rational; at the very least it is certainly not irrational. Subjected to the perennial assaults of Enlightenment rationalism, however, the weaknesses of these arguments became apparent, and the misconception that these arguments were intended to prove comprehensively the existence of God led to the conclusion in many circles, that God does not exist. But this is itself irrational: for man’s inability to prove comprehensively the existence of something does not logically disprove its existence, it merely proves man’s inability. Still, the distance between man’s rational capacity and God’s Being grew wider through the Enlightenment, with Deism eventually elevating Deity beyond reach. “If the difference between God and man is exaggerated, 2 Grudem, Wayne; Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House; 1994); 149. 5 Existence & Attributes of God then the Infinite and the finite are so separated from one another that religion becomes impossible. God is practically reduced to a nonentity, by being placed wholly outside the sphere of human apprehension.”3 Agnosticism results, which quickly descends into either theoretical or practical atheism. The saner theologians across the ages have acknowledged that all attempted ‘proofs’ are mere approximations to that which has been revealed in Nature and in Man regarding the existence of a divine Being. Herman Hoeksema writes in regard to the Knowability of God, From the earliest times the church emphasized the incomprehensibility of God, and the absolute incapability of man to find Him out, to investigate His Being, and of himself to say anything about Him…Man, mere man, by his own power can neither affirm nor deny His existence. He may conclude to a final Cause, but a cause – even a final cause – still belongs to our world. And God is not the final Cause: He is God! man may conceive of a supreme being, but God is not relatively supreme with relation to the world; He is the Lord, the Being of beings, the Absolute, the Self-existent One, and Jehovah is His name.4 Hoeksema’s purpose is not to motivate intellectual atheism, but rather to remind us that our knowledge of God is first, incomplete; and second, wholly dependent upon the divine self-disclosure. Thus atheism is only rational if there is indeed no evidence that God has disclosed His being to the sensory world of man. If God neither spoke nor acted, nor gave to Man the ears to hear or eyes to see, then the truest form of atheism would prevail throughout mankind: the concept of God would not even enter into the vocabulary of humanity. The word ‘atheism’ would have no meaning, for there would be no ‘theos’ in whom not to believe. As it is, the atheism that does pervade Western civilization is a fraud: it is the denial of a God of whom the atheist knows enough to deny. It is a vigorous rejection of the evidence of Nature and of Conscience, and it is not the act of an intellectual but rather that of a fool. 3 Shedd, William G. T.; Dogmatic Theology (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers; 1980); 156. 4 Hoeksema, Herman; Reformed Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Reformed Free Publishing Association; 1966); 26. 6 Existence & Attributes of God The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. (Psalm 14:1-3) Perhaps the greatest book written within the Christian community on the topic of human knowledge of God is the work by the Puritan Stephen Charnock, titled Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God. In his opening lecture, Charnock discusses the folly of atheism, a state of mind and profession that was, in his day, a capital crime in most European states. Indeed, Charnock was writing somewhat in a vacuum, for atheism– at least in the outward admission of Stephen Charnock (1626-80) the view - was rarer among men than the belief that the earth was flat. Still, based on the words of the psalmist, Charnock rightfully concluded that atheism is bound up in the fallen human heart, though men might refrain from publicizing their folly (as they largely did in his day, for fear of the physical consequences of such an admission). Charnock writes, No man is exempted from some spice of atheism by the depravity of his nature, which the psalmist intimates, ‘there is none that doeth good;’ though there are infallible convictions of the being of a God, that they cannot absolutely deny it; yet there are some atheistical babblings in the hearts of men, which evidence themselves in their actions.5 Flagrant atheism was indeed rare – virtually non-existent – in Charnock’s world. Therefore he writes of practical atheism, whereby a man verbally acknowledges the existence of God, and usually in that part of the world a Christian God, but lives such a life as if there were no God at all. But today atheism is both rampant and popular, viewed by many as being the true intellectual response to the question. Instead of theologians 5 Charnock, Stephen; Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; 1979); 25. 7 Existence & Attributes of God positing arguments for the divine existence, modern scientists and philosophers are setting forth arguments for the non-existence of God.