Monday: Nothing Came from Itself
There are many good and powerful arguments in favor of God’s existence. Besides the testimony of the created world, there’s also what’s called the “cosmological” argument. Basically, it’s the idea that nothing came from itself and that nothing created itself. Instead, what was created was created by something else before it, and whatever created that had to be created by something else before it. And this goes on and on until we stop at something uncreated, something that had always existed, something that never was not in existence. And who else would that be but the God depicted in Scripture?
What do the following texts teach us about the origin of all things?
Image © Elfred Lee from GoodSalt.com
These texts teach what is really the most logical explanation for the Creation—an eternally existing God. Some thinkers, utterly opposed to the idea of God, have come up with an alternative suggestion. Instead of an all-powerful and eternal God creating the universe, we are told that “nothing” created it. Even such a famous scientist as Stephen Hawking, who now occupies the chair that Isaac Newton once held, argues that “nothing” created the universe.
“Because there is a law like gravity the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”—Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow,The Grand Design (New York: Random House, 2010), p. 180.
Though Hawking surely has plenty of deep and complicated math to describe his idea, one has to wonder: here we are, a good 400 years since the beginning of the scientific revolution, and one of the world’s best scientists is arguing that the universe and all that’s in it came from nothing? Error is error, even when spoken by a great scientist.
In this context, read 1 Corinthians 3:19. Why is it always so important for Christians to keep this important truth before us?
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I say Amen to this. Even king david said "thou art worthy o lord, to receive glory honor and power, for thou hath created all things and for thy pleasures they are and were created...
Once I taught nothing created the world when I was young. Today many of my friends have left the faith for some reasons that there's no God, and the ministers were not helping matter either. Nigeria
'Error is error, even when spoken by a great scientist.' Is a great truth, but who makes Stephen Hawking a 'great scientist'? Not me, and I have the gift of choice as Adam and Eve did.
Godbless today, Mrs A Stolz
Thus,all things been created by the word... where does word came from as Nothing came from itself?
John 1:1-3 Srcipture says...
Hello Chilean, this is a question that has been asked for years - I think that when we get to Heaven we will be forever learning, the mystery of God and creation will be something that we will have the opportunity to learn about. Dear bro.Eric I will lift you up in prayer, stay strong, cancer is of the devil not God - Blessings to you.
Hawkins is indisputably a great scientist and a phenomenal mathematician. Just because a person believes wrongly doesn't make them or their achievements less great.
We can view Nebuchadnezzar as a great man and a gifted leader and strategist. Just because he made a golden statue of himself for all to worship does not make him any less of the former.
Daniel still showed him respect for his achievements and skills despite his faults. We should follow his example in dealing with great men and women, regardless of their faults, for who of us can call ourselves faultless?
We do not evidence the love of God by attempting to denigrate the often remarkable achievements of others. Consider also the behaviour of Paul before the high priest in Acts 23.
The scientific world will never come to complete agreement as to the source of life. Scientists continue to spend money without limit and years of time, to prove an unprovable theory.
We need to be careful when describing the work of scientists. They work within a disciplinary framework, that includes observation calculation and logical argument. I have a great respect for the process because I am a scientist. I also understand the limitations of the scientific process. When we try to describe something that cannot be measured, observed, calculated, inferred or deducted, we are no longer in the discipline of science.
"...the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the [worldly] wise in their own craftiness." (1 Cor 3:19).
I find this statement interesting, and relevant to Job, because when Paul says, "it is written", he is actually referring to a statement made by Eliphaz (one of Job's old friends) Job 5:13.
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Many worldly people put tremendous faith in their "wise men" (especially their scientists), and they make "great" men and heroes out of them. The old Greek "hero worship" is still very much alive today. It takes on a different form now, but I believe that it remains very active in the hearts of those who do not wish to know God. The human heart naturally, automatically, looks for something to worship... and so often the most foolish things, and the most foolish ideas, become objects of admiration and worship. (The action of worship has effect on those that do it... and I would say that we all worship something. And the laws of physics count for nothing, in the face of the Divine laws that pertain to our minds and spirits.)
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Who, or what, makes Stephen Hawkins a great scientist? I would say that it is the spirit of the world that makes him into a great scientist.
I believe that the same God who made Nebuchadnezzar a great king made Stephen Hawking a great scientist. And God wants him in heaven with Him as much as He wants you and me.
It is not necessary to denigrate anyone's intelligence or achievement because they have not accepted Jesus as Lord. God isn'T finished with them yet.
The greatest temptation for great men is pride. But Christians aren't immune. It seems to me that denigrating others is just as much an act of pride as is glorying in one's own achievements.
I personally don't denigrate Stephan Hawking although, even in the scientific world, many consider him delusional. I denigrate and rebuke the one who controls his mind and motivates his blasphemous writings.
Jesus loved the demonic when He lived on earth (Mark 5:1-9) and He still loves the demon-possessed of our present time. Hawking needs our prayers and compassion just like anyone else who is controlled by unclean spirits. Jesus loves them and wants them to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
Non-scientists often misunderstand the purpose of science. Maurice stated it nicely above. Science cannot and does not attempt to "prove" anything. Science can only disprove, and many things are not subject to the scientific method. That is why evolution is only a theory and why God is not subject to scientific investigation.
Very insightful study this morning here wrighting from South Africa He created all things cancer planets galaxies and so on all for His Glory now how cancer glorifies God is not for us to ponder but rather wait on the Lord and He will reveal His wisdom that's what I have done and wow my 1 in 9 000 000 kind of cancer has done just that praise God
Eric, why do you conclude that God "created" cancer? Cancer is a case of body cells ignoring the rules built into them - in that they proliferate in a way they were not designed to do.
Have you followed the study of the book of Job so far? Did God create the boils with which Job was afflicted? (Please consult Job 2:1-7)
But I sense a story in your comment. Could you please share about how God was glorified in your 1 in 9,000,000 kind of cancer?
(Just like God was glorified in the life of Job who suffered from attacks by Satan, I believe God can be glorified today in how God's people respond to misfortunes.)
Hi brother Eric
Thanks for your comment but I want to remind you that when God created the world it was very clean . The sickness we experience today is from satan not from God.
May God bless us as we read more.
Morning,
i just wanted to add to your comment, yes the world when made was perfect Gen 1 and Gen 2, what went wrong with the world was sin and its consequence (ie death) brought on by mans disobedience to Gods word.
As long as scientists leave out the Creator and the history of creation in their exploration of the work of His hands they are bound to fail. No wonder their true discoveries are better explained by those who study His word.
Their failure to understand the universe leads them to deny the existence of the one who created it and many people believe their teachings. This shows the reality of the great controversy. What God gave us as proof of His greatness is used to lead multitudes into error.
Dear Bro. Eric, cancer is just a test of faith...
As God allows trials, but He didn't turn things useless...
I have a cancer too... but I have a great faith than how spreadable a cancer be.
How sad that such a brilliant brain in a wasted body will never reach its full potential until Professor Hawkings accepts that the Creator gave him his brilliant brain and only by accepting Jesus as his Saviour will he ever escape his wheelchair and dance before his Creator in eternity. Oh how foolish man can be.
Professor Hawkins has been gifted with a brilliant mind which I believe is evidence of the level of intelligence that is closer to what God originally intended for all humanity before the fall. He has lived so long with his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and I will pray for him this night that he will live longer and to see that beyond this large cold universe and complex math there is a Creator whose love and knowledge is greater anything humans can imagine.
Thank you lesson author for mentioning Professor Hawkins as it makes a good prayer opportunity.
I like your comment Nicole, we should pray for Professor Hawkins, for his health, and that as he studies that he will become aware of the simple truth that is, God the Creator of the universe - Blessings.
All praises to God my creator and redeemer because He made us all We are wonderfully made
We are complex yet there's design that is in every bit of creation
We must keep this text in our hearts always because:
1. when we keep something in our heart (our mind) we remember it and we believe it, and we live by it.
2. God is telling us, that we as Christians are more qualified to discuss such subjects as the creation, people like Hawkins and Newton may have science, but we have the word of God, and the word trumps science, because spiritual knowledge from God is truly a gift.
People like Hawking hath to spend years deciphering the earth, while we just have to spend a little time with God and his word. Because the creator reveals to us the wonder of this world though his word.
The accuracy of God's word, with Babylon, then the Mid's and the persians, then Grease, then Rome, then Catholicism, then the midnight cry and now on the cress of a Sunday law, Danielle chapter two, is proof enough that there is a God.
What a contrast in views, held by two men of renown -- Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawkins!
One wrote about the solar system, that "I do not think it explicable by mere natural causes but am forced to ascribe it to [the] counsel and contrivance of a voluntary agent." [And a "voluntary Agent" chooses to do something.]
"Gravity may put [the] planets into motion but without [the] divine power it could never put them into such a circulating motion as they have about [the] Sun, and therefore, for this as well as other reasons, I am compelled to ascribe [the] frame of this [planetary] system to an intelligent Agent... The Being which had contrived all this so perfectly had to be a supremely intelligent Mechanic."
The second writer -- the modern-day professor -- effectively teaches that matter originated spontaneously from an absolute vacuum (in which NO atoms existed). To me, he is saying that if nothing [i.e. an absolute vacuum] is left long enough, particles of matter will eventually form within it. He appears to be basing this concept on the law of gravity. But if this is what professor Hawkins is really teaching, then isn't he basically asserting that the law/s of gravity had existence even before anything with "mass" existed, and because the PRINCIPLE of gravity existed, matter and mass came as a consequence.
We need to be careful that we don't describe Stephen Hawking theories in terms that suit our own desire to justify our position. I doubt that too many Seventh-day Adventists have read (much less understood) Hawking's ideas. It is too easy to make straw men of them and knock down our perception of their arguments with glib statements.
I have to confess that having read Hawkings and Davis and a number of other scientists (as opposed to those who write about scientists) I get a sense that both scientists and Christians face the same deep cosmological origin problem. Why did the universe begin at all? We claim that God did it and that is fair enough, but we still face the issue that we have no understanding about what God did before (or outside) the space-time continuum. I get the impression from reading Paul Davis, that he regards the ultimate design as something rather special. As a scientist he is limited by observation, calculation, induction, and deduction, and he is not going to make a leap of faith and say that God is the ultimate cause, but he does leave room for those who do.
C A Coulson, was an eminent scientist in molecular orbital theory, and consequently influential in my life - I studied his books on MO theory in my undergraduate years. He was also a Christian and wrote a book, Science and Christian Belief. He describes how he blurs the distinction between the natural and supernatural. He is not pantheistic but he is saying that we often separate our notions of the natural and supernatural when in fact the creator and created should be considered as two dimensional views of a greater reality. Coulson has given me some ideas on how to think about ultimate causes and our relationship to both God and scientific discovery.
Eric, whoever you are, and with whatever type of cancer you have I am interested in sharing my story with you. I am recovered from 4th stage malignant melanoma, one of the smartest things I did along with some treatment was read the book The China Study, a 25 year research on the benefits of a plant based protein diet instead of one including animal protein. Also if you will thoughtfully read Gen.!:29 and consider that God new what we should eat to stay healthy. We did not eat animals in the Garden of Eden!!
Newton: GmM/Rr so, if no mass, then no gravitational pull, nothing created there. Einstein made it more complex, but that relation still exists. Hawking again more complex, but no one breaks God's law, the law breaks him. Time will show all the TRUE evidence.
I am not entirely sure what you mean by citing Newton's and Einstein's descriptions of gravity. Both are descriptions of a physical phenomenon. One is more refined than the other as one would expect. Hawking's work is more to do with cosmological beginnings than descriptions of gravity.
There is a significant difference between scientific law, which is essentially descriptive and God's law which is essentially prescriptive (although that term is sometimes misunderstood.
From God's view, Hawking, Einstein, Newton, etc. are mere infants who can see little beyond their own noses. Everything that is "known" in science is turned on its head inside a black hole. Science is clueless to explain what dark matter or dark energy is. Only recently has it been “discovered” that there are more galaxies than we “knew” of before (by a factor of 20 times).
It is a sensible and humbling thing to admit that “The more you know, the more you know you don't know.” (Aristotle)
The question that popped into my mind was; Where did the "law of gravity" come from?
Amen!!!!!!!!! to your comments all I want to add is "I sing the mighty power of God that makes the mountains move,I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun and moon to shine" oh so true nothing nothing came from itself.
Br.Eric the day the Doctor diagnosed me with Prostate cancer, all I did is I seeked God and asked the Holy Spirit to enter my body and heal me, a week after my operation the Doctor could find no trace of cancer,Brother that is the Master in action who cretaed this wonderful body only somebody who created something can fix it if anything goes wrong with it.
Praise God, Br.virgil, I love to hear stories of healing.
I'm reminded of a time in Accounting Class. I achieved the correct answer but I did so incorrectly. The teacher showed us the correct path so that we could always get correct answer. I and the others, that followed my example, did not get credit for the answer b/c the path (or solution) is what she was trying to teach us.
We can have experience based on lies that will get us to a goal and still call it wisdom. Or we can live by The Truth and get to correct goal always. We get crafty when we reach for goals (answers) before (or w/o) following correct path (or solution.)
The Bible is so true. The wisdom of man is foolishness to God. Why not just believe. It's that simple. God makes the simple wise.whatever pertains to our salvation is in the bible. I'm not saying we shouldn't ask questions but ultimately we need to accept what God has revealed. Live by faith and in glory we shall be taught more and more.
I understand what you are saying Anne. "Just believing" would be easy if truth was a destination that rang a bell when we finally arrived at it. But truth is a journey and our experiences through life colour our truth as we grow and develop.
I listen to music and enjoy it. I am not a musician and do not appreciate all the fine nuances present in the composition. Carmel, my wife I has qualifications in performance music and her appreciation far outstrips mine. It's like that with truth. Depending on our education, background and experience, our understanding of truth has to grow and develop as we journey through life. When we stop learning we have lost one of the key elements of the truth journey.
The greatest vindication of a scientist that claims for an uncreated world, would be if he/she overcomes his/her own mortality.
Bro Ashton,
Your comments are so uplifting and provokes the mind to really analyze and think deep. we need to know what indeed we believe in. Faith need to be cultivated for it to grow. A plant that bears small fruits, may need to be pruned to bear much more and bigger fruits
Everything create by God, no one can defy him for his great work,and he created the world.