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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
We welcome you to the Harvester Podcast, Season 3, Episode 3.
I am the host, Brian Kenyon, and with me are...
Steven Ford.
George Beals
And I want to give a shout out thanks to Steven for the last two episodes.
We were in kind of an emergency and he stepped right in there and stood in the gap.
And we got those two episodes recorded, very fine lessons on Christian apologetics.
And that's what our third season here is on, lessons on Christian apologetics.
We've looked at episode one introduction to uh Christian apologetics part one and
introduction to Christian apologetics part two.
And then
we are going to look at season or episode three the existence of God the design argument
part one and george is uh...
our guest host this season and we appreciate his ability in his study and george where do
we bring us up to speed from for the previous lesson
maybe we can do a quick review of where we were in the previous lesson.
We might begin by pointing out the various terms that some find helpful when explaining
objects.
And these are referred to as Aristotle's four causes.
You can think of these as being explanations or characterizations of objects.
This is helpful when we start getting into the design argument.
And I think that'll uh become a
So he talked about a material cause.
Each object has a material cause.
That would be the stuff out of which an object is made.
And then the formal cause, that would be the shape of the object.
And the final cause, that's the end or the purpose of the object.
And then an efficient cause, and this is quite significant in our study, that would be the
design of the designer or the maker of the object.
And we could...
Notice how this applies to several out there in the world.
For example, take a house, a ranch, and then an acorn, and then let's say the bread of the
Lord's Supper, and then the whole universe, and then the human being.
So looking back at that house, the material cause would be the stuff out of which it is
made.
That would be maybe brick and mortar, or wood, or vinyl siding, and so forth.
all of the stuff out of which it is made.
A formal cause would be the shape.
In this case, it's shaped like a ranch.
And the final cause, the end of the purpose, well, that would be for the case of the
house, it would be a dwelling place for people to live.
And then the efficient cause would be the blueprint and or the general contractor, the
carpenters and so forth.
They would make
they would be the makers of the object.
then with respect to the bread of the Lord's Supper, well, the material would be the
unleavened bread, shape, the formal cause would be the shape of it, maybe a little square
rectangle, a variation there we use.
The final cause, according to the Scriptures, would be to represent the body of Jesus
Christ on the cross as a matter of remembrance.
And then the efficient cause would be the baker.
What about, say, an acorn?
Well, its material cause would be the stuff out of which an acorn is made.
The shape would be the shape of the thing, shaped like an acorn.
The final cause, that's interesting, the final ultimate cause of the acorn would be to
become a oak tree.
And the efficient cause, that would be quite interesting, right down our lines, we're
gonna argue that the ultimate efficient cause of the acorn is the maker, the ultimate God,
of course.
And then the same thing would be true of the human being and the universe.
So we talked about those terms, I think are helpful to draw upon, many at least find that
helpful, as we analyze objects.
And then we talked about the double edge of 1 Thessalonians 5.21.
This says, all things, hold fast at what is good.
This guards against both gullibility and skepticism.
If there's not adequate evidence, then withhold belief until there is.
That again guards against gullibility.
But if there is adequate evidence, then go ahead and do conclude.
There's no sense now in waiting.
Go ahead and do conclude, do believe when there is sufficient evidence.
And so then that edge of first Thessalonians 5.21 guards against skepticism.
We see there the wisdom of the Bible in that passage.
And then we talked about the fact that there is a spectrum of belief in God, as I call it.
Draw a horizontal line left to right, way over on the left.
is the atheist, to let that be represented by a vertical line, this person says, I know
God does not exist.
And then way over on the right, another vertical line representing the theist, in this
case, and the theist says, I know God does exist.
And then right in the middle, a vertical line representing what I call the pure agnostic.
There are two flavors of that.
One is, I do not know one way or the other, but perhaps someone else does know.
And then the other flavor of the pure agnostic is, do not know and no one can know whether
or not God exists.
And then in between the atheist and the pure agnostic is what we can call the atheistic
agnostic.
That is, the person who says, I do not know but probably God does not exist.
And then there is the theistic agnostic.
That is, the theistic leaning agnostic.
He says,
I do not know but probably God does exist.
Of course we're interested in the biblical position and defending it.
The biblical position is that we can know that God exists.
Now we have to be careful as we pointed out last time with the idea that the Holy Spirit
operates directly on the mind to cause belief.
That is to say there is the view out there that we cannot come.
to a knowledge of God just by using unaided human reasoning.
And this is based upon the claim that there is a so-called noetic fall, noetic referring
to the mind.
That is, the claim is that the first sin impaired the human's mind's ability to reason to
God.
And since sin entered, since that point in Genesis 3 up to now,
The unaided human mind cannot reason to God, not all the way at least.
So there is a direct intervention of the Holy Spirit that is needed who illuminates us and
then gives us this belief.
This is applied in different ways.
apply it to knowledge of the existence of God.
Others say that you need that in order to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Our minds cannot
travel from the evidence provided to that knowledge.
We have to have the illumination of the Holy Spirit to bring us to that point.
Some would even apply it to knowing or believing that the Bible teaches a particular
doctrine.
So we want to be careful there.
We pointed out that, I raised the question, as a matter of interest, at what point in the
study, at this point in the study, what does the Bible teach then about how one comes to
belief in God?
I'm persuaded that Romans chapter 1 verse 20 answers that.
This reads, since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that
they are without excuse.
Notice carefully what is clearly understood without excuse.
That's belief in God and even some of his attributes.
And by what means do we come to this knowledge?
Well, it specifies it as by the things that are made.
And so then we use our gray matter, so to speak, and look at the evidence in this natural
world, according to this passage, and we, without excuse, can draw the conclusion that God
exists.
And when can we do this?
Well, notice it says that this process accomplishes that arriving of that conclusion from
since the creation of the world.
So that's from Genesis 1 up to the present, bypassing Genesis 3 before and after the
entrance of sin into the world.
ah when is this understood?
By using our minds as we look at the evidence to come to the conclusion that God exists
since creation of the world right up to the present.
And furthermore, it looks like what we have clearly is that it is the biblical God that
we arrive at, His existence, by looking at that evidence.
Romans chapter 1 verse 20.
And so then according to that passage there is adequate evidence in nature for the human
mind to conclude with clarity that God exists.
In other words, this is affirming that we have a logical argument that we're following.
There's adequate evidence and that leads to the conclusion that God exists.
The Bible also teaches that in Psalm 19 verses 1 to 4.
and if one were to examine that carefully.
So that is uh a good review of where we were, maybe say one or two other things here
before we get into the new material.
Evidence leading to the conclusion that God exists is all around us, and this is affirmed
in the Bible.
And it is in us.
And this evidence can be seen just by living in the world for a while, observing it and
thinking about
Seeing it is not dependent on the level of one's formal education.
The latter can just see more of the same.
The acceptance or rejection of the evidence for God is a choice all the way through
irrespective of formal education.
So in this series we look at formulations of different arguments for the existence of God.
One is the design argument also known as the
teleological argument and along the way on that one we'll say a few words about what is
called the fine-tuning argument for God.
We'll also say some words about the cosmological argument and the moral argument.
And so then in the overall scheme that we're following we have the argument if God exists
and the Bible is his word and the Bible teaches a particular doctrine then therefore that
doctrine must be true.
and we want to take these up one by one first of all then looking at evidence that God
exists.
And this is just a huge distinction between what the religious world often thinks that,
you know, faith is just a blind leap in the dark, that you just have to accept it and
without the evidence.
But clearly the evidence is all around us and really God wants us to examine the evidence
as per the first Thessalonians 5, 21 and 22 passages that we cited earlier indicate.
Right, we have, and this is the biblical information, so we want to be on our way and take
up this bold challenge that the Bible gives us that we can determine that God exists by
looking at the evidence.
So we could move on then to this first argument that we want to look at and this is the
design argument for the existence of God.
It's a matter of interest.
Let's look at some relevant teachings that Hebrews chapter three verses one to four
presents on the design argument for God.
This passage reads, therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.
who was faithful to him who appointed him and as Moses also was faithful in all his house.
Now note verses three to four.
For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses inasmuch as he who built the
house has more honor than the house.
For, verse four of Hebrews chapter three, every house is built by someone.
But he who built all things is God.
And we want to look carefully at the terms house, built, and honor in this passage.
The word house is from the Greek word oikos, and that means a house or a dwelling, a
household depending upon context, a family, a whole tribe of people descended from a
common ancestor, descendants, a nation, a house and what is in it.
property or an estate.
We need to look at context to pin down the particular nuance that is in mind in a passage.
And then the word build in that passage over in Hebrews 3, 3-4, this is a translation of
the Greek word kataskouadzo which means to make ready for some purpose, to bring a
structure into being, to furnish or to equip.
And then the word honor, this translates to the Greek word tmē which means price of value,
honor, reverence, respect, respectability, compensation, privilege.
In Hebrews chapter 3 verse 3, the respect one enjoys according to a common and
well-respected Greek English lexicon.
Sometimes honor and glory are associated in thought.
And they are in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 3.
This reads again, since Moses himself was only a part of the house of Israel, he is far
beyond its founder in glory and dignity and honor.
This according to a well-known uh dictionary of the Greek language.
Yes, he's far behind, I think, the accent there.
Nice.
So we have three affirmations in Hebrews chapter 3 verses 3 to 4 relevant to the design
argument.
who built the house has more honor than the house.
The word built there means again to build a furnace with a purpose.
The house would be a dwelling, a family, or a nation.
And so why, what's the point here in verse 3?
He who built the house
has more honor than the house.
Why?
Well Christ is here regarded as the builder and furniture of the whole house of Israel of
which Moses himself was but a member.
And it's not this verse then a general truth.
He who built the house has more honor than the house.
Think of a carpenter for example and the architect.
These have more honor, ought to be given more respect.
than the product of their labor, just the house.
There's more involved there in the the uh architect.
Yeah, because we live in Lakeland, and about less, probably about a mile from here or less
as the crow flies, we have Flora Southern College, which is built by that famous
architect.
His name escapes me now, but some of you guys know.
Frank Lloyd Wright, yes, Frank Lloyd Wright.
In fact, this is the largest collection of his work in one place anywhere in the world.
And I heard about Frank Lloyd Wright way before I saw any of his houses or any of his
designs just because of that glory, that honor that uh we have here.
So Frank Lloyd Wright, his name is more honorable than any of the buildings that he has.
And so I think that's a good illustration of that point, George.
And that very point is called to our attention in the wisdom of Hebrews 3 to 4.
And surely as you look very carefully and think about the makeup, the nature of Frank
Lloyd Wright or any architect or carpenter, there's a lot more going on in their nature
than there is simply in the house.
And then also, verse four, every house is built
by someone.
a house does not build itself.
A dwelling place built with purpose implies an ultimate intelligent cause is the point
that is being underscored here in Hebrews 3-4.
And then in verse 4, again, he who built all things is God.
So this is affirming that objects with built-in means and end imply
that God exists.
you look at the natural world and the various objects, not just the man-made objects, but
also the natural objects in this world, you see the same characteristic.
Hebrews 3 to 4 is telling us, take a look at these and notice then that you've got an
implication there as to the existence of God.
That brings us into
an expression then of the design argument.
Think about the following objects.
um Think about a house and the human eye.
Think about a toothbrush, an acorn, a clock, a dog, and then think of a flower.
The design argument then, which of these objects would you say are man-made?
and which objects are the natural world and then having answered that we're going to raise
the second question but let's answer that one first of
Well, obviously the house would be handmade, the toothbrush, the clock, and of the things
you mentioned, I think that would be about it, that are handmade.
Right.
Human made.
So these are man-made clearly.
Now, let's think about this question.
What is it about those that you say are man-made that convinces you that they are indeed
man-made?
You don't see them naturally occurring or naturally reproducing.
You know that it took someone to create them because they just don't appear regularly in
nature.
Good.
Would we say then that there are a couple of reasons?
Number one would be, know that humans have made such things anyway, right?
But also how about this?
Number two, uh a fact regarding the nature of these objects, precisely put, they have
components that work together that accomplish an identifiable purpose.
So in the case of the toothbrush, for example,
you can see that it has parts, components, and these were all assembled by intent in order
to accomplish the identifiable purpose of allowing us to brush our teeth.
So there is that characteristic, and uh an object, if an object has components that work
together to accomplish an identifiable purpose, then we say that this had to have been
designed.
And then of course if you've got design, then there had to have been a designer in the
case of the toothbrush or the house or the clock.
The designer would be a human designer that has intelligence who both exists and had to
have had attributes at least equal to the task of causing such a design.
So we conclude then that the house, the toothbrush and the clock
had an intelligent cause, not a non-intelligent cause, and this is because one, in their
cases, we know that humans have made such objects, plus two, not just that, each is an
object that has components that work together to bring about an identifiable cause.
And so then, we now want to extrapolate from there, and this is the key point.
On the same basis,
minus the human factor, we may conclude that the eye, the acorn, the dog, and the flower
also had an intelligent cause.
That is to say, clearly, we can see that in those objects you have the same
characteristics.
You've got components that work together to accomplish an identifiable purpose.
This is implying design.
And the design then implies a designer that exists and is at least equal to the task of
causing such a thing.
In other words, as the Bible puts it in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 4, for every house is
built by someone, but he who built all things is God.
And so let's think about this a little bit more.
Notice Hebrews chapter 3 verse 4, every house is built by someone.
So then you have a house, call that A.
That implies a design, call that B.
And that in turn implies an intelligent being with necessary attributes, in this case a
human, call that C.
But there's more than that involved here as we look at the natural world which is captured
here in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 4.
We're going to go from less to greater.
The rest of the verse says, who built all things is God.
And so then you look at the universe and let that represent everything that exists.
Call that A.
That implies, also implies design.
B.
Which in turn implies that there was an intelligent, in this case a divine being, with
necessary attributes.
Call that C.
And so then
Notice what we're doing here in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 4, and then as we go into the
world, we see the same process underway in our thinking.
That is, we're going from less to greater.
If you've got a house, then that implies a human designer.
And if you've got other objects that are natural, that also exhibit the same
characteristics, call that A, namely components that work together to accomplish an
identifiable purpose.
then of course you've got the implication that you've got an intelligent cause of them as
well.
In other words, God.
and sometimes we don't know what a human a man-made object is we know it's man-made but
sometimes we don't know what it's for the purpose of it we can still know it's man-made
and then we can later discover that there's a purpose and then sometimes man-made stuff
can look like natural stuff um
just heard about that robo rabbit they're going to put out in the Everglades to try to
attract pythons to eat it and suck and track them.
But, but there's still a purpose, still an ultimate purpose.
So even though, and I was thinking about, you know, the little mermaid and cartoon way
back in the day that she finds a fork at the bottom of the sea and asked the wise seagull,
what is it?
And he says, it's a dangle hopper.
And she starts combing her hair with it.
Well, that's not the purpose of it, but you know,
But the point is all those things do have a purpose even though we may not understand that
purpose.
But there's some things that are so obvious that we do have a purpose like a house.
There's no mistake in that.
But that house had to be built by some someone.
And that's the evidence.
So even though we may not know exactly the purpose of everything in creation, we know that
it does have a purpose and that it is proof of design in that purpose.
of course all we have to do is find one that clearly does have evidence of design.
That is clearly does have parts that work together to accomplish an identifiable purpose
and then we've accomplished the discovery of a natural object that has design and that
implies a designer nearly God.
I think that's one of the strongest evidences for the existence of God.
It's awesome that you'll find people in various parts of the world that uncover artifacts
and they say this is proof that there was life here.
Now they'll find bowls or cups or arrowheads or these various things and they know that
these aren't just rocks and twigs.
They know that people were here because people had to create this.
and the amount of time and effort and intellect it takes to try to find them and try to
discover what their purpose was, if we can find that out.
But all that intellect sometimes escapes us when it comes to a spiritual thing.
It applies the same exact reason.
You can observe something, you know that this is not naturally occurring, or you know it
took intelligence rather, to create this.
So when we look at the observable world around us and you can see the intelligence that,
and the fine...
fine way that our world is designed.
mean, just like, you know, you mentioned the human eye just a moment ago.
You look at the intricacies of a flower or a bee or whatever there is in nature.
You have to be able to determine, this is not my chance.
how we go from from less to greater.
Absolutely.
For example, we look at a house or this bunny robot that you're referring to.
Well, if you look at that very carefully, you'll see that it does have components that
work together to accomplish a purpose.
But compare that with the human eye or the human ear.
It just doesn't compare.
so then there is a proportionality here.
If the robot implies a pretty intelligent
human being to our group of them to put that thing together.
Think about the intelligence that it took to create the human eye and the ear and all
that's in the universe.
All we need is one.
have a multitude.
Yeah, I would often tell my students when I was teaching Christian evidences way back in
the day that there's more design, there's more intelligence in my little pinky finger than
there is in the most powerful computer today.
And when you think about all the nervous system and all that connected to that pinky
finger and then the brain and all that stuff going on with it, but yet no one would even
argue that the most advanced computer just happened.
without designer and without components and all of that.
And as a matter of fact, you can quantify it.
I've worked in industry with engineers and as a technical writer.
if you're in management, as I was for several years, you can predict how long it's going
to take to design a particular object.
You can identify the skill set that's needed in order to accomplish this, even beforehand,
before you go into the hiring mode.
And you can write job descriptions describing what they have to do and what they have to
know in order to do this.
How long is going to take to develop these things?
And so then it's even quantifiable.
And it would be silly to claim that these things can.
develop on their own.
takes a lot of intellectual power and time to accomplish that.
And think about uh now again going from less to greater, look at the magnificence that we
have in all these objects in this universe, that evidence design and what that tells us
about the nature of the maker, the creator.
And that of course is what you're seeing reflected in Romans chapter one verse 20.
without excuse therefore if they don't if they don't conclude that God exists according to
the affirmation of Romans 120 and elsewhere it's not because of a lack of evidence there's
some other either a lack of will or something but it's not because of a lack of evidence
so the design argument maybe we can just go a little further here and precisely express
the design at your argument in logical terms
Again, all we need is at least one A out there in the natural world.
Premise number one would be this.
If A is true, then B is true.
A being an object has parts that work together to accomplish an identifiable purpose.
B is design.
C is a designer that exists with the necessary attributes.
So, premise number one.
If A is true, then B is true.
If B is true, then C is true.
Premise number three.
A is true, that is there is at least one such object out there in the natural world.
Premise number four, therefore B must be true.
It follows from combining premises one and three, and therefore the conclusion C, a
designer exists with attributes.
And so then we could, uh what we've done here is spelled out in precise language the
Actual argument the design argument and I want to point out one other thing here in
particular that premise number three again premise one if there is an a then there is
design premise two if there is design then there is a designer and and then premise number
three there is an a and That's going to be the search.
That's the task as we try to fill out this design argument We're going to be looking for
an a out there somewhere
plenty
And if we can show that then we've got design and therefore designer that exists at least
equal to the task in other words God so candidates for a that's what we want to look at
and we're not going to have time uh right now to uh Look at these but we can set the stage
for the next lesson which will focus on candidates out there in the natural world
where we have parts that work together to accomplish an identifiable purpose.
And there are quite a few out there.
Just look around and even look inward.
The magnificence from the incredible tininess in the micro world to the equally incredible
enormity in the macro world is seen in terms of the quantity of such objects in existence
and their attributes.
Secondly, the range of their sizes.
And thirdly, their precision.
And that then brings us to the end of this lesson in anticipation of the next lesson as we
look for candidates out there in the natural world.
And we want to look at that in terms of their quantity, their range, and precision.
And when we get into that next week, it will be amazing.
Yes, and so we appreciate that, George, and we appreciate your listening to this podcast,
the Harvester podcast.
Forrest Andemaceras is usually with us, but due to some circumstances, he couldn't be with
us today in this recording, but we look forward to his return.
If you do have any questions or comments, please email us and we'd be happy to deal with
that.
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