Thursday, September 29, 2016

Who Made God?
            I was recently discussing the topic of creation and evolution with an employee at a local retail store.  The lady told me that her husband was an atheist and that they did not attend church.  My argument for divine creation was based on how nothing in existence comes from nothing.  Such an argument, in technical terms, is called the teleological argument.  In short, it is based on the statement that anything with design demands a designer.  Probably the most well-known “teleological” defense came from William Paley in his 1802 publication of Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity.  Paley based his argument around the “watchmaker analogy.”  The argument states that if one was to stumble upon a random watch on a place like a beach, that it would be assumed that the watch was designed by somebody, given that an item with such specific detail could not come about by chance.  Using the same analogy, one should also assume that the universe was also deliberately designed by an intelligent designer.
After having presented this evidence to the retail employee, her response was that her husband would still say, “Well, who made God?”  This is a good question, and would be difficult to reconcile, if it were true that God was a contingent being.  A contingent being is anyone or anything that is dependent on someone else for its existence.  An example of this would be how children are contingent (dependent) upon their parents for their survival.  What makes God unique is that His existence is not dependent upon anything.  He has and always will be in existence.  So the answer to “Who made God?” is no one, He is God.
Jesse LeMay

Thursday, September 22, 2016

The Things Unseen
For most of us, our daily lives and thoughts are wrapped up in the physical here and now.  From the second we wake up to the time we go to bed, our focus is given to meeting our physical needs.  In addition to meeting our physical necessities, we also concern ourselves with our various bodily ailments.  Such ailments are often the very center of our prayers to God.  This may not always be true, but overall, most of our prayers are directed to God with our earthly requests.  So why is this the case, and what does the Bible tell us about this very issue?  The reason is simple; unfortunately, we are currently here on earth, and as a result we have certain needs that must be met. In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, he addresses this very issue. 
            The inspired Apostle doesn’t deny that as people we suffer hardships and afflictions.  However, he says that “though our outer man is decaying,” the “inner man is being renewed day by day” (4:16).  His focus is not to shy away from the fact that we have fleshly bodies that are mortal, but instead he confronts it with the reality of the “inner man.”  Such comfort comes from the fact that there is more to us than just our bodies, we have eternal souls.  Paul says that our earthly suffering is “momentary,” and “light,” and that such affliction is producing for us an “eternal… glory far beyond all comparison” (4:17).  This should make us all thank God, and shout for joy, knowing that regardless of how we may suffer here, it is only temporary, and not comparable to the eternal glory which we will receive in heaven.  So knowing this, maybe we can try to focus more on the eternal and spiritual, and less on the temporal and fleshly things of life.

Jesse LeMay