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-7-
God Hath Spoken
THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
First, the COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT is the argument from cause to effect. Briefly stated, Genesis 1:1 teaches us that in the beginning God did something—He caused something to happen: He created the heaven and the earth. Since He did this "in the beginning," then He is the First Cause and has caused everything else that has since taken place.
Hebrews chapter 3, verse 4, reads; "For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God." If He who is the First Cause did this, then He was Himself uncaused. He had no beginning. He is therefore eternal.
THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Second is the TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. It teaches that if there is a design in creation, if we find order and usefulness then there must be a Designer. An illustration would be the earth daily rotating on its axis while continuing its yearly revolution around the sun. Now there is a time in its elliptical orbit when the earth is closer to the sun than it is at any other time. It is then only 91.5 million miles from the sun, a position known as "perihelion." When the earth is farthest from the sun, the position is known as "aphelion." At that time, the earth is 94.5 million miles from the sun. So we say the mean distance of the earth to the sun is 93 million miles.
What is so fascinating is the fact that when the earth is closest to the sun, the sun's gravitational pull on the earth is stronger, and it is least when the earth is farthest away. God so designed the earth that when the earth reaches perihelion, its speed increases, and when it reaches aphelion —when it is farthest from the sun—its speed decreases. This is by the wise design of Almighty God so that the earth is not sucked from its course to be burned up by the sun.
Gravity is itself a numerical law. A BB or a cannon ball will fall 16 feet per second squared. If gravity operates according to law, there must be a Law Giver. Consider the snowflake. There have been hundreds of thousands of snowflakes photographed. All are six sided though no two are alike. Job asks, "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail..." (Job 38:22).
Reader, did you ever smell a rose that smelled like a dandelion? Why does every rose smell like a rose, and every dandelion smell like a dandelion? Yet if men are left to themselves, they will homogenize everything.
Consider the earth's rocks and minerals. Every topaz crystal measures 124 degrees and 17 minutes between its major angles. The color or size of the crystals does not matter. Blue topaz, imperial topaz, smokey topaz and clear topaz—all have the same crystal structure.
Quartz is the most common mineral in the earth's crust. Each quartz crystal measures 94 degrees 15 minutes between its main angles. This is true of Amethyst or purple quartz, citrine or yellow quartz, rose quartz, milky quartz or smokey quartz. And it does not matter if they are found in China or in the United States.
Only the All Wise, Almighty God could design such a thing. To believe this happened by Chance is as asinine as to believe someone threw wood into the air and a Sears catalog fell to earth. It is certainly easier to believe "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and the Teleological argument is that if there is a design, there is of necessity a designer.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
The ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT is also called the Moral Argument. It teaches that if there is evidence of Law, then there must be a lawgiver. In Genesis chapter 1, God is revealed as the Creator. Since He has created all things, all have their being from Him. He therefore has the right to establish Law by which they are to continue their existence. "This far shalt thou come and no farther." So in Genesis chapter 2 God is revealed as the Lawgiver. And, since it is His Law, He has the right to judge and to condemn, or to redeem offenders of that Law. Therefore in Genesis chapter 3, God is revealed as the Judge, as well as the Saviour.
In heathen philosophy, Plato taught that law was sovereign. God Himself, he said, was subject to law. God, however, is the Maker of the Law. He is the Lawgiver. The writer of Hebrews tells us that a man who builds a house has more glory than the house. The house is not more important than the man who designed it; and He that built all things is God. Therefore we see that God is sovereign, but the law is not sovereign. The God who gave the law is greater than that law.
In the l600's, Samuel Rutherford wrote a book entitled Lex Rex or The Law and The Prince. In it, he showed that even the prince is to be obedient to the law. The law is over men, but it is not over God who is the Giver of the law. Note, that all men are to be obedient to the law. There should be no such thing as diplomatic immunity. Neither the prince nor the king is exempt from obeying the law.