NJIAT - Apologetics

2011 Allentown, PA Conference

Evangelical Chinese (CEM) audience at DeSales University (https://njiat.com/apologetics.html)

Does Life Have Meaning Without God?

Dr. Robert A. Morey, Ph.D.

Lecture #1
The Problem Facing All of Us

Evil does not discriminate according to race, gender, creed, color, sexuality or culture. It does not matter who are or what you are, evil has touched your life from the moment of conception to today and evil will dog your steps until the day you die. And, for some of you here, I am sorry to tell you, evil will be with you for all eternity.

There are only a few things in life that are universal, inevitable, and inescapable. Evil is one of them. It is universal, inevitable, and inescapable.

First, evil has inflicted you uninvited, unwelcomed, and unexpected.

Modern science has demonstrated that the fetus in the womb can feel pain. Thus even before you were born you experienced pain, suffering, constipation, gas, etc.
As a baby you suffered many evils: the measles, the flu, broken teeth, you hurt your arm, you were bit by a dog, etc.
As an adult, you lost your job, your dad died, the dog died, your car died; your wife left you, aches and pains hit your body, you got constipated, a cancerous tumor appeared, your hair fell out, you got fat, you teeth had to go, etc.
Evil has come your way regardless of how much money you have or don’t have; how good-looking or ugly you are; how important or not you are; how smart or dumb you are; how popular or unpopular, etc.

Second, there are evil people in the world. That is why we have prisons. Some people are so evil they must be destroyed to protect society. Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, and thousands of other wicked tyrants were evil.

On a smaller scale, there are bullies in school, the military, the office; malicious ex-boyfriends or girlfriends stalked you; ex-husband or ex-wife who wanted to make your life miserable.
Then there are serial killers, cannibals, rapists, child molesters, perverts, murderers, slanderers, gossip mongers, racists, sexists, terrorists, etc. They are evil to the core of their being and should be punished.

Third, there are evil animals that want to kill you even though you did nothing to provoke them. Some dogs must be euthanized because they are evil and a danger to society.

Fourth, many believe that there are evil ghosts, spirits, demons, gods, extra-dimensional beings, time travelers or aliens who are malicious and hateful and seek our harm. Many report that they have encountered invisible entities that are evil.

Fifth, the day will come when you look into a mirror and see an evil person looking back at you. You will find yourself thinking evil things, saying evil things, and doing evil things you never imagined you would do. You have met the enemy, and it is you!

Three Universal and Inescapable Questions
Since every human being experiences evil, it should not surprise us that whenever and wherever people reflect on their experience with evil they ask themselves three questions:

1. “Why?” Can I understand evil? Comprehending Past Evil.

2. “How?” Can I cope with evil? Coping with Present Evil.

3. “Hope?” Can I conquer evil? Conquering Future Evil.

You attempt to answer these three questions out of the matrix of your worldview, i.e. your view of the world around you, God/ gods, yourself, others, life, morals, justice, meaning, and beauty. Your world view is conditioned by assumptions and presuppositions you picked up from your family, religion, community, and culture.

Note: The reason we deal with evil as an introduction to meaning is that evil makes the issue personal. Is there any meaning to the pain and suffering you have experience in your life? If there is no meaning, significance or purpose to the evil you experience in life, then all hope of comprehending, coping with or conquering it is gone. If evil has no rhyme or reason, no purpose or plan, then it is not good or bad, moral or immoral, right or wrong, positive or negative. There is nothing redemptive or corrective or punitive about it. It is just a meaningless fluke of an equally meaningless chance-driven evolutionary process that has no meaning, purpose or goal to which is evolving.

If everything is an accident of chance, then there is no meaning. If meaning is dead, then man is dead; love is dead; beauty is dead; all is dead. But those who openly teach this horrible doctrine cannot live what they believe or believe what they live.

Sartre signing the Algerian Manifesto.
Protests against the killing of students in Tiananmen Square.
John Cage’s mushroom hobby.

Scientific predictability disproves the idea that everything is a chance-happening. We can predict the return of Halley’s Comet or put a man on the moon because there is a meaning to why things happen. The combustible engine is hard evidence against the meaningless doctrine. We put the key in the ignition, turn it, and off we go because it is not an accident that the engine works.

I. The First Fundamental Fact

A. Everyone has a world view that conditions what he thinks and how he lives.

Illustration: Your eye glasses determine how you see the world. Pink tinted glasses will make everything look pink. Clear glasses enable you to see what is really there. What you believe determines how you see yourself and the world around you.

B. There are only two glasses:

1. Humanistic glasses by which you view the world as man sees it. You are born with these glasses on and thus you are naturally selfish, self-centered, and man-centered. It is easy to be a humanist. It comes naturally to us sinners.

2.Theistic glasses by which you view the world as God sees it. You are not born with them on. Only God by His grace can put theistic glasses on you. You must choose by His grace to keep them on. It is a struggle to be a theist. It is unnatural to us sinners.

C. This is why God tells us in Scripture that:

1. We are what we think (Pro. 23:7);

2. We need to renew our mind (Rom. 12:2);

3. We must focus our mind on things above (Col. 3:1-11);

4. We must apply the Lordship of Christ to all of life (Pet. 3:15).

II. The Second Fundamental Fact

A. The two worldviews differ on who is the Origin and Source of truth, justice, morals, meaning, and beauty: God or man?

B. If God is the Infinite Origin and Source of truth, justice, morals, meaning, and beauty, then you must look away from yourself to God and His Revelation in Scripture. The Bible ALONE will be the final and ultimate judge of truth and morals (Isa. 8:20; 1 Cor. 4:6). With God as your universal point of reference, the finite, particulars things in life have meaning. Absolute truth, justice, morals, meaning, and beauty are now possible.

D. If man is the Origin and Source of truth, justice, morals, meaning, and beauty, then you will look within yourself to your own:

1. reason (rationalism),

2. experience (empiricism),

3. feelings (mysticism),

4. faith (fideism).

E. Since you are yourself only a finite, particular being in need of an infinite, universal explanation, you cannot be a universal reference point. Everything is relative and subjective to you. One man’s meaning is another man’s nonsense. Absolute truth, justice, morals, meaning, and beauty are impossible. No matter how many particulars you put together, they can never suddenly become a universal. For example, in morals, you cannot go from a finite, relative, particular “is” to what “ought” to be universally. You will never get morals from rocks.

III. The Third Fundamental Fact: The Christian World and Life View is based on the first three truths revealed in Scripture:

1. Creation ex nihilo: The universe is not eternal but was created by God out of nothing. Man is not an evolved animal but the image bearer of God with meaning and dignity.

2. Fall of man into sin and guilt: Man was created morally perfect by God but he chose to disobey God’s law. We sin because we are sinners and cannot save ourselves.

3. Redemption: God the Father chose to save us through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who would live the life we never lived and died the death we should have died. The Holy Spirit then applies to us the work of the Son according to the Plan of the Father.

Chosen by the Father,
Purchased by the Son,
Sealed by the Spirit,
Blessed God Three in One

4. Creation, Fall, and Redemption are trifocal glasses through which we can understand everything. Without these three doctrines, there is no truth, justice, morals, meaning or beauty. We must think God’s thoughts after Him.

IV. The Fourth Fundamental Fact: Trying to figure out things apart from and independent of God and His Word will always fail.Note: This is why the Book of Ecclesiastes is so important. After trying to find meaning in life without God, the smartest man who ever lived concluded that without God “all is meaningless.” (Ecc. 1:2)

In my book, The Bible, Natural Law and Natural Theology: Conflict or Compromise?, the book of Ecclesiastes is outlined and analyzed. Solomon tried to find meaning in life without God and came to the conclusion that without God, everything is meaningless.

V. The Fifth Fundamental Fact: A healthy self-image is found when we look three times into a mirror of God’s Word.

1. 1st look: I am the image bearer of God and I have dignity, significance, meaning, and worth. I am not junk!

2. 2nd look: I am a rebel sinner who sins against the God who made me. I am a sinner in need of salvation.

3. 3rd look: I am a child of God bought by the precious blood of the Lamb of God. I am a child of the King.

VI. The Sixth Fundamental Fact:

1. The first step is to become a Christian by bowing three times to Jesus Christ as your:

a. Prophet (truth)

b. Priest (atonement/intercession)

c. King (dominion/protection)

2.The second step is to reaffirm the lordship of Christ over all of your life (Rom. 12:1-2).

3.The third step is to apply the Word of God to your personal life, family life, business life, church life, social life, political life, finances, etc.

Conclusion
The triune God of the Bible is the only One who can be the infinite reference point to give meaning and significance to your life. The Gospel is clear:

No other god
No other name
No other way

Lecture #2
Possible Explanations of Evil

It is part of being a human being that we try to figure things out. We want to know WHY evil came upon us and our loved ones. Let us look at some of the attempts to comprehend evil.

I. The East Fails to Solve the Problem of Evil

A. The evil/good we experience between birth and death is a punishment or reward for how we lived in a previous life. This is the concept of karma.

B. If you experience wealth and health in life, it is your reward for the good you did in a previous life. You deserve it.

C. If you experience poverty and sickness in life, it is your punishment for the evil you did in a previous life. You deserve it.

D. To intervene and to rescue people from the painful consequences of
bad karma dooms them to come back and suffer for it in some other
life.

E. Thus you have no responsibility to alleviate the pain and suffering of
people.

F. There is no forgiveness or redemption for karma. It must be satisfied
by punishment or reward in the next life.

G. No one can suffer for you, i.e. in your place. You must pay the debt
you owe to karma.

H. The pain or pleasure we will experience in the next life is determined
by the good and evil we do in this life.

I.The final goal of reincarnation and karma is the annihilation of the individual, i.e. you.

J. The astrological sign under which you were born is determined by your
karma.

Problems with the Eastern Explanations

1. Reincarnation and karma fail to comprehend, cope with or conquer evil. They either end in an infinite regression in which there is always a previous life to explain evil or a first life for which there is no previous evil to explain the evil in that life. To make evil eternal does not solve the problem but merely makes the problem eternal.

2. There is no continuing “soul” or “you” that passes from life to life. You are “you” only in this life. There was a rat in a previous life and there will be a man or woman in the next life. There are thousands of different living beings. Since there is a new “you” each time transmigration takes place, why should “you” pay for the evil done by some other “you”?

3. Since no one remembers their past lives, no one knows why they are being rewarded or punished. No understanding means no learning to do better next time.

4. Karma is an impersonal and mechanical wheel that turns without rhyme or reason. Who or what created it? Where did it come from? No one knows. How is just?

5. Karma and reincarnation are impersonal and cannot explain the personal.

6. Such theories compound the problem of evil by fostering selfishness, pride, and a lack of compassion for the poor and sick.

7. The growing world population destroys the idea that as one person dies, he or she is born. The population should be stable.

8. There is no improvement in the moral character of mankind. People are not getting better. Evidently karma is not working.

9. Since there was an insect or animal in a past life, how can insects and animals be moral beings whose actions earn punishment or reward for you in this life?

10. Is it possible to go back to being an animal or insect in the next life?

11. The rationale of reincarnation is refuted by the atonement of Christ and the resurrection of the body.

a. Christ suffered for our sins and paid off the debt we owed to divine justice. There is no need to suffer for evil. Christ has suffered for our evil in our place. Thus there is forgiveness for our sins through the death of Christ.

b. Christ will resurrect you one day to stand before Him in judgment. There is only one you and you have only one body that will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment, not a crowd of insects, animals, and men and women.

c. If you do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will be thrown body and soul into the lake of fire.

II. The West Fails to Solve the Problem of Evil

A. Plato pointed up to the “World of ideas” as the place where we can find universal infinite ideas of truth and morals.
B. Aristotle pointed to the object and claimed that the ideas of truth and morals were “inside” it.
C. Then it was taught that the ideas of truth and morals are in the mind and in the object itself in some kind of correspondence.
D. Philosophers then claimed that the ideas of truth and morals where in the mind of man.
E. Finally, it was concluded that there are no absolute ideas up there, in there, in here, in here and in there. All is relative and thus there is no truth to find and no morals to follow.
F. Evil per se does not exist since good per se does not exist either.

The Choice before You

There is only one Way to comprehend, cope with, and conquer the problem of your evil because there is only one Way to have meaning and purpose in your life: God alone is the Origin of truth, justice, morals, meaning, and beauty and He has revealed that Jesus is the only Way of Salvation.

What will you do with Jesus,
Neutral you cannot be;
For one day you will be asking,
“What will He do with me?”