On Easter Sunday at Gateway Church in Austin, we started a new series called “Why God: Asking God the Tough Questions.”
Next Steps:
These discussion questions are designed for your life group or family dinner to help you apply the message to your life.
Video of the Message from Dr. Hugh Ross:
Message notes from Dr. Hugh Ross:
Grew up in Canada and never knew a Christian until age 27 when attending Cal Tech. Physics and Astronomy brought Dr Ross to faith.
Studied cosmology at age 16 which is a study of the origins and structure of the Universe.
Discovered that the Universe has a beginning so he determined that Universe must have a Beginner.
Started with philosophers but they didn’t understand the cosmos.
Then started looking at the holy books. Everything we see in the universe is organized so looked for consistency in these books. Saw many contradictions in them so dismissed them as the source of the Creator.
The Bible was different than all the other holy books. Only Holy Book that commanded objective testing and showed how to do so.
“Test everything. Hold on to the good.” – 1 Thess 5:21
The scientific method came from the Bible.
Only holy book where space and time did not exist until God created it. This is consistent with the space-time theorem.
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” No Hebrew word for Universe. Genesis 1 is about the totality of physical reality.
“Create” means bringing something new into existence.
The universe shows a miracle-working God must exist!
The Steps in How Genesis Helped Dr Ross Find Faith:
1.Point of view for the six creation days.
Point of view in Genesis 1 is the universe.
Point of view of Genesis 1:2 is on surfaces of the water on the primordial earth.
See also Job 37-39, Psalm 104, and Proverbs 8.
2. Literal definitions of “yom.”
Definitions include part of daylight hours, all of daylight hours, one calendar day, and a long but finite time period.
Psalm 95, John 5, Hebrews 4 tells us we are still in Day 7.
Day 7 is not bracketed by “evening and morning” so it is still ongoing. God stopped His work of creating.
Resolution of fossil record enigma
God’s rest answers the fossil record enigma. God creates species for six periods of time before the human era. Once god created Eve He stopped creating new species.
Average of one new species per year before humans arrive.
Read the Scriptures literally and consistently before making a decision.
3. Order of the creation account
Day 1 – “Let the light be.” Light already created but not visible on earth because atmosphere was 100x thicker than what we have now.
Genesis 1 miracles atmospheric transformation.
Day 2 – water above and water below necessary for life to exist.
Job 37-38 also talks about God creating a water cycle with rain above and oceans on the surface.
Day 3 – “let dry ground appear.”
Formation of land masses is critical for life as well.
Growth of continents according to scientists matches the timing of the growth of the land mass.
29% land mass is perfect for civil action. 30% will be trouble.
Day 4 – Production of vegetation came before animals just as Bible said.
Scientists felt animals came first becomes the fossils older than proof of vegetation. Recently we have found proof that vegetation came before animals.
Clouds broke so atmosphere transformed in day 4. Atmospheric change from translucent to transparent. This is called 2nd great oxygenation event – from 1-8%.
Day 5 -Emergence of sea animals.
Cambrian explosion – sudden appearance of animal life. Even scientists find there must be a supernatural explanation because a material explanation has not been found.
Day 6 – Emergence of small animals, birds, sea mammals, and land mammals. Critical for agriculture and civilization.
Darwin said his theory can be proven since chimpanzee looks like us and is almost as smart as us. Only recently scientists put this to the test and discovered that ravens, crowd, and jays are smartest animals not apes. Article called: “Darwin’s Mistake.”
Creation of humans. We are created for relationship with God.
Never found a provable error or contradiction in the Bible. Found things he didn’t understand.
200 places in the Bible that predicted scientific discoveries.
