Exodus 32:21-29 comments: a reckoning

    32:21 ¶  And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? 22  And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. 23  For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 24  And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. 25  And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) 26  Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. 27  And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. 28  And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. 29  For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

Aaron acts like Adam did when confronted by God. He blames others.

Genesis 3:12  And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Aaron’s lie is so outrageous, then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf, you wonder why he was not struck dead at that moment. But, apparently, as David was not terminated for his murder of Uriah by proxy, if God has a plan for someone to carry out they will be allowed to live even if they have to drag the consequences of their sin along with them like a piece of heavy concrete on a chain.

Verse 25 shows us that the people are naked. Naked is a word we have that means not having any clothing on.

1Samuel 19:24  And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?

Job 1:21  And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

So, it is interesting how many preachers insist that in the following verse it is not possible that Peter was working naked around a bunch of other fishermen.

John 21:7  Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.

Conservative Christians tend to read back 20^th century sensibilities into history. However, as has been said before, in this case in Exodus there is another implication that is disturbing but in keeping with ancient religion, revealed in verse 6 of this chapter.

In verse 26 Moses divides those who would remain faithful to the God who created them and led them out of Egypt from those who would continue in the heathen practices of ancient religion. Three thousand paid with their lives for the pagan, carnal practices they enjoyed while Moses was away.

If you read 27, 28, & 29 in context it appears that Moses made his call to the tribe from which the priests, the Levites who were to ensure the worship of God, came and this call was made regardless of familial relationship. Father went against son, and brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend. This may have, based on this context, been a way to cleanse the priesthood of idolaters. It also indicates that perhaps not all of the children of Israel participated in the pagan worship and the leadership was held accountable.

Exodus 32:7-14 comments: repent and turn

32:7 ¶  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8  They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 9  And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. 11  And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? 12  Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. 14  And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

God tells Moses to stand back while He destroys the Hebrews for their idolatry. This gives Moses the chance to argue that to do such a thing would go against God’s glory. It would not glorify Him in the sight of the Egyptians. It would even appear that this destruction was the very reason He led them out of Egypt and would justify the Egyptians rather than Himself. After all, no one would think what the Hebrews were doing was amiss, now would they, in the religious conditions of that world?

In verse 12 there is the definition of repent used here. It is to turn from something. This, then, in context is the definition of repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people in verse 14. He turned from this. This is in keeping with a doctrine found in the Bible that God does not repent as in ‘change His mind.’ As God’s foreknowledge covers every event as if it has already happened we must look to the context for understanding. In the next two verses repent is linked with lie, the point being that God can be trusted for the promises He made, and will not turn from them.

Numbers 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

1Samuel 15:29  And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Here are other verses where repent means to turn from something as in the passage studied, to stop doing it or not do it, by comparing the contrast in the verse in which the words repent and turn are used.

Jeremiah 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

Jeremiah 18:8  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

Jeremiah 26:3  If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.

Ezekiel 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

Ezekiel 18:30  Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Jonah 3:9  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Acts 26:20  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

Sometimes, someone’s behavior can compel you to turn from what you are permitting or doing. For instance, a child you have given a privilege to disobeys in a way that compels you to punish them or to revoke the privilege. In that case their behavior repenteth you. And, in Genesis 6:6,7 that behavior that compelled Him in something He already knew was going to happen grieved Him.

Clearly then, to repent of your sins is to turn from them. For the Christian repentance also suggests being sorry for your sins and for who you are, a sinner. As Paul noted;

2Corinthians 7:9  Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

It has been said that when Jesus preached the following verses He was stating first that those who realized they were spiritually bankrupt and mourned for sin were blessed, as are those who humble themselves before God and hunger for His righteousness, as are those who extend God’s mercy to others, keep themselves from sin as best as they can with the right attitude, preach God’s peace with mankind, and are persecuted for it;

Matthew 5:3 ¶  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It is doubtful many modern Christians literally mourn for their sin against God and others. Repentance is not a casual thing or just a change of mind.

But, in this context repent is simply to turn from what was stated to be done.

In verse 13 the promise that God made to the patriarchs is restated. An immense number of physical descendants is to come through the Hebrews, a physical promise for physical descendants that has not yet been completely fulfilled.

Genesis 24:60  And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.

How Do You Know God Exists? - sermon notes- rough draft preached on 2/11/2018

I recently watched a comedy about a brilliant little boy who was destined to become a scientist and was an avowed atheist. He simply could not place belief in God within his framework of understanding reality. He had two misconceptions, though, or rather the writers of the comedy did. One, they did not understand what Christians believe and two, they expressed the false notion that science is never based on faith.

Before I get into that I want to point out a debate I watched on Youtube between the militant atheist science celebrity, Richard Dawkins, and a Catholic theologian when, after hearing Dawkins harangue against belief in God expressing what he thought was a description of God, the Catholic said something like, “This is difficult because I don’t believe in the God that he doesn’t believe in.” The atheist had shown that he had no understanding of who God is but only a popular mythology kind of view of an old man with a long beard sending thunderbolts, a sort of Zeus of Greek mythology. Dawkins didn’t say it just like that but it was clear he had no clue of the God of the Bible at all.

So it is with Hollywood writers who will have their characters say the Lord’s Prayer in place of asking a blessing on their food before a meal or in order to put people of faith down will have them say things that aren’t in the Bible but sound Biblical, phrases from old pop Christianity like, “the Lord helps those who help themselves,” as a justification for theft, or, “cleanliness is next to godliness,” to get a child to take a bath.

In this comedy about the genius little boy a preacher makes a statement something like this, “There is a 50-50 probability that God exists. So, I’ll take my chances.” The boy-genius raises his hand and tells the preacher he is confusing probability with chance. There is a 50-50 chance the little boy has a million dollars laying on his bed at home but there is absolutely no probability of it. He also insists he trusts science because it is based on facts.

Well, let me tell you about science. There is a kind of philosopher of science who is called an anti-realist. Now, why would they be called that? Well, for one, they look at something like the Higgs-Boson particle, the so-called God-particle that allows all things to have mass supposedly, and they might say to the theoretical scientists, and of course I’m making this up for my argument’s sake, “Hey, Sparky, the Higgs-Boson particle is valuable because it has the ability to explain something that really happens. It has explanatory power. But, there is absolutely no evidence it exists in reality. In fact, you’re just making it up to justify your worldview and your theories.” I would add, “without God,” but I doubt the anti-realist would care to hear that.

But, we’re not discussing whether the God-particle exists. We’re talking about God. There have been lots of arguments in history regarding God’s existence. There is everything from Pascal’s Wager, which is the one you hear preachers repeat all the time in made-up, as in fake or not-true never-happened, salvation stories they like to use. It goes like this in a shortened way. If I believe in God and He doesn’t exist I won’t know because I will cease to exist. If you don’t believe in God and He does exist, you’re fried.

There have been arguments from Aesthetics, Desire, Conscience, the Moral Argument, the Ontological Argument, and on and on for thousands of years. But, really, the argument for God’s existence breaks down to where we live. The most important proof of God’s existence is that there is something rather than nothing and since stuff doesn’t create itself it had to be created, and that’s where God comes in.

Now, I don’t believe in God because of this. My faith is based on my experience with Him and on the truth of what He has said in His book. Not only have I encountered a risen Saviour in prayer, Bible reading, answered prayer, and in the creation and reality around me but I completely trust His book containing His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself. I have no doubts. God speaks to my heart through His book changing me without me hearing words in my ear but working on me from the inside in His special way.

You may not find me a credible witness. If I told you I had an Uncle Lloyd you might say, “maybe you did, maybe you didn’t.” You might think I was making Uncle Lloyd up. Well, let me tell you nobody could make my Uncle Lloyd up. But, typically, if a person says they have an uncle or a spouse or a close friend and go on to describe them the listener usually accepts that if they have no reason to doubt the truthfulness or sanity of the person.

However, with God it is totally different. Unbelievers become adamant, raving even, that you are a lunatic, or weak, or small-minded. They cannot accept that a perfectly rational scientist, businessman, or scholar of any type could believe in and love a God who has not revealed Himself to them.

So, let me try to start with some basics. These are things outside of our personal experience with God, a personal experience that no unbeliever can understand or accept unless God Himself touches their hearts.

Let’s take something as complex as life. The astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle was born in Yorkshire, England on June 24, 1915. He was conferred a master's degree from Cambridge in 1939 and then was elected Fellow, St. John's College, Cambridge in the same year. He worked his way to become a Professor of Astrophysics and Natural Philosophy in 1958. He was a leading contributor in the discovery of how the elements from lithium to iron are synthesized inside stars.

Professor N. Chandra Wickramasinghe was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on January 20, 1939, studied astrophysics at Cambridge, and was a student of Hoyle's. He received a Ph.D. in 1963 taught at Cambridge. He later became a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at the University College, Cardiff, Wales. He is an expert in the use of infrared astronomy to study interstellar matter.

These are no lightweights although Wickramasinghe has gone a little bonkers in the last few years. But, they both came to the logical atheist conclusion that life came from outer space. Why? Because it was impossible for it to have happened by random chance on earth, not in 15 billion years or a hundred billion years. Let me read you a quote published recently by Dr. Wick…

“Improbability of Life

The blueprint for all life from bacteria to plants to animals was discovered in the 1950s by Watson and Crick to reside in DNA – in particular in the precise arrangements of the nucleotides A,G,T,C that effectively code for proteins that in turn control cell function. In a series of books and articles published in collaboration with the late Sir Fred Hoyle, I have argued that highly specific arrangements needed for the operation of living cells cannot be understood as arising from random processes. For the simplest bacterium (Mycoplasma genitalium) the probability that its few hundred genes will be discovered by random shuffling of their amino acid components gives a figure of 1 in 10 to the 1000^th power or smaller. Hoyle and I have compared such horrendous improbabilities to the odds against a ‘tornado blowing through a junk yard leading to self-assembly of BOEING 707 airplane.’” [Chandra Wickramasinghe & Robert Bauval, Cosmic Womb: The Seeding of Planet Earth (Rochester, Vermont:Bear & Co., 2017), Kindle ed., chap. 1]

1 in 10 to the 1000^th? These types of scientists estimate there is only 10 to the 80^th power number of atoms in the universe. Saying that life came about by random processes is like me saying that I’m getting handsomer, wealthier, and smarter as I get older. You would just look at me and go, what? I’m joking, right? But, scientists who believe in spontaneous generation, I mean abiogenesis, or life by accident are serious.

So, proof that God exists, step one. Life could not have happened on earth by chance. It’s not mathematically conceivable, not by any stretch of your Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. Who imagination. But, what about it coming from somewhere else? That’s called panspermia and that’s what Dr. Wick believes in.

Well, NASA scientists Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, in their book, Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, explained that it is also highly unlikely that life came from someplace else as this planet, located where it is, is the best and most likely place for life to exist and, in fact, probably could not exist anywhere else.

So, proof that God exists, step two. Life could not have happened anywhere but on earth. But, it couldn’t happen here by chance. So, something else, or someone else rather, must be happening.

Who could it be?

You know if they could have proven that life could have come together by random events on earth like Miller-Urey’s experiment tried to do and failed in the 1950s it would be astounding. But, you’d have to have nothing and then have something suddenly come into existence for it to simulate God without God. After all, Miller-Urey made something happen with the equipment and chemicals they introduced making themselves in the place of God. But, they did not create life and established conditions that evolutionists do not believe were present in their fantasy of early earth anyway. So, it worked as a publicity stunt but was not good science.

Then, there was Dr. Wimmer in the latter part of the twentieth century that supposedly made a virus out of synthetic DNA. Now he admitted in an interview that he did not create life as a virus isn’t alive, it can’t reproduce itself and needs a host, and he used synthetic DNA.

None of these experiments or any other created life or proved that it could be created by random processes without an intelligent mind involved.

So, now you have the gorilla in the living room. You have something as complex as life and you shouldn’t have it if there were no one to inject intelligence into it. Life isn’t possible without God.

You have the atheist or the doubter demanding, “How do you know God exists?” and you have your own testimony, if you have one, and you have this incontrovertible fact, “Because without God life could not exist.”

You see, we are not just alive. We are aware that we are alive. Science has a huge problem with conscious self-awareness. Step three to proving that God exists. I am.

It has been said repeatedly that consciousness is the window through which we understand. Science has failed to pinpoint the actual brain processes that are behind our awareness. Some neuroscientists and philosophers of science express a deep pessimism that we will ever find an explanation for consciousness. But we know. Every car mechanic or customer service rep, a farmer or bank teller can know what a neuroscientist does not know. We know where consciousness comes from, that function of our spirit.

Zechariah 12:1 ¶  The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

Scientists say that a good theory, a theory that must supplant other theories, doesn’t have to answer every question. But it must answer more questions than its competitors. The belief in God answers far more questions than theoretical science can even come up with.

God is the greatest of all self-aware beings.

Exodus 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

He made us. He formed our bodies, our souls, and our spirits. In these verses are all three; body, spirit, and soul.

Genesis 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

1Thessalonians 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He uses our spirit to see us from the inside.

Proverbs 20:27  The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

We are made self-aware and our soul is the seat of our self-identity and will and our spirit makes us aware of it, of God, and of all things. It is our understanding, our skills, our drives, our emotions, our yearnings.

It is sad that the atheist or doubter will question your testimony as to whether or not you are a credible witness for God’s existence. That was how I came to Christ, the mechanism He used, the testimony of others. I vacillated between atheism, happy to believe in any religion at all, and really, God just being irrelevant to my life or thinking. But, over time I saw the truth of Christianity in the lives of people around me.

No, it wasn’t because of someone screaming Bible verses at me on a street corner. It wasn’t from someone handing me a gospel tract. It was the testimony of Christians, filled with faith and goodness, relying completely on God for their very survival, trusting in Christ’s righteousness and not their own for eternal life. Their faith was real, and it took time but God impressed on me that reality until I accepted it myself and received Christ on March 19, 1986. It was a Wednesday evening I believe.

The question of whether or not God exists has been a subject of deep philosophical debate for thousands of years. But, even outside of our experience we know.

Psalm 19:1  The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

The proof of God’s existence is all around us. Without God’s existence no reality makes sense for very long.

Ask yourself, if there was no God, then why is there something rather than nothing? Why is something as complex as life here in this space of earth?  If God doesn’t exist why do I know that I am? Where did that come from, o’ wise one? How can we have this conversation?

The universe is finely tuned, so finely tuned that something as rare and fragile as life can live in it. Things like the ratio of the strength of electromagnetism to the strength of gravity for a pair of protons, nuclear efficiency of fusion from hydrogen to helium, the density parameter, the cosmological constant, and a bunch of other intelligent sounding stuff make many scientists insist that the universe is just so and because of that you, me, and that little chipmunk you saw on your deck this morning can exist.

Other scientists invent all sorts of nonsensical things to counteract this belief. They will resurrect the multidimensions of the occult of the late 1800s which impacted theoretical physics then and say there is a multiverse, many universes where things are different and anything is possible. I might even be handsomer, wealthier, and smarter on one of them, in their imagination only of course.

But, the universe is fine-tuned. Now, how does something get tuned? Have you ever seen a radio tune itself? Never mind. In today’s world I suppose that is possible. But, at some point a person was involved; an engineer or someone to tune that radio. How do you think the universe was tuned so close and exact? Who did it? Who maintains it? We all know that if you leave your car in the driveway without maintaining it for thirty years the tires will rot and it will become undriveable. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that all things fall apart. Oh, and there is this;

Colossians 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

In previous Sunday School classes I presented some scientific studies that expressed alarm at the harmful mutations produced in each generation of people. One of them was entitled, “Contamination of the Genome by Very Slightly Deleterious Mutations: Why Have We Not Died 100 Times Over?” But, we’re here, our biology is preserved, life goes on and the planet is not yet cold and dead.

Again, I say ask yourself, if there was no God, then why is there something rather than nothing? Why is something as complex as life here in this space of earth?  If God doesn’t exist why do I know that I am? Why is the universe so finely tuned as to permit us to exist?

You know, our government has spent millions of dollars searching for extraterrestrials, life on other planets, even microbial. They will continue to do so but will probably never find it. The scientific community has a hunger, a lust, to overthrow God. They are searching for microbes and water on Mars.

In the Rosetta Mission they recently learned that water in space can be vastly different than water on earth so they feel confident in at least admitting that our water didn’t come from comets. But, they will keep searching, hoping to be able to drive the nail in the coffin for belief in the God of the Bible.

There are two other things that scream the truth of the existence of God. One is the very desperate desire to prove beyond all doubt that He does not. Let me read you part of the short religious history of man that God has provided in Romans.

Romans 1:19 ¶  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

And in another context an ancient warning;

Isaiah 66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.

Remember what King David thought of atheists in about 1000 BC.

Psalm 14:1  « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Finally, evolutionary biologists admit an astounding thing. Belief in God, according to some of them, is hard-wired into the human brain. A neuroscientist and the author of several books, Andrew Newberg, wrote a book entitled Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief. He is called a neurotheologist, studying how religious belief and prayer affect the brain.

On page 129 he wrote, “…evolution has adopted this machinery, and has favored the religious capabilities of the religious brain because religious belief and behaviors turn out to be good for us in profound and pragmatic ways.”

As evolutionists often do he refers to evolution as he does in other places with natural selection almost as a god in itself rather than just a process or a mechanism by which new species of dog, cat, or deer are produced by environmental stresses or opportunities or human cross-breeding efforts (remember as I pointed out in another talk that there are more than two dozen scientific definitions of species.) The fact is that all of the genetic information necessary for a creature to adapt to its environment are present within the creature’s DNA and no dog ever became a cat and no alligator ever became a trout. But, Newberg, like other of his ilk, refer to evolution as a sort of inert god who unfeelingly adopts and favors in the passage I quoted. In a preceding page he refers to natural selection as not tolerating something. So, it is almost humorous to see how these kinds of scientists use language, at the least, very interesting.

Susan Mazur, a science writer and journalist who doesn’t appear to be a fundamental Baptist (said in a tongue-in-cheek manner), wrote in her book The Altenberg 16: An Expose’ of the Evolution Industry that, “Evolutionary science is as much about posturing, salesmanship, stonewalling and bullying as it is about actual scientific theory.” (v)

In any event, this is not a sermon about comparative religions so we’ll leave the religion of evolution alone for now.

So, to summarize, if you want to look outside of your own experience for proof that God exists I suggest starting with life. There are many other topics we could talk about that prove or at least suggest His existence but let’s stick with the ones I’ve brought up.

One, there is something rather than nothing and since space dust did not create itself then something or someone did. Two, life could not have begun here on earth and probably not on some distant planet by chance. Some intelligent being had to create it. Three, self-awareness and consciousness imply a reality greater than the physical universe. Four, we are apparently “hard-wired” to believe in God. It is part of our make-up.

We believe in God because He has communed with our spirit so that we can. We experience Him in our prayer and in the answers to it, the way the Bible speaks to us, in the truth found in it, the way He molds and changes us by our reading and hearing it read, by the reality arounds us that is confirmed in the Bible, and by His miraculous intervention in our lives.

But, an unbeliever doesn’t have that privilege that we do. So, sometimes you have to think in order to give them something to think about.

In then end, though, these facts revealed through the Bible and common-sense must be accepted and understood without the arguments. No one ever came to Christ by an argument based on logic.

1Corinthians 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Tell them the truth as you know it from the Bible and pray that God will open their eyes for there is no other hope for salvation than God Himself opening someone’s eyes. It is not a numbers game like sales. If you hand out a hundred gospel tracts you’re not assured of getting a 2% return. They will only come to Christ, turn to Him, trust in His righteousness and not their own, if God speaks to their twisted, wicked heart like He did to your twisted, wicked heart, all arguments notwithstanding.

(Invitation to receive Christ and closing prayer)

Exodus 32:1-6 comments: the people rose up to play

1 ¶  And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 2  And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 5  And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. 6  And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

These people who have spent so long in Egypt with the worship of pagan gods want Aaron to make gods for them to worship. That is what they have known for hundreds of years and they are quick to abandon the singular devotion to the magnificent God who created them and called them out of Egypt with such mighty signs. This is a problem for Christians as we are often not willing to wait for God to do something in our lives and rather quickly began looking backwards into the things that we leaned on before we came to Christ.

As far as they were concerned, Moses might have died on the mountain. Aaron is either a creature of public opinion, maybe afraid of the masses, or he also doubts whether or not Moses will return. So, he calls for their earrings.

Earrings had a special significance, which I pointed out in Genesis. Jewelry played a part in ancient worship. Earrings were not merely ornamentation for both men and women but were, scholars tell us, sometimes amulets and charms to protect the openings of the face and head from entry by evil spirits. They were clearly part of the idol worship of the ancient world, the spiritual system that developed after the Flood.  If you have difficulty seeing that side of facial jewelry just look at the hundreds of occult earrings on a website like Etsy.com. Some verses of note regarding men and women wearing earrings and of a possible link to their occultic practices are;

Genesis 35:4  And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

Judges 8:24  And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25  And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.

In the passage in Genesis, chapter 35, and here in Exodus we have a very clear indication that something linked earrings to the spirit world.

Verse 4 is an astounding statement that makes Aaron worthy of death. Of course, if you think about it, we do very much the same thing when we say, “good luck!” or, “oh, how lucky you were.” When we, even absent-mindedly, attribute our good fortune or our trouble to something or someone other than God we do blaspheme His name and diminish the glory due Him.

Malachi 2:2  If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Aaron made a molten calf. The calf/bull was a commonly worshipped as a god in the Ancient Near East and in Egypt. While Moses was receiving what may have been the introduction of the alphabet over pictographic writing the Hebrews were falling down to worship the object symbolized by the pictographic rendering of a calf, a young bull. Aleph, the first letter of Hebrew, is derived from the pictographic representation of the young bull. Alpha, the Greek letter, was derived from Aleph. With the ‘alpha-bet’ God removed the pictures that were worshipped to letters that represented thoughts and ideas only rather than sacred objects representing thoughts and ideas.

This is a return to Egypt in a religious sense. The ensuing nudity and orgy was in keeping with the sexual aspects of Ancient Near Eastern religion. See verse 25 in this chapter coming up.

To explain further, in ancient Greece and Rome orgia was a sacred word denoting worship in the mystery cults such as that devoted to Dionysus. It included dancing, singing, and drinking as well as promiscuous sexual behavior. You cannot underestimate the sexual perversion of ancient religion after the Flood. The ancient Egyptians practiced every kind of perversion in their religion.

This was an abomination to God and a corruption of His will for mankind to enjoy the physical bond between a husband and a wife. Below is a summary of mankind’s religious history, from Romans, emphasizing the descent from idolatry to perversion.

Romans 1: 19 ¶  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God,

neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through

the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Notice in verse 5 that Aaron is mingling this pagan worship with the worship of Jehovah God, the LORD. This is something that I discussed before as absolutely forbidden.

You can imagine God’s wrath as He is about to psychologically prepare Moses for what Moses is about to see. By God expressing a rage and alleged intentions to destroy the Hebrew people He affords Moses the opportunity to plead for mercy as we will see. 

Exodus 31:12-18 comments: the finger of God

31:12 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 13  Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. 14  Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15  Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16  Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17  It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 18  And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

 Before I comment on sabbaths I wanted to say something about the use of the word verily. It means, “truly,” or, “certainly,” or, “truthfully.” The apostle, John, reports that Jesus used it twice for emphasis quite often. Examples of the 25 verses in John’s gospel that state this use of verily are;

John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 10:7  Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

For the Hebrew the seventh day was set apart as holy to God. This symbolizes the seventh day of creation when God rested.

Genesis 2:1 ¶  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

It was a day of rest made for man.

Mark 2:27  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

People are always remembering their rights under the U.S. Constitution. What Christians forget is that having one day off a week to rest is the right of God’s people afforded to them by God.

The observance of the Sabbath under pain of death was a sign of Hebrew identity. Circumcision was a personal sign for men that they had a covenant with God. But, the observance of the Sabbath was something the entire community; man and woman, child and beast, could participate in. Our hunger for material possessions and our false post-World War 2 middle class values created by business advertising and propaganda prevent us from taking advantage of our God-given right to a day of rest.

Now, what about exceptions? Apply common-sense and God’s character of mercy to the rule.

Luke 14:1 ¶  And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2  And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3  And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4  And they held their peace. And he took him, and

healed him, and let him go; 5  And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6  And they could not answer him again to these things.

Notice here that the Pharisees and Jesus were having a meal on the Sabbath which someone had to prepare and serve, to serve at least if they prepared it the day before. There was no refrigerator or microwave. Notice also that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which upset the religious elite, all the while pointing out that they would have no hesitation in rescuing a valuable farm animal from a pit on the Sabbath day.

So, keeping that in mind what do you make of the command to do no work. Clearly, there was room for common-sense and mercy in God’s command. But, it was not to be a day of commerce, a day just like any other day of the week. Labor ceased on that day which was clearly a mercy to the hireling or the servant and the beast.

Nehemiah 13:15 ¶  In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. 16  There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17  Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? 18  Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath. 19  And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day. 20  So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without

Jerusalem once or twice. 21  Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath. 22  And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day.

Later in Exodus the command will be given by Moses that not a fire was to be lit in their dwellings on the Sabbath day. We can imagine how literally this command was not followed. In their wanderings God even commanded a person collecting sticks be executed for violating the Sabbath.

Numbers 15:32  And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. 33  And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. 34  And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. 35  And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. 36  And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

The command was fairly straightforward, perhaps one of the oldest labor laws known to man.

Deuteronomy 5:13  Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

So, why, you ask yourself, was God so strict with the Hebrews in the wilderness but Jesus, who was and is God in the flesh, not as strict with his Pharisee host on the Sabbath? What is the Holy Spirit trying to tell us? Jesus told a man to pick up his former bed and carry it on the Sabbath day in John 5:8 which greatly disturbed the Jews.

By the time that Jesus walked the earth in human flesh in the first century the Jews had developed hundreds of laws regarding work but, as revealed by the verses about Jesus being invited to a meal on the Sabbath, exceptions were made.

Many Christian faith traditions tried to call Sunday the Christian Sabbath all the while making it not a day of rest but a day of obligation. The truth is that early Christians, as history provides evidence, worshipped before dawn on Sunday and then went to work. Sunday was not a day off from work for three hundred years after Christ. If it were truly the Christian Sabbath then from sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday you would do nothing, not even light a candle in your home.

Moving on, the Ten Commandments were written with the finger of God.

Deuteronomy 9:10  And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

Notice how it was apparent when God’s hand was directly on something that happened?

Exodus 8:19  Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

Psalm 8:3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

Daniel 5:5  In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the

candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. 6  Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another… 23  But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: 24  Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.

Luke 11:18  If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. 19  And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. 20  But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.