“The First Commandment says, ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’
That proves He isn’t the only God!”
That’s true.Man has always made false gods. An old adage says, “God created
man in His own image, and man has been returning the favor ever
since.” Hindus have millions of gods. Sometimes gods are made of wood
or stone; other times man makes up a god in his mind.Whatever the case,
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making a god to suit yourself is called “idolatry,” and it is a transgression
of both the First and Second Commandments.
In this lesson we will look at the First Commandment: “I am the LORD
your God, which has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus
20:2,3).
We are to have no other gods before (or “besides”) the one true God.
He is to be preeminent in our hearts. Jesus said that “the first of all the
commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first
commandment” (Mark 12:29,30).
There is only One who can stand uncondemned regarding this Commandment.
Jesus of Nazareth lived a life without sin; He was perfect in
thought, word, and deed (see Hebrews 4:15). Everything He did pleased
the Father absolutely. The cross not only revealed that He loved His Father
with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength, but it proved that He
loved His neighbor as much as He loved Himself.
Those who profess to keep this Commandment would do well to run
their eyes over the Westminster Confession of Faith. This was penned by
godly men in 1646, and expressed their thoughts (based on Scripture)
about the essence of this Commandment:
The duties required in the First Commandment are, the knowing
and acknowledging of God to be the only true God and our God; and
to worship and glorify Him accordingly, by thinking, meditating,
remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving,
desiring, fearing of Him, believing Him, trusting, hoping, delighting,
rejoicing in Him, being zealous for Him, calling upon Him,
giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission
to Him with the whole man; being careful in all things to please
Him, and sorrowful when in anything He is offended; and walking
humbly with Him.
SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL EVANGELISM
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Someone once said, “It is agreeable to reason that men who have their
beings from God, and are upheld in them by him, and are followed with
the bounties of Providence; and especially who are made new creatures,
and are blessed by him with all spiritual blessings in Christ, that they
should give up themselves to him, and cheerfully serve him in their day
and generation.”
Sinful humans, however, don’t love God. They don’t delight to do His
will. Instead, the Law of sin and death has written its bloody signature
across the godless human breast (Romans 7:21–24). Our inborn cry is,
“Not Your will, but mine be done!” The devil is our father and his will we
gladly do. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law or God, nor indeed
can it be (Romans 8:7). See how the Law condemns us.We fail to love the
God who gave us life.
The inevitable result is that sinful man will think that he himself is
God. His pride takes over his brain, as shown in this quote by Jeremy
Rifkin in his book Algeny:
We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else’s home
and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of
preexisting cosmic rules. It is our creation now. We make the rules.
We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world, and
because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces. We no
longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of
the universe.We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we
are the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.
The theory of evolution of the Coca Cola can.
Billions of years ago, a big bang produced a large rock. As the rock cooled, sweet brown liquid formed on its surface. As time passed, aluminum formed itself into a can, a lid, and a tab. Millions of years later, red and white paint fell from the sky, and formed itself into the words "Coca Cola 12 fluid ounces."
Of course, my theory is an insult to your intellect, because you know that if the Coca Cola can is made, there must be a maker. If it is designed, there must be a designer. The alternative, that it happened by chance or accident, is to move into an intellectual free zone.
The banana -- the atheist's nightmare.
Note that the banana:
1. Is shaped for human hand
2. Has non-slip surface
3. Has outward indicators of inward content:
Green-too early,
Yellow-just right,
Black-too late.
4. Has a tab for removal of wrapper
5. Is perforated on wrapper
6. Bio-degradable wrapper
7. Is shaped for human mouth
8. Has a point at top for ease of entry
9. Is pleasing to taste buds
10. Is curved towards the face to make eating process easy
To say that the banana happened by accident is even more unintelligent than to say that no one designed the Coca Cola can.
TEST ONE
The person who thinks the Coca Cola can had no designer is:
___ A. Intelligent
___ B. A fool
___ C. Has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious
EyeDid you know that the eye has 40,000,000 nerve endings, the focusing muscles move an estimated 100,000 times a day, and the retina contains 137,000,000 light sensitive cells?
Charles Darwin said,
"To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree."
If man cannot begin to make a human eye, how could anyone in his right mind think that eyes formed by mere chance? In fact, man cannot make anything from nothing. We don't know how to do it. We can re-create, reform, develop . . . but we cannot create even one grain of sand from nothing. Yet, the eye is only a small part of the most sophisticated part of creation-the human body.
George Gallup, the famous statistician, said,
"I could prove God statistically; take the human body alone; the chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen, is a statistical monstrosity."
Einstein
Albert Einstein said,
"Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—a spirit vastly superior to man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must feel humble."
TEST TWO
A. Do you know of any building that didn't have a builder?
___ YES ___ NO
B. Do you know of any painting that didn't have a painter?
___ YES ___ NO
C. Do you know of any car that didn't have a maker?
___ YES ___ NO
If you answered "YES" for any of the above, give details:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Could I convince you that I dropped 50 oranges onto the ground and they by chance fell into ten rows of five oranges? The logical conclusion is that someone with an intelligent mind put them there. The odds that ten oranges would fall by accident into a straight line are mind-boggling, let alone ten rows of five.
Oranges
TEST THREE
A. From the atom to the universe, is there order?
___ YES ___ NO
B. Did it happen by accident?
___ YES ___ NO
C. Or, must there have been an intelligent mind?
___ YES ___ NO
D. What are the chances of 50 oranges falling by chance
into ten rows of five oranges? ______________________
If you answered "YES" for any of the above, give details:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The declaration "There is no God" is what is known as an absolute statement. For an absolute statement to be true, I must have absolute knowledge.
Here is another absolute statement: "There is no gold in China."
TEST FOUR
What do I need to have for that statement to be true?
A. No knowledge of China.
___ YES ___ NO
B. Partial knowledge of China.
___ YES ___ NO
C. Absolute knowledge of China.
___ YES ___ NO
"C" is the correct answer. For the statement to be true, I must know that there is no gold in China, or the statement is incorrect. To say "There is no God," and to be correct in the statement, I must be omniscient.
I must know how many hairs are upon every head, every thought of every human heart, every detail of history, every atom within every rock...nothing is hidden from my eyes...I know the intimate details of the secret love-life of the fleas on the back of the black cat of Napolean's great-grandmother. To make the absolute statement "There is no God." I must have absolute knowledge that there isn't one.
ChartLet's say that this circle represents all the knowledge in the entire universe, and let's assume that you have an incredible 1% of all that knowledge. Is it possible, that in the knowledge you haven't yet come across, there is ample evidence to proved that God does indeed exist?
If you are reasonable, you will have to say, "Having the limited knowledge that I have at present, I believe that there is no God." In other words, you don't know if God exists, so you are not an "atheist," you are what is commonly known as an "agnostic." You are like a man who looks at a building, and doesn't know if there was a builder.
TEST FIVE
The man who sees a building and doesn't know if there was a builder is:
___ A. Intelligent
___ B. A fool
___ C. Has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious
Perhaps you have questions that hold you back from faith. First, almost every question you have about suffering humanity etc., can be adequately answered.
tv setSecond, we have faith in plenty of things we don't understand. Did you understand the mechanics of television before you turned it on? Probably not. You took a step of faith, turned it on, and after it worked, understanding how it worked wasn't that important. We accept that there are unseen television waves right in front of our eyes. We can't see them because they are invisible. For them to manifest, we need a receiver, then we can enjoy the experience of television.
receiverGod is not flesh and blood. He is an eternal Spirit-immortal and invisible. Like the television waves, He cannot be experienced until the "receiver" is switched on. Here is something you will find hard to believe: Jesus said, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21).
Either that is true or it isn't. Jesus Christ says that He will manifest Himself to anyone who obeys Him. Approach the subject the same way you approached your first television set. Just take a small step of faith. If it works, enjoy it, if it doesn't, forget it.
Or have you an ulterior motive? Could it be that the "atheist" can't find God, for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman? Could it be that your love for sin is clouding your good judgment? If the Bible is true, and Jesus Christ has "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel," then you owe it to yourself just to check it out. Here is how to do that:
TEST SIX
With a tender conscience,
check this list of the Ten Commandments:
1. Have I always loved God my Creator with all my heart, mind, soul and strength?
2. Have I made a god in my own image�a god to suit myself?
3. Have I ever used God's name in vain?
4. Have I kept the Sabbath holy?
5. Have I always honored my parents implicitly?
6. Have I murdered (God considers hatred as murder)?
7. Have I committed adultery (including premarital sex and lust)?
8. Have I stolen (the value is irrelevant)?
9. Have I lied (including fibs and these questions)?
10. Have I coveted (been greedy or materialistic)?
____YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
guiltyIf you have even broken one Law, then you have sinned against God and therefore will "surely die," for the "wages of sin is death."
We are all guilty of breaking the Commandments. Listen to the voice of your conscience, and let it remind you of some of the sins of the past. We are not perfect as we are commanded to be (Matthew 5:48), neither is our heart pure. On Judgment Day our transgressions will be evidence of our shame. Think of it: God has seen every sin we have ever committed. We share our thought-life with Him.
We are guilty of violating His Law a multitude of times, yet if we repent, God can forgive us because Jesus stepped into the courtroom 2.000 years ago and paid the fine for us.
His death on the cross satisfied the Law we so blatantly transgressed, and at the same time demonstrated how much God loves us—"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." His shed blood on the cross can make you clean in the sight of a holy God...as though you have never sinned.
God doesn't want you to go to Hell. Please, forget your arguments, repent and put your trust in Jesus and be saved from God's wrath. Make Psalm 51 your prayer, then read your Bible daily and always obey what you read; God will never let you down. Thank you for taking the time to read this booklet.
Adapted from God Doesn't Believe in Atheists
by Ray Comfort (Living Waters)
available through your Christian bookstore.