commentary: Wisdom and Foolishness

God Is NOT Unnecessary
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 11-Sep-10; Sermon #1011c; 8 minutes

Description: (show)

In an interview, a British reporter questioned Stephen Hawking about his book, The Grand Design. Hawking, claiming that although the existence of God could not be disproven, he smugly stated that there was really no reason for God's existence. Hawking, allegedly a man of great intellect, has proven himself an unmitigated fool possessing a totally reprobate mind, totally ignoring the visible proofs of His existence.




There was something interesting sent to me this week by way of an email. Actually, it was a video made in England oft an interview of the man who is acclaimed to be the smartest man in the world. If he is not the smartest man in the world, he is probably the most famous scientist in the world. This is Stephen Hawking. You've probably seen him at some time or another, maybe on television. He is a quadriplegic. He has confined to a wheelchair. He was afflicted with Lou Gehrig's disease when he was about 20 years old, and I believe he's probably about 60 right now. He's incapable of any movement except in his head. He can speak, but even speaking, it is so weak it has to be picked up by a microphone right in front of his lips and then broadcast out from there.

Stephen Hawking has written a new book. It's titled The Grand Design, and in it he dogmatically states that God is unnecessary. When asked by a reporter on the video if he can prove that God does not exist, he stated that it cannot be proved that He does not exist, but science can prove that He was not necessary. In other words, He might have been there, but we really did not need him anyway. When he was asked why so many people believe in God, he replied, "Because it gives them a sense of not being alone." But he doesn't need that because of what physics has shown him. He said that because of the existence of the law of gravity, the universe created itself.

He was not questioned by the reporter as to where the law of gravity came from, nor where the expanse of heaven came from, nor where the heavenly bodies that collided with one another came from, or where the concept of time came from (because he was throwing figures around, like 10,000,000,000 years, 15,000,000,000 years). But the questioning never went in that direction.

Now, this is nothing but sheer intellectual vanity posing as supreme understanding, used to avoid submitting to the Creator, combined with a dogged foolishness in fine intellectual clothing that refuses to admit that someone greater than themselves is here, is there, and made it all. In this case, it's a "the emperor is wearing no clothing" situation.

Incidentally, Sir Isaac Newton, who lived a couple of hundred years before, used the law of gravity as one of his primary proofs that God does exist. You've heard the story of him sitting under the apple tree and a ripe apple fell off, and he started thinking, "How did that happen?" There are laws at work, and where did they come from? There must be Somebody who made them and keeps them working. Pretty smart man.

Another interesting thing about Stephen Hawking's book is the title, The Grand Design. How can he use that when evolutionists claim that everything is happening randomly? These two are opposites, design and randomness. Got it? Again, Isaac Newton claimed design has being proof of God's existence, and Albert Einstein made a similar statement.

I'm going to read to you, beginning in Romans 1:18, what God has to say about this foolishness. I'm going to read it to you from the English Standard Version:

Romans 1:18-20 (English Standard Version) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. . . .

That is a pretty dogmatic statement.

I'm going also read to you I Corinthians 1:18 as well, where Paul writes that God says,

I Corinthians 1:18-21 (English Standard Version) . . . “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” . . . Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom [that is, human wisdom], it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

What is Paul teaching here, especially in Romans 1? It's pretty interesting when you just analyze it. Paul is saying that people who make such statements as Hawking's, that supposedly come from a person of great wisdom, that they are deliberately lying. They know better. God, who never lies, says, "I have shown it to them." He makes sure that He shows it to them. That's what [Paul] meant when he used the term "unrighteousness." The unrighteousness are these statements that they make that, "Well, we do not need Him," or "God does not exist." They know better. They are willingly, deliberately, suppressing the truth, urged on by their vanity or their ego (as the psychological world might say). God has clearly shown them the truth of His existence, and they are turning their back on it and saying something different out in public. They have no excuse, and God's going to hold them to it because, He said, "I've shown you I AM."

JWR/aws/dcg












 


 
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