This is a short excerpt from Dr. Ronald Nash from Reformed Theological Seminary in which he gives a brief walk thru of the Conceptual Argument for God's existence. This unique and interesting argument is one of the most fascinating ones that can be used to point a sincere truth seeker towards the definite existence of God.
While most naturalists and materialists would/will scoff at this idea, there is no plausible explanation from those world views as to how/why abstract objects such as numbers, the laws of logic, mathematical equations, geometric shapes exist as universal concepts in the mind of man. If these are unchanging, transcendent concepts and ideas, then a strong worldview must give a plausible explanation for them.
The formal argument goes like this:
1. Either eternal, unchanging, necessary ideas exist or do not exist.
2. Eternal, unchanging, necessary ideas do exist. (i.e. numbers, geometric shapes, laws of logic and mathematics, etc...)
3. These ideas either exist independently, originate from human minds, or originate from an eternal, unchanging, necessary Mind - God.
4. These ideas do not exist independently. (Platonism - metaphysically incoherent)
5. These ideas do not originate from human minds. (The laws of logic, mathematics, geometric shapes, numbers have existed long before man arose)
6. Therefore, these eternal, unchanging, necessary ideas originate from an eternal, unchanging, necessary Mind - God. (Note: The number of these concepts and ideas is infinite in number, so this necessitates that this Mind posses infinite knowledge - omniscience.)
For more info on the "Conceptual Argument" for God's Existence, check out Dr. Craig's book "Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview" or you can watch me explain it in a short video HERE on my YouTube Channel.
- Pastor J.
Jesus presents the idea of "one" in a theologically profound way in Chapter 17 of John. I won't type the verses, but to get the full gest of the concept, see John 17:11,21,22,23.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have always had a personal theory concerning what Jesus has to say in his appeal to "one" in these verses, and it goes like this: We all consider things like love, compassion, goodness, mercy, tenderness, and so on, to be conceptually separate ideas or thoughts, notions, categories, or absolutes, or however you may think of them. But for God they really exist only as "one" thing, and inside of Him they flow to us as only "one" thing, inclusive, and not at all separate. This is one thing I think Jesus is driving at in these verses in John, and the entire chapter, of course.
You see, when we go to be with God, all of these concepts will funnel into only "one" thing, because we will have the full glory of God's knowledge and the full grasp of the mind of Jesus. At that point, none of these concepts will exist separately. So, in turn, this is what Jesus is, as I said, driving at: that all things will be "one."
I'll leave it at that, and hopefully it makes good sense to you.