The Way Matt Sees It

We’ve been looking at several convincing philosophical arguments for the existence of God.  We’ve seen The Cosmological Argument, The Moral Argument, the facts concerning the resurrection of the historical figure Jesus of Nazareth, and examined The Problem of Evil.  These arguments show through sound logic and argumentation that the existence of God is more plausibly true than plausibly false, and shows that God is the best explanation for the argument. EXPERIENCING GOD This time, we are considering another thought, but is not quite the same as the other arguments we’ve looked at so far.  God can be personally known and experienced. This is the immediate experience of God .  We are claiming that we can know that God exists apart from just arguments, because God can be experienced.  This is what would be considered a “properly basic belief.” PROPERLY BASIC BELIEFS What is a “properly basic belief?”  Think of it this way...

We’ve been looking at several philosophical arguments for God’s existence.   These arguments show through the laws of logic that God is the best explanation for things like the cause of the universe and the existence of objective moral values and duties. This time we’re examining this claim: God is the best explanation for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. DEFINE “JESUS” The historical figure known as Jesus of Nazareth had an unprecedented sense of divine authority.   He claimed to have lived a sinless life (John 8:46-47), that he was the only way to God (John 14:6), shared glory with God Himself (John 17:5), that He could forgive sins (Luke 5:20-21), and claimed to be able to give everlasting life (John 11:25) among many others.   These claims were not simply statements he made, but were backed up with miracles and exorcisms.   The chief of these divine acts was his resurrection of the dead. If Jesus truly rose from the dead, this is a di...