Friday, November 9, 2012

The Absolute Existence of God 2


Does God Exist?

Our insistence on the Absolute Existence of God is a bit tongue in cheek.  It is impossible for man to know anything absolutely.  Absolute knowledge belongs to God alone.  Nonetheless, how good is our evidence?

Suppose that we met today for the first time, shook hands, exchanged names, and walked away.

The Reality of Identity


What would you know about the reality of my identity?  I could have given a false name.  We would need some method for testing the populace for the probability of giving a false name under such circumstances.  Lacking that, let us just say that the odds are one out of two: I could be lying or I could be telling the truth.  Most likely, the odds are much better than this, because we commonly believe that most people avoid lying far more than fifty percent of the time.  We have begun with a very conservative statistic.

However, if in our meeting, I wanted to cash a check or make a credit card purchase from you.  You would normally require that I produce photographic identification: for example, a driver’s license.  For transactions that are more serious additional identification would be required: a birth certificate.  Even if such documents were easily forged and sloppily controlled, the odds of my identity being false would surely be one in eight or better, still a very conservative estimate.

If I continued in the community for any length of time, my check cleared the banking system or my credit card paid the debt.  You would become more confident in my identity: at least one in sixteen odds.  With each ensuing transaction, confidence in my credentials would go up.  If I remained in the community for forty years, conducting thousands of transactions a year, the likelihood of my identity being false would be too small to calculate practically: it would in effect become zero.  There would be absolutely no chance of my having a false identity.

Not only would there be absolutely no chance of my having a false identity, it would no longer matter.  My actions and character would have established my identity within the community, and it would not matter what people called me.  In fact, I may have gathered any number of nick or pet names.  I might be Sure-Shot on the golf course, Strikes at bowling, Sultan-of-Swat in the baseball league, Trout-Master while fly-fishing, and Bicycle-Grandpa to my grandson.  I would be known by my behavior, rather than by my credentials.  The odds of being accurately, well known would be one hundred percent.

The Reality of Existence


What would you know about the reality of my existence?  I could be a hologram, a “second identity,” an illusion, or a mirage.  Yet, you spoke with me and shook my hand.  Let’s be conservative and generous.  Let’s say that there is one chance in a thousand that I don’t really exist.

However, a friend comes along; he meets me too, shakes my hand, and speaks with me.  Neither you nor your friend use hallucinogenic drugs.  Both of you are of sound mind, and you concur that I in fact exist.  The odds of your both being wrong at the same time are now one in one million.  As this existence is confirmed day-by-day with more and more people throughout the community, the probable reality of my existence would become one hundred percent at a much faster rate than my identity.

If I were unusual looking, or became famous, it would become impossible for me to hide my existence or identity.  The community would know everything I did and every place I went at a considerable loss of my personal privacy.  Like a movie, music, sport, or TV star, I could not even hide from the ubiquitous eye of the community.  The odds of my existence would be overwhelming.

The Historic Scenario


Around 1446 BC an escaped murderer, a failure in life, a person of no reputation except that he used to live in the Egyptian royal household, until he disgraced himself, is wandering around in the Sinai desert tending his father-in-law’s flock, when he meets a very unusual Person at mount Horeb.  The man is named Moses.

What we first know of this Person is that He has the unusual appearance of a fire that burns, yet does not consume.  The fire talks, listens, carries on an intelligent conversation, sees and is seen, and otherwise demonstrates characteristics normally associated with personality.  This Person is finally introduced with the Name, Am, I Am.

At this point, there is no especial reason to believe that Moses is not hallucinating, except for the fact that Moses has not hallucinated previously, generally acts rationally, and knows how to survive in the desert.  Such desert survival usually requires the ability to distinguish mirage from reality, and otherwise avoid danger and deception.  If Moses were the sort of person who characteristically allows himself to hallucinate due to hydration, he would have died in the desert long before now.  The fact that Moses is still alive demonstrates that he has the sort of survival skills that we call street smarts nowadays.  Moses is not a tenderfoot or greenhorn; consequently, he is not easily deceived.

Moreover, this flaming personage claims to know Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and claims to be their God.  He has comprehensive knowledge of Israelite conditions in Egypt, and unveils His plan for their deliverance.  In pursuit of this deliverance, He gives explicit instructions, all of which come to pass.  In addition, He provides Moses with His indisputable credentials in the form of manipulation of creation.  A common inanimate wooden staff is changed into a living serpent and back again.  Then, Moses’ perfectly normal hand is turned leprous, and whole again.

It is becoming less and less likely that Moses is dealing with a hallucination, Who has identified Himself with a fraudulent identity.  This would require that Moses be in some deep dream or trancelike state, and is having a nightmare.  There is no evidence of such a nightmare taking place.  Sane people do not act based on nightmares, let alone have them actually become realities.  For the sake of argument, we conclude the odds that “I Am” is a false identity are less than one in eight; and the odds of a false existence are less than one in one thousand, from the perspective of a single observer named Moses.

The Mathematical Necessity


If you don’t agree with these probabilities, pick probabilities for identity and existence with which you are comfortable.  It does not make any difference what probabilities you assign unless to assign probabilities of one.  This is the assumption that Moses is absolutely, totally deceived in every detail all the time; yet, this is not a reasonable assumption.  Moses most certainly saw something and met Someone.  If you assume that Moses is absolutely, totally deceived in every detail; you will eventually need to assume that an entire nation involving millions of people over hundreds of years was equally deceived.  Such mass insanity is extremely unlikely.

However, if you allow any probability for reality of identity and existence, even if it’s only a chance of one in one hundred, or even one in one thousand, our proof will still stand.  The proof stands because it is exponential, and even odds of nine hundred ninety-nine out of one thousand vanish to nothing with the presence of millions and millions of other witnesses over a period of eight hundred sixty years.

The Ensuing History


In the following months, this Flaming-Smoking reality, named I Am, meets two and one half million Israelites, Pharaoh and innumerable Egyptians, fights and defeats these Egyptians, and leads these Israelites in a march around the Sinai desert for forty years.  He also establishes law and government in a form of worship centered on the Tabernacle.  In this period a following generation is born, also on the order of several million people.  These all witnesses this Flaming-Smoking presence, which we have elsewhere called the Shekinah Glory.  Throughout these forty years, the Glory not only leads, but feeds, and provides water for this hoard of millions.  Shortly after 1406 BC, the death of Moses, this unusual Glory, named I Am, leads Joshua and the Israelites across the Jordan River, then He miraculously attacks and demolishes the City of Jericho without the assistance if Israelite arms.

In due time national existence takes shape under Joshua, a system of worship is set in order, and the Israelites disperse to occupy the land on both sides of the Jordan.  Even so, three times a year worshipping adults assembled at the Tabernacle, first at Shiloh,[1] and later at Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.  We have no way of making an exact count, but after eight hundred sixty years, roughly twenty-one or more generations have passed.  In a populous, thriving, growing nation, an overall population in excess of fifty-four million people have witnessed the Glory three times a year, throughout their lives.  Moreover, the High Priest and his staff witnessed this Presence every day.  Even the division priests, who only served one month every year, beheld the Shekinah a minimum of thirty days a year, throughout their lives.

The Statistical Conclusion


By any realistic evaluation of the reality of identity and existence, the I Am is a one hundred percent statistic.  You do the math.  Especially in the case of the High Priest and his staff, the denial of the existence of I Am is an absurdity on the order of claiming that the Sun does not exist.  The evidence for the existence of God in the Shekinah Glory, Whose Name is I Am, exceeds the evidence for any other person in history.

“But the Lord [is] in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.”[2]

“The fool has said in his heart, [There is] no God.”[3]

These statements are not so much wishful thinking on the parts of Habakkuk and David.  These are well-considered conclusions, based on well-established evidence.  The existence of God is certain.

Corollary One: The Creation


These texts and statistics concerning the Shekinah Glory do more than establish certainty of His identity and existence.  We noted before that, after a period of time, a person’s behavior does more to establish identity than any name.  This Person repeatedly shows His authority over Creation.  In doing this, He establishes Himself as an authority, fully qualified to speak about the details of Creation.  Moses was not present at Creation, and has no authority to speak about it.  However, I Am evidently was present at Creation, and has the only authority to speak about it.  As far as I Am’s veracity is concerned, we’ll just have to take His word for it, we weren’t there either.  That Moses was chosen for the honor of recording the facts of Creation through a conversation between friends is beside the point.

Corollary Two: The Nation


It is a strange fact of history that Israel-Judah are insignificant twin nations surrounded by enormous, powerful empires.  For the most part these empires could have easily squashed Israel like a bug.  Only one factor fully explains their existence over an eight hundred twenty year period.  I Am held them sacrosanct throughout that period.  When the eight hundred twenty year period came to an end, the prophets did not question the justice of dissolving Judah.  The prophet’s only question was, “How could God punish Judah with a dirty stick?”  God simply deserted Israel-Judah, because they had already deserted Him; consequently, they perished.

Corollary Three: The Canonicity of Scripture


We usually look at the issue of Canonicity from a human viewpoint.  How did human authorities decide what books to include in the Bible?  However, from the Shekinah Glory, two things are evident.  One, the writing of Scripture, that is its inspiration, is the result of the conversation between prophets and God: this conversation defines the meaning of the prophetic office.  Two, Moses commands the Levites to place the master copy of the Scripture beside the Ark in the Most Holy Place: this official act of laying up Scripture in the Presence of the Glory defines canonicity.  Nothing was accomplished without Divine supervision.[4]  Canonicity is a work of God, rather than an act of man.

Corollary Four: The Loss of Authority


When the Shekinah Glory abandons Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC,[5] all authority is taken away from Israel-Judah.  Jewish forces cannot defend the Jerusalem: it is overthrown.  They cannot protect the Temple: it is destroyed.  They cannot preserve the canonical Scripture documents, Ark, or Urim and Thummim: all are lost.  When the Jews return from Babylon around 516 BC, they are unable to replace the canonical Scripture documents, Ark, Urim and Thummim, or even some priests.  The Shekinah Glory will not return for over five hundred ten years.  The best they can do is rebuild the city, the temple, and scratch together a secondhand copy of the Scripture.  All this is accomplished by human strength alone.  There is no attendant Presence to bless their work.  The Jews weep over this reality because they realize that they have forfeited everything of real importance.  They continue to exist under foreign dominance until everything is finally destroyed in 70 AD.

The Shekinah returns around 4 BC and within a span of thirty-seven years establishes a new kingdom that will bring forth the fruit of God’s kingdom.  The Shekinah gives Himself to every member of this new kingdom when the Holy Spirit rests on each believer, beginning with the day of Pentecost.  This new kingdom is the true Israel of God.

Conclusion


Now apart from faith [it is] impossible to well-please [Him]: for it is necessary for the one approaching God to believe that He exists, and he becomes a rewarder[6] to those who seek him out.”[7]

“For our God is also a thoroughly destroying fire.[8]

We have sufficiently demonstrated that God revealed Himself as a person in many prominent locations, over long time periods, in the presence of millions of witnesses.  We have shown beyond reasonable doubt that God presented Himself as an historic presence with sufficient credentials and credibility to be an unquestionable authority on all matters of Creation and Revelation.  We showed that Moses received his information from conversations with his Friend.  We established that the pertinent information was recorded in credible historic documents and protected from harm.  QED

An Appendix: The Shekinah Glory

Shekinah, Ark, Urim, and Thummim


The mode of appearance of God’s presence [9] is not always clear in Scripture, but on at least one occasion in the life of Abraham (around 2000 BC) it is a “smoking furnace, and a burning lamp.”[10]  We then see God speak to Moses at the Burning Bush (around 1446 BC).[11]  Next, the Lord led Israel by a pillar of cloud and fire, as the Israelites cross the Red Sea and enter the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula.[12]

Eventually, this pillar settled on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, took up residence in the Tabernacle, and more specifically was associated with the Ark of the Covenant.  At Sinai the Shekinah is perceived to be a terrifying apparition;[13] whereas, at the burning bush it was relatively innocuous.  In spite of this spectacular display, Moses himself is not afraid to approach God.  In this context, the Shekinah gives the Decalogue to Moses directly and personally.[14]

The presence of God at the Ark is dramatically, powerfully, and tragically revealed when Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu are killed for offering profane fire, for God appeared “in the cloud upon the mercy seat.”[15]  The Shekinah and the Ark appear to be doing the same thing: namely, leading the people of God.[16] [17]  When Jericho is defeated, the ark is again in a place of prominent leadership.[18]  Even in defeat, Joshua approaches the Ark, for it was here that he met the appearance of God.[19]

The story of the selection of Achan follows,[20] but many details are left out.  The Scripture does not say, but we expect that, God “took” Achan[21] using the instruments of the ephod, the breastplate, the holy stones, with the Urim and Thummim.[22]  Many authorities see this as a casting of lots, like holy dice.  We think it more likely that the Shekinah, through the operation of the Urim and Thummim made the holy stones light up to reveal His will.[23]

When the story continues the Ark is again among the Israelites.[24]  However, they are quickly deceived and act without prayer.[25]  The Ark is referenced when Benjamin commits a lewd act.[26]  The Ark is consulted again in the days of Samuel when it is brought out to the battle camp during one of Israel’s many wars with the Philistines, and is captured by them.[27]  If we are not yet convinced that the Shekinah and the Ark are closely associated, we should be now, for Eli’s daughter immediately cries out, “The Glory is departed from Israel: for the Ark of God is taken.”  Then she dies.[28]

It indeed appears that the Ark is the sedan chair[29] of God, and its purpose is pageant like, intended to communicate to all observers that the King of the Universe is a flaming fire.

Nevertheless, the Jews are using it in a very superstitious way; they see it as a talisman that they control, rather than the Living God Who rules them.[30]  The Philistines evidently see the Ark in the same way, as a talisman; but are in for a great surprise when God acts from his throne to ridicule Dagon, and persecute the Philistines.  The Ark is shuttled from one Philistine city to another, and finally returned to Israel.[31]  At last, David brings the Ark to Jerusalem by a circuitous route, and there it dwells in a temporary tent.[32]  Finally, Solomon builds a temple for it.[33]  As soon as the Ark is set in the Most Holy Place, “the Glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.”[34]  The Ark remains in the temple[35] until the time of the Babylonian Captivity (around 586 BC).  At this time, both the Ark and the Shekinah appear to be gone from Israel forever.[36]

The Necessity of Personality in the Shekinah


We embrace the idea that these revelations were relational.

“And the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend.  And [Moses] returned to the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not departed from the tabernacle.”[37]

We recall that Abraham was called the friend of God as well.[38]  Moreover, we believe that these warm, loving, personal relationships continued between the Shekinah and man down through the centuries.  Out of these friendships an eternal conversation developed.  Sometimes there were dreams or visions.  At times, there were spectacular events to report.[39]  Once in awhile, there was dictation.  Rarely, God did His Own writing.[40]  However, most of the time, the friends simply enjoyed the conversation, and the human partners to this great conversation kept diary or logbook records of it.  What the friends wrote, the Shekinah validated, the human partners witnessed, and Levites laid up the record master in the Holy Place.  Out of the complexity of friendship, others would eventually be drawn into the circle: the circle of God’s warmth, love, and friendship.[41]

The Return of the Shekinah


The Shekinah Glory reappeared around 4 BC in the Bethlehem Star,[42] and later at the Mount of Transfiguration.[43]  Then, in Acts, this same Shekinah is seen on the head of every Christian present,[44] and afterward at the opening of new Churches everywhere.[45]  It is abundantly clear that Jesus is the Shekinah.[46]  It is equally clear that He delegated this Shekinah to the whole Church, as He prayed that the Father would send the Holy Spirit.  The Father did send the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and the Shekinah was publically visible to all of the many witnesses present in the Temple on Pentecost 33 AD.  There can be no question from this that the Church of Jesus Christ is the rightful Temple of the Shekinah.

The Second Return of the Shekinah


“For as the lightning comes forth from the east, and blazes openly as far as the west; so also will be the coming of the Son of Man.”[47]

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”[48]

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”[49]

When the Lord comes again, no one will miss it for He will blaze blindingly across the sky.  The Shekinah is not invisible.



[1] Joshua 18:1; 19:51
[2] Habakkuk 2:20, see also Psalm 11:4
[3] Psalm 14:1; 53:1
[4] Deuteronomy 31:24-26; see also 1 Samuel 10:25; 2 Kings 22:8
[5] Ezekiel 3:15; 26:16; 27:35; 28:19; Daniel 4:19; 8:17-18, 27; 9:3, 7-8; 10:2; 10: 9, 15; 12:8
[6] A wage-give-away-er, a person that bestows gifts of wages where none are earned
[7] Hebrews 11:6 our translation
[8] Hebrews 12:29 our translation
[9] We are not experts on the Shekinah Glory and undertake this brief overview only to establish the existence of God, as a well-known historic person or persons.  We now know Him as Trinity, Who is present completely everywhere in the universe.  However, it is not His ubiquity, which is in view here, but rather the fact that He revealed Himself as a person in many prominent locations, over long time periods, in the presence of millions of witnesses.  Our immediate purpose is to review this extensive Presence and bring it to the front of our contemporary attention and awareness.
By this excursus, we intend to demonstrate that there can be no doubt that God presented Himself as an historic presence with sufficient credentials and credibility to be an unquestionable authority on all matters of creation and revelation.  Moreover, we plan to establish that Moses did not write on his own authority, but as the secretary of God Himself.  Therefore, what Moses wrote about creation and revelation is not dependent on his necessarily limited human perspective, as well educated as he was, but depends on his direct access to the infallible mind of God.
[10] Genesis 15:17
[11] Exodus 3:2ff
[12] Exodus 13:21-22: The Shekinah is the Angel of God (Exodus 14:19).
[13] We are not free to dismiss this apparition as normal volcanic action.  It existed before Sinai.  It appeared in both large and small forms.  It moved over vast distances.  It spoke and its speech was heard at the very least by Moses and Joshua.  It occupied Mountain, Tabernacle, Temple, and Ark of the Covenant.  It sits on the Mercy Seat.
[14] Exodus 19:9, 16, 18, 20; 20:18; 24:10-11, 15-18; 33:9-11, 14; 34:29-35; 40:34-38; Numbers 9:15-23; 10:11, 33-36; 12:4-10
[15] Leviticus 10:1-2; 16:1-2
[16] Numbers 10:33-36; Joshua 3:3, 6, 8, 11, 13-15, 17; 4:5, 7, 9-11, 16-18
[17] Joshua also meet with the captain of the Lord’s host, who says things reminiscent of the burning bush (1 Samuel 4:19-22).
[18] Joshua 6:4, 6-9, 11-13
[19] Joshua 7:6, 10 (Though not specifically stated, this verse implies that God speaks from the Ark.), 12 (Scripture does not record that the Ark went into battle that day, as at Jericho, and here states that God will not be with them, because of sin.)
[20] Joshua 7:14-26
[21] The record repeats the verb, take, many times, all of them anticipating, if not specifically stating, that the Lord is the sentence subject, “the Lord takes.”
[22] Exodus 25:7; 28:4, 6-28, 30 (When the Urim and Thummim are mentioned, the breastplate is specifically called the breastplate of judgement).  We cannot now speak of the Urim and Thummim with certainty.  A reasonable model of the ephod and breastplate might be reconstructed from the detailed description.  But we possess no such detailed description of the Urim and Thummim construction.  So all pictorial and modeled representations are without authenticity and fraudulent.  Nor do we know exactly how they are used; only a few obscure references allow us even to guess at their operation.  What is clear is that God used them to show His will to His people, and to direct them in the correct decision path.  In much the same way that the Shekinah and Ark directed their movement, so also the Urim and Thummim directed their judgement.  So we conclude that Shekinah, Ark, Urim, and Thummim must be interactive and interconnected, but we cannot know exactly how.
[23] Deuteronomy 33:2: Urim means lights.  Thummim means completion, perfection.  The connection to “it is finished” is unmistakable.
[24] Joshua 8:33
[25] Joshua 9:14
[26] Judges 2:27
[27] 1 Samuel 3:3; 4:3-6, 11, 13, 17-19
[28] 1 Samuel 4: 19-22: She is in the pangs of childbirth, in travail, she screams, she gasps out the words with her dying breaths.  Ichabod is Hebrew and translates, “The glory is departed.”
[29] Its shape and construction closely resembles an Egyptian regal sedan chair.  Its clear intent is to proclaim God with a visible symbol.  Within the Greek notion of symbol, the thing symbolized is actually present.  This is early iconography; it is sacramental.
[30] Joshua 1:7; 22:5; 23:6 (Note that the Pentateuch or Torah is already Canonical by 1406 BC, at the time of Moses’ mysterious death and disappearance.)
[31] 1 Samuel 5:1-4, 7-8, 10-11; 6:1-3, 8, 11
[32] 1 Samuel 6:13, 15, 18-19, 20 (The men of Beth-shemesh understood that looking into the Ark was equivalent to looking at God), 21; 7:1-2; 14:18; 2 Samuel 6:2-4, 6-7, 9-13, 15-17; 7:2; 11:11; 15:24-25 (Here we see that the Ark and therefore the Shekinah are closely associated with the King.  But David is aware that he has become unworthy because of his sin and sends the Ark back to Jerusalem until he is certain of his forgiveness.), 29
[33] 1 Kings 2:26; 3:15; 6:19; 8:1, 3-7, 9, 21
[34] 1 Kings 8:10-11
[35] Although it evidently made excursions (2 Chronicles 35:3)
[36] Jeremiah 3:16 (It appears that the Ark is gone, never to return); Ezekiel 10:1 through 11:25 (These verses detail the horrifying even of the departure of God’s presence from Israel forever: especially 10:4, 18; 11:22-23.):  According to 1 Ezra 1:51 the Ark was carried to Babylon.  The departure of the Shekinah from the Ark makes the destruction of the Ark possible.  This seems to be supported by Jeremiah 3:16, and by Daniel, for Daniel agrees that the golden Temple goblets are in Babylon.  All mention of the return of the Ark is conspicuously absent until John makes a point of it in Revelation 11:19.  Not only are the Ark, Urim and Thummim absent, but there is no mention of fire or smoke or any other evidence of the return of the Shekinah.  See Ezra 6:15.  Do not despair, Christ is our Shekinah,
[37] Exodus 33:11 our translation
[38] Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23
[39] Exodus 8:1 through 11:10; 12:29-33; 14:21-28 for a few examples
[40] Exodus 24:12; 31:18; 32:15-16; 34:1, 4, 28-29; Deuteronomy 4:13; 5:22;9:9-11, 15, 17; 10:1-5; Daniel 5:5, 22-28, 30-31; John 8:6
[41] For 860 years an entire nation clung to the fact that God is a Person or Persons and whose Presence was actually dwelling in their midst (Jeremiah 14:9).
[42] Matthew 2:2, 7-10; Luke 2:14 — We note that this is not a limited local event, but one that extended as far as Persia.  We should not miss the point of comparison between the Fire that led a nation, and the Star that led Persian astronomers.
[43] Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2; Luke 9:28; 2 Peter 1:17-19
[44] Acts 2
[45] Acts 10:46; 19:6
[46] What else could an expression like, “He is the effulgence of the [Father's] Glory (Hebrews 1:3),” possibly mean.  See John 1:4-5, 9, 14; 1 John 1:5, 7; 2:8-11
[47] Matthew 24:27 our translation
[48] Mark 13:26 our translation
[49] Luke 21:27 our translation

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