Jeremiah 2:13

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Introduction

Water is essential to life. Without water, life cannot survive. Water is provided by God such that our physical aspect of life may live. Unlike animals, humans were created in the image of God and human life is more than a short physical life span but is meant to reflect the glory of the creator and to live forever. Therefore, Living Water is even more important than water because Living Water sustains all aspects of life, its qualities, meanings and eternal durability. Many people only care about the physical aspect of life and miss out what life truly should be. In Part 1, we study that Jesus is the Source of Living Water and He is graciously offering Living Water to all who ask Him. Life nourished with the Living Water will grow into abundant life.

Unfortunately, not everyone will come to the source of Living Water despite the truth has been revealed to them. Even many of the Israelites who are the elects and experienced the power and revelation of God first hand as a nation, refuse to come to the source of Living Water to have life. In the Old Testament times, many left God and turned to idol worship (Jeremiah 2:13). Eventually, the nation of Israel was conquered and the people of Israel dispersed into different parts of the world. Not until May 14, 1948, Israel was approved by the majority vote of the United Nations to re-establish as an independent nation. We should also know that the lessons written in the Bible about the experience of Israel do not apply to the Israelites only but for the Gentiles also. For God created all people of all nations. The examples and warnings written about Israel are lessons apply to all nations (1 Corinthians 10:11).

1 Corinthians 10:11

¹¹ These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

Man-Made Substitutes for God

The invention of the golden calf as the god of Israel is a good illustration of people forsaking God who is the source of living water and digging their own cisterns that cannot hold water. It happened during the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive detailed instructions on ceremonies and commandments from God directly while the Israelites were waiting below the mountain. When Moses did not return after a long time (Exodus 24:18), some of them pressured Aaron to create gods for them to take the place of God. Is it not the same situation of all man on earth? Unlike animals, humans were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and had a close relationship with God like father and children. But, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and listened to the temptation of Satan, sin entered the world and the relationship with God became broken. After Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from the presence of God. Their fearful and shameful response to God’s presence reflects their downfall from the original normal relationship with God (Genesis 3:8-10). The reason is that God is Holy and nothing sinful may approach Him. Holiness and sin are like light and darkness and they cannot mix (1 John 1:5). Since sinful persons cannot have a normal relationship with God, we should not be bewildered when many people think that God is elusive and some even think that God does not exist.

Exodus 24:18

¹⁸ Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 1:27

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 3:8-10

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?" ¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

1 John 1:5

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

Humans were created by God to worship, glorify and serve Him and He sustains our lives, gives meanings, guidance, joy and all the blessings of lives (Psalm 36:9, Psalm 56:13, Psalm 27:1, Psalm 23:1, Psalm 23:6). God is like the Father and the King and His children are like princes and princess. With a broken relationship with God, humans will attempt to fill the void in their lives. By natural instinct, humans invent and pursue things to fill the void: idols, religions, philosophies, materialistic lifestyle, money, power, fame, and pleasures. With all these things in place, humans think that the void can be filled. The fact is that these things cannot replace God in our lives. A simple question will reveal their invalidity to fill the void of life. We should ask if these things by nature Godly? The reason to ask such a question is based on the fact that a missing part of a system should be replaced by an identical part or at least a part similar by design and function. It is like replacing a part in a broken vehicle with an identical part made by the car manufacturer or at least a compatible generic part made by a third party supplier otherwise the car will not work properly. Since there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 4:35), nothing can take the place of God except by God Himself who created our lives. In fact, the things we pursue as substitutes for God very often are incompatible with the nature of God but simply things appealing to our sinful nature. The behaviour to feed the flesh, lust and pride is actually the love of the world (1 John 2:15-16). The idols and gods people create for worship are dead, powerless objects and religions to fill the spiritual void (Jeremiah 16:19-20). The next two questions you may ask is how do you know the Bible is true and the claims of other teachings and religions are false? Actually, we need only to answer the first question that is how we know that the Bible is true because of the Bible and all the other non-Biblical ideas are mutually exclusive. If the Bible is true then all non-Biblical ideas are false. If a single non-Biblical idea, including the belief of atheism, is true then the Bible is false. But, it is helpful to examine first some broken cisterns people created to substitute the source of Living Water.

Psalm 36:9

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

Psalm 56:13

For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Psalm 27:1

Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 23:1

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

Psalm 23:6

⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Deuteronomy 4:35

You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.

1 John 2:15-16

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

Jeremiah 16:19-20

¹⁹ LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. ²⁰ Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!"

Commitment Without Due Diligence

Due diligence is a common business term referring to the careful investigation and analysis of a company or investment being acquired before commitment of the transaction. It is wise and is the responsibility of the investor to exercise due diligence to make sure the acquisition is a profitable deal. The recent huge financial crisis was caused mainly by mortgage-backed securities (MBS) created out of many subprime mortgages. These MBS were created by established financial companies trusted as secure investments even in the opinion of many professional money managers. However, they all failed to do a thorough due diligence on these securities in regard to their origin: subprime mortgages. Subprime mortgages are loans made to lenders to purchase houses by banks without a careful consideration and verification of the capability of the borrowers to repay the interests and principals. The facade of these securities was lifted when many people failed to repay the loans coupled with a widespread drop in house prices. Institutions and Investors who built their portfolios directly or indirectly based on their trust of these MBS suffered huge losses. The same concept of due diligence can be aptly applied in many situations involving the commitment of time, energy and resources. However, it is quite surprising to find that many people committing to a belief system that affect their present life and eternal destination without due diligence. Here are a few examples.

a) Commitment by Following Cultural Practice

This is the most common category of commitment for people tend to establish belief on popularity. Therefore, we can see a pattern that the same religions tend to be accepted by people of the same nationality. For examples, Hinduism is popular in India and Buddhism and its derivative religions are popular in Thailand, Japan and ancient China, Islam in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The mere fact a belief is popular does not necessarily mean that it is true and the origin and core doctrines need to be examined to ascertain their reliability. The examination can be quite simple to carry out if one really has the motivation to find out the truth. A story about Dr. Sun Yat-sen who led the revolution to overthrow the Qing dynasty in China is a good example. When Sun Yat-sen was a youth, idol worship was a common practice. To convince his fellow villagers what they were worshipping was invalid, man-made figure, Sun Yat-sen broke the hand of an idol in a temple in front of idol worshippers saying that the idol could not protect even itself. Unfortunately, most Chinese at that time insisted on their cultural practice to worship idols as their gods and would not accept fact demonstrated in front of their eyes.

Even today with the advance of science and mathematics, millions of people still believe in the aged old teaching of reincarnation which is the core belief of Hinduism and Buddhism which teach that soul will pass from body to another body: human, animal and even plant according to the counting of karma the previous lives have accumulated. Karma is a concept taught by Hinduism and Buddhism which suggests a cause and effect relationship of conducts and quality of reincarnation. Good or positive conducts in past lives will lead to better life in future incarnation and vice versa. Therefore, if one’s accumulated karma is good, one will incarnate and live a more superior life such as a rich person of nobility. Conversely, one with bad karma will incarnate into a person living a harsh life stricken with poverty. To be worse, one may incarnate into an animal. But population growth rate of humans or animals can be accurately predicted by birth rate and death rate. The birth rate and death rate are affected by social, environmental and advance in health sciences. For example, advance of public health in developing countries decreases number of diseases such as Malaria which is a common killer disease results in increase of population. In general, we do not see a relationship of advance in morality or good deeds and the increase in human population and standard of living in the world. From 1950 to 1990, the world population doubled from 2.5 billions to 5 billions and the standard of living increased in many parts of the world. Do we see any increase in good deeds or morality during this period? The answer is no. How about time before the 1950? The answer is even a stronger negative for it was the time of world wars, a time of aggression and destruction. A more reasonable explanation is the advance in science and technology such that people live longer, infant mortality rate decreases, economic productivity increases and the standard of living has been increasing ever since. In fact, there is now a concern that the world will become over-populated. Therefore karma cannot be credited as the driving force of the increase in human population and the increase in standard of living. But rather the increase of human souls along with the increasing standard of living are due to factors such as advance in science, technology, medicine, and economic productivity. Indeed, the Bible has a better explanation which reveals that God is merciful and is slow to anger and gives grace to both the good and evil people so that they may live and civilizations may continue and grow (Psalm 145:8, Matthew 5:45). God gives opportunity for all to repent and turn to Him to receive even more amazing blessings that we have not seen and heard of. Of course, one day this gracious opportunity will end when God will finally exercise judgment to the unrepentant according to His schedule (Romans 2:4).

Psalm 145:8

⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

Matthew 5:45

⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Romans 2:4

⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

If you are not convinced, you may conduct an experiment with mice. You may apply various measures to control birth rate of mice in your laboratory and observe the population growth rate to see if it is indeed following an exponential growth curve. It is you, the experimenter or investigator who controls the laboratory conditions to determine the mouse population in your laboratory not the factor of karma. Of course, if someone insist on believing the teaching of incarnation, one will find ways to explain and convince oneself. But, one should do it objectively with convincing supporting evidence. For it is about life and eternity. With these, may I point to you some articles on exercising critical thinking on what many have taken for granted about Buddhism: Reasons for stopped following Buddha by an ex-Buddhist and, An imaginary interview with Siddhartha Gautama proposed by an ex-Buddhist.

By the way, may I share with you an experience of mine in sharing the gospel with a Hindu friend named Prasad. For a period of several months, Prasad even went with me to church for Sunday worships. But, I realized then that he went to Christian worships with a Hindu mentality thinking that Jesus Christ was one of the gods in Hinduism. When Prasad was invited to deeper Bible studies first with me and then with another brother in Christ, he left finally perhaps due to his understanding that the teachings of Hinduism were fundamentally different from the faith taught in the Bible. The Bible clearly reveals that there is only one death and judgment will come afterwards (Hebrews 9:27). The cause of sufferings and deaths is sin. The only possible solution is based on the love of God who sent His Only Son to die for sinners such that sinners may accept the grace of God by faith (Ephesians 2:8) not the Karma earned by doing something good. The standard of holiness of God is much higher than the standard of sinners such that our most righteous acts are like filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6). Sinners have no ability to pull themselves from the sinful state and pay for the penalty of sin themselves and be acceptable to God. It is the love of God that He paid the penalty for all sinners as a gift through His only Son Jesus such that we may live not an old sin stricken life but a new abundant life with a glorious eternal future.

Hebrews 9:27

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

Ephesians 2:8

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

Isaiah 64:6

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

b) Commitment by Accepting Novel But Unsubstantiated Teachings - Illustration by Heaven's Gate Religious Group

If someone knocks your door saying that he is a representative of your natural gas utility company and he wants to come into your house for service, do you open the door and let him in without question? No, it is not a good idea even though he wears the natural gas company uniform. We should do some due diligence before letting the stranger in such as asking for his employee number and call the utility company and confirm if there is an employee with such an identity assigned to a service call in our house for service. This is especially necessary for an unscheduled visit. Unfortunately, many false prophets came out in history claiming that they receive special revelations and were asked by gods to deliver the message to the world. Many people accept those messages without due diligence and commit their whole life on it. These so called prophets were very likely being deceived themselves by Satan who could even perform magical feats to deceive. However, the power of Satan was limited in compare to the power of the living God. The confrontation of Moses to Pharaoh is a good example. When Pharaoh asked Moses and Aaron to perform a miracle to prove that they were the representatives of God to ask for the release of the Jews from Egypt, Aaron threw his staff on the ground and it became a snake. Pharaoh asked his wise men, sorcerers and magicians did the same thing and they could also turn their staffs into snakes. But, the snake that came from the staff of Aaron swallowed up the snakes that came from the Egyptian staffs (Exodus 7:11-12). Yet Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not acknowledge the God of Moses and let the Jews go in light of the evidence. By the way, it seems paradoxical that God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart while sending Moses to Pharaoh asking for the release of the Jews. Actually, God did this as a judgment to Egypt in general and Pharaoh in particular for their sins while demonstrating His power of salvation of the Jews (Exodus 7:3-5). This is consistent with the truth that when people rebel and ignore the true and living God, judgment will come at the extent and time God deems right in His sovereignty. Hardening the heart of sinners such that they would not acknowledge God and repent is a precursor of execution of judgment (Romans 1:22-24). On the other hand, the repentance of sinners is the gracious provision of God (2 Timothy 2:25).

Exodus 7:11-12

¹¹ Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: ¹² Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

Exodus 7:3-5

³ But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, ⁴ he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. ⁵ And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."

Romans 1:22-24

²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

2 Timothy:2:25

²⁵ Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,

Their belief system motivated them to commit mass suicide because they believed that it was the way to get into a UFO which was trailing the comet Hale-Bopp that bought their souls to some sort of higher level. They were committed to execute the suicide because they believed the earth was about to be recycled and it was the only chance to escape. Like many religions in the world, the Heaven's Gate started by individuals with an imaginative idea, opinion or personal revelation. These religions grow when followers without careful thinking and investigation of the origin of the religions become interested and join the religions. As time goes by, the sheer size and length of existence of a religion appears as a support of its authenticity such that more believers join without questioning the origin. The group was started by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1928–1985) who thought that they were the two witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 11:1-3). They started to preach their belief system in early 1970 which combined Biblical teachings and New Age beliefs. We do not need to spend too much time in studying all their peculiar teachings. But, it is beneficial to see an example of deception taught by this group especially when they quote the Bible as a support of their teaching. One doctrine they taught was that their members should not marry using a verse in the Luke gospel as a support (Luke 20:35). If you read Luke 20:35 out of context, it seems to say that those who are worthy of resurrection will not marry. But, if the reader simply finish the sentence by reading the next verse (Luke 20:36), the meaning becomes clear for it says that they (those who will not marry) can no longer die and they are like angels. Surely, the two verses, the pronouns "those" and "they" refer to the resurrected people who will not marry and who can no longer die in the age to come. How can we be sure? Because people who do not marry in the present age will die just like those who marry. Moreover, marriage is ordained by God when He created mankind. It is absurd to say that marriage is a stumbling block to participate in resurrection. In fact, Jesus teaches that we should revere marriage for God put a man and a woman together in such an unique relationship (Matthew 19:4-6). We will study a little more deeply this false doctrine later. The point is that falsehood of religions can be disclosed by carefully examining their teachings and their origins.

Revelation 11:1-3

¹ I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. ² But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for ⁴² months. ³ And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,²⁶⁰ days, clothed in sackcloth."

Luke 20:35

³⁵ But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage,

Luke 20:36

³⁶ and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.

Matthew 19:4-6

4 “Haven’t you read," he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

To understand the meanings and teachings of the whole story related to the Heaven’s Gate doctrine of non-marriage as a condition to resurrection, let us study the whole passage (Luke 20:27-38) such that we may practice to properly discern messages we may receive based on the Bible. The story is about a group of Sadducees who think that there is no resurrection and they attempt to ridicule Jesus by asking a hypothectical question based on the law of Levirate Marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5) which arranged to have the surviving brother to marry the widow in order to provide an heir to the diseased brother. The question asks if each of the seven brothers married the same woman but died childless in turn one by one, then in resurrection, whose the wife will be among the seven brothers? The Sadducees asked such a question with a motive to prove that resurrection is not possible because God's law of marriage of one man and one woman would be violated in this hypothectical, confusing but possible situation. Jesus then revealed that there was no marriages in resurrection (Luke 20:35). But, Heaven's Gate took this verse out of context and applied to their religious group members that they should not marry at their present life in order to participate in resurrection. Jesus is teaching that the people of this age participate in marriages and let us call it group A people. Some of the group A people will be found by God worthy of taking part in resurrection, and let us call it group R people. Group R people who will not participate in marriages. How do we know for sure that group R people are already resurrected people? We can tell for sure based on their attributes given in verse 36: they cannot die like angels and they are called the children of the resurrection. In addition, Jesus knows that the Sadducees believe in the Torah (the five books of the Jewish Scriptures), therefore He points out that even Moses calls the Lord ‘God of Abraham, and the God of Issac and the God of Jacob.’ which implies that Abraham, Issac and Jacob are still living even though they have died at the present age. Because God is not a God of the dead but God of the living. Therefore, their disbelief in resurrection contradicts to their own reference of doctrinal authority. By the way, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the group R people in our discussion and they have all married before. When we study the Bible, we can find out how we may obtain resurrection. The Bible clearly states that resurrection is not obtained by doing works or observing religious rules or rituals. Resurrection is a gift of God out of His great mercy and grace. We may obtain this gift through our faith in Jesus Christ His Son who has paid the penalty of sins for all (John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4-8).

John 3:16

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:4-8

⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

As a side note, Satan does know the Bible but he would apply God's words to confuse and deceive people. In fact, the very first temptation to mankind by Satan was the modification of the words of God and giving false promises as incentives to disobey God. First, Satan told Eve that eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil would not die as a direct contradiction to what God said (Genesis 3:4). Then Satan told Eve a false incentive to disobeying God that she would be like God with discernment of good and evil. Satan imputed a thought to Eve that God withheld something good to them, namely the capability to know good and evil, so that she cast doubt on God and she and her husband ignored the command of God. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin entered the world, livelihood became hard for even the ground was cursed. Sufferings and death became constant companions in the world. The first murder recorded in the book of Genesis was an older brother killing a younger brother out of jealousy who were children of Adam and Eve. All these negative outcomes could not happen when Adam and Eve resisted the devil and obeyed God. Satan also tempted Jesus using the words of God, and of course, out of context with distorted meaning. For Satan asked Jesus to jump off the highest point of the temple based on the promise in Psalm 91 that the angels would protect Jesus from hitting the stone. Again we can see the craftiness of Satan who deceived by modifying the meaning of Psalm 91 which teaches trusting in God and His promises of protection into doubt and testing of God. Being well-versed in the words of God, Jesus answered with a correct application of the Bible to uncover the deception of Satan that we should not test God (Matthew 4:5-7, Deuteronomy 6:16).

Deuteronomy 25:5

⁵ If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

Luke 20:27-38

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 “Teacher," they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰ The second ³¹ and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³² Finally, the woman died too. ³³ Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?" ³⁴ Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶ and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷ But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

Genesis 3:4

4 “You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman.

Genesis 3:5

5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Matthew 4:5-7

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God," he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’" ⁷ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’"

Deuteronomy 6:16

¹⁶ Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah.

c) Atheism - Commitment to Embrace Nature Rather than the Creator of Nature

Atheists tend to think that the universe is just the way it is such that given an infinitely long time, everything is possible. To explain the origin of life, evolutionists believe in the hypothesis that there was an existence of prebiotic or primordial soup rich in organic molecules which by chance, gave rise to the building blocks of life. Also by chance, a spectrum of living things from simple to advanced were formed. But, scientific evidence indicates that primordial soup either could not be formed or the recent earth conditions were too adverse for primordial soup to survive if it ever existed (see the article by Jeff Zweerink ). Moreover, there is no fossil record of primordial soup ( see the article by Fazale Rana). Without primordial soup, there is no ingredient to give rise to life by any chance. Rather, life must have been originated from a well designed and executed event as revealed in the Bible (Genesis 1:1, John 1:3).

Genesis 1:1

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:3

³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

There were scientists such as Robert Dicke, a Princeton physicist, proposing that the universe is an oscillating universe constantly expanding and contracting like a yo-yo without beginning and end. The theory became popular in the 1960’s. The implication of such theory is to do away the need to explain a well designed universe of matter, energy, physical laws, constants and biological lives. With infinite number of cycles of expansion and contraction, one of the cycles must bound to give rise to an ingenious outcome by chance as if it was a masterpiece produced by a great artist. Ironically, the model of oscillating universe closely resembles the age-old belief of orthodox Hinduism, Buddhism and New Age Mysticism which believe in infinite cycles of reincarnation of the universe. Newer scientific findings show that the entropy of the universe is very high making it a very inefficient machine such that large amount of energy is lost instead of producing mechanical work such as bouncing. To help to understand the situation, you may imagine that the universe is like a ball being dropped on a carpeted floor. It will not bounce back too well for the energy of the ball is lost as heat with little energy for bouncing. In fact, the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) project of NASA shows that data collected supports the theory that the universe was born of a singularity event which the scientific community calls the big bang. The big bang event fits the revelation of the Bible that God always exists and all things in the universe: matter, energy, space, time and the laws of physics were created by God (John 1:1-3, Hebrews 11:3). In other words, God is the first cause and He Himself is not subject to the confinement of matter, energy, time and laws of nature but He Himself defined and created those things, How fitting it is when God says He is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8). Therefore, the age of the universe is finite and not infinite as suggested by atheists or Hinduism and its derivative religions. The age of the universe is estimated to be only 12 to 14 billion year old (Please see the NASA’s Universe 101 page.).

John 1:1-3

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Hebrews 11:3

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

With such strong evidence of creation, however, not everyone will automatically become convinced and become a worshipper of God. Rather, more conjectures are proposed to answer the quest for the origin. Now the theory of oscillating universe is no longer popular, newer thinkings are proposed to do away the existence of God. For example, Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins recently wrote a book entitled Universe from Nothing proposing that the universe came from nothing rather than the creator God. If you examine a little closer, what the book means regarding the notion of “nothing" is not really nothing as we understand it in our language. In the language as we understand it, “nothing" means total emptiness and it is a paradox to say that “nothing" will become or give rise to something. “Nothing", according to the authors, actually means the existence of “stochastic and random" laws of nature though invisible. In other words, their conception of first cause is the set of stochastic and random laws of nature as a substitute to the creator. This conjecture that the universe came from “nothing" is not entirely new. Back in 1948, British scientists Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold and Fred Hoyle proposed the theory of steady-state universe which states that the universe will appear the same over time and to fill the void of the expanding universe, new matter is continuously created out of “nothing", The universe has no beginning nor end according to the steady state theory such that there is no need of a creator. Please refere to this article for a little more details.. With more observations especially the discovery of background radiation in space, the steady state theory is invalidated. These kinds of thinking and reasoning are the result of the assumption of existence of fundamental natural laws which serve as the origin of all things with the abhorrence of the otherwise proof of the existence of God. The Bible reveals that God is the creator of all things including the definition of the principles both moral and scientific we live and experience accordingly (John 1:1). But, according to the bible of the atheists, “In the beginning, there was nothing but random laws of nature." This remind me what the Bible teaches that although God reveals Himself plainly by His tangible creation of His invisible qualities: eternal power and divine nature, godlessness lead people into foolishness and darkness (Romans 1:19-21). For more comments on the book, please refer to the article by Hugh Ross answering the book entitled Universe from Nothing.

John 1:1

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Romans 1:19-21

¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.