R.C. Sproul

We would say that was a pursuit of the understanding, in part at least, of the existence of God, because we are convinced that God is ultimate reality.

So when I say, when I get back to my original question, what's the difference between human beings and a supreme being?

Notice those two phrases, human being, supreme being.

There's one word that both of them have in common.

They both have the word being, and the only thing that differs is the qualifying description before them.

One says human being, the other one says supreme being.

And so we would think if we're going to look for the basic essential difference between a creature and God is that we would look at the difference between human and supreme.

And that's a legitimate way to approach the question.

But here's the trick, here's the surprise.

The real difference between a human being and the supreme being is being.

Before you turn the radio off,

and say, I just got lost in a maze of philosophical abstraction.

I don't know what this man's talking about here.

Let me ask you to hang on in here for just a second and let's try to make sense out of this.

Let me say it again.

The chief difference between a human being and the supreme being is being.

Centuries, indeed millennia ago, before there was a Plato, before there was a Socrates, before there was an Aristotle, there was a philosopher who was one of the earliest philosophers that history has recorded, and his work has not survived down to the present day except in quotations and fragments that are alluded to by later writers.

And this man's name is

was Parmenides, and Parmenides is famous for one quote that I've read literally hundreds of times in the writings of scholars.

Parmenides, over 2,000 years ago, made this statement, and I want you to listen carefully to Parmenides.