You should be an Atheist

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." 
Isaiah 55:8

What would you say if I told you that Abraham Lincoln was a beardless, Black man? If I said that Joan of Arc was an 80-year-old Protestant woman killed during the Crusades would you believe me? If I said that George Washington was the King of England would you take my word for it? If you knew anything about history you would easily be able to rebuke me as ill-informed at best or an outright liar at worst. It is a lot like this when it comes to the existence of God and the debate between Christians and atheists. When it comes to the problem of evil, atheists will say things like, "Because evil exists, God cannot be all-powerful, all-knowing and loving and good at the same time." On the subject of pain the argument made is "Because God allows pain, disease, and natural disasters to exist, he cannot be all-powerful and also loving and good in the human sense of these words." Regarding the existence of different religions the argument is "Since the Gods of various religions differ widely in their characteristics, only one of these religions, or none can be right about God." There are those that will say "Since God is invisible, and the universe is no different than if he did not exist, it is simpler to assume he does not exist." Christians will look at these statements and then try to formulate answers to refute them. There is nothing wrong with doing that, however, one thing to remember is to never automatically accept the premise of an argument. When you do, you instantly give credibility to it. While these objections to the existence of God are a bit more complicated to refute than my examples above about Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, and George Washington, you get my point. Christian apologist, Frank Turek, said, "Many atheists don't specifically have arguments for a universe without God. What they have are complaints about the way God is running the universe." Think about this for a moment, how easy would it to be to allow the atheist to have their beliefs? I am not saying to concede that what they are saying is true, but to let them know that what they believe about God is not necessarily what you believe or are proclaiming about Him.

The prophet Isaiah confessed that the way he, or mankind, thinks is not the way God thinks. Atheists often think in ways that are not validated by what God states in His word. Where is it written that God cannot be all-powerful, all-knowing, loving, and good at the same time because evil exists? You cannot know what evil is apart from their being good to measure it against. In fact, Psalm 34:14 says, "Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Similar to the existence of evil, "Have Christians struggled to explain their belief in God because of the existence of pain in the world?" Pain is the consequence of the Fall and sin entering the world. God told Eve “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor, you will give birth to children (Genesis 3:16)." God is very aware of pain and suffering in this world and told us to expect it. When it comes to the varying beliefs about God held by different religions, the Bible tells us "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints (1 Corinthians 14:33)." God is aware of all the different "characteristics" about Him held by each Christian denomination and religion of the world. Otherwise, the Bible would not have taken the time to affirm that God is not the author of confusion. Regarding Jesus Christ, Colossians 1:15 states quite clearly that, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." God has clearly revealed Himself to all the world to see when He stepped out of Heaven and into His creation as Jesus Christ. For an atheist to say He is invisible is to admit that they have never seen Him. All the complaints about God that atheists use to deny His existence are not rebuttals of the truth about Him but are things they make up in their own mind based on their own experience or what others have said about their unbelief in God. Therefore, they should be atheists because the God they say doesn't exist does not exist. That is a problem they must solve not a Christian. We don't believe in that God either. Remember one thing, if you are in a relationship with somebody others say does not exist is it true they don't exist? Of course not. An atheist would need to have complete and total knowledge to say something does not exist. And if they had total knowledge they would be God and we know that is not the case. Oddly enough, they would be denying themselves.

Judging God

"...rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross (Philippians 2:7-8)."

"How could a loving God send someone to Hell?" Have you ever heard someone say this to justify why they don't believe in God? Ultimately, what they are saying is that, "I am so wonderful that, if God exists, He couldn't possibly send me to Hell." Like many of us, we often see ourselves in the best light. We believe ourselves to be "basically good" and not so bad as to warrant being put in a place of eternal torment. Yet, how quick are we to act in the place of God and condemn others to Hell? God's standard is whether or not an individual has come alive to Him through faith in Jesus Christ. The standard that an individual often uses is if they like a person or have personally benefited from someone being in their lives. Generally speaking, nobody would send a family member or loved one to Hell. Nor would they even think to consider condemning their favorite athlete, entertainer or politician to eternal darkness. But, what about those people we don't like? How about that politician we believe to be the personification of evil? Who could forgive that athlete or Hollywood superstar who did that "terrible thing" despite all the riches they have? Don't forget those ex-husbands, ex-wives, ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends and all of their present significant others who replaced us. They hurt us despite our "perfect" behavior towards them. They deserve the worst, right? We want mercy for ourselves and judgment for our enemies. Therefore, if we can feel justified in condemning others who have hurt us or disappointed us, why doesn't God have that same right, since He not only created us, but gave us everything in this world to enjoy and be a part of?

Have you ever heard the story of the Hindu and the Anthill? To make a long story short, it goes something like this: A devout man who belonged to a Hindu sect believed that all life was sacred. He would not kill an ant, a cow, or even a cobra, because to him, due to his belief in reincarnation, he might be killing some past relative. He came to America and was confronted with the claims of Jesus Christ. One day, while contemplating these claims about Jesus, he stumbled across an anthill. While admiring the ants he noticed a tractor was headed right for the anthill. He wanted to warn the ants, but didn't know how. He thought to himself, "How can I warn them?  If I could write in the sand, they wouldn't be able to read it.  If I shouted to them, they wouldn't understand me.  The only possible way I could communicate with them would be by becoming an ant, if I had that ability." Then suddenly he had a revelation from the Spirit of God.  He saw why God, the Creator of the universe, chose to become one of us by becoming a man, in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Through his experience with the ant hill, the light suddenly came on in the heart of that Hindu man, In this story, we are the ants. We are the ones scurrying around, living our lives; oblivious to the eternal judgment headed our way. But, while we sit in judgment of God, we fail to realize that we have already been judged. But, as the hindu realized, we have a way of escape in Jesus Christ. God gave us this world as a testimony of Himself, but we end up worshiping it instead of Him. He spoke to us, but like the Jews of old, we refuse to listen. The only thing left for Him to do was to become one of us and we killed Him! Yet, we dare ask, "How could a loving God send someone to Hell?" The question that should be asked is, "How could a loving God not send you to Hell?" If you reject Him and His only offer of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, where else is He going to put you?

All Hands on Deck

The founder of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham, stated, "An atheist once said to me, “Why doesn’t your God come and physically show Himself to us?" I replied, ”He did and they nailed Him on a cross.“" Such a simple, but truthful and profound, reply to a question many would shrink back from. For many Christians we cringe at the idea of being challenged about our faith or worry about what to say when questioned. There are many lessons which can be learned from this simple encounter shared by Ken Ham. The first lesson, and probably the most important, is the necessity for Christians to be familiar with the Word of God; the Bible. The Bible tells us to, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15)." When you know the truth of the Bible then it becomes second nature to respond to questions like the atheist posed. Knowledge dispels fear and wisdom is the application of knowledge. The second lesson to be learned is that when you are equipped with the truth you are always ready to respond. 2 Timothy 4:2 reads, "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction." I am not sure the circumstances Ken Ham was in when the atheist questioned him (probably after giving a lecture), but regardless of his environment, he was prepared to speak to the lost.

A third lesson is that Christians cannot rely solely on pastors, authors, seminarians, lecturers, etc. to be the main ones who "preach the word." The Bible says, "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care (1 Corinthians 3:10)." While one of these "leaders" may lay a foundation, "someone else," namely other Christians like you and me, may be the ones who build on it. Therefore, we must all know how to handle the word of truth. We must all be prepared to preach the word. We must all be ready to lay, or build upon, a foundation. A fourth, and final, lesson to be learned is what Jesus described in Luke 10:2, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." In other words, Jesus is in essence saying, "All hands on deck!" It takes many laborers in order to fulfill the Great Commission. Every born again Christian on earth is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, there are millions of laborers available to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians it says, "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers... (Ephesians 4:11)" It says God gave "some" to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. That means God gave "many" for them to "equip for the work of the ministry." The work is "that you believe in Him whom He sent (John 6:29)." Time to get to work!