Saturday, August 15, 2009
To The Atheists
I asked and atheist recently if they were angry at God or just didn't believe in God. They responded that they are not angry, that they just don't believe. They think that my faith is useless.
Here is the thing tho: both the atheist and I have a faith. Mine is in that God is; theirs is in that there is no God. But, like I told the atheist: one of us is wrong. If I am wrong, I am no worse off at death than the atheist, but if he is wrong, he has lost eternity.
Now, understand that I can't conceive of the "No God" idea. I have had too much personal interaction with the Holy Spirit in my life to NOT believe. But if I had nothing other than simple faith, that would be enough for me.
If there is no God, and if I believed that, there would be nothing stopping me from doing anything to get anything. Even most people who don't believe in God recognize what God has put in us as the understanding of "Right and Wrong." Most people who don't believe in God don't want harm to come to those they love. They understand it's wrong to kill. They understand feeling remorse and sadness and joy and relief. They look at their newborn children and cannot explain or express the wonder of that miracle.
So, if you are going to tell me that there is no God and ask me to prove that there is, I would ask that you prove to yourself that there isn't.
I direct you to God's words TO you atheists: The fool has said in his heart that there is no God (Psalm 14:1)
By the way, after I wrote this post, I found a page that does address the positions of atheists. It is here. I encourage my Christan, non-Christian and atheist readers to check it out.
Finally, I would just say that if you are going to base your life and bet your eternity on a belief, then it's worth making sure that your belief is solid. This goes for those who don't believe in God, those who believe in false gods, and even more importantly, for those of us who believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Former atheist C.S. Lewis (who, like most serious atheists, was extremely intelligent) has always been someone I think of as a man who wanted to at least examine and understand his belief before he staked his life on it. If he was wrong, then at least he was not carelessly wrong.
Peace
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4 comments:
"one of us is wrong. If I am wrong, I am no worse off at death than the atheist, but if he is wrong, he has lost eternity."
This is Pascal's Wager, and it's a bad bet.
For example, we could both be wrong, and the atheist could easily be better off.
Take Judaism. Most Jewish scholars say that the seven laws given to Noah are binding on all people, not just Jews. Atheists can fulfill all seven of the laws, but Christians are violating the first law (which is against idolatry) by worshipping Jesus as a god. If the Jews are right, worshipping Jesus is idolatry.
The wager is faulty. If the atheist is wrong OR right, he has lost eternity. At least if I am wrong, the joy in the soul (that I could not possess without a Creator) that I enjoy while alive is more than the atheist has.
The Jews, like a lot of other ppl, don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. If they believed Jesus is the Messiah (the one they have waited for), they would worship him as God too. Idolatry is worship of FALSE gods.
"If the atheist is wrong OR right, he has lost eternity."
Nonsense.
If the atheist is right, THERE WAS NO ETERNITY TO "LOSE".
"The Jews, like a lot of other ppl, don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. If they believed Jesus is the Messiah (the one they have waited for), they would worship him as God too. Idolatry is worship of FALSE gods."
But now you're ignoring the possibility that YOU are wrong.
Like I said, suppose BOTH of us are wrong, and the Jews are RIGHT.
In THAT case, YOU are practicing idolatry. I am not. I am better off than you, because I'm an atheist.
But you aren't even addressing this as a possibility. If Christianity is false, worshipping Jesus is worshipping a FALSE god.
Jesus addressed the Jews first during His ministry on earth, and many believed as recorded in the Bible. Jesus left no doubt that He is the Messiah but some of the Jews in their unbelief rejected that. If we are still under the Law, all of us would fall short, we will all still be in our sins, though we won't know how GOD will judge those who reject Him totally as opposed to Christians who believe in the GOD of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. But this isn't important. Jesus came to give us a new covenant in His blood - Salvation through what He has done on the cross, not our own righteousness in fulfilling the Law. When we put our faith in Jesus, & receive the redemption He's given us, we naturally fulfill the Law through Him, as He graciously sums it up into this - Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourselves.
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