“People are afraid of all the wrong things.”

Some time ago I was sitting opposite a man over the course of months fervently debating his atheism and my faith. Although neither of us were successful in swaying the other, we became friends and met up regularly. On one such occasion my atheist friend arrived distraught because of some particular suffering in his life. After he expounded I responded that I would absolutely pray for him. His response? “Please, if you could. I would appreciate that.” Where did his stoic atheism go, I wondered?

It was telling on so many levels. Most notably that when it came down to the pointy end, everyone wants reprieve from their suffering and they’ll take any medication they can get. The statistics of one particular nation show that 40% consider themselves religious. In that same nation’s hospitals the statistics doubles to 80%. This interaction also begged the question whether atheism was just a natural course of events, a label one wears or even some sort of ‘condition’ afflicting those who are comfortable luxuriating in life? If this is true then God allowing suffering is an act of mercy in keeping hearts towards Him, so that He might save souls for the long haul, in a world preoccupied with saving flesh in the short.

On a separate occasion there was once a couple who stayed with us for three days. It was an old friend of my wife’s who recently got married so the husband was new to us. On day three the man began confiding in me that he had a horrible relationship with his father. It was evident that the details of their relationship affected him deeply as it did me. So much so that I told him that I was going to petition God on his behalf to heal their relationship. His response? “And I won’t be praying for you.” It a wasn’t hostile response but more a friendly, almost lamentable matter-of-fact. 

What I’ve learned from this second interaction is that while Christianity will pull together all physical and spiritual resources at their disposal, sometimes even disadvantaging themselves in moving earth and heaven for the long-term betterment of another, atheism in this instance, had absolutely nothing reciprocal to give.

There was a third conversation I’ve had with another atheist friend of mine, who had some Buddhism mixed in there somewhere for his preoccupation for deifying nature and his regular visits to a Buddhist temple. It was well into the evening when we both had been subjected to each other’s thoughts on philosophy and religion when he suddenly uttered; “Stephen, I think it is very arrogant of you to claim to have a friendship with God.” 

To be honest it secretly shocked me that he could not conceive of a friendship with the Almighty. So I decided to ask him a series of questions. I asked him whether he loved his wife? Annoyed he reminded me that I knew that he did. So I then asked him which he would prefer, waking up next to her for another thirty years, or for the rest of his life? Silence. 

So I asked him again; “do you love your son?” Again he told me that I should know that he does as we’ve shared each other’s lives to an extent. So I asked him again what he would prefer; to see and enjoy his son for a finite period, or for the rest of his life? Again, silence. 

He simply stared at me in what appeared to be a suppression of a flood of thoughts. I looked down at his hands, which were shaking and I quickly changed the subject. 

I did not plan for this response. 

But it did give me a deeper appreciation for the hope of eternal life that we as Christians carry. We do not worship a malevolent God so it is guaranteed that eternal life will be blissful and rich in every good thing we hold dear in this life. Surely anyone would have to carry around a heart of stone to not at least desire this kind of life. 

But these three occasions with atheist friends, and there are many other instances, absolutely saddened me. More and more over the years I’ve come to realize that they were trapped in a mindset given to them by their particular environment and community. Proximity gave them first choice to who they listened to. 

Atheism is a defeatist mindset that steals from them, and lies to them on a daily basis. A way of thinking that robs them of eternal life, and lies to them that there is no God who gifts eternal life. Atheism not only robs them, but robs us who will enjoy eternal life without them.

I often think of their coming absence. Conceiving that it might be heart-wrenching for us should also reveal why God places Himself as the highest good and highest love. Only by doing so will we cope, and realize we will have new brothers and sisters in God’s family. He will make a way for us to forget and love others anew. 

But for now in this age, it is for this reason, for these my friends, that I am set against atheism. It is the real pandemic in our world. Men and women suffer enormous anxiety over a virus and yet give no consideration to their souls. 

“People are afraid of all the wrong things” is a line from the Liam Neeson film ‘A Walk among the Tombstones’, as poignant film titles go. The line is uttered by one of the two villains in the narrative. What should be feared of course is the living God. “Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt 28:10) Atheism brings a person so much closer to God’s judgment. It is a frightening thought to fall into the hands of God who is referred to as a “consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29)

Again, it is for this reason, for these my friends, that I am set against atheism. It’s far worse than any cancer or poison, destroying them bit by bit. 

What is atheism? 

Atheism is the belief that there is no God. It is a simple definition and yet the repercussions have given birth to the majority of the world’s atrocities. It is at this point an atheist might say that religious wars contributed to the world’s atrocities. Philip Axelrod’s “Encyclopedia of Wars” notes that less than 7% of the world’s wars were religiously motivated, and an even smaller percentage were Christian wars. No guesses as to which religion took the lion’s share. Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave a succinct reason why sixty million of his Russian countrymen had died. “We had no God.”

What is atheism? It is unbelief. The thief on the cross beside Jesus entered paradise without ever going to church, simply because he believed. For us with more time, have the luxury to act on that belief in getting to know the One on whom our adoration rests.

But that definition of atheism is wrong.

As I’ve sparred with my nemesis since birth I’ve come to realize that atheism is not the absence of God, but the replacement of God with the worship of the self. David Foster Wallace wrote that we all worship something. It is impossible to be human and not worship something or someone. As one man told me; “I gave up religion because it disappointed me at every turn. Now I believe in myself because I never disappoint myself.” He was young and his body had not yet fallen to decay.

Some might try and distance humanism from atheism, but whether agnostic, skeptic, apostate it is still a worldview built upon the same brittle foundation laid by unbelief. Life is a lot more binary in this regard than overlaying different worldviews and religions as exemptions. Here I quote the words of Jesus, the Son of God. “He who is not with me, is against me.” (Matthew 12:30) Those words dispel the myth that secularism offers some sort of middle ground that is safe, between religion and apostasy, that will still qualify for some sort of reward from the universe. In another part of the Bible it is clear that God wishes us to be either hot or cold towards Him, never lukewarm. (Revelation 3:16). But Jesus’s words is even more pointed than that. Believing in God makes every religion right. But believing in Jesus as God’s Son, makes every religion wrong.

But even replacing God with the worship of self is an incomplete definition.

As we navigate our way in our current autonomous age, which was once heteronomous after being theonomous, I have observed that Solomon was right when he wrote that “God set eternity in the hearts of men.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) We as humans WANT to live forever, we’ve been wired that way. So as an atheist navigates the lie that this life is all there is, what they are doing is suppressing that truth. We know that suppressing something does not make it go away. Eventually, in this instance, that suppression gives way to an outright hostility. And so atheism is not just the belief that God isn’t there, nor is it just to replace God in our hearts and minds with something or someone else, but it eventually becomes an outright hostility towards Him as truth, and by extension his followers.

The Bible describes the carnal, or fleshly mind as being at enmity with God (Romans 8:7). It is our default position to be at war with God because of the decisions Adam and Eve made. Every single Christian will attest to that discovery of hostility towards God in themselves. They will also speak of an overwhelming sense of a guilt that could never be repaid by themselves, and that only by embracing Jesus Christ our Saviour, have found lasting peace.

At last poll there are thirteen Christians that die from persecution around the world every single day. These murderers have not found peace and keep on murdering as a way of suppressing their guilt, and thereby their conscience, which all comes from eternity being hardwired into them.

Why then does atheism exist?

A friend of mine’s great, great, great, great grandfather was one of the convicts who landed in Australia. He tells the story how a judge in England took off his powdered wig to plead with him and his cohort to come to Australia, because the only alternative was execution. The shocking thing was that two-thirds of prisoners chose death before getting on a ship to a new land. The reasons? As in the words of this man’s ancestor; “fear of the unknown and pride.” Fear and pride.

Atheism exists precisely because of one of those two reasons if not both. A fear to face that unnamed guilt that resides in all of us which an unbeliever can never ever seem to wash away. Atheism may speak of crime but never of sin. That guilt, put there by the sin of unbelief, further manifests as a fear of judgment. How do I know? Because I have felt that first hand in the times I’ve drifted off the pilgrim’s path. Church is a place of judgment in the here and now which exempts us from judgment in the future cosmic court. For those choosing their exemption now, will come into judgment in the future and it will be far, far worse than facing judgment in a church. Atheism might put on a brave face but deep down it fears facing its aggression and hostility towards God. It fears trusting and relying on something that does not appeal to their senses which they treat as the only appetites they have. Some may have been hurt by some practitioners of religion and understandably the fear of being hurt again has turned them against God.

Atheism also exists because of the pride man places in his reasoning faculties he has come to idolize, for fear it might diminish the rules for the existence he, or others have laid down for themselves. It could be the pride and idolatry of culture and community, something Jesus grappled with in the Pharisees of his day. Pride prevents the appraisal of their unbelief. It has become increasingly easy to adopt pride as an excuse to not believing God in a society that’s been made lazy and hazy by a diet of man-made platitudes.

And so atheism not only provides a popular pseudo-intellectualism induced by the world’s adversary, Satan, but is convenient for temporarily easing man’s conscience towards the depravities he indulges and the atrocities he commits. The honest atheist Aldous Huxley confirmed the reason he embraced atheism, was so that he could pursue promiscuity with a tenuous clear conscience. The letters of Peter in the Bible talks much of allowing us to live this life and the next, with a more robust conscience.

What is the biggest flaw of atheism?

Richard Dawkins once said in an interview; “I live my life on the assumption He’s not there.” Assumption. What a terrible gamble that is. The biggest flaw of atheism is thinking that if something doesn’t exist in their minds, it must not exist in reality. If it does not come through their senses, then it simply does not exist. An art teacher recently told me she has to post everything to online, otherwise she doesn’t exist. 

In opposition to believing only through seeing raises the question of faith. What is faith? It is not believing and trusting in things not seen, but believing what God wrote about the past, the present and the future. Contrary to popular belief faith is based on evidence. Faith is not believing IN God, it is BELIEVING God.

Why is faith important? Faith is important because it wires us to take risks. Taking risks is human. It helps us to move forward and grow. As the writer of Hebrews (10:39) so aptly put it; “we do not belong to those who SHRINK BACK and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” But more than that, faith allows us to see God. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) I can attest from my own experience how incredibly true this is. I will say this now – God does not show Himself to unbelievers.

Do atheists do good in the world?

The answer is yes. Absolutely yes. But unless God is included in anyone’s vocational endeavours, whatever you’re building in life, it is futile. As King David once wrote; “but unless the Lord builds the house the builders labour in vain.” (Psalm 127:1) You may very well help another, but you yourself and the work you did in another will eventually be forgotten. Solomon puts it more bluntly in Ecclesiastes 2:26 “To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.” God is eternal and He creates eternal beings for an eternal purpose whom He will bless eternally. Why would anyone with a rational mind forego their hard work in this life? It is truly unfathomable.

There’s a thought-provoking bit of dialogue in the french film ‘Populaire’, when one of the protagonists reflects on his life; “I helped a lot of people, but I never saved anyone.” God has appointed us to not just help our fellow human beings, but to save their souls. What a serious and sobering business that is. Life is an interview with God. It’s too short to be anything else. Do well in the interview, you get more life. Stuff-up your interview. You get no life.

Many smart people in the world have proven over and over and over again that the Bible is the most reliable record we have, and so lovers of Christ believe God when he says that there is eternal life waiting for them who love Him and death for those who don’t. You have a choice to either opt in to the good life which will last forever, or be satisfied with this mediocre short life in what St. Teresa of Avila calls; “a stay in a cheap motel.” God actually respects our free will to make whatever choice we like, whilst urging us to consider the former. 

But his urging is urgent because death is really torment. As the last verse in the book of Isaiah concludes with a vision of a different type of monument; “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” 

Why torment?

For two reasons. Because it is part of God’s justice. There has to be repercussions. If a pedophile is let off by the judge for his horrific crimes without payment, who pays? Society pays. Someone always pays. There has to be payment. It is the reason Jesus died, to pay that price and is on offer ONLY for those who accept that payment. 

Second reason is God reveals that there is torment for the unjust because he not only wants to dissuade us from a bad decision, but He wants us to at least live at peace with one another because of that fear. It sounds like an antiquated notion that humans require a sword of Damocles over them, but history has proved itself right time and time again that without a dreaded stick, mankind engages in the abhorrent.

I grew up in South Africa and I remember the day the government abolished the death penalty. In that same week crime skyrocketed and has not abated since. In contrast when Billy Graham came to Australia, the two years that followed had the lowest crime rates in Australia ever.

“People are afraid of all the wrong things.”

Many balk at torment and give that as the reason they cannot follow their idea of a loving God. Their objection is meaningless, especially to God because when all is said and done, the only person that is hurt through that position, is the one who objected. God’s universe, God’s rules. He cannot be ransomed. Most think they are capable of self-rule but evident from history’s aristocracy through to the bourgeoisie and revolutionary proletariat they really deceive themselves, and pay lip-service to something that simply doesn’t exist.

If I’m honest then I too balk at the prospect of torment for unbelievers, but if I start browsing the aisles for truth as if it were a supermarket, I will become susceptible to relativism and exposed to judgment. People mistake their relativism for rationalism. I see this happen all the time. I know that any discomfort I may feel now will be totally relieved when I one day survey the entirety of God’s wisdom. For now I trust Him that He knows what He is doing because this is His universe. You may have some better ideas, but you don’t have a universe.

The book of Hosea offers some marvelous insights as to the state of our current world, including that every decision man will make will be dependent on a commercial outcome, rather than what is right or wrong. The birth of capitalism and indeed secularism right there. In short Hosea describes that it has always been God’s intention for ancient Israel to worship Him only, for the sole reason, for the sole reason that mankind would be kind to one another. After Israel’s long list of Kings God eventually called time in Hosea, and said that from then on out man has to find righteousness for themselves. (10:12) He would call them later, according to His purpose. This ‘changing of the rules’ is validated through the story of Cornelius in the New Testament when he was called. “God remembered your gifts to the poor.” (Acts 10:31) 

If you’re an atheist and have read all of this essay, then well done you. I commend you. 

But you’ve wasted your time. Why? Because I have tried to convince you from examples and experiences in my own life, and quoted mostly from a book you disregard. But that’s all the resources I really have, apart from what some might call supernatural experiences, which I’m forced for now to quarantine in a secular context.

Why then have I spent this time writing when I knew I would not convince you? Well, because I am desperate you see. Desperate to know you in the Kingdom of Heaven coming to earth. So I was going to try wasn’t I?

There is absolutely no way I can convince you to consider your life under the Lord of Heaven, unless God steps in and calls you. Only the Father can make the penny drop for you. Only Jesus can ‘ring your bell’ so to speak. Only His Spirit can open a window, a door, and soften your heart towards Him. 

So all that is really left for me to do is ask whether you want your bell rung? If so then please let me know and I will pray for you by name, because we are not only commanded to make intercession for anyone who asks, but somewhere there is someone who wants to see more of you. Who wants to relish in your company, and to do so forever mate. God is a merciful. He will listen and He will answer, so we may enjoy you in our glorious Kingdom.

If you decline this offer, then what more is there to say?

Except maybe the words of a poet… 

“View thy doom, and go in peace.”