I recently read a statement from a Christian Bible
teacher. This statement was uttered at a
summer youth camp during a Q and A session with the kids. When I read it, I was somewhat mesmerized by
what was contained in this single line of text.
I pondered it, analyzing it in an attempt to figure out whether I agreed
with the thought behind it. The
statement is as follows, slightly modified by me, but still carrying the same
message as the original: At the moment of sin, every Christian is an atheist.
Clearly, this is a provocative thing to say. After all, are not Christians and Atheists
polar opposites of each other? Is it not
true that they represent two camps at the furthest extremes of morality,
ethics, and purpose in life, both sides locked in a titanic struggle for the
hearts and minds of the culture? This
description of Christians and Atheists is certainly how the issues between the
two have been phrased by myself in the past as well as other Christians I am in
acquaintance with. And if such a state
of affairs is accurate, then how can a statement like the one above be correct?
In an effort to answer these questions I want to begin by
establishing some baselines. I think it
is important to define our terms to ensure that your starting point is the same
as mine. Whether your ending point will
be the same, only time will tell and will be up to you to determine.
The first term I want to define is Christian. Here is what I do not mean when I say
Christian: A professor of his belief in
the religion of Christ; in a general sense, the word Christian includes all who
are born in a Christian country or of Christian parents. Although I found this definition in a
dictionary, I do not believe it correctly establishes what the Bible teaches
about being a Christian. It is true that
a Christian must profess of his or her belief in Christ. So that part is at least accurate. But one’s Christianity must not end there if
one is to be labeled a Christian by God’s own word, the Bible. And being born into a Christian home or in a
Christian country most certainly does not make one a Christian.
On that note, what does the Bible itself say about
Christians? Two passages strike me as
important because they are two of only three in the Bible to actually use the
word Christian. The first is 1st
Peter 4:16: Yet if anyone suffers as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. The Apostle Peter is communicating here that
those who follow Christ must suffer.
Their suffering must be precisely because of their Christianity. This is contrasted with the list in the
previous verse of murderers, thieves, evildoers, or meddlers. In other words, if you are going to be a
Christian you will suffer for your faith in Christ.
But the amazing part of this is that you are expected to
glorify God in the midst of that suffering.
A Christian is one who takes every stone and arrow thrown at him by a
fallen world full of sin, and converts those missiles of destruction intended
to kill, into psalms of thanksgiving and praise about the glory of God.
Another important passage is Acts 11:19-26. This section of Acts details the activities
of the early Christians who were scattered throughout Israel and the
Mediterranean following the martyrdom of Stephen in chapter 7. The passage lists three characteristics of a
Christian, in addition to the ones we have already seen in 1st
Peter. They are: the preaching of the
gospel, faithfulness to God, and persevering with a steadfast purpose.
So then, what we are presented with in the Bible as an image
of a Christian is one who suffers for their faith, proclaims the good news of
Jesus, is faithful to the Lord, perseveres through trials, and does all of this
for the glory of God. These factors
combine to lead into a much better dictionary definition of a Christian: A real disciple of Christ; one who believes
in the truth of the Christian religion, and studies to follow the example, and
obey the precepts, of Christ; a believer in Christ who is characterized by real
piety. To state it another way I
will turn to the words of John Calvin, who defined piety in this way: reverence joined with love of God which the
knowledge of His benefits induces.
This is what I mean when I say Christian.
With that in mind, what do I mean by atheist or atheism? As before, I will begin by stating what I do
not mean. The dictionary defines atheism
as: The disbelief of the existence of a
God, or Supreme Intelligent Being.
Odds are that is the understanding of atheism that you have had to this
point. It was how I would have defined
it myself prior to this study. But I
have now come to believe that, although atheism as described above is the
cultural and even perhaps the Christian view of it, I now believe that this is
a false definition that is flatly contradicted by the Bible. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the
cultural definition and understanding of atheism is impossible. But in order to argue my case I cannot turn
to a dictionary, because none of them that I could find present what the Bible
does about this notion of a disbelief in the existence of God. In light of that, I will go straight to
Scripture.
First, consider the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:11: He has made everything beautiful in its
time. Also, He has put eternity into
man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the
beginning to the end. The word
eternity in this verse has the idea of everlasting or a long time. The idea is that man instinctively knows there
is something grander and greater in the universe, a majestic backdrop of divine
work which stretches across the corridors of time and encompasses all of
creation. Yet, in spite of this inherent
knowledge, man, by himself, cannot put his finger on this concept of
eternity. Therefore, the first point is
that man knows something bigger than himself exists.
Second, ponder the sermon that Paul preached to the men of
Athens at the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill, in Acts chapter 17. In verses 26 to 28 we read: And He made from one man every nation of
mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted
periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God,
and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of
us, for “In Him we live and move and have our being.”
In his address Paul used the word “zetein”, rendered in
English as “seek”. It means to desire or
look for. It is the same word used of
Herod in Matthew 2:13. An angel of the
Lord is communicating to Joseph via dream.
In this dream Joseph is told that Herod is about to “search” for the
child, to destroy Him. The context is
not a casual search. It is a desperate
straining after something, exerting all of one’s resources in the quest to
obtain it. So according to Paul, man
knows there is something out there that he desperately wants to find, but he
does not know where to find it.
Therefore, he searches for it earnestly and quite desperately.
For the next two points we will travel to the book of
Romans. In chapter 1, verses 18 and 19,
we find: For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by
their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown
it to them. When Paul wrote that
what can be known about God is plain he used the same word that Luke used in
Acts 4:16. In that verse, the Sanhedrin,
or the Jewish ruling council, is discussing what to do with Peter and
John. The apostles have just healed a
lame man, in the temple, in the sight of all the people there. Not only that, but they did it in the name of
Jesus. The rulers of the Jews, being
fiercely opposed to any talk of Jesus as being the Messiah of Israel, are
furious with Peter and John because there is no way they can deny that a
miracle has just been performed through them.
The power of God, working through the discples of Jesus, has become
“plain” to everyone.
Carrying that understanding back to Romans 1:19 we can draw
the following conclusion. The knowledge
of God in creation is not merely obvious or easily understood. It is in fact completely visible and
unilaterally known by everyone.
Furthermore, this knowledge is implicitly written on the heart of every
human being who has ever lived. Romans
2:14-15 tells the tale: For when
Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are
a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written
on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their
conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
From this we can clearly see that the heart of man, even
apart from details of God’s law, confirms the existence of that law. Because of this, men at times feel the pangs
of conscience and at other times suppress or ignore the inner condemnation they
experience. This creates in them a
spirit of instability in which they are perpetually unsettled within their very
own souls.
We might think that these facts, once presented to a sinner,
would compell them to repent and turn to God.
However, the Bible paints an image of man in which he is hopelessly and
helplessly compelled by his own nature to rebel against and run from God. The first three verses of Psalm 14 are a
devastating litany of madness directed against the heart of fallen man: The fool says in his heart, “There is no
God.” They are corrupt, they do
abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there
are any who understand, who seek after God.
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is
none who does good, not even one.
It is instructive to note that the English word fool in verse
1 is the Hebrew word nabal. Astute Bible
readers will recognize this as the name of the man in 1st Samuel 25
who rejected David’s request for aid, even after David and his men had
protected this man Nabal’s business interests.
Verse 3 of that chapter describes Nabal as harsh and badly behaved. In verse 25 Nabal’s wife, Abigail, is not
even that kind to her husband. She calls
him a worthless fellow.
This, then, is the charge against men who reject the clear
knowledge of God in creation and in their own hearts. They suppress the built-in awareness of God’s
presence and work in history. Even in
the face of their instinctiveness perception of their creator they resist and
reject even their own hearts and minds within themselves. As was Nabal, such people are completely
worthless.
The final nail in the coffin of cultural atheism is found in
Ephesians 2:12. This is the only
occurrence in the Greek testament of the word “atheos”. If that word looks familiar it is because it
is the word we get our English atheism from.
“Atheos” simply means without God.
Look at it in its biblical context: Remember that you were at that time separated
from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God (atheos) in the
world.
Thus, the biblical word that we get our modern word atheism
from has no association with a denial of God’s existence. It simply means to be without God, apart from
God, or alienated from God.
All of these points combine to provide us with what I believe
is a much more accurate definition of atheism: A delusional worldview characterized by classical insanity; that is, a
denial of the plain evidence of one’s own senses and a determined refutation of
the facts of reality. This repudiation
of truth is demonstrated by a ludicrous opposition to the pre-programmed
awareness of and desire for God that He created in the heart of every human. The result is full blown rebellion and alienation
from the very source of that which is instinctively sought after.
This is nothing less than a mass hallucination by the greater
portion of the entire human race who stand apart from God. It is a group psychosis that feeds upon
itself in an insane effort to authenticate and validate a fiction that is
impossible to believe. Alcuin, an 8th
century English scholar in the court of Charlemagne, said: The riotous tumult of the crowd is always very close to madness. In the deepest recesses of every sinner’s
heart, regardless of how much suppression is layered on top of it, is a
conviction that they are wrong.
This understanding of atheism leads me back to my original
proposition. At the moment of sin, every
Christian is an atheist. If atheism is a
refusal to acknowledge that which is apparent, then that is exactly what
Christians do when they sin. They
convince themselves, at least in that moment, that the promises of God are
lies, the statutes of God are not relevant to them, and the will of God for their
life is not best.
Let us examine a case study in Scripture to see this borne
out. In the 10th chapter of 1st
Corinthians, Paul warns believers against idolatry. As his example he uses the Israelites, under
the leadership of Moses, who left Egypt and traveled to Sinai. He points out that every one of them was a
recipient of the grace of God in their release from bondage, their deliverance
from the Egyptian army at the shore of the Red Sea, and their consumption of
food both spiritual and physical in the wilderness.
In verse 7 the apostle instructs us: Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” This is a reference to Exodus 32 where the
children of Israel sinned against the Lord and worshipped a golden calf. What must have been particularly galling to
God about this was that the stated intention of the people was to worship the
Lord. Yet the manner in which they went
about it flatly contradicted the specific instructions He had just given them.
God told them in Exodus 19:5-6 that if they would obey Him
they would be His people, a treasured possession of His among all people on the
earth. Yet they considered His promises
lies because they immediately disobeyed the Lord as soon as they thought His
back was turned. He had commanded them
not to worship Him by making an image of anything in the entire created
order. This was command number 2 of the 10
commandments, found in Exodus 20:4. Yet
the people felt that this statute was unnecessary because they desired
something to look at and fix their eyes upon.
God had commanded them to approach Him with reverence and awe. Moses’s instructions were to consecrate the
people for three days. They were to wash
their clothes so as to be as presentable as possible before the Lord. They were not to have sexual relations during
this time. And they were to make their
hearts ready to be in the presence of Almighty God. Yet the people decided that God’s will in how
they were to approach Him was not best.
The verse that Paul quoted back in 1st Corinthians is Exodus
32:6, which records that: they rose up
early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace
offerings. And the people sat down to
eat and drink and rose up to play.
The point is this.
When Christians sin they are doing the very same thing the Hebrews
did. They convince themselves, at least
in that moment, that the promises of God are lies, the statutes of God are not
necessary, and the will of God is not best.
I will pull just one example out of the hat that probably everyone
reading this is guilty of. Colossians
4:6 teaches: Let your speech always be
gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each
person. And Colossians 3:16 instructs:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
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