I was doing some research for a youth talk this afternoon and stumbled upon an atheist website set up to disprove the existence of God and Jesus Christ. I followed a link to a youtube video about how to disprove the existence of Jesus in 5 minutes (yes, that is 5 minutes). After watching the video (which was basically centered on asking Jesus to show himself to you and then using his absence to prove that he doesn't exist), I was greatly distressed by many of the comments on the video. Both Christians and non-Christians alike were posting, arguing and calling each other names.
It made me sad. Not just that there were those who didn't believe in God, but that there were "Christians" who were calling atheists names and throwing bible verses at them. To be honest, I couldn't tell most of the Christians for the atheists by their attitudes.
To my Christian brothers and sisters out the please hear this: do not belittle, insult, condemn, or speak harshly to an atheist in hopes that they will take it well, because all you are doing is "proving" to them that they are right and you are wrong. They see our lack of love and continue on in their Godless lives. Neither the atheist or the Christian should debate with a sense of "I'm better than you." This is arrogance and is sin.
Have any of you ever discussed God with a seasoned and intelligent atheist? What was your experience?
Okay, hi, first off this is Christina-- Rachel's friend. Secondly, I clicked apologetics because it was 'a' and I followed it to this post... just so you don't think that I am being weird and reading all your entries...
ReplyDeleteAnyway. In high school there was this kid named Ryan who was an atheist. He would come to Bible Study to learn about God and to try to better understand our point of view. One year he actually came to came. I was thinking about this kid the other day because most everyone blew him off or made comments to him when he said things like 'Satan loves you' in the hallway. All four years of high school he said that to me, all the time, and I always would get into discussions with him about it. Nothing Ryan ever said was a lie. Satan DOES love me, which is why he is on such a hunt for my soul, which is why he wants to make me non-effective for the kingdom, etc. Although I didn't believe in the non-existence of God and Ryan knew that, I always kept a non-threatening, non 'pushy' relationship. We were never close or anything and I never thought it meant anything being a casual friend, but in my senior yearbook he wrote a very profound thought that honestly thanked me for having discussions with him and not being close-minded. As a person, I think very highly of Ryan and his desire to make sure he 'has all the facts' before he just discounts religion completely. He did a lot of searching, he might still be searching but I always admired his search and his genuine search for Truth. I think we all lose sight of that search. And thank you for this post -- I have not prayed for Ryan or thought of him in several years and I think I shall mention him specifically before the Throne of Grace tonight...
Christina
Sorry, the part where it says 'came to came' should read 'came to CAMP'. I'm an English teacher and I still don't proofread well....
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that Satan loves you...it's more of a selfish interest of his. I believe very strongly that Satan does not love anything. Love is sacrificial and always about the good of others. God is love. If Satan had love, he would have God. But I know what you are meaning when you say Satan loves you...he pursues you because he doesn't want you to follow God.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you had a witness to an atheist at school. My fear is that when Christians rub shoulders with Atheists, that they don't exalt God and they turn off Atheists even more to the things of Christ.
They will know that we are Christians by our love.