"Where then is thy glorying? It is excluded. By what law? Of deeds doing? Nay, but by the law of faith. For we deem a man to be justified by faith, without works of the law." - Romans 3:27-28 (Wycliffe NT)

NUGGET OF THE WEEK

"Anytime the Christian makes sense in a Bible study or sermon, you can almost bet your life you're not hearing Christianity."
Pastor Tom Baker

9.04.2009

IT'S HARD TO CONVINCE AN ATHEIST

I've discovered a lot about my faith by conversing with atheists. I have two dear friends who are atheists and I talk to them more about Christ than I do with most of my Christian brethren. (Look for a blog post about that soon!) Having these two friends has been very eye opening and thought provoking. I understand the "other side" better than I did. I had them pegged quite wrong. You won't get much help from most of today's Christian outlets on how to talk with an atheist. They are really missing the mark. They have a certain formula on how to deal with their objections and what your response in return should be. In other words, they teach you to "prove" your Jesus! But the atheists aren't buying it. None of us have any reason to believe what we believe as Christians. We come up with things to make us feel better about believing so that we don't actually appear crazy. But come on, this Jesus fella claimed some wild things and don't even get started on that crazy Old Testament God. If you sit back and start from the beginning and lay out what you believe about Creation all the way to Christ's life in you, it is apparent nonsense. However, we have been given the "secret ingredient" that others aren't - that is faith. Faith is the key - it is the gift that is necessary to have it all make sense. The reason an atheist isn't going to get what you're saying is that they have not received the gift of faith. We can talk and talk and talk and try and prove or convince them to no end. Until you realize they don't operate in faith, you will never get anywhere with them. That's not to say you throw in the towel and give up. I'm all for defending the faith and giving a reason for the hope that is within us. And that faith comes from hearing the Word. And what is that Word? It is none other than Jesus Himself! Until you truly hear Jesus you'll never have the faith to believe it all. Don't think for a second that you can muster that faith or by your brilliant apologetics that you'll be able to convince them to have faith in something so unreasonable to them. Only Christ can do that. But they must hear Him not you. At the end of the day, I agree with them that I have no reason to believe what I do; no proof exists for it. But I believe it as only one that has been given everything by Christ can believe it. I must look out of my mind to them. On that I will also agree with them. But by the grace of our Lord, He allows me to know Him according to His great will and purpose. On that I say, Amen!

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