Christian
An Open Letter to the American Church
**Guest post by Rob Powell**
The Christian church in America is confusing to me. But I’m not alone. It’s confusing to most Americans.
Let me explain.
The church in China is like a two year old hitting a growth spurt.
There are pains with such quick growth but the power of the gospel is undeniable and attractive in that area of the world.
The church in Europe, on the other hand, is like a 99-year-old paralytic with Alzheimer’s.
Its impotence and slow death means people don’t have to pay it any attention.
The church in America is mixed bag of both, which is the worst case scenario for the people in its pews.
Two Kinds of Churches in America
There are churches of all sizes and flavors in America, but in reality it boils down to two types.
In the one, God is worshipped, sin is revealed, repentant faith is called for, and Christ is glorified in redeemed lives.
In the other, there are churches of all sizes and flavors where God is never mentioned directly, sin is marginalized, Jesus may or may not have had some good things to say, and people never hear the good news.
We could argue about degree, but that’s not the point of this post. Stick with me.
Eh, Is This a Church?
For the later, take the steeple off the roof and put up a Rotary emblem because, in the end, it’s a nice social club that does some good things for the community but it’s not the church Christ died for.
The problem is it’s hard to tell where on the continuum between the two your church lies without some outside perspective.
Both can feel good and provide community but one is showing you ultimate reality while the other is blinding you to it.
Living in the first notch of the Bible belt we have a term for cultural Christians–or CINO’s to borrow a page from politics…
They are “vaccinated against the gospel”…
They have just enough Jesus to know what to say and keep real faith at bay but have never placed their faith in Him.
They are being misled to believe they’re okay with God when they are not. That in turn misleads others, which in turn misleads others, which in turn…well, confuses you and me and the American church.
What the American Church Needs
America needs a big fat dose of spiritual clarity. Why? Because it will help us determine what we need to do with the Gospel.
Do I need to witness to Sara in accounting even though she’s a deacon at Elm St. Methodist?
Does Gary the mailman believe he’s justified by his faith in Christ or because he spends an hour Sunday mornings in a particular building?
Spiritual clarity would show us that both Sara and Gary are targets for the Gospel. Here’s why.
Even though my parents and I are non-CINOs, we attend churches on differing ends of this spectrum.
Her church presents a wishy-washy, impotent, feel good, inoffensive gospel.
I told mom it would be better for her fellow congregants to stay home Sunday mornings and watch the NFL pre-game show than stay in that church and be misled as to their status in Christ.
At least at home with Pat Summerall they will know they AREN’T following Jesus.
Hopefully that knowledge will give them reason to pause when someone does bring up Jesus instead of allowing them to dismiss Him as already checked off the list.
They won’t be vaccinated.
What this doesn’t mean is that people should leave the church if they have doubts or theological disagreements.
Thomas doubted and disagreed with the disciples about the resurrection of Jesus (John 20:25) but if they had ostracized him he wouldn’t have been in the room to put his fingers in the scars and believe (v27).
Here’s Where the Rubber Meets the Road
The bride of Christ must first and foremost love, honor, and obey her groom.
If genuine Christians would allow the Holy Spirit to fill them with grace, love, patience, mercy, humility, and forgiveness the rest of the world, churched or unchurched, would sit up and take notice.
If we really believed the way to gain life was to lose it and we lived zealously for the things Jesus died for, cultural Christians would see we have something that they don’t…
Then they would either be drawn to it or disgusted by it–but there’d be no room for lukewarmness.
Here’s the Hard Part
I’m not only part of the solution, but I’m also part of the problem, too!
I love my cushy life and I don’t want to really give it away. I’m okay with who I am and don’t feel the weight of my sin.
In fact, I’m afraid the ocean of God’s love won’t be as grand as this mud puddle the world lets me play in. That’s why I need your help.
What I Need from You
So here’s what I need from the church (that’s all of us, not just the paid professionals) and I think it’s the same thing the unbelieving world needs: I need you to preach the gospel to me.
See, the gospel is not something even my mature Christian brothers and sisters graduates from.
I need daily, hourly, moment by moment reminders of the glorious love of Jesus…I need you to show me the planks in my eye and call me again and again to repentance.
I need you to tell me this world has nothing for me and to put my hope in the next.
And do it with zeal!
So, easy enough? Now what do you need from me? Looking forward to your thoughts.
Interview with an Ex-Atheist: Matthew Blair
Okay, thought I’d introduce today’s guest via a really bad poem I wrote. Here we go.
Matthew Blair…dog groomer extraordinaire.
Once a legalist bent on pleasing man…now a huge reformed Baptist fan.
Savvy in the art of cutting canine hair…he also excels in exegeting the gospel with care.
His blog aims to help tired legalists lay in Christ’s finished plan…but his heart truly beats for union with Calvary’s victorious [fill in the blank].
[Two dollars and fifty-cents for anyone who can guess the end of the rhyme. Hint: It's not a true rhyme. I fudged. Just a tad.]
Okay. Enough nonsense. Onward.
1. How would you describe your religious bent: Christian, non-Christian or other?
I’m an unashamed Reformed Baptist.
I started my regenerate life as a dispensational fundamental (as my grandfather is), which then spilled into a non-denominational Armenian at my local Calvary Chapel, and finally to where I am now…basking in the glories of the reformed faith. Thanks to 8 or so hours of good podcasts a day, I came to “exalt God on high and lay man in the dust” as it were.
2. Were you religious before you became an atheist?
Nope…well. Sort of. I was an evolutionist, and in my opinion, evolution has become somewhat of a religion requiring quite a bit of faith on the part of the one holding to it. After I went to college, it only deepened my feelings for it.
Hehehe…”But God….”
3. What makes you think you were an atheist?
Knowing what I know now, I would classify my self as an agnostic back then. Only someone who possess full knowledge can truly say they are an atheist in the fullest meaning of the word.
I didn’t know any better. I grew up in an unbelieving home in which the only time God or Jesus was brought up was to blaspheme His name. I was an “atheist” by default I guess you might say. My folks were, so was I.
4. How did Christians treat you as an atheist?
Honestly, I didn’t know any. I went to public school and was surrounded by like minds…minds dead in their sin being taught by others dead in their sin. Sad, really. Had I known any, I probably would have thought they were weak minded and believers of fairy tales.
I can remember once as a small child opening up a bible on my bed and reading from it. It was like reading another language. I remember that distinctly.
5. How are you treated by atheists now? Persecuted?
They tolerate me.
In the beginning of my new life, I was a typical annoying new believer. All fire and no wood…ready to change the world for Jesus! My coworkers thought I was a little nutty, but they were professing Catholics from North East Philly, so my Jesus talk was a little familiar…just with zeal.
Persecution? Nothing like our brothers and sisters around the world receive on a daily basis I assure you!
6. What was the final event or argument that brought you to believe in God?
I can’t really remember. Such as the Spirit goes, you know?
It was a process, but ultimately, I came to the end of rope. I felt nothing in my life but utter desperation and conflict….I saw Jesus as the only way to go. It wasn’t my doing…it was all Him.
7. Was it head or heart that led you to God? Or both?
In the beginning, heart. I still cannot explain it to this day, but it was as if (and I know this sounds silly) Jesus just lit up like a Christmas tree. Bizarre….and I still haven’t come to grips with it, but it’s as if darkness was pushed aside and light poured in. My conversion? Maybe. The beginnings of His drawing me? Possibly. One day I’ll find out.
8. Have you talked to any atheists about giving up atheism? How did they react?
The only real conversations I had at depth with atheists were a few forum discussions (here and here) and a blog post I jumped in on a while back (see comments). I didn’t handle it very well.
9. When did you know you were a Christian? Did it scare you?
Dunno…but I will say this: The first time I ever “felt” grace was on my way to work one morning while stopped at a red light in front of Dominick’s Pizza. I set there and felt fully justified…fully clean. Heck, maybe that was my conversion!
10. What do you want to accomplish with your life?
Ugh, by God’s grace to be like His son. It’s what we all want, right!?
11. Who are your heroes? Why?
I don’t have enough space to list them all, but my top five would be my wife who prayed for my salvation for years while we were dating and even after we got married…my grandfather who always bore a silent testimony to Christ in his home…William Tyndale for doing what he did to get God’s word into the hands of the common folk…James White for doing what he does in defending the faith and bearing witness to a biblical Christ…and John Piper who I think was the guy that finally sealed the deal for my belief in the reformed faith.
12. What would you like to accomplish with your blog?
I struggle with legalism…it was part of my upbringing to please everyone and have no one mad at me I think. I started the foolish galatian to try and help others struggling to see Christ and to rest in His finished work. I consider myself a reform(ed)ing legalist. It’s still something I fight against tremendously. To help one saint rest in Christ would be well worth every second I’ve put into it. I’ve swayed a bit from that from time to time, but that’s my heart.
13. What’s your favorite part about being a Christian?
Being forgiven and the thought that I was once bound to hell and was given mercy beyond all measure. Yea…that’s the best part!
14. Would you ever bail on Christianity?
Again, knowing now what I know, I believe He will never let me slip from His hand. By trial, suffering, and tribulation, He will see me home. I have been bought at a high price and He’s not about to let me bail.
Matt, thank you immensely for laying it all out there. Okay readers, say “hello” to Matt and share any comments, questions or concerns. Don’t be shy.
**Part of the Interview with an Ex-Atheist series.**
Interview with an Ex-Atheist: Me
Okay. First, let me apologize.
Launching this ex-atheist series took longer than I hoped. So sorry I drug my feet.
In my defense, though, the reason I took so long was because I wasn’t sure this was the right thing to do.
Just a gut feeling. But maybe I was veering off in the wrong direction.
So…I spent time in prayer. Mulled it over with God. And talked about it with some close friends.
In the end, I feel good going forward. Think it’ll be harmless. Hopefully eye-opening. And at least marginally satisfying to your spirit.
So, without further non-sense, me.
1. How would you describe your religious bent: Christian, non-Christian or other?
Christian. Classical Christianity. Meaning, biblical and historical Christianity. Adhere to creeds such as the Apostle’s and the Nicene. Follow the teachings of Reformers. Regard the Bible as the highest authority of truth. Recognize Christ as the exclusive way to God.
2. Were you religious before you became an atheist?
No. That’s what made me an atheist, right?
3. What makes you think you were an atheist?
Flat out rejection of God. Jesus Christ. To the point were I even believed Jesus was a mythical figure.
I admit: I was a bad atheist. I didn’t come to that conclusion after a systematic study of evolution or Bart Ehrman. It was more, “You honestly expect me to believe such crap in our modern world?”
I spent most of my time drinking, reading Lao-Tzu and writing bad poetry.
4. How did Christians treat you as an atheist?
Depends. I avoided Christians as much as possible. Major buzz kill.
Those I did run into…I think they treated me fine. Gave me the gospel drill, which I swiftly drowned out with a drink or my fingers.
5. How are you treated by atheists now? Persecuted?
For the most part, respect. Naturally you encounter the militant who is determined to make a clown of you. But that’s the minority.
6. What was the final event or argument that brought you to believe in God?
Good question. And unfortunately there’s not a short answer. But I’ll try to sum it up like this:
No single argument. But one single event. When my wife busted me over my emotional infidelity, she threatened divorce. I freaked and said I’d do anything to save the marriage, the family, including making a serious effort at being a Christian.
See, shortly before I got married I “converted.” And said I was a Christian. For ten years. But what became apparent to me post-divorce threat…as I started to read the Bible and people like Ray Comfort, John MacArthur and Jonathan Edwards…was that I’d been deceived.
I’d drank the cultural Christian Kool-Aid that claimed you were a believer if you walked down the aisle or filled out a card or raised your hand.
What it boils down to is this: Profession of faith versus possession of faith. I had the profession but not the possession.
That event opened my eyes. And at some point I received the gift of faith from God. And then the arguments started to pile on.
Jesus’–the historical person who I dismissed as mythical–his life, death and resurrection. What was I to do with that?
With such a clearly substantiated event like that, I thought I’d be insane to ignore it. So I began to believe in it. And be changed. Radically.
7. Was it head or heart that led you to God? Or both?
Neither. It was God who cleaned my clock and said “You’re with me.” At that point, though, shortly after the near-miss with divorce, I’d been awakened and was like, “Yeah, I’m with you.”
That’s when I began my journey to understand my new faith.
This process is identical with the story of the Prodigal. He first is awakened out of his spiritual slumber, then returns to his father. Same with me. I was awakened, recognized my depravity and confessed my sin.
8. Have you talked to any atheists about giving up atheism? How did they react?
Lots of atheists. And usually they respond, “Sorry, tried that. Didn’t work for me.”
However, I’ve learned, especially through my blog, that it’s not about winning arguments. It’s about a clear articulation of the Gospel.
That’s what matters. Everything else is peripheral.
9. When did you know you were a Christian? Did it scare you?
Again, no single event. Clearly a process. That’s conversion as described in the Bible.
And naturally when you have the rug pulled out from under you…you are scared. I’d wrapped myself up in this solitary, vigorous pursuit of literary fame–emotionally, professionally and personally–and now that’s gone?
Talk about an identity crisis.
What filled that vacuum is light-years more satisfying than what was there before, though.
10. What do you want to accomplish with your life?
Use my gift of writing to spread the Gospel. Train my children to love God. Serve my wife with compassion and humility.
11. Who are your heroes? Why?
John Piper. I think that man is a gift from the past. What do I mean by that? He’s a Puritan to the core. And the best thing we could have to an actual flesh and blood Jonathan Edwards.
12. What would you like to accomplish with your blog?
Use my gift of writing to spread the Gospel.
13. What’s your favorite part about being a Christian?
Exalting Christ.
14. Would you ever bail on Christianity?
The only reason I am a Christian is because of God’s mercy and grace. And the only reason I remain a Christian is because of God’s mercy and grace.
And because of God’s faithfulness I know that his word is true today and tomorrow, so when he says that no one can snatch a man from his grip, if I ever bail on Christianity it will because he let me go. But he doesn’t let believers go. So, I’m confident I will remain a Christian until the day I die.
Shew. That was harder than I thought. Anyway, I’ll roll out another interview in two weeks. You up for another interview? Let me know. And if you have any questions, fire away. I’ll try to answer.
Doubt and the Chief Purpose of the Holy Spirit
Did you know that if you lived in Cold War Russia as a Christian…
Your diet of religious teaching amounted to smuggled Bibles and a state-printed encyclopedia of atheism?
You have to wonder…
In the face of hostile, overwhelming anti-Christian propaganda, how did these Christians NOT abandon Christ?
The answer: The inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
What Is the Inner Witness of the Holy Spirit?
The chief purpose of the Holy Spirit is to provide personal assurance of a believer’s salvation. Romans 8:16 says, ”The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
In other words, God stamps each believer with his spirit to secure us for the day when our salvation is complete–the day of redemption.
He stamps us with his official ownership by placing the Holy Spirit upon us. This seal indicates his ownership and authority over us. And our safety and security in him.
Paul says the inscription of God’s seal reads, “The Lord knows those who are his.”
When Are We Sealed with God’s Spirit?
At salvation. And every Christian believer is sealed. In fact, even the spiritually immature Corinthians were sealed.
Paul includes them when he writes that God “set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
The Valuable Role of the Holy Spirit in Apologetics
And because God permanently sealed us with his spirit, we are forever secure as his prized possession. No power on earth or in heaven…now or yet to come…is strong enough to break this seal.
That means our final redemption rests entirely on God and his authority. That means no earthly discouragement or circumstance can change who owns and guards us.
And that means this confidence in the witness plays a valuable role in convincing believers of their own relationship with God.
It’s an indirect confirmation of the truth of the Christian Gospel. That is, in it’s essence, the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
The Inner Witness Exceeds All Human Testimony
When you become a genuine believer, you experience the Holy Spirit’s presence. It’s an immediate experience of God himself.
And while this is a subjective assurance of Christian truth–and not very helpful in convincing a non-believer–it provides a concrete assurance for the believer.
Thus, as Christian believers we have the testimony of the loving God in us. And this testimony exceeds in force all human testimony.
It’s how Christian believers behind the Iron Curtain survived in spite of tremendous, systematic oppression.
It’s how Luther could stand before an emperor who wanted nothing less than an ironclad recantation and say “…my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me.”
And it’s how a small band of no-names in the first century relentlessly spread the Gospel throughout the Mediterranean knowing suffering and death loomed behind every corner.
Conclusion
The Holy Spirit is a promise to the Christian believer that God will protect him. And provide for him without limit. And that he will keep every promise he inspired in his word.
Religious doubt. Potential defeaters. Aggressive ridicule. Threats of violence. Even death. In the end, all these challenges to a believers faith can’t stand against the inner testimony of God himself.
As the old hymn said, “On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.”
Where are your feet planted, friend?
10 Questions with an Atheist: John Loftus
**Part of the 10 Questions with an Atheist series.**
John Loftus was a philosophy instructor at a secular college when he decided to walk away from Christianity.
It wasn’t easy.
The only thing Loftus had known since he was 18 was learning, teaching and defending Christianity.
During that time he had chased several divinity degrees and a PhD. Launched an apologetic journal. Sat under William Lane Craig. Even served as Senior Minister at Angola Christian Church in Indiana from 1987 to 1990.
But in the space of five years–1991 to 1996–Loftus endured a major crisis, crawled through boxes of new information and searched for the caring, loving Christian community that just wasn’t there.
It was these events that convinced him to reject Christianity. This is his story.
1. How would you describe yourself: atheist, agnostic or skeptic? Explain.
Thanks for wanting to learn from me. I appreciate this and would hope other Christians would follow your example rather than just blasting people like me.
Let me state for the record that I consider myself first and foremost a freethinker who especially approaches all religious claims with skepticism. All such claims are extraordinary and so they require a lot of evidence before I will believe them, just like evangelicals do with Catholic claims of miracles at Lourdes.
Skepticism is not a belief system. It’s an approach to truth claims, a reasonable one at that. Skepticism is founded squarely on the science of human nature, psychology, and the science of culture, anthropology, for starters.
We human beings are woefully illogical and gullible and trusting. We adopt the beliefs of the culture within which we were raised. We don’t understand things very well. What we believe we prefer to believe. We don’t see things correctly. What we see is filtered by what culture we were raised in.
We won’t even seriously consider we were led to believe something that is false. In fact, we may be personally offended and think anyone who disagrees is ignorant or stupid. That’s how entrenched some cultural beliefs can be. To see this argued for I recommend Jason Long’s book, the Religious Condition. See my review.
Based on these scientific studies we should be skeptical about what we believe. We should be skeptical about that which we were taught to believe. We should test claims and see if they have independent corroboration through science.
If after approaching a truth claim with skepticism it passes muster, then the skeptic has good reasons to accept it. So the skeptic does accept certain claims to be true. No one can be skeptical of everything. It’s just that each truth claim he tests for himself must pass the test of skepticism.
Such skepticism has led me to atheism. There are no supernatural entities or forces at all, although since I cannot state that with a measure of certainty I’m best described as an agnostic atheist.
2. When did you know you were an agnostic atheist? Did it scare you or was it a non-issue?
The process I went through was long, almost thirteen years. I went through several stages representative of the history of Christian theology itself, until I came to my present position today.
I questioned the Biblical accounts of creation, then Genesis 1-11, and then other portions of the Bible began falling like dominoes. I became a deist, an existential liberal, a full blown agnostic and then an atheist.
What finally tipped the balance for me was why there didn’t seem to be a reasonable initial solution to our existence. The best explanation for this state of affairs was that it happened by chance. An eternally existing fully formed triune divine being who has never learned anything did not explain anything at all for me.
While I was relived to come to this conclusion, the initial process was the most agonizing. It was indeed scary because of the eternal threat of hell. So I had to be very sure I was correct, so sure that I would be willing to risk the threat of hell if I was wrong. And I do. That’s how sure I am Christianity is a delusion. That should say something I think.
And I had invested so much time and money in my education with a hopeful career and many Christian friends that it was also scary to decide to leave that community and my goals.
It can be a painful thing to leave the faith. We like our comfort-zones. We don’t want to leave a community of friends. They won’t come with us. We leave alone. It’s literally like a divorce. I then had to reinvent myself.
3. Ever suffer persecution as an agnostic atheist?
I am personally attacked every single day because I argue against Christianity. That’s why I am forced to moderate comments on my blog.
I want a decent respectable discussion of the ideas that separate us or none at all. If it is opened up for anonymous comments the Blog would degenerate into a name calling free for all on both sides.
It appears that some Christians feel personally attacked because I disagree with their ideas and that’s a non-sequitur. Since I begin my book as a “tell all” account of my personal life they have used that information to personally malign me at every occasion they can.
My initial reactions to such abuse were polite but then degenerated as I wallowed in the mire with them. I’ve since become inured from such attacks and I ignore them for the most part.
It would seem that the Christians who do so probably cannot deal with my arguments so that’s the only thing left they can do. There are several blogs dedicated to maligning me personally and hardly ever seriously engage my arguments. One intelligent Christian wrote me about one such blog writer: “You clearly have gotten under his skin and he clearly feels that he cannot take you on intellectually or else he would make each blog post a critique of your work – either that or he is childish.”
The way I have been verbally attacked leads me to think that if they had the political power of the church during the Inquisition they would’ve lit the fires that burned me at the stake while singing “Kumbaya.”
4. What do you want to accomplish with your life?
I have several personal, private goals, like being happily married to my wife Gwen until death do us part. She’s perfect for me.
Other than that I want to change the religious landscape in America bit by bit, one person at a time. I think we’d be better off without religion, especially the fundamentalist kind. I really do, although it’s probably never going to go away.
I do think that just as the liberalizing tendencies have changed Christianity down through the centuries, they will continue to do so into the future. As such, fundamentalists will be forced to choose to live in the backwoods without having much political power.
What’s interesting to me is how Christianity is debunked in every generation but rather than admit their debunking and leave the fold Christians reinvent their faith in light of skeptical arguments.
The Christianity of today is not like the Christianity of a hundred years or a few centuries ago or like the earliest varieties of Christianity in the beginning few centuries. The Christianity of tomorrow will not look like the one that exists today, either. They will think their version is the correct one and that the Christians of today were wrong about several things, possibly significant things. Too bad we cannot compare those Christianities because they are not here yet.
You see, since death ends my life I must give everything I can to the present one. That’s all I have. And I want to make a difference for my children and their children and their children because I care about them. I do not want it to be said in the future that I didn’t do my best for my future great- great- great- Grandchildren. I want them to remember me with fondness for what I did for their future.
And it’s too bad that if I’m right about death no one will ever know that I was, because we won’t wake up after death to realize that death ends it all.
We go where dogs and parasites and sharks go when they die. Any account of heaven that leaves all other living creatures out of it is seriously deficient, but then having mosquitoes and skunks in heaven would be deficient as well.
5. Who are your heroes? Why?
My wife. She’s my main encourager and motivator. My rock. She believes in me like no one else.
My intellectual hero by far is Bart D. Ehrman. He is dismantling evangelical Christianity like probably no one has ever done in any generation. He has the knowledge and the recent tools at his exposure.
And he treats Christianity with respect. He writes both scholarly and popular books. My philosophical heroes on a very short list in modern times are Michael Martin, William L. Rowe, Paul Draper, Keith Parsons, Theodore Drange and J.L. Schellenberg. My heroes in the recent past are Bertrand Russell, and J.L. Mackie.
When it comes to debunking Christianity one of my heroes of the past is Thomas Paine, and in the present day I must mention Dan Barker, my friend.
Among Biblical scholars of today Hector Avalos and his efforts stand head and shoulders above others. I also respect the efforts of Edward T. Babinski (who first encouraged me), Robert M. Price, and Richard Carrier.
David Eller, an anthropologist, is the one voice that should take atheism into the future. He should be one of the main spokespersons for atheism. There are others.
And not to mention the so-called “New Atheists,” I appreciate the way they have grabbed the attention of believers in America. Like many minorities of the past someone had to stand up before the world and say unabashedly with force that the Emperor has no clothes on. I appreciate their courage and conviction.
Now people are looking seriously at our claims and there are even shelves for atheist books in major national bookstore chains because of them.
6. What would you like to accomplish with your blog?
I think I already answered that in question #2. Needless to say I believe the Blog will outlast me and be a force for debunking Christianity long after I’m gone, as long as there is an internet.
I want to treat Christianity with respect while I debunk it as a delusion, i.e., as false.
Believers with doubts now have a place to be able to learn from us and express themselves in a respectful environment. In the church doubts are not expressed, nor are questions encouraged. So they have little option but to look on the web for answers, and you know the answers we’ll provide them.
7. What’s your favorite part about being an agnostic atheist?
My favorite part is being able to do what’s right because it’s right and not because I have to find a Biblical passage that tells me it’s right. I can think for myself.
I don’t have to try to justify what I do from the Bible. I don’t have to try to justify why I never tithed the whole ten percent (Christians do not do this by far–as a former minister I know they don’t), or why I never spent enough time in prayer, or why I did not give thanks for everything, or why I did not evangelize all of the time, or why I didn’t do more in response to my belief that God sent his son to atone for my sins.
And I no longer have to gerrymander what the Bible says in order to make the unreasonable and improbable believable. I never could figure out how Jesus could be 100% God and 100% man, nor was there any cogent way to understand how Jesus atoned for my sins, nor do I have to try to justify why there is so much evil in the world if there is a perfectly good and omnipotent God, nor do I have to justify my belief that women are equal to men from the Bible, or why slavery was okay in the Bible but not now, or why genocide was a command that a perfectly good God who cares for every individual person commanded.
8. Are there any Christian concepts that you respect?
You mean distinctively Christian concepts, don’t you, since we all share many other concepts and ideas. There are no distinctively Christian concepts that I accept. The ones I do accept I do so because of other reasons.
I think marriage should be monogamous between two committed people. I think it’s better to tell the truth and to forgive people who do you wrong. I fully accept democratic capitalism, the rights of all people to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness until someone harms another person or group, and I support the first amendment, for starters.
But when it comes to respecting distinctively Christian ideas, it’s hard to do. I do treat these ideas respectfully, but I do not respect them at all. I do recognize certain Christian scholars who are experts at mental gymnastics and I marvel at the contorted reasoning they use to support these ideas, so I respect their intelligence at defending delusional beliefs, yes.
But the beliefs themselves are complete and utter hogwash, most notable Plantinga’s Reformed Epistemology, which if that was the very first issue he ever wrote about in his career would probably have been ignored even by most Christian scholars.
There are, though, several major Christian thinkers who have proposed what I called the “Six Major Ideas That May Help Save Christianity From Refutation in Our Generation,” (some others are mentioned in a comment by Heyzeus7 below mine).
I have to respect Christian thinkers who can do this for their faith even if I think what they defend is utterly false.
9. Does it irritate you when Christians try to share their faith with you?
Not at all, unless they simply quote the Bible to me and refuse to think about the ideas they believe based on what they quote. Bible thumpers are complete ignoramuses and do irritate me.
10. Were you ever a Christian? Would you go back?
This first question is a double-edge one. On the one hand I believed the Bible and trusted in God’s salvation, studied what I thought was his word, prayed daily, and sought to share my faith, yes. I was a Christian in the same sense that any believer you know, including yourself, professes faith in Christ.
But on the other hand, from my perspective today, I was never a Christian, if by that one means someone who was actually in a saved relationship with God-in-Christ. I was never Christian in the sense that there is no truth to Christianity.
If being a Christian means that I had a personal relationship with God-in-Jesus Christ, then I never had such a relationship, for such a supernatural being is based upon non-historical mythology. There is no divine forgiveness because there is no divine forgiver. There was no atonement because Jesus did not die for the world’s sins. There was no God-man in the flesh to believe in. My petitionary prayers were nothing but wishful hoping.
And this goes for any professing believer, too. You are not a Christian, either, because there is no Christ, no Messiah, no God-in-the-flesh, no Holy Spirit regeneration, no devil and no heaven to go to when you die.
Would I ever go back? Not to evangelical Christianity, that’s for sure. I left that for good.
Your Turn
John, I want to thank you very much for taking the time and being so frank and honest. This was a very compelling and rewarding read. Anyone have any questions, comments or concerns? Have at it.
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