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Religious: Christian atheists
Pastor Pat Duffin
for South Peace News
Have you ever heard of a Christian atheist?
At first take it sounds like an oxymoron. And it is. Yet it is a well understood phenomenon of human psychology that people can hold mutually contradictory ideas as being true at the same time.
For example, have my cake and eat it, too. Logically we know it can’t be true, yet we live that way anyway, hoping it might prove true after all. Or, at least we ignore the consequences of the logic so we can have what we want when we want it, all the while hoping the dues will never come. This is the perfect description of the Christian atheist.
A recent Gallup Poll indicated 94 per cent of those surveyed believe in God. Yet when we look at our culture and the current state of affairs, it is abundantly clear nowhere near that many actually know God in any real sense. If we did, society would look a lot different than it does.
Christian atheists are people who believe in Jesus Christ and profess themselves to be Christian, but live as though He doesn’t exist or doesn’t care and that they are unaccountable for the way they live. The Apostle Paul spoke to this issue in his letter to Titus, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” (Titus 1:16).
These are practical atheists. There is a disconnect between believing and doing. They do not live what they profess to be true.
Ouch! Too many of us live in a manner that does not reflect who we are as followers of the Jesus Christ. Another word for practical atheism is “unbelief.” All of us struggle with the issue to one degree or other. So this message is for anyone who has the courage to face-up to their own hypocrisy and get honest with God about how it really is.
Ask yourself, “Do I live my life as though Jesus Christ is right here with me, right now, or do I assume or hope that He’s not paying attention?”
Not all Christian atheism is related to overt sin. The Christian atheist does not pray, yet it is through prayer that we develop our personal relationship with God.
The Christian atheist does not read their Bible. Yet how can the Truth set them free when they do not know the Truth?
The Christian Atheist does not give to the Lord’s work, but lives indulgently for self. The Christian atheist lives by self-sufficiency and God is reduced to an irrelevant figurehead.
The Christian Atheist defines their faith by a code of doctrine rather than by a living relationship with Christ. Rick Warren, describes practical atheism as “. . .unbelief; acting like an orphan without a Heavenly Father who’s made 6,000 promises to you.”
For many people the idea of having a personal relationship with God seems unreasonable and unlikely. Others confuse knowledge about God with the personal knowledge that comes from a relationship with Him. Though they give mental assent to God, they think it is unrealistic and unattainable to have a personal relationship with a distant and holy God.
The good news is we can change. We can move beyond mere mental assent into a dynamic heart knowledge – which is where real Christianity is experienced.
How do we get there? The answer is simple. Treat God as though He is a real person rather than a set of codes and principles to which we adhere. Invite Jesus to be actively involved in your life. Open yourself up to the loving touch of His Spirit. Ask Him to make whatever changes are needed. Begin to practice those things that are designed to bring you into contact with God – such as prayer, reading your Bible devotionally rather than as a textbook, and getting concerned about the things that God cares about. Commit yourself to fellowship with other like-minded Christians by regularly participating in the life of the church.
Those who do these things invite Christ into their lives on many different levels. In so doing they begin to experience the true wonder of intimacy with God and the abundant life that Jesus promised to anyone who would come to Him (John 10:10). You will be a Christian atheist no more.
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