Last week we started the series discussing our interactions with our friends who are atheists, specifically those who would identify themselves as either skeptics or freethinkers. A point that I really wanted to drive home in that post is both the Christian and the Atheist are starting from two different worldviews, or a system of beliefs through which we view and understand the world around us. Two opposing worldviews are clashing together and for the atheist to accept and believe in God means an entire reworking of all they have ever known to be true. What this means is we cannot talk to our atheist friends as we would to another Christian, because “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
But this does not mean we can never talk with our atheist friends. By no means! What this means is we need understand where they are coming from, and in order to do that we need to follow what I would consider to be one of the most important rules in apologetics: Listen, listen, listen!
“If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” Proverbs 18:13
We should also strive to listen to our friends and to understand where they are coming from. People are complicated; they are not simple creatures that fit into nice, neat, little categories. Just like many Christians disagree on many issues, atheists disagree on finer points of atheism. People need to be validated. This doesn’t mean we agree with their beliefs, but rather we recognize they are a person with struggles. We should think of our own paths to belief; maybe some of us believed all along, or maybe some of us struggled with doubt for a long time, or even still maybe some of us recently started to believe. There are atheists who are struggling with some aspect of Christianity that is keeping them from faith. While it may seem trite to us it is a very real issue for them and they need to know we are there to listen and to love on them.
What we should avoid is having only stock answers. What I mean is, we should never approach the situation armed only with “If they say _________, then I will say ___________”. It’s disingenuous and quite frankly an insult to both the intelligence of our atheist friend and us. It is the most assured way to let our atheist friend know that we don’t actually care about what they have to say, we just want to be right. Even if that is their response, we need to resist the temptation to defend our pride. Remember, we are giving a defense for the hope we have in Christ Jesus and speaking the Truth in love.
However, we should always be prepared. Our atheist friend will bring to us a list of objections they have about the Christian faith and we must, by the wisdom given to us through the Holy Spirit, be ready to answer their objections. It is not my goal that you, the readers of this blog, would merely memorize what I write and then simply repeat this back to the atheists. My goal is to prepare you to answer objections, to provide you with the tools necessary to help strengthen your own faith and prepare you to speak with atheists.
Next week we will tackle the objections made by skeptics and freethinkers who believe only in logic and reason. Is it possible they already believe God exists?
Blessings,
Brian Ceely
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Brian Ceely
*Bio Coming Soon*
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