Renowned World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle is often attributed with coining the phrase, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Pyle, who traveled with servicemen in Europe, Africa and the Pacific Theater, apparently witnessed men turning to God while enemy fire rained down on them. There was no comfort in their disbelief as they faced eternity without God.
Six decades later, atheism has become a trendy subject, gaining new exposure in the media. Atheists have become known as “free thinkers,” insinuating in that title that those who choose to walk with God are slaves to intellectual dullness.
Authors such as Christopher Hitchens (“God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”) and Sam Harris (“The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason” and “Letter to a Christian Nation”) are rising new champions of disbelief.
Further, the leftist radio network Air America has launched a nationwide show focusing on atheism. The program is hosted by the co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
There are now websites such as AmericanAtheists.com, Exchristian.net (which is designed to “encourage” ex-Christians) and others that are paving the way for this new atheism.
There are also less adamant agnostics who smile on the new atheism, such as Gary Wolf who, writing in the November 2006 issue of Wired, scoffed at “antique absurdities like the virgin birth.”
In the midst of this new atheism campaign is the concurrent effort to purge our nation of its religious heritage by eliminating historic public images of America’s Judeo-Christian founding.
Christians today find themselves in a so-called tolerant culture that is quite often intolerant to our Bible-based beliefs.
But we must not be intimidated by these efforts to denigrate our God. Instead, I believe Christians must prepare their hearts and minds to be diligent apologists for the cause of Christ.
This does not mean we should be browbeating those who do not believe. We never should be antagonistic in expressing our faith.
Listen to the words of Sam Harris in his “Letter to a Christian Nation”: “Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse.”
Now let me say that I certainly do not believe that the Bible endorses hatred toward nonbelievers. Jesus was never intimidating in presenting Himself as the Son of God and we, likewise, should never be vindictive or forceful in sharing our faith.
We must show the love of Christ at all times. We must considerately reason with nonbelievers, as the Apostle Paul did in the New Testament and as my friend Dr. Ergun Caner does in many debates with atheists today.
Further, we must reach out to people who are in need, as the Bible commands us.
Let us remember a very important question asked in I John 3:17: “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”
Compassion should be a crucial component of the Christian life.
My fear is that many people like Sam Harris, who have chosen to live out their lives believing in a godless universe, may have come to that conclusion because Christians or so-called Christians were cruel or uncaring toward them.
Living out our faith in the love of Christ must be paramount in our lives. Christians are certainly under the microscope in this often godless culture. That is why it behooves us to be constantly prayerful that we may be upright representatives of Christ and effective communicators of the Gospel.
Let us love and live “in word and truth” (I John 3:18).
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