Yesterday after my local church gathering I went with a couple friends down to Hollywood where a big group of mostly young people called Reality LA meet in Helen Berstein high school’s auditorium near Sunset Blvd and the 101 freeway. My local church in Santa Clarita, Copperhill, actually meets at a school as well, with no plans to build some expensive building. Anyway, yesterday we were hoping to catch Tim Chaddick speaking, and although it wasn’t him, Adam Smith said something that stuck out to me. It was a natural and casual response to the athiest’s claim that they do not believe in God.
“You don’t believe in God. Well, who is this God you don’t believe in? Because maybe I don’t believe in him either.”
He continued expanding upon Hebrews 1, brought in some helpful quotes from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology (if you get a chance to read it…well, good luck finishing; I’m glad my college professor didn’t require all 1,200 pages) , and included CS Lewis’ point about how Jesus could only have been: 1.) a liar with the things he claimed, 2.) an insane guy that didn’t know what he was talking about (lunatic), or 3.) really who he claimed to be (lord over all); none of this “good moral teacher” stuff that ignores half of what Jesus did and said. There was a lot more to it, but I wanted to share the response to the atheist, maybe because of how many different views there are floating around about this idea or person called God. The God of Christianity might be pretty different than what the average person makes him out to be. If you’re confused about who that God was / is, I’d suggest reading the whole Bible to see for yourself. And secondly, if you’re set on already knowing who this God was / is, I’d also suggest reading the Bible to see again; you might be surprised.
It was cool hanging out with some of the Reality LA crowd afterwards, they’re a friendly group. Ended up going to In N Out on Sunset Blvd, and funny story–a hungry guy who was asking for money outside gave me a grateful thank-you kiss after I ordered him a double-double, fries and a drink. Cool.
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That’s neat, Daniel
Interesting approach to an athiest, like you said. Things make more sense when we take time to think them out, like illogical reasoning and foundationless arguments.
Nice.
Good question. It is very true… most of their perceptions of God are off-base and are a non-God anyway. That’s a good approach, as well, to stick with Scripture (where the real authority is).
I had a girl at work laugh at me when I responded that, no, I don’t believe in evolution (that was straight after a homosexuality discussion, concerning her “Aunt Roy”; I guess she was hitting all the hard points). It’s interesting how easy it is to shut down opposing arguments when your authority is Scripture. Everyone else pulls multitudes of sources and throws them around… they get easily confused.
Thanks for the post. Thanks for the comment. And thanks for adding my blog.
If you’re ever around Indy, we’ll do some music.