Tale of Two Groups of Atheists. George Barna published a survey in 2000 revealing that six out of ten 20-somethings who attended church in their teens left. My heart breaks for them as I recall the dark, worldly days of my early 20's when I considered atheism or agnosticism and longed to know then what I know now -- the evidence for saving faith in the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is clear and convincing. It's truly beyond a reasonable doubt. In fact, from cover to cover, the Bible reveals how God and Jesus appeal to the clear and convincing evidence in order to persuade people to believe and thus repent (cry out for mercy and turn back to God) for salvation. I'll show you how I used this in one of my witnessing encounters today with a group of avowed young atheists.
Our team of evangelism leaders and trainers from Tulsa Bible Church met at the mall to provide "on the job" training for other church members wanting to learn how to fish for men. The mall's a great place to fish because so many people come just to hang out, especially a lot of older teens and 20-somethings. I had an opportunity to encounter two young groups of atheists, one group consisted of four girls. The other four young men.
The Four Atheist Young Ladies--Unwilling to Consider the Evidence. The girls were hanging out at the entrance to the mall just talking. I approached them with a smile and warm hello and asked them how they were doing. I told them I had a free gift for each of them, some spending money for the mall, and started passing out the celebrity million dollar bills. They began and to pick and choose which celebrity bill they wanted. This created some small talk. I then told them that they were gospel tracts and had the million dollar question on the back. One girl said "I'm an atheist. I don't believe anything happens after you die." Really, I said. "Why do you believe that?" She said "because I've never seen heaven or hell." The other girls started echoing their leader. I listened to them patiently as they shared some really strange but obviously baseless views on life and the hereafter. It was truly sad. I began to share with them that the good news is that there is evidence for belief in heaven and hell, not just blind speculation and conjecture. But, they were completely unwilling to listen to the evidence and quickly walked off into the mall. As they left, I urged them to read the back of the tracts and consider their eternal destiny before it's too late. Sadly, these girls reflect a large group of people who are simply unwilling to examine the evidence for their beliefs, or lack thereof, walking blindly along toward the cliff of eternity, oblivious to their fate.
The Four Atheist Young Men--Open and Attentive to the Evidence. We then went inside the mall, waiting for another opportunity to share. As I passed by a section with lounge chairs in an open area, I saw four young men (teens and 20-somethings) sitting around talking. I approached them warmly and asked them if they had received their first million dollars in life and passed out my last four million dollar bill tracts to them. They were amused by the bills and the celebrities. As they were examining them, I told them about the million dollar question on the back and asked them if they had ever thought about their eternal destinies. One young man, Jeff, said that he thought it's just darkness after you die, like sleeping, and that nothing happens and you don't remember anything, like sleeping. "What do you base that belief on," I inquired politely and sincerely. He didn't really know. That's just what he thought. Again, pure naked conjecture bottomed on nothing substantial. Mere opinion. They were risking their eternal fate on hollow conclusions that hadn't been thought through. Another young man, Lucas, said that he was an atheist. He didn't think there was any after life at all. Gently, I responded:
Me: Lucas, to be an atheist who believes there is no god or afterlife requires absolute, complete knowledge of all there is in the universe in order to rule out there is absolutely no god. Do you have absolute knowledge of all there is in the universe?
Lucas: No.
Me: Of course not. None of us do. But, you can have faith that there is a heaven and a hell and God who loves you based on an abundance of evidence, not just blind faith or unsubstantiated opinion. Did you know that the God says in the Bible that you should base your beliefs on the evidence, not just hollow opinion? They looked at me with surprise. (1 Peter 3:15 says we should always be prepared to defend our faith. Christians must learn and know the evidence upon which their faith is rock-solidly and defensibly anchored.) That's right. God wants you to know there is powerful evidence for His existence and His love for you. In the Old Testament (Nu. 14:10-12), for example, "The LORD said to Moses, 'How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?" In other words, God asked Moses, "how much evidence will it take to make believers out of them?! Again, in the New Testament, Jesus appealed to the evidence of His divinity when challenged by the religious leaders, declaring as follows:
"But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish--the very works that I do [referring to His miracles]--testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me (John 5:35-37)." Again, in John, "Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me (John 7:7)."
Me: There's an overwhelming abundance of evidence, but I'll just share two pieces of powerful evidence with you today, so you can see that faith is founded on fact, not fiction.
First, I shared with them the evidence of Jesus' resurrection--how He predicted His resurrection on the third day and because of that the religious leaders posted a heavy guard at His tomb in order to prevent the tomb from being robbed and to prove it never happened; how He did rise on the third day and showed Himself to over 500 eyewitnesses; how the written testimonies of His appearance to over 500 witnesses (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, 1 Corinthians) were written at a time when most of those 500 witnesses were still alive (1 Cor.) and could have been subpoenaed, cross-examined, and exposed as frauds if the stories were in fact false, but they never were shown to be false, and their testimony thus stands unrefuted to this day.
Second, I shared with them the evidence of the conscience. I explained how the bible says the conscience is powerful evidence of God's design and the intrinsic residue of His moral nature stamped indelibly in our spiritual DNA (Rom. 2-3). To prove my point, I walked them through the law of God, the 1o Commandments. They honestly admitted they had lied countless times in violation of the 9th Command. They had stolen things in violation of the 8th Command. They had used God's name in vain in violation of the 3rd Command. And they had look upon women with lust in violation of the 7th Command (Matt. 5). Significantly, they then admitted that they knew their consciences told them these things were all wrong. We talked about how mere natural forces in a godless world cannot explain morality. If we were the product of mere random natural forces, we would live like amoral animals, killing each other without the slightest sense of guilty or remorse because survival of the fittest would be the most natural thing to do. But the very fact that is not how we're wired -- we have moral consciences built into us by a moral God -- proves God's very existence. They were extremely attentive to me the entire time.
From there, I pointed out that the Bible says we must all stand before God in judgment to be judged by His moral standard of righteousness, and they readily admitted that they would be judged guilty. They also admitted their eternal destiny would be hell if there is indeed such a place. I explained to them that the reason Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven was because of His great love for them. He doesn't want them to go there, which is why He came to earth. I told them what Jesus said about hell--that it's a place where the fire is never quenched and the flesh never dies (Mk. 9:43-49), and that there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 13:42), and that predeceased loved ones will desperately want us to repent and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation before it's too late (Lk. 16).
I then asked them if they knew what God had done to save them from their sin and to enable them to be declared innocent on the Day of Judgment and granted the privilege of entering the Kingdom of Heaven in God's presence forever. They didn't know. I explained that, seeing there was nothing we could do to save ourselves from our sins, God stepped down out of heaven and became a man .... I revealed to them the gospel message. I explained the two steps they must take in order to be born again and to secure their eternal destiny--repent and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Matt. 4:17; Mk. 1:15; Lk. 13; Jn. 3:3-36). I asked them when they were going to take those two crucial steps. They said they didn't know when they would do that. I urged them to do it before it's too late, because you never know when your last day will arrive. I thanked them for the attentiveness and taking the time to talk about things of eternal importance. I encouraged them to think about their eternal destiny and the evidence and to act soon. I pray the evidence and the truth of the Word of God will do it's work in their hearts and lives today!
Are you equipped to defend the faith? Start working on it today. Go to http://www.equip.org/ as one starting point where you get great, faith-building resources. The Christian Research Journal is one periodical to which you can subscribe at equip.org that is very helpful and powerful. God bless you as you begin to take steps to equip yourself to share the faith and witness daily while you still can!
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