"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient."
Have you ever noticed that several young people from
Christian homes, Christian schools and church youth groups end up running as
fast and as far away from church as they can when they graduate from high
school? Often a broken heart declares that they “just don’t believe any of that
church stuff.” It is almost as if they were masquerading for the majority of
their high school years, and then on graduation day, they were finally able to
take off the mask and reveal their real self.
Many of these self-proclaimed “atheists” can have their feelings summed
up in the statement: “There is no God, and I hate Him!” This self-contradicting
statement stems usually from bitterness and misunderstanding, but is very
destructive and without the saving work of Jesus in the heart of the person, destruction
and condemnation certainly await them in eternity. Often these “atheists” find the truth of
Scripture as frustrating and hard to understand. They see the discipline and
protection of their parents as hatred and narrow-mindedness. They live in a
very self-serving world with themselves as the super-hero. They become the
absolute authority on all things in their life. If they don’t feel it, it
doesn’t exist. If they don’t think it, it’s not true. Very quickly they become
the standard by which they judge the world around them. In an effort to dismiss
what seemed to be inconvenient to them, they complicate their life and wind up
more frustrated. In Romans 1:28, Paul speaks about this type of person, “they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Like a small child who covers
his face with his hands to “hide” from you, they use their own thinking to
“hide” from the all-seeing Almighty. I wish I could say it ends well for them,
but the Bible doesn’t seem to say that. Rather, according to verse 32, judgment
is coming to them. All atheists will one day believe, whether during this
lifetime or the next. As Christians who do believe in God, let us work to draw
non-Christians towards the God we know.
Food For Thought:
What phrase did I say that self-proclaimed young atheists use? How is this
self-contradicting?
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