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For they love the praise of men (Atheism Part 2)
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Darwin
It is interesting how many people who claim to be Christians respond so negatively when creation is discussed. Since evolution is one of the primary focuses of atheism, this topic will be addressed in this section of study. If you are one of those who think that creation is an embarrassment to Christianity, you will likely be offended by the discussions that follow. Knowing that so many are offended at the doctrine of creation, it is necessary to explain the purpose of addressing this topic up front. Many Christians argue that they believe all but the first chapter of Genesis. Some hold to all but the first three chapters of Genesis. Some have argued various portions of the Bible that they discredit but hold to others. The question we must ask is, “Why is chapter two inspired, or chapter three, or any other starting point?” Once we begin applying selective faith, we lose confidence in all. It is unfortunate that atheism seems to understand the battle for truth better than the church. Consider the following quote:
“Christianity has fought, still fights, and will continue to fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus' earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.” G. Richard Bozarth, 'The Meaning of Evolution', American Atheist 20 September, 1979, p. 30.
While the assumption Bozath stands upon is wrong, it is accurate to state that if Genesis is compromised, the whole authority of scripture is also compromised. The cross of Jesus nullified by those who deny that death came by sin and sin by the man Adam. If we do not believe that we inherit sin through human nature originating from Adam, we have completely undermined the gospel. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:21-22
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
The Bible teaches that just as all mankind passed through Adam and entered the curse of sin, all man must pass through Jesus Christ to be made alive and freed from the curse of sin. When Jesus answered the Pharisees question about divorce, Jesus pointed back to Adam and Eve to show that God established marriage from the beginning and once a man and a woman become one flesh, God does not make a provision for divorcing and remarrying to fulfill our own desires. Jesus pointed back to Adam to validate the laws of God; the epistles point back to Adam to validate the message of the cross and our redemption; therefore, if we remove that truth from Christianity, we have collapsed the foundation of our faith and denied the works of Christ.
People craft many arguments in an attempt to get around this issue, but the fact remains that the entire New Testament points back to Genesis as the foundation of how we understand redemption in Christ. The heart of the matter is that there is a desire to please men by putting one foot into the world while attempting to keep the other foot in the gospel. Jesus said that you cannot serve two masters. He also warned that the world will hate those who hold to the truth[i] and warned that if the world praises us, we are in the same class as the false prophets who gain the praise of men[ii]. The truth is that people are intimidated by mockery and ‘Theistic Evolution’ was born out of a desire to marry the world to the scriptures. Just as we are commanded not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, the scripture cannot be yoked to atheistic doctrines.
Do not be offended because I place evolution in the same class as atheism, for evolution is a doctrine of atheism. In fact, evolution is the foundation built by atheists and is the foundation atheism is built upon. Church people who hold to evolution get angry when a connection is made to atheism because they are not atheists. While it may be true that many who believe in evolution are not atheists, it is undeniable that evolution is the doctrine of atheism. Atheists of the past have made no secret of the fact that evolution is the avenue by which they seek to find an explanation to our origins without a need for God. By design, evolution theory was constructed for the purpose of excluding God from view and the fruit of this doctrine speaks for itself. I have yet to meet a Christian who was persuaded to turn to Christ because of the teachings of evolution. Compare this to the testimonies of thousands who turned from Christianity once they bought into the teachings of evolution. Jesus stated that you will know teaching and teachers by their fruits.
Let’s ask a simple question, “Why would God choose to reveal the truth of origins through atheism rather than raising up teachers from within the church?” Do you as a Christian believe that God chose to reveal truth through Charles Darwin who turned from the faith he was brought up in and openly declared his disbelief in God? The fact is that most Christians who hold to evolution have a desire to be called intellectual by the world while claiming to be believers in the Bible in their churches. Truth plus error equals error. The atheist understands the battle ground of this world view and it is time that the church understand it as well. As this doctrine is taught to successive generations, each generation abandons the faith in greater numbers. If you allow the youth to be taught evolution on any level without being challenged, you are turning their hearts away from God. Truly there is nothing new under the sun and the events of the Old Testament are being played out in the church of today. Look at 1 Kings 18:
21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
Baal was a false god that the people had turned to. They tried to marry false teachings with the word of God but the Lord declared that the nation was given to idolatry. Once truth was mixed with error, it was all error. You face the same challenge from the word of God in this generation. Why do you hold between two opinions? If you believe the word of the Lord, follow Him wholly, if not, you are following Baal whether you realize it or not. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been called an embarrassment to Christianity by church people who hold to evolution. If you are persuaded to stand upon the word, you can expect this reaction as well.
Richard Dawkins is considered one of the foremost advocates of atheism and is often called the world’s leading atheist and evolutionist. In the following articles, I will quote heavily from Dawkins along with other atheistic leaders. Many years ago when I struggled with doubt I approached an atheist group and asked the question, “If you could identify something that absolutely refuted Christianity, what would it be?” As you can imagine, there was no shortage of answers. Most were easily answered for they were misunderstandings of scripture, but there were a handful of questions that appeared to challenge the Bible. I spent several weeks researching the difficult questions and I found that each one was proven in favor of the scripture. This gave me great confidence for if the greatest objections fell short, I could give the scriptures the benefit of the doubt on the rest. It is impossible to answer every question for atheists love to use what I call ‘machinegun style argumentation’. Rather than exploring one topic to its conclusion, an atheist will ignore the answer and fire off a new question as the Christian attempts to answer. Either that or they will provide an exhaustive list of questions that would take an infinite amount of time to answer. The fact is that if the hardest objections can be answered, the rest has little impact. Don’t get caught up on every petty objection.
It is for this reason that I am using Dawkins as the focus of this study. Since he is the leading apologist for evolution and is the spokesman for this movement, it stands to reason that if his evidence can be answered, the plethora of voices competing for the limelight can be assumed to be echoing similar objections. Most atheists echo what they read from other atheists so most are redundant arguments or the rewording of similar objections. Richard Dawkins’ book, ‘The God Delusion’ was written with the intention of converting Christians to atheism. This book is introduced with the challenge to Christians to have the courage to read this book and write any rebuttal to its claims. Dawkins plainly states that his goal is for Christians to pick this book up and put it down as an atheist.
At the beginning of ‘The God Delusion’, Dawkins interjects some of the showers of praise that proclaim him as the leading atheist / evolutionist of our time and goes on to claim, “If you want an understanding of evolution or an argument for atheism, there are few better guides than Richard Dawkins”. For this reason I have read this book and plan to compile the main arguments into a study that the Christian can read to see through the smoke and mirrors that are used to disguise the lack of evidence from view. I found this book to be very inspirational, but not in the way Dawkins intended. If the world’s greatest atheist presents such poorly reasoned arguments against the God of the Bible and the atheist community claims that this is the best articulated argument for atheism, the Christian should be filled with confidence that truth remains firm in spite of the onslaught of attacks.
Rather than cowering in fear while atheist boast at themselves and mock the scriptures, the Christian should be equipped to stand firm knowing that if this is the best atheism has to offer, we have little to fear. Once these objections are answered, we need not concern ourselves with chasing the endless supply of rabbits that atheism casts out in an effort to distract from the truth. Atheism attempts to overthrow our confidence by repeating an endless mantra that serves no other purpose than to indoctrinate through repetitiously preaching assumptions rather than presenting true evidence.
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