Your first impulse may be to deny the
statement in the title. You may say that God has made us free moral agents with
the power to choose one thing or another, and that our religion must be a
matter of individual choice. Of course there is some truth in that. But what
does it mean? And how many possibilities are there from which to choose? It may
come as a surprise to you to learn that God offers only one religion, and your
only choice is to accept it or reject it. That’s it. Take it or leave it. But
His response to you will be based firmly upon your choice to do it His way or
not. Oh yes, you may substitute any number of things for what He asks, and you
may be well satisfied with the arrangement. But the fact remains that God’s
offer has been rejected, which means God has been rejected, which means you
have been rejected by God. Read carefully 1 Corinthians 1:10-11, Galatians
1:6-8, Ephesians 4:4-6, Romans 1:16-17, and John 12:48. Everyone is free to
reject the offer of God, but he is not free to reject the consequences of his
rejection (Romans 6:16-17).
Freedom of religion in our society is
usually interpreted to mean that each person is free to choose and practice
whatever suits his religious needs and desires, so long as it does not violate
the rights of others. No person is to be allowed to force his religious beliefs
upon others. That is the view which led to the ruling of the Supreme Court
against Bible reading and prayer in public schools. The ruling was not intended
to encourage atheism, but simply to define the state’s relationship to religion
as neutral. However, atheists were encouraged by the ruling and have pressed
for the removal of religion from all aspects of public life – think what you
want, but do not speak it or act it out, lest someone of a different persuasion
have his feelings hurt. Now that psychology and psychiatry have convinced us
that thoughts are parents to deeds – the Bible taught that a long time before
those two psy’s made their appearance (Proverbs 4:23, Mark 7:20-23) – we may lose
our freedom even to think religious thoughts. Atheism belittles and ridicules
and actively opposes and punishes religion, but that is not considered a hate
crime because they have found the courts of human opinion and civil law to be
on their side.
Atheism likes to assume that man can be free
from religion, but that is impossible. The word religion, reduced to its
simplest definition, means “tied back or tied to,” hence a way of life; a
pattern for living. The laws or principles that one applies to his life can
properly be called his religion. The Christian religion is simply the way of life which takes its
direction from and submits to the authority of Jesus Christ, which is the one
proper way to the one true God (Matthew 28:18-20, Colossians 3:17, John
14:1-9). One’s way of life need not have any god in it to be a religion. So
atheism is a religion – a way of life without God, without any god. Atheism is
from Greek ATHEOS, and means literally “without God, having no god.” It does
not necessarily imply or require disbelief or denial of the existence of God.
It implies only that one has no god in his life, that he is unaffected by and
not associated with any god. Some may cultivate atheism for its value in
shocking other people. One cannot prove or disprove the existence of God or
gods. But one can reject any and all existing gods – that is atheism. Some are
atheists because they have been disillusioned and turned off by the hypocrisy
of so many professing believers, especially the absurdity of so many different
and contradictory beliefs and commandments all supposedly emanating from the
same God and the same Christ. Some will not accept the concept of a God they
cannot fully understand. And then of course there is the atheism of
indifference – the “I couldn’t care less” attitude about God and
Christianity.
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