I’m getting to know a young man through English classes. We started talking about people having different values and I found out he was an atheist. I’m not really surprised because a lot of younger people in Ukraine have come to this same conclusion because of so many reasons. Reasons like evil and pain in the world. Reasons like so many different and confusing religions including so many different Christian types of churches.
So what do you do?
I’m definitely not sure of all the answers and I haven’t gotten very far as of
yet. I started by getting him to talking about his feelings and values and why
he believed what he believed. I didn’t really try to answer all of his objections
and reasons for being a atheist. That would have only started an argument. I
don’t want to argue, I want to understand so I can find a way to show him the
way to Christ. I listened to him and really tried to understand him.
One thing that I
did tell him that I think got him to thinking. I told him that a lot of people see
atheism as a religion! That really took him back a bit! Then I told him that
the early Christians were persecuted by the Greeks and Romans because they had
many Gods and Christians had only one God. They said that Christians were
atheists because they believed in only one God! Hopefully this will be a place
that we can go from here.
When atheists
become Christians, they are usually very strong Christians because of the transformation
that takes place in their lives. Please pray for my new friend (name omitted for
understandable reasons). Please pray for me as I strive to show him the way to
Jesus!
I will be praying for you both. I met an atheist a few years ago in Canada. He was a biologist. I appealed to him about the design obvious in the natural world. He went from atheist to agnostic and eventually by accepting the Bible as inspired he was baptized into Christ. You are approaching your new friend with the right heart.
ReplyDeleteKeep working on him. His soul is worth it. Good luck and keep plugging away. Goid job and keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Doug! There are times in my life where I have tried to not believe...I guess to be an atheist. Despite my doubts, I just didn't enough faith to be an atheist. Atheism in light of creation takes way too much faith! I cannot get past the belief that there has to be a creator because of the incredible design of this world. And the very real love I experience from my wife and others leads me to believe in a loving creator. The life I see my brothers and sisters in Christ live always lead me back to Jesus. Thank God that even a faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains! Praise God!!
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