An atheist facebook friend of mine recently posted a great many pictures with funny sayings from an atheist prospective. I challenged her on one of them, not in a way that was slanderous, but a way that (I hope) challenged her to think through the implications of the picture. Now again, let me pull the plank out of my own eye, before I try to remove the speck from my friend’s. Christians, just like everyone else, have put up the “posters”, and while some posters have been insightful and challenged me to think (which contrary to popular belief is a great thing because many Christians do think and like it), but other posters have basically taken misconceptions of Christianity and projected them to be the reality. It may hurt but truth ought to provide counter-arguments and/or at least clarifications for some of these points.

The first (others will be commented in further posts) has a picture of Bill Gates saying he donates billions of dollars and does charity work yet he is still going to hell, so therefore Christianity must be intolerant, stupid, and blind to the good works of others so we ascribe Bill and others to hell.

So much is wrong here. First, I do not personally know Bill Gates and no other human does they way God does. God knows what is in Bill’s heart and mind, that is what it means to be omniscient. There is only one condition for a person to experience peace with God: by coming as you are, rich or poor, and accepting His boundless grace and forgiveness flourishing from His love. Who but God knows if Bill has accepted this offer? I cannot say if he has or has not and even if he has, perhaps he has chosen not to be vocal or “puffing out his chest” about it? That would actually be a breath of fresh air compared to many celebrities, politicians, and “power players” who claim to have some faith because they think it will appeal to a larger audience but in reality act nothing in accordance with the faith to which they claim to belong.With the highly intense and skeptical nature of our culture, if Bill Gates did announce he was a Christian, some would no doubt label him as being stupid and ignorant and honestly I think Bill has more important things to do that deal with bad publicity.

God alone knows the fate of a man, but I digress.

Let me try to put this another way. God’s grace is a gift given to all men to accept or reject no matter how rich or poor they may be. When it is grace + anything else, then it makes Christ’s death inadequate. Now as a man who hopes to have children, if I was ever asked to give up my adult son and then it was said that it was this “giving up” that would combine with something else to ensure people would be rescued, I would (out of love) urge, “then spare my son and put more of that other thing in for that will spare people.”

If God could have paid for our sins by any other way than sending His beloved Son on a rescue mission, as a loving Father, would he not have done so?

The cross is where justice and mercy meet and are united for in the crucifixion our punishment was mercifully put upon another and the requirements of justice were met. This was all done from the heart of love Jesus had for all humanity that He do this for them. Furthermore, the Christian worldview can definitely appreciate the gifts given by Bill [and yes we can call them “good” for any of you out there who think Christians don’t appreciate gifts given by non-Christians]. It is the same case as when aid was given from Richard Dawkins and other prominent atheists reached Haiti after the devastating earthquake; we were no going to stand in the way. God uses gifts from all people.

On a different final note from this one, let me use an example here: Mr. Smith owns a fortune 500 company and donates millions every year yet when no one is watching, he cheats his employees out of their wages, beats or neglects his children, and cheats on his wife. All-in-all he helps out hundreds of thousands of people and has hurt 500 people. Now of that day when we all stand accountable for what we did in this life, and God hands out justice (to harmonize all and restore what was lost). What will God do? If He lets Mr. Smith into heaven because of those hundreds of thousands, where is the justice for those 500? Is God simply to ignore their plight? This is how grace levels the playing filed. Just like a perfect courtroom, justice must be given by the perfect Judge. None of us can stand before Him innocent, because we all have hurt someone by doing the wrong thing or ignoring the right. We all have been hurt by someone too.

We need a Savior. We need to be forgiven and the debt we have incurred paid. We need the justice to be delivered so that we can be declared innocent. If God judged a man solely by his works or his wealth, how much would be enough? Salvation would become monopolized like it was during those dark periods of church history known as the Crusades where salvation was used as a bargaining chip to stir others to combat. What of the kind-hearted grandmother who has not two pennies to rub together but loves her family dearly and donates most of her time to clothing the homeless? Grace, the gift of new life in God does not distinguish between rich & poor, black & white, male or female.

I do not know what Bill Gates believes in, but I can affirm the money he donates is good. I cannot tell you where Bill Gates will be when he dies. THAT IS GOD’S JOB. To put poster up that presumes to know otherwise is based on a false assumption: I know better than God…trust me I don’t.

With the positive response of the last blog I posted and with the encouragement of others, I thought I’d keep writing and blogging about different theological issues and my thoughts about them, so here is “Reflections of a Ginger Theologian” pt 1.2

I have a few friends (wish I could have more sometimes) on facebook who are very staunch atheists. I have liked discussing with them and not just about theology either. Many have families, fears, wishes, hopes, dreams. They are people. That is one thing we as Christians forget sometimes. Atheists are human beings too and if we subscribe to a faith and worldview built on a Teacher who taught us to love all people and to sincerely show love by our actions. Many atheists, I would argue, never woke up one morning and said to themselves, “gee I think I would like to go and make every religious person in the world mad at me by calling them idiots and say their most cherished beliefs are garbage.” I know it may be tempting to think that in light of some of the more venom-filled attacks of guys like Richard Dawkins (feel free to examine my essay to the right written about my take on his book “the god dillusion” NOTE: it is a work in progress), but if bitterness begets bitterness, then answering tirades against with anything less than the truth presented in sincere love will accomplish nothing.

I have been reading through a recent book by Alex McFarland10 Answers for Skeptics, and it lists many different reasons why people do not believe in any religious belief in general or Christianity in particular. For some it is education, others it is pride, still others it is pain, and the list goes on and it is often a combination of all of these for people are complex.

I say that to say this. Present the gospel in such a way that if someone rejects it, it is the message (gospel) they have a problem with rather than you the messenger.

The gospel of Christ cuts to the core of the idols many of us have set up in our hearts. I have been reflecting a great deal on the passage of Matthew 19:16-26. In this passage, a man of great wealth and self-proclaimed religious devotion, the man asks what must I do to get eternal life? After Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, and he affirms he has. Then he asks, “what do I still lack?” Jesus goes right straight to what could be called a roadblock in his walk with God: His wealth.

God searches out the depths/heart/mind of a man to see if they are truly serious about following Him and if so, callus us to ride ourselves of anything that gets in the way of it, as a process called “dying to self” or “dying to what I want and living selflessly, loving God and neighbor” (which I admit I need to work on greatly). My point is that often (not always) when people have a problem with the message and the person of Jesus (not us as messengers, not the tainted flawed history of the church), it is because He offers us the highest gift that is truly free, but out of the same mouth says, that following Him on this earth means letting go of everything else that is getting in the way of your following Him.

Part 1/2 stay tuned