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