“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world.”  (1 John 4)

 

Reader,
I spend time in chat rooms and comment sections with unbelievers and militant atheists.  I can testify to the warnings of Christ that regarded the hatred of the world that would be a vexation to those who are filled with the Spirit of Christ. Many of these haters simply spew their hatred and have nothing else to threaten anyone that is protected by the whole armour of God upon their person.

These lightweight and ignorant persons are like a person that would argue with you if you said grass is green.  The thrust of their unsupportable and emotionally controlled reactions, not logical responses, but unreasonable rantings, are filled with personal attacks, cliches, curse words, vitriol, and what is the offspring of ignorance and parrotted one-syllable attacks. I’m not being mean or unnecessarily offensive, I am sharing objective judgments.

However, once in a while, every one hundred (100) years or so (Hyberbole), there comes an intelligent, militant, and devangelical,” if you will, atheist and is capable to remain composed and give tic for tac. They share recollections of emotional and uncomposed believers, who lash out with curse words, violence and even spittle.  There is no defense for that kind of action, as Paul says, [The saved] man’s wrath worketh not the righteousness of God, and as David said, the wrath of [the unsaved and militant] man serves God’s purposes.

Vitriolic arguments and debates that are motivated by a contentious spirit will not win others to Christ. Debate for debates sake is carnal and all flesh, even a well meaning debater who argues in the flesh displeases God because his arguments are not of faith.  Many argue for “their personal faith” because they are consciously or unconsciously seeking affirmation by making others bow to the their logic and beliefs. That is why religious topics get so over-heated. The over-heated believer is not so much concerned about lost souls and eternity as he is with proving his point.

One does not find many examples of emotional and personal attacks in Scripture.  Most disaggrements are between fellow believers, Paul and Barnabus and Paul and Peter are examples. However, it is certain that God’s witnesses would challenge and engage those of other beliefs and false religions. Elijah and the prophets of Baal stands as an example. Another example is in Acts; Paul spoke of Christ to the Greeks. Other examples include John the Baptizer’s engagements with religious leaders. Christ also had His battles with religious and political leaders.

These battles, over doctrine and spiritual truths, stuck to Scriptural logic, reason, history, parables, and analogies and the exposure or defeat of man’s religions.  In the Reformation, the battles did get personal but it began over doctrinal and dogmatic issues.

All of the above stand as examples for us to follow and pattern ourselves after.  Recall the verbal combat between Mose and Pharoah, recall Christ’s composure, and over-whelming Competancy and regal stance during His illegal trials, as if He was in control of the illegal trials and with the proper prespective one can see He was in charge of all that was coming to pass in His Passion.

These are lesson to us. These examples should prepare the Christ-ian witness for proper, for controlled, and for composed engagements or shoulder and collar lock ups over the Truth of Scripture and the exposure and deficiencies of all other “religions.”

When the militant unbeliever uses the argument that there is no evidence, outside of the Bible, that proves the very existence of Christ.  This makes the fool feel smart and wise. However, there is a way to answer their fallacious arguments.

Why or how are we to be fully convinced with Bin Laden’s crimes on 9/11?  You didn’t see Bin Laden and neither did I, he was a face on books and newspapers and we were told that he was “the guy.” I’m not saying he wasn’t the guy, I am only pointing out how we are able know he was the guy.  I never met Abraham Lincoln, I’ve seen pictures and read books about him but I have never had any experiential knowledge that would confirm that Lincoln existed. The evidence of Lincoln is accepted and appropriated by the evidence we have.

When the militant atheist goes to the “Jesus never existed and cannot be proven” corner of the ring, we are should not be dismayed, disappointed, dismissed or defeated. When the atheist says there is no proof, you can know that he is already defeated and he is intellectually dishonest and does not believe grass is green.

The atheist will acknowledge that the Roman philosopher, Cicero existed because there is evidence. There are letters that are still in existence.  WELL…one of those letters was written and sent by a man named Saul/Paul of Tarsus, who was an apostle of Christ. If Paul, the Apostle existed, if Cicero, the philosopher existed, then Christ Jesus existed. It is logical. It goes like this
*Paul was an apostles of Jesus Christ
*Cicero is an accepted and proven historical figure.
*Paul, the apostle of Christ had communications with Cicero,  an accepted and historically proven person.
Therefore, The historically accepted Cicero gives validation that Paul, an Apostle of Christ existed, and the provable existence of Paul, an Apostle of Christ, gives evidence and testimony to the existence of The historical Jesus Christ.

There exists plenty of historical evidence, outside of Christ-ianity and outside of Scripture that validates the very historical Christ. There exists plenty of non-Christ-ian writings that speak to Christ.  As they say, “Google it.”

However, even with all the evidence that shouts of Christ’s existence, will not do anything.  It is the peculiar and God-given gift of repentance and faith from God that allows one to believe. It is the regeneration of the dead spirit that allows us to see the Rock-hard evidence and revelation of our sin, folly, and undone-ness before God and it is this new life that allows us to sense Christ’s Presence and Witness. These are truths that the natural man cannot receive or begin to understand. It is written, we love Him because He first loved us.

The last sentence is inspirational and doctinally sound. On the other hand however, those that reject and love not God, those who love not God’s Son, those who love not their neighbor and enemy, and hate Christ and those called by His Name were never loved by God in the first place. I know that sounds harsh and those that preach from presuppositions and prejudiced leanings would charge me with heresy. All of that is fine, but the Logos or Logic of the Scriptures, the implications of Scripture and the faith-filled-deductions and inferences that we are to take from Scripture stand firm.

Godspeed.