Atheists Are Winning!

“Can churches do anything to maintain their relevancy? Maybe we’ve already won.”

That’s a line from the “Canadian Atheist” blog.

It is always with a sense of relief that atheists read reports of declining Church attendance in the West. They cheer this news as a sign that the world is finally headed toward their utopian dream. And well they should cheer. Their relentless message of “no god” is having an impact. Their message of the Bible being nothing more than “a bronze age book written by a bunch of goat-herders” is sinking in. People are indeed leaving the “Church” in record numbers. The ones leaving were never really in a relationship with Jesus in the first place, so the number of His followers is not being reduced, but that’s not the point. In the West Church attendance is down and dropping fast. Not so much for East Asia with China soon to be the largest Christian nation on earth. At any rate, all may not be as it seems. The truth of “We’ve already won,” depends entirely on one’s perspective.

You ever see those pictures of old bearded men strolling up and down the sidewalk with a sandwich board declaring, “The End Is Near!”

It’s true. I don’t know what that means in view of a definite time-line but reality is, rather than the Bible being hopelessly out of date, it is becoming more relevant by the day. Society is moving steadily towards life as it was in Jesus’ day.

“If they hate you, remember, they hated Me first.”

Jesus described the signs to watch for as we approach the Day as being like the birth pangs of a woman in labour. The labour pains increase not just in intensity but also in frequency. The warning signs that He described for His disciples then are looming with greater force day by day. What atheists are witnessing and celebrating is something prophesied long ago.

I can’t help but find it amusing as atheists cheer their role in fulfilling prophecy. The intimate pairing of rising atheism and homosexuality at the same time in history is just one example.

The spiritual continuum used to have a few atheists at one end and a few evangelical followers of Jesus at the other, with loads of christian pretenders and secular hangers-on in the middle. Today there are fewer and fewer people in the middle with both ends digging in. Most of those who were in the middle, functional atheists to a person, have moved into the atheist camp and, I might add, they are doing so in the delusional belief that it’s their intellectual, individual, free thinking self that is making the choice to move.

Nope - ‘fraid not.

Like someone being evicted from an apartment for not paying the rent, God is driving christian pretenders into the secular camp for not making use of the faith they were given. The rate of this eviction is increasing at a phenomenal pace. While God will welcome all He has chosen regardless of who they are or what they have done, those who wish to live without Jesus will find Him packing their bags for them. As the end draws near fewer and fewer are left in the middle.

Ya, atheists are winning. As long as you don’t count spending eternity in the absence of Love as winning.