Atheists Nail It!

Most of the time Christopher Hitchens' drug addled and atrophied intellect showed loud and clear but once in awhile he really nailed it. For example:

“What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.”  Christopher Hitchens

Isn't that ever the truth though? For example, when an atheist tells you that s/he knows this is a material universe with no hint of a Creator or any evidence for the supernatural, and when s/he asserts this because s/he says, “Material things can begin to exist without an external cause,” do exactly what Hitchens says. Dismiss it. Toss it. Disregard such anti science comments because the evidence for this assertion has never been observed, tested or verified. All we have is an atheist driven conclusion based entirely on blind faith.

When an atheist tells you that s/he knows this is a material universe with no hint of a Creator or any evidence for the supernatural, and when s/he asserts this because s/he says, “Everything material can come from literally nothing material without a material cause,” do exactly what Hitchens says. Dismiss it. Toss it. Disregard such anti science comments because evidence for this assertion has never been observed, tested or verified. All we have is an atheist driven conclusion based entirely on blind faith.

When an atheist tells you that s/he knows this is a material universe with no hint of a Creator or any evidence for the supernatural, and when s/he asserts this because s/he says, “Life evolved from inanimate, inorganic gases,” do exactly what Hitchens says. Dismiss it. Toss it. Disregard such anti science comments because evidence for this assertion has never been observed, tested or verified. All we have is an atheist driven conclusion based entirely on blind faith.

When an atheist tells you that s/he knows this is a material universe with no hint of a Creator or any evidence for the supernatural and when s/he asserts this because s/he says, “the material infinite is tenable, as does an infinite regress of cause” do exactly what Hitchens says. Dismiss it. Toss it. Disregard such anti science comments because evidence for this assertion has never been observed, tested or verified. All we have is an atheist driven conclusion based entirely on blind faith.

When an atheist tells you that s/he knows this is a material universe with no hint of a Creator or any evidence for the supernatural and when s/he asserts this because s/he says, “The material nothing doesn't really mean nothing material." And when s/he says, "All the stuff that I asserted above, even those things that contradict science are true,” when you hear atheists make these kinds of claims, and they will make these kinds of claims because their belief system depends on such absurdities, do what Hitchens says to do. Dismiss it. Toss it. Disregard such anti science comments because evidence for these assertions have never been observed, tested or verified. All we have are atheist driven conclusions based entirely on blind faith.

Finally, when you hear atheists ask illogical questions like:

“So when did this eternal Creator begin to exist?” OR

“So what created this eternal Creator?”

When you hear absurd questions like this from atheists, and you will hear them, you know that you listening to someone whose brain has run it's course just as Christopher Hitchens' brain finally threw up its hand in defeat.

The Worst Part of Hell

I've said this before. I think the worst part of hell, well, one of the worst parts of being in hell is that there is no way to go back and warn your family and friends that the thing you were so certain about (that hell does not exist) was wrong. You've persuaded people to drink poison and now, no matter how badly you want to change the course, there is nothing you can do to prevent their deaths.

Peter Hitchens, Christopher's smarter brother, says, “Those who write where many read, and speak where many listen, had best be careful what they say. Someone is bound to take them seriously, and it really is not good pretending that you didn't know this.”

Now, in truth, we can't blame those who convinced us of this or that world-view. We all have the same evidence before us and it's up to us to chart our own course. Yet the guilt for those who have to watch their loved ones follow them into eternal damnation will be massive – and eternal. 

Jesus warned that one day, evil will be banished from His presence. Included in this separation will be all those who have sided with evil. Eternal rejection of God begets eternal separation from God. To convince those you claim to love that what Jesus said is not true will condemn your loved ones to:

. The complete absence of Good
. The total, all pervasive presence of evil
. Absolute fear
. Unmitigated hatred and rage
. Total, complete and unending darkness
. Unrelieved sorrow
. Unequivocal alone-ness
. Absolute shame
. Unbounded regret
. Undiluted violence.
. Sheer panic. 

 . Unrelenting dissatisfaction
. All encompassing meanness
. Overwhelming stench
. Total betrayal
. There will be no freedom from pain, only total, all consuming, overwhelming pain.

As bad as that is, nothing will be worse than knowing that I convinced people I cared about to follow me to eternal destruction.
These are the conditions that exist when the essence of God is completely absent. That is what atheists say they want - the complete absence of God. That is why, as God draws back His hand of protection, little by little, bit by bit our world is descending into a deepening hell of violence and cruelty.

Hell is the destination for people who have finally come to the end of a journey, the main focus of which, the main direction of which has been to live a life without humbling yourself before Creator God. If you long to be free from the presence of God during your life on earth, then Hell is nothing but the ONLY destination you could possibly reach given the road upon which you’ve chosen to travel.

What kind of a person would choose that for themselves?

"When New Atheism was loosed upon the world, birthed by writers like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, the Center for Inquiry was plunged into a crisis. But Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens were not especially interested in humanism (or tolerance, or kindness) and as a “new generation” of ungentlemanly soldiers they were not especially interested, either, in doing business with religion, at any level. CFI moved from being a beacon of sophisticated speculation about religion and secular values to becoming a support group for angry anti-religionists and college faddists. An organization that used its stable of worthies to fund worthy projects had chosen instead to become a celebrity booking agency for sideshow atheism. If atheism once had an ugly face (think Madalyn Murray O’Hair) this was its reincarnation."

Atheist R. Joseph Hoffmann – friend of the late Paul Kurtz

It's up to you - so be logical!

It seems to me that atheists consistently take the abuses of purist Muslims (what we in the West call terrorists) and Roman Catholicism (eg. selling Indulgences and goddess worship), and apply their justified feelings of condemnation and outrage to Christianity.

All the while ignoring completely the teaching of Jesus the Christ. 

Christopher Hitchens was a master at this.

The worst that I've ever heard atheists say against Christianity is talk about God wiping out those societies who killed children as live burnt offerings (atheists ALWAYS side with those societies), or accuse us of being hypocrites who discriminate against homosexuals.

I can live with that but it seems silly and more than a little pitiful. 

After all, we Christians ARE all hypocrites to one degree or another, and so is every single atheist. What's more, some of us have discriminated against minorities, including homosexuals. We stand guilty as charged on those two counts. 

Please though, judge the teachings of Jesus, not by how some Muslim, or Catholic or even some Christian behaves. 

Jesus stands or falls on His own.

Just as you too will stand or fall, based upon your decisions and your actions.

You will not have to answer for anyone else.

Go To Hell!

“I condemn Christianity; I bring against the Christian Church the most terrible of all accusations that an accuser has ever had in his mouth. It is, to me, the greatest of all imaginable corruptions; it seeks to work the ultimate corruption, nothing is untouched by its depravity; it has turned every value into worthless, and every truth into a lie, and every integrity into baseless of the soul.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Hmm, if he had only named the evil by its true name - Sinful Human Nature - the same nature that works in the hearts of religious people who spread corruption within the Church, he would have been bang on. But of course, self-centred atheists like Nietzsche never look at themselves as being possible contributors to the world’s woes.

I saw a video of Hitchens cursing God because there was so much misery in the world: starving children, women being abused, raped and killed, wars and pestilence and such. Funny for someone who says he doesn’t believe that God exists. And of course, since God is out of the picture in atheist world, just whose fault must it be that 25,000 children die every single day from preventable means?

Yes - That’s right.

And because God agrees that our self-centred nature is to blame, a nature that we refuse to do anything about, there is going to be hell to pay.

Or, you can allow God to do something about your nature. Looking out for the interests of others, especially for those in need of compassion is the main value of Jesus the Christ.

Compassion - an attitude that nauseated both Nietzsche and Ayn Rand.
Compassion, a characteristic that works against survival of the fittest.

Jesus put others first and all followers of Jesus feel compelled to care for the interest of others. Paul said, “In humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

This is the radical message that Nietzsche hated. In the first century of Christianity, the Roman Empire ensured that enslaving humans was common place. Abortion was openly accepted as was leaving handicapped children in the gutter or the fields to die.

It was during this time that Jesus’ brother and follower James wrote, “Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.” These Christians took abandoned infants from the gutters and adopted them. Out of compassion, the compassion that Jesus imparts to His followers, causes them both today and then to reach out to the poor, the sick and the homeless. All humans are seen as made in the image of God who gave them value, dignity and worth.

“[Because of Christianity] Many permanent legal reforms were set in motion. Licentious and cruel sports were checked; new legislation was ordered to protect the slave, the prisoner, the mutilated man, the outcast woman. Children were granted important legal rights. Infant exposure was abolished. Women were raised from a status of degradation to that of legal protection. Hospitals and orphanages were created to take care of foundlings.” Sherwood Wirt “The Social Conscience of the Evangelical”

And to this Christopher Hitchens, Nietzsche, Ayn Rand and other atheists say, “Religion poisons everything.”

It was the compassionate heart of the Christian that compels h/her to care for people that society has forgotten or rejected. It’s Christians who reached out to help the blind, the elderly, the mentally challenged, the handicapped, the poor when no one else would. And it is these people of compassion that modern atheists would like to do away with. Well, in hell they won’t have to worry about sitting with people whose main focus is compassion.

Atheists and a Culture of Proud

Can you imagine how much pride a person must have to think that s/he is not part of the problem that inflicts the world? Atheists like Hitchens and Dawkins actually believe that the world’s problems are caused, not by corrupt humans, but by religion, or the wrong political party or - well -pick something.

You can pick anything but yourself because to pick yourself might damage your precious pride. The multi-divorced Dawkins and the drunken Hitchens are so blinded by pride that they actually absolve themselves from what’s wrong with the world. They actually believe the world would be better if people thought / acted like they did and believed what they believe.

And contrary to what most atheists would like to think, I do NOT believe the world would be better off if people thought / acted like me or believed what I believe. I agree with G. K. that what’s wrong with the world IS me. Not because of my religion but because I am a human whose character, like all other humans is hopelessly lost.

On the other hand, I do think the world would be better off if people thought / acted like Jesus and believed what He taught; believed to the point of taking on the character of Jesus through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

I’ve written on how the atheist Hugo would love me to wear the shackles of pride.

Instead I’m thinking, ‘If only I could shake off pride completely!’
And why would I want to get rid of pride? Because I love freedom.
The fact is, it’s only the humble who know freedom.

“God opposes the proud but gives His grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand so that at just the right time He will lift you up. Cast all your anxiety and worries upon Him because He cares about you.” 1st Peter 5:5-7. Next to John 3:16 I think this is the most important verse in the Bible.

. Where ever you find anxiety or worry you’ll find a person trying to be self-sufficient.

. Where ever you find someone troubled by fear, you’ve found someone trying to act independent of God.

. Where ever you find worry or anxiety you’ll find at the root a person with too much pride to obey God.

And that’s what Hugo the atheist wants for me.
Gee, thanks a lot.

Jesus’ solution on the other hand is to give me a life of peace and joy and a life that is free from worry.

Jesus promises to give to me His grace - His Grace! - and all I have to do is humble myself by doing what?
By working harder?
By striving longer?
By carrying a bigger load?

Ha! Of course not.

Jesus promises to give to me His Grace if I let Him - did you get that? - if I let Him do all the work.

“Throw your cares and anxiety and worry and problems at Me and let Me carry them.
Uhmmm o- - -k.

Jesus says, “Humble yourself by admitting that you aren’t in control and I’ll prove to you that I care about you by making your life run as smoothly as life in this fallen world can run.”

Hugo says that my faith in Jesus, that depending on Him as my guide isn’t like a mechanical guidance system (see my post “Yellow Submarine) because it hasn’t been tested. What a preposterous statement! The faith of Christians has been tried, tested and found eminently reliable 100's of billions of times.

. Humble myself, reject pride and quit stealing glory from where it’s due, and in return I’m given joy and peace and freedom that is good beyond description.
. Humble myself, reject pride, and in return I’m given a life where good comes out of any and every situation.

And THAT is what Hugo would like me to give up so that I can adopt his proud self-sufficiency.

Good grief what a stupid idea!

I’ve left the atheist’s culture of pride and I ain’t never coming back.

Looks Who’s Watching!

The Arizona Atheist is convinced that cameras are watching him. The "Man" is out to get him, or so he thinks. As he drives down the street, this atheist is certain that he’s seen cameras move for no other reason than to find out where he’s going. The guy even blames Red Light Cameras for rear end collisions.

Chris Hitchens has a similar issue but this time it really is The MAN upstairs who’s bugging him. Chris can’t stand it that God sees everything that he does.

Personally? It makes me chuckle.

“He’s watching you poo Mr. Hitchens!”

Who cares if the police are watching? Really - who cares? Ya, you know who cares. It’s those who are doing or who would like to do something wrong. They’re the same ones who hit the brakes every time they see a speed trap ahead. They need to do that because without being watched they can’t make themselves do the right thing.

I say, “Let em watch." The only time that the law will have an interest in me is when being a Christian becomes a crime. And if that happens in my lifetime they can come and get me. I want to live my life so transparently, so consistently that it will be impossible to not convict me.

The following is a copy of a note found written in the office of a young Pastor in Zimbabwe, following his martyrdom for his faith in Jesus Christ.

I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made - I’m a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed
My present makes sense
My future is secure.

I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colourless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, fake friendships, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean in His presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer, and I labour with power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my Guide reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitated in the presence of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me.

And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me - my banner will be clear!

Is Hitchens Still Alive?

I sometimes go a few days without checking the news, so not sure, is the man of double-speak still around? I say double-speak because Chris is the man, I think, who said that religion poisons everything - just as though every philosophy or world-view other than religion is good. That is in fact what he wants you to believe. This, even though empirical evidence shows that most of the violence and death and atrocity from the 20th century was generated by movements that were distinctly secular - AND - there is no reason to expect any change in this century even with radical Islam rising.

Richard Dawkins has said, “Individual atheists may do evil things but they don’t do evil things in the name of religion.” Bull! The atheists that did the greatest amount of evil in the 20th century did so because their atheism spawned a seething hatred for religion as demonstrated by Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Honecker, Castro, Ho, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Kim, Ceausescu and virtually every atheist that blogs about religion. The point of their agendas is, ‘Religion is harmful. Get rid of it and everything will begin to move toward civil society.’

Marx and Engels put it bluntly, “Abolish all religion and all morality.”

The fallacy in the belief that peace will reign if religion is dismantled is seen in the fact that in the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the October Revolution, the Russian Civil War, the Sino-Indian War, the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, the Chinese Civil War and other conflicts around the globe that have killed 100 million people, religion is nowhere to be seen, except as a target for the violence, while atheism is front and centre. Richard Dawkins simply cannot bring himself to admit that atheism was the driving force from which atheists, directing governments made up exclusively of atheists was obsessed with spreading anti-God propaganda, and specialized in the murder of millions upon millions upon millions of believers. Atheist Soviet rulers systematically and efficiently destroyed the majority of churches and killed the majority of religious leaders during a period from 1918 - 1941. This was not individual atheists perpetrating evil. This was individual atheists doing evil in the name of atheism. They were perpetrating evil, all according to the atheist agenda to eliminate religion from society.

To be fair, tremendous evil HAS been done by religious people.
To be fair, none of the evil that has been done can be supported by the teachings of Jesus.

The influence of Jesus in people’s lives produces the opposite of evil and if you are seeing a pattern of evil in someone’s life then you are not seeing a follower of Jesus.

“Belief that you are accepted by God by sheer grace is profoundly humbling. The people who are fanatics, then, are not so because they are too committed to the Gospel, but because they are not committed enough. Think of the people you consider fanatical. They’re overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive, and harsh. Why? It’s not because they are too Christian but because they are not Christian enough. They are fanatically zealous and courageous, but they are not fanatically humble, sensitive, loving, empathetic, forgiving, or understanding - as Jesus was. What strikes us as overly fanatical is actually a failure to be fully committed to Jesus and His Gospel.”
Tim Keller

A man as brilliant as Hitchens should know that it’s we - humans - that poison everything, including religion. His bigotry causes him to direct his rage toward religion and give all other forms of thought, including the one most guilty of death a pass.

Doing It Right

I meet so many people who are genuinely surprised to find themselves doing harm to those they love. I was sitting with a couple the other day. They weren’t totally hostile to Christianity yet, they were surprised at how badly they treated each other (he’d just started an online affair - she'd been super critical of him since day one). They didn’t want their souls to change, but neither did they want to live with the consequences of their behaviours.

Do you see the problem here?

When we are wrong on the inside we can’t even WANT to do what’s right. Oh sure, we can love those who love us. Who can't? But when my love for you is based on you loving me first, well, that's a recipe for destruction. This doesn’t mean that non Christians must always be Charles Mansons or Stalins. It does mean that non redeemed souls will most often put themselves first, even in their most important relationships. What these people really want is to continue being “wrong on the inside” but not experience the consequences of being wrong. Even when their conscience tells them they’re treating each other wrong, their whole inner being is tilted away from the right things. The "right things" aren't even recognised as options. This is why Christopher Hitchens and others like him hate so terribly the very thought of God watching over them. What God wants for them is the very opposite of what their unregenerate heart wants for themselves.

In my own life:
Only Jesus could reverse the trending downward to self-destruction.
Only Jesus could make His law attractive to me.
Only Jesus could make His way of life seem important.
Only a character that’s was changed by Jesus could come to see sin for the horror that it truly is.

On CNN the question was asked, “Should parents in a struggling marriage stay together for the children?” The majority of the people thought not eg., “I left my husband because I didn’t want my children to believe that they had to “just settle.” I want them to go after happiness.”

It didn’t occur to anyone to ask, “Should parents in a struggling marriage change the way they treat each other for the sake of the children; should they change so that their children can learn how to love?” Had that question been asked, the answer would have still been - “No - We’re not willing to change.”

And why aren't they willing to change?

Because we CAN’T treat each other good - we can’t even WANT to treat each other good - when we ourselves are not good.

Jesus allowed divorce for one reason only - “Because of your hard and evil hearts.”

If you knew that you possessed a hard and evil heart, wouldn’t you want to change that aspect of your nature?

Wouldn’t you?

And if not, why not?

Hard and evil hearts cannot show the love and mercy and forgiveness that all marriages need. Healing a marriage requires that the people themselves change, and that is precisely what people are not willing to do. Many people won’t even admit that inner change is necessary. “I’m a good person” is the mantra of atheists. So convinced are people that it’s not their fault, that after a divorce they quickly marry someone new fully expecting that this time things will be better. Statistics say otherwise.

I address this in a multi part series, http://makarios-makarios.blogspot.com/2006/12/will-i-ever-find-partner-whos-good-for.html

Until Jesus changes who we are, we simply don’t have loving those who are difficult to love as an option. So our children are left with the pattern of walking away from difficult relationships.

Without Jesus in our hearts, without Jesus as Lord and Master of our lives, our children will not even have the option of doing it right.

“Hitchens Apparent Winner”

That’s a CBC headline as Chris Hitchens debated former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Toronto.

So, Hitchens spends eternity in hell and is declared a winner. Just whose measuring stick are we using here?

No Compassionate God Here

On a blog about Christopher Hitchen’s walk with cancer, and on his article in Vanity Fair, one comment was,

“[Hitchen’s cancer] is further proof that a compassionate God does not exist.”

I couldn’t disagree more.f

IF God exists and IF hell exists, then grabbing someone who is on h/his way to hell and shaking him until You get his attention is the most compassionate thing a loving God could do.

Unlike a car accident, a heart attack, a stroke, or falling down stairs, or being crushed in an earthquake, or being caught in random shooting or any number of ways that our ability to make a decision for God can end suddenly, cancer and almost exclusively cancer gives a person time to contemplate the only two eternal options set before you.

Remember, this cancer will be just the latest, albeit the most dramatic of a long line of warnings that Hitchens has received and ignored over the years.

Hitchens is so far down the “Deny God’s Existence Road” that if there is ANY hope for return, he will need as much time as possible. I can think of few other options besides cancer that will give Chris:

a) a reason to think about the end

b) the time to think about the end, and

c) hold his attention until the end, like the severe mercy that is cancer.

May Christopher Hitchens accept the forgiveness and salvation that is being offered to him right now by the God of all mercy and kindness, patience and grace, compassion and love before it’s too late.

“I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation."

Christopher said he thinks that many people are eagerly awaiting his demise. There may be some. He’s made a lot of money out of creating deliberate offense. This I do know. God is not eagerly awaiting Mr. Hitchens’ death.

“I take no delight in the death of the wicked. So turn from your sins and live.”

To date Chris Hitchens has portrayed himself as someone who will glibly step of the dead body of Jesus just to prove that he is accountable to no one, not even his Creator. My prayer is that Hitchens experiences spiritual healing as soon as possible so that not only his remaining days on earth but from today and on into eternity he may truly rest in peace in the glorious presence of his Creator.

Even after a life-time spent in blaspheming God and mocking, ridiculing and outright hating His followers, the offer of forgiveness from a compassionate God is still on the table -

Only Chris can keep that from happening.

Irresponsible Christopher Hitchens

Jesus said, “Take no thought for tomorrow.”

Oh my how Chris hates that command. The outrage, the OUTRAGE I tell you that Chris feels when he reads that verse fairly makes him froth at the mouth. Now if he’d voiced his dismay over what Jesus said just yesterday or any time after he’d been diagnosed with throat cancer, we could assume that Christopher was angry at Jesus for not making him stop smoking thirty years ago. But no. Chris has been ranting about this line of Jesus for years. To trust your Creator is irresponsible, don’t you know? Chris tells us that in order to be responsible citizens we must think and brood and worry and plan and scheme about our tomorrow. Why, that’s the atheist way.

Let me ask you a question. Who said this? “God helps those who help themselves.”
a) Cain - as he was gathering the fruit for his sacrifice?
b) Moses - just before he killed the Egyptian?
c) Joseph - just after he’d been sold into slavery?
d) David - just before he killed Goliath?
e) Paul - as he shook the snake off his arm?
f) Judas - as he stole money that was meant for the temple treasury?
The answer later.

Since becoming a Christian, the reality of my own life has been:
The less I try to succeed, the more successful God has made me
The less I plan, the more God’s plans for me have been brought to completion
The more I lean on God, the stronger I become
The weaker I am the more that God’s strength is made present in me
The more that I’ve put Jesus first in my life, the more that “all these things have been given to me as well.” Matthew 6:33

Every once in awhile you hear some talking head advise listeners that the key to success is to have goals. “You gotta have goals,” they tell you. Five year plans. Ten year plans. Plans for college. Plans for retirement. Balderdash! The only goal a person needs is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Determine to follow your Creator where ever He leads and your life will turn out just fine. Obey God and enjoy Him forever. That’s the key to success.

As for the question above? Who said it? I don’t know who said it. It isn’t in the Bible; that’s for sure. In point of fact it absolutely goes against what the Bible teaches. A line that is much more theologically sound would be something like, “God helps those who admit they are helpless.” cf. Romans 8:26.

Chris Hitchens, the drunken fool that he is, first rules out the fact that Jesus is God, that Jesus has the power to care for His followers and that Jesus DOES care for His followers, and then, in all his atheist brilliance (he’s a Bright you know) Chris says that people are irresponsible if they don’t live life as he lives life.

First of all Chris, Jesus wasn’t talking to you. Jesus has nothing to say to you or to other atheists. When Jesus said, “Take no thought for tomorrow,” He was talking to those who would follow Him and only to those who follow Him.

“Do not be anxious about ANYTHING. But in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God and if you do this, the peace of God which is beyond human understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

“Cast all your anxieties on Him for He cares about.”

As a follower of Jesus, this is how I can live. The Creator of the Universe always has and always will take care of me.

You on the other hand, Chris, do need to take care of yourself. You do need to worry and scheme and plan for tomorrow. You do need to drown your worries with copious amounts of alcohol. You do need to run after the things of the world in the hope that they will somehow reflect back to you a sense of value and worth and respect.

Be responsible Chris Hitchens. Worry. Plan. Scheme. It’s the atheist way.

Love Vengeance

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Actually, those are the opening words of two different sentences.

1) “Love your enemies.”
2) “Vengeance is Mine says Creator God”

There is a third closely related sentence that I’ll bring in later.

Do you see the connection between the two sentences? The former can only be consistently carried out when we believe that the latter is true. If you understand human nature you’ll soon see that while some of us might be able to sporadically show love toward those who hate us, persecute us and who relentlessly work behind our backs in an attempt to destroy us, sooner or later most of us will fail and fail badly in our attempts to love those who treat us badly.

On the other hand, that doesn't absolve us from trying. We have an example in Jesus who was able to love His enemies and then He said, “Follow Me, be like Me, do what I did in My relationship with others.”

The apostle Paul said, “We can understand someone dying for a person who we believe is worth dying for. And, we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put His love on the line by dying for us while we were still His enemies.”

When you think about how hard you work to deny God’s existence, to destroy His name, to degrade His love, to mock His sacrifice. When you consider how relentlessly you reject His offer of forgiveness and then to realise that He knew this is how you would treat Him and still, He died for YOU, well, “love your enemies” is definitely a command only God is qualified to make.

In another place Paul tells us, “If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. If your enemy is thirsty give him a cup of cold water.” This was not the original Paul who said this. In his original state Paul enthusiastically killed his enemies. Like a line in a Bruce Cockburn song, “If I had a rocket launcher I’d make somebody pay,” Paul understood retributive justice. No, this command about serving one’s enemy arose from Paul after he’d come under the influence of Jesus. It was Jesus, after all, who first taught us, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you.” Unlike any of us, Jesus lived what He preached, forgiving His enemies even as they were killing Him.

Unless you have an actual enemy (it might be your spouse who’s grown to despise you), you won’t really grasp the depth of what Jesus is asking of those who claim to follow Him. And here is where a third sentence, one that I hear repeatedly in counselling, comes in.

“But it isn’t fair!”

Well, no. I suppose it isn’t. But then again the Christian walk has nothing to do with what’s fair or not.

. It wasn’t fair that Jesus died for my sins, but He did it anyway.
. It isn’t fair that I get to spend eternity in heaven, but I get it anyway.
. It wouldn’t be fair if those who hurt us got away with it.
But here’s the thing. Nobody is going to “get away” with anything.

God’s justice will be utterly, completely and totally fair. Our justice, on the other hand, is only rarely and grudgingly fair. That is why it needs to be left up to Creator God.

Knowing, accepting and believing that justice will at some point be carried out is what allows us to adjust our thoughts so that we are able to love our enemies. If God’s justice wasn’t true, sure, and dependable it would be ludicrous, preposterous and yes unfair for Jesus to tell us to love those who are out to destroy us.

Of course, as humans we will never do this perfectly or consistently. I do know this however. Being in a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus makes for a 1,000% improvement over how wretches like me handled our enemies in our original state. A rocket launcher? I understand. I grew up in a generation that heard the chant, “Burn baby, burn!”

Being in a healed relationship with Jesus opens our eyes to see that we don’t have to set things right. We don’t have to make things fair. We can adopt an attitude that drove Karl Marx over the edge with rage. He called it an opiate. Marx advocated rage and destruction. "Tear it all down and start again!" Ya, right. Build it up again with exactly the same human nature as the first go-round.

Vengeance is God’s job.
Payback is God’s job.
Setting things right is the job of our Creator.

It is not our job to punish those who hurt us.
It is not our job to excoriate someone for doing a less than a perfect job.
It is not our job to get even.

It IS our job to love our enemies just as Jesus loves us.

It’s been my experience that without the knowledge that God is in charge, it is almost impossible to let go of hurts and injustice. The signs that I’m not alone are all around us. Road rage, killing of abortion doctors, even mental health issues. I read yesterday that 25% of youth in Australia are suffering from clinical depression. That’s a HUGE almost unbelievable number! The same article said there has been a 50% increase among youth in Australia in the last ten years in self-harming behaviours (cutting, burning, gouging) requiring medical treatment.

I don’t know what the social changes taking place in Australia are, but:
That’s anger.
That’s rage.
That’s an impotent, frustrated and unfulfilled longing for vengeance. It mirrors satan's attitude perfectly. Could there be a massive move away from God going on in Australia?

For me, an example of loving my enemy would be telling Christopher Hitchens, whose time on earth is being ended by esophageal cancer, that I’ll pray for him; both for the salvation of his soul and for as easy an end to this life as one can have in his circumstance. Hitchens of course would reply, “Don’t forget to sacrifice a cow for me while you’re at it.”

That is why Jesus said, “Let me take care of this stuff. You love. I’ll impart justice.”

“He Pretended To Be Dead”

I recently saw a clip from Chris Hitchens. I’ve referred to it several times over the last week because there was so much in it that shows that a commitment to naturalism leads to thinking that is:
convoluted,
absurd,
illogical and
incoherent.

In fact a commitment to atheism leads to thinking that is NO LESS absurd than that which is found in those who deny the Holocaust. Here's yet another example.

Chris says that the reason the tomb that Jesus was buried in was empty on the Sunday morning in question was because Jesus had just “pretended to be dead.”

Hitchens was not joking.

. He acknowledged the historical Jesus.
. He admitted His crucifixion.
. He admitted to Jesus’ burial in a tomb and
. He even admitted that the tomb was empty come Sunday morning.

What Christopher Hitchens expects us to believe is that after undergoing a Roman scourging (that itself brought about death in many cases), and after a Roman crucifixion (which was meant to cause death), Jesus lay in an ice cold cave for 40 odd hours and then, and THEN, by Himself:
. Extricated Himself from a hundred metres of burial wrapping that was cemented together with 35kgs of embalming spices
. Moved a two tonne stone
. Overcame a Roman guard and
. Escaped from the tomb.
. He then appeared to His followers as someone who had emerged victorious over death in a ‘resurrection body.”

And all this because while on the cross, Jesus had just pretended to be dead.

That’s what atheists are like. It’s how they think. Atheists pride themselves in not believing "improbable events" but discount those events by suggesting something with an even greater improbability!

There’s more.

Before all this, before the resurrection, before the burial, a Roman soldier, a professional killer whose job for the day was making sure that Jesus was dead, ran a spear into Jesus’ chest cavity and out poured, “water and blood.”

Water and blood?

Because this is a "bronze age book" the writers didn’t know what we know today.

Well, what MOST of us know today.

Mr. Hitchens and other atheists who agree with his premise obviously still have a bit of reading to do on the subject. You see, what the eyewitnesses of the time thought was WATER and blood was actually blood that had broken down or separated into serum and red blood cells. There are two ways and only two ways to separate blood serum from the red blood cells -

1) Take a tube of blood and spin it down in a centrifuge or
2) Have the body die and let the blood break down naturally.

That Jesus was dead is beyond question - unless one is an atheist. If you’re an atheist you really don’t have any choice, even in the face of irrefutable forensic medical evidence, but to say that Jesus was just pretending to be dead. The Roman soldier, in an action designed to ensure the death of Jesus, pierced Jesus’ heart and chest cavity and the proof that He was ALREADY dead poured out.

“But He was just pretending to be dead,” says atheist spokesperson Christopher Hitchens

Because dead people only rise from the dead by supernatural means, if you’re an atheist you have to say something like “Jesus pretended to be dead or that He fainted or swooned.”

Based on experience and observable evidence, the Roman Centurion emphatically and accurately pronounced Jesus dead.

In a strange bit of irony, it appears the Roman soldier knew by instinct what modern science has confirmed today. Christopher Hitchens on the other hand, and all like-minded atheists haven’t even caught up with a bronze age knowledge of medical science.

This is where atheists join the type of thinking that is used by those who deny the Holocaust. 'If you don't like the obvious, just deny that it happened.'

When you live by the creed - "There is NOTHING more to life than what the senses can detect," either Jesus pretended to be dead OR Jesus didn't exist.

To atheists:
. If it's historical, it can't be supernatural
. If it's supernatural, it can't be historical

They don't like it when you point out the obvious absurdities of what they believe,

BUT

That IS what atheists are like. It IS how they think.

It's how Hitchens thinks!

An atheist who goes by the moniker alphacause, in referring to Christopher Hitchen’s comments in a video says,

“Hitchens is correct that if we were to grant every miracle surrounding Jesus’ existence, it still doesn’t follow that everything Jesus said was true, nor does it prove that he was God. It doesn’t prove that one must believe in him to go to heaven. It doesn’t logically follow that any of the moral propositions of Christianity are true. If it were ever to be proven that all the miracles ascribed to Jesus did happen, it would at most, prove that he was an aberration of nature and NOTHING MORE!”


Chris Hitchens has said some profoundly stupid things in the past but alcohol induced dementia must really be setting in for him to make these comments. Jesus Himself said, “You don’t need to believe that I Am God because I say that I Am God. But you should believe that I Am who I say that I Am because of the things that I do.” Why? Because, if this was not trickery, then Jesus was manipulating nature in a way that could only be done by the Creator of nature.

Jesus said that His miracles were to serve one main purpose - to prove that He was God incarnate. “If you have seen Me, you have seen God.”

People of the time may not have had the amount of knowledge that we possess today, but they certainly knew that virgins don’t naturally conceive children. They knew that diseases don’t naturally leave a body at the command of another person. They knew that dead people do not naturally rise from the dead. They knew that a normal human does not have the right nor the power to forgive the sins that you and I commit against another human. Even Jesus’ enemies acknowledged that Jesus was doing things that could not naturally be explained.

Of course, Hitchens is correct that even if Jesus' miracles were the real deal, it doesn’t “prove” that what He said is true. After all, Christophe Hitchens agrees wholeheartedly with Dawkins that [The Christian God is] “Arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynist, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

Oh, and He's also a liar.

On the other hand, from my side of the fence, if the miracles prove that Jesus was God, then I for one am willing to take what God tells me as truth and not lies. If God says the things that Jesus said about salvation, then I for one am going to accept those conditions as true. If it was proven that all the miracles ascribed to Jesus were true, it would not prove an aberration of nature, it would prove that the supernatural is real. It would explain not an aberration of nature but that something totally OTHER than nature took place on earth 2,000 years ago.

If Hithchens can’t see that, then atheists really are to be pitied for their bigotry and bias.