Looking back from the plow: from Christian to atheist?
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
This past week, while browsing on amazon.com in search of some new books to add to my wish list, I came across a list of books with had titles such as: Why I Rejected God: From Preacher to Atheist to Losing Faith in Faith: From Pastor to Atheist. In the past, I have also logged onto different atheist websites which contain these so-called ‘testimonies’ of people going from a ‘Christian’ to a ‘logical atheist’. On different websites I have even seen atheists trying to set a base from their arguments by saying things such as, “As a former Christian I know…”
I always find it interesting to see people write books, and make claims such as the ones above. Why? Because none of these people were ever true born again believers in Jesus Christ. In John 3:3 Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” With that in mind, consider the verse which I quoted at the beginning of this article.
If anyone is in Christ (born again) he is a “new creature” and “old things pass away” while “new things come”. Take for Paul for example. He was present at Stephen’s death (Acts 7:28-29) and ‘ravaged’ the church (Acts 8:3). Simply put, before his conversion, Paul was a radical persecutor of men who proclaimed the name of Christ.
Now, consider the attitude of Paul after his conversion. In Philippians 1:21 he says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” And in Galatians 2:20 he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” What a radical difference! Paul went from being a persecutor of the church to having such strong faith that he considered himself ‘crucified’ with Christ. Why did Paul go from such a man of towards Christians to a man who said that he now lived his life here on earth for Christ, and would happily give it up for the kingdom of God? Again, simply look back at 2 Corinthians 5:17 and John 3:3.
Being born again is not simply a ‘fairy-tale’ or a ‘myth’ as many atheists claim. It is an event so radical it changes everyone about you: your wants, desires, actions, lifestyle, etc. When I finally came to the point of truly understanding the seriousness of my sin, and truly repenting and becoming born again, the change was so extreme it almost shocked me (although it shouldn’t have, seeing as the Bible told me about it before hand).
The moment one is born again, every bit of doubt you could possibly have for whatever reason in things such as God and the Bible vanishes. Why? Because you have now gone from head knowledge (knowing about Christ and how to get born again) to experiencing something (actually being born again). The experience is so radical all doubt is removed.
Consider it this way. A boy is walking around a blacksmith shop, and he notices an iron rod sitting in the corner. It is not glowing orange, and shows no signs of being hot. So, without hesitation, he grabs the tip of the rod. In the blink of an eye, he screams, and pulls his hand back before he even realized what had just happened. All he knows is his hand is now horribly burned. Quickly, he realizes that the rod, despite its appearance to be safe to touch, was in fact hot enough to cause him serious harm.
The next day, he again finds himself walking around the blacksmith shop, only this time he is accompanied by a friend. The friend, immediately seeing the rod, tells the boy who has already been burned, “Go grab that rod. Let’s play with it.” Recollecting how it had burned him only a day earlier, the boy immediately says not to touch the rod, because it is hot. “It isn’t even red,” his friend assures him. “Grab it.” But still, the boy refuses to touch the rod. His experience the day before has told him without doubt: the rod is hot. Sick of his friend not being willing to grab the rod, the ignorant boy walks up and grabs the iron, only to suffer the same burn which his friend had experienced the day earlier.
Why wouldn’t the first boy grab the rod again? Because the moment he grabbed the rod and experienced the pain of touching it, he knew it was scorching hot. It didn’t matter to him that his friend assured him that the rod was not hot. His personal experience assured him it was.
Being born again can be viewed in the same way. A Christian who has truly been born again will never fall away from faith, because that experience will be so radical he will know it was not some fairy tale taking place only in his mind. His desires will change, his actions will change, and he will be filled with the peace and assurance of God (see Philippians 4:7).
Surely an atheist will never understand the miracle of being born again, unless he truly softens his heart, and allows God to go to work. Since some are so convinced that Christianity is nothing more than a myth, the idea that some nut (such as myself) would be saying that he was changed by God when he was ‘born again’ sounds like nothing short of religious nonsense (perhaps even insanity). However, these reactions are far from shocking. Quite the contrary, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
Biblically, and based on my own experiences, a true convert will never walk away from ‘faith’. The assurances and events which take place after being born again are far too radical to deny. I am sure that, should the authors of some of these so called ‘Christian to atheist books’ were to read this article, they would tell me that I am wrong, and that they really were true converts, and simply realized that Christianity is wrong. But still, as always, we can come back to the words of Christ, “But Jesus said to him, 'No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)'" Anyone who not only looks back, but actually goes back, proves that he was never truly saved in the first place.