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No. 1 Cause of Atheism?

Posted on 16 July, 2005 by admin

As I’m finalizing my message preparations for tommorrow’s message by reading these notes on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. This struck me ….

“I had an old seminary professor who began and ended his apologetics lecture with one sentence: “You defend God like you defend a lion — you get out of his way.” God, it seems, has never had much trouble with his enemies — it’s his friends who give him fits. . . . The theologian Karl Rahner put it this way: “The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim God with their mouths and deny Him with their lifestyles is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable.” Perhaps the best defense of God would be to just keep our mouths shut and live like He told us to. The gospel would then have such power and attraction that we wouldn’t have to worry about defending it.”~ from an editorial by Bill McNabb in The Door

5 thoughts on “No. 1 Cause of Atheism?”

  1. aporetic says:
    17 July, 2005 at 4:41 pm

    That Rahner quote was spliced into one of DC Talk’s songs in their Jesus Freak album, not too long ago… 😀 I guess the dead (and old music records) still speaks, if we would listen…

  2. hedonese says:
    17 July, 2005 at 7:30 pm

    Excellent quotes..! yea, billy graham spoke those words too…

    The lecturer’s quote was probably first spoken by Charles Spurgeon who said, “Defend the Bible? I’d rather defend a lion… wat we need to do is just let it out of the cage”

    Yea, God doesn’t need our defence… of course, His sheep needs defence 🙂 No wonder the biblical command to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints”?

    Wat we nid today is authentic demonstration of the gospel… somewhere btw dualism and constantianian imperialism?

    Yet, this side of heaven, i dun think we’d ever see demonstration without a reasonable, well thought-out proclamation of the gospel also… (reminds one of that Carson quote “Damn all false dichotomy”, doesnt it?)

    I tried sharing some powerful ‘living testimonies’ to an non-Christian before… but sadly, he just reinterpret the whole phenomenon according to his own worldview… “Yea, there’s plenty of good muslims, hindus etc out there too, i’m sure”

    McLaren was rite when he wrote we shouldnt let our frens have the impression that, “Christians are such nice people, aren’t they? But how cud they believe such a load of nonsense!”

  3. David says:
    18 July, 2005 at 4:40 am

    I agree, I have so often got in the way, but…”Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Pet 3:15, NIV)

  4. facets says:
    18 July, 2005 at 10:58 pm

    This is indeed an eye opener.Can’t help but to agree with Rahner on this.

  5. chris rao says:
    19 July, 2005 at 3:49 pm

    I agree! I think often times we ‘defend’ not so much for God’s sake but for our sake. We feel threatened…insecure…. We need the assurance more than anyone else.
    When we choose to do something, we fail to give God time and space to work, thus blocking His way.

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