Why Are So Many Christians Turning Into Atheists? - Jennifer LeClaire

Why Are So Many Christians Turning Into Atheists?

1/2/2015 JENNIFER LECLAIRE  charisma news

Former pastor Ryan Bell converted to atheism. (YouTube screengrab)

Pastor Ryan Bell made a strange New Year's resolution in 2014—he aimed to live a godless year.

Bell, no relation to universalist Rob Bell, kept a blog to chronicle his yearlong journey without God and even had a documentary crew on hand to film what turned out to be his transformation from a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor to a full-blown atheist.

"I've looked at the majority of the arguments that I've been able to find for the existence of God, and on the question of God's existence or not, I have to say I don't find there to be a convincing case, in my view," Bell told NPR's Arun Rath.

"I don't think that God exists. I think that makes the most sense of the evidence that I have and my experience. But I don't think that's necessarily the most interesting thing about me."

What? How do you move from accepting a call of God into full-time ministry only to turn your back on him and decide to exchange a close relationship with God to a "closer relationship with reality"?

From Christian to Murderer?

Maybe we should ask heavy metal Christian rock star Tim Lambesis, the former front man for As I Lay Dying. Of course, that may be somewhat difficult considering he was sentenced to six years in prison for hiring a hit man to kill his wife. In the midst of that drama, Lambesis admitted he's an atheist.

In another instance, a Methodist worship and teaching pastor who served God in ministry for 20 years took up a new post, at least for a season, as public relations director for the American Atheists. She said her move to atheism was "very, very gradual."

"Actually there's not really one single moment where I can look back and say, "Ah, that was the moment," Teresa McBain told The Christian Post. "It was kind of a slow progression."

There's a long list of Christians who turned to atheism on WikiPedia. And the Clergy Project, a secret initiative that's willing to foot the bill to get you out of your pulpit and into a new career, claims to offer a "safe haven for active and former professional clergy/religious leaders who do not hold supernatural beliefs."

What is going on? Is the church doing something wrong? Or is the culture wooing once-saved Christians to the godless side? Or both?

A WikiHow article actually spells out "How to Persuade a Christian to Become Atheist" and atheists are certainly campaigning hard for their godless view. At the same time, a Barna Group study conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age in 1997. Just 16 percent of non-Christians in their late teens and 20s said they have a "good impression" of Christianity. Common negative perceptions include that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), old-fashioned (78 percent) and too involved in politics (75 percent).

"We are far from becoming an atheist nation," says Barna researcher David Kinnaman. "There are tens of millions of active believers in America today. But the wall between the churched and the churchless is growing higher and more impenetrable as more people have no muscle memory of what it means to be a regular attender at a house of worship."

The Great Falling Away

What, then, is the root of Christians turning their back on God? I believe it's a sign of the times and may be part of the Great Falling Away. About two years ago, I asked the question: "Is the Great Falling Away Already Underway?". Jesus said that in the last days, the love of many would grow cold because iniquity will abound (see Matt. 24:12). When a God-fearing pastor becomes a godless champion for faithlessness, love has grown cold.

But there is hope. Mike McHargue is a Christian turned atheist turned follower of Christ. He says his time as an atheist actually made him a better Christian.

"Atheism doesn't pretend to have answers to every question. Losing God changed me. I no longer feel like I have to have answers to all the questions we face in life. I'm happy to look for an answer without finding one, and I'm comfortable with uncertainty. My faith is an act of simple trust now," McHargue wrote in Relevant magazine.

"What I know is less important than what I do. Knowing Jesus is not an abstract set of information or a construct of dogma. Being a Christian comes down to the simple of act of dropping my nets when I hear the words, 'Come, follow me.'"

I pray that every Christian-turned-atheist—and every atheist for that matter—would come to this same revelation. God is waiting to embrace you.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale and author of several books, including Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft, and The Spiritual Warrior's Guide to Defeating Jezebel. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed are solely the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Charisma Media.

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God and Atheists in Hollywood by Geoff McClelland

God and Atheists in Hollywood 

by Geoff McClelland

Identity Network

 

Hollywood's Year of the Bible

 

Earlier this year Hollywood released the Bible-based blockbuster Noah to the tune of $100 million in box office receipts. Christians gleefully anticipated the epic ark-building adventure. But glee quickly turned to ire once the movie premiered. The Noah character was wrong, God was misrepresented, and fallen angels were portrayed as good guys - a few heresy issues.

 

In retrospect, this shouldn't have been terribly surprising. A self-proclaimed atheist wrote, produced, and directed the movie. Darren Aronofsky is a filmmaker - a great one at that. But a theologian? Not so much.

 

Another Bible-based movie is slated for release later this year - Exodus: Gods and Kings - which is based on, as you might have guessed, the story of Moses and the Hebrews' flight from Egypt. An even bigger Hollywood talent is producing and directing this one: Sir Ridley Scott. He is not just a great director - he's legendary! However, he is also a self-proclaimed atheist.

 

What's Going on Here?

 

The question we ought to be asking here is, "What is provoking Hollywood moguls to produce Bible-based films?" Some suggest it's for the love of money. After all, who in Hollywood doesn't love money? But there are hundreds of movies that don't mention God and still make a lot of money (you may have noticed this.) There's a trend in Hollywood to produce established, epic stories right now. What is more established and epic than the story of Noah's ark? But I don't think this is it either. The answer may not be what you think.

 

Think about this: The great flood is a testament. Four thousand years of literature across multiple cultures (plus archeology and geology) all indicate that something profound occurred. Aronofsky's movie, in spite of artistic license and flawed biblical accuracy, is one more testament of the flood. Every testimony of God's sovereignty is a strike against the enemy. One of two key factors in overcoming the enemy is "the word of our testimony." Jesus put it more poetically, but He basically said the devil doesn't do the work of God. So it doesn't make sense to hold the position that the devil prompted the making of a movie that testifies against him. That would indicate a house divided.

 

Likewise, the Exodus narrative testifies of God's faithfulness to deliver His people out of slavery from Egypt. God told the Israelites to remember this throughout their generations by writing it on their doorposts, talking of it often with their children, and setting up stones as a reminder of all that He had done. What is the enemy's best strategy regarding this story? Deny, deny, deny! But make it a major Hollywood movie? Hardly. Any error caused by the enemy in these films is damage control, not strategy.

 

Are We Living in the Last Days?

 

The prophet Joel said in the last days God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh! How much flesh?  All flesh.  That possibly includes everything that has breath. Is God pouring out His Spirit on believers in these days? Of course He is. But everyone is eligible to hear the Spirit of God in the last days (this does not imply salvation.) If "all flesh" includes unbelievers, it would seem even they have the ability to pick up on the unction of the Holy Spirit.  Albeit they may neither recognize the source or properly steward the call. Atheists don't believe in God, but that doesn't mean God doesn't believe in them. Could it be that God is planting the desire to retell these biblical stories into the hearts of Hollywood kings who don't even acknowledge His existence?

 

Let's interpret the times. Jesus compared the days prior to His second coming to the days of Noah. The ark underwent construction for the better part of a century, serving as a sign for that generation. The plagues of Egypt were signs to the Egyptians, but they serve as signs to us as well. God used Moses to demonstrate to Pharaoh that the Egyptians' resistance to His will is futile. For some reason, God has chosen at this time in history to highlight these historical events once again as a testimony to the world. And He has made use of the multi-billion dollar worldwide distribution system of the film industry to help with this task.

 

God is Sovereign

 

Psalm 135 tells us that the Lord does whatever He pleases, in heaven and on earth. To use an atheist to accomplish His will is not beyond the scope and ability of God. Just ask Cyrus the Great. Over a century before the birth of Cyrus, Isaiah prophesied that he would perform all God's desire; he would declare Jerusalem to be rebuilt and the foundations of the temple to be laid again (Isaiah 44:28). It all came to pass, just as God had foretold, but Cyrus was a Persian king, not a Hebrew. He worshiped false gods - Marduk, Bel, and Nabu - not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet God still chose to use him to fulfill His plans of restoration for that generation.

 

I can hear some Christians protesting, "What about the bad doctrine and biblical inaccuracy in these movies?" Thankfully God isn't hung up on bad doctrine. We should all cultivate sound biblical doctrine, but we also must realize that everyone is in process. Nobody on earth has infallible doctrine, yet everyone seems to think of himself as the one person closest to it. Pope Francis recently said that if we try to build unity around doctrinal issues, we will only achieve it after the apocalypse. When the criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus said, "Remember me when You come into Your kingdom," Jesus didn't respond with, "Well, first let's examine your theology and see if you hold correct beliefs."

 

In fact, the religious leaders in Jesus's day were so hung up on correct doctrine that they couldn't accept Jesus as the Messiah when He was standing right before their very eyes. They said, "No one will know where the Messiah comes from, but this guy is from Bethlehem." "Nothing good can come from Nazareth," others suggested. Some even asked, "Would the Savior touch lepers or heal on the Sabbath?"

 

What about today? Could strict adherence to doctrinal beliefs blind us from seeing the work of the Spirit as it did to religious leaders in Jesus's day? Oddly enough, prostitutes and tax collectors didn't have a problem with Jesus. They were open to His genuine love and divine wisdom.

 

The Bottom Line

 

I believe Noah and Exodus are modern-day testaments to a lost world at a key time in history. But I also believe God is trying to provoke His own people to jealousy through them. In the first century, God used Paul as an apostle to the Gentiles in order that the Jews might be provoked to jealousy. This was His wake-up call to break old mindsets and be open to the greater revelation of His purposes. New wine can only be put into new wineskins. And today is no different. God's ways are still higher than our ways, and He shakes our beliefs once in a while to separate that which is divine from that which is human.

 

If we want to see Bible-based movies made by Christians that will more closely adhere to the biblical narrative, then we must stop cursing the film industry (which is essentially just handing it over to the enemy). Instead, we should bless it and pray for those God has placed in its midst. This will bring it back under His authority and move us closer to "on earth as it is in heaven." Let him who has an eye keep watch. I believe God has much more to say through the film industry - hopefully through his people, not in spite of them.

 

Geoff McClelland

www.grasshoppercinema.com

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Bad News for Atheists: Scientists Say Universe Shouldn’t Exist if Big Bang Is True

Bad News for Atheists: 

Scientists Say Universe Shouldn’t Exist 

if Big Bang Is True

6/26/2014 ALEX KOCMAN   CHARISMA NEWS

According to research from King's College in London, the current model of the Big Bang predicts that our universe should not exist.

New research bears bad news for the Big Bang theory of the universe's origin.

Scientists at King's College in London have found that the current model of the Big Bang would have resulted in a universe that collapsed soon after its formation.

According to the researchers, the rapid cosmic expansion physicists would expect to see after the Big Bang would have caused a good bit of turbulence—a situation worsened, not helped, by the so-called "God particle."

This "God particle," the Higgs boson, should have crushed our universe, shifting it into a lower energy field in which collapse would have been inevitable.

While it is doubtful astrophysicists will discard the Big Bang model, it might suffer a worse fate: the death of a thousand qualifications.

"When we hear the term Big Bang theory, many people assume it was conceived in its present form and has remained unassailed ever since. In reality, it is a very pliable model," wrote Answers in Genesis scientist Dr. Danny Faulkner in September 2013. "Several assumed variables in the equations have been changed to make the numbers match new findings. Today's Big Bang model little resembles the one your grandfather learned, and it is likely to continue morphing."

Conversely, the idea of the "God particle" doesn't really present a problem for creationists. According to them, the Higgs particle tells us about how the universe works now—not necessarily how it originated.

"The Higgs boson particle probably does exist. God upholds the creation with the power of His word, and I think this is just a humanly seen manifestation of that," Faulker said.

Within the creationist system, it is not surprising that godless models of creation come up short. The universe not only requires an ultimate causeless cause, but a constant sustainer keeping it in existence.

Hebrews 1:3a states of Christ, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power."

7 Things That Prove God Is Real by LEE GRADY, CHARISMA MAGAZINE

There indeed are answers for atheists' arguments 

against the existence of God. (iStock photo)

7 Things That Prove God Is Real

3/19/2014 J. LEE GRADY  CHARISMA MAGAZINE

When I was a journalist in my 20s, I needed to verify a fact about atheism. This was before the Internet age, so I phoned the Texas headquarters of American Atheists. Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the mother of modern atheism in this country, answered my call. Apparently she had a very small staff!

Her voice was gruff, and she sounded angry and cynical, even before I identified myself as a Christian. She answered my question and I hung up. Ever since then, I’ve felt intense sadness for people who deny the existence of God. Explaining her beliefs, O’Hair once said, “There is no God. There’s no heaven. There’s no hell. There are no angels. When you die, you go in the ground; the worms eat you.” What a sad way to view life!

I’m sure Mrs. O’Hair would be upset about the new Christian film God’s Not Dead, which opens in theaters this Friday. The film features Kevin Sorbo (who played in the 1990s TV show Hercules) as an atheist college professor who tries to force a Christian student (Shane Harper) to rethink his beliefs. The film releases at a time when atheism is growing in this country.

I was never on the debate team in high school, so I’m not the best guy to take on evolutionist Richard Dawkins or comedian/atheist Bill Maher in a televised argument. Still, my faith in God is certainly not shaken when I hear these guys whining about how stupid or weak Christians are. They have a constitutional right to view life negatively. But if I had a chance to give them my reasons for believing in God, I would list these:

1. Babies. I watched my wife give birth to our four daughters, and last month I visited my new grandson. I’ve stared at little Hananiah’s cute face and tiny fingers—and the cleft in his chin that resembles mine. How can anyone deny the reality of God when they see a baby? The amount of information encrypted in one cell in the human body is equal to that of 1,000 books. The total amount of information stored in your DNA is 40 times more than that of the largest set of encyclopedias in the world. King David felt this sense of awe when he wrote, “You wove me in my mother’s womb. ... I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13, 14, NASB). Life is truly a miracle!

2. Thunderstorms. I love to sit on my back porch in Florida and listen to the rumbling of thunder. It reminds me of God’s majesty and power. The apostle Paul said creation was the best evidence of God’s existence. He wrote, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen” (Rom. 1:20). Nature is actually full of quantifiable miracles. Just consider the fact that the earth is the perfect distance from the sun to support life. If we were any farther away from the sun, we would freeze; if we were even slightly closer to it, we would burn up. It’s obvious God created this home for us!

3. Flowers. There are more than 400,000 species of flowers in the world, and most of them are not edible. Their job is to simply make the world beautiful. Did they just haphazardly evolve over time, or did a loving God create each individual shape and color scheme for our enjoyment? People who choose to deny God don’t spend enough time looking at tulips, snapdragons, orchids, lilies, lotuses or magnolias. This is why it’s really important to stop and smell the roses!

4. The Bible. Paul wrote that “all Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The Bible itself is proof of God’s existence because He used 40 unrelated people over a period of 2,000 years to write His unique love letter to us. There is nothing like the Bible because it carries the same consistent message throughout all of its 66 different books. Atheists can laugh at this idea, but those who have read the Scriptures and experienced God through its pages know why it is the best-selling and most-translated book in all of history. (Fact: 100 million copies of the Bible are sold every year. Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion has sold 2 million.)

5. The global spread of Christianity. Over the centuries, the gospel message has been vilified and ridiculed. Roman rulers threw first-century Christians to the lions, and 20th-century dictators sent believers to prison camps. It is estimated that 70 million Christians have been martyred since the church began—and 40 million of those were in the 20th century. Yet today Christianity has more adherents than any religion, and numbers are growing in many parts of the world. Our faith is spreading because it is the truth—and history shows that when this truth is mocked and scorned, it actually spreads faster!

6. Jesus. The most amazing thing about God is not that He exists, but that He loved us so much He was willing to send His Son to earth to save us from ourselves. Jesus was with the Father from the time of creation, and His arrival was predicted numerous times in Old Testament prophecy. Finally He interrupted history and came to live among us. His crucifixion is historical fact, and His resurrection was verified by hundreds of witnesses. The man who perhaps knew Jesus best—the apostle John—saw the risen Christ and touched His nail-pierced hands. He wrote, “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you” (1 John 1:3). Jesus is not an illusive fairy tale. He is the living, breathing, touchable Son of God.

7. My personal friendship with God. Atheists may not be convinced that God exists after listening to a storm, smelling a hibiscus or reading the Bible. When I am asked to defend my faith, I don’t start an intellectual argument. I have to go back to the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 1:12: “I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed.”

There are many reasons I am convinced God is real (the existence of coffee alone proves that He loves me!), but the best evidence is how He forgave me, changed me and put unexplainable joy in my heart. And I can prove that.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma. He now leads the Mordecai Project, an international ministry that confronts gender-based violence and oppression. You can learn more about his work at themordecaiproject.org or follow him on Twitter at@leegrady. He is the author of 10 Lies the Church Tells Women and other books.

God’s Not Dead opens this weekend. You can check out the movie trailer here.

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