Dear New Hope,

It was an interesting and unexpected drop in. I hadn’t planned on attending a meeting with local atheists, but there I was. It was a gathering of people who share a common bond of a “non-religious” viewpoint. I entered the back of the room (where a pastor should be at such a place) and felt like a fish out of water. The welcome table in front of me greeted attendees with a variety of paraphernalia that echoed the cause of their mission. At a church you may find a welcome table of “fish stickers” and “cross necklaces”. Here at this meeting, however, they were handing out items that collectively upheld a belief system of something they did not believe in: namely, God.

My eyes were especially intrigued by one such bumper sticker: “Beware of God.” It was evident that I was in a room where the belief of a divine creator was viewed as a danger to society and its members. This assembly of people had their own mission statement, their own membership list, and their own purpose for gathering. They gathered around a common cause and listened intently to the lecture. Some took notes. Some asked questions. They were engaged & responsive. It was just like a Sunday gathering at New Hope, except they did not sing worship songs (after all, I imagine there is not much to worship); they did not take an offering (although they had a donation jar); and they did not use the Bible. (On second thought, it was nothing like New Hope!)

Wandering my way into that assembly felt strange and awkward. I felt like an outsider. I didn’t know their language or their customs. If they would have had a “greeting time to shake hands with those around you,” I wondered what they would do to a ‘pagan’ like me who is religious, has a biblical worldview, believes that Jesus Christ is living today, and one day all humanity will answer to Him. My worldview was so different than theirs. It made me realize that every Sunday at New Hope, we likely have 20-40 people feeling the same way. They wander in; they accepted an invitation; but they view our singing as strange, our teaching as weird, and our customs as out of touch with reality.

In 1927, Bertrand Russell (a British philosopher and avowed atheist) delivered a lecture called “Why I am not a Christian.” He laid out argument after argument about why the Christian worldview is foolish. In one place, he said, “I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds.” In other words, Russell says, the Christian faith is devoid of reason, intellect and fact. Notice how contrary this is to the eyewitness testimony of the gospels: “That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you” (1 John 1).

Russell would say “Beware of God” because belief in Him is a product of the emotions, not a result of intellectual honesty. The writers of Scripture would say that belief in God is intellectually honest because of what we have witnessed and verified with our own eyes. In other words, our belief in God may have emotional implications (such as worship, love and adoration), but at the core our ‘faith’ in God is rooted and established in that which is true and has been verified by the apostles and the prophets. Jesus lived. Jesus died. Jesus rose again. Men & women testified to it and recorded it in the Bible. And Jesus now reigns over the universe with absolute sovereignty. That is a message which will emotionally change you!

So, what is Russell’s answer to life? It is no surprise that Russell’s god is science, devoid of divine influence. He writes, “Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us…no longer to look round for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in.” In other words, the god of science, Russell says, is much better than the God of Scripture because Scripture tells a story about an imaginary person in the sky who we invented because many people feel a deep emotional need to have a friend.

If Russell would have been at the meeting I walked into this week, he may have been the local chairman or the one giving the lecture. If they coordinated a Love My City event, their motivation would simply be to “make this world a fit place to live in” by meeting needs in the community. It’s not inherently wrong to make this world a better place, but it’s not the ultimate end. Our motivation for Love My City would be to “make this world a better place by helping people see our good works and glorify God in heaven.” Their end aim is making the world a “fit place to live in.” Our end aim is Worship and drawing our attention to the New Creation!

I was reminded this week that there are a lot of skeptics in our community who reject the concept of God. Like Russell, they have very firm beliefs:

“We want to stand upon our own feet”;
“The whole conception of God…is a conception quite unworthy of free men.”
“A good world…does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.
“We ought to make the best we can of the world.”
“It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time towards a past that is dead.”

As a Christian who believes God’s Word is true and verifiable, I believe:

We stand upon the Word of God, which endures forever.
God has made His existence and invisible attributes known to men and His power has been clearly perceived since the creation of the world…so we are without excuse.
Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, through whom He created the world.

Our hope for the future is to look back at the person of Jesus Christ who was crucified, is risen, and gives assurance that creation is headed towards a day of resurrection & new creation.

Our God is surely alive.

You are loved,
Craig Trierweiler