Why the Future of Atheism is Bleak

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What can you do when you hate someone who is completely, entirely, wholly, and necessarily out of range?

When it cannot strike at the Father God, He who dwells in unapproachable light, what can the rage of impotence do? There is really only one option, and that is to strike at an effigy. You cannot reach Him because He is the one who sits upon the circle of the earth. He pulls the heavens aside like they were a curtain, and He looks down upon a host of angry men — who all breathe through their noses — and He laughs.Thinker

So one of the oldest tricks in the book, when you cannot reach the detested king, is to burn that king in effigy. When you can’t get at the one you loathe, take it out on a picture.

We can see this in (at least) three ways. The foremost example was when the visible image of the invisible Father took on human form. One of the things God was doing was coming into range deliberately. He was enabling those who could not effectively express their hatred for Him to do so. He came to His own and His own received Him not (John 1:11). If you have seen me, you have seen the Father, He said. Exactly, His enemies replied, and so they killed Him. Their plan would have come off swimmingly had there not been that resurrection business.

So we are a race of God-haters — when the day comes when every rebel mouth will be closed (Rom. 3:19), the problem of their throats as open graves will then be solved (Rom. 3:13). Is there an exception to this problem of our hatred? Not even one. The only exceptions are after the fact, and our phrase to describe such exceptions is found at the heart of the new covenant, and is called forgiveness of sin.

Our problem on this planet is not lack of knowledge. Apart from the grace of regeneration, to the extent we know God, we hate Him. The only way the unregenerate man can love God is by creating an idolatrous figment in his brain, calling it by some orthodox name, and loving that. But to the extent an unconverted man knows God, he instinctively recoils and would strike if he could. If he had an opportunity to murder God, he would most certainly do so. That is why Jesus was murdered. That whole affair was not an unfortunate misunderstanding. As soon as the image of God came within their power, they killed Him.

And in the infinite wisdom of God, we see that He took their spitting anger and hatred, and fashioned that into the rope of redemption, by which He pulled us our wickedness and iniquity. The cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate emblem of hatred — man’s hatred of God, and God’s hatred of sin. That is also why it is the emblem of ineffable love.

So Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven — back out of range. Now what?

The move is still the same one. Rebels still want to destroy any image of Him they can find. What might be included in that? Well, one of the prime examples would be heterosexual marital love, along with the fruit of such love. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:27).

The current sexuality wars — from abortion to same sex mirage to bureaucratic dingdongery re: restrooms for trannies — are nothing less than open hatred for the image of God as God delivered that image to us. That image — male and female created He them — is established for us before the Bible has finished its first fifty verses. Depending on your translation, we are not even off the first page yet.
The seething desire to remake that image — GLBTQ-wise — is an attempt to make God stop representing Himself to us. We are demanding that God stop showing us that picture. We insist that God must shut up. But this is why the future of atheism is bleak. God never shuts up. Day after day pours forth speech.

But we want to seize control of all things so that we can remake the world in our own image. This is what secularism currently means. This is what progressivism currently intends. The battle is over who will define the world, and we are not choosing between traditionalists and progressives. The choice is between God and man. Shall God define the world, or shall man define the world? Shall God embed His image in the fruitfulness of heterosexual love, or shall the new god announce his image and declare his evangel with Speedoes and feather boas?

This is the meaning of the last generation — beginning in earnest with Roe. There has been the strident and inexorable pushing from the sexual left, followed by the faux-grudging accommodations on the right. So now, when turning around and heading away from the abyss has become a genuine cultural option, a number of ersatz conservatives and organizations have disgraced themselves by joining up with the ultimate clown car campaign. I am speaking of Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Falwell, Carson, Breitbart, Drudge, and assorted others. It is as though we were on the eve of the Normandy invasion and somebody had to call up and tell the president that Eisenhower had run off to pursue his dream of becoming a hurdy-gurdy man.

One last point. Another kind of image that those who hate the Father also hate is revelation. This would include the authoritative words of Scripture and the majesty of natural law. A prodigal son would not only deface a picture of his father, but also destroy all his letters. The apostle Peter tells us that false teachers take words of revelation and “twist” them (2 Pet. 3:16). The word there is streblao, which means to put someone on the rack.

False teachers torture propositional truth, however God communicates it. They do this with the clear teaching of Scripture, and they do this with the proclamations coming from the night sky out in the country on a clear night. They put all truth on the rack, and they turn the wheel until they get themselves some assured results of modern scholarship.

The only way out is repentance. There is no political solution. There will be political consequences to the spiritual solution, and those consequences will in fact include reversing our recent cascade of follies. But reversing that cascade is not the answer — it will be the result of the answer. A skid row bum who gets saved will clean up, but he can never be saved by exhortations to clean up. We are not saved by good works, but rather saved to them.

Law. Condemnation. Blood. Despair. Resurrection. Repentance. Jesus. Life.

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J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
8 years ago

Evangelicalism’s future is no less bleak that that of atheism’s future. Judeochristianity will no doubt survive in some form or another among diversities, but it will be very different than the kind of Christianity practiced by most white American Christians. White evangelicalism is rapidly fading into oblivion. It’s already dead as far as having any influence on politics, It remains to be seen if traditional Christianity can ever make a comeback among whites. I’m very dubious, myself.

doug sayers
doug sayers
8 years ago

JFN, Not sure what you base your prognosis on but Christianity will, indeed, survive and ethnicity will not be a factor. At the risk of (or, perhaps, in hope of) sounding like some kind of Bible thumping simpleton: The grass will wither and the flower will fade but the word of our God abides forever. Heaven and earth will pass away but the words of Jesus will not. DW is right, “God never shuts up” and woe to those who try. The wheat and the weeds will continue to grow together until God says “enough.” Then He will divide the… Read more »

J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
8 years ago
Reply to  doug sayers

Doug,you probably don’t want to be seen talking to me. I’m a “troll.” Plus, I’m not crazy about Jews. Best to just ignore me.

timothy
timothy
8 years ago

Fascinating! Reverse Ad Hominem*

Where a debater impugns his own character and ignores his own argument.

*I hope the board will provide a good Latin rendering of the thing.

Dunsworth
Dunsworth
8 years ago
Reply to  timothy

It’s sort of a wounded killdeer tactic. Look at me, I’m too hurt to fight, don’t look over there at what I actually said.

ME
ME
8 years ago

Well, that may well be a good thing. The kind of evangelicism practiced by “most white American Christians,” can have a pretty ugly underbelly to it.

J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

Of course it’s a good thing. As you correctly point out, white people are evil, and the world will be a much better place when its rid of them.

ME
ME
8 years ago

No, white people are not evil, but the less pleasant aspects of Western culture have certainly infiltrated our churches and left many people thinking they are following Jesus Christ when in fact, they are either so open minded their brains have fallen out, or else so harsh, judgemental,and hateful, they miss the entire message of grace.

Marty
Marty
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

Bugs
Bugs
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

Awesome, ME! Love that! Another example of our Enemy playing both ends against the middle! While it would be fun for some to solely implicate Whites (esp. White males) JFN, the fact is that human nature continues to ride the same boring carousel over and over again. It just happens to be our turn on the ride at this time in history.

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago

“As you correctly point out, white people are evil”

No more evil than any other people.

Dunsworth
Dunsworth
8 years ago

And to ME’s point, no less. But JFN doesn’t care for that idea.

jigawatt
jigawatt
8 years ago

I think Trump represents the “Anything But The Establishment” mentality. People don’t defend Trump on his merits – it’s always “BUT CRUZ/RUBIO/WHOEVER IS EVEN WORSE!!!” (emphasis theirs). The problem is, when you start with “Anything But” you can wind up with something even worse than the “But”.

“Honey, it’s 1929, I’m finally gonna get our life savings out of the bank and into the stock market! It’s going nowhere but up!” <– This guy had less buyer's remorse than the Trump supporters will have.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

I’m curious what bad consequences you forecast to a Trump presidency. (I think both his supporters and detractors vastly overestimate what he’ll be able to do.)

jigawatt
jigawatt
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

I’m curious what bad consequences you forecast to a Trump presidency.

I’ll start with the most disastrous. He will revert to his pro-abortion position either explicitly or at least de facto, maybe as soon as he gets the Republican nomination. IF the Republicans stave off an Obama SCOTUS nomination, Trump will almost certainly nominate a pro-abort. He has said as much when he talked about his pro-abort sister being a good SCOTUS judge.

Make no mistake, Donald Trump is as pro-life right now as Barack Obama was anti-gay marriage in 2008.

Wesley Sims
Wesley Sims
8 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

He will revert to his pro-abortion position either explicitly or at least de facto, maybe as soon as he gets the Republican nomination.

Given our current bunch of Republicans, this is pretty much a wash. With “conservatives” like these, who needs progressives. But Chesterton and ashv would say that’s the point.

jigawatt
jigawatt
8 years ago
Reply to  Wesley Sims

Given our current bunch of Republicans, this is pretty much a wash.

Do you think Cruz or Rubio will ever become pro-abortion? Do you think either of them would nominate an openly pro-abort to the SCOTUS?

Wesley Sims
Wesley Sims
8 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

1) Sure, Rubes or Cruz might nominate someone to the SCOTUS that might actually uphold state restrictions on abortion (state-level efforts, I think, are the only strategy that can work–federal-level change won’t come without something huge happening), but so might Trump, and Trump has actually offered names of conservative judges as candidates. Trump could renege, absolutely, but I’m tempted to think that the chances of that happening are only marginally worse than the chances that the Anyone-but-Trump candidates only offering superficial efforts to give the appearance of fighting. I’m expecting more of the same as what we currently have–all the… Read more »

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

I don’t see this as a substantive objection since the Republican Congress hasn’t made even a perfunctory motion towards curtailing abortion. The overemphasis on the Court is a temporary phenomenon and can be reversed as soon as the other elements of the system feel it’s convenient to do so.

Abortion is the tail end of the problem, not the head. It’s not going to be fixed until much more radical reorganisation of political power occurs. It’s been too valuable as a means to draw votes for anyone to do anything real about it.

JohnM
JohnM
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

What would you credit as at least a perfunctory motion?

katecho
katecho
8 years ago
Reply to  JohnM

The Republicans in Congress have actually passed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood (which they could, and should, have done before the baby parts trafficking videos came out). Of course the bill won’t be signed by Obama, which some might argue provides the GOP with sufficient cover, but there it is, a motion.

David R
David R
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

– The curtailing of free speech (no one can criticize MeinTrumpf)
– Violence against those who dissent
– More wars
– Obamacare becoming permanent or expanded into single-payer
– More crony capitalism
– Tariffs that will hurt the economy and increase unemployment

John Killmaster
John Killmaster
8 years ago
Reply to  David R

Hook, line, and sinker.

Rob Steele
Rob Steele
8 years ago

I’m afraid their immediate future is sunny. No telling how long God will bear with them either. But then, the cataclysm.

Ilion
Ilion
8 years ago

I am speaking of Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Carson, Breitbart, Drudge, and assorted others

Yet, he fact remains — Ted Cruz is not a natural born US citizen, and the US Constitution *forbids* him to occupy the office of US President.

Christopher Taylor
Christopher Taylor
8 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

For now, the fact is that at least one judge has ruled that Ted is a natural born citizen.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/03/11/pennsylvania-judge-rules-that-ted-cruz-is-eligible-to-run-for-president/

Ilion
Ilion
8 years ago

So, “truth” isn’t really truth, but rather is whatever some judge insists it is (so long as you get what you want)?
.
Here are some other things judges have decreed, just in my lifetime —
* it isn’t murder to kill a human infant so long as its head hasn’t exited the birth canal;
* it isn’t an illegal taking for some government entity to confiscate the property of one private party and give it to another private party;
* two men bopping one another is exactly the same as marriage.
.
You OK with all that?

Christopher Taylor
Christopher Taylor
8 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

To be sure, why do you think natural born must mean ‘born on US soil’ rather than ‘born of American parents’?

Ilion
Ilion
8 years ago

Did I say anything about “born on US soil” (though there is an argument to be made for that)?

How odd that you should say “born of American parents”, seeing as Cruz was not.

koomba
koomba
8 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

Two men “bopping” each other? You ask if others are ok with that, so I’m curious, why does it bother you so much? Any arguments about “destroying the sanctity of marriage” are pretty much worthless, considering that 50% of all marriages in the US end on divorce. Straight, Christian citizens don’t need any help destroying the sanctify of marriage; they have long since accomplished that on their own. So how does it affect your life, what two strangers want to do with their life? How does it hurt you? It always baffles me how conservatives call themselves the party of… Read more »

Dqve
Dqve
8 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

The same holds true for yo mamma obama; however, he is sitting high in the hog.

Preachers need to preach the Word in a mighty manner and American men need to get on their knees and pray for Godly leaders.

Ilion
Ilion
8 years ago
Reply to  Dqve

Indeed. Obama is not a natural born US citizen … Ergo: we have not had a legal President since before January 20, 2009.

Were God to give America Godly leaders, among other things, that would entail man, in general, saying “No” to women, in general. Do you *really* see the modern American male (note, I didn’t say “man”) — especially the ones who claim to be Christian — doing that?

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

The paralell accusations against Obama never gained traction, I expect the same with Cruz.

Ilion
Ilion
8 years ago

1) I’m not making an accusation; I’m stating a fact. And I’ve presented the evidence in previous threads (*).
2) Many people — including the RINOs who are the “GOP establishment” — had a vested interest in suppressing the truth about Obama.
3) Are you OK will suppressing the truth to get your way?

(*) And, on the assumption that he sees comments posted to his own blog, Mr Wilson at least has the grace to ignore the evidence, rather than vainly disputing it or hand-waving it away … or viciously attacking me as so many others here have done.

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

“2) Many people — including the RINOs who are the “GOP establishment” — had a vested interest in suppressing the truth about Obama.”

And they don’t in with Cruz?

“3) Are you OK will suppressing the truth to get your way?”

No, but getting my way has nothing to do with Cruz.

jigawatt
jigawatt
8 years ago

I am speaking of Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Carson, Breitbart, Drudge, and assorted others.

I’ve heard a lot about how evangelicals are supporting Trump, but does anybody know of evangelical *leaders* besides Falwell who have endorsed him?

Wesley Sims
Wesley Sims
8 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

Osteen said he was a good guy, I hear.

"A" dad
"A" dad
8 years ago

……clay, potter, vessel.

Andy
Andy
8 years ago

“Law. Condemnation. Blood. Despair. Resurrection. Repentance. Jesus. Life.”
Epic tattoo right there!

katecho
katecho
8 years ago
Reply to  Andy

I’d put life on both ends, and Jesus in the center of the list, to make it a bit more chiastic. Not that I plan to get a tattoo, but I’m just sayin’.

Dunsworth
Dunsworth
8 years ago
Reply to  katecho

But we don’t start with life, we start with death. Though Jesus definitely has to come before resurrection, I agree.

katecho
katecho
8 years ago
Reply to  Dunsworth

I meant life in the garden. Death came later.

J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
8 years ago

So now, when turning around and heading away from the abyss has become a genuine cultural option, a number of ersatz conservatives and organizations have disgraced themselves by joining up with the ultimate clown car campaign. Nah, you’re still missin’ it, bro. The clown car’s the one with the guy who’s fighting “New York values” with his Goldman Sachs executive wife, his Goldman Sachs loans, and his massive donations from billionaire Jewish gay rights activists like Peter Singer and Sheldon Adelson. The one with the guy who’s never done a day of real work in his entire life of Ivy… Read more »

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago

“And in November he’ll trounce Hillary.”

Or get trounced by Bernie.

J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
8 years ago

Yeah.

That’s gonna happen.

LMAO

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago

And why wont it happen?

J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
8 years ago

One of the big stories that most people aren’t paying attention to is the turnout. Turnout in the GOP primaries is up substantially from 2012, while it’s substantially lower for the Dems. Also, a lot of black people hate whites, but a lot of them really hate Jews. And, as a general rule, blacks also despise wimps, and respect arrogant braggarts. Also, white Judeochristians may worship Israel and Jews in the abstract, but not so much when it gets down to cases. Have you actually heard Sanders talk? You may have, but the vast majority of voters haven’t. If he’s… Read more »

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago

Democrats who vote would vote for Sanders, independants would support Sanders over Trump and #nevertrump republicans would go dem for Sanders.

For someone constantly bemoning the over jewdeizstion of the U.S. you have a surpriseing amount of faith in people objecting to a jewish president.

J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
8 years ago

LMAO

PerfectHold
PerfectHold
8 years ago

I’m proud of how you so easily balance what the Word wrote into nature and onto paper.

Does this hint an exception with WCF1:1?

The Canberean
8 years ago

Amen. Great piece.

ME
ME
8 years ago

Thanks for these words. That was well said.

Marty
Marty
8 years ago

Feminism is incrementally winning over lots of evangelicals, especially the younger ones, and it has proven to be a pew-emptier in the mainlines and will no doubt do the same to the ev churches too. Our pastor believes that, deep down, feminism isn’t about anger at men, it’s about anger at God, and I’m inclined to believe him. But younger evs are totally buying into the “patriarchy is evil” narrative. There is a new book by a supposedly evangelical author who claims she was abused by her “complementarian” husband, and she uses her narrative as a stick to beat all… Read more »

ME
ME
8 years ago
Reply to  Marty

Feminism is often the result of having been wounded by pompous, arrogant men who have perverted scripture, abused women, and obsessed over their own need for constant male dominance. I myself love men, the patriarchy, scripture, but every time I encounter lunkheads who lurk in the ‘sphere preaching this garbage, feminism begins to make a lot more sense. You might want to keep that in mind.

Marty
Marty
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

Whatever.

ME
ME
8 years ago
Reply to  Marty

That would be awesome, because those who obsess about feminism and spend all their time talking about “wives submit” and how women shouldn’t speak in church or ever really, do more to advance feminism and drive people away from faith than any others.

Tim Bushong
Tim Bushong
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

Well, what about those of us who speak on those subjects when the text speaks on those subjects? As in, ever? Does that advance feminism?

ME
ME
8 years ago
Reply to  Tim Bushong

Scripture lays out some really beautiful guidelines for relationships between men and women and some people do a good job teaching those words. Still others take those beautiful words and transform them into something ugly, something all about male dominance and power and control. When scripture is distorted and perverted, it loses its flavor, it creates defiance and rebellion, and is rightly rejected. So a woman is abused by her husband, and Marty just declares her the enemy, I mention the wounding that is often at the root of feminism and he just says, “whatever.” That is the kind of… Read more »

Tim Bushong
Tim Bushong
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

“…something all about male dominance and power and control.” Sure, sadly that has happened, no doubt. But of course that type of application is technically a “straw-man,” and anyone with a working knowledge of the same text can keep right on reading through Ephesians 5 and discover what the husband’s demeanor and responsibility really is to be like. Church history is absolutely fraught with examples of “scripture is distorted and perverted,” as Peter mentioned in 2 Peter 3:16, where he makes reference to the same things “which ignorant and unstable people distort.” That also presupposes the ability to “rightly handle… Read more »

ME
ME
8 years ago
Reply to  Tim Bushong

Well, it is always possible that I snapped at Marty excessively, it is just that I deal with these kind of men frequently, many of them who blog all over the internet and they are prone to make my temper flare up. Rather than saying someone like Ruth Tucker is an evil feminist who probably shouldn’t be believed, who probably just manufactured her abuse story to make complimentarians look bad and to advance an agenda, why don’t we say that the man who raped and abused his wife under the guise of scripture and complimentarianism, just did a lot of… Read more »

Tim Bushong
Tim Bushong
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

“…why don’t we say that the man who raped and abused…just did a lot of harm to the cause?” When we do (and we do), it’s usually fobbed off as some kind of begrudging obligation on our part. Our Church excommunicated a man who dod just that, and for the same reasons you cited. We called it “sin,” and used biblical categories when calling it sin. “Rather than saying someone like Ruth Tucker is an evil feminist” But again, Marty was simply saying that we should “test the spirits” before we grant what they are saying, let alone ascribe motives… Read more »

ME
ME
8 years ago
Reply to  Tim Bushong

Ha! That’s a good question. A few years back I wanted to understand the coming Trump phenomenon, how he would be gaming the electorate, especially evangelicals, how to discern the wheat from the tares, what is at the root of the destruction of cultural values, how does indoctrination and brainwashing play into this, and who is pulling the puppet strings. I could write an entire thesis about it, but I won’t bore you.

Ian Miller
8 years ago
Reply to  ME

Well said.

Blake Law
8 years ago

“False teachers torture propositional truth, however God communicates it.”

Puts the nail in the coffin for the arguments of any believers who might think it sane to send children to government schools.

Ama Dunnington
Ama Dunnington
8 years ago

It is fear, not hate that motivates Trump supporters. They fear the Marauding Muslim invasion. They don’t want to wind up like Europe, where women are openly raped on the street and nothing is done about it. Europe has lost its battle with jihad, whether they know it or not. Unfortunately, none of the other candidates has grabbed hold of the immigration issue like Trump has, so people subvert the standards they would ordinarily apply to candidates in fear that if something is not done against the invasion, there won’t be a United States in which to fight for the… Read more »

ME
ME
8 years ago
Reply to  Ama Dunnington

The thing is, the opposite of fear is faith. So those who are having a knee jerk emotional reaction and voting out of a sense of fear, need to have their faith strengthened because as history has shown us, fear based voting is a very dangerous thing.

Aram Nurala
Aram Nurala
8 years ago

Max Planck was so right.

Thomas Austin
Thomas Austin
8 years ago

Thank you, Pastor Wilson – this makes a lot of sense, especially the Imago Dei portions. I expected to see an “It’s all in Girard, man!” theme work its way in there, somehow.

RandMan
RandMan
8 years ago

Of course atheists don’t hate god. They find no evidence and therefore no reason to believe in one. Truly that simple. Wilson, you know this. Is this post a troll? Also, so much continued preoccupation with homosexual activities. Hi everyone!

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago
Reply to  RandMan

Hi.

jillybean
jillybean
8 years ago
Reply to  RandMan

Hi! Good to see you.

RandMan
RandMan
8 years ago
Reply to  jillybean

You too jillybean!

Spike Pittard
Spike Pittard
8 years ago

“But to the extent an unconverted man knows God, he instinctively recoils and would strike if he could. If he had an opportunity to murder God, he would most certainly do so. That is why Jesus was murdered. That whole affair was not an unfortunate misunderstanding. As soon as the image of God came within their power, they killed Him.” Is there evidence in the Bible that EVERYONE that was unregenerate wanted Jesus dead? Pilate was not particularly keen on having Jesus killed. There is only a small faction of people that want Jesus dead when they come in contact… Read more »