Christians Make the Best Atheists

Only a Christian can be a good atheist. -Jurgen Moltmann

So this past month, I had the privilege of getting to go to Greece with my preaching friend Luke Norsworthy to get ready for a Fall sermon series we are doing together called “Christians Make the Best Atheists”

We took a couple of Go-Pro’s and hiked over 40 miles in just a few short days to go all over Greece filming at the ancient Pagan temples and did some research in some of Greece’s wonderful museums.

What we hope to do in this series, is at least to get you to consider the possibility that this idea “Christians make the best atheists” could be true.

Over the past few years, the world has seen the Rise of the None’s…people who have walked away from church and now don’t want to be associated with any religion…Generally speaking these are  people who aren’t looking to argue about religion, they just don’t want to have anything to do with it.

But we often forget that turning away from something is always turning toward something else. And in the modern world, I believe we are seeing people unconsciously turning toward the very kinds of things/gods the first Christians explicitly rejected and for good reasons.

I have a hunch that we in the Western world have grown blind to the reality that is right in front of us.

Most of my friends who identify as non-theists grew up either as Christians or deeply embedded in a culture filled with Christians and Christian ideas. We’ve come to take for granted certain ideas…as if the world has always been like it has been for the past few hundred years.

And while people on the outside of Christianity can be quick to point out the hypocrisies (of with there are legion) we often fail to realize that what they are really doing is calling those of us who claim the name of Jesus to a deeper and more truer version of the Christian faith and not the parody to which we have made it.

What I’d love to do with this series to attempt to show how Christian our imagination is, and what a world would be like without Christianity. But more than that, I want to help us (re)discover the resources that faith in Jesus actually can give us to live in the world in a more authentically human way. A way without idolatry.

Because the first Christians were known as Atheists.

Today we worship many gods.

If you are in Abilene, I’d love to invite you to join us at Highland on Sunday mornings at 8:30 (a capella) or 11 (instrumental) this fall for this series.

If you don’t live in West Texas you can check out the podcast here or the Live Stream to our services here.