Tomorrow Isn’t National Atheist Day

Tomorrow is April Fools Day and I can almost guarantee that there will be a Facebook status that makes it's rounds that proclaims tomorrow as National Atheist Day.  Hehehe.  Get it?!?  The Bible says, “The fool says in his heart there is no god”.  That’s an atheist.  Atheist are fools.  Today is April Fools Day.  Silly atheist…

But tomorrow isn’t national atheist day, it is National Everyone Apart from the Grace of God Day. 

“What do you have that you did not receive?  If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” 

The problem with these bumper stickers, T-shirt slogans, and Facebook status updates is that it reeks of pride.  You aren’t a Christian because you were smarter than an atheist, saw the evidence, and made a rational decision.  No, you are a Christian because God through his grace caused light to shine into darkness (2 Cor. 4). 

In fact before the gospel came into your life you (like every atheist) saw the truth of God but you actively rejected and suppressed it.  Then grace happened.  Now you are able to see.  Now your heart embraces the gospel.  It is by grace that you have been saved.  So, stop boasting and calling atheist fools. 

Yeah, they have a depraved mind.  But so did you.  In fact you are still being redeemed from it.  Yep, their arguments don’t hold water.  But neither did yours until grace broke through.  And even today our defenses are often driven more by fear than they are Scriptures. 

So, I’m not going to pretend to have all of the answers about how precisely God causes light to shine into the hearts of unbelievers.  Nor am I going to pretend that I know all of the answers about why some people are saved and some are not.  (I know which way I lean—but I could be wrong). 

But what I do know is this, the means that God has promised to use to cause light to shine into darkness is the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed through life and lips.  People aren’t won to Christ because you expose them as idiots.  People are won to Christ because the gospel breaks through and liberates dead enslaved hearts. 

Maybe today rather than mocking their “ignorance” and depravity we should be weeping for their souls, praying that the Lord would embolden us to live the gospel and speak the gospel, and perhaps we should use this day to thank the Lord that He is rescuing us from being idolatrous fools (by nothing but His free grace).